flict their fumes upon others. Particular care
should be taken to guard against a bad breath from _any_ cause.

5. _Several Items._

Never pare or scrape your nails, pick your teeth, comb your hair, or
perform any of the necessary operations of the toilet in company. All
these things should be carefully attended to in the privacy of your
own room. To pick the nose, dig the ears, or scratch the head or any
part of the person in company is still worse. Watch yourself
carefully, and if you have any such habits, break them up at once.
These may seem little things, but they have their weight, and go far
in determining the character of the impression we make upon those
around us.

II.

DRESS.

From little matters let us pass to less,
And lightly touch the mysteries of dress;
The outward forms the inner man reveal;
We guess the pulp before we eat the peel.--_O. W. Holmes._

I.--THE LANGUAGE OF DRESS.

Dress has its language, which is, or may be, read and understood by
all. It is one of the forms in which we naturally give expression to
our tastes, our constructive faculties, our reason, our feelings, our
habits--in a word, to our character, as a whole. This expression is
often greatly modified by the arbitrary laws of Fashion, and by
circumstances of time, place, and condition, which we can not wholly
control; but can hardly be entirely falsified. Even that arch tyrant,
the reigning _Mode_, whatever it may be, leaves us little room for
choice in materials, forms, and colors, and the choice we make
indicates our prominent traits of character.

II.--THE USES OF DRESS.

"Dress," that admirable Art Journal the _Crayon_ says, "has two
functions--to clothe and to ornament; and while we can not lose sight
of either point, we must not attribute to the one a power which
belongs to the other. The essential requirement of dress is to cover
and make comfortable the body, and of two forms of dress which fulfill
this function equally well, that is the better which is most accordant
with the laws of beauty. But fitness must in nowise be interfered
with; and the garb which infringes on this law gives us pain rather
than pleasure. We believe that it will be found that fitness and
beauty, so far from requiring any sacrifice for combination, are found
each in the highest degree where both are most fully obtained--that
the fittest, most comfortable dress is that which is most graceful or
becoming. Fitness