| Citation |
BC.769.154
18-21 Dec 1769:4101,4102,4103 (155)
The Meddler. No. VII.
[1 line from Virgil]
Mr. Meddler, Sir,
It has been a common complaint, through all ages, that
the world degenerates from that perfection, in which it was
at first created. . . [27 lines]
Nevertheless, as this is so fashionable a topic, I shall
endeavour to correct these prejudices, by drawing a
parrallel between the Antients and the Moderns; measuring
their dimensions and proportions, and calculating their
superficial and solid contents. . . [4 lines] We exceed the
Antients in all the polite arts and sciences; by these I
mean, dress, dancing, compliments, curses, drinking,
swearing, gambling, poetry, fighting and dying, and, in a
word, every qualification that belongs to a gentleman and a
man of honour, in the modern acceptation of the words.
Dress is considered as the first and most necessary
ingredient; it is the very canvas and ground-work of a
gentleman, and all other accomplishments are but the paint
and colouring. And just as a particular form of body,
though without any appearance of a rational soul, will make
a very tolerable man, as men go at present; so a particular
fashion of dress, without any degree of politeness, will
make a very passable gentleman. The first kinds of dress,
of which we have any account in antient history, were the
fig-leaf suits of Adam and Eve; then the skins of beasts;
after that some coarse clothes, which, without any thing of
ornament, served to keep off the inclemencies of the
weather. All the elegance and beauty of dress have
undoubtedly been added in modern ages. The antients have
nothing to boast of, either in variety of fashions, or
superfluity of decorations: they dressed for advantage and
not for ornament. Necessity was their instructor, and
plainness their model. Where were the periwigs loading the
shoulders, and themselves loaded with mealy honours; those
stupendous amphitheatres, amid whose vast expansive rounds,
heads unnumbred move, and to our limited sight, heads
unnumbred are lost? Where was the sack that behind, with
long, long excursion, sweeps the affrighted cattle with its
enormous train? Where the coat beaming with golden
radiance, where the petticoat extending its ample round?
Where those variegated decorations that bestow on the wearer
such a striking resemblance to the butterfly expanding his
gilded wings or a cloud tinged with the bright radiancies of
setting Phoebus. . . [23 lines]
Dancing seems to be wholly of modern invention; no
antient author having given any account of the practice, or
written any treatise upon the exercise of the legs.
The art of complimenting, is greatly improved by our
applying to it the arithmetic of Infinities. . . [1 column]
. . . I will therefore propose a scheme to the public,
which I doubt not, if pursued as eagerly as I expect, will
soon enable us to eclipse the glory of France: it is this.
In every polite and populous town, let there be erected two
universities; one for the education of gentlemen, and the
other for the education of taylors. Let premiums be given
out to all who shall invent a new fashion, a new oath, a new
compliment, a new game, or any other improvement in dress or
politeness. . . [4 lines] In the college for the education
of gentlemen, beside the usual officers, let there be a
dancing-master, a fencing-master, a gaming-master, and above
all, a professor of swearing: . . . [4 lines, signed] The
Schemer.
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