I shall close this paper with an admonition to the young men of this town, which I think the more necessary, because I see several new fresh-coloured faces, that have made their first appearance in it this winter. I must therefore assure them, that the art of making noses is entirely lost; and in the next place, beg them not to follow the example of our ordinary town rakes, who live as if there was a Talicotius to be met with at the corner of every street. Whatever young men may think, the nose is a very becoming part of the face, and a man makes but a very silly figure without it. But it is the nature of youth not to know the value of anything till they have lost it. The general precept, therefore, I shall leave with them is, to regard every town-woman as a particular kind of siren, that has a design upon their noses; and that, amidst her flatteries and allurements, they will fancy she speaks to them in that humorous phrase of old Plautus:
Ego tibi faciem denasabo mordicus.[238]
"Keep your face out of my way, or I'll bite off your nose."
FOOTNOTES:
[228] Book ii. chap. xxvi.
[229] Swift's "Tale of a Tub," sect. xi.
[230] "You are mistaken in your guesses about Tatlers; I did neither write that on noses nor religion [No. 257], nor do I send him of late any hints at all" (Swift's "Journal," Jan. 1, 1711).
[231] Notch or nick.
[232] "Hudibras," Part i. canto i. 281. For Talicotius see note below.
[233] Reading.