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are chiefly compounded of ingenious chemical pre parations. Mercury, that conqueror of the sons of pleasure, and lead, that destroyer of heroes, form the principal ingredients with which the fair sex so plentifully lacker their epidermis ! Ah! spare our beaux, ye fascinating matrons and ever-blooming virgins, nor thus incase yourselves in a coat of mail, that at once allures and destroys!

The curiosity of our mother Eve first introduced knowledge to the human race, and it may rationally be supposed that the first woman has been excelled by her daughters in useful and elegant discoveries. Indeed, from what we can learn, Eve had but a very imperfect idea of dress; nor did she require the aid of cosmetics, for her face and form were already superlatively charming. At length time deprived our lovely mother of her graces, and death triumphed over the fairest part of the visible creation. Our modern belles, on the contrary, have invented tints that set the assaults of time at defiance : their happy skill can adorn the palest cheek with a permanent vermeil hue, and prevent the decays of old age from becoming visible; nay, it is not improbable that their wonderful inventive powers will eventually overcome the ghastly horrors of death, and shine with undiminished charms even in the shroud.

The superiority of artificial to natural beauty will appear in all its dignity, if we contrast the per

As hard words are often unintelligible to the innocent part of the fair sex, it may be proper to inform them that the epidermis is the outermost skin of the human body As for FEMALE PHILOSOPHERS, they know every thing!!!

manent bloom of the former with the unfashionable flushings of the latter. A truly modest woman, in whose expressive countenance each strong emotion of her mind is pourtrayed, must appear a singular being in the eyes of those modish females, whose faces wear one unchangeable smile. The aspect of the modest woman is like the aurora borealis, while her blushes alternately flash and fade; but the countenance of the accomplished lady, decorated with COSMETICS, resembles the sun, and shines with unfading glory.

CARICATURE AND PRINT SHOPS.

THE caricature and print shops, which are se gratifying to the fancy of the idle and licentious, must necessarily have a powerful influence on the morals and industry of the people. Caricaturists are certainly entitled to the reward which a wellregulated police will ever bestow on the promoters of immorality and profaneness. Their indefatigable study to ridicule oddities of character might be overlooked, and in a few instances their exhibition of vice to derision may be useful, but the general effect of their productions is the proper standard by which we can duly estimate their merit or demerit. When brought to the tribunal of reason, it will be found that the greater part of such caricatures, prints, and paintings, as appear in the windows of our printsellers, are injurious to virtue.

This humourous mode of satirising folly is very prejudicial to the multitude in many respects:-in the loss of time to those who stop to contemplate the different figures; the opportunities given to pickpockets to exercise their art; and that incitement to licentiousness occasioned by the sight of voluptuous paintings. The indecent attitudes, obscene labels, and similar decorations of the figures, must have a powerful effect on the feelings of susceptible youth; and it is an authenticated fact, that girls often go in parties to visit the windows of printshops, that they may amuse themselves with the view of prints which impart the most impure ideas.

Before these windows, the apprentice loiters, ur

mindful of his master's business; and thither prostitutes hasten, and with fascinating glances endeavour to allure the giddy and the vain, who stop to gaze on the sleeping Venus, the British Venus, and a variety of seductive representations of naked feminine beauty.

Are these witty but profane and indecent labels, and this display of nudities, productive of any good? -do they not rather tend to the depravation of mind, and contribute to relax the moral ties of society? If such be their tendency, the magistracy would deserve the gratitude, not only of the present generation, but of millions yet unborn, by the suppression of those paintings and engravings, which through the medium of the eye, contaminate the purity of the human heart, and mislead the laughing victim into the paths of folly and vice,

MODERN PHILOSOPHERS.

We nobly take the high priori road,

And reason downward till we doubt of God:
Make Nature still encroach upon his plan,
And shove him off as far as e'er we can:
Thrust some mechanic cause into his place;
Or bind in matter, or diffuse in space.

POFL.

THIS enlightened age will doubtless be distinguished in history, as remarkable for refined and ingenious speculations. Among our contemporary authors, those theorists who have modestly assumed the name of philosophers, have excited the most general attention.

These sages may be divided into two classes: the first, consisting of metaphysicians, and ethical writers; the second, comprising those more dangerous innovators, who introduce sophistry in the garb of elegant literature, and promulgate their opinions through the medium of romances and the drama. Grave sages, having culled the best moral precepts from the works of the ancients, purpose to improve mankind by a better system than any hitherto devised. Their doctrine inculcates the idea of the perfectibility of the human mind in this life; and they profess to reform the abuses which have crept into all human institutions. The Utopian speculations

This word has justly been prenounced “ • berbarian" by the Monthly Reviewers.

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