enough expresses the Gaiety of a
People who are taught to do any thing so it be with an Assurance; but
I cannot help thinking it sits awkwardly yet on our _English_ Modesty.
The Petticoat is a kind of Incumbrance upon it, and if the _Amazons_
should think fit to go on in this Plunder of our Sex's Ornaments, they
ought to add to their Spoils, and compleat their Triumph over us, by
wearing the Breeches.

If it be natural to contract insensibly the Manners of those we
imitate, the Ladies who are pleased with assuming our Dresses will do
us more Honour than we deserve, but they will do it at their own
Expence. Why should the lovely _Camilla_ deceive us in more Shapes
than her own, and affect to be represented in her Picture with a Gun
and a Spaniel, while her elder Brother, the Heir of a worthy Family,
is drawn in Silks like his Sister? The Dress and Air of a Man are not
well to be divided; and those who would not be content with the
Latter, ought never to think of assuming the Former. There is so large
a portion of natural Agreeableness among the Fair Sex of our Island,
that they seem betrayed into these romantick Habits without having the
same Occasion for them with their Inventors: All that needs to be
desired of them is, that they would _be themselves_, that is, what
Nature designed them; and to see their Mistake when they depart from
this, let them look upon a Man who affects the Softness and Effeminacy
of a Woman, to learn how their Sex must appear to us, when approaching
to the Resemblance of a Man.

_I am_, SIR,
_Your most humble Servant_.

T.

[Footnote 1: The letter is by John Hughes.]

* * * * *

No. 105. Saturday, June 30, 1711. Addison.

'... Id arbitror
Adprime in vita esse utile, ne quid nimis.'

Ter. And.

My Friend WILL. HONEYCOMB values himself very much upon what he calls
the Knowledge of Mankind, which has cost him many Disasters in his
Youth; for WILL. reckons every Misfortune that he has met with among the
Women, and every Rencounter among the Men, as Parts of his Education,
and fancies he should never have been the Man he is, had not he broke
Windows, knocked down Constables, disturbed honest People with his
Midnight Serenades, and beat up a lewd Woman's Quarters, when he was a
young Fellow. The engaging in Adventures of this Nature