DRESS.
We sacrifice to dress, till household joys
And comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, And keeps our larder lean. Puts out our fires, And introduces hunger, frost and woe, Where peace and hospitality might reign. —COWPER
1. GOD IS A LOVER OF DRESS.—We cannot but feel that God is a lover
of dress. He has put on robes of beauty and glory upon all his works. Every flower is dressed in richness; every field blushes beneath a mantle of beauty; every star is veiled in brightness; every bird is clothed in the habiliments of the most exquisite taste. The cattle upon the thousand hills are dressed by the hand divine. Who, studying God in his works, can doubt, that he will smile upon the evidence of correct taste manifested by his children in clothing the forms he has made them?
2. LOVE OF DRESS.—To love dress is not to be a slave of fashion; to
love dress only is the test of such homage. To transact the business
of charity in a silken dress, and to go in a carriage to the work, injures neither the work nor the worker. The slave of fashion is one who assumes the livery of a princess, and then omits the errand of the good human soul; dresses in elegance, and goes upon no good errand, and thinks and does nothing of value to mankind.
3. BEAUTY IN DRESS.—Beauty in dress is a good thing, rail at it who
may. But it is a lower beauty, for which a higher beauty should not
be sacrificed. They love dresses too much who give it their first
thought, their best time, or all their money; who for it neglect
the culture of their mind or heart, or the claims of others on their
service; who care more for their dress than their disposition; who are
troubled more by an unfashionable bonnet than a neglected duty.
4. SIMPLICITY OF DRESS.—Female lovliness never appears to so good
advantage as when set off by simplicity of dress. No artist ever decks
his angels with towering feathers and gaudy jewelry; and our dear
human angels—if they would make good their title to that name—should
carefully avoid ornaments, which properly belong to Indian squaws and
African princesses. These tinselries may serve to give effect on the
stage, or upon the ball room floor, but in daily life there is no
substitute for the charm of simplicity. A vulgar taste is not to
be disguised by gold or diamonds. The absence of a true taste and
refinement of delicacy cannot be compensated for by the possession of
the most princely fortune. Mind measures gold, but gold cannot measure
mind. Through dress the mind may be read, as through the delicate
tissue the lettered page. A modest woman will dress modestly; a really
refined and intelligent woman will bear the marks of careful selection
and faultless taste.
5. PEOPLE OF SENSE.—A coat that has the mark of use upon it, is a
recommendation to the people of sense, and a hat with too much nap, and too high lustre, a derogatory circumstance. The best coats in our streets are worn on the backs of penniless fops, broken down merchants, clerks with pitiful salaries, and men that do not pay up. The heaviest gold chains dangle from the fobs of gamblers and gentlemen of very limited means; costly ornaments on ladies, indicate to the eyes that are well opened, the fact of a silly lover or husband cramped for funds.
6. PLAIN AND NEAT.—When a pretty woman goes by in plain and neat
apparel, it is the presumption that she has fair expectations, and
a husband that can show a balance in his favor. For women are like
books,—too much gilding makes men suspicious, that the binding is the
most important part. The body is the shell of the soul, and the dress
is the husk of the body; but the husk generally tells what the kernel
is. As a fashionably dressed young lady passed some gentlemen, one of
them raised his hat, whereupon another, struck by the fine appearance
of the lady, made some inquiries concerning her, and was answered
thus: "She makes a pretty ornament in her father's house, but
otherwise is of no use."