NUMB. 39. SATURDAY, January 13, 1759.

SIR,

A

To the IDLER,

S none look more diligently about them than those who have nothing to do, or who do nothing, I fuppofe it has not escaped your obfervation, that the bracelet, or ornament of great antiquity, has been for fome years revived among the English ladies.

The genius of our nation is faid, I know not for what reason, to appear rather in improvement than invention. The bracelet was known in the earliest ages; but it was formerly only a hoop of gold, or a cluster of jewels, and fhewed nothing but the wealth or vanity of the wearer, till our ladies, by carrying pictures on their wrifts, made their ornaments works of fancy and exercises of judgment.

This addition of art to luxury is one of the innumerable proofs that might be given of the late increase of female erudition; and I have often congratulated myself that my life has happened at a time when thofe, on whom fo much of human felicity depends, have learned to think as well as speak, and when refpect takes poffeffion of the ear, while love is entering at the eye.

I have observed, that, even by the fuffrages of their own fex, thofe ladies are accounted wifeft, who do not yet difdain to be taught; and therefore I fhall

offer

offer a few hints for the completion of the bracelet, without any dread of the fate of Orpheus.

To the ladies who wear the pictures of their hufbands or children, or any other near relations, I can offer nothing more decent or more proper. It is reasonable to believe that the intends at least to perform her duty, who carries a perpetual excitement to recollection and caution, whofe own ornaments must upbraid her with every failure, and who, by any open violation of her engagements, muft for ever forfeit her bracelet.

Yet I know not whether it is the interest of the husband to folicit very earnestly a place on the bracelet. If his image be not in the heart, it is of fmall avail to hang it on the hand. A hufband encircled with diamonds and rubies may gain fome esteem, but will never excite love. He that thinks himself moft fecure of his wife, fhould be fearful of perfecuting her continually with his prefence. The joy of life is variety; the tendereft love requires to be rekindled by intervals of abfence; and fidelity herfelf will be wearied with transferring her eye only from the fame man to the fame picture.

In many countries the condition of every woman is known by her drefs. Marriage is rewarded with jome honourable diftinction which celibacy is forbidden to ufurp. Some fuch information a bracelet might afford. The ladies might enroll themfelves in diftinct claffes, and carry in open view the emblems of their order. The bracelet of the authorefs may exhibit the Mufes in a grove of laurel; the housewife may fhew Penelope with her web; the vor trefs of a fingle life may carry Urfula with her troop

of

of virgins; the gamefter may have Fortune with her wheel; and thofe women that have no character at all may display a field of white enamel, as imploring help to fill up the vacuity.

There is a fet of ladies who have outlived most animal pleasures, and having nothing rational to put in their place, folace with cards the lofs of what time has taken away, and the want of what wifdom, having never been courted, has never given. For thefe I know not how to provide a proper decoration. They cannot be numbered among the gamefters, for though they are always at play they play for nothing, and never rife to the dignity of hazard or the reputation of skill. They neither love nor are loved, and cannot be fuppofed to contemplate any human image with delight. Yet though they despair to pleafe, they always wifh to be fine, and therefore cannot be without a bracelet. To this fifterhood I can recommend nothing more likely to please them than the king of clubs, a perfoǹage very comely and majestick, who will never meet their eyes without reviving the thought of some past or future party, and who may be displayed in the act of dealing with grace and propriety.

But the bracelet which might be moft eafily introduced into general ufe is a small convex mirror, in which the lady may fee herself whenever the shall lift her hand. This will be a perpetual fource of delight. Other ornaments are of use only in publick, but this will furnish gratifications to folitude. This will fhew a face that muft always pleafe; she who is followed by admirers will carry about her a perpetual juftification of the publick voice; and fhe

who

who paffes without notice may appeal from prejudice to her own eyes.

But I know not why the privilege of the bracelet fhould be confined to women; it was in former ages worn by heroes in battle; and as modern foldiers are always diftinguifhed by fplendour of drefs, I fhould rejoice to fee the bracelet added to the cockade.

In hope of this ornamental innovation, I have spent fome thoughts upon military bracelets. There is ho paffion more heroick than love; and therefore I fhould be glad to fee the fons of England marching in the field, every man with the picture of a woman of honour bound upon his hand. But fince in the army, as every where elfe, there will always be men who love nobody but themfelves, or whom no woman of honour will permit to love her, there is a neceffity of fome other diftinctions and devices.

I have read of a prince who, having loft a town, ordered the name of it to be every morning fhouted in his ear till it fhould be recovered. For the fame purpose I think the profpect of Minorca might be properly worn on the hands of fome of our generals: others might delight their countrymen, and dignify themselves with a view of Rochfort as it appeared to them at fea: and thofe that fhall return from the conqueft of America, may exhibit the warehoufe of Frontenac, with an infcription denoting, that it was taken in less than three years by lefs than twenty thousand men.

I am, SIR, &c.

TOM TOY.

NUMB. 40. SATURDAY, January 20, 1759.

TH

HE practice of appending to the narratives of publick transactions more minute and domestick intelligence, and filling the newspapers with advertisements, has grown up by flow degrees to its present state.

Genius is fhewn only by invention. The man who first took advantage of the general curiofity that was excited by a fiege or battle, to betray the readers of news into the knowledge of the shop where the best puffs and powder were to be fold, was undoubtedly a man of great fagacity, and profound skill in the nature of man. But when he had once fhewn the way, it was easy to follow him; and every man now knows a ready method of informing the publick of all that he defires to buy or fell, whether his wares be material or intellectual; whether he makes clothes, or teaches the mathematicks; whether he be a tutor that wants a pupil, or a pupil that wants a tutor.

Whatever is common is defpifed. Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become neceffary to gain attention by magnificence of promises, and by eloquence fometimes fublime and fometimes pathetick. Promife, large promife, is the foul of an advertise

I remember a wash-ball that had a quality truly wonderful-it gave an exquifite edge to the razor. And there are now to be fold, for ready money only, fome duvets for bed-coverings, of down, beyond comparison