The sagacity of the physicians, by this means, soon | tirely without notice; and in the evening, when be discovered the cause of their patient's disorder; was going up to the prætor's chair, he was bruand Alcander, being apprised of their discovery, tally repulsed by the attending lictors. The atat length extorted a confession from the reluctant tention of the poor is generally driven from one dying lover. ungrateful object to another. Night coming on, It would but delay the narrative to describe the he now found himself under a necessity of seeking conflict between love and friendship in the breast a place to lie in, and yet knew not where to apof Alcander on this occasion; it is enough to say, ply. All emaciated and in rags as he was, none that the Athenians were at this time arrived to of the citizens would harbour so much wretchedsuch refinement in morals, that every virtue was ness, and sleeping in the streets might be attendcarried to excess. In short, forgetful of his own ed with interruption or danger: in short, he was felicity, he gave up his intended bride, in all her obliged to take up his lodging in one of the tombs charms, to the young Roman. They were married without the city, the usual retreat of guilt, poverty, privately by his connivance; and this unlooked-for or despair. in sleep; and virtue found, on this flinty couch, more ease than down can supply to the guilty. change of fortune wrought as unexpected a change In this mansion of horror, laying his head upon in the constitution of the now happy Septimius. an inverted urn, he forgot his miseries for a while In a few days he was perfectly recovered, and set out with his fair partner for Rome. Here, by an exertion of those talents of which he was so eminently possessed, he in a few years arrived at the highest dignities of the state, and was constituted the city judge, or prætor. a Meanwhile, Alcander not only felt the pain of being separated from his friend and mistress, but prosecution was also commenced against him by the relations of Hypatia, for his having basely given her up, as was suggested, for money. Neither his innocence of the crime laid to his charge, nor his eloquence in his own defence, was able to withstand the influence of a powerful party. He was cast, and condemned to pay an enormous fine. Unable to raise so large a sum at the time appoint ed, his possessions were confiscated, himself stripped of the habit of freedom, exposed in the marketplace, and sold as a slave to the highest bidder. It was midnight when two robbers came to make this cave their retreat, but happening to disagree about the division of their plunder, one of them stabbed the other to the heart, and left him weltering in blood at the entrance. In these circumstances he was found next morning, and this naturally induced a further inquiry. The alarm was spread, the cave was examined, Alcander was found sleeping, and immediately apprehended and accused of robbery and murder. The circunstances against him were strong, and the wretchedness of his appearance confirmed suspicion. Misfortune and he were now so long acquainted, that he at last became regardless of life. He detested a world where he had found only ingratitude, falsehood, and cruelty, and was determined to make no defence. Thus, lowering with resolution, he was A merchant of Thrace becoming his purchaser, dragged, bound with cords, before the tribunal of Alcander, with some other companions of distress, Septimius. The proofs were positive against him, was carried into the region of desolation and ste- and he offered nothing in his own vindication; the rility. His stated employment was to follow the judge, therefore was proceeding to doom him to a herds of an imperious master; and his skill in most cruel and ignominious death, when, as if illuhunting was all that was allowed him to supply a mined by a ray from Heaven, he discovered, precarious subsistence. Condemned to hopeless through all his misery, the features, though dim servitude, every morning waked him to a renewal with sorrow, of his long-lost, loved Alcander. It is of famine or toil, and every change of season serv- impossible to describe his joy and his pain on this ed but to aggravate his unsheltered distress. No- strange occasion; happy in once more seeing the thing but death or flight was left him, and almost person he most loved on earth, distressed at findcertain death was the consequence of his attempt-ing him in such circumstances. Thus agitated by ing to fly. After some years of bondage, however, contending passions, he flew from his tribunal, and an opportunity of escaping offered; he embraced it falling on the neck of his dear benefactor, burst inwith ardour, and travelling by night, and lodging to an agony of distress. The attention of the in caverns by day, to shorten a long story, he at multitude was soon, however, divided by another last arrived in Rome. The day of Alcander's ar- object. The robber who had been really guilty, rival, Septimius sat in the forum administering was apprehended selling his plunder, and struck justice; and hither our wanderer came, expecting with a panic, confessed his crime. He was brought to be instantly known, and publicly acknowledged. bound to the same tribunal, and acquitted every Here he stood the whole day among the crowd, other person of any partnership in his guilt. Need watching the eyes of the judge, and expecting to the sequel be related? Alcander was acquitted, be taken notice of; but so much was he altered by shared the friendship and the honours of his friend a long succession of hardships, that he passed en-Septimius, lived afterwards in happiness and ease, and left it to be engraved on his tomb, "That no the care of their horses. If we gently desired circumstances are so desperate which Providence them to make more speed, they took not the least may not relieve." A LETTER FROM A TRAVELLER. MY DEAR WILL, Cracow, August 2, 1758. notice; kind language was what they had by no means been used to. It was proper to speak to them in the tones of anger, and sometimes it was even necessary to use blows, to excite them to their duty. How different these from the common people of England, whom a blow might induce to re turn the affront seven fold! These poor people, You see by the date of my letter that I am arriv- however, from being brought up to vile usage, lose ed in Poland. When will my wanderings be at all the respect which they should have for theman end? When will my restless disposition give me selves. They have contracted a habit of regarding leave to enjoy the present hour? When at Lyons, constraint as the great rule of their duty. When I thought all happiness lay beyond the Alps: they were treated with mildness, they no longer when in Italy, I found myself still in want of some- continued to perceive a superiority. They fancied hing, and expected to leave solicitude behind me themselves our equals, and a continuance of our by going into Romelia; and now you find me humanity might probably have rendered them inturning back, still expecting ease every where but solent: but the imperious tone, menaces and where I am. It is now seven years since I saw blows, at once changed their sensations and their the face of a single creature who cared a farthing ideas; their ears and shoulders taught their souls whether I was dead or alive. Secluded from all to shrink back into servitude, from which they had the comforts of confidence, friendship, or society, I for some moments fancied themselves disengaged. feel the solitude of a hermit, but not his ease. The enthusiasm of liberty an Englishman feels The prince of *** has taken me in his train, so is never so strong, as when presented by such that I am in no danger of starving for this bout. prospects as these. I must own, in all my indiThe prince's governor is a rude ignorant pedant, gence, it is one of my comforts (perhaps, indeed, it and his tutor a battered rake; thus, between two is my only boast,) that I am of that happy counsuch characters, you may imagine he is finely in- try; though I scorn to starve there; though I do structed. I made some attempts to display all the not choose to lead a life of wretched dependence, little knowledge I had acquired by reading or ob- or be an object for my former acquaintance to point servation; but I find myself regarded as an igno- at. While you enjoy all the ease and elegance of rant intruder. The truth is, I shall never be able prudence and virtue, your old friend wanders over to acquire a power of expressing myself with ease the world, without a single anchor to hold by, or a in any language but my own; and, out of my own friend except you to confide in.* country, the highest character I can ever acquire, is that of being a philosophic vagabond. Yours, etc. A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LATE When I consider myself in the country which was once so formidable in war, and spread terror and desolation over the whole Roman empire, I can hardly account for the present wretchedness and pusillanimity of its inhabitants: a prey to MR. MAUPERTUIS lately deceased, was the first every invader; their cities plundered without an to whom the English philosophers owed their being enemy; their magistrates seeking redress by com- particularly admired by the rest of Europe. The plaints, and not by vigour. Every thing conspires romantic system of Descartes was adapted to the to raise my compassion for their miseries, were not taste of the superficial and the indolent; the foreign my thoughts too busily engaged by my own. The universities had embraced it with ardour, and such whole kingdom is in a strange disorder: when our are seldom convinced of their errors till all others give equipage, which consists of the prince and thirteen up such false opinions as untenable. The philosoattendants, had arrived at some towns, there were phy of Newton, and the metaphysics of Locke, apno conveniences to be found, and we were obliged peared; but, like all new truths, they were at once to have girls to conduct us to the next. I have seen received with opposition and contempt. The Ena woman travel thus on horseback before us for glish, it is true, studied, understood, and conse thirty miles, and think herself highly paid, and quently admired them; it was very different on the make twenty reverences, upon receiving, with ec- continent. Fontenelle, who seemed to preside over stacy, about twopence for her trouble. In general, we were better served by the women than the men on these occasions. The men seemed directed by sionally. I shall alter nothing either in the style or substance The sequel of this correspondence to be continued occaa low sordid interest alone: they seemed mere ma- of these letters, and the reader may depend on their being chines, and all their thoughts were employed in genuine. the republic of letters, unwilling to acknowledge that all his life had been spent in erroneous philosophy, joined in the universal disapprobation, and the English philosophers seemed entirely unknown. THE BEE, No. II. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1759. ON DRESS. Maupertuis, however, made them his study; he thought he might oppose the physics of his country, and yet still be a good citizen; he defended our FOREIGNERS observe, that there are no ladies in countrymen, wrote in their favour, and at last, as he had truth on his side, carried his cause. Almost the world more beautiful, or more ill-dressed, than all the learning of the English, till very lately, was those of England. Our countrywomen have been conveyed in the language of France. The writings compared to those pictures, where the face is the of Maupertuis spread the reputation of his master, work of a Raphael, but the draperies thrown out Newton, and, by a happy fortune, have united his by some empty pretender, destitute of taste, and fame with that of our human prodigy. entirely unacquainted with design. If I were a poet, I might observe, on this occa The first of his performances, openly, in vindica- sion, that so much beauty, set off with all the adtion of the Newtonian system, is his treatise, envantages of dress, would be too powerful an antagotitled, Sur la figure des Astres, if I remember nist for the opposite sex, and therefore, it was wiseright; a work at once expressive of a deep geometri-ly ordered that our ladies should want taste, lest cal knowledge, and the most happy manner of de- their admirers should entirely want reason. livering abstruse science with ease. This met with But to confess a truth, I do not find they have a violent opposition from a people, though fond of greater aversion to fine clothes than the women novelty in every thing else, yet, however, in mat- of any other country whatsoever. I can not fancy, ters of science, attached to ancient opinions with that a shop-keeper's wife in Cheapside has a greater bigotry. As the old and obstinate fell away, the tederness for the fortune of her husband than a youth of France embraced the new opinions, and citizen's wife in Paris; or that miss in a boarding. now seem more eager to defend Newton than even school is more an economist in dress than mahis countrymen. demoiselle in a nunnery. The oddity of character which great men are Although Paris may be accounted the soil in sometimes remarkable for, Maupertuis was not which almost every fashion takes its rise, its inentirely free from. If we can believe Voltaire, he fluence is never so general there as with us. They once attempted to castrate himself; but whether study there the happy method of uniting grace and this be true or no, it is certain, he was extremely fashion, and never excuse a woman for being awkwhimsical. Though born to a large fortune, when wardly dressed, by saying her clothes are made in employed in mathematical inquiries, he disregarded the mode. A French woman is a perfect architect his person to such a degree, and loved retirement in dress; she never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes so much, that he has been more than once put on the orders; she never tricks out a squabby Doric the list of modest beggars by the curates of Paris, shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without when he retired to some private quarter of the metaphor, she conforms to general fashion, only town, in order to enjoy his meditations without in- when it happens not to be repugnant to private terruption. The character given of him by one beauty. of Voltaire's antagonists, if it can be depended Our ladies, on the contrary, seem to have no upon, is much to his honour. "You," says this other standard for grace but the run of the town. writer to Mr. Voltaire, "were entertained by the If fashion gives the word, every distinction of King of Prussia as a buffoon, but Maupertuis as a beauty, complexion, or stature, ceases. Sweeping philosopher." It is certain, that the preference trains, Prussian bonnets, and trollopees, as like which this royal scholar gave to Maupertuis was each other as if cut from the same piece, level all the cause of Voltaire's disagreement with him. to one standard. The Mall, the gardens, and the Voltaire could not bear to see a man whose talents playhouses, are filled with ladies in uniform, and he had no great opinion of preferred before him as their whole appearance shows as little variety or president of the royal academy. His Micromégas taste, as if their clothes were bespoke by the colowas designed to ridicule Maupertuis; and probably nel of a marching regiment, or fancied by the same it has brought more disgrace on the author than artist who dresses the three battalions of guards. the subject. Whatever absurdities men of letters have indulged, and how fantastical soever the modes of science have been, their anger is still more subject to ridicule. But not only ladies of every shape and complexion, but of every age too, are possessed of this unaccountable passion of dressing in the same manner. A lady of no quality can be distinguished from a lady of some quality, only by the redness of strous muff. I hate those odious muffs." I could her hands; and a woman of sixty, masked, might have patiently borne a criticism on all the rest of easily pass for her grandaughter. I remember, a my equipage; but as I had always a peculiar venefew days ago, to have walked behind a damsel, ration for my muff, I could not forbear being piqued ossed out in all the gaiety of fifteen; her dress was a little; and, throwing my eyes with a spiteful air loose, unstudied, and seemed the result of conscious on her bosom, "I could heartily wish, madam," beauty. I called up all my poetry on this occasion, replied I, "that for your sake my muff was cut inand fancied twenty Cupids prepared for execution to a tippet." in every folding of her white negligee. I had pre As my cousin, by this time, was grown heartily pared my imagination for an angel's face; but what ashamed of her gentleman-usher, and as I was was my mortification to find that the imaginary never very fond of any kind of exhibition myself, goddess was no other than my cousin Hannah, it was mutually agreed to retire for a while to one four years older than myself, and I shall be sixty- of the seats, and from that retreat remark on others two the twelfth of next November. as freely as they had remarked on us. After the transports of our first salute were over, When seated, we continued silent for some time, I could not avoid running my eye over her whole employed in very different speculations. I regardappearance. Her gown was of cambric, cut short ed the whole company, now passing in review bebefore, in order to discover a high-heeled shoe, fore me, as drawn out merely for my amusement. which was buckled almost at the toe. Her cap, if For my entertainment the beauty had all that cap it might be called that cap was none, consisted morning been improving her charms, the beau had of a few bits of cambric, and flowers of painted put on lace, and the young doctor a big wig, merepaper stuck on one side of her head. Her bosom, ly to please me. But quite different were the senthat had felt no hand, but the hand of time, these timents of cousin Hannah; she regarded every twenty years, rose suing, but in vain, to be press-well-dressed woman as a victorious rival, hated ed. I could, indeed, have wished her more than a every face that seemed dressed in good-humour, or handkerchief of Paris net to shade her beauties; wore the appearance of greater happiness than her for, as Tasso says of the rose bud, Quanto si mos- own. I perceived her uneasiness, and attempted tra men tanto è più bella, I should think her's to lessen it, by observing, that there was no commost pleasing when least discovered. As my cousin had not put on all this finery for nothing, she was at that time sallying out to the Park, when I had overtaken her. Perceiving, however, that I had on my best wig, she offered, if I would 'squire her there, to send home the footman. Though I trembled for our reception in public, yet I could not with any civility refuse; so, to be as gallant as possible, I took her hand in my arm, and thus we marched on together. |pany in the Park to-day. To this she readily assented, "and yet," says she, "it is full enough of scrubs of one kind or another." My smiling at this observation gave her spirits to pursue the bent of her inclination, and now she began to exhibit her skill in secret history, as she found me disposed to listen. "Observe," says she to me, "that old woman in tawdry silk, and dressed out even be yond the fashion. That is Miss Biddy Evergreen, Miss Biddy, it seems, has money and as she conWhen we made our entry at the Park, two an- siders that money was never so scarce as it is now, tiquated figures, so polite and so tender as we seem- she seems resolved to keep what she has to herself. ed to be, soon attracted the eyes of the company. She is ugly enough you see; yet I assure you she As we made our way among crowds who were has refused several offers to my own knowledge, out to show their finery as well as we, wherever within this twelvemonth. Let me see, three gentle. we came, I perceived we brought good-humour in men from Ireland, who study the law, two waiting our train. The polite could not forbear smiling, captains, a doctor, and a Scotch preacher, who had and the vulgar burst out into a horse-laugh at our like to have carried her off. All her time is passed grotesque figures. Cousin Hannah, who was perfectly conscious of the rectitude of her own appearance, attributed all this mirth to the oddity of mine; while I as cordially placed the whole to her account. Thus, from being two of the best natured creatures alive, before we got half-way up the mall, we both began to grow peevish, and, like two mice on a string, endeavoured to revenge the impertinence of others upon ourselves. "I am amazed, cousin Jeffery," says miss, "that I can never get you to dress like a Christian. I knew we should while her two marriageable daughters, like bunhave the eyes of the Park upon us, with your great ters, in stuff gowns, are now taking sixpennywig so frizzed, and yet so beggarly, and your mon-worth of tea at the White-Conduit-House. Odious between sickness and finery. Thus she spends the whole week in a close chamber, with no other company but her monkey, her apothecary, and cat; and comes dressed out to the Park every Sunday, to show her airs, to get new lovers, to catch a new cold, and to make new work for the doctor. "There goes Mrs. Roundabout, I mean the fat lady in the lutestring trollopee. Between you and I, she is but a cutler's wife. See how she's dressed, as fine as hands and pins can make her, puss! how she waddles along, with her train two robberies are not so much as heard of? for my yards behind her! She puts me in mind of my part, I have not in the whole country seen a gibLord Bantam's Indian sheep, which are obliged to bet or a gallows. They pay an infinite respect to have their monstrous tails trundled along in a go- their ecclesiastics, whom they suppose to be the cart. For all her airs, it goes to her husband's privy counsellors of Providence, who, on their part, heart to see four yards of good lutestring wearing turn this credulity to their own advantage, and against the ground, like one of his knives on a manage their parishioners as they please. In genegrindstone. To speak my mind, cousin Jeffery, I ral, however, they seldom abuse their sovereign never liked tails; for suppose a young fellow should authority. Hearkened to as oracles, regarded as be rude, and the lady should offer to step back in the dispensers of eternal rewards and punisha fright, instead of retiring, she treads upon her ments, they readily influence their hearers into train, and falls fairly on her back; and then you justice, and make them practical philosophers withknow, cousin, her clothes may be spoiled. out the pains of study. "Ah! Miss Mazzard! I knew we should not As to their persons, they are perfectly well miss her in the Park; she in the monstrous Prus- made, and the men particularly have a very ensian bonnet. Miss, though so very fine, was bred gaging air. The greatest part of the boys which a milliner, and might have had some custom if she I saw in the country had very white hair. They had minded her business; but the girl was fond of were as beautiful as Cupids, and there was somefinery, and instead of dressing her customers, laid thing open and entirely happy in their little chubout all her goods in adorning herself. Every new by faces. The girls, on the contrary, have neither gown she put on impaired her credit: she still how-such fair, nor such even complexions, and their ever, went on improving her appearance, and les- features are much less delicate, which is a circumsening her little fortune, and is now, you see, be- stance different from that of almost every other come a belle and a bankrupt." country. Besides this, it is observed, that the My cousin was proceeding in her remarks, which women are generally afflicted with the itch, for were interrupted by the approach of the very lady which Scania is particularly remarkable. I had she had been so freely describing. Miss had per- an instance of this in one of the inns on the road. ceived her at a distance, and approached to salute The hostess was one of the most beautiful women her. I found, by the warmth of the two ladies' I have ever seen; she had so fine a complexion, protestations, that they had been long intimate that I could not avoid admiring it. But what was esteemed friends and acquaintance. Both were so my surprise, when she opened her bosom in order pleased at this happy rencounter, that they were to suckle her child, to perceive that seat of delight resolved not to part for the day. So we all crossed all covered with this disagreeable temper. The the Park together, and I saw them into a hackney- careless manner in which she exposed to our eyes coach at the gate of St. James's. I could not, so disgusting an object, sufficiently testifies that however, help observing, "That they are generally they regard it as no extraordinary malady, and most ridiculous themselves, who are apt to see most seem to take no pains to conceal it. Such are the ridicule in others." remarks, which propably you may think trifling enough, I have made in my journey to Stockholm, which, to take it all together, is a large, beautiful, and even a populous city. SOME PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO SIR, Stockholm. The arsenal appears to me one of its greatest curiosities; it is a handsome, spacious building, but however, scantily supplied with the implements of war. To recompense this defect, they have alI CAN NOT resist your solicitations, though it is most filled it with trophies, and other marks of their possible I shall be unable to satisfy your curiosity. former military glory. I saw there several chamThe polite of every country seem to have but one bers filled with Danish, Saxon, Polish, and Ruscharacter. A gentleman of Sweden differs but sian standards. There was at least enough to little, except in trifles, from one of another coun- suffice half a dozen armies; but new standards are try. It is among the vulgar we are to find those more easily made than new armies can be enlisted. distinctions which characterise a people, and from I saw, besides, some very rich furniture, and them it is that I take my picture of the Swedes. some of the crown jewels of great value; but what Though the Swedes, in general, appear to lan- principally engaged my attention, and touched me guish under oppression, which often renders others with passing melancholy, were the bloody, yet prewicked, or of malignant dispositions, it has not, how- cious spoils of the two greatest heroes the North ever, the same influence upon them, as they are ever produced. What I mean are the clothes in faithful, civil, and incapable of atrocious crimes. which the great Gustavus Adolphus, and the intreWould you believe that, in Sweden, highway pid Charles XII., died, by a fate not unusual to |