| Citation |
BEP(F.757.043
12 Dec 1757:41 (1163)
To the Citizen.
The danger of bad examples in the great, to the small, is
much better compriz'd in a distich of the ingenious Mr.
Whitehead (taken from his beautiful poem on Honour) than I
can possibly express in prose, and may serve as a kind of
motto to this paper, Mr. Citizen, if you can find a place
for it.----
Manners, like fashions, from the court descend;
And where the great begin, the vulgar end."
. . . [4th para.] Though I believe this only may affect
those sort of gentlemen with a loss of reputation and the
character of industry; yet, in the female part of the world
the consequence of these things is truly fatal. The man who
courts for a mistress always lays his stress on fine
cloaths, jewels and trinkets.----Therefore, she listens--for
she naturally thinks, in case she has reason to exchange him
for another, that these bawbles will serve her in great
stead with the next.--The man who courts for a wife (if he
is in earnest, for many make that the pretence only to get
access and admission into a family) talks of industry,
living comfortably, and a plain subsistence after his
death.--These are the sounds so unwelcome to a polite lady
(or commonly called a lady of taste and fashion) that she
turns a deaf ear to all he says, or can say, and follows the
flowery path of pleasure--which from Vauxhall, Ranelagh,
operas and theatres, leads directly to an hospital, thence
to prison, and last of all to Virginia. . . [1 more short
para.] [signed] X.X.X.
|