peculiar to the profeffors of phyfick and law, to the great officers of flate, and the peers of every denomination: but all thefe characters, except upon public occafions, wear the fhort coat and fword, which is the military drefs, that the inroads of the Goths, whofe trade was war, made general.

As to the dreffes of the women, they have never been military, and therefore have never been fhort; but befides the alterations that convenience and caprice have introduced in the female habit, there are feveral which have had a more latent and lefs innocent caufe. The drefs of women has been long confidered as a decoration of beauty, and an incitement to defire; and in this view it has been the object of much thought, ingenuity, and folicitude; but it does not appear that those who intended to multiply or fecure their conquefts by drefs, always knew how best to exert that power which the choice of their drefs put into their hands. When the British lady thinks fit to dress fo as to discover the whole breaft, the British gentleman foon looks upon it with as much indifference, as the naked Indians look upon all the reft; but if the covers it with a handkerchief, and contrives this covering fo that it fhall accidentally discover what it appears intended to hide, the glimpfe that is thus cafually given, immediately and forcibly feizes the imagination, and every motion is watched in hopes that it will be repeated; fo if by any accident a lady difcover half her leg, the fancy is inftantly alarmed, though when the actress appears in breeches and difcovers the whole, fhe is the object of indifference, if not of difguit: for the fame rea

fon the figure of a naked Venos produces lefs effect than that of a dreffed figure with the petticoat raifed fo as to difcover the garter. It follows therefore, that if the dresses moft immodeftly, who dreffes so as moft to excite licentious defires, the does not drefs most immodeftly who uncovers moft of her perfon, but he who covers it fo that it may be accidentally feen. And upon this principle it was that the Grecian legiflator, when he obferved that many of the youth lived unmarried, directed the women to wear long garments which covered the whole perfon from the fhoulders to the feet, inftead of difcovering all the breast and half the leg; and ordered that the robe fhould be cut in flashes from the hip to the knee, fo that when they flood or fat ftill, the two fides of the opening fhould fall together, but should by dividing, when they walked or used any other motion, cafually discover the parts which at other times were concealed.

Many changes of female drefs, that may be traced in this collection, will be found to proceed from unfkilful attempts to allure, by difcovering more and more of the perfon, and from the difappointment which fucceeded the experiment, and at last induced a fudden tranfition to a close drefs, by which the whole perfon was covered. As to the changes of habit, which were the effects of mere caprice and wantonnefs of fancy, it is impoffible to trace them in other countries, and difficult in our own: the following particulars, however, may ferve to gratify the curious, and excite them to a more critical examination.

Party

Party coloured coats were firft worn in England in the time of Henry I. chaplets or wreaths of ar tificial flowers in the time of Edward III. hoods and fhort coats without fleeves, called taberts, in the time of Henry IV. hats in the the time of Henry VII. ruffs in the reign of Edward VI. and it is faid that they were firft invented by a Spanish or Italian lady of quality to hide a wen which grew on her neck. Wrought caps or bonnets were first used here in the time of queen Elizabeth. Judge Finch, in the time of James I. introduced the band. French hoods, bibs, and gorgets, were laid afide by the queen of Charles I. and the commode or tower was introduced in 1687. Shoes of the prefent fashion were

firft worn in 1633. Breeches were introduced inftead of trunk hofe in 1654, and perukes were first worn foon after the restoration.

As to the ftage dreffes, it is only neceffary to remark, that they are at once elegant and characteristic : and among many other regulations of more importance, for which the public is obliged to the genius and the judgment of the prefent manager of our principal theatre, is that of the dreffes, which are no longer the heterogeneous and abfurd mixtures of foreign and ancient modes, which formerly debafed our tragedies, by reprefenting a Roman general in a full bottomed peruke, and the fovereign of an Eaftern empire in trunk hofe.

W

An Fay on Augury.

[From Stillingfleet's calendar of Flora.] E know from Hefiod, fays Mr. Stillingfleet, that hufbandry was in part regulated by the blowing of plants, and the coming or going of birds; and most probably it had been in ufe long before his time, as aftronomy was then in its infancy; but when artificial calendars came into vogue, the natural calendar feems to have been totally neglected; for I find no traces of it after his time, whether for good and fufficient reafons I pretend not to determine.

I fhall make no further mention at present of the ufe of plants in di recting the husbandman, but take this opportunity of making a digreffion about birds, in relation to their prognoftic nature. Henceforward then, i. e. from the time of Hefiod, they feem to have been looked upon as no longer capable of directing the husbandman in his rural affairs, but they did not, however, lofe their influence and dignity; nay, on the contrary, they feem to have gained daily a more than ordinary, and even wonderful authority, til at laft no affair of confequence, either of private or public concern, was undertaken without confulting them. They were looked upon as the interpreters of the gods, and thofe who were qualified to understand their oracles were held among the chief men in the Greek and Roman flates, and became the affeffors of kings,

and even of Jupiter himself. However abfurd fuch an inftitution as a college of Augurs may appear in our eyes, yet, like all other extravagant inuitutions, it had in part its origin from nature. When men confidered the wonderful migration of birds, how they disappeared at once, and appeared again at ftated times, and could give no gues where they went, it was almost natural to fuppofe, that they retired fomewhere out of the fphere of this earth, and perhaps approached the ætherial regions, where they might converfe with the gods, and thence be enabled to predict events. This, I fay, was almost natural for a fuperftitious people to imagine, at leaft to believe, as foon as fome impoftor was impudent enough to af fert it. Add to this, that the dif pofition in fome birds to imitate the human voice muft contribute much to the confirmation of fuch a doctrine. This inftitution of Augury feems to have been much more ancient than that of Arufpicy; for we find many inftances of the former in Homer, but not a fingle one of the latter that I know of; though frequent mention is made of facrifices in that author. From the whole of what I have obferved, I fhould be apt to think, that natural Augury gave rife to religious Augury, and this to Arufpicy, as the mind of man makes a very eafy tranfition from a little truth to a great deal of error.

A paffage in Aristophanes gave me the hint for what I have been

faying.

of those who either have not skill to carry them on, or chufe fome other purfuits."

His thoughts diftreffed him, but ftill he retained that humble acquiefcence to the will of the fupreme being, which is ever infeparable from a truly philofophical mind: he knew that whatever the Author of nature appointed was certainly right and good. Humbled therefore, but not difcontented or repining, he retired to reft, and in the vifions of the night was inftructed.

:

He fancied himfelf bufied in fearching for fome extraordinary plants which he had long defired to be pofleffed of, and that he had wandered infenfibly to one of the moft delightful fpots in all Norway. It was the brow of an high mountain the vaft ocean was before him, on which appeared with fwelling fails, a large fleet, paffing to convey the products of the north to the more pleafing regions of the fouth; and on the other part, through a vale bounded on each fide by craggy rocks, was feen the adjacent country, which the warm feafon, just begun, had clad in all its verdure. Beyond a river that bent its courfe through rich paftures filled with cattle, appeared to the right a large and populous town, over which the rifing ground exhibited to the view, corn-fields, and all the variety of a well-watered country and to the left a thick wood, through a large opening whereof (formed by nature) was feen the ruins of an ancient caftle, heretofore the feat of gothic valour. Linnæus's attention to his purfut was for a while fufpended; and he ftopt to furvey alternately thefe.

pleafing fcenes. In the mean time, the fun fetting in full glory beneath the waves, caufed the horizon to exhibit the brighteft colours of the rainbow, and thefe gradually fading, the starry concave of heaven began to be enlightened by the rifing moon.

But foon the fcene was changed, the whole fky became veiled with thick clouds, and a diftant roaring proclaimed the approach of a dreadful florm. Already the rain defcended in vaft torrents, the heavens blazed with lightning, and the rocks refounded with loud claps of thunder.

Linnæus, filled with terror, was feeking where to shelter himself, when a voice from a cave (whence there fuddenly iffued a gleam of light) bade him approach, and confider what he faw. With trembling he obeyed, and entered a fpacious cavern, adorned on all fides with pointed cryftals, which had been formed by water diftilling from the rock, and which reflecting the light that proceeded from a golden lamp hanging in the midfi, made it as bright as day. Here he found a venerable old man, in a loofe robe of purple ornamented with ermine, who had before him a large concave mirrour, and in his hand a golden rod he feemed calm and ferene, and approached Linnæus with a fmile of complacency that diffipated all his fears. hold (faid he) thy fincerest friend, who has defired thy happiness, and long fought to discover himself to thee. I would gladly always abide with thee, but the ftate of things in this world forbids it; and I can only ufe favourable opportunities of converfing with thee: at fuch times I would make thee partaker

"Be

of