around me on my first landing, for those divine *torms of redundant proportions which answer to fhe true standard of eastern beauty-not a single fat fair one could I behold among the multitudes that thronged the streets; the females that passed in review before me, tripping sportively along, resembled a procession of shadows, returning to their graves at the crowing of the cock. This meagerness I at first ascribed to their excessive volubility; for I have somewhere seen it advanced by a learned doctor, that the sex were endowed with a peculiar activity of tongue, in order that they might practice talking as a healthful exercise, necessary to their confined and sedentary mode of life. This exercise, it was natural to suppose, would be carried to great excess in a logocracy. "Too true," thought I, "they have converted what was undoubtedly meant as a beneficent gift, into a noxious habit that steals the flesh from their bones and the roses from their cheeks; they absolutely talk themselves thin!" Judge then of my surprise when I was assured, not long since, that this meagerness was considered the perfection of personal beauty, and that many a lady starved herself with all the obstinate perseverance of a pious dervise-into a fine figure! "nay more," said my informer, "they will often sacrifice their healths in this eager pursuit of skeleton beauty, and drink vinegar, eat pickles, and smoke tobacco to keep themselves within the scanty outlines of the fashion."Faugh! Allah preserve me from such beauties, who contaminate their pure blood with noxious recipes: who impiously sacrifice the best gift of heaven, to a preposterous and mistaken vanity. Ere long I shall not be surprised to see them scarring their faces like the negroes of Congo, flatten ing their noses in imitation of the Hottentots, or like the barbarians of Ab-al Timar, distorting their lips and ears out of all natural dimensions. Since I received this information, I cannot contemplate a fine figure, without thinking of a vinegar cruet: nor look at a dashing belle without fancying her a pot of pickled cucumbers! What a difference, my friend, between these shades, and the plump beauties of Tripoli; what a contrast between an infidel fair one and my favourite wife, Fatima, whom I bought by the hundred weight and had trundled home in a wheel-barrow. But enough for the present; I am promised a faithful account of the arcana of a lady's toileta complete initiation into the arts, mysteries, spells and potions: in short, the whole chemical process by which she reduces herself down to the most fashionable standard of insignificance; together with specimens of the strait waistcoats, the lacings, the bandages, and the various ingenious instruments with which she puts nature to the rack, and tortures herself into a proper figure to be admired. Farewell, thou sweetest of slave-drivers! the echoes that repeat to a lover's ear the song of his mistress, are not more soothing than tidings from those we love. Let thy answers to my letters be speedy; and never, I pray thee, for a moment cease to watch over the prosperity of my house, and the welfare of my beloved wives. Let them want for nothing, my friend; but feed them plentifully on honey, boiled rice and water gruel, so that when I return to the blessed land of my fathers (if that can ever be!) I may find them improved in size and loveliness, and sleek as the graceful elephants that range the green valley of Abimar. Ever thine, MUSTAPHA. LEDYARD'S CHARACTER OF WOMEN. [LEDYARD, the celebrated traveller, who is quoted in the ensuing extract from one of the essays of an occasional correspondent with the Port Folio, was a native of Connecticut. At the early age of eighteen, with no other advantages than those which a grammar school had afforded, his ardent curiosity and enterprising genius were displayed. Alone in a canoe, the work of his own hands, and with provisions for which he was indebted to the kindness of his village friends, he performed his first voyage, by descending the Connecticut river from Dartmouth to Hartford, without any previous knowledge of its navigation. In 1771, he sailed to London as a common sailor, and accompanied captain Cook, with whom he was a favourite, in his third voyage of discovery. A narrative of his various adventures, a description of the fatigues, the perils and the disappointments which this indefatigable traveller encountered, though e highly interesting, would not be within the scope of this work. We shall merely add, that he died at Cairo, in the year 1789, while on a journey to explore the interior parts of Africa. In the year 1781, he published an account of Cook's voyage; and his pilgrimage through various regions of the globe, may be traced in his communications to the African Association at London. In one of these, he has borne a testimony in behalf of the sex, which is at once elegant, grateful and just. I CONFESS I am not one of those who endeavour to establish a fancied superiority by reviling the female character, and I think these midnight lucubrations have borne testimony to my sincere fondness and undissembled respect for its loveliness and dignity. Milton has acknowledged that "love is one of the lowest ends of human life;" and I readily believe that this world, without the sweet intercourse of looks and smiles, would be but a wide waste indeed. Why is it that, in the hour of distress, we forget all our vaunted heroism, and fly to the arms of female kindness for that consolation, which we in vain seek in our own reflections? And why is it that the tears of a woman have more effect in arousing our feelings, than the loudest call of the clarion? It is that allpervading influence, which moves every passion of the human breast, it is that which melts the most fierce into docility, and inspires even cowardice with bravery. Spencer, a favourite poet with me, bas a passage on the influence of women in distress, which I wish every one to read and admire: Nought is there under Heaven's hollownesse, When such I see, that all for pity I could dy. But whilst I admire, and praise and defend, let me not be supposed to be so blind as to see all their virtues and their vices, their beauties and deformities in the same partial light. No; the canvas so alluring to the eye is yet tarnished by many a stain. The sickly mein of affectation, the folly of a weak mind, and the ungenial chill of FROM MUSTAPHA DUB-A-DUB KELI KHAN. To Asem Hacchem, principal slave-driver to his highness the bashaw of Tripoli. [The works of education in common use, are made up of selections from trans-atlantic writers. Young persons being accustomed to regard English literature as exclusively deserving their applause and imitation, acquire a disrelish and disrespect for the productions of our own country. This disrespect results so much from early prejudice, that elementary compilers should exert themselves to vindicate their national character. We are conscious that flowers of genius have been born (but born to blush unseen") in the American republic, which needed only the fostering Mecænas', to display their beauties, and force them into public view. It is not enough that men write; excellence, in any shape, must be thrust into immortality, or that excellence is forgotten. We acknowledge that the distinguished authors from whom we select the following, cannot complain of popular neglect. The satires of the COCKLOFT FAMILY have circulated every where, and at one time the little volumes of SALMAGUNDI were thought an indispensable part of the tea-table furniture of every fashionable house in America. But this kind of celebrity is most perishable. The works of Launcelot Langstaff, and his noble brothers, have been too much regarded as mere amusing trifles, while they are adorned by all the graces of style and sentiment. The editor of the Lady's Preceptor wishes to convince youth, that American productions exist, which they may admire and imitate. He wishes also to adduce the works of LANGSTAFF and Co. 1 |