in their tastes as to the manner in which they should best
adorn their beloved persons. No wonder that caprice and dandyism have
prevailed in all ages of the modern world. There is plenty of room, and
even of occasion, for such fickleness. Man is an imitative animal, and the
clothing propensities of any one European people have always run the round
of the rest of the family. On the whole, we think that men have been more
reasonable about their coats than they have about their hats. They have
been absurd enough, it is true, but their are grades of absurdity; and,
we fancy, the comfort of the wearer has been of more direct influence in
keeping up some degree of good sense concerning the covering of his
corporeal trunk, than it has in protecting and adorning his head. Not that
we intend going into a long history about coats--excuse the pun, we are
not fond of long _tales_--we will rather be quick in giving our opinion as
to the best manner of settling the _vexata quaestio_ of the clothing
system.

Our modern coats, those _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of Stulz and Co., are to be
traced back by their pedigree to about the middle of the seventeenth
century; while our paletots, wrappers, or whatever else you like to call
them, may lay claim to a higher antiquity by three hundred years. In the
brilliant courts of Louis XIII., Philip IV., and Charles I., the costume
had changed from the tight jacket or vest of the sixteenth century, to the
open and somewhat _neglige_, though picturesque jerkin, so familiar to the
lovers of Rubens and Vandyke. Over the linen integuments of his body, a
gentleman in those days wore only one upper permanent garment, the jerkin
or vest in question: the sleeves were loose and rather short; the waist
was not pinched in; the cut was rather straight; the length extended only
to the loins, and abundance of fine linen and lace was displayed. Over
this garment, which was very plain, was worn a small cloak, more or less
ornamented, in the hall or the hunting field; but in the tented camp, the
cuirass was buckled on, and the jerkin appeared below, covering the tops
of the cuissards or thigh-pieces. There is many a charming Vandyke
portraying our ancestors in this elegant dress; and even the furious
fanaticism of the Cromwellian times allowed the fashion to remain in
England, till the taste of the French court underwent a change, and
modified the habiliments of nearly all civilized Europe. To what cause we
do not know, but