their legs as a pipe of wine upon its bottom; or, if thefe fupporters fhould fail, may be as eafily rolled. Bat to return from this digreffion, in which my admiration of a modern champion and his fatellites has, for a time, betrayed me into a forgetfulness of the ancient heroes, which I alfo admire nearly as much. I muft, therefore, recur to a people that had once a tolerable notion both of arms and arts, namely, the Athenians, among whom, in coincidence with the opinion of the learned Gentleman whom I have quoted at the beginning of this fpeculation, the bead feems to have been confidered as the most capital part of a ftatue, as well as a picture; for it is believed, that the art of fculpture, like the other imitative art, began at the top of the figure, and proceeded downward; fo that they had bufts, terms, and perhaps caryatides, before their artists were fufficiently expert to complete the whole figure. The buft of the ancient Mertury, with a cap, they probably borrowed from the Egyptians. It was fet pon a fmall pillar, and, according to Juvenal, called truncus Hermes. This Cap, decorated with wings as we now fee it, and fometimes only with a feather, was nearly the fame as thofe worn by their Meffengers, among whom the feather, like the greyhound in modern times, was unquestionably the emblem of celerity. When the feather was transferred to helmets, it must have been confidered as a mere ornament, having no meaning that I have been able to difcover. From thefe it is fuppofed to have defcended to turbans; indeed to coverings for the head of every fort and description} and, by a regular gradation, to have come down to modern times, and to have fixed itself upon a hat, where, fuch has been the use of a hat and feather fince their intimate connexion (as will be fhewn in a fubfequent part of this work), that it must be the ardent with of every one that they may never again be diffevered. It is faid, that the Grecian priests ufed, like the Druids, to fupplicate the gods with green boughs in their hands, and garlands upon their heads; which leads to an obfervation, that these kinds of coverings were alfo worn by the peo ple at the great Panathene and other folemnities. They were composed of oak, pafley, pine, beech-leaves, millet, first-truits, &c.; and we may obferve, that, fuch is the permanence of unfophifticated manners, it is still a custom among the lower order of the people of every country to adorn their heads upon festivals t, holidays, and rejoicings, in the fame way, and with many of the fame vegetables. With refpect to helmets in general: Betwixt thofe of the Grecians and Romans this distinction must be made, that the front, or, as it is termed, the beaver, of the former, was, in the original conftruction, made to cover the forehead, and in fome degree to guard the eyes, while in thofe of the latter warriors the beaver was turned up: they both differed in form from thofe ufed by the Gothic, Saracen, and Christian Knights in the crufades, tournaments, &c.; in thefe the beaver was drawn down, and they were alfo furnished with a vifor. Though made upon the general prin This cap is the common cap of the fervants of old, especially thofe that acted as mellengers; the wings might be taken off; and there are fometimes only two feathers fuck in it.-PLAUT. Preface to Amphit. †There is a Lacedemonian feftival defcribed in Athenæus, which is mentioned as abounding in these kind of ornaments, and (although perhaps not ftri&tly applicable) allo to fhew, that as the fafhions fo the prejudices of the people are of very old date. With refpect to the Spartan diflike to old batchelors, it is ftated by the author alluded to, "When the multitude were affembled at a public celebration; when they were all crowned with garlands, and mirth and hilarity refounded through the temple; the women of a fudden rofe upon the unmarried gentlemen, who had attained a certain age, dragged them round the altar, beating them all the time with their fifts, to the great amufement of the company, who fhouted and laughed till the vaulted roof refounded: fo that thefe wary perfons were obliged to hide their heads in their robes, and skulk out of the place." Our ladies have lately adopted many Grecian fashions; their clothes are already as diaphoneous, as Dr. Johnfon fays, as the Spartan veftments. Whether they will long continue to exhibit all their charms for nothing is to be doubted. Let old batchelors take care: we too have feftivals-Verbum Sat. ciples ciples alluded to, thefe helmets were diffimilar in their forms, fubftances, figures, and ornaments, according to the rank, fituation, and circumftances of the wearers. From the remains of ancient bafforelievos or columns, &c. it appears, that the Grecian, Roman, and Dacian foldiers, wore only a plain fkull-cap of iron or brafs, while fcarcely any expence was fpared to adorn and ornament thofe of their leaders, many of whom difplayed upon their fronts the faces of beafts, chimeras, birds, &c. in order, as they conceived, to make them more fierce and formidable to their enemies. Among the Jews, it was the custom to carry the infignia of their Tribes upon their helmets. This cuftom was adopted by, and probably gave rife to, the crefts of the crufaders; though it must be observed, that as the ancient heroes of all nations went into battle barefaced, there was lefs reafon for thefe diftinguishing marks than among thofe of the lower empire, who cer tainly, from being, as has been fhewn, cased in complete steel, could not have been known but by thofe ingenious devices emblazoned on their fhields, or difplayed upon their helmets. Having inveftigated thefe matters with as much accuracy as appears to be neceffary, and confidered the antiquity of covering the head from the earliest ages to the decline of the Roman Empire, in three points of view, viz. as a mark of dignity, as a religious ceremony, and as a medium of defence; having thus generally endea voured to imprefs the reader with the importance of the fubject, I can by no means give my unqualified approbation to the fentence which I have chofen for my motto, which states that the faculty ought to be covered, be caufe I cannot fee any right which they had to be covered in preference to many orders of men that have, in every age, waived all pretenfions to fuch a diftinction. That every nation of antiquity, every fyftem of fociety, have, in former periods, derived the greatest advantages from a certain individual in each of them being covered, it would be folly to deny. The thing is obvious! The head is a much more capital part of a people than it is even of a picture or ftatue; and that Head should unqueftionably be covered. For which reason, and becaufe the happinefs of every mode of life inclines to, and is involved in, the obfervance of that firit law of Heaven, Order, I have always been an enthufiaftic admirer of that ornament which has been fo largely defcanted on in this work, and which is termed a Crown, which has in all ages formed a centre, or rallying point, from which infinite benefits have been derived to fociety. A crowned head I take to have been the perfection of every fyftem of government; and it has been obferved, that, as in the ancient commonwealths, when foever a monfter has appeared, fometimes like Janus with two, fometimes like Cerberus with three*, fometimes like a hydra, with thirty, a hun. dred, nay four hundred, heads, he has fooner or later brought ruin and defolation in his train. The heads of this monfter, it has been found, when they had no longer power to fuck the blood of the people, have warred with, and, fortunately for fociety, frequently deftroyed, each other; while, in exerting themselves in different directions, they have mangled and torn in pieces the body of which they formed component parts. Having fettled the propofition, that it would have been greatly to the advantage of the ancient ftates if one bead had always been covered, it will naturally follow, that as we ponder upon the hiftoric page, we muft abhor and deteft the attempts that have been made either to uncover that head, or to imi tate or alter the fathion of the teguments that encircled it. Though not perhaps literally, I would metaphorically, have had every bead in every ancient ftate uncovered, fave only one; for although this measure would have confiderably abridged the military records of every kingdom, it would unqueftionably have added much to the happinefs of the people; as, in every intance that has occurred to obfervation, it has been obvious, that their well-being depended upon their appear ing in this capital state of denudity. The wild-beaft of Gavaudan has long fince ceafed to exift. His ravages, as much as thofe of the fea-monfter deftroyed by Perfeus, have become the subject of biftory: but I would guard the reader against believing any allufion is here made to three-beaded monfter more deftructive than either. 'Had Had the Priests of old thrown back their heads; had the ancient heroes laid afide their helmets; had the citizens, artificers, and fervants, doffed their Caps, upon many occafions, it is certain that much good would have accrued to Society, and confequently that many evils would have been avoided. How many contentions have for. merly arifen, because great men chofe to keep their heads covered at improper times, and in improper places! How many little men have been prevailed on to follow their examples; and what a number of mischievous confequences have enfued from this pertinacity of difpofition, and thofe ideas of felf-importance? Hippocrates, according-to his own confeffion, as itated by Plutarch, knew nothing of the head. Why? Becaufe his patients always kept their kulls covered, perhaps in imitation of their Doctor We therefore the lefs wonder, affuming for this purpofe that the learned Senarelle had quoted him correctly, at the abfurdity of his ideas on this fubject: yet this great physician had lived during the time of the Peloponefian war; he had feen four hundred citizens infilt upon keeping on their hats in all periods, feafons, and fituations; he had been an eye-witness to the enormities which thefe infolent perfons committed, and the contentions and commotions that enfued in the body politic and corporate. He must alfo have been acquainted with a Gentleman of the name of Lyfander, whofe head, though pretty well ornamented and fhaded with laurel, did not appear to the poffeffor of thefe ornaments fufficiently guarded against the Sun, to which he was fond of looking up: in fact, he wished to cover it with a crown made of more brilliant and fubftantial materials. The physician must have known, that he, the faid Lyfander, gave licences to thirty perfons, whofe humanity and other virtues caufed them to obtain the foft appellation of tyrants, to wear their hats at Athens in what manner they pleafed; and that Thrafamenes, one of this mild and benignant fet, was, in fpite of the endeavours of Socrates, put to death by his colleagues, only because he withed, or had a fancy, to cock his beaver in a manner different from theirs. He must likewife moft unquestionably have been convinced that the fe thirty, or twenty-nine, for it is not worth while to contend for an odd Tyrant, caufed the heads of more perions to be covered with earth, in eight months of peace, than had fallen in thirty years of war. He must have been, like Xenophon, convinced, that after the hats of thefe rulers had been taken off, ten others were feized with the whim of putting on their's in a manner equally reprehenfible. The confequences that en fued must have been obvious to him; but as he feems not to have been aware of the circumstances that caufed the fever with which the times were afflict ed, nor to have drawn a proper con. clufion from thofe violent fymptoms, either with refpect to their paroxyims or crifis; as he feems not to have properly confidered the diforders of the great political body, arifing from the ebullitions of the great political mind, I muft, in order to do a thing still more defirable, namely, to draw to a conclufion this paper, leave further obfervations upon them to the fuperior genius of the reader; only remarking to him, that I conceive I have made out my pofition, which will, I hope, be in future acted upon, and that to the latest pofterity the people will adopt this maxim, That, in every State, only one HEAD ought to be covered. friend Dr. Lawrence, and quoted by that learned Gentleman in the Houfe of Commons on the 23d of June last, in a debate on the Confcript Bill. "MY DEAR SIR, "The very first relaxation of my complaint, which gave me leifure and difpofition to attend to what is going on, has filled my mind with many uneafy fenfations and many unpleafant reflections. The few of us who have protracted life to the extreme limits of our fhort period, have been condemned to fee extraordinary things-new sys tems of policy-new opinions-new principles and not only new men, but what might appear a new fpecies of men. I believe that they who lived forty years ago (if the intermediate fpace of time were expunged from their memory) could hardly credit their fenfes, when they heard from the higheft authority, that an army of 200,000 men was kept up in this Inland: that in the neighbouring Illand there were at least fourfcore thousand more: but when he should hear of this army, which has not its parallel, what muft be his aftonishment to hear, that it was kept up for the mere purpose of an inert and paffive defence; that, in its far greater part, it was difabled, by its conftitution and very effence, from defend ing us against an enemy by any one preventive ftroke, or any operation of active hoftility?-What must his reflections be, on hearing that a fleet of 500 men of war, the best appointed, and to the full as ably commanded, as this country ever had upon the fea, was for the greater part employed in acting upon the fame fyftem of unenterprifing defence? What must his fentiments be, who remembers the former energy of England, when he is given to underftand, that these two Islands, with their extensive and every where vulnerable fea-coaft, fhould be confidered as a garrifon fea-town?-What would he think if the garrison of so strange a fortress thould be fuch as never to make a fally; and that, contrary to all that has been hitherto feen in war, an infinitely inferior army may with fafety befiege this garrifon, and, without hazarding the life of a man, ruin the garrison and the place, merely by the menaces and falfe appearances of an attack? What must his fuprife be on finding, that with the increases of trade, and balances unknown before, and with lefs outgoing than at any former time, the public credit fhould labour, even to the edge of a bankruptcy; and that the confidence of the people in the fecurity of their property fhould leffen in proportion as all apparent means of their fafety are aug mented? The laft part of this dreadful paradox is to be folved but by one way; and that is by an obfcure, undefined fenfe which the people enter tain, that the apparent means of their fafety are not real, nor well understood, and that they confide in their Government more from their opinion that fome fort of Government should be fupported, than from a conviction that the measures taken by the existing Government for the public fafety are rational or well adapted to their end. Had it pleafed God to continue to me even the late weak remains of my ftrength, I purposed to make this the fubject of a letter, which I intended to addrefs to a brother Member of yours, upon the prefent state of affairs; but as I may be never able to finish it, I regard this matter of defence as fo much the most important of all con fiderations at this moment, that it fuperfedes all concern of my bodily and mental weakness, and urges me, by an impulfe I cannot refift, to ipend at leaft my last breath in laying before you fome part of the anxious thoughts with which I have been oppreffed, and which, more than any bodily distemper, have funk me to the condition in which you know I am. I have no hand to write, but I am able to dictate from the bed on which I país my nights and days. "What I fay may have no weight; but it is poffibie that it may tend to put other men of more ability, and who are in a fituation where their abilities may be more ufeful, into a train of thinking. What I dictate may not be pleafing either to the Great or to the Multitude; but looking back on my paft public life, though not without many faults and errors, I have never made many façri-' fices to the favour of the Great, or to the humour of the people. I never remember more than two inftances in which I have given way to popularity; and thofe two are the things of which, in the whole courfe of my life, now at the end of it, I have the most reafon to repent. Such has been the habit of my public life, even when individual favour and popular countenance might be plaufibly prefented to me as the means of doing my duty the more effectually. But now, alas! of what value to me are all thofe helps or all thole impediments? When the damp chill fweat of death already begins to glaze our visage, of what moment is it to us whether the vain breath of man blows hot or cold upon it? But our duties to men are not extinguished with our regard to their opinions. A country, which has been dear to us from our birth, ought to be dear to us, as from our entrance, fo to our final exit from the ftage upon which we have been appointed to act; and in the career of the duties which must in part be enjoyments of our new exiftence, how can we better start, and from what more proper poft, than the performance of thofe duties which have made occupations of the first part of the courfe allotted to us?" GRAY. THE following attempt to complete a ftanza of imperfect verfification in amodern inftance may amufe the reader: Enough for me, if to fome feeling breaft My lines a fecret fympathy impart ; And as their pleafing influence flows confeft, A high of foft reflection heave the heart. Of the above stanza, which forms the laft of a copy of verfes to Bentley by Gray (See page 228 of Mafon's 4to. Life of that Poet), his ingenious Biographer and Editor obferves in a note as follows: A corner of the only manufcript copy which Mr. Gray left of this fragment is unfortunately torn; and though I have endeavoured to fupply the chafm, I am not quite fatisfied with the words I have inferted in the third line. I print my additions in Italics, and fhall be much pleafed if any reader finds a better fupplement to this imperfect tanza." That the fupplemental words here alluded to are neither tuneable enough for the Author, forcible enough for a conclufion of the piece (as, after all, there is reafon to think the stanza was), nor, in fact, what he really wrote, I fancy most critical readers of Gray's poetry will allow. Below is offered another conclufion of the lines; but whether it may be better guessed, it is not for the guefer to determine. He will only, firit, remark, that he is ftrongly perfuaded the final word of all was the poet's own name (which, moft probably for that reafon, he in fome fit of peculiar modefty tore off); and, fecondly, remind the reader, that this feeling poet feemed to have a fin gular pleasure in faying fomething refpecting himself in his veries; as may be feen, at least, in three other of his few poems. The completion I should offer is this: Enough for me, if to fome feeling breast My lines a lecret fympathy convey; And, as their pleafing influence is impreft, A figh of fott reflection heave for GRAY. W.C. of Effays in the European Magazine, and were fo flattering as to folicit my humble affiftance, I imagine you did not expect, judging from my want of leifure, that I fhould fo foon endeavour to comply with your request. Although confident of my inability for fuch an undertaking, I then relolved to fhew my willingness, by making the attempt; |