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Dress: its Uses, Beauties, and Fashions.
23

will be recollected that she is represented with the right arm extended, and the head turned over the right shoulder, the left hand grasping the horns of a goat, and the weight of the body thrown on the left leg. This, however, is but a momentary posi­tion, and in contemplating this beautiful work of art, the mind instinctively pictures the figure in a state of erect and majestic repose. So also with the Venus—the proportions alone strike the eye, and the mind,

"Dazzled and drunk with beauty,"

immediately pictures that lovely figure in every attitude which the human form is capable of assuming. Disastrous results always follow a con­tinued pressure on the vital organs, and a little reflection will prove that no such constrained posi­tion could be maintained for any length of time without producing injurious consequences.

Assuming, then, that this figure is erect, the first problem to be solved is how to adapt the clothing to it in such a manner as shall display its beauty and admirable proportions; for unless this be done, art only mars, or at least hides those charms which it ought to adorn.

Everyone who has paid the least attention to