guess at what is probable. Beauty in dress is certainly a universal
instinctive passion. Perhaps the birds (which Mr. Darwin and others
credit with preening their plumage, conscious that their spots are
the brightest, and their feathers the glossiest, and that they are
therefore adored by the hens, and the envy of the shabbier cocks)
suggested to men the same method for securing the preference of the
other sex, who in return willingly helped to adorn the idols of their
hearts and homes. (Plate 50.) This natural state of things still
prevails in Central Africa, where Schweinfuerth describes a king
dancing before his 100 wives costumed in the tails of lions and
peacocks, and crowned with the proboscis of an elephant. It appears,
however, that, unlike Cleopatra, "custom had staled his infinite
variety," and the 100 ladies looked on the splendid display with blank
indifference.

This is only a barbarous illustration of the fact that in the earliest
civilizations magnificent garments were worn by men to dazzle and awe
the beholders by the splendour which represented wealth and conquest.
How glorious a man could appear apparelled to represent majesty and
dominion, may be learned by studying Canon Rock's book on the
coronation dresses of the Emperors of Germany--a book great in every
sense of the word. The portrait of Charles V. robed and crowned is a
dazzling example of the arts of dress, embroidery, and jeweller's
work. These garments have for ages been treasured at Vienna,
Aix-la-Chapelle, and in the Vatican at Rome.

The coronation garments of the Emperors of Russia are said to be
gorgeously beautiful.

It seems hardly necessary to assert that embroidery has always been
especially applicable to dress. Each garment, being individualized by
the design depicted on it, was fitted for individual uses and
occasions. The conqueror's palmated mantle, the coronation robe, the
bridal garment, the costume of the peasant for festival days, and the
officiating vestments of the priests for special services of prayer
and praise--these were loyally or piously worked; they descended from
generation to generation as family treasures or as historical
memorials, and sometimes as holy relics,[472] till they and the call
for them, were swept away at once by social changes; yet some still
remain and hold their place. Priestly garments, together with Church
decorations, never laid aside in the Roman and Greek Churches, are
being partially rev