Humble acknowledgment of a defect looks the more like a virtue, being
found among a people not remarkable for humility. Again, before we can
prove the practice to be immoral, we must prove immorality in the design
of those who use it; either that they intend a deception, or to kindle
unlawful desires in the beholders. But the French ladies, so far as
their purpose comes in question, must be acquitted of both these
charges. Nobody supposes their colour to be natural for a moment, any
more than he would if it were blue or green: and this unambiguous
judgment of the matter is owing to two causes; first, to the universal
knowledge we have, that French women are naturally either brown or
yellow, with very few exceptions; and secondly, to the inartificial
manner in which they paint; for they do not, as I am most satisfactorily
informed, even attempt an imitation of nature, but besmear themselves
hastily, and at a venture, anxious only to lay on enough. Where
therefore there is no wanton intention, nor a wish to deceive, I can
discover no immorality. But in England, I am afraid, our painted ladies
are not clearly entitled to the same apology. They even imitate nature
with such exactness that the whole public is sometimes divided into
parties, who litigate with great warmth the question whether painted or
not? This was remarkably the case with a Miss E----, whom I well
remember. Her roses and lilies were never discovered to be spurious,
till she attained an age that made the supposition of their being
natural impossible. This anxiety to be not merely red and white, which
is all they aim at in France, but to be thought very beautiful, and much
more beautiful than Nature has made them, is a symptom not very
favourable to the idea we would wish to entertain of the chastity,
purity, and modesty of our countrywomen. That they are guilty of a
design to deceive is certain. Otherwise why so much art? and if to
deceive, wherefore and with what purpose? Certai