_Parva leves capiunt animos_.--
OVID, _Ars Am._, i. 159.
Light minds are pleased with trifles.
When I was in France, I used to gaze with great astonishment at the
splendid equipages, and party-coloured habits of that fantastic nation. I
was one day in particular contemplating a lady that sat in a coach
adorned with gilded Cupids, and finely painted with the Loves of Venus
and Adonis. The coach was drawn by six milk-white horses, and loaden
behind with the same number of powdered footmen. Just before the lady
were a couple of beautiful pages, that were stuck among the harness, and,
by their gay dresses and smiling features, looked like the elder brothers
of the little boys that were carved and painted in every corner of the
coach.
The lady was the unfortunate Cleanthe, who afterwards gave an occasion to
a pretty melancholy novel. She had for several years received the
addresses of a gentleman, whom, after a long and intimate acquaintance,
she forsook upon the account of this shining equipage, which had been
offered to her by one of great riches but a crazy constitution. The
circumstances in which I saw her were, it seems, the disguises only of a
broken heart, and a kind of pageantry to cover distress, for in two
months after, she was carried to her grave with the same pomp and
magnificence, being sent thither partly by the loss of one lover and
partly by the possession of another.
I have often reflected with myself on this unaccountable humour in
womankind, of being smitten with everything that is showy and
superficial; and on the numberless evils that befall the sex from this
light fantastical disposition. I myself remember a young lady that was
very warmly solicited by a couple of importunate rivals, who, for several
months together, did all they could to recommend themselves, by
complacency of behaviour and agreeableness of conversation. At length,
when the competition was doubtful, and the lady undetermined in her
choice, one of the young lovers very luckily bethought himself of adding
a supernumerary lace to his liveries, which had so good an effect that he
married her the very week after.
The usual conversation of ordinary women very much cherishes this natural
weakness of being taken with outside and appearance. Talk of a
new-married couple, and you immediately hear whether they keep their
coach and six, or eat in plate. Mention the name of an absent lady, and
it is ten to one but you learn something of her gown and petticoat. A
ball is a great help to discourse, and a birthday furnishes conversation
for a twelvemonth after. A furbelow of precious stones, a hat buttoned
with a diamond, a brocade waistcoat or petticoat, are standing topics. In
short, they consider only the drapery of the species, and never cast away
a thought on those ornaments of the mind that make persons illustrious in
themselves and useful to others. When women are thus perpetually
dazzling one another's imaginations, and filling their heads with nothing
but colours, it is no wonder that they are more attentive to the
superficial parts of life than the solid and substantial blessings of it.
A girl who has been trained up in this kind of conversation is in danger
of every embroidered coat that comes in her way. A pair of fringed
gloves may be her ruin. In a word, lace and ribands, silver and gold
galloons, with the like glittering gewgaws, are so many lures to women of
weak minds or low educations, and, when artificially displayed, are able
to fetch down the most airy coquette from the wildest of her flights and
rambles.
True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it
arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and, in the
next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions; it
loves shade and solitude, and naturally haunts groves and fountains,
fields and meadows; in short, it feels everything it wants within itself,
and receives no addition from multitudes of witnesses and spectators. On
the contrary, false happiness loves to be in a crowd, and to draw the
eyes of the world upon her. She does not receive any satisfaction from
the applauses which she gives herself, but from the admiration she raises
in others. She flourishes in courts and palaces, theatres and
assemblies, and has no existence but when she is looked upon.
Aurelia, though a woman of great quality, delights in the privacy of a
country life, and passes away a great part of her time in her own walks
and gardens. Her husband, who is her bosom friend and companion in her
solitudes, has been in love with her ever since he knew her. They both
abound with good sense, consummate virtue, and a mutual esteem; and are a
perpetual entertainment to one another. Their family is under so regular
an economy, in its hours of devotion and repast, employment and
diversion, that it looks like a little commonwealth within itself. They
often go into company, that they may return with the greater delight to
one another; and sometimes live in town, not to enjoy it so properly as
to grow weary of it, that they may renew in themselves the relish of a
country life. By this means they are happy in each other, beloved by
their children, adored by their servants, and are become the envy, or
rather the delight, of all that know them.
How different to this is the life of Fulvia! She considers her husband
as her steward, and looks upon discretion and good housewifery as little
domestic virtues unbecoming a woman of quality. She thinks life lost in
her own family, and fancies herself out of the world when she is not in
the ring, the playhouse, or the drawing-room. She lives in a perpetual
motion of body and restlessness of thought, and is never easy in any one
place when she thinks there is more company in another. The missing of
an opera the first night would be more afflicting to her than the death
of a child. She pities all the valuable part of her own sex, and calls
every woman of a prudent, modest, retired life, a poor-spirited,
unpolished creature. What a mortification would it be to Fulvia, if she
knew that her setting herself to view is but exposing herself, and that
she grows contemptible by being conspicuous!
I cannot conclude my paper without observing that Virgil has very finely
touched upon this female passion for dress and show, in the character of
Camilla, who, though she seems to have shaken off all the other
weaknesses of her sex, is still described as a woman in this particular.
The poet tells us, that after having made a great slaughter of the enemy,
she unfortunately cast her eye on a Trojan, who wore an embroidered
tunic, a beautiful coat of mail, with a mantle of the finest purple. "A
golden bow," says he, "hung upon his shoulder; his garment was buckled
with a golden clasp, and his head covered with a helmet of the same
shining metal." The Amazon immediately singled out this well-dressed
warrior, being seized with a woman's longing for the pretty trappings
that he was adorned with:
--_Totumque incauta per agmen_,
_Faemineo praedae et spoliorum ardebat amore_.
_AEn._, xi. 781.
--So greedy was she bent
On golden spoils, and on her prey intent.