52 THE MIRROR OF THE GRACES.
THE MIRROR OF THE GRACES.
Costly your habit as your purse can buy But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy, For the apparel oft proclaims the woman. "
SHAKSPEARE.
EVERY person of just observation, who looks back on the fashions of our immediate ancestors, and compares their style of dress with that of the present times, will not hesitate to acknowledge the evident improvement in ease and graceful- ness. A judicious dresser will select from each mode that which is most distinguishable for utili- ty and grace, and, combining, adopt them to ad- vantage. This is the art which every woman, who casts a thought on these subjects, ought to endeavour to attain.
Elegant dressing is not found in expense; money, without judgment, may load, but never can adorn. You may show profusion without grace: you may cover a neck with pearls, a head with jewels, hands and arms with rings, bracelets, and trinkets, and yet produce no effect, but hav- ing emptied some merchant's counter upon your person. The best chosen dress is that which so harmonizes with the figure as to make the rai- ment pass unobserved. The result of the finest toilet should be an elegant woman, not an ele- gantly dressed woman. Where a perfect whole is intended, it is a sign of defect in the execution, when the details first present themselves to ob- servation.
In short, the secret of dressing lies in simplicity, and a certain adaptation to your figure, your rank, your circumstances. To dress well on these principles - and they are the only just ones -does not require that extravagant attention to so trivial an object, as is usually exhibited by persons who make the toilet a study.
“Show me a lady's dressing - room, “says a cer- tain writer, “and I will tell you what manner of woman she is. “Chesterfield, also, is of opinion, that a sympathy goes through every action of our lives: he declares, that he could not help conceiving some idea of people's sense and cha- racter from the dress in which they appeared when introduced to him. He was so great an advocate for pleasing externals, that he often said, he would rather see a young person too much than too little dressed, excess, on the fop- pish side wearing off with time and reflection; but, if a youth be negligent at twenty, it is pro- bable he will be a sloven at forty, and disgust- ingly dirty at fifty. However this may be with the other sex, I beg leave to observe that I never met with a woman whose general style of dress was chaste, elegant, and appropriate, that I did not find, on further acquaintance, to be in dispo- sition and mind, an object to admire and love.
A passion for dress is so common with the sex, that it ought not to be very surprising, when opulence, vanity, and bad taste meet, that we
should find extravagance and tawdry profusion the fruits of the union. And it would be well if a humour for expensive dress were always con- fined to the fortunate daughters of Plutus; but we too often find this ruinous spirit in women of slender means, and then, what ought to be one of the embellishments of life, is turned into a splen- did mischief.
A woman of principle and prudence must be consistent in the style and quality of her attire; she must be careful that her expenditure does not exceed the limits of her allowance; she must be aware, that it is not the girl who lavishes the most money on her apparel that is the best array- ed. Frequent instances have I known, where young women, with a little good taste, ingenui- ty, and economy, have maintained a much bet- ter appearance than ladies of three times their fortune. No treasury is large enough to supply indiscriminate profusion; and scarcely any purse is too scanty for the uses of life, when managed by a careful hand. Few are the situations in which a woman can be placed, whether she be married or single, where some attention to thrift is not expected. Hence we see, that hardly any woman, however related, can have a right to in- dependent, uncontrolled expenditure; and that, to do her duty in every sense of the word, she must learn to understand and exercise the graces of economy. This quality will be a gem in her husband's eyes; for, though most of the money- getting sex like to see their wives well dressed, yet, trust me, my fair friends, they would rather owe that pleasure to your taste than to their pockets.
Costliness being, then, no essential principle in real elegance, I shall proceed to give you a few hints on what are the distinguishing circum- stances of a well - ordered toilet.
As the beauty of form and complexion is differ- ent in different women, and is still more varied, according to the ages of the fair subjects of in- vestigation, so the styles in dress, while simpli- city is the soul of all, must assume a character corresponding with the wearer.
The seasons of life should be arrayed like those of the year. In the spring of youth, when all is lovely and gay, then, as the soft green, sparkling in freshness, bedecks the earth, so light and transparent robes of tender colours should adorn the limbs of the young beauty. If she be of the Hebe form, warm weather should find her veiled in fine muslin, lawn, gauzes, and other lucid materials. To suit the character of her figure, and to accord with the prevailing mode and just taste together, her morning robes should be of a
