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Philosophy: Plato

Addison, in the "Spectator" (No. 295), satirizes the extravagance of pin-money:- "Socrates, in Plato's 'Alcibiades,' says, he was informed by one who had travelled through Persia, that as he passed over a tract of lands, and inquired what the name of the place was, they told him it was the queen's girdle; to which he adds, that another wide field which lay by it, was called the queen's veil; and that in the same manner there was a large portion of ground set aside for every part of her Majesty's dress. These lands might not be improperly called the Queen of Persia's pin-money. "I remember my friend Sir Roger, who I dare say never read this passage in Plato, told me some time since, that upon his courting the perverse widow (of whom I have given account in former papers), he had disposed of an hundred acres in a diamond ring, which he would have presented her with, had she thought fit to accept it; and that upon her wedding day, she should have carried on her head fifty of the tallest oaks upon his estate. He further informed me that he would have given her a coal-pit to keep her in clean linen, that he would have allowed her the profits of a windmill for her fans, and have presented her once in three years with the shearing of his sheep for her under-petticoats. To which the Knight always adds, that though he did not care for fine clothes himself, there should not have been a woman in the country better dressed than my lady Coverley."