a shepherdess, another like a Spanish cavalier in the time of Charles
the Second, another with a three-cornered hat such as state-coachmen
wear on "drawing-room days," only of course a very small edition
of it; another with a little coquettish hat that suggests one of
Watteau's most successful pictures; but no one may wear one of those
large mushroom bonnets which were worn some five-and-thirty years ago,
and which were ornamented by large bows of ribbon stiffened with wire,
and by great nosegays of flowers which resembled a garden flower-pot.
It is only on condition that no violence is done to the decrees of
fashion or to the ideas she would suggest, that so much liberty is
allowed. We think that the result is most satisfactory, as there is
an infinite variety to please the eye, and there are abundant
opportunities for every one to attend to her own comfort and ease.
Of course there have been, and still are, certain fashions which are
quite "dirigueur" among the really fashionable world, and which are
annoying to the public generally, such as large crinolines and long
skirts, and more especially the long trains which are now in vogue.
Crinolines, though reduced in size, are not discarded, except in some
instances which, as our eyes are not yet accustomed to their absence,
present a scarcely decent appearance.

One word more before we close this division of our subject. If
persons are inclined to rail against Fashion and denounce it, let
them remember that there is a fashion in everything. In thought, in
politics, in physic, in art, in architecture, in science, in speech,
in language, and even in religion we find fashion to have a guiding
and governing power. How can we otherwise account for the change which
has taken place in language, which is not the same that it was fifty
years ago? There are phrases which have become obsolete; there are
words which have been almost lost out of our vocabulary, which have
changed their meaning, or which fashion has tabooed. And in other
matters we find alterations which can only be accounted for by the
fact that fashions change. They are not the result of development
simply, which may and must frequently occur in sciences; but they are
the result of those variations in custom and usage for which it is
impossible to find any more expressive word than that of Fashion. Why
then should not dress have its fashions also, and why should not those
fashions change as time advances, and why sh