emale face ought to be concealed? As far as we, the more powerful,
though not the better, portion of the human race are concerned--off with
the bonnet! off with the veil! say we. But there are others to be
consulted in settling this preliminary dogma of taste--the feelings and
the inclinations of woman herself are entitled to at least as much
regard as the imperious wishes of man. She, who possesses the bright but
fleetly fading gift of beauty, has also that inestimable, indefinable
accompaniment of it--modesty. Beauty is too sensitive a gem to be always
exposed to the light of admiration; it must be ensheathed in modesty for
its rays to retain their primitive lustre; it would perish from exposure
to the natural changes of the atmosphere, but it would die much sooner
from the incomprehensible, yet positive, effects of moral lassitude. To
use a commonplace simile, gentle reader, woman's beauty is like
champagne, it gets terribly into a man's head: do not, however, leave
the cork out of your champagne bottle--the sparkling spirit will all
evaporate; and do not quarrel with your sweet-heart if she muffles up
her face sometimes, and will not let you look at it for a week
together--her eyes will be all the brighter when you next see them.
There is a good cause for it; man is an ungrateful, hardly-pleased
animal; every indulgence that woman grants him loosens her power over
him. Women have an innate right to conceal their heads!

We arrive, then, at the foundation of taste for a lady's head-dress. Her
face, her head, is naturally so beautiful, that the less it is
concealed--as far as the mere gratification of the eye is concerned--the
better; but the necessity for veiling and protecting this precious
object is so inevitable, that a suitable extraneous covering must be
provided; let that covering be as consonant to her natural excellence as
it is possible to make it.

Now, we are not going to write a history of all the changes of female
head-dress that have taken place since the world began: nothing at all
of the kind. We refer the curious amateur to the work of that learned
Dutchman--we forget his name, 'tis all the same--_De Re Vestiaria_; or
he may look into Wilkinson's _Ancient Egyptians_--there is a pretty
considerable variety of bonnets or caps to be seen therein, we
calculate. If he be a decided _cognoscente_, let him rather go to the
Attic gallery in the British Museum, and examine the Panathenaic
procession, where th