Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

ORIGIN OF THE VEIL.

The Origin of the Veil is referred by the Greeks to modesty and bashfulness—properties which partake equally of timidity. They used to tell a pleasant story on this subject.—About thirty furlongs from the city of Sparta, Icarius placed a statue of modesty, for the purpose of perpetuating the following incident: —Icarius, having married his daughter to Ulysses, solicited his son-in-law to fix his household in Sparta, and remain there with his wife; to which Ulysses would not consent. Frustrated in his application to the husband, he made the like request to his daughter, conjuring her not to abandon him; but, seeing her ready to depart with Ulysses for Ithaca, he redoubled his efforts to detain her; nor could he be prevailed on to desist from following the chariot on the way. Ulysses, shocked at the desperate situation of his father-in-law, says to his wife, you can best answer this request: it is yours to determine whether you will remain with your father in Sparta, or depart with your husband for Ithaca—you are mistress of the decision.—The beautiful Penelope, finding herself in this dilemma, blushed, and, without making the least reply, drew a veil over her face, (thereby intimating a denial of her father's request) and sunk into the arms of her husband. Icarius, very sensibly affected by this behaviour, and being desirous of transmitting it to posterity, by the most durable monument, consecrated a statue of modesty on the very spot where Penelope had thrown the veil over her face; that, after her, it might be a universal symbol of modesty to the fair sex.