1808] 
or theatre. My second daughter, I have 
too much reason to fear, will fail a victim 
to this mania, as she is far from being 
strong, and has at times.a little hectic 
cough, and but little appetite; yet when- 
ever, upon any new engagement, I hint 
at the expediency of her going a little 
better clad, she always affects a liveliness 
and flow of spirits, and assures me she is 
better, though I-can perceive all the time, 
that it is a forced effort, merely as- 
sumed to prevent me from actually for- 
bidding what she knows I wish her to 
avoid.” 
“ T am afraid, (said I,) this rage for 
doing as others do, is but a practical com- 
ment upon the adage, ‘ One fool makes 
many,’ which may now be more truly 
read ‘One victim makes many;’ as 
I have no doubt that many will thus 
fall a sacrifice to the idol, fashion.” 
But indeed, in a politic view, it asto- 
nishes me that such a mode of dress should. 
continue a month, since, however, some 
enraptured Strephon may be gratified by 
a view of the charms of his Chloe, yet 
what passion but disgust can be excited 
in his breast, when he considers that they 
are alike exposed to the lascivious gaze of 
every libertine that can thrust himself 
into a ball or a drawing room. 
As however the fashion @ la fille de 
joiemust, like other fashions, come to an 
end, I shall on my next return to England 
(which Lam again going to leave for ashort 
time) be but little surprized to find it suc- 
ceeded by that of a le montagnard, or the 
short petticoat and exposed knee of the 
Highlanders, which could perhaps hardly 
be reckoned a greater transition from the 
present style, than this is from the 
decent, though not always more fascinat- 
ing costume, which prevailed when I was 
Jast n England. 
Your’s, &c. 
——— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
M. 
SIR 
HE subj oined oration delivered by a 
young gentleman, educated in the 
seminary of a respectable friend*, in this 
neighbourhood, at an examination pre- 
viously to the last midsummer, struck me 
* The Rey. Herbert Jenkins, Colbourn-hill, 
near Stourbridge, Worcestershire. ~ 
Birth-Day Reflections. 
549 
much by the novelty and propriety of the 
sentiments, as put into the mouth of a 
youth and uttered by him with an ime 
pressive elocution. On finding that it 
was not taken from any author, but the 
effusion of the tutor, written for the occa- 
sion, I requested a copy from its author 
and permission to extend the utility and 
reception of it beyond the walls of a pri- 
vateseminary. TI offer it, with this view, 
for a place in your Miscellany, 
Your’s, &c. 
Birminghan, Josnua Tovimrn, 
Oct. 24, 1807. 
On a Birth-day. 
‘¢ This is the day on which my being com- 
menced, and which, therefore, involves 
in it many important particulars. I entered 
the world in the most helpless state, and 
must be trained into life with the greatest 
tenderness and care. At first, I must be 
‘watched day and nights and it is by slow de- 
grees, and after many years of patient atten- 
tion, before I can be confided to my own care 
and keeping, if Iam permitted to reach the 
years of manhood. Iam destined to form a 
link in the long connected chain of society 3 
and shall either be the joy or grief of my pae 
rents, a comfort ordisgrace to my friends, and 
an honour or shame to my country. 
<¢ My birth-day reminds me of many mo- 
ral or social facts ; it seems to say, that, as I 
have an intellectual nature, J ought to const- 
der, whether I have, according to my opportu 
nities, so strengthened my mind by the ime 
provement of its faculties, so fortified it by 
yirtuious principles, as in some good measure 
to answer the great design of my being, and 
thereby endeavoured to secure my present and 
future happiness. The return of every birth- 
day should set me upon this solemn examina. 
tion: and should, likewise, infuence me to 
enter upon resolutions of amending what has 
been amiss, and of making further advances in 
whatever will improve my nature and my 
state. 
‘« There is nothing which should excite me 
to so mueh diligence in every thing that is 
praise-worthy, as the return of my birth-day, 
as that annoi™mces to me how quickly my 
years pass away; and admonishes me, that. 
upon the successive arrival of each, fewer still 
remain; so that the recurn of a birth-day re- 
ports not only what is past, hut affords whole- 
some insttucctions as to what is to come; it 
bids me prepare for the future eternal con- 
sequences of my present actions, and urges me 
to endeavour to gain an exalted felicity inanp- 
ther world.” 
A COM- 
