moment it will become elegant. A shape may come into fashion—and be thought elegant too—provided only a considerable number of persons approve of and adopt it.
Others say such a shoe cannot be elegant, because the feet appear to be too much turned inwards. This idea is a pure hallucination: the proposed form of shoe admits of the foot having its own proper shape, while in reality the ordinary form frequently renders the actual turning in of the foot quite necessary for the relief of pain experienced at the root of the great toe.
Others again, taking their stand on a sense of the beautiful, declare the curved sole anything but beautiful, and therefore inelegant. I would only ask such people if they consider a naturally-formed foot less beautiful than a crippled one, and if they consider a shoe that always sits well less agreeable to look at than one trodden to one side.
Another set object to it as being too conspicuous. To these I can only say, that anything will cease to be conspicuous when it comes into general use. The proposed form, however, is not after all so very remarkable in appearance, several persons having already adopted it without attracting undue attention. On the other hand, a crippled foot is conspicuous, and very unpleasantly conspicuous too.
But even if the proposed form of shoe be somewhat peculiar, as a set-off it has the advantage of always sitting
