From my own Apartment, September 30.
I am called off from public dissertations by a domestic affair of great
importance, which is no less than the disposal of my sister Jenny for
life. The girl is a girl of great merit and pleasing conversation: but
I being born of my father's first wife, and she of his third, she
converses with me rather like a daughter than a sister. I have indeed
told her that if she kept her honour, and behaved herself in such a
manner as became the Bickerstaffs, I would get her an agreeable man for
her husband; which was a promise I made her after reading a passage in
Pliny's "Epistles." That polite author had been employed to find out a
consort for his friend's daughter, and gives the following character of
the man he had pitched upon. "Aciliano plurimum vigoris et industriae
quanquam in maxima verecundia: est illi facies liberalis, multo
sanguine, multo rubore, suffusa: est ingenua totius corporis pulchritudo
et quidam senatorius decor, quae ego nequaquam arbitror negligenda:
debet enim hoc castitati puellarum quasi praemium dari." "Acilianus,"
for that was the gentleman's name, "is a man of extraordinary vigour and
industry, accompanied with the greatest modesty: he has very much of the
gentleman, with a lively colour, and flush of health in his aspect. His
whole person is finely turned, and speaks him a man of quality; which
are qualifications that, I think, ought by no means to be overlooked,
and should be bestowed on a daughter as the reward of her chastity."
A woman that will give herself liberties need not put her parents to so
much trouble; for if she does not possess these ornaments in a husband
she can supply herself elsewhere. But this is not the case of my sister
Jenny, who, I may say without vanity, is as unspotted a spinster as any
in Great Britain. I shall take this occasion to recommend the conduct of
our own family in this particular.
We have, in the genealogy of our house, the descriptions and pictures of
our ancestors from the time of King Arthur, in whose days there was one
of my own name, a knight of his round table, and known by the name of
Sir Isaac Bickerstaff. He was low of stature, and of a very swarthy
complexion, not unlike a Portuguese Jew. But he was more prudent than
men of that height usually are, and would often communicate to his
friends his design of lengthening and whitening his posterity. His
eldest son Ralph, for that was his name, was for this reason married to
a lady who had little else to recommend her but that she was very tall
and very fair. The issue of this match, with the help of high shoes,
made a tolerable figure in the next age, though the complexion of the
family was obscure till the fourth generation from that marriage. From
which time, till the reign of William the Conqueror, the females of our
house were famous for their needlework and fine skins. In the male line
there happened an unlucky accident in the reign of Richard III., the
eldest son of Philip, then chief of the family, being born with a
hump-back and very high nose. This was the more astonishing, because
none of his forefathers ever had such a blemish, nor indeed was there
any in the neighbourhood of that make, except the butler, who was
noted for round shoulders and a Roman nose; what made the nose the less
excusable was the remarkable smallness of his eyes.
These several defects were mended by succeeding matches: the eyes were
open in the next generation, and the hump fell in a century and a half,
but the greatest difficulty was how to reduce the nose, which I do not
find was accomplished till about the middle of the reign of Henry VII.,
or rather the beginning of that of Henry VIII.
But while our ancestors were thus taken up in cultivating the eyes and
nose, the face of the Bickerstaffs fell down insensibly into chin, which
was not taken notice of, their thoughts being so much employed upon the
more noble features, till it became almost too long to be remedied.
But length of time, and successive care in our alliances, have cured
this also, and reduced our faces into that tolerable oval which we enjoy
at present. I would not be tedious in this discourse, but cannot but
observe that our race suffered very much about three hundred years ago,
by the marriage of one of our heiresses with an eminent courtier, who
gave us spindle-shanks and cramps in our bones; insomuch, that we did
not recover our health and legs till Sir Walter Bickerstaff married Maud
the milkmaid, of whom the then Garter King-at-Arms, a facetious person,
said pleasantly enough, "that she had spoiled our blood, but mended our
constitutions."
After this account of the effect our prudent choice of matches has had
upon our persons and features, I cannot but observe that there are daily
instances of as great changes made by marriage upon men's minds and
humours. One might wear any passion out of a family by culture, as
skilful gardeners blot a colour out of a tulip that hurts its beauty.
One might produce an affable temper out of a shrew, by grafting the mild
upon the choleric; or raise a jack-pudding from a prude, by inoculating
mirth and melancholy. It is for want of care in the disposing of our
children, with regard to our bodies and minds, that we go into a house
and see such different complexions and humours in the same race and
family. But to me it is as plain as a pikestaff, from what mixture it is
that this daughter silently lours, the other steals a kind look at you,
a third is exactly well behaved, a fourth a splenetic, and a fifth a
coquette.
In this disposal of my sister, I have chosen with an eye to her being a
wit, and provided that the bridegroom be a man of a sound and excellent
judgment, who will seldom mind what she says when she begins to
harangue, for Jenny's only imperfection is an admiration of her parts,
which inclines her to be a little, but very little, sluttish; and you
are ever to remark that we are apt to cultivate most, and bring into
observation what we think most excellent in ourselves, or most capable
of improvement. Thus, my sister, instead of consulting her glass and her
toilet for an hour and a half after her private devotion, sits with her
nose full of snuff and a man's nightcap on her head, reading plays and
romances. Her wit she thinks her distinction, therefore knows nothing
of the skill of dress, or making her person agreeable. It would make you
laugh to see me often, with my spectacles on, lacing her stays, for she
is so very a wit, that she understands no ordinary thing in the world.
For this reason I have disposed of her to a man of business, who will
soon let her see that to be well dressed, in good humour, and cheerful
in the command of her family, are the arts and sciences of female life.
I could have bestowed her upon a fine gentleman, who extremely admired
her wit, and would have given her a coach and six, but I found it
absolutely necessary to cross the strain; for had they met, they had
entirely been rivals in discourse, and in continual contention for the
superiority of understanding, and brought forth critics, pedants,
or pretty good poets. As it is, I expect an offspring fit for the
habitation of the city, town or country; creatures that are docile and
tractable in whatever we put them to.
To convince men of the necessity of taking this method, let any one even
below the skill of an astrologer, behold the turn of faces he meets as
soon as he passes Cheapside Conduit, and you see a deep attention and a
certain unthinking sharpness in every countenance. They look attentive,
but their thoughts are engaged on mean purposes. To me it is very
apparent, when I see a citizen pass by, whether his head is upon
woollen, silks, iron, sugar, indigo, or stocks. Now this trace of
thought appears or lies hid in the race for two or three generations.
I know at this time a person of a vast estate, who is the immediate
descendant of a fine gentleman, but the great grandson of a broker, in
whom his ancestor is now revived. He is a very honest gentleman in his
principles, but cannot for his blood talk fairly; he is heartily sorry
for it; but he cheats by constitution, and over-reaches by instinct.
The happiness of the man who marries my sister will be, that he has
no faults to correct in her but her own, a little bias of fancy, or
particularity of manners which grew in herself, and can be amended by
her. From such an untainted couple we can hope to have our family rise
to its ancient splendour of face, air, countenance, manner, and shape,
without discovering the product of ten nations in one house. Obadiah
Greenhat says, "he never comes into any company in England, but he
distinguishes the different nations of which we are composed." There is
scarce such a living creature as a true Briton. We sit down, indeed, all
friends, acquaintance, and neighbours; but after two bottles you see a
Dane start up and swear, "the kingdom is his own." A Saxon drinks up the
whole quart, and swears he will dispute that with him. A Norman tells
them both, he will assert his liberty; and a Welshman cries, "They are
all foreigners and intruders of yesterday," and beats them out of the
room. Such accidents happen frequently among neighbours' children, and
cousin-germans. For which reason I say study your race, or the soil of
your family will dwindle into cits or 'squires, or run up into wits or
madmen.