ir true and genuine lustre, while there is no colour
that can infect their brightness, or give a false cast to the water.
When I was at the opera the other night, the assembly of ladies in
mourning[172] made me consider them in the same kind of view. A dress
wherein there is so little variety, shows the face in all its natural
charms, and makes one differ from another only as it is more or less
beautiful. Painters are ever careful of offending against a rule which
is so essential in all just representation. The chief figure must have
the strongest point of light, and not be injured by any gay colourings
that may draw away the attention to any less considerable part of the
picture. The present fashion obliges everybody to be dressed with
propriety, and makes the ladies' faces the principal objects of sight.
Every beautiful person shines out in all the excellence with which
Nature has adorned her: gaudy ribands and glaring colours being now out
of use, the sex has no opportunity given them to disfigure themselves,
which they seldom fail to do whenever it lies in their power. When a
woman comes to her glass, she does not employ her time in making herself
look more advantageously what she really is, but endeavours to be as
much another creature as she possibly can. Whether this happens, because
they stay so long, and attend their work so diligently, that they forget
the faces and persons which they first sat down with, or whatever it is,
they seldom rise from the toilet the same women they appeared when they
began to dress. What jewel can the charming Cleora place in her ears,
that can please her beholders so much as her eyes? The cluster of
diamonds upon the breast can add no beauty to the fair chest of ivory
which supports it. It may indeed tempt a man to steal a woman, but never
to love her. Let Thalestris change herself into a motley parti-coloured
animal: the pearl necklace, the flowered stomacher, the artificial
nosegay, and shaded furbelow,[173] may be of use to attract the eye of
the beholder, and turn it from the imperfections of her features and
shape. But if ladies will take my word for it (and as they dress to
please men, they ought to consult our fancy rather than their own in
this particular), I can assure them, there is nothing touches our
imagination so much as a beautiful woman in a plain dress. There might
be more agreeable ornaments found in our own manufacture, than any that
rise out of the looms of Persia