the king, that, at the earnest intreaty of the lords, he pronounced them pardoned; upon which, giving a great fhout, they threw up their halters towards the top of the hall, crying, "God fave the king!" After this affair the May games were not fo commonly used as before. Historical remarks on dress. Prefixed to a collection of the dresses, of different nations, ancient and modern. THE HE origin of drefs, confidered merely as a covering for the body, is too generally known to need a differtation: but that covering which was produced jointly by weakness and guilt, to defend the wearer from the inclemency of the weather, and to conceal thofe parts which the lofs of innocence had made shameful, is but a very inconfiderable part of what has been long included under the name of drefs. To trace the modern dress back to the fimplicity of the firft fkins and leaves and feathers that were worn by mankind in the primitive ages, if it were poffible, would be almoft endless; the fashion has been often changed, while the materials remained the fame; the materials have been different as they were gradually produced by fucceffive arts that converted a raw hide into leather, the wool of the fheep into cloth, the web of the worm into filk, and flax and cotton into linen of various kinds. One garment has also been added to another, and ornaments have been multiplied upon ornaments with a variety almoft infinite, produced by the caprices of human vanity, or the new neceffities to which man rendered himfelf fubject by thofe many inVOL. IV. ventions which took place after he ceafed-to be as God had created him, upright. Some bounds however have been put to the licentioufnefs of fancy in forming and changing the drefs, by various prohibitions and ordonances after men had been formed into civil fociety: by fome it was ftinction between the different clafintended to keep up a vifible difes of people, as noble or mean, ecclefiaftical or lay, magiftrate or private perfons; the defign of others was to diftinguifh the two fexes, and fome to prohibit many expenfive fuperfluities, which were at once productive of poverty, dependance, and effeminacy; fome of thefe regulations still fubfift, and the fexes have by a kind of common content been diftinguifhed at all times, and in all civilized countries, by fome difference in their drefs. At prefent indeed the Europeans are fo much at liberty to follow their own fancy in the figure and materials of their drefs, that the habit is become a kind of index to the mind, and the character is in fome particulars as eafily discovered by a man's drefs as by his converfation. Of the dreffes of Europe in general it may be observed, that they are now gothic; that of the men is military, for the garments are all short, and the dress is confidered as incomplete without a weapon. So that even the physi cian, who fpends the day in going from the chamber of one fick perfon to another, is not completely dreffed without a fword. The old civic habits were long, and are still ufed on particular occafions. The merchant and trader when he ap pears as a citizen wears a gown and hood, and there are long garments N peculiar peculiar to the profeffors of phyfic and law, to the great officers of ftate, and the peers of every denomination: but all these characters, except upon public occafions, wear the fhort coat and fword, which is the military drefs, that the inroads of the Goths, whofe trade was war, made general. As to the dreffes of the women, they have never been military, and therefore have never been fhort; but befides the alterations that convenience and caprice have introduced in the female habit, there are feveral which have had a more latent and lefs innocent caufe. The drefs of women has been long confidered as a decoration of beauty, and an incitement to defire; and in this view it has been the object of much thought, ingenuity, and folicitude; but it does not appear that thofe who intended to multiply or fecure their conquefts by drefs, always knew how beft to exert that power which the choice of their drefs put into their hands. When the British lady thinks fit to drefs fo as to difcover the whole breast, the British gentleman foon looks upon it with as much indifference, as the naked Indians look upon all the reft; but if the covers it with a handkerchief, and contrives this covering fo that it fhall accidentally difcover what it appears intended to hide, the glimpfe that is thus cafually given, immediately and forcibly feizes the imagination, and every motion is watched in hopes that it will be repeated; fo if by any accident a lady difcover half her leg, the fancy is inftantly alarmed, though when the actress appears in breeches, and difcovers the whole, fhe is the object of indifference,, if not of difguft: for the fame rea fon the figure of a naked Venus produces lefs effect than that of a dreffed figure with the petticoat raifed fo as to difcover the garter. It follows therefore, that if the dreffes moft immodeftly, who dretes fo as moft to excite licentious defires, the does not drefs most immodeftly who uncovers moft of her perfon, but the who covers it fo that it may be accidentally feen. And upon this principle it was that the Grecian legiflator, when he obferved that many of the youth lived unmarried, directed the women to wear long garments which covered the whole perfon from the fhoulders to the feet, inftead of difcovering all the breaft and half the leg; and ordered that the robe fhould be cut in flashes from the hip to the knee, fo that when they flood or fat ftill, the two fides of the opening fhould fall together, but fhould by dividing, when they walked or ufed any other motion, cafually discover the parts which at other times were concealed. Many changes of female dress, that may be traced in this collection, will be found to proceed from unfkilful attempts to allure, by difcovering more and more of the perfon, and from the difappointment which fucceeded the experiment, and at last induced a fudden tranfition to a close drefs, by which the whole perfon was covered. As to the changes of habit, which were the effects of mere caprice and wantonnefs of fancy, it is impoffible to trace them in other countries, and difficult in our own : the following particulars, however, may ferve to gratify the curious, and excite them to a more critic examination. Party Party-coloured coats were first worn in England in the time of Henry I. chaplets or wreaths of artificial flowers in the time of Edward III. hoods and fhort coats without fleeves, called taborts, in the time of Henry IV. hats in the time of Henry VII. ruffs in the reign of Edward VI. and it is faid that they were firft invented by a Spanish or Italian lady of quality to hide a wen which grew on her neck. Wrought caps or bonnets were firft ufed here in the time of queen Elizabeth. Judge Finch, in the time of James I. introduced the band. French hoods, bibs, and gorgets, were laid afide by the queen of Charles I. and the commode or tower was introduced in 1687. Shoes of the prefent fashion were Breeches were first worn in 1633. introduced inftead of trunk hofe in 1654, and perukes were first worn foon after the restoration. As to the ftage dreffes, it is only neceffary to remark, that they are at once elegant and characteristic: and among many other regulations of more importance, for which the public is obliged to the genius and the judgment of the prefent manager of our principal theatre, is that of the dreffes, which are no longer the heterogeneous and abfurd mixtures of foreign and ancient modes, which formerly debafed our tragedies, by representing a Roman general in a full bottomed peruke, and the fovereign of an Eaftern empire in trunk hose. Literary and Miscellaneous Essays. An Essay on Augury. [From Stillingfleet's Calendar of Flora.] W E know from Hefiod, fays Mr. Stillingfleet, that hufbandry was in part regulated by the blowing of plants, and the coming or going of birds; and moft probably it had been in ufe long before his time, as aftronomy was then in its infancy; but when artificial calendars came into vogue, the natural calendar feems to have been totally neglected; for I find no traces of it after his time, whether for good and fufficient reafons I pretend not to determine. I fhall make no further mention at prefent of the ufe of plants in direcuing the husbandman, but take this opportunity of making a digreffion about birds, in relation to their prognoftic nature. Henceforward then, i. e. from the time of Hefiod, they seem to have been looked upon as no longer capable of directing the hufbandman in his rural affairs, but they did not, however, lofe their influence and dignity; nay, on the contrary, they feem to have gained daily a more than ordinary, and even wonderful authority, till at laft no affair of confequence, either of private or public concern, was undertaken without confulting them. They were looked upon as the interpreters of the gods, and thofe who were qualified to understand their oracles were held among the chief men in the Greek and Roman fiates, and became the affeffors of kings, and even of Jupiter himself. However abfurd fuch an inftitution as a college of Augurs may appear in our eyes, yet, lik all other extravagant inftitutions, it had in part its origin from nature. When men confidered the wonderful migration of birds, how they difappeared at once, and appeared again at ftated times, and could give no guess where they went, it was almoft natural to fuppofe, that they retired fomewhere out of the fphere of this earth, and perhaps approached the ætherial regions, where they might converfe with the gods, and thence be enabled to predict events. This, I fay, was almoft natural for a fuperftitious people to imagine, at leaft to believe, as foon as fome impoftor was impudent enough to af fert it. Add to this, that the difpofition in fome birds to imitate the human voice muft contribute much to the confirmation of fuch a doctrine. This inftitution of Augury feems to have been much more ancient than that of Arufpicy; for we find many inftances of the former in Homer, but not a fingle one of the latter that I know of; though frequent mention is made of facrifices in that author, From the whole of what I have obferved, I fhould be apt to think, that natural Augury gave rife to religious Augury, and this to Arufpicy, as the mind of man makes a very eafy tranfition from a little truth to a great deal of error. A paffage in Ariftophanes gave me the hint for what I have been faying. faying. In the Comedy of the Birds, he makes one of them fay thus: "The greatest bleffings which can happen to you mortals are derived from us; firft, we fhew you the seasons, viz, Spring, Winter, Autumn. The crane points out the time for fowing, when the flies with her warning notes into Egypt; the bids the failor hang up his rudder and take his reft, and every prudent man provide himself with winter garments. Next the kite appearing, proclaims another feafon, viz. when it is time to fheer his fheep. After that the fwallow informs you when it is time to put on fummer cloaths. We are to you, adds the chorus, Ammon, Dodona, Apollo; for after confulting us you undertake every thing; merchandize, purpurchafes, marriages, &c." Now, it Now, it feems not improbable, that the fame tranfition was made in the fpeculations of men, which appears in the poet's words, and that they were easily induced to think, that the furprifing forefight of birds, as to the time of migration, indicated fomething of a divine nature in them; which opinion Virgil, as an Epicurean, thinks fit to enter his proteft against; when he says, with a cofmogony, and fays, that in the beginning were Chaos and Night, and Erebus and Tartarus. That there was neither water, nor air, nor fky; that Night laid an egg, from whence, after a time, Love arofe. That Love, in conjunction with Erebus, produced a third kind, and, that they were the first of the immortal race, &c. Linnæus's Dream. INNEUS, whofe fame has fpread throughout all Europe, had fpent many days in examining and, claffing thofe wonderful plants which he had collected from the craggy mountains of Norway. He admired their beauty and ftructure, but knew not their ufe; nor was he able accurately to determine what place they held in the vegetable creation. He faw much was to be known, and lamented his ignorance;- -whilft the world was admiring him as a prodigy and father of fcience;- -nor could he forbear bitterly bewailing the fhortnefs of life, which puts a stop to philofophical enquiries, and renders it almoft impoffible to attain even the fmalleft degree of perfection, in any one branch of know Haud equidem credo quia sit ledge. "Alas (faid he) why is divinitus illis. Ingenium. But to return to Ariftophanes. The first part of the chorus, from whence the afore-cited paffage is taken, feems with all its wildnefs to contain the fabulous cant, which the augurs made ufe of in order to account for their impudent impo-. fitions on mankind. It fets out man's existence circumfcribed within fuch narrow bounds; and why, furrounded as he is with the glorious works of God, is he permitted to know fo little of them? Scarce are we born into the world, fcarce do we acquire fkill to perceive what is moft worthy our notice, before we are fratched away, and hurried to the grave, leaving our undertasings unfinished, and in the hands |