girls," said I, "you may try yourselves by this standard.
You love dress too much when you care more for your outward adornings
than for your inward dispositions, when it afflicts you more to have
torn your dress than to have lost your temper, when you are more
troubled by an ill-fitting gown than by a neglected duty,--when you
are less concerned at having made an unjust comment, or spread a
scandalous report, than at having worn a passe bonnet, when you are
less troubled at the thought of being found at the last great feast
without the wedding garment, than at being found at the party to-night
in the fashion of last year. No Christian woman, as I view it, ought
to give such attention to her dress as to allow it to take up _all_ of
three very important things, viz:--

_All_ her time.
_All_ her strength.
_All_ her money.

Whoever does this lives not the Christian, but the Pagan life,--worships
not at the Christian's altar of our Lord Jesus, but at the shrine of the
lower Venus of Corinth and Rome."

"Oh now, Mr. Crowfield, you frighten me," said Humming-Bird. "I'm so
afraid, do you know, that I am doing exactly that."

"And so am I," said Pheasant; "and yet, certainly, it is not what I
mean or intend to do."

"But how to help it," said Dove.

"My dears," said I, "where there is a will there is a way. Only
resolve that you will put the true beauty first,--that, even if you do
have to seem unfashionable, you will follow the highest beauty of
womanhood,--and the battle is half gained. Only resolve that your
time, your strength, your money, such as you have, shall not all--nor
more than half--be given to mere outward adornment, and you will go
right. It requires only an army of girls animated with this noble
purpose to declare independence in America, and emancipate us from the
decrees and tyrannies of French actresses and ballet-dancers. _En
avant_, girls! You yet can, if you will, save the republic."

X

WHAT ARE THE SOURCES OF BEAUTY IN DRESS

The conversation on dress which I had held with Jenny and her little
covey of Birds of Paradise appeared to have worked in the minds of the
fair council, for it was not long before they invaded my study again
in a body. They were going out to a party, but called for Jenny, and
of course gave me and Mrs. Crowfield the privilege of seeing them
equipped for conquest.

Latterly, I must confess, the mysteries of the toilet rites have
impressed me