An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson].

  • Adam Ferguson
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    383/438 page 373
    perhaps fome favage was d relied before him. Vanity is not diltinguifiaed by any peculiar fpecies of drefs. It is betrayed by tire Indian in the phantaftic affortme'nts of his plumes, his fhells, his party-coloured furs, and in the time he beftows at the glafs and the toilet. Its projects in the woods and in the town are the fame: in the one, it feeks, with the vifage bedaubed, and with teeth artificially ftained , for that admiration, which it courts in the other with a gilded equipage, and liveries of Hate. Polished nations, in their progrefs', often come to furpafs the rude-in moderation, and feverity of manners. “ The Greeks,” fays Thu- “ cydides , u not long ago , like barbarians, wore £c golden fpaogles in the hair, and went armed “ in times of peace. ” Simplicity of drefs in this people, became a mark of politenefs; and the mere materials with which the body is nourilhed or cloathed, are probably of little confequence to any people. We mull look for the characters of men in the qualities of the mind, not in the fpecies of their food, or in the mode of their apparel. What are now the ornaments of the grave, and fcvere ; what is owned to be a real conveniency, were once the fopperies of youth, or were devifed to pleafe the effeminate. The new fafiiion, indeed, is often the mark of the coxcomb ; but we frequently change our fafhibns, without multiplying 'coxcombs, cr' increafing the meafures of our vanity and folly. Are the apprehenfions of the fevere, therefore, B b 3 \
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