As the two points of good breeding which I have {25} hitherto insisted upon regard behaviour and conversation, there is a third which turns upon dress. In this, too, the country are[109] very much behindhand. The rural beaus are not yet got out of the fashion that took place at the time of the Revolution, but ride about the country in red coats and laced hats, while the women in many parts are still trying to outvie one another in the height of their head-dresses. {[5]}
But a friend of mine, who is now upon the western circuit, having promised to give me an account of the several modes and fashions that prevail in the different parts of the nation through which he passes, I shall defer the enlarging upon this last topic till I have received a {10} letter from him, which I expect every post.
L.
[XIX. SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES]
[No. 122. Friday, July 20, 1711. Addison.]
Comes iucundus in via pro vehiculo est.
Publ. Syr.
A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a {15} greater satisfaction to an honest mind than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public. A man is more sure of his conduct when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all {20} that know him.