28 
lavater’s 
in wearing apparel introduced into the higheft cir- 
cles : for, is it not equally by binding, fqueezing, or 
wringing their feet, that European ladies are ele- 
gantly fl^od, fo that their fupporters can fcarce keep 
up the upper works of their pretty perfons ? 
Nor can the fuperftruflure be folid, if the pillars 
on which it (lands are feen to totter under the 
weight of fafhionable fuperfluities. 
Hence proceeds the affecting fight of fo many- 
tiny living figures, which otherwife might have 
been fubftantially formed, in courts and cities. — 
Even their gait, as well as their whole appearance, 
betrays evident marks of thofe reflraints which they 
have fuffered from the cradle, efpecially by the gilt 
and brilliant ferrets which they difplay. It is, ne- 
verthelefs, true, that, without fuch embellilhments, 
they might not captivate weak, effeminate men, like 
themfelves; but their perfonal attra 61 ions would 
be fo much the more (Iriking, were every natural 
perfection feen undemoHfhed by art. 
When we refleCl coolly upon fome of the ufual 
diftortions, it mull be admitted, that a thinking 
(Iranger cannot fee, without pitying, a charming 
girl who walks on tiptoe, and drives in vain to con- 
ceal how much (lie fuifers in her nerves, fibres, and 
tendons, from the prelfure of bands, calculated to 
preferve delicacy as preferable to health. 
Confequently, in the (late of pregnancy, fuch . 
feeble creatures are unable to keep the balance for 
taking 
