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That hour past, works, favour, fame, respect,
Fly far away and die before neglect.
Unlike their merit, yet alike their state,
Each sinks neglected, each laments his fate.
Book-making leads the van, a limping elf,
Whose stock is stolen, and whose profit pelf;
Who all that's good in others, seeks to cull,
And paragraphs productions more than dull;
Calls weakness excellence, and bad the best,
And what is worst-far better than the rest.

Next comes a hoary sage, long dead to fame,
Of withered aspect, of Black-letter name;
Brown, dried, and shrivell'd, with worm-eaten
skin,

His form unpleasing, and no wit within;
Proudly pre-eminent by age and years,
On new-made stilts he stalks above his peers.
All fill his purse-Duke, Marquis, Viscount,
Lord,

And hence his well fill'd bags and glitt'ring board,

He sneers aside, as thousands heap his store,
And counts each fresh fond fool makes twenty

more.

Last comes Travestie, scurrilous and low, Who aims at every excellence a blow;

Blights each refreshing grace, and dulls each charm,

And thus, though weak, inflicts a lasting harm.
Aided by these, lo! Prejudice succeeds,
And many a pleasing unknown writer bleeds.
Erect in power, they rise and overthrow,
And crush the Novel-writers at a blow;
Romantic authors die away by scores,
And Fiction bleeds at all her num'rous pores.
Ye bards, who popularity pursue,
And keep alone the public's praise in view;
Think not your versatility can gain

That praise, which, when 'tis lost, ye loud complain.

First ye collect from literature's store
The legendary trash of days of yore;
Then if, in satire keen, your nameless page
Pourtrays the faults and follies of the age,
When all the work admire, you senseless claim
Th'applause, and shew the point at which ye

aim;

Which is, to fill your purse, and thus acquire
A venal fame, whilst the discordant lyre
Drops from your hand; of principle devoid
The author falls, his works-himself destroy'd."

The Urn of Fiction is thus described:-
"In mute despair they seek a shady wood,
Where erst a monument to Genius stood;
Her statue overthrown they loud deplore,
And weep that novelty can charm no more;
Then change the statue for a marble urn,
And see their works of fiction doom'd to burn,
Weep o'er their offspring, like a parent fond,
Again to see them live, like her despond ;-
Here, like the fam'd Mausoleums of a state,
In which lie buried some of diff'rent date,

Of diff'rent worth, which others might surpass,
Mix'd there, confus'dly, in one common mass:
So die the works of justly earn'd renown,
With those of authors doom'd to sink unknown."

After naming various successless and faulty authors weeping over the Urn, the following just remark follows on sophistical writers :

"Vain were the task of bards to name the host, Whose talents misapplied, and genius lost.Strove, by false maxims, to pervert the mind, And nam'd their tenets, lib'ral, unconfin'd, Their tears less giv'n to conscience than to shame, When dead their sophistry, and lost their name."

The description of Fiction's Urn thus concludes:

"A motley race succeeds; some mourn the fate Of fam'd heroines ta'en from early date, When music's powers, and when learning's store, Woman was seldom suffer'd to explore. Yet ere the thirteenth century was gone, Prov'd paragons of learning, and outshone In science, every dame of future age, Whose high renown has grac'd th' historic page; And oft, with knowledge premature, they quote Those poets who, unborn, had not yet wrote, Till many years revolving pass'd away, Since such heroines had beheld the day. O nonsense!-trash!-fit only for the flame To perish ever with the author's name. Let such with grief deserv'd, bedew the urn, While we to subjects more important turn."

The important subjects, however, seem to be addresses to various modern novelwriters of celebrity; and it was in these we peculiarly marked an heedlessness of style. The following address, however, to M. G. L—, Esq. is excellent; his poetic measure is well imitated, and we cannot forbear transcribing the whole:

"Winds continued to whistle; the hour was late, As I read in my parlour alone;

The cat turn'd her back to the fire as she sate, And the purse and the coffin bounc'd loud from the grate,

My heart felt as cold as a stone.
Tales Romantic I read with increasing dismay,
When the kitten did plaintively squeak,
I felt almost sure of the truths of each lay,
And then my belief for a moment gave way,
To a Lion once suffer'd to speak!

Is this the same pen, whose original skill
Could paint the gradations of crime,
When we know how the tempter each moment

can fill

The fair work of Heaven-to injure, to kill, And to mar ev'ry virtue sublime.

35

As admiring we read, bound with horror-struck || Though passion warms the heart of early youth,

bands,

We feel the destroyer is near;

In the cause of fair virtue the bosom expands,
We hail her chaste laws, and obey her commands,
That the fiend may with haste disappear.
But opening the Tales, as before me they lay,
The effects of next morning how bright!
I laugh'd at my folly, the book threw away!
Declaring most solemnly, never to stray
O'er fields of such study by night.

Of thy Muse clad in terrors refuse not the aid,
OL for wholly she's thine;
Between each of thy panses the heart feels dis-
may'd,

She hails thee, admires thee, in horrors array'd,
For in horrors we know thee to shine.

We wander well pleas'd midst the Feudal Times
power

As legends monastic we scan.

Thy Brano of Venice has charm'd the lone hour,
Thy poems enchant to the Peri's fair bow'r,

And thy Monk shews the weakness of man.
But give no more lions well gifted with speech,
'Tis an insult to nurseries shown;
When those truths you objected Antonia to teach,
Those truths so divine, which frail man dare
impeach,

That an Ass spake, no doubt, yon disown.
And no more too impassion'd and free, let thy
Muse

Paint love with such feeling and fire;

The meed of applause to thy Monk we refuse,
Neither virtue nor modesty e'er can excuse,
That their cause before vice should expire.

Oh! pen a chaste work, with thy genius profound,
Original, grand, and sublime;

O rove 'midst the flowers on classical ground,
Then with night-shade and roses thy temples sur-
round,

And triumph o'er critics and time."

The address to Rosa M, contains also some very judicious observations:

"Yet vast we own thy skill, and pleas'd admire, Th' harmonious notes, which grace thy tuneful lyre,

When Rosa, as a poet, sweeps the strings,
And still we hail her, as she sweetly sings
The deeds of heroes; paints the moonlight scene,
The frowning mountain, or the valley green,
Sad, slighted Love, or else the tender joy,
When hearts in unison, no cares annoy :
Such, such are Rosa's powers; but when impell'd
Voluptuously to swerve from maxims held
Sacred, from ancient times, her sex's grace,
Sweet modesty; when bold, she takes the place
Of scribes impure,-then Rosa loses fame,
And kindles blushes on the cheeks of shame.
Though you the feelings you describe possess,
Those feelings woman never should express;

We throw a veil oft o'er the form of truth.
Oh, Rosa! let thy tears fall unsupprest,
Where Omer's Guilty Nun stands full confest;
Erase that poem with a crystal tear,

Where the fond numbers speak the kiss too dear;
Make, with a penitent's regret and haste,
This sacrifice to decency and taste;

And then resume thy pen, well skill'd to trace
Each flow'ry thought, and true poetic grace."

The same remarks on licentious writing commence the Conclusion :—

"Though small the errors of a chosen few,
Those errors visible, my pen has drew;
From faults the most are free, with genius blest,
Pure style and language in their works exprest:
Nor deem me, fair ones, prudish and o'er nice,
When I reprove the style which fosters vice;
The more admir'd your works, more dang'rous
prove

Scenes of illicit, or impassioned love,
Adorn'd with all that fancy can impart,
With style to fascinate, yet stain the heart:
Such pow'rs as yours should sole employ the
quill,

The principles of virtue to instil:
For Virtue oft will fly the leisure hour,
And leave the heart expos'd to Vice's power:
'Tis then perusing the licentious lay,
That thoughts from purity are led astray;
Thought leads to act—from trifling causes flow,
The streams of error in this world below;
And rocks and quicksands may less fatal prove,
Than scenes voluptuous of ideal Love,
Drawn by a female hand, which charms the most,
Preserving modesty-despis'd when lost.

But though offended modesty and sense,
Would wish to banish all such writings hence;
Yet, ha! Black-letter pow'r, ah! sink not all;
Crush not true Genius; mix not in the fall
Those tuneful bards of intellect possest;
Those pens of fiction, justly deemed the best.
Muse of Invention, wake again; adorn
The age of learning; leave us not forlorn
In Gothic darkness, fated to deplore
The loss of talent rare, which charm'd before.”

The Poem is wound up with an invocation to Fancy in the following lines :

"Oh! Golden Age of Fancy, quick return!
And, like a Phoenix, from the sacred Urn
Of Fiction, rise the good of ev'ry date,
Like tares from wheat, the bad be separate,
Destroy'd the common-place, dull trash; its doom
Be deep oblivion, and eternal gloom,

Then when the reign of talent is confest,
And Black-letter and Book-making supprest,
When Genius sheds her mild, but potent rays,
And Science fair her standard bright displays,
Then shall each hard be honour'd as of yore,
And "Tears and sighing then shall be no more."

FASHIONS

FOR

AUGUST, 1814.

EXPLANATION OF THE PRINTS OF FASHION.

No. 1. THE CIRCASSIAN LADIES' COR-
SET BATHING AND SEA-SIDE WALKING
DRESS.

HIGH dress of rich Indian or Parisian
chintz, made in a form peculiarly novel
and elegant; it is trimmed with chintz bor-
dering to correspond, or a rich silk trim- ||
ming. Long sleeve, with the fulness let
in at the top. The collar is extremely
novel and beautiful, and the trimming most
tastefully disposed, so as to give the ap-
pearance of a shirt to the pelisse: it is
loose in the body, but fastens in to the
waist. We forbear a particular description
of this elegant and convenient dress, as it
must be seen to be properly understood;
we have only to observe, that it is made in
a form never before introduced, that it is
equally tasteful and becoming; it enables
a lady to dress herself in a few minutes
without assistance, prevents the chance of
taking cold by the long delay in dressing;
and, when dressed, to look as completely
fashionable as if she had employed the
longest time at her toilet. The principal
novelty, however, consists in Mrs. Bell's
new invented Circassian corset, which
unites the advantages of being conducive to
health and comfort, by being made of
novel materials, free from superfluities,
such as steel, whalebone, or any hard
substance : so that ease, gracefulness,
and dignity are given to the female form

in a

manner perfectly novel and original. It gives relief and protection to pregnant ladies, and at the same time adds dignity and beauty to the appearance. Head-dress Chapean Bras. Slippers of pale green; and gloves to correspond.

No. 2.-MORNING DRESS Of jacconet muslin, laced in the body and sleeves, and finished round the bottom of the skirt by an embroidery in coloured silks. A small front of plain muslin fastens at the

bosom over the cased one; the former is also ornamented with embroidery. We are certain no lady, on first seeing this elegant dress, could possibly surmise the purpose for which it was designed, that of enabling a lady to suckle her own child: it is, however, so contrived as to enable a lady to act the part of a nurse without discomposing her dress in the smallest degree; and the moment the pleasing office is over, a single pin leaves her again in the most elegant style of morning costume. Head-dress, small lace cap.

The above dresses are from the fertile imagination of Mrs. Bell, the Inventress of the Ladies' Chapeau Bras, of whom alone they can be obtained, at No. 26, Charlottestreet, Bedford-square.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

ON

FASHION AND DRESS.

Since the publication of our last Number we have to notice an almost endless variety in the walking costume; we have seldom seen our fair pedestrians dressed more becomingly.

Mantles of lace and muslin, French silk handkerchiefs, clear and jacconet muslin pelisses, satin, sarsnet, and muslin spensers, and high dresses of French washing silk, or Indian chintz, are all worn in the walking costume.

The last mentioned are the

latest introduced, and we think there is more of novelty in their form than in any of the others; but we shall, by describing them, enable our fair readers to judge for

themselves.

In lace mantles there is no variation at all from last month; in muslin they are worn extremely short, either square or round, and we have observed several with small hoods, they are trimmed only with lace. Pelisses have suffered an entire re

volution in their form, they are now all made cased in the back and sleeves, if of sarsnet, but if muslin, they are cased all through the body; the casings are three to- | gether, as small as they can possibly be made, and there is a distance of two inches between them. The sleeves are done in the same manner.

Pelisses are made up to the neck, and notwithstanding the heat of the weather they have in general a cased collar, which is edged round, as is also the ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the pelisse with lace. The waists are worn as short as possible, and the skirts fuller than we have seen them for some time.

The observations which we have made upon pelisses are equally applicable to spensers, except that in clear muslin spensers narrow letting-in lace is substituted for the casings, which has, in our opinion, a much prettier and less formal effect.

flowers, are in the highest estimation for the walking costume.-English cottage bonnets, invented by Mrs. Bell, vying in size and garlands with the French ones, are in equal if not in more general estimation; the most fashionable material of which these bonnets are composed is fine willow; but they are worn in lace, muslin, silk, and blond and ribband mixed: the only one of these bonnets which we have ever thought entitled to the appellation, is to be seen at Mrs. Bell's Magasin des Modes.-There is some difference in the form, but what it is we cannot exactly point out: we can only say, that we have seen it on a lady who looks most bewitching in it, and what was rather singular, she had just pulled off one which had been brought from Paris, which was certainly the reverse of becoming.

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In the carriage costume spensers of entire white lace over pale pink, azure, or straw-colour, are very general; they are composed of plain net-lace about a nail in width, sewed very full to a letting-in lace of not quite an inch in breadth; the sleeves

The high chintz dresses are, for the street, of a very small pattern, the elegant one which we have given in our Print, being exclusively a Bathing-dress; but for the walking costume small pattern || are made in the same manner, and are flowered chintz is univeral; they are made finished at the wrist by a narrow lace.— cased in the body and sleeves, and are worn The spenser, which is high in the back, up to the neck, but they have no collar; a has a second front of entire broad lace, blond lace, ruff-edged with narrow ribband which falls over as a cape behind, and is to correspond with the predominant colour thrown back; it reaches nearly half-aof the chintz, is substituted for it. The quarter below the waist, and finishes in a dress, which fastens in front, is trimmed point. down with silk ornaments of a very novel form, and three rows of scollops, placed one above another round the bottom, are ornamented with a light narrow silk fringe to correspond with the predominant colour in the dress. These dresses are elegant, simple, and extremely well calculated for the undress of a gentlewoman; if there is any thing to be said against them, it may be perhaps objected that they appear rather too warm for the time of year.

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White satin spensers also are still in high estimation for the carriage costume; but the most truly elegant pelisse that we have seen is the French pelisse; it is made in white satin, the upper part of the back is a plain piece which goes just between the shoulders, the lower part is very full. This pelisse may be called a three-quarter dress, it is not so low as a frock, nor does it come up to the neck; the points of the dress are so contrived as to meet in the middle of the back, and form a cape, which is certainly the prettiest and most tasteful that we have ever seen, it is rounded behind, and falls over the shoulders, and the pelisse either meets or flies back in front at pleasure;

French washing silks, as they are called, though of their possessing this economical quality we must be permitted to doubt, are made in precisely the same way, except that the trimming, which is a silk fancy trimming to correspond with the dress, is ex-long plain sleeves, except at top, which had tremely expensive.-They are in high estimation.

three pieces of satin let in, each was about half-a-quarter in length, and nearly the French bonnets made of satin, sarsnet, same in breadth, they were finished round or willow, literally loaded with artificial" with a narrow but extremely elegant silk

trimming. The pelisse is all cut round in scollops, which are finished with the lightest and most beautiful silk fringe we have ever seen. There has not been any thing introduced in the carriage costume for a considerable time at once so elegant and so becoming as this pelisse.

Small French hats of white satin, ornamented, not loaded, with flowers, are very general in the carriage costume; but the Princess Charlotte of Wales's hat, is we think in the highest estimation; it is worn in all the fashionable colours for the month, but we conceive it to be more elegant in white satin than any thing else. The crown is oval, and the front which is extremely novel and becoming, is composed of three rows of scollops one above another, which are edged with real or mock pearl; two ostrich feathers fall over to the left side.This hat is extremely tasteful and elegant,|| and as it is but just introduced we may venture to predict that it will continue for a considerable time a favourite. It may be agreeable to our readers to be informed that it may be seen at Mrs. Bell's.

The principal novelty in the morning costume is the cased bodies, which though novel are not new; they are a revived fashion. The chintz, that we have described, are equally an in and out-door costume, but jacconet muslin is the most universal; and the lace mania, which we have so often mentioned, is not at all decreased, on the contrary our fair fashionables become daily more ingenious in the manner of using it; besides the double, and sometimes treble flowers of lace, there is generally a quantity of letting-in down the front; or if this is not the case, a small apron cut in scollops, edged with a narrow lace, has, generally speaking, superseded the lace ruffs or frills; and collars even of lace are very little worn.

Washing silks are very general for the morning costume; we have seen one which we thought extremely pretty, though in the days of our grave grandmothers it would have been looked on as too childish for belles who were out of hanging sleeves: it was a high frock, which laced behind, || and came up to the throat, where it was finished by a row of scollops, edged with fine narrow lace; net long-sleeve was ornamented by a cuff to correspond, and

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three rows of scollops edged with lace finished it round the skirt. A French apron of white lace scolloped round, and trimmed with a broad lace put on very full, the pockets trimmed with a narrow lace to correspond with that on the dress; and a lace bib, which forms a very pretty front over the silk one; the bib is as low as a frock bosom, it is an entire piece of lace, and has really an elegant effect.

In dinner dresses we again meet with cased bodies; frocks now are all made with them, but they differ from the morning dresses by being single casings, they are also as narrow as they can be made.Waists are shorter than ever, and the dresses fall as much as usual off the shouldThe sleeve highest in estimation is a triple epaulet of lace; the bosoms of frocks are not cut or sliped in any way, but formed by the casings to fit the shape in the most becoming manner.

ers.

Rich worked muslin over coloured slips is the highest in estimation for dinner dresses, and they are trimmed in every possible way with lace. Sarsnets are however worn by many elegantés. Ribband trimmings have declined very much, but fringe and silk fancy trimmings are uni

versal.

For full dress, crape and white lace are universal. Coloured slips are now worn only for dinner dresses. In crape, white is the most predominant; but azure, the colour of the wild rose, and evening primrose, are also very general; straw colour is also worn by a few elegantés, but we must beg leave to remind them, that it always looks like dirty white by candle-light.We have only one novelty to announce to our fair readers in full dress, and that is the Angouleme drapery, which is composed of white patent net, and is worn over a white satin slip; it is a cased frock body, with a triple epaulet sleeve; the sleeve, we must observe, is composed of very broad and rich lace; the drapery is open at the left side, it is about a quarter of a yard shorter than the gown, and is sloped a little on the left side, but not rounded, but on the right side it is rounded so as to display the satin slip beneath it very much; the drapery is edged with a broad and rich lace, and two flounces of lace-are placed also at some distance one above the other,

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