THE L O V E R. N° 10 Thurfday, March 18. I Magis illa placent quæ pluris emuntur. Have lately been very much teized with the thought of Mrs. Anne Page, and the memory of thofe many cruelties which I fuffered from that obdurate fair one. Mrs. Anne was in a particular manner very fond of China ware, against which I had unfortunately declared my averfion. I do not know but this was the first occafion of her coldness towards me, which makes me fick at the very fight of a China-difh ever fince. This is the best introduction I can make for my prefent difcourfe, which may ferve to fill up a gap until I am more at leifure to refume the thread of my amours. There are no inclinations in women which more furprife me than their paffions for chalk and china. The first of these maladies wears out in a little time; but when a woman is vifited with the fecond, it generally takes poffeffion of her for life. China-veffels are playthings for women of all ages. An old Lady of fourfcore fhall be as bufy in cleaning an Indian Mandarine, as her great grand-daughter is in dreffing her baby. The common way of purchafing fuch trifles, if I may believe my female informers, is by exchanging old fuits of cloaths for this brittle ware. The potters of china have it feems, their factors at this distance, who retail out their feveral manufactures for caft cloaths and fuperannuated garments. I have known an old petticoat metamorphofed into a punch-bowl, and a pair of breeches into a tea pot. For this reafon my friend Tradewell in the city calls his great room, that is nobly furnished out with china, his wife's wardrobe. In yonder corner, fays he, are above twenty fuits of cloaths, and on that scrutoir, above a hundred yards of furbelowed filk. You cannot imagine how many night-gowns, stays and mantuas, went to the raifing of that pyramid. The worft of it is, fays he, a fuit of cloaths is not fuffered to laft half its time, that it may be the more vendible; fo that in reality this is but a more dexterous way of picking the husband's pocket, who is fo often purchafing a great vafe of china, when he fancies that he is buying a fine head, or a filk gown for his wife. There is likewise another inconvenience in this female paffion for china, namely, that it adminifters to them great matter for wrath and forrow. How much anger and affliction are produced daily in the hearts of my dear country-women, by the breach of this frail furniture. Some of them pay half their fervants wages in china fragments, which their careleffuefs has produced. If thou haft a piece of earthen-ware, confider, fays Epictetus, that it is a piece of earthen-ware, and by confequence very eafy and • obnoxious to be broken: Be not therefore fo void of ⚫ reason as to be angry or grieved when this comes to pafs. In order, therefore, to exempt my fair readers from fuch additional and fupernumerary calamities of life, I would advise them to forbear dealing in these perishable commodities until fuch time as they are philofophers enough to keep their temper at the fall of a teapot or a china cup. I fhall further recommend to their ferious confideration thefe three particulars: First, that all china ware is of a weak and tranfitory nature. condly, that the fashion of it is changeable: And thirdly, that it is of no use. And firft of the first: The fragility of china is fuch as a reasonable Being ought by no means Se to to fet its heart upon, though at the fame time I am afraid I may complain with Seneca on the like occafion, that this very confideration recommends them to our choice; our luxury being grown fo wanton, that this kind of treasure becomes the more valuable, the more eafily we may be deprived of it, and that it receives a price from its brittleness. There is a kind of oftentation in wealth, which fets the poffeffors of it upon diftinguishing themfelves in thofe things where it is hard for the poor to follow them. For this reafon I have often wondered that our Ladies have not taken pleasure in eggs-fhells, efpecially in those which are curiously ftained and ftreaked, and which are fo very tender, that they require the niceft hand to hold without breaking them. But as if the brittlenefs of this ware were not fufficient to make it coftly, the very fafhion of it is changeable, which brings me to my fecond particular. It may chance that a piece of china may furvive all those accidents to which it is by nature liable, and last for fome years, if rightly fituated and taken care of. To remedy therefore this inconvenience, it is fo ordered that the fhape of it fhall grow unfashionable, which makes new fupplies always neceffary, and furnishes employment for life to women of great and generous fouls, who cannot live out of the mode. I myself remember when there were few china-veffels to be feen that held more than a difh of coffee; but their fize is so gradually enlarged, that there are many at prefent, which are capable of holding half a hogfhead. The fashion of the tea-cup is alfo greatly altered, and has run through a wonderful variety of colour, fhape and fize. But, in the last place, china-ware is of no ufe. Who would not laugh to fee a fmith's shop furnished with anvils and hammers of china? the furniture of a Lady's favourite room is altogether as abfurd: You fee jars of a prodigious capacity that are to hold nothing. I have feen horfes and herds of cattle in this fine fort of porcelain, not to mention the feveral Chinese Ladies who, perhaps, are naturally enough reprefented in thefe frail materials. Did |
