THE

Lady's Magazine;

For MARCH,

1790.

mercial treaty took place, yet as this laft ferved to lower the duties, it rendered importation more easy, and promoted home confumption in a greater degree. Among the various articles imported from that gay country, it gives me fome concern to find that we deal fo largely in perfumes, effences, pomatums, &c. and other artificial, and, I may fay, unnatural mixtures, for the purpose of rendering our ladies more agreeable. A lift of thefe articles now in common ufe among ladies of quality, and thofe who, follow ladies of quality, is the paper I allude to above, which was lately given me by a very eminent importer and dealer.

The dress of women has been a I have now before me a list of favourite, and it would appear an twenty-three different kinds of pomaalmost inexhaustible topic of criti- tums ufed in genteel fociety-all cifm, cenfure, and ridicule. The with fine founding French names. best of our writers have occafionally For it is to be observed that all artion this fubject forgot the refpect they cles of fafhion from France are priotherwife would have paid to the vileged to retain the original names, fex, and have indulged in all the unaltered by the vulgar barbarity of wantonness of unqualified abufe, the English tongue. Now this That the fubje&t fhould be confider- ferves two purposes: it ferves to ed, few will question, and a paper give a pretty found, a fort of fashionlately thrown into my way induces able epithet to the thing; and it me to make a few remarks on it. prevents the ridiculous blunders and Although the importation of ar-odd tranflations of half-learned peo. ticles of merchandife from France was pretty common before the com

ple. The fame rule is not obferved, indeed, in other articles we import

from

enjoy who make waters in France, Were we to do fuch things in England, it would be thought indeli care, and yet virgin's milk and du chefs's water in this country might be worth as much per gill as the other.

Among the articles which follow of the mifcellaneous kind, we have

yond my comprehension, I must leave it untranflated. The list of paffes and powders which follow is very numerous; the latter of all colours; but what fhall we fay to an article jufly placed by itself, and in farge characters, EAU CELESTE POUR TEINDRE LES VEINES

Geleftial water to colour or dye the veins! Will this be believed by thofe who live at a tance from the metropolis! Will it be believed by ra tional creatures?

from France. Eau de vie becomes | brandy in England-win rouge, claret, foie, filk-and tabatieres are snuff boxes. But pomatums are things of too much confequence to be thus reduced to the vulgar comprehenfion. For instance, taken from the lift before me, how much genteeler isit to afk for pommade au pot pourri, thanfultanes parfumées, which being be to call for rotten-po pomatum, which is the literal, whatever the metaphorical meaning may be! Then pommade des fultanes et au muguet would not be one whit better understood if "Sultanefs's pomatum made of lily of the valey" befides that people would be apt to fufpect that there was fome deception in the article, and that it was not the identical fort of pomatum ufed by fultaneffes. The laft of this lift, which I shall notice, is pommade a myladi. This might, it is true, be tranflated cafily, but how vulgar would it be to fend a fervant to a flop for a box of my lady's pomatum! The fervant might think it was fome her lady had bought, and not taken home with her. Four pomatums of this valuable lift are for promoting the growth of hair, or to ufe the words of the hop bill, pour faire croitre les cheveux-and fix more are for changing the colour, all fo delicately ex preffed in the original language as to keep unlearned bufbands and feryarts as much in the dark as poffible; like fome apothecaries who give their prefcriptions ftrange names, left their young 'prentices fhould learn the diforder of the patient and lab, Amongst this laft we have pommade de graiffe de veau purifiée!-who would think it neceffary to import calves' greafe from Paris to improve English beauty?

We come next to the quinteences and fmelling waters, upwards of fifty in number. The only remarkable ones here are lait virginal d'Italie and eau a la ducheffe, which show the advantages thele kind of people

This lat concludes with paints of different kinds for the face and neck. Surely the perishable nature of beauty is not now to be lamented, when the ingenuity of man has provided fo amply for the repairs, for the wreck of age and time. Wrinkles may

come-but they may be filled upthe deepest furrows may be raised to the level of the, adjoining plain, and the paleft complexion, more complaifant than nature, be accommoated with what colour the owner pleafes. The face of youth is thus placed on the aged fhoulders, the livid veins of declining years are tinted by the eau celefte into the ap pearance of charming health, and the bloom of fixteen kindly, conceals the forbidding aufterity of a fixtyyear-old countenance. And if to this we add that teeth and gums, eyes and hair, fhoulders and hips, may be purchafed and fitted to the body fo as (to ufe the expreffion of one of the coblers of nature) to ap pear even beyond nature, what is there wanting to comfort us when age comes on, and to enable us to go out of the world even more beautiful

tiful than we came into it? This fyftem defies the power of the king of terrors and palenefs himfelf-for in the laft ftage of a confumption a lady

CHARACTER

Of MARCUS ANTONIUS.

LIBRARY.]

may exhibit the roses and lilies of [From the HISTORICAL POCKET youth and health, and be admired for her complexion-the day he is. to be buried.

ARCUS Antonius being con

ful at the time Julius Cæfar was murdered, was extremely enraged at his death, and refolved with Lepidus to revenge it on his affaffins. The conful immediately took command of a legion. He ordered the will of Cæfar to be publicly

Yet I would not have this paper to be confidered as unimportant. The prevalence of the abominable practice of painting is a ferious fubject. It is not confined to the ugly or the old, who may think they have a right or neceflity to use it. The most beautiful la, and the best com-read în order to influence the people plexions are too ten hid under a mixture of the rnicious articles fold in the fhops 3French names, This is undoing all that inoculation: was fuppofed to effect. Inoculation is faid, and wich justice, to have added to the beauty as well as to the namber of women in this country. And whatever, difference of opinion may be entertained as to the propriety of inoculation (for that per haps will always be a disputed point, and ought to be regulated by the inclination of the parent) there need be no hesitation in saying that these perfons are criminal in the highest degree who injure their health to indulge their vanity, or comply with fashion. As to the neceffity which those who are called ag may think themselves under to paint, I am afraid the plea will scarcely be al lowed by those who know the world, and who know that A GOOD WOMAN CAN NEVER BE UGLY, let her complexion be what it may, her skin fmooth or pitted, if there is beauty in the mind, no perverfity of fea tures can conceal, it; and if all beauty be centered in the counte nance, it may lead to flattery, and it baş led to deftruction, but it is one of the leaft fources of happiness, and by itself is the leaft of all pofe fions.

in the cause of Octavius, whom
Cæfar left to be his heir. He made
a tuneral oration; over the body of
Cæfar in the fenate, and caused the
people to threaten the most exem-
plary panishments on his murderers,
whofe houses were mostly fet on fire
by the enraged populace. Antony
foon after being more determined to
raife himself than to promote the
interests of Octavius, refused him
his affiance. He procured the
command of the fix legions that lay
in Macedonia, where he detained
them under the pretence of repelling
the Gere, who, on Cæfar's death.
he informed the fenate, had invaded
that province. He obtained Mace-
donia for his brother C. Antonius,
and Gaul for himself.
He was,
however, hated by his foldiers.
But he marched into Gaul, from
whence he caufed Decimus Brutus,
who governed it, to depart for Rome.
He cenfured Octavius as the patron
of Cæfar's murderers. Antony was
défeated in a battle near Mutina,
from whence he fled to Lepidus the
triumvir, who took poffetlion of the
world. Cicero declaiming against
Antony's ambition, Antony pro-
fcribed him, and next caufed him
to be murdered. He, with Octa-
vius, obtained a decifive victory
over Brutus and Caffius, who with

an

an army had retired to Syria. An- | husband as a facrifice to the vanity

tony went to Athens, and from thence paffed into Afia, were all the pinces of the East who acknow Jedged the Roman power paid him homage. Proceeding to Egypt, he fell in love with Cleopatra, and made himself the arbiter of all the contentions betwixt the fovereigns of the Eaft. He difcarded his wife Octavia, and married Cleopatra, and declared war against Octavius. A battle was fought between them at Actium for the empire of the world. Cæfar had 400 fhips, and Antony no more than 200. Cleopatra flying from the battle caufed Antony to defert his ftandard, and to kill himself, rather than fall into the power of his rival Octavius.

of Cleopatra. Poffeffing every beauty to charm mankind, and every virtue that could adorn her own fex, fhe interpofed between her husband and brother, and restored them to their former friendship. This was a union cemented between them for five years longer, which being ended, Antony left Octavia and returned to Syria. Her generofity, her mild behaviour, and her love and refpect, for her husband incensed the people against Antony for his ill treatment of a woman of fuch extraordinary merit. Antony having brought Cleopatra to Atens, fent orders to Octavia at Rome demanding that the and all her cren fhould leave his houfe in that city. Octavia readily obeyed the cruel orders with

avoid lamenting, that fhe was the caufe of a war whofe confequences must be fatal to her. When the heard her husband's will, which Octavius had obtained, the bore the reflection of its infulting contents with the greatest temper and fortitude. He had ordered in this will that if he died in Rome his body fhould be carried in funeral pomp through the principal places of the

The great qualities of Antonius made him appear a deferving fove-out murmuring. But fhe could not reign of half the world: but vices ranked him beneath a brute. He was valiant, cloquent, and liberal; cruel, infolent, and profligate. Cæfar employed and defpifed him. As the benefits bestowed on him by Cæfar had obliged him to avenge his death, he boldly undertook it, with hopes of making his zeal the first step to a grandeur equal to his departed guardian; but was stopped in his ambitious career by his a-city, and afterwards fent to Cleodopted fon and nephew Octavius; patra, to whom, it is faid, that if who forced him to partake the empire his arms profpered, he meant to with him. He married the beautiful have given Rome. Thus would and virtuous Octavia, but forfook the feat of this glorious empire have her for the abandoned Cleopatra, been transferred to Egypt. with whom he spent his days in excefs; and for whom he flew himself, though convinced of her perfidy, proving to the laft, how dreadful a madness is vicious love.

An happy intercourfe of three years had kindled in the tender heart of Octavia a moft ardent and pure flame for her husband Antony, to whom the had been given by her brother Octavius, as a facred pledge of peace and unity betwixt these two rivals for power; when, alas! her of the object of her affection. the artifice of Cleopatra deprived She filently fubmitted to her fate, and continued her fervices to every friend of her confort, even after he had refufed to fee her in a long

journey

journey which he took in fearch of him. She pitied his infatuation when he fent her a divorce, lamented his death as if he had been a just and tender husband, and treated the children of her rival as her own, giving, to the laft, a glorious in fance of the power that true and virtuous love has over an heroic foul.

is putting a very thin barrier between the avort of their fex and the beft. For what do you call that woman, who, void of every fenfe of fhame and reputation, facrifices her good name on the altar of fenfuality? A rake, and a rake at beart too, in every fenfe of the word.— And must then the swell-difpofed of the fair-fex, fall under the appellation of fuch an infamous character as this? Forbid it virtue! No! bad as the world now is, refpect will alIf this

To the EDITOR of the LADY's ways be paid to virtue.

I

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

Took the liberty to send you a few lines with my opinion on a fubject, the motto of which is taken from Mr. Pope's Effay on Man.

"Some men to business, some to pleaJure take;

But every woman is at heart a rake.”

On confidering more maturely on this important question, I cannot but take the liberty to differ from the learned gentleman (Mr. Beaumont) who wrote in favour of it. Many opinions, I don't doubt, may be given on this fubject, it being a large field for argument. Mr. Pope allows in the first line, that

Some men to bufinefs, fome to pleasure take,

That is, he allows fome of his own
fex to be rakes, but as to the fair fex
no exception is to be made. What
Mr. Pope's ideas of woman kind
might be, I cannot here determine,

but it rather fhews that he had an
hatred against the fex; it is certainly
undermining the foundation of every
virtue they can poffibly poffefs, and
at the fame time laying them open
to every abuse from our's.
It is

banishing virtue out of the world,
and that ingenuous fhame, which pro-
vident nature affigned to be the com.
panion and guardian of virtue. It

question arifes from a knowledge of
the world, as many, I am forry to
fay, are of that opinion, I must beg
leave to tell them, that I am afraid
they have either been introduced to
the worst of the fex, or poffefs a
mind confonant with Mr. Pope's.
To fay a women is a rake at beart,
is faying a great deal against her
reputation. It is injuring her in a
tender part; it is filching from her
her good name, by lafing which fue
becomes poor indeed. I fhall con-
clude with faying, that Mr. Pope,
by pronouncing every woman a rake
is certainly accused of infufferable
feverity.
I remain, Sir,

Your humble fervant,