for, as the power and pathos of the melody are heightened by an under-current of flowing harmony, so certainly a beautiful face and form receive a finishing grace from the shading and softening accompaniments of well-chosen decoration. But if they be not well chosen, if they be ill-fitting, or incongruious, or bizarre—if fashion alone, not fitness, be the guide—then is beauty marred by what was intended for ornament, as the impression which a beautiful melody ought to make will be utterly spoiled by the effect of an accompaniment either out of time or unsuitable in its nature to the rhythm of the melody which it accompanies. Fitness, indeed, is the essence of beauty."
The main object of this chapter, however, is to call attention to the principles which lie as it were at the foundation of all proper ideas respecting clothing, in any attempt to adjust the dress to the body so as to develop its beauty and proportions; and it must be borne in mind, too, that it is that beauty and those proportions which all our efforts must be directed to display. In making this assertion we take everything into account which can be said to belong to the well-being of the body; more particularly health and comfort—for without health there can be no beauty. Young ladies sometimes
