These _postulata_ being admitted, it will follow in due course of
reasoning that those beings which the world calls improperly suits of
clothes are in reality the most refined species of animals, or to proceed
higher, that they are rational creatures or men. For is it not manifest
that they live, and move, and talk, and perform all other offices of
human life? Are not beauty, and wit, and mien, and breeding their
inseparable proprieties? In short, we see nothing but them, hear nothing
but them. Is it not they who walk the streets, fill up Parliament-,
coffee-, play-, bawdy-houses. It is true, indeed, that these animals,
which are vulgarly called suits of clothes or dresses, do according to
certain compositions receive different appellations. If one of them be
trimmed up with a gold chain, and a red gown, and a white rod, and a
great horse, it is called a Lord Mayor; if certain ermines and furs be
placed in a certain position, we style them a judge, and so an apt
conjunction of lawn and black satin we entitle a Bishop.
Others of these professors, though agreeing in the main system, were yet
more refined upon certain branches of it; and held that man was an animal
compounded of two dresses, the natural and the celestial suit, which were
the body and the soul; that the soul was the outward, and the body the
inward clothing; that the latter was _ex traduce_, but the former of
daily creation and circumfusion. This last they proved by Scripture,
because in them we live, and move, and have our being: as likewise by
philosophy, because they are all in all, and all in every part. Besides,
said they, separate these two, and you will find the body to be only a
senseless unsavoury carcass. By all which it is manifest that the
outward dress must needs be the soul.
To this system of religion were tagged several subaltern doctrines, which
were entertained with great vogue; as particularly the faculties of the
mind were deduced by the learned among them in this manner: embroidery
was sheer wit, gold fringe was agreeable conversation, gold lace was
repartee, a huge long periwig was humour, and a coat full of powder was
very good raillery. All which required abundance of finesse and
delicatesse to manage with advantage, as well as a strict observance
after times and fashions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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