The Force of Fajhion. 249 
the two, one would chufe to be mad, in thinking we felt the 
fendble operations of the fpirit of god, than in being fure that 
we feel a fpirit — by no means confident with a religious life, 
was it only for the hurry and noise attending it. If we ob- 
ferve no method with regard to time, lam afraid we fhall give 
a very fad account of it. If after breathing out my zeal againd 
the life of tea, you dill perdd in this abfurd and dangerous 
cudom, methinks I fhould be glad, like an able politician, to 
try what advantage I can turn it to, that thofe whofe paldon 
for it is invincible, may become the more devout. 
If fame is not a liar, the mod fendble part of your fex are 
lick of following the laborious idleness of vidting, tho’ few 
have virtue enough to correct themlelves. What is more abfurd, 
or a greater impertinence, than for a woman of fenfe and 
breeding, to fpend whole evenings in rumbling over a vile 
pavement, to knock at doors where fhe does not delire to be 
admitted, nor cares if die never sees the inhabitant ! Pride is 
faid to be the guardian of your fex ; I wonder you are not 
more induenced by it. What a meanness is it to attempt 
making a vidt, which you are fendble will not be welcome ! 
Indeed the absurdity is fo driking, that you agree to fup- 
port the farce of vidting without meeting ; and one lady 
fhall be another’s vidtor, who hardly knows her face; jud as 
if you could not fupport a decent regard to acquaintance, with- 
out enlarging the fcene of your vidts beyond the compafs of 
any human indudry, was it the foie employment of your lives. 
Is this painting too drong ? I have no pen to defcribe hair the 
abfurdities of modern vidting. 
K k 
We 
