Page:Caplin - Health and Beauty1864 - 169.png

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Dress, and its Relation to Temperaments.
169

"No dress is ever remarked as beautiful in which the prevailing colour has not some pleasing or affecting expression.

"There are a variety of colours which are chosen for common apparel which have no character or expression in themselves, and which are chosen for no other reason but because they are convenient for the peculiar occupations or amusements in which we are engaged. Such dress, accordingly, has no beauty; when we say it is a useful or a conve­nient colour we give it all the approbation it is entitled to.

"There are, on the contrary, a variety of colours which are expressive from peculiar associations, which are either gay or delicate, or rich or grave, or melancholy. It is always such colours that are chosen for what is properly called dress, or for that species of apparel in which something more than mere convenience is intended. When we speak of such dress, accordingly we generally describe its beauty by its character, by its being delicate, or rich, or gay, or magnificent, or in other words, by its being distinguished by some pleasing or affecting expression.

"We shall find an equal impropriety in any per­sons choosing the colour of ornamental dress on