ou mean to put them; and then let the principles of good
taste keep you from the extremes of fashion; and regulate the form so as
to combine utility and beauty, while the known rules of harmony in
colors save you from shocking the eye of the artist by incongruous
mixtures.

The character is much more shown in the style of dress that is worn
every day, than in that which is designed for great occasions; and when
I see a young girl come down to the family breakfast in an untidy
wrapper, with her hair in papers, her feet slip-shod, and an old silk
handkerchief round her neck, I know that she cannot be the neat,
industrious, and refined person whom I should like for an inmate. I feel
equally certain, too, that her chamber is not kept in neat order, and
that she does not set a proper value upon time. However well a lady has
appeared at a party, I would recommend to a young gentleman--before he
makes up his mind as to her domestic qualities--to observe her
appearance at the breakfast-table, when she expects to see only her own
family; and, if it be such as I have just described, to beware how he
prosecutes the acquaintance.

COMPRESSION OF THE LUNGS.

Few circumstances are more injurious to beauty than the constrained
movement, suffused complexion, and labored respiration that betray
tight-lacing. The play of intelligence, and varied emotion, which throw
such a charm over the brow of youth, are impeded by whatever obstructs
the flow of blood from the heart to its many organs. In Greece, where
the elements of beauty and grace were earliest comprehended, and most
happily illustrated, the fine symmetry of the form was left untortured.

But the influence of this habit on beauty is far less to be deprecated
than its effects upon health. That pulmonary disease, affections of the
heart, and insanity, are in its train, and that it leads some of our
fairest and dearest to Fashion's shrine to die, is placed beyond a doubt
by strong medical testimony.

Dr. Mussey, whose "_Lectures on Intemperance_" have so forcibly arrested
the attention of the public, asserts that "greater numbers annually die
among the female sex, in consequence of tight-lacing, than are destroyed
among the other sex by the use of spirituous liquors in the same time."
Is it possible that thousands of our own sex, in our own native land,
lay, with their own hand, the foundation of diseases that destroy
life!--and are willing, for fashion's sake, to commit