oarseness of
their taste; but our present grievance does not seem to be the want of a
good taste, but of common sense.

WOMEN AND WIVES.

_Parva leves capiunt animos_.--

OVID, _Ars Am._, i. 159.

Light minds are pleased with trifles.

When I was in France, I used to gaze with great astonishment at the
splendid equipages, and party-coloured habits of that fantastic nation. I
was one day in particular contemplating a lady that sat in a coach
adorned with gilded Cupids, and finely painted with the Loves of Venus
and Adonis. The coach was drawn by six milk-white horses, and loaden
behind with the same number of powdered footmen. Just before the lady
were a couple of beautiful pages, that were stuck among the harness, and,
by their gay dresses and smiling features, looked like the elder brothers
of the little boys that were carved and painted in every corner of the
coach.

The lady was the unfortunate Cleanthe, who afterwards gave an occasion to
a pretty melancholy novel. She had for several years received the
addresses of a gentleman, whom, after a long and intimate acquaintance,
she forsook upon the account of this shining equipage, which had been
offered to her by one of great riches but a crazy constitution. The
circumstances in which I saw her were, it seems, the disguises only of a
broken heart, and a kind of pageantry to cover distress, for in two
months after, she was carried to her grave with the same pomp and
magnificence, being sent thither partly by the loss of one lover and
partly by the possession of another.

I have often reflected with myself on this unaccountable humour in
womankind, of being smitten with everything that is showy and
superficial; and on the numberless evils that befall the sex from this
light fantastical disposition. I myself remember a young lady that was
very warmly solicited by a couple of importunate rivals, who, for several
months together, did all they could to recommend themselves, by
complacency of behaviour and agreeableness of conversation. At length,
when the competition was doubtful, and the lady undetermined in her
choice, one of the young lovers very luckily bethought himself of adding
a supernumerary lace to his liveries, which had so good an effect that he
married her the very week after.

The usual conversation of ordinary women very much cherishes this natural
weakness of being taken with outside and appearance. Talk of a
new-married cou