The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

An ADDRESS to the LADIES.
by their best Friend SINCERITY.

TIME there was of manners plain,
When tyrant custom did not reign;
When splendid trappings were unknown,
And decent merit rul'd alone.
But now behold! this simple verse
Proclaims the case is quite reverse
Look when we will: what crouds are seen;
What crouds of female beaux I mean;
Aloft we see with wild surprize,
Their mighty towering Caps arise.
We stand astonish'd to find
The head so high. to low the mind.
Go search the toilet there review,
Pomatum, combs, and powder too,
With cockades, lappets, feathers, flies,
Of every sort and every size.
These grand materials all declare,
The vast importance of the hair.
How various, numerous; rich and gay
The ornaments their heads display?
So much without! can it be in.
To say there is not much within
Could mother Eve this scene behold,
She would almost attempt to scold.
"Are these my children that I see
No they are not, they cannot be.
What ugly, what incessant pains,
To deck a head devoid of brains:
Ah! sad, perverse, degenerate race,
The monstrous head, deforms the face:
Begone -- I do protest indeed,
Against this modern furious head."
Thus every mother should condemn,
And not their daughters faults commend;
Fordyce in florid style exprest,
That simple neatness was the best
The most becoming ornament,
That ever genius could invent.
And Thompson's soft, harmonious strains,
The same important truth contains;
E'en wisdom's favorite son declar'd.
That garments plain should be preferr'd.
But let who will the sex reprove,
Still they will practice what they love.
Ladies, for once attention lend,
And hear the counsel of a friend.
Averse from all the flattering arts,
That gains access to female hearts.
What? shall a cap, or lock of hair,
Employ your constant ardent care?
Let not a high aspiring roll,
Your every faculty controul;
Why should a thing, so base, so mean,
In your affections reign supreme?
Forbid it! let it not be said,
That rolls and curls command the head.
Why will my friends be so unkind,
To the endowments of the mind?
What are the charms of dress or lace:
To mental beauty, mental grace?
The former like the transient flower,
Blooms and decays in one short hour;
But intellectual gifts avail,
When all external graces fail,
When ladies strive to win the prize,
That shall exist above the skies.
Fair virtue's precepts learn to love,
What she commends do you approve;
Let each prefer the better part,
And aim to beautify the heart;
Fear not tho' fops conceive offence,
But dare to be--a girl of sense.