the double bed of rouge-it is, if we dare tell them so, a complete proof of bad taste and a kind of outrage upon themselves that we cannot forgive.

Let women have more confidence in their charms, and less in all the little cunnings of art. All the graces given at the glass, can never equal those graces which Nature has lavished upon them with a liberal hand: all these ornaments, of which they are so choice, do not assist their attractions, but often hurt them. Diamonds, gildings, and stuffs, add nothing to beauty; they only share its attentions, and render them plainer who want attractions.

Cannot women, then, perceive that nature has made all the charms of their dress, and left hardly any addition to make upon this article? If they would rely upon her for the means of pleasing, it is the surest way of succeeding. A woman is never so handsome as when she is insensible of it. What does she gain by being occupied incessantly about her charms?

Beauty has no need of cultivation, like the mind and the heart, which women are in the habit of neglecting too much.

They should, then, devote their attentions to those objects, which unhappily for some among them, is the weak side: they would not be in vain; and we can assure them of

success.

It is, moreover, the most solid distinction and the only one that persons of high rank can place between them and persons of low condition. Magnificence confounds, in the present age, both under the same exterior; but manners, language, and sentiments, will always establish real distinctions, which cannot disappear.

CHAP. VII.

OF THE CHARACTER AND DISPOSITION OF

WOMEN.

"CAPRICE in women," said La Bruyere, "is nearly a counterpoise to beauty." In truth, nothing sooner effaces the impression that a handsome face makes than a capricious and humoursome temper. We are but too much indebted to women on this account; and it is astonishing, that they who are the most greedy after conquests, are generally the least disposed to preserve them.

All men agree, that a fine woman is the most charming sight that Nature can offer them. They admire her with a common accord; but she seldom suffers herself to be loved long; whilst a woman of a moderate share of beauty, or even without beauty,

kindles sometimes the strongest and most lasting love. It is a reproach which the women daily make us. They think of crying down our taste, and pass, without intending it, a great eulogium upon our discernment. It is an exquisite lesson, withstanding a charm so powerful as that of beauty, to prefer to it less brilliant but more solid advantages.

A lovely person, always flattered from the cradle, and who has only been discoursed with upon her complexion and her graces, remains generally what Nature formed her —a pretty object to look at, Incessantly employed upon herself, we frequently see her fall into an affectation which discourages.

They tie over and over again a bracelet in order to display a handsome arm; they re-adjust, at another time, a necklace or a nosegay to cause the whiteness of their neck to be remarked; they laugh to shew fine teeth; they stumble, replace a patch, and change their attitudes every moment, to

strike the men with some new subject of admiration; and all these grimaces have generally a very different effect upon them. It is thus that some women find means

of changing Nature by endeavouring too anxiously to improve.it: they model their features, their voices, and even their language, affecting a borrowed wit which be nights theirs. The wit they would have, spoils that which they have. And from this vain labour proceeds a borrowed air, which spoils their natural beauty.

A professed beauty is always curbed from a foolish thing, which makes her pass for equal with a wit upon record.

They, on the contrary, whom Nature appears to have rather neglected, seek to repair its defects by acquiring amiable qualities: their minds not being spoiled by flattery, acquire truth; their thoughts, being less filled up with self, expand themselves advantageously: thereby greater resources for intercourse, and consequently fewer whims.