y of them, consisting of little more than
one single piece of drapery, without those whimsical capricious forms by
which all other dresses are embarrassed.

Thus, though it is from the prejudice we have in favour of the ancients,
who have taught us architecture, that we have adopted likewise their
ornaments; and though we are satisfied that neither nature nor reason is
the foundation of those beauties which we imagine we see in that art, yet
if any one persuaded of this truth should, therefore, invent new orders
of equal beauty, which we will suppose to be possible, yet they would not
please, nor ought he to complain, since the old has that great advantage
of having custom and prejudice on its side. In this case we leave what
has every prejudice in its favour to take that which will have no
advantage over what we have left, but novelty, which soon destroys
itself, and, at any rate, is but a weak antagonist against custom.

These ornaments, having the right of possession, ought not to be removed
but to make room for not only what has higher pretensions, but such
pretensions as will balance the evil and confusion which innovation
always brings with it.

To this we may add, even the durability of the materials will often
contribute to give a superiority to one object over another. Ornaments
in buildings, with which taste is principally concerned, are composed of
materials which last longer than those of which dress is composed; it,
therefore, makes higher pretensions to our favour and prejudice.

Some attention is surely required to what we can no more get rid of than
we can go out of ourselves. We are creatures of prejudice; we neither
can nor ought to eradicate it; we must only regulate, it by reason, which
regulation by reason is, indeed, little more than obliging the lesser,
the focal and temporary prejudices, to give way to those which are more
durable and lasting.

He, therefore, who in his practice of portrait painting wishes to dignify
his subject, which we will suppose to be a lady, will not paint her in
the modern dress, the familiarity of which alone is sufficient to destroy
all dignity. He takes care that his work shall correspond to those ideas
and that imagination which he knows will regulate the judgment of others,
and, therefore, dresses his figure something with the general air of the
antique for the sake of dignity, and preserves something of the modern
for the sake of likeness. By this conduct h