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."
7. THE RICHEST DRESS.--The richest dress is always worn on the soul.
The adornments that will not perish, and that all men most admire,
shine from the heart through this life. God has made it our highest,
holiest duty, to dress the souls he has given us. It is wicked to
waste it in frivolity. It is a beautiful, undying, precious thing. If
every young woman would think of her soul when she looks in the
glass, would hear the cry of her naked mind when she dallies away her
precious hours at her toilet, would listen to the sad moaning of her
hollow heart, as it wails through her idle, useless life, something
would be done for the elevation of womanhood.
8. DRESSING UP.--Compare a well-dressed body with a well-dressed mind.
Compare a taste for dress with a taste for knowledge, culture,
virtue, and piety. Dress up an ignorant young woman in the "height of
fashion"; put on plumes and flowers, diamonds and gewgaws; paint her
face, girt up her waist, and I ask you, if this side of a painted and
feathered savage you can find anything more unpleasant to behold. And
yet such young women we meet by the hundred every day on the street
and in all our public places. It is awful to think of.
9. DRESS AFFECTS OUR MANNERS.--A man who is badly dressed, feels
chilly, sweaty, and prickly. He stammers, and does not always tell the
truth. He means to, perhaps, but he can't. He is half distracted about
his pantaloons, which are much to short, and are constantly hitching
up; or his frayed jacket and crumpled linen harrow his soul, and quite
unman him. He treads on the train of a lady's dress, and says, "Thank
you", sits down on his hat, and wishes the "desert were his dwelling
place."
[Illustration]
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