The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-10-25 00:00:00

FASHIONABLE ffORLD DISPLAYED.

The following Extract is I twit a late Publiavion, entitled
" The Fashionable Wald by Theophilus Chris-
EVI."
Speaking of the climate of the fashionable world,
the author says:—" The climate of Fashion is al-
most entirely factitious and artificial, and conse-
quently differs in m.v)y iraterial respects from the
natural temperature of tbnse iespeaive places over
which its jai Ofielion cstends. Though changes
from heat tc cold, and iliac versa, are very common
among these people, vet heat may be said to be the
prevailing char:saes. of the climate. They appear
to hare but two seasons in their year; these they call,
in conformity to common language rather than to
just calculation, Winter and Summer. Of Sum-
mer little is known; for it seems to be a rule among
this people to disband and disperse at the approach
of it, and not to rally and re-unite till the Winter
has fairly commenced; though, therefore, they exist
somehow or somewhere during the summer months,
they wish it to be considered that they do not exist
under their fashionable character. They wads them-
selves in the sea, drink laxative waters, lose a little
money at billiards, or catch a few colds at public
rooms ; but all these things they do as individuals,
wholly out of their corporate capacity as members
of the community of Fashion: so that, in their
mode of disposing of the Summer, they invert the
standing rule of most other animals; they choose
the fair season for their torpid state, and shew 11J
signs of life but during the winter. It is not easy
to say exactly when the winter begins in the fashi-
onable world ; an inhabitant of Rath would have
one mode of reckoning, and an inhabitant of Lon-
don another ; to do justice to the subject, the com-
mencement of winter ought to be regulated by the
former of these places, and the close of it by the
latter. Stipposiog, therefore, that it begins some
time in Nos ember, there can be no difficulty in set-
tling its duration; for the 4th of June is, by a tacit,
yet binding ordinance, considered as limit over which
a fashionable winter can never pass.
There are many circumstances in which the
climate of Fashion stands peculiarly distinguished
from any other. It has already been intimated,
that heat is its prevalent characteristic; it is, how-
ever not a little remarkable, that this heat is at its
highest point in the winter season; and that the in-
habitants often perspire more freely sshen the snow
is upon the ground than they do in the dog-days.
Tha truth is, that, as was before said, the climate is

wholly created by artificial circumstances, and the
natural temperature of the air is completely done
away; the sort of communication which they keep
up with each other requires a species of apparatus
which fills their atmosphere with an immediate de-
gree of phlogiston. Besides this, they are noto-
riously fond of assembling in insufferable crowds ;
and travellers have assured us, that they have often
witnessed from ten to twelve hundred persons suf-
focating each other within a space which would
scarcely have afforded a convenient accommodation
for a dozen families. Certain it is, that no people
upon earth have less benefit from the light of the
sun Clan the people of fashion ; so that, if it were
not for torches, candles, and Argand lamps, they
would scarcely ever see each others faces."
On the subjea of fashionable morality, the sstitcr
says :—" In observing thus largely upon the lasaion-
able world, I have furnished a sufficient clue to their
were! chAraeler ; if, from some hints which have
been thrown nut in this and the precei,rig chapter,
rigid Chi istians should be led to infer that it is no
better than it should be. they must be reminded,
that people of fashion hays a standard peculiar to
themselvea , and that therefore what are deviations
from oar StAlldArd, are sery often near approsimations
to theirs. In fact, they have sifted in this roped with
the same convenient policy by which they have been
guided in framing every other part of their system.
Pleasure being the objet upon which a life of fashion
terminates. it was sagaciously foreseen, that an un-
bending morality would be utterly incompatible
with the modes, and habits, and plans, of such a ca-
reer ; there remained, therefore, no alternative but
that of flittering away the strength and substance
of the morality of the Gospel, till it became suffi-
ciently tame and pliable for the sphere of accommo-
dation in which it was to at. The consequence has
been, that while they employ the same terms to de-
note their moral ideas, as are in use among Christians
in general, yet they limit or enlarge their significa-
tion as expediency requires. Thus modesty, ho-
nesty, humanity, and sobriety—names, with striaer
iniralists, for the purest virtues—are so modified
and liberalised, by fashionable casuists, as to be ca-
pable of an alliance with a low degree of every vice
to which they stand opposed. A woman may ex-
pose her bn,‘.711, paint her face, assume a forward
air, gaze as ithout emotion, and laugh without re-
smote at the loosest scenes of theatrical licentious-
ness, and yet be after all a nmlrst woman. A man
may detain the money which he owes his trades-
man, and contraa new debts for ostentatious super-
fluities, while he has neither the means nor the in-
clination to pay his old ones, and yet be atter all a
very /mutat fellow. A woman of fashion may dis-
turb the repose of her family every night, abandon
her children to mercenary nurses, and keep her
horses and servants in the streets till day-break.
without any impeachment of her httneenily : so the
gentleman of fashion may swallow his two or three
bottles a-day, and do all his friends the kindness to
lay them under the table as they dine with him ;
yet, if constitution or habit secure him against
the same ignominious effefts, he claims to be consi-
dered a sober man.
"'There would be no end of going over all the
eccentricities of fashionable morality. To those
who ex.kEt that truth which allows of no simplicity,
that honour which scorns all baseness, and that vir-
tue which wars with every vice, I question but every
thing in the motels of this people would appear
anomalous and extraordinary : but to those who con-
sider how necessary a certain portion of wickedness
is to such a life as these people mast necessarily
lead, it will not be matter of surprise that there
should be so little genuine morality among them :
the wonder will rather be--that there should be any
at all."

On the 25th Lot, the artists of Paris had an en-
tertainment in the Elysian Fields which was nume-
rously attended. 1 he objefl of this meeting was to
do horn Iv to the author of the picture—Pest•rsres It
14. Messrs. DAVID and DIMON presided at it.

COURSE OP iNCIIANOR. TUESDAY. ILYE
ATTIKEIESID .... 34 11 $ 11.1 Venice l9 I. s P,...
Date at Stain .. 37 7 Nal.h.,
Rotterdam C F.. 13 0 3 U. Lisbon
Hamburgh.... . 3$ 11 tIU. Op,-t..
n* Alto
Paris S3 I LIS.
Ditto !UM 2s 10
&ordeal.* .!1 10 '

•:ILgU.
Portugal G.ld is

1. s 1

Ma,lrid
Ditto
Carlin —in Paper New Dollam
Ditto
Billion
Leithinn
Grimm 431Liv.Pic. 41 per Cent.
Dublin on London (Oct. 17.'
11-111.4 on Lnridon (Oct. 16'
Kellam...in Dublin .ditto)....

111 a 13 a 12,
61
64 i •1 dare

HIGH WATF.R THIS DAY AT LONDON BRIDGE,
10 min. after 7.