The vigils of the card-table have fpoiled many a good face; and I have known a beauty tick to the midnight rubbers till he has grown as homely as the Queen of Spades. There is nothing more certain in all Hoyle's Cafes, than that Whilt and late hours will ruin the fineft fet of features: but if the ladies would give up their routs for the healthy amufements of the country, I will venture to fay, their carmine would be then as ufelefs as their artificial nolegays. thought fit to drefs their faces, as well as their heads, à là mode de Paris. I am told, that when an English lady is at Paris, fhe is fo furrounded with falfe faces, that the is hertelf obliged (if the would not appear fingular) to put on the mafk. But who would exchange the brilliancy of the diamond for the faint luftre of French pafte? And for my part, I would as foon expect that an English beauty at Morocco would japan her face with lamb-black, in complaifance to the fable beauties of that country. Let the French ladies white. wash and plaifter their fronts, and lay on their colours with a trowel; but thefe daubings of art are no more to be com cheek, than the coarie ftrokes of the When haughty Gallia's dames, that spread A moralift might talk to them of the heinoufnefs of the practice; fince all deceit is criminal, and painting is no better than looking a lye. And thould they urge that nobody is deceived by it, he might add, that the plea for admit-pared to the genuine glow of a British ting it then is at an end; fince few are yet arrived at that height of French politenefs, as to drefs the r cheeks in p blic, and to profefs wearing vermillion as open ly as powder. But I hall content myfelf with uting an argument more likely to prevail: and fuch, I truft, will be the affurance, that this practice is highly difagreeable to the men. What must be the mortification, and what the dif guft of the lover, who goes to bed to a bride as blooming as an angel, and finds her in the morning as wa and yellow as a corpfe? For marriage foon takes off the mask; and all the refources of art, all the mysteries of the toilet, are then at an end. He that is thus wedded to a cloud instead of a Juno, may well be allowed to complain, but he cannot even hope for relief; fince this is a cultom, which, once admitted, fo tarnishes the fkin, that it is next to impoffible ever to retrieve it. Let'me, therefore, caution thofe young beginners, who are not yet difcoloured part redemption, to leave it off in time, and endeavour to procure and preferve by early hours, that unaffected bloom, which art cannot give, and which only age or ficknets can take away. Our beauties were formerly above making ufe of fo poor an artifice: they truited to the lively colouring of nature, which was heightened by temperance and exercife; but our modern belles are obliged to re-touch their cheeks every day, to keep them in repair. We were then as fuperior to the French in the affembly, as in the field: but fince a trip to France has been thought a requifite in the education of our ladies as well as ge..tlemen, our polite females have I think, Mr. Town, you might easily prevail on your fair renders to leave off this unnatural practice, if you could once thoroughly convince them, that it impairs their beauty instead of improving it. A lady's face, like the coats in the Tale of a Tub, if left to itfelf, will wear well; but if you offer to load it with foreign ornaments, you destroy the original ground. Among other matter of wonder on my first coming to town, I was much furprised at the general appearance of youth among the ladies. At prefent there is no diftinction in their complexions between a beauty in her teens and a lady in her grand climacteric : yet, at the fame time, I could not but take notice of the wonderful variety in the face of the fame lady. I have known an olive beauty on Monday grow very ruddy and blooming on Tuelday; turn pale on Wedne/day; come round to the olive hue again on Thursday; and, in a word, change her complexion as often as her gown. I was amazed to find no old aunts in this town, except a few unfafuionable people, whom nobody knows; the the reft ftill continuing in the zenith of their youth and health, and falling off, like timely fruit, without any previous decay. All this was a mystery that I could not unriddle, till on being introduced to fome ladies, I unluckily improved the hue of my lips at the expence of a fair one, who had unthinkingly turned her cheek; and found that my kiffes were given, (as is obferved in the epigram) like thofe of Pyramus, through a wall. I then difcovered, that this furprifing youth and beauty was all counterfeit; and that (as Hamlet fays) God had given them one face, and they had 'made themselves another.' I have mentioned the accident of my carrying off half a lady's face by a falute, that your courtly dames may learn to put on their faces a little tighter; but as for my own daughters, while fuch fashions prevail, they fhall ftill remain in Yorkshire. There, I think, they are pretty fafe; for this unnatural fafhion will hardly make it's way into the country, as this vamped complexion would not stand against the rays of the fun, and would inevitably melt away in a country dance. The ladies have, indeed, been always the greatest enemies to their own beauty, and feem to have a defign against their own faces. At one time the whole countenance was eclipfed in a black velvet mafk; at another it was blotted with patches; and at prefent it is crufted over with plaister of Paris. In thofe battered belles, who ftill aim at conqueft, this practice is in fome fort excufable; but it is furely as ridiculous in a young lady to give up beauty for paint, as it would be to draw a good fet of teeth, merely to fill their places with a row of ivory. Yet, fo common is his fashion grown among the young as well as the old, that when I am in a group of beauties, I confider them as fo many pretty pictures; looking about me with as little emotion as I do at Hudfon's: and if any thing fills me with admiration, it is the judicious arrangement of the tints, and the delicate touches of the painter. Art very often feems almoft to vie with nature: but my attention is too frequently diverted by confidering the texture and hue of the fkin beneath; and the picture fails to charm, while my thoughts are engroffed by the wood and canvas. I am, Sir, your humble fervant, RUSTICUS. N° XLVII. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1754+ HERE, WITLINGS, HERE WITH MACKLIN TALK YOUR FILL, T has hitherto been imagined, that though we have equalled, if not furpailed, the ancients in other liberal arts, we have not yet been able to arrive at that height of eloquence, which was poffeffed in fo amazing a manner by the Græcian and Roman orators. Whether this has been owing to any peculiar organization of our tongues, or whether it has proceeded from our national love of taciturnity, I fhall not take upon me to determine: but I will now venture to affirm, that the prefent times might furnish us with a more furprising number of Fine Speakers, than have been fet down by Tully in his treatife De Claris Oratoribus. Foreigners can no longer object to us, that the northern coldness of our climate has (as it were) purfed up our lips, and that we are afraid to open our mouths: the charm is at length diffolved; and our people, who before affected the gravity and filence of the Spaniards, have adopted and naturalized the volubility of fpeech, as well as the gay manners, of the French. This change has been brought about by the public-spirited attempts of those elevated geniules, who have instituted certain fchools for the cultivation of eloquence in all it's branches. Hence it is, that inftead of languid difcourfes from the pulpit, feveral tabernacles and meeting-houses have been fet up, where lav-preachers may difplay all their powers of oratory in fighs and groans, and emu late a Whitefield or a Wefley in all the figures of rhetoric. And not only the enthufiaft enthufiaft has his conventicles, but even the free-thinker boafts his focieties, where he may hold forth against religion in tropes, metaphors, and fimilies. The declamations weekly thundered out at Clare Market, and the fubtle argumentations at the Robin Hood, I have formerly celebrated; it now remains to pay my respects to the Martin Luther of the age, (as he frequently calls himself) the great Orator MACKLIN; who, by declaiming himself, and opening a fchool for the difputations of others, has joined both the above plans together, and formed the BRITISH INQUISITION. Here, whatever concerns the world of tafte and literature is debated: our rakes and bloods, who had been ufed to frequent Covent Garden merely for the fake of whoring and drinking, now refort thither for reafon and argument; and the Piazza begins to vie with the ancient Portico, where Socrates difputed. But what pleafes me moft in Mr. Macklin's inftitution is, that he has allowed the tongues of my fair countrywomen full play. Their natural talents for oratory are fo excellent and nume rous, that it feems more owing to the envy than prudence of the other fex, that they fhould be denied the opportunity of exerting them. The remarkable tendency in our politeft ladies to talk, though they have nothing to fay,' and the torrent of eloquence that pours (on the most trivial occafions) from the lips of those females called Scolds, give abundant proofs of that command of words, and flow of eloquence, which fo few men have been able to attain. Again, if action is the life and foul of an oration, how many advantages have the ladies in this particular? The waying of a fnowy arin, aftfully fhaded with the enchanting flope of a double ruffle, would have twenty times the force of the ftiff fee-faw of a male orator; and when they come to the most animated parts of the oration, which demand uncommon warmth and agitation, we hould be vanquished by the heaving breaft, and all thofe other charms which the modern drefs is fo well calculated to display. Since the ladies are thus undeniably endued with these and many other accomplishments for oratory, that no place fhould yet have been opened for their exerting them, is almoft unaccountable. The lower order of females have, indeed, long ago inftituted an academy of this kind at the other end of the town, where oyfters and eloquence are in equal perfection: but the politer part of the female world have hitherto had no further opportunity of exercising their abilities, than the common occafions which a new cap or petenlair, the tea or cardtable, have afforded them. I am therefore heartily glad, that a plan is at length put in execution, which will encourage their propenfity to talking, and enlarge their topics of converfation: but I would more particularly recommend it to all ladies of a clamorous difpofition, to attend at Macklin's; that the impetuous ftream of eloquence, which, for want of another vent, has long been poured on their fervants or hutbands, may now be carried off by another more agreeable channel. I could not have thought it poffible, that this undertaking would have fubfifted two nights, without fetting all the female tongues from St. James's to Temple Bar in motion. But the ladies have hitherto been dumb: and female eloquence feems as unlikely to display elf in public as ever. Whether their modefty will not permit them to oper their mouths in the unhallowed air of Covent Garden, I know not: but I am rather inclined to think, that the queftions propofed have not been fufficiently calculated for the female part of the affembly. They might perhaps be tempted to debate, Whether Fanny Murray or Lady were the propereft to lead the fashion?To what lengths a lady might proceed without the lofs of her reputation?'or Whether the Beautifying Lotion or the Royal Washball were the most ex cellent cofmetics. It might also be expected in complaifance to the fair fex, that the Inquifitor fhould now and then read a differtation on Natural and Artificial Beauty; in which he might (with that foftnels and delicacy peculiar to himfell) analyfe a lady's face, and give examples of the ogle, the fimper, the finile, the languish, the dimple, &c. with a word or two on the ufe and beneft of paint. But thefe points I fhall leave to Mr. Macklin's confideration: in the mean time, as it is not in my power to oblige the public with a lady's speech, I shall fill up the remainder of my paper with En oration, which my correfpondent is defirous fhould appear in print, though he had not fufficient confidence to deliver it at the Inquifition. QUESTION. Whether the Stage might not be made more conducive to Virtue and Morality? MR. INQUISITOR, here, that the Necromancer and the Sorcerer, after having played many unchriftian pranks upon the stage, are at laft fairly fent to the devil. I would therefore recommend it to our pantómime-writers, that instead of the Pantheon, or lewd comèdies, they would take their fubjects from fome old garland, moral ballad, or penny hiftory book. Suppofe, for example, they were to give us the ftory of Patient Grizzle in dumb fhew; setting forth, as how a noble lord fell in love with her, as he was hunting; and there you might have the fcene of the Spinning Wheel, and the fong of the Early Horn;and as how, after many trials of her patience, which they might represent by machinery, this lord at last married her; THE ancient drama had, we know, a religious as well as political view; and was defigned to infpire the audience with a reverence to the gods and a love to their country. Our own ftage, upon particular occafions, has been made to anfwer the fame ends. Thus we may remember, during the laft rebellion, be-and then you may have à grand temfides the loyalty of the fiddles in the Orcheftra, we were inspired with a deteftation of the Pope and Pretender by the Nonjuror, the Jefuit Caught, Perkin Warbeck, or the Popish Impoftor, and fuch other politico-religious dramas. But there is a fpecies of the drama, which has not yet been mentioned by any of the gentlemen who have spoke to the question, and which is very deficient in point of moral: I mean, Pantomimes. Mr. Law has been very fevere on the impiety of reprefenting heathen gods and goddeffes before a truly Chriftian audience: and to this we may add, that Harlequin is but a wicked fort of fellow, and is always running after the girls. For my part, I have often blushed to fee this impudent rake endea. vouring to creep up Columbine's petticoats, and at other times patting her neck, and laying his legs upon her lap. Nobody will fay, indeed, that there is much virtue or morality in thefe entertainments: though it must be confeffed to the honour of our neighbouring houfe ple and a dance. The other houfe have already revived the good old story of Fortunatus's Wishing-cap; and as they are fond of introducing little children in their entertainments, fuppofe they were to exhibit a pantomime of the Three Children in the Wood;-'twould be vaftly pretty to fee the pafte-board robin-red-breafts let down by wires upon the itage to cover the poor innocent babes with paper leaves. But if they must have Fairies and Genii, I would advise them to take their stories out of that pretty little book called the Fairy Tales. I am fure, instead of oftriches, dogs, horfes, lions, monkeys, &c. we should be full as well pleafed to fee the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood; and we should laugh vaftly at the adventures of Pufs in Boots. I need not point out the excellent moral, which would be inculcated by representations of this kind; and I am confident they would meet with the deferved applaufe of all the old women and children in both galleries. Ο 1 N° XLVIII. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1754 COME, LET US, LIKE OUR JOVIAL SIRES OF OLD, day drefs, and once in the year rife into poets. Thus the bellman bids good night to all his masters and mistrelles in couplets; the news-carrier hawks his own verfes; and the very lamp-lighter addreffes his worthy customers in rhyme. As a fervant to the public, I should be wanting in due refpect to my readers, if I also did not take this earliest oppor. tunity of paying them the compliments of the featon, and (in the phrafe of their barbers, taylors, fhoemakers, and other tradefmen) with them a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Thofe old-fashioned mortals, who have been accustomed to look upon this season with extraordinary devotion, I leave to con over the explanation of it in Nelfon: it fhall at prefent be my bufinefs to fhew the different methods of celebrating it in thefe kingdoms. With the generality, Christmas is looked upon as a feftival in the moft literal fenfe, and held facred by good eating and drinking. Thefe, indeed, are the most diftinguishing marks of Christmas: the revenue from the malt-tax and the duty upon wines, &c. on account of thefe twelve days, has always been found to increase confiderably: and it is impoffible to conceive the flaughter that is made among the poultry and the hogs in different parts of the country, to furnish the prodigious numbers of turkeys and chines, and collars of brawn, that travel up, as prefents, to the metropolis on this occafion. The jolly cit looks upon this joyous time of feafting with as much pleasure as on the treat of a new-elected alderman, or a lord-mayor's day. Nor can the country farmer rail more against the Game-act, than many worthy citizens, who have ever fince been debarred of their annual hare; while their ladies can never enough regret their Jofs of the opportunity of difplaying their skill, in making a moft excellent pudding in the belly. But thefe notable houfe-wives have ftill the confolation of hearing their guests commend the mincepies without meat, which we are affured were made at home, and not like the ordinary heavy things from the pastrycooks. Thefe good people would, indeed, look upon the abfence of mincepies as the highest violation of Chriftmas; and have remarked with concern the difregard that has been fhewn of late years to that Old English repaft: for this excellent British Olio is as effen tial to Chriftmas, as pancakes to Shrove Tuefday, tanfy to Eafter, furmity to Midlent Sunday, or goofe to Michaelmas Day. And they think it no wonder, that our finical gentry should be fo loofe in their principles, as well as weak in their bodies, when the solid substantial Proteftant mince-pie has given place among them to the Roman Catholic Amulets, and the light, puffy, heterodox Pets de Religieufe‹. As this feafon ufed formerly to be welcomed in with more than usual jollity in the country, it is probable that the Christmas remembrances, with which the waggons and ftage-coaches are at this time loaded, firit took their rife from the laudable custom of diftributing provisions at this fevere quarter of the year to the poor. But thele prefents are now feldom fent to thofe who are really in want of them, but are defigned as compliments to the great from their inferiors, and come chiefly from the tenant to his rich landlord, or from the rector of a fat living, as a kind of tythe to his patron. Nor is the old hofpitable Englifh cuftom, of keeping open house for the poor neighbourhood, any longer regarded. We might as foon expect to fee plum-porridge fill a terrene at the ordinary at White's, as that the lord of the manor fhould affemble his poor tenants to make merry at the great house. The fervants now fwill the Christmas ale by themselves in the hall, while the fquire gets drunk, with his brother fox-hunters, in the fmoking-room. There is no rank of people fo heartily rejoiced at the arrival of this joyful feafon, as the order of fervants, journeymen, apprentices, and the lower fort of people in general. No mafter or miftrefs is fo rigid, as to refuse them an holiday; and, by remarkable good luck, the fame circumftance which gives them an opportunity of diverting themselves, procures them money to fupport it by the tax which cuftom has impofed upon us in the article of Christmas Boxes. The butcher and the baker fend their journeymen and apprentices to levy contributions on their customers, which are paid back again in the usual fees to Mr. John and Mrs. Mary. This ferves the tradefman as a pretence to lengthen out his bill, and the mafter and mistress to lower the wages on account of the vails. The Christmas Box was formerly the bounty of well,difpofed people, who were |