With regard to the constitutions of these people, I have been inclined to think them naturally robust, from observing the astonishing heat and fatigue which they are accustomed to endure. And in this respect the women have appeared to evince an uncommon degree of hardiness: for, besides that they wear on every occasion a lighter species of clothing than the men, I have been confidently told that many among them will appear, in the severest part of the season, with dresses of such transparency and scantiness, as convince every beholder that they who wear them are utter strangers to the weaknesses of the sex. There is, however, some room for doubting, whether the air which this people breathe, and the usages which prevail among them, are favorable to the constitution. Their patience of fatigue has been thought to be wholly the result of habit, and their hardiness has been conjectured to be little more than an air of extravagance and bravado. The frequent transitions which they make from heat to cold, and back again from cold to heat; perhaps half-a-dozen times in as many hours; must very materially diminish the physical strength of their bodies. Certain it is, that their natural countenances do not betray the usual symptoms of health; and it is, I believe, admitted, that instances of extraordinary longevity are not very common among them. CHAP. II. GOVERNMENT—LAWS, &c. THE History of the Fashionable World is a sort of undertaking, which, to be accurately executed, would require abundantly more leisure and diligence than I could afford to bestow upon it: and I very much doubt, whether, after all, one reader out of a hundred would be at the pains of perusing it. The fact is, that the members of this community are not sufficiently substantial to form historical pictures. Their employments are not of a nature to make their memory an object with mankind. Hence, though they make a splendid appearance in a ball-room, they appear to little advantage in a record; and, like the dancing figures in a magic-lantern, they seem to have answered the end of their being, when they have afforded an evening’s amusement. For these and other reasons which might be assigned, I shall content myself with giving a brief account of their Polity and Laws; referring those of my readers who are desirous of further information upon their history, to Novels and Romances, and to such Chronicles of antiquity, as have preserved the memorials of obsolete and superannuated manners.