Yet In Less Than Three
Minutes, He Sold It For Four And A Half, And When The Buyer
Upbraided Him With His Former Declaration, He Shrugged Up His
Shoulders, Saying, Il Faut Marchander.
I don't mention this as a
particular instance.
The same mean disingenuity is universal all
over France, as I have been informed by several persons of
veracity.
The next letter you have from me will probably be dated at
Nismes, or Montpellier. Mean-while, I am ever - Yours.
LETTER VII
To MRS. M - .
PARIS, October, 12, 1763.
MADAM, - I shall be much pleased if the remarks I have made on the
characters of the French people, can afford you the satisfaction
you require. With respect to the ladies I can only judge from
their exteriors: but, indeed, these are so characteristic, that
one can hardly judge amiss; unless we suppose that a woman of
taste and sentiment may be so overruled by the absurdity of what
is called fashion, as to reject reason, and disguise nature, in
order to become ridiculous or frightful. That this may be the
case with some individuals, is very possible. I have known it
happen in our own country, where the follies of the French are
adopted and exhibited in the most aukward imitation: but the
general prevalence of those preposterous modes, is a plain proof
that there is a general want of taste, and a general depravity of
nature. I shall not pretend to describe the particulars of a
French lady's dress. These you are much better acquainted with
than I can pretend to be: but this I will be bold to affirm, that
France is the general reservoir from which all the absurdities of
false taste, luxury, and extravagance have overflowed the
different kingdoms and states of Europe. The springs that fill
this reservoir, are no other than vanity and ignorance. It would
be superfluous to attempt proving from the nature of things, from
the first principles and use of dress, as well as from the
consideration of natural beauty, and the practice of the
ancients, who certainly understood it as well as the connoisseurs
of these days, that nothing can be more monstrous, inconvenient,
and contemptible, than the fashion of modern drapery. You
yourself are well aware of all its defects, and have often
ridiculed them in my hearing. I shall only mention one particular
of dress essential to the fashion in this country, which seems to
me to carry human affectation to the very farthest verge of folly
and extravagance; that is, the manner in which the faces of the
ladies are primed and painted. When the Indian chiefs were in
England every body ridiculed their preposterous method of
painting their cheeks and eye-lids; but this ridicule was wrong
placed. Those critics ought to have considered, that the Indians
do not use paint to make themselves agreeable; but in order to be
the more terrible to their enemies. It is generally supposed, I
think, that your sex make use of fard and vermillion for very
different purposes; namely, to help a bad or faded complexion, to
heighten the graces, or conceal the defects of nature, as well as
the ravages of time. I shall not enquire at present, whether it
is just and honest to impose in this manner on mankind: if it is
not honest, it may be allowed to be artful and politic, and
shews, at least, a desire of being agreeable. But to lay it on as
the fashion in France prescribes to all the ladies of condition,
who indeed cannot appear without this badge of distinction, is to
disguise themselves in such a manner, as to render them odious
and detestable to every spectator, who has the least relish left
for nature and propriety. As for the fard or white, with which
their necks and shoulders are plaistered, it may be in some
measure excusable, as their skins are naturally brown, or sallow;
but the rouge, which is daubed on their faces, from the chin up
to the eyes, without the least art or dexterity, not only
destroys all distinction of features, but renders the aspect
really frightful, or at best conveys nothing but ideas of disgust
and aversion. You know, that without this horrible masque no
married lady is admitted at court, or in any polite assembly; and
that it is a mark of distinction which no bourgeoise dare assume.
Ladies of fashion only have the privilege of exposing themselves
in these ungracious colours. As their faces are concealed under a
false complexion, so their heads are covered with a vast load of
false hair, which is frizzled on the forehead, so as exactly to
resemble the wooly heads of the Guinea negroes. As to the natural
hue of it, this is a matter of no consequence, for powder makes
every head of hair of the same colour; and no woman appears in
this country, from the moment she rises till night, without being
compleatly whitened. Powder or meal was first used in Europe by
the Poles, to conceal their scald heads; but the present fashion
of using it, as well as the modish method of dressing the hair,
must have been borrowed from the Hottentots, who grease their
wooly heads with mutton suet and then paste it over with the
powder called buchu. In like manner, the hair of our fine ladies
is frizzled into the appearance of negroes wool, and stiffened
with an abominable paste of hog's grease, tallow, and white
powder. The present fashion, therefore, of painting the face, and
adorning the head, adopted by the beau monde in France, is taken
from those two polite nations the Chickesaws of America and the
Hottentots of Africa. On the whole, when I see one of those fine
creatures sailing along, in her taudry robes of silk and gauze,
frilled, and flounced, and furbelowed, with her false locks, her
false jewels, her paint, her patches, and perfumes; I cannot help
looking upon her as the vilest piece of sophistication that art
ever produced.
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