LOOKING-GLASS. 
29 
taking exercife fuited to their fituation. The fatal 
effe6ts of this pining ficknefs are fufficiently known 
to tender hufbands and good fathers ; yet it is ac- 
knowledged, that, in order to appear of the mid- 
dling fize, women would have no need of high 
heels, were not their growth interrupted, and their 
knees disjointed, by thofe abufes to which fafhion 
has given a fan£tion, to the prejudice of beauty. 
Equally pernicious to infants are too tight fwad- 
dling clothes, againft the laws of Nature, at a mo- 
ment when, coming out of a prifon (the womb), 
they fhould feel no (hackles ill fuited to their tender 
age. 
Nothing afterwards impairs the conftitution fo 
much as (lays, or other trammels, which high ex- 
amples have introduced among the middling clalTes 
of fociety. Nor need we feek farther to account 
for thofe affefled airs, timid looks, and carelefs 
(leps, which didinguilh the ton^ or poliflied manners, 
of the higher ranks ; although, in fa6l, they proceed 
from (loth and indolence, acquired by fuch bad 
habits as deftroy natural graces. 
Will mankind, then, never agree in forming juft 
conceptions of a beautiful figure ? 
The ancient Greeks differed materially from the 
moderns in their ideas on this important point. 
Born under the fineft canopy of heaven, the in- 
habitants of Greece formerly gave full fcope to Na- 
ture, by ufing fuch flight drefles, and continual exer- 
cifes. 
