Genorio, Eusebius, Lindamor.
Genor.
MEthinks, you look, Eusebius, as if the change that Blacks have made in this place, since I last saw you here, tempts you to question whether or no this be the Court.
Lind.
Yet, I fear, Eusebius will scarce doubt, that you, and these other Gentlemen are Courtiers, whil’st he sees how much you dissemble in personating sadness: For though your Cloaths look mournful, your Faces do not, and you talk to one another as unconcern’dly, as when you wore lighter Colours; and your Grief is so slight, that it has not an Influence so much as upon your looks, and words, which yet are things that Courtiers are said to be able to disguise without an over-difficult constraint.
Genor.
But, I hope, Lindamor, I need not labour to persuade such as you, that, when we seem to mourn, without doing it, we may be thought guilty of dissimulation without being so: For what Duty is there, that you and I should be really troubled for the Death of a Prince, whose Subjects we were not, who never obliged us, and who perhaps did onely keep the Power of doing Good, which himself never us’d, from a Successor that had the will to employ it. But you will demand, why then we put on Black, To which, the Answer is easie, that Custom having establish’d that Ceremony in the Courts of Princes, in Amity with each other, the Omission would be look’d upon as an Affront, and be a Provocation. And therefore, the Blacks we wear, are not meant to express a Grief for the Dead, but a Respect to their living Relations: And thus, this as heartless as solemn shew of Mourning, is not put on by Hypocrisie, but by Prudence, or Civility. And in this case, I would appeal to Eusebius himself, but that I perceive some Object or other, has ever since we began to talk, engross’d his Attention, as well as seal’d up his Lips.
Lind.
I have taken notice of it, as well as you, Genorio, and I confess, I would give much to learn his Thoughts.
Euseb.
‘Tis odds then, Lindamor, that you would over-purchase so worthless a Knowledge: And to satisfie your Curiosity, at an easier rate, I will tell you, that I was observing, how a Gentleman, who, it seems, does not much frequent the Court, chancing to come in a Colour’d suit, that, but last Week, would have been thought a fine one, was star’d at by all in the room, except your selves, whose Faces chanc’d to be turn’d from him, like a Man of another Country, (not to say of another World) which the poor Gentleman at length perceiving, he soon grew so sensible of it, that in spight of the Richness and Newness of his Cloaths, with many Blushes he slunk out of the Court, to which he found Men’s gazing at him concluded him to be a Stranger.
Lind.
But this, Eusebius, is onely to tell us, what you observ’d, not what Reflections you made upon it, and you know, that which I was inquisitive after, was your Thoughts.
Euseb.
I will add then, Lindamor, since you will have it so, that I was considering, that there has been no Law made by the State to forbid any, much less Strangers, to appear in this Court in Colour’d cloaths: And those, which the Gentleman I was speaking of, had on, were such, both for fineness, and fashionableness, as would very well become a greater Court, if it were not in Mourning. But, now the Prince, and those that have the Honour to belong to him, or to frequent this place, have put themselves into Blacks, to appear in another, though in a finer Habit, is, to betray ones not belonging to the Court, nor using to come to it; and among so many, that think they have a Right to give Laws in point of Cloaths, a Lac’d, or an Imbroider’d suit, though last Week in request, would now they have laid them by, make a Man look not so much like a Courtier, as a Player. And this Reflection invited me to consider further, what a strange Influence fashions have on Mankind, and what an happy change might be easily made in the World, if they, who have it in their Power to introduce Customs, would make it their Endeavour to introduce good ones.
Lind.
I am so much of your mind, Eusebius, that I confess, I envy not Princes so much for the Splendour and the Pleasures that they live in, nor for the Authority of raising Armies, nor perchance for the Happiness of making them Victorious, as for the power of imposing and reforming of Fashions. And I think it a less improvable Prerogative, to be able to coyn any Metal into mony, or call it in at pleasure, than by the stamp of their Authority to introduce good Customs, and make them current.
Genor.
But, do not Princes enough, when they take care to make good Laws, and see them well executed.
Lind.
I will not dispute, whether by That, they do all they ought, but sure I am, they do not all they may: For humane Laws being made for the civil Peace of humane Societies, they are wont to be fram’d not for the making Men virtuous, but the restraining them from being mischievous; they consist far more of Prohibitions than Commands, and ev’n their Prohibitions reach but to a little part of what is ill; the Business of Laws being to provide, not against all Evils, but those grosser ones, that are prejudicial to civil Societies: So that there are a thousand Rules of Reason, or Christianity, which States have not thought fit to turn into Laws. For Pride, Envy, Covetousness, Gluttony, Intemperance, Effeminateness, Oaths, Idleness, and I know not how many other Sins, contrary to the Laws of Nature, and of Christ, are so little provided against by humane Sanctions, that one may be a bad Christian, and a bad Man, without being a bad Citizen; There being nothing more easie, nor I fear more usual, than for Multitudes to pass uncited before Man’s Tribunal, to receive their Condemnation at God’s. But though a Prince can scarce, as a Legislator, prevent, or suppress such Sins, yet, as a Pattern, he may do much towards it: For by his Example, his Opinions, his Encouragements, and his Frowns, he may reform an hundred particular things, which the Laws do not (and perhaps cannot) reach. His declar’d Esteem of such and such Practices, joyn’d with his particular Actions suited to it, and his profest dislike of those Sinful or Dishonourable courses, he finds the Rifest, back’d with a steddy and resolute discountenance of those that do not decline them, will, in a short time, bring those that are about him, to conform their Actions and Behaviour to what Men are satisfi’d, he desires, or likes. And those whom their nearness to Him, or their Employments, make the conspicuous and exemplary Persons, being thus model’d, their Relations and Dependants will quickly be so too, and then that which is in request at Court, being upon that very account look’d upon as the Fashion, it will by degrees be imitated by all those on whom the Court has Influence; since, as we just now saw in the Instance of Eusebius’s gawdy Gentleman, Men will be asham’d to be unlike those, whose Customs and Deportments pass for the Standards, by which those of other Men are to be measur’d.
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