I would not have forgotten under the word _canon_ the blunder of a German author, who, having translated Moliere’s _Précieuses ridicules_, and intending to bring this piece out at one of the theatres of his nation, was confoundedly puzzled how to explain this word. It never entered his brain that a _canon_ was a piece of muslin worn round the knee. After maturely considering the passage, he resolved that Mascarille should have a brace of pistols in his pocket, which he was to pull out when he asks: _How do you like my canons?_ Footnote 4: The contemporary of Charles II. of England. T. The article of ladies’ head-dresses would fill a volume entire: we should find, that, in proportion as they have taken from their heads, they have added to their hips. The enormous hoop and the large high head-dress have alternately succeeded each other; these last have lately sunk under their own weight, if I may be allowed the expression, in order to let the great hips and false rumps be in vogue. The ladies are determined not to lose any of their bulk, so much are they persuaded that their merit is in proportion to the space they occupy in the world. In one of those revolutions which ladies’ heads have suffered, a lady wrote to her friend as follows. Many a short beauty complains and grows hot; And to add to her height, on consulting the stars, Learns from them that by raising the pattens she wears, She’ll recover the loss felt by low’ring her top. So much for the mode Which (however absurd) Sets all Paris Ladies in motion, But the men’s heads are still The same (if they will) As they were: not the least variation.[5] Footnote 5: Letter from the Lady of Lassay to the Duchess of ——. Fashion and etiquette are nearly allied; but they must not be confounded: etiquette is as stable as the other is changeable. The motives that produce them are not the same; the one springs from self-love, the other from affectation. Etiquette seems to have been invented by a desire to govern, and fashion by a wish to please. Therefore, the former is much better observed by people of ripe years, and the latter by young ones. If etiquette is lasting and fashion unstable, this definition comprehends probably the sole cause of it. People change the make and colour of their dress twenty times in a year; fashion may be looked upon as their play thing; but the laws of etiquette return as constantly as the season. Though it is often cold at Whitsunday, taffeties must be put on; and at All-saints day, though it is sometimes very hot, every body puts on satins and velvets, and no one is seen without a muff.