JOHN COLLINS. ""Tis held by Peter and by Paul That when we fill our graves or urns, And dust to dust once more returns : Appears in monumental lay : Paul's grave is fill'd with Fuller's earth, And Peter's cramm'd with Potter's clay." 167 Had I time and space, there are multitudinous more things I should like to say about John Collins. Parting from him, let me remark that he belongs to a class of men who might be increased without public inconvenience. More such men in our country towns would keep up that intellectual life which is the healthiest of all influences. No man can deny that a song like "To-morrow" is nobly suggestive; and though one doesn't encounter a Collins every day, it is quite conceivable that men of the Collins. type would multiply if country towns were less stagnant than they are, less content to be stagnant, less absurdly unconscious that they have duties to perform, and that a few centuries ago their names were known in history. For the sake of English local literature, I heartily wish there were more Collinses. THE ROMAN GIRL OF THE PERIOD. It is often convenient, in writing for immediate purposes, to accept words and phrases which, though inaccurate, are for the moment popular. This must account for our using the illiterate expression "Girl of the Period" in the course of this article. A period is exactly equivalent to a cycle; and unless it can be shown that there is anything recurrent in the procession of time, the word is without significance in this popular phrase. Its originator (a lady probably) should have used the word "era." Having made this preliminary remark, we shall make use of the phrase when necessary. Imperial Rome takes very high rank among the great cities of the world-second perhaps to London only. The English are a superior race to the Romans, intellectually and physically. This is already certain, though we have seen the Roman race at its highest point of development, while as yet the English have not reached that point. Questionless there are matters wherein the Romans surpassed us. They built stronger bridges, laid firmer roads, made terser and clearer laws, wrote sharper THE GIRLS OF ROME. 169 satire. They were madder in their luxury and more shameless in their vice. They were a strong and resolute people, but devoid of originality, which especially appears in their literature. Their drama and epic and history were all borrowed from the Greeks; even so was their art. Their satire was original; it sprang from the depth of their social degradation, the hideous character of their vice, as phosphoric exhalations arise from fetid morasses. Satire apart, they had but one original writer-Catullus. He, indolent aristocrat and aristologist, has left us a few perfect gems, but cared not to do justice to his own genius. We conjecture his power, as we should have to guess at Shakespeare's if he had written nothing but his sonnets and his songs. What girls were like in Rome we do not learn from this fine gentleman and finer poet. He burned with a mad passion for one woman only, and contemptuously notices others. Nor again from Horace. His lyrics are almost all from Greek sources, and the women he names -Cinara and perhaps Lydia excepted—are names and nothing more. But there is one writer whose brilliant pages reflect for us the very life of Rome under Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan—ay, and the girls of that period are as vividly photographed as it is possible for the most expert of contemporary artists to depict the girls of this present day. That writer is Marcus Valerius Martialis, whose name we have shortened to Martial. In about fifteen hundred epigrams he reflects every phase of Roman life, and his gallery of female characters is entirely unrivalled in literature. We observe among ourselves that the growth of luxury and opulence is accompanied by a disinclination to marriage. Young men find it hard to live as bachelors in the style which they deem necessary; hence it is not surprising that they should dread the idea of a wife and children. And indeed, when you regard attentively all that is requisite to the comfort of a modern young lady, you cannot be astonished that the idea of having her as a wife is somewhat terrifying. Inquire in the Burlington Arcade the price of one of those dainty bonnets, of a pair of those delicate bottines, then calculate if you can the cost of all the mysterious articles of apparel which lie between the one and the other. And how often will all these charming costly things require renewal? These are momentous considerations for the young gentleman who is anxious to marry, unless he is lucky enough to be a millionaire. In that event let him wed the belle of the season, and give her carte-blanche in the matter of dress. She will fulfil the French saying, "Elle s'habille, elle babille, elle se déshabille;" and what better can she do, if her dress is artistic and her chat is witty? Dress is a fine art, and not the least of the fine arts. It takes the loveliest of nature's productions and adorns it gracefully; and he is a bloodless churl who does not rejoice to see a beautiful woman, perfect as to the light of her eyes, the sweetness of her lips, the colours and curves of her form, dressed with sufficing sumptuousness, sparkling with diamonds and sapphires. But "Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum ;" everybody cannot dress a divine beauty as she deserves, ROMAN PRIVILEGES. 171 any more than everybody can have a house in Park Lane, and tread on Aubusson carpets, and dine from Rose du Barri porcelain, and hang Claudes and Titians on his walls. So expensive were the girls of Rome, that Julius Cæsar was induced to offer premiums in encouragement of marriage. He allowed married women to dress more superbly than the unmarried, and to drive in costlier carriages; and he relieved of various taxes the married man who was father of three children. The distinction of dress was gradually obliterated under the Emperors; but the privileges of the natorum genitor trium seem rather to have increased, since he had a right to the best seats at the public games, and was more readily admitted to official positions. Shall we come to this sort of thing in England? Will there ever be a time when the father of three children will have his income-tax reduced, and a gratuitous stall at the Opera, and get first choice of a sinecure, from the office of Lord Privy Seal downwards? It is clear that both sexes are injured by the existence of a corrupt luxury; clear also that social extravagance and female eccentricity act and react on each other. In simple communities, where girls are taught to regard marriage as their natural destiny, and to prepare themselves for being wives and mothers, we see nothing of the variations in feminine character and habit which are familiar to us in modern England. When the girl of high spirit and quick intellect perceives that marriage is by no means the certainty it ought to be-that it is, on the whole, rather improbable-she naturally meditates on other possible careers. This is the reason why so many |