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    Query , whether a cold winter may not produce a perceptible alteration in the state of society in our own country , and whether our ladies may not * ' take the lead in conversation" during a frost ? ** In Norway , " says our author , " they occupy the distinguished place in society for which Nature clearly intended them ; " and he adds , on the authority of Dr . Clarke , that " in conversation they take the lead ; nor has the odious custom of ladies retiring into solitary seclusion after dinner , been introduced amongst them . " For the bad effects of this or any other seclusion , consult the Letters from

    the iEgean , ( Vol . I . p . 172 , ) where it is clearly set forth , that , "from the habits of seclusion to which they are subjected , " the Grecian ladies have lost every trace of what we call " Grecian beauty . " ** I never saw , " says Mr . Emerson , " a striking figure , and scarce a lovely face , throughout tbe country . " This he says , be it observed , upon his own authority , and it is by no means a common opinion ; but we would remind him for a moment of the " dames of elder days . " Was " what we call Grecian beauty" confined to the Phrynes and the Aspasias ? Or , were the " habits of seclusion" less blighting when Achilles and Clytemnestra were represented on the stage apologizing for the impropriety of being in the same apartment ? At Santorin our author has the satisfaction of eating lentils , and identifying them

    as " the very same with which Jacob made the mess of pottage for which Esau sold his birthright . " At Milo he finds the baths mnch frequented by scrofulous patients— " a fact which may be attributed to their too liberal use of honey . " " May not this , " says Mr . Emerson , « ' be the evil referred to in Prov . xxv . 27 , 'It is not good to eat much honey' ? The hedges in the neighbourhood are formed of American aloes , which ( if we may suppose it to be the plant referred to ) is a perfect illustration of the text in which Micah , complaining of the corruption of the church , exclaims , ' . The best of them is a briar ; the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge . ' " —Vol . II . p . 236 .

    The costume of the inhabitants Mr . Emerson is induced to consider as peculiarly ancient , and that from a very singular coincidence . ' They ( the women , that is ) are in the habit of encumbering themselves with an unusual number of petticoats , " four or five gowns , and other garments , heaped on with less taste than profusion . " Now it so happens that the Apostle Peter ( who would have thought it ?) had an eye to these supernumerary petticoats eighteen centuries ^ go ! In his first Epistle he admonishes the female

    members of the church against putting on of apparel ( chap . iii . 3 ) . •* It is not likely , " as Mr . Emerson observes , " that the apostle would discountenance altogether the use of dress ; " he could only mean , c < Do not put on too much apparel—do not be lumpy ; " and how incorrigible of these women , in spite of good taste and an apostolic injunction , to wear a superabundance of petticoats to this hour ! With this choice specimen of Scripture criticism , we conclude our quotations . —Those who take up the Letters from the jEgean

    as " a plain , unvarnished tale" of other lands , will be cruelly disappointed ; those who look for the political signs of the times must be referred to a former " Picture of Greece , " to which Mr . Emerson was a " contributor ;" and those who only read for amusement , and love stories of vampyTes , and bandits , and graceful turbans , and silken vests , may " sentimentalize luxuriantly" over the Letters from the iEgean ( always provided that they have not already skimmed the cream in the New Monthly Magazine , where great part of them appeared as Letters from the Levant ) .

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    196 Letters from the JEgean .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1829, page 196, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2570/page/44/