ANIMALS. 4-27 



ness of his dress ; the vain man, on the contrary, 

 takes a pleasure in displaying his superiority, 

 " and is willing to incur the spectator's dislike, 

 so he does but excite his attention," 



Another point of view which men have in 

 dressing, is to increase the size 6*f their figure, 

 and to take up more room in the world than na- 

 ture seems to have allotted them. We desire to 

 swell out our clothes by the stiffness of art, and 

 raise our heels, while we add to the largeness of 

 our heads. How bulky soever our dress may be, 

 our vanities are still more bulky. The largeness 

 of the doctor's wig arises from the same pride 

 with the smallness of the beau's queue : Both 

 want to have the size of their understanding mea- 

 sured by the size of their heads. 



There are some modes that seem to have a 

 more reasonable origin, which is to hide or to 

 lessen the defects of nature. To take men alto- 

 gether, there are many more deformed and plain, 

 than beautiful and shapely. The former, as 

 being the most numerous, give law to fashion ; 

 and their laws are generally such as are made in 

 their own favour. The women begin to colour 

 their cheeks with red, when the natural roses are 

 faded ; and the younger are obliged to submit, 

 though not compelled by the same necessity. In 

 all parts of the world, this custom prevails more 

 or less ; and powdering and frizling the hair, 

 though not so general, seems to have arisen from 

 a similar controul. 



But leaving the draperies of the human picture, 

 let us return to the figure, unadorned by art. 



