eman in Europe; behold him in
black velvet and black silk from the chin to the toe--no white but his
lace collar--all black except this and his face and hands! There is no
effort at display in his person, no attempt to attract attention by a
glaring contrast; he knew that his looks proclaimed him a gentleman, and
there he stands in quiet dignity, a model of good taste. Philip IV. the
same; Charles I. of England, at times, the same. Even the Dutch
burgomasters knew how to consult unity of dress, and to harmonize the
colours of their vestments. We are not speaking of state-robes, but of the
dress worn in society among men of fashion; and we would recommend any one
sceptical on the point to compare the evening suits of the middle of the
last century with those of the beginning, still more with those of the
close of the seventeenth. He will find an immense falling off in good
taste. Lord Chesterfield was not half so well-dressed a man as Lord
Warwick, nor Lord Warwick as Lord Rochester.

To return, however, to waistcoats. They constitute a class of garments
that have fallen into vulgar hands, and are applied to vulgar purposes.
Your gents in the city, and your Margate-steamer men, know how to display
a yard of velvet or silk to infinite advantage; see how ostentatiously
they throw open their coats, and show you half-a-mile of mosaic gold chain
meandering over a _champ fleuri_. They are regular tailors'
advertisements, and disgust one by their abuse of cheap decoration. We
never see a man in a smart waistcoat but we think of what lies at the back
of it--a yard of silk or calico--all the glory of the front negatived, and
the garment so mean behind that he dares not show it. Not so the good old
sailor who spent his prize-money with honesty of purpose, and, let us add,
with real good taste also; he decorated his shattered timbers stem and
stern alike--there was no make-believe finery about him, and he was not
ashamed to take off his coat before any body! Away, then, with the petty
vanity of a waistcoat; away with all false idea of its giving decoration
to the _ensemble_ of the toilet. We know of nothing in its favour except
one single claim on the score of some small utility. To any one living in
a variable climate it is of value, as enabling the wearer to modify the
temperature of the body. Is the day unusually warm? he can throw open his
coat, and preserve that prim neatness of appearance which is required in
the present age,