 what Means he could keep himself so warm, in such Extremity of Weather.
That, Sire, answered the Stranger, is a Secret which my Honour forbids me to reveal, and which nothing shall extort from me, save the Commands of your Majesty. I promise you, Sir, said the King, that I shall not be ungrateful, and that you shall have no Cause to repent your having entrusted me with your Recipe. I engage then, Sire, that provided you follow my Prescription, there shall not be so warm a Monarch in the Universe. I am impatient, pray inform me, what am I to do? As I do, so please your Majesty, put your whole Wardrobe upon your Back! the King laughed himself into a Heat, and that very Hour ordered a Commission in his own Guards to be made out for his Prescriber.
Your Story, Mr.
Faddle,
is elegantly facetious, said Lady
Maitland.
I apprehend however that other valuable Purposes are answered by
Dress,
over and above the mere
Decency
and
Comfort
of Cloathing. Were it not for the various Distinctions of
Dress,
it would be impossible to point out the several Orders of Men throughout the respective Subordinations that are nenessary to Society. Without this useful Expedient, we should be in utter Confusion, we should not know who was who; we should not know to whom Respect or Obedience was due, nor be able to ascertain the Prince from the Peasant.
O lud, cried Mrs.
Mawkin,
as your Ladyship says, how frightfully humbling and mortifying it would be! without the Richness of
Dress,
how should we of the Grand Monde shew any Difference between ourselves and vile Plebeians?
O Madam, answered Lady
Cribbage,
Plebeians are not confined to low Life alone; the great World has its Vulgar too, I assure you. The Difference does not lie in the Richness; I have seen an Ass cloathed in a very gorgeous Sumpter-Cloth. The true Distinction lies in wearing the Qualities of the Mind on the outward Habit, in the Peculiarity of Fancy and Elegance of Taste.
Your Ladyship might surely have added, said Miss
Trinket,
that
Dress
is a Handmaid to Beauty too; it serves to adorn and embellish Nature with Art, and to make what was lovely still more attracting. However brilliant a Diamond may be in itself, it wants of its Value and Lustre, till suitably set; there may be an Elegance to be sure in the Manner of setting, but still it ought to be cased in nothing but Gold.
I greatly Iament the Departure of Mrs.
Philligree,
said Lord
Mansfield
