as a luxury, and a mark of effeminacy. Eighty years after, whoever wore long hair was, by a canon, excluded from entering the church; and on Christmas-day at mass, God. froy, bishop of Amiens, refused at St. Omer, in presence of Robert, Earl of Flanders, the offerings of those who had preferved their hair. Francis I. wore his hair short on account of a wound which he had received in his head; his courtiers followed his example, and the people imitated the courtiers.

The invention of bells is attributed to the Egyptians: however this may be, it is certain that they were always used to announce the festivals in honour of Ofiris. Amongst the Hebrews the high priest in grand ceremonies wore a kind of tunic, ornamented with small golden bells. At Athens, the priest of Proferpine and Cybele used them during their sacrifices, and in some measure they made a part of their mysteries. Bells were known also among the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Pope Sabinian, and St. Paulin of Nola, introduced them into the church, to call the faithful to divine worship, and to diftinguith the canonical hours, but it does not appear that large bells were ufed before the fixth century. In 610 the army of Clotaire, who were befieging Sens, were fo frightened by the noife of the bells of the church of St Stephen, which Loup, bishop of Orleans, ordered to be rung, that they raised the siege, and betook themselves to flight. About the beginning of the following century bells were baptifed; for Alcuin, preceptor to Charlemagne, confiders this ceremony as much older than the year 770.

The Romans invented lotteries, to enliven their Saturnalia. This festival began by the distribution of tickets which gained some prize.

Nero established fome for the people, in which a thousand tickets were distributed daily, and several of those who were favoured by Fortune got rich by them. Heliogabalus invented some very fingular; the prizes were either of great value or of none at all; one gained a prize of fix slaves, and another of fix flies; some got valuable vases, and others vases of common earth. A lottery of this kind exhibited an excellent picture of the inequality with which Fortune diftributes her favours.

The first watches were made at Nuremberg in 1500, by Peter Hell, and called Nuremberg eggs, on account of their oval form. The same year George Purbach, a mathematician of Vienna, employed a watch that pointed to seconds, for astronomical observations.

The art of making perukes was invented at Paris, about the end of the reign of Lewis XIII. and people then gave over the use of calottes ornamented with a double row of hair, quite straight or frizzled. The Abbe la Riviere first set the example; his peruke weighed two pounds. These head-dresses were heavy, and of an enormous size, until 1680, when the Sieur Ervais devised a method of curling the hair. Perukes then became real ornaments, and feemed to banish the marks of old age.

Nonius Marcellus refers the origin of New-year's gifts among the Romans to Tatius, king of the Sabines, who reigned at Rome conjointly with Romulus, and who having confidered as a good omen, a present of fome branches cut in a wood confecrated to Strenia, the goddess of strength, which he received on the first day of the new year, authorised this custom afterwards, and gave to these persons the name of Strene. However this may be, the Romans on that day celebrated

for the stone was performed publicly at Paris, in the burying ground of St Severin. The criminal was completely cured in the space of a fortnight, and obtained, besides his pardon, a confiderable reward. We cannot here help observing, that this is a striking instance of the viciffitudes of life, since, to be cured of his diforder, it was necessary that this unhappy man should be condemned to the gallows.

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USTOMS founded upon the paffions and the affections of the heart, must be prevalent in all ages, and common to every nation. Of all customs, none is more general than that of gallantry. Every where, and in every period, there have been ardent lovers, jealous and deceived husbands, infipid coquettes, and vain coxcombs, who have boasted of the favours conferred upon them by the fair sex. A like cause must always produce like effects. The Romans, from whom we often take examples, in the most flourishing times of the republic, conducted themselves, with respect to gallantry, almost in the same manner as we. 'Their's, however, could not properly be called gallantry; it was rather a real species of debauchery, authorised by example and custom.

Irregularities of this kind, among women of the first class, were so common at Rome, that it often appeared surprising, that there were found a few who formed an exception; and though, among the Romans, there were fome delicate hufbands, as among us, it is certain that, in general, they were not much in

censed at the worthless conduct of their fair spouses: on the contrary, they were often the best friends of their gallants.

What renders their customs in this respect perfectly similar to ours is, that among them, the greatest men were most liable to be disgraced by the infidelity of their wives. This observation is so just, that we shall scarcely find an illustrious character, in the last age of the republic, who may not serve as a model of the unfortunate husbands of the present day.

Julius Cæfar, without doubt, was one of the first personages at Rome, and, at the age of twenty-three, pofsessed a confiderable share of merit; he was one of the best made men of his time, and enjoyed, in an eminent degree, the favour of the Roman ladies. Every body, however, who has read ancient history, is acquainted with the illicit correspondence of his wife Pompeia with Clodius, and the adventure which the latter had at the facrifices offered up to the Bona Dea, The address with which Cæfar extricated himself from this affair is worthy of admiration. Being unwilling to quarrel quarrel with Clodius, he repudiated his wife, whom he asserted to be innocent; but he did not by this entirely shelter her from fufpicion. What man, then, is there who will not be comforted under such a misfortune, when he considers that Julius Cæfar himself was not exempted from it?

Pompey, the celebrated rival of Cæfar, who was styled The Great, at the age of twenty-five, when returning from the Mithridatic war, was informed of such strange things respecting the conduct of his wife Mutia with Cæfar, that he could not help repudiating her. We, however, find, that he afterwards united himself in the closest manner with Cæfar: and this did not prevent Mutia from marrying a man of better family than Pompey. So true it is, that all these great men were extremely tractable, and easy on this head. We must indeed acknowledge that Pompey was not betrayed by his wife but in his abfence, whereas that of Cæfar carried on her intrigue in an open and scandalous manner, and during the ' time of a celebrated and splendid fef

tival.

The famous triumvir Mark Anthony, who, as we are told, was a man of great merit among the ladies, was well assured, and even a witness of the infidelity of his spouse with Dolabella; but, notwithstanding, he lived with the latter in habits of the most intimate friendship, there is every reason to believe also that he was not ignorant of the passion which his second wife Fulvia entertained for Augustus, who was neither sufficiently prudent, nor so much his friend, as to conceal this distressing secret*. And if it be true, as several VOL. XI. No 61.

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authors have assured us, that he had married Cleopatra, it is certain that he was cruelly deceived by that queen who saw Delius in private, under pretence of his being the friend and. confident of Anthony.

The father of Brutus the conspirator, saw, without emotion, the amours of his wife Servilia with Cæ far, and heard it publicly declared that Brutus was his fon. Servilia was the uterine sister of Cato, that stern philosopher, and the private commerce which Cæfar carried on with her did not end but with the death of both; for, amidst the numberless political intrigues which Cæfar was engaged in, he always retained his passion for Servilia, who, on her part, continued inviolably faithful to her admirer.

Lucullus, whose mildness, great ness of mind, and magnificence, were never exceeded, experienced the same fate with his wife Claudia, who car ried her debauchery and perversity so far, as to give herself up to her own brother, and in such a fcandalous and public manner, that her conduct was well known to every body.

The father of Lucullus had been equally unfortunate as his fon. It is well known to what excesses Cecilia, the mother of Lucullus, proceeded. They were so shameful and dishonorrable, that it required all the merit of her fon to prevent the splendor of the actions, which that young man performed, from being tarnished by them.

We should never have done, were we to quote all the examples which history furnishes us on this subject. We must however confefs, that, amidst so many irregularities, and that universal corruption which prevailed among mong the ladies at Rome, there were fome women of so rare and fublime virtue, that, in a great measure, they effaced those stains which the rest brought upon the whole sex.

In Octavia, the third wife of Anthony, and fifter of Auguftus, we observe the most beautiful and exalted character that can adorn humanity. Her charms, the great number of her admirers, and the inconstancy of her husband, all invited her to prove unfaithful, but nothing was capable of making her deviate even for a moment from her duty.

Livia, the wife of Augustus, absolute mistress of the empire, and of the emperor himself, and whose influence was great in a luxurious and refined court, never gave the least occafion for the voice of scandal to defame her reputation.

Cornelia, the last wife of Pompey, whose fidelity and greatness of mind have been a fubject of admiration in all ages, made it be faid, and with great justice, that she was still more illustrious than her husband, and even than the conqueror of her husband.

The wife of Paulus Emilius exhibits also a great and virtuous character; but we shall find one still more magnanimous in Portia, the wife of Brutus. As their history is well known, it will be needless to enlarge upon it here; but whatever may have been the virtues of these Roman ladies, it must be acknowledged, that fuch instances were rare, and that they were only to be met with now and then in an age.

We may daily hear illiberal detractors of the fair sex decry the ladies of the present day, and reproach them with their inclination for gallantry; but if these ignorant despisers

of the most beautiful and enchanting part of the creation, would give themselves the trouble to read the history, and study the private manners of the Romans, they would find that their women were much less delicate in that respect than ours. And who are those who take such liberties with the most agreeable part of fociety? Old bachelors, or young libertines.

The first, like the butterfly, have stained so many rofes, that they are fully perfuaded it is impossible for them ever to find one unfullied. Debauchees by taste and by habit, and deaf to the voice of fentiment and friendship, they have feduced without remorse the wives of their beft friends, and, judging of the perversity of the rest by that of those who have been the miserable victims of their unbridled passions, they think themselves authorized to fwear that they will never marry, left they should be exposed to that misery which they have occafioned to more perhaps than one husband. According to them a virtuous woman is a phenix that never had existence but in the imagination; and at the very moment when they advance this ridiculous assertion, if you should ask them, whether their mothers were virtuous and chaste, they would not hesitate to answer in the negative*.

Libertines from the age of twenty to twenty-five, calumniate the fair sex in a different manner. Elated with the advantage which age and the bloom of youth give them over the ladies, and being best acquainted with those only who will difpofe of their favours to the highest bidder, they boldly declare that there is no woman whom an amiable and handsome

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