ing, very different from any other systems, either ancient or modern. And it was not merely to entertain or satisfy the reader's curiosity, but rather to give him light into several circumstances of the following story; that, knowing the state of dispositions and opinions in an age so remote, he may better comprehend those great events which were the issue of them. I advise therefore the courteous reader, to peruse, with a world of application, again and again, whatever I have written upon this matter. And leaving these broken ends, I carefully gather up the chief thread of my story, and proceed. These opinions therefore were so universal, as well as the practices of them, among the refined part of court and town, that our three brotheradventurers, as their circumstances then stood, were strangely at a loss. For, on the one side, he three ladies they addressed themselves to, whom we have named already, were ever at the very top of the fashion, and abhorred all that were below it but the breadth of a hair. On the other side, their father's will was very precise; and it was the main precept in it, with the greatest penalties annexed, not to add to, or diminish from their coats, one thread, without a positive command in the will. Now, the coats their father had left them, were, it is true, of very good cloth; and, besides, so neatly sown, you would swear they were all of a piece; but at the same time very plain, and with little or no ornament*. And it happened, that, before they were a month in town, great shoulder-knots; came up t : Straight all the world wore shoulder-knots; no approaching the ladies ruelles, without the quota of shoulder-knots. That fellow, cries one, has no soul ; where is his shoulder-knot? Our three brethren soon discovered their want by sad experience, meeting in their walks with forty mortifications and indignities. If they went to the playhouse, the door-keeper shewed them into the twelvepenny gallery. If they called a boat, says a waterman, I am first sculler. If they stepped to the Rose to take a bottle, the drawer would cry, Friend, we sell no ale. If they went to visit a la * His description of the cloth of which the coat was made, has a farther meaning than the words may seem to import: " The coats, their father had left them, were of "very good cloth; and, besides, so neatly sown, you "would swear they were all of a piece; but, at the same “ time, very plain, with little or no ornament.” This is the distinguishing character of the Christian religion. Christiani religio absoluta et simpler, was Ammianus Marcellinus's description of it, who was himself a Heathen. W. Wotton. By this is understood the first introducing of pageantry, and unnecessary ornaments in the church, such as were neither for convenience or edification; as a shoulder: knot, in which there is neither symmetry nor use. dy, a footman met them at the door, with Pray send up your message. In this unhappy case they went immediately to consult their father's will; read it over and over, but not a word of the shoulder-knot. What should they do? What temper should they find? Obedience was absolutely necessary, and yet shoulder-knots appeared extremely requisite. After much thought, one of the brothers, who happened to be more booklearned than the other two, said, he had found an expedient. It is true, said he, there is nothing here in this will, totidem verbis *, making mention of shoulder-knots: But I dare conjecture, we may find them inclusive, or totidem syllabis. This distinction was immediately approved by all; and so they fell again to examine. But their evil star had so directed the matter, that the first syllable was not to be found in the whole writing. Upon which disappointment, he who found the former evasion, took heart, and said, Brothers, there is yet hope; for though we cannot find them totidem verbis, nor totidem syllabis, I dare engage we shall *When the Papists cannot find any thing which they want in scripture, they go to oral tradition. Thus Peter is introduced dissatisfied with the tedious way of looking for all the letters of any word, which he has occasion for in the will; when neither the constituent syllables, nor much less the whole word, were there in terminis. W. Wotton. |
