Of my own customers.
I have had gallants
Both court and country would have fool'd you up
In a new suit with the best wits in being,
And kept their speed as long as their clothes lasted
Handsome and neat; but then as they grew out
At the elbows again, or had a stain or spot,
They have sunk most wretchedly.

The policy of the tailor is as good as his philosophy, and has the same end in view, for Pennyboy exultingly says— I wonder gentlemen

And men of means will not maintain themselves
Fresher in wit, I mean in clothes, to the highest ;
For he that's out of clothes is out of fashion;
And out of fashion is out of countenance;
And out of countenance is out of wit.

And the moral of all is, that if a man would prosper in the world, he should, at all events, not neglect his tailor.

Of all the poets yet named Ben Jonson is the only one who introduces a somewhat dishonest tailor, Nick Stuff, in "The New Inn;" but Apollo was angry with the liberty, and visited the poet with the retributive damnation of the piece. Stuff is a "woman's tailor." We have none such now in

England, except as makers of ladies riding-habits. They are rare in France; but there are as many woman's tailors

as female dressmakers in Vienna; and the latter often order the tailors to take measure for and cut out the

dresses, which the female sewers then, to use a French term, confection. Nick

Stuff used to attire his wife Pinnacia in all the new gowns he made, and in ever-changing and gallant bravery Pinnacia-but let her describe Nick's ways of vanity after her own fashion :

It is a foolish trick, madam, he has;
For though he be your tailor, he is my beast;
I may be bold with him, and tell his story.
When he makes any fine garment will fit me,
Or any rich thing that he thinks of price,
Then must I put it on and be his "Countess,"
Before he carry it home unto the owners.
A coach is hired and four horses; he runs
In his velvet jacket thus, to Rumford, Croydon,
Hounslow, or Barnet.

Pinnacia proceeds to portray further excesses, but I think there must be some exaggeration in this,-and for this the poet was punished by the condemnation of his piece. The thing is as clear as logical deduction can make it. The New Inn contained grave reproach against the tailors: the New Inn was hissed off the stage: argal, for a poet to speak reproachfully of tailors is to bring down ruin upon his head!

This deductive process is borrowed from Cardinal Wiseman, and if it be found defective, I beg to shield myself under that gentleman's eminent authority. It is something like accounting for Tenterden steeple by Goodwin Sands, but of course I cannot help that. Let the candidate for the tiara look to it!

Taking Nick Stuff as a true sample of those of his craft who formed the exception to the general rule of professional honesty, I must say for such as he, that if he were a knave it was because for years he had had an evil example before his eyes in the persons had not his plea of small means and of men better off than himself, who long credit as an excuse for bettering his condition at the public cost. If the fashioners of clothes were sometimes not so careful as they might be in the application of the principle of honesty, the makers of the cloth were infinitely worse. They lay under the imputation of being universally fraudulent. Wè have no better and need no better proof on this matter than what is afforded us by the testimony of good old Latimer, who had a sharp eye to detect vice, and a bold tongue to denounce it. In his third sermon, preached before King Edward VI. there is the following graphic passage: "I hear say that there is a certain cunning come up in the mixing of

wares.

How say you? Were it not a wonder to hear that clothmakers should become 'pothecaries, yea, and as I hear say, in such a place whereat they have professed the gospel and the word of God most earnestly of a long time." And then the preacher, after some animadversions on the Devil, whom he styles in another sermon as the only prelate he knows who is never absent from his diocese, nor idle when in it, thus proceeds :-" If his cloth be seventeen yards long, he will set it on a rack, and stretch it out with ropes, and rack it till the sinews shrink again, till he hath brought it to eighteen yards. When they have brought it to that perfection, they have a pretty feat to thick it again. He makes me a powder for it, and plays the 'pothecary. They call it flock-powder. They do so incorporate it to the cloth, that it is wonderful to consider. Truly, a good invention! Oh! that so goodly

wits should be so ill applied! They may well deceive the people, but they cannot deceive God. They were wont to make beds of flock, and it was a good bed, too; now they have turned the flock into powder, to play the false thieves with it. These mixtures come of covetousness. They are plain theft." From this singular passage it is apparent that what is popularly known at Manchester as "devil's dust," was an invention which the cotton lords of to-day have inherited from their fathers in Mammon, the cloth lords of some three centuries ago. That ever active prelate, the Devil, is therefore as busily engaged in his diocese now as he was in the days whose doings are condemned by Latimer. In some respects, however, there is improvement, if we may believe the assertion made by Mr. Thackeray in his Essays on the Essayists, to the effect that even hermits out at elbows would lose their respectability now, if they were to attempt to cheat their tailors. Other men succeed in doing so, without forfeiting the privilege conceded by Mark Anthony to Brutus of being an honourable man."

66

Charles Lamb remarks in his Essay on the Melancholy of Tailors, that "drink itself does not seem to elevate him." This assertion seems contrary to that in the acting tragedy of Tom Thumb, wherein Queen Dollabella so enthusiastically exclaims

Perdition catch the railers, We'll have a row, and get as drunk as tailors. It is to be observed, however, that Fielding is not responsible for this illustration, which has been made by some adaptor who has had the temerity to do for the heroic tragedy in question what Cibber did for "Richard," and Tate for old "King Lear."

The illustration is insulting, and therefore it is anonymous. The poets generally have, as I have shown, been complimentary to the tailors. Few of the sons of song have reviled the true "makers of men." When they have done so, they have not dared to expose themselves to the sartorian wrath by boldly avowing their name. None ever did so on so extensive a scale as the author of the three-act piece called "The Tailors: a tragedy for Warm Weather;" and no author has remained so utterly uncomeatable by the public curiosity. What is the mystery about GENT. MAG. VOL. XLII.

Junius, touching whom there are a thousand guesses, compared with the greater impenetrability of this secret author, about whom no man ever heard a conjecture?

It is now nearly ninety years ago since a manuscript was sent from Dodsley's shop to Foote, the manager of the "Little Haymarket." The manuscript was that of the warm weather tragedy, and Foote was requested to return the copy if it were not approved of. The great comedian knew better. The burlesque play of the anonymous author was acted with a strong cast. Foote himself was the Francesco; Shuter played Abrahamides the Flint; Western did justice to Jackides; old Bannister was ponderous as Campbello; and gay Jack Palmer was just the man to enact that Lothario of stage tailors the seductive Isaacos. Mrs. Jeffries represented the false wife Dorothea, and Mrs. Gardner the faithful maid Tittilinda. It was said by the critics of the period that the radical fault of this burlesque play was, that " in burlesque the characters ought to be persons of consequence, instead of which they are here tailors;" but the truth is, that the fault lies in the fact that the tailors talk as correctly as persons of consequence, and are not half so bombastic as Nat. Lee's kings and queens. The profession exhibited much unnecessary susceptibility in being offended at this piece. Its tendency, if it have any at all, is rather to elevate than depress the public appreciation for the tailor, whether in his aspect of master or of "Flint," out upon strike. The entire action is devoted to the history of a strike for wages, with a supplemental love-plot annexed. The head mastertailor is a highly respectable individual, who has our sympathy because he is betrayed by his wife; and the chief, Flint, wins admiration because he gets hanged, and is cheated out of his mistress. The strike ends unfavourably for those who make it; but, though the author sets out with the determination to render all his dramatis personæ ridiculous, he cannot do it. He is like the prophet who was compelled to vaticinate against his inclinations; and the deity of dramatic poetry and tailors compels him to reverence where he would fain have committed desecration. The very first sentence in this play 2 G

contains an allusion to Elliott's brigade, that famous band of warriors made up almost entirely of tailors. I must refer my readers to the piece itself, if they be curious to see how the subject is treated in evident contrariety to the author's own design; he makes all the characters utter common-place common-sense, when his intention was to make them lose themselves upon stilts in a sea of tropes, tirades, and thunderings against tyranny.

The antiquary will not fail to notice that Bedford Bury is a locality set down in this piece as a place where tailors most did congregate some century ago: they still much do congregate on the same spot. A century before the period of the piece, Frank Kynaston, the poet, resided in a house adjacent to the "Bury," and the memory thereof is still kept up in the name of Kynaston Alley, which is within that same "Bury" of classical associations. Thus do tailoring and the belles lettres continue to be in close connection, and where Kynaston's muse kept itself warm, the sacred goose of the schneider still glows with fervid heat. The operatives of the Bury, moreover, look as much like poets as tailors-so abstract are they of air, so romantically heedless of personal appearance, and so unro

mantically and really "half starved." Not of them can be said what Titillinda says of Abrahamides, Whose form might claim attention even from

queens.

Finally-want of space and not of material, brings that troublesome adverb upon me-if it be objected that the tailors of the poets do sometimes waver in critical situations, and condescend to tremble in presence of consequences, I have to answer that such facts prove their heroism-as being akin to that of the Conqueror and Coeur de Lion. When the former was being crowned at York, he heard such an uproar in the streets, caused by the massacre of the inhabitants by the amiable Normans, that he sat upon his throne, shaking with affright; vehementer tremens, says Orderic Vitalis, and he is very good authority. As for that tinselled bully, Richard, nobody doubts his single virtue-courage; but, bold as he was, we all know that when in Sicily, he discreetly ran away from a bumpkin who threatened to cudgel him for attempting a matter of petty larceny. Francis Feeble and his brethren may, therefore, not be ashamed if they have foibles in common with William of Normandy and Richard of the Lion Heart. JOHN DORAN.

HAVING thus, by the aid alone of the scattered notices in heathen authors, brought the Jews into their own land, it may not be amiss to give some particulars, taken from the same sources, of the doctrines and ceremonies which Moses taught his people.

One of the first things worthy of observation is that he invariably claimed the divine command for all his institutions. It is added, says Diodorus, at the end of their laws, "that Moses having heard these things from God, spake them after

a Artapanus, in Euseb. ix. 37.

wards to the Jews." The whole narrative of Artapanus asserts the same divine guidance; and it is also assumed in that singular and well-known passage of Longinus," in which he speaks of Moses "as a man of no common order, who conceived and declared the power of the divinity in all its majesty; and who, in the beginning of his laws, used these words; God said, Let there be light and there was light

let there be land and there was land."" From this quotation it is very evident that Moses claimed immediate

Moses did not appoint a After all, this difference

communication with God, for nothing but divinity could have enlightened him as to the mysteries of creation.

The doctrine of Moses respecting the nature of God differed widely from that of other nations: he declared that the Egyptians who worshipped various animals, and the Africans and Greeks who made images of the gods in the likeness of men, were both in grievous error. He acknowledged one supreme God eternal, everlasting, immutable; it would have been the extreme of profanity in the Jews to place any image whatever either in their temples or in their cities, as God was to be worshipped by the mind only. According to Diodorus, Moses held the doctrine that "the heaven surrounding the earth was alone God, and Lord of all things." Strabo informs us nearly the same thing, but in somewhat different words; he says, "that Moses considered that alone to be God which contains us, and the land, and the sea, in short, what we call heaven and earth and the nature of all things." We are told by the same author, that these differences between the religious opinions of the Jews and those of the Egyptians led to their migration (as he calls their expulsion), and he adds that those who accompanied Moses took a great interest in divine matters.

The religious rites and sacrifices also which Moses ordained for the Jews were totally different from those of every other nation, especially from those of the Egyptians: thus, a ram was slain in their ceremonies, as if in contumely of Ammon: an ox also was sacrificed, as if in contempt of the Egyptians, who worshipped this animal as Apis: they abstained from swine's flesh, in memory of the misfortune which drove them from Egypt, for this animal is subject to the disease which occasioned their expulsion. Besides the frequent feasts which they kept in memory of the extreme and lengthened hunger which they experienced in their wanderings, they used their bread made without leaven, to keep in remembrance the fact of their

being obliged at their departure from Egypt to carry off their food suddenly.

In order to keep the Jews entirely distinct from the surrounding nations, Moses laid down for them a manner of life repulsive and hateful to all strangers. Everything was profane with the Jews which was sacred to other nations, and again whatever was reckoned shameful elsewhere was accounted lawful with them. They were not allowed to eat with strangers, neither did they intermarry with them: their leaning to their own people was very strong, but an odious hostility was shown to every other Amongst other rites, that of circumcision kept them distinct, and even foreigners who joined the Jews from other nations were obliged to submit to this custom, to despise their native gods and to discard their country.

race.

Instead of appointing a king over the Jews, Moses decided that the government should be committed to the most virtuous and prudent of all priests. He was named the "chief priest," and was esteemed as the messenger of the divine precepts to the people; nay, he was so honoured on this account, that it is said when he gave his decrees in their assemblies, they actually fell to the ground and worshipped him. Next in order to him were the judges, who had the charge of the laws and customs, and who were chosen out of the body of the priests on account of their superior understanding. The priests themselves appear to have been selected out of the people at large, for it was directed that they should be popular with the nation, and those who possessed the greatest authority: to them was committed the care of the altars and sacrifices, and everything that pertained to the worship of God. Moses divided the whole nation into twelve tribes, thinking this number was the most perfect, as the year is divided into twelve months.

The observance of the Sabbath, or seventh day, has already been slightly alluded to. It is said to have been

b Strabo, xvi. Diod. Sic. xl.

Tacitus, Hist. v. 4.

Tacitus, Hist. v. 4.

Tacitus, v. 5.

f Diodorus, xl.

h Diodorus, xl.

d Strabo, xvi.

instituted by Moses, in memory of the Jews having finished their wandering in the desert on this day; and it was to be observed as a feast in all future ages. On that day the whole nation rested entirely from all kinds of work; and, in process of time, being seduced by the love of repose, they devoted every seventh year to idleness. Some people, says Tacitus, have accounted for this appropriation of the seventh day and year by supposing that the Jews made it in honour of Saturn, and that his rites were brought by the Idæans when they are said to have settled in Canaan; others again think that it was so instituted because the star of Saturn is the chief of the seven stars by which mortals are governed, and almost all the heavenly bodies finish their courses in the number seven. However this may be, the rites in question, he says, are sanctioned by very high antiquity. Thus far Tacitus, as to the early observance of the seventh day in later times it was well known and ridiculed by the Romans. It is needless to refer to the passages in Juvenal, Persius, Martial, and others.

Great care was taken to increase the population. It was considered unlawful to expose their children, as the surrounding nations were accustomed to do: they thought the souls of those who were condemned to death, and of those who perished in battle to be eternal; and this idea was the origin of their especial desire to have posterity, and also of their contempt of death. They were accustomed to inter their bodies instead of burning them; it is added by Tacitus, "after the manner of the Egyptians," but this must surely be an error. The fact, however, with respect to the Jews cannot be doubted; and it is borne out by Diodorus, who says that Moses instituted different rites of marriage and burial from those of other nations.

This short account of the doctrines and discipline established by Moses would be incomplete without mentioning one or two particulars respecting

a Justinus, xxxvi. 2.

e Juvenal, Sat. xiv. 96-vi. 158.

the Jews, stated by ancient authors, but which are yet so manifestly contradicted in other parts of the works of the same authors, that under any circumstances they would have been considered unworthy of credit. Thus almost all our authorities agree in stating that the Jews worshipped one God only, and that images of every kind were considered profane; the inconsistency of Tacitus is therefore very apparent, for, just before stating these facts, he informs us that they dedicated in their sacred place "an image of that animal by whose means an end was put to their wanderings and to their thirst;" this refers, of course, to the story of Moses having been directed by the wild asses to the verdant rock which afforded water. Again, the same author, who had just previously mentioned their belief in the unity of the Deity, informs us that some people thought that they worshipped Bacchus, because their priests play on the pipe, and on timbrels, and are crowned with ivy, and a golden vine is found in their temple. He does not, however, appear to give much credence himself to this report, for he observes that there is a wide difference between the rites of the two religions, the customs of the Jews being absurd and mean, while the rites of Bacchus were festal and joyous.

Several interesting particulars are given by the authors who have been our authorities respecting the city and the temple of Jerusalem; but as they evidently refer to later times than those which are the subject of the present sketch, they cannot now be brought forward with propriety; but the statements which are given respecting the Dead Sea, and the destruction of the cities of the plain, fall perhaps rather more within the scope of this paper; for though the time of this catastrophe is not especially mentioned, yet there can be no doubt, even from the testimony of the authors we are now taking as guides, that it occurred at a period of very high antiquity. As it may be interesting to know exactly

Tacitus, Hist. v. 4.