sheep-hook, a pipe, and a shepherd's habit, which Alibez had worn; all which he often took a pleasure in visiting privately, to remind him of his former condition. "Behold (said he), great king, the precious remains of my former happiness! Neither fortune, nor your power, have as yet been able to deprive me of them. Behold my treasure; the wealth I have hoarded against the day when it shall please you to make me poor again. Take from me every thing else, but let me enjoy these dear pledges of my first state of life. Behold my substantial riches, which will never fail: look upon these simple, these innocent possessions, always sufficient for those who do not covet the superfluities of life. Freedom, ease, and security, are the blessings that flow from them. To me their value is inestimable, as they never gave me a moment's anxiety. O endearing remembrances of true felicity! on you are my whole desires fixed, to you I dedicate the remainder of my days: why was it my destiny to be obliged to give up the quiet of my life, in exchange for other riches! Those riches, great monarch, do I restore to you; the fatal tokens of your father's liberality. I carry nothing away, save what I possessed when the king your father first made me wretched by his favours."

The heart of the king was touched with the speech of Alibez, whose looks and words were free from confusion; and his integrity and innocence shone out in their full lustre. The king perceived with indignation the malice of the courtiers who had studied the ruin of Alibez, and he banished them all from his presence. After this, he raised Alibez to be his prime vizier, and committed the whole affairs of the kingdom to his care. Nevertheless, Alibez continued still to visit his sheep-hook, his pipe, and his ancient garb, and he still kept them under the security of the iron door; with a resolution to retire to his pastoral life, when the inconstancy or the artifices of a court should deprive him of his master's favour. He lived to a good old age, and never attempted to inflict any punishment upon his enemies, nor to amass riches to himself; and, when he died, he left to his family no greater wealth than was sufficient to enable them to live at ease in the condition of shepherds; which, to the last, he esteemed the most desirable state of life.

FREE-THINKER, No. 129, June 15, 1719.

I consider this Persian Tale as possessing distinguished merit; as exhibiting, together with an excellent moral, a very interesting fiction, and no small share of pathos.

THE Romans used to say " ex pede Herculem," or you may know Hercules by his foot;" intimating, that one may commonly judge of the whole by a part. I confess I am myself very apt to judge in this manner; and may, without pretending to an uncommon share of sagacity, say, that I have very seldom found myself mistaken in it. It is impossible not to form to one's self some opinion of people the first time one sees them, from their air and dress; and a suit of clothes has often informed me, with the utmost certainty, that the wearer had not common sense. The Greeks (to display my learning) said μation aνng, or "the dress shews the man:" and it is certain, that, of all trifling things, there is none by which people so much discover their

ιματιον

natural turn of mind, as by their dress. In greater matters they proceed more cautiously: nature is disguised, and weaknesses are concealed, by art, or imitation: but, in dress, they give a loose to their fancy, and by declaring it an immaterial thing, though at the same time they do not think it so, promise themselves at least impunity in their greatest oddnesses and wildest excesses. I shall therefore, in this paper, consider the subject of dress, by certain plain rules of common sense, which I strictly charge and require all persons to observe.

As dress is more immediately the province, not to say the pleasure, not to say the care, not to say the whole study, of the fair sex, I make I make my first application to them; and I humbly beg their indulgence, if the rules I shall lay down should prove a little contrary to those they have hitherto prac tised. There is a proper dress for every rank, age, and figure, which they who deviate from, are guilty of petty treason against common sense: to prevent which crime for the future, I have some thoughts of disposing, in proper parts of the town, a certain number of babies in the statut able dress, for each rank, age, and figure; which, like the 25th Edward III. shall reduce that matter to a precision.

Dress, to be sensible, must be properly adapted

to the person; as, in writing, the style must be suited to the subject; which image may not unaptly be carried on through the several branches of it. I am far from objecting to the magnificence of apparel, in those whose rank and fortune justify and allow it; on the con trary, it is a useful piece of luxury, by which the poor and the industrious are enabled to live at the expense of the rich and the idle. I would no more have a woman of quality dressed in Doggrel, than a farmer's wife in Heroics. But I do hereby notify to the profuse wives of industrious tradesmen and honest yeomen, that all they get by dressing above themselves, is the envy and hatred of their inferiors and equals, with the contempt and ridicule of their superiors.

To those of the first rank in birth and beauty, I recommend a noble simplicity of dress; the subject supports itself, and wants none of the borrowed helps of external ornaments. Beautiful nature may be disfigured, but cannot be improved, by art; and as I look upon a very handsome woman to be the finest subject in nature, her dress ought to be Epic (but the true Virgilian Epic), modest, noble, and entirely free from the modern tinsel. I therefore prohibit all concetti, and luxuriances of fancy, which only depreciate so noble a subject; and I must do the