Dress.
Next in importance to food and drink stand clothing and shelter. Without
substantial and permanent protection against cold and rain, without
decent covering for the body and privacy of life, civilization is
impossible. The clothes we wear express the standing choices of our
will; and as clothes come closer to our bodies than anything else, they
stand as the most immediate and obvious expression of our mind. "The
apparel oft proclaims the man."
THE DUTY.
+Attractive personal appearance.+--Clothes that fit, colors that match,
cosy houses and cheery rooms cost little more, except in thought and
attention, than ill-fitting and unbecoming garments and gloomy and
unsightly dwellings. Attractiveness of dress, surroundings, and personal
appearance is a duty; because it gives free exercise to our higher and
nobler sentiments; elevates and enlarges our lives; while discomfort and
repulsiveness in these things lower our standards, and drive us to the
baser elements of our nature in search of cheap forms of self-indulgence
to take the place of that natural delight in attractive dress and
surroundings which has been repressed. Both to ourselves and to our
friends we owe as much attractiveness of personal surroundings and
personal appearance as a reasonable amount of thought and effort and
expenditure can secure.
THE VIRTUE.
+Neatness inexpensive and its absence inexcusable.+--No one is so poor
that he cannot afford to be neat. No one is so rich that he can afford
to be slovenly. Neatness is a virtue, or manly quality; because it keeps
the things we wear and have about us under our control, and compels them
to express our will and purpose.
THE REWARD.
+Dress an indication of the worth of the wearer.+--Neatness of dress and
personal appearance indicates that there is some regard for decency and
propriety, some love of order and beauty, some strength of will and
purpose inside the garments. If dress is the most superficial aspect of
a person, it is at the same time the most obvious one. Our first
impression of people is gained from their general appearance, of which
dress is one of the most important features.
Consequently dress goes far to determine the estimate people place upon
us. Fuller acquaintance may compel a revision of these original
impressions. First impressions, however, often decide our fate with
people whose respect and good-will is valuable to us. Important
positions are often won or lost through attention or neglect in these
matters.
THE TEMPTATION.
+Dress has its snares.+--We are tempted to care, not for attractiveness
in itself, but for the satisfaction of thinking, and having others
think, how fine we look. Worse still, we are tempted to try to look not
as well as we can, but better than somebody else; and by this
combination of rivalry with vanity we get the most contemptible and
pitiable level to which perversity in dress can bring us. There is no
end to the ridiculous and injurious absurdities to which this hollow
vanity will lead those who are silly enough to yield to its demands.
+Cynicism regarding appearance.+--Vanity may take just the opposite
form. We may be just as proud of our bad looks, as of our good looks.
This is the trick of the Cynic. This is the reason why almost every town
has its old codger who seems to delight in wearing the shabbiest coat,
and driving the poorest horse, and living in the most dilapidated shanty
of anyone in town. These persons take as much pride in their mode of
life as the devotee of fashion does in hers. One of these Cynics went to
the baths with Alcibiades, the gayest of Athenian youths. When they came
out Alcibiades put on the Cynic's rags, leaving his own gay and costly
apparel for the Cynic. The Cynic was in a great rage, and protested
that he would not be seen wearing such gaudy things as those. "Ah!" said
Alcibiades; "so you care more what kind of clothes you wear than I do
after all; for I can wear your clothes, but you cannot wear mine."
Another of the Cynics, as he entered the elegant apartments of Plato,
spat upon the rug, exclaiming: "Thus I pour contempt on the pride of
Plato." "Yes," was Plato's reply, "with a greater pride of your own."
Since pride and vanity have these two forms, we need to be on our guard
against them both. For one or the other is pretty sure to assail us. An
eye single to the attractiveness of our personal appearance is the only
thing that will save us from one or the other of these lines of
temptation.
THE VICE OF DEFECT.
+Too little attention to dress and surroundings is slovenliness.+--The
sloven is known by his dirty hands and face, his disheveled hair, and
tattered garments. His house is in confusion; his grounds are littered
with rubbish; he eats his meals at an untidy table; and sleeps in an
unmade bed. Slovenliness is a vice; for it is an open confession that a
man is too weak to make his surroundings the expression of his tastes
and wishes, and has allowed his surroundings to run over him and drag
him down to their own level. And this subjection of man to the tyranny
of things, when he ought to exercise a strong dominion over them, is the
universal mark of vice.
THE VICE OF EXCESS.
+Too much attention to dress and appearance is fastidiousness.+--These
things are important; but it is a very petty and empty mind that can
find enough in them to occupy any considerable portion of its total
attention and energy. The fastidious person must have everything "just
so," or the whole happiness of his precious self is utterly ruined. He
spends hours upon toilet and wardrobe where sensible people spend
minutes. Hence he becomes the slave rather than the master of his dress.
+The sloven and the dude are both slaves; but in different
ways.+--Slovenliness is slavery to the hideous and repulsive.
Fastidiousness is slavery to this or that particular style or fashion.
The freedom and mastery of neatness consists in the ability to make as
attractive as possible just such material as one's means place at his
disposal with the amount of time and effort he can reasonably devote to
them.
THE PENALTY.
+Fastidiousness belittles: slovenliness degrades. Both are
contemptible.+--The man who does not care enough for himself to keep the
dirt off his hands and clothes, when not actually engaged in work that
soils them, cannot complain if other people place no higher estimate
upon him than he by this slovenliness puts upon himself. The woman whose
soul rises and falls the whole distance between ecstasy and despair
with the fit of a glove or the shade of a ribbon must not wonder if
people rate her as of about equal consequence with gloves and ribbons.
These vices make their victims low and petty; and the contempt with
which they are regarded is simply the recognition of the pettiness and
degradation which the vices have begotten.