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Article ON FASHION. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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On Fashion.
whatever subject excited , which ennobles and exalts humanity , and will cheerfully contribute its quota to the improvement and happiness of all around it . Speaking of this depravity , will any one say , that the inhabitants of flie most barbarous climes have not been improved in moral and civil , in religious and political principles , within the last three centuries ? With the knowledwhichby the blessing of heavenhas
ge , , enlightened Europe , Europe has imbibed a generous desire of . communicating the benefits of that knowledge to the most remote parts of the earth . The list cf European Navigators , and Missionaries , is a list of Worthies , whose names well deserve to be enrolled in the records of Time , and ought never to be forgotten in the computation of the progress of religious and moral improvement .
The Moors of Barbary , for an instance , are now almost stransrers to that indiscriminate cruelty which a century or two ago was ^ the destruction of thousands ; and sovereigns , whose predecessors were accustomed to make sport of the wanton slaughter of their subjects , have at length adopted a form approaching to a regularjudicial proceeding . Having thus hazarded an argument to prove that . the world grows
better as it is more enlightened , I shall take another position , and endeavour to prove , that Fashion , if it be not the identical thing complained of under another name , is at least the cause of the imputed degeneracy . In this giddy reign of Folly and Fashion , it is an enormous crime to be either conspicuously moral , or stedfastly religious . If a man ' s be of the former
disposition cast , he is by the votaries of Fashion ridiculed as one who vainl y and unadvisedl y attempts to revive in an enlightened age , the contemptible character of a C 3 'nic , or one totally insensible to all that is cordial or pleasurable in our bitter draught of life . On the other hand , if he be constant in his attendance on the duties of Divine Worship , it is concluded that he makes show of Reli
a gion to serve his worldly interests , and Devotion a mask to conceal the designs of his heart . So that Piety and Morality are laughed at only as unfashionable habits . How praise-worthy were it then if the whole body of Clergy ivould seriously set themselves to the task of persuasion , and the Nobility , with every superior rank of men , would join in the attempt to make Piety and Morality , equall y at least with the Graces , objects of Fashion .
I have sometimes wished it were possible to institute in kingdoms moral laws and ordinances upon the same plan with the political . We might then hear of a law which should enact , " That if any " person or persons do , singly or conjunctively , ridicule another " for any action pointed out by , or consistent with , the Moral Law , " or do attempt to call a blush into the cheek of modest merit ; he , « she , or they , being duly convicted of the same , upon the oaths of " two or more good and lawful witnesses ( or , being Quakers , upon g their affirmations . ) shall for the first offence he proscribed fro ®
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Fashion.
whatever subject excited , which ennobles and exalts humanity , and will cheerfully contribute its quota to the improvement and happiness of all around it . Speaking of this depravity , will any one say , that the inhabitants of flie most barbarous climes have not been improved in moral and civil , in religious and political principles , within the last three centuries ? With the knowledwhichby the blessing of heavenhas
ge , , enlightened Europe , Europe has imbibed a generous desire of . communicating the benefits of that knowledge to the most remote parts of the earth . The list cf European Navigators , and Missionaries , is a list of Worthies , whose names well deserve to be enrolled in the records of Time , and ought never to be forgotten in the computation of the progress of religious and moral improvement .
The Moors of Barbary , for an instance , are now almost stransrers to that indiscriminate cruelty which a century or two ago was ^ the destruction of thousands ; and sovereigns , whose predecessors were accustomed to make sport of the wanton slaughter of their subjects , have at length adopted a form approaching to a regularjudicial proceeding . Having thus hazarded an argument to prove that . the world grows
better as it is more enlightened , I shall take another position , and endeavour to prove , that Fashion , if it be not the identical thing complained of under another name , is at least the cause of the imputed degeneracy . In this giddy reign of Folly and Fashion , it is an enormous crime to be either conspicuously moral , or stedfastly religious . If a man ' s be of the former
disposition cast , he is by the votaries of Fashion ridiculed as one who vainl y and unadvisedl y attempts to revive in an enlightened age , the contemptible character of a C 3 'nic , or one totally insensible to all that is cordial or pleasurable in our bitter draught of life . On the other hand , if he be constant in his attendance on the duties of Divine Worship , it is concluded that he makes show of Reli
a gion to serve his worldly interests , and Devotion a mask to conceal the designs of his heart . So that Piety and Morality are laughed at only as unfashionable habits . How praise-worthy were it then if the whole body of Clergy ivould seriously set themselves to the task of persuasion , and the Nobility , with every superior rank of men , would join in the attempt to make Piety and Morality , equall y at least with the Graces , objects of Fashion .
I have sometimes wished it were possible to institute in kingdoms moral laws and ordinances upon the same plan with the political . We might then hear of a law which should enact , " That if any " person or persons do , singly or conjunctively , ridicule another " for any action pointed out by , or consistent with , the Moral Law , " or do attempt to call a blush into the cheek of modest merit ; he , « she , or they , being duly convicted of the same , upon the oaths of " two or more good and lawful witnesses ( or , being Quakers , upon g their affirmations . ) shall for the first offence he proscribed fro ®