d approach too nearly to
that of the head, and thus violate a fundamental principle of
aesthetics?" Our reply must be, that there are various kinds of hoods,
and that, if they be considered ugly, it is more from their strangeness,
through long disuse, than from any fault in their natural form. Besides,
the very principle of concealment, so essential to a woman's modesty,
militates rather against the principle of beauty; we admit it to be a
difficulty--we would even say that the head of the female while
out-of-doors, amid the busy throng, does not admit of the same degree of
ornament as the head of the male. If we can make woman's covering
graceful, it is enough; the beauty of it should be reserved for the
drawing-room and the boudoir--it should not be exhibited in the street.
And after all, beauty for beauty, we will back a hood against a bonnet
any day in the week.

Bear with us, however, gentle ladies, while we explain to you how we
would have you make and wear your hoods; and, to do so the better,
examine with us some of those delightful portraits of the time of Rubens
and Vandyke, when, among the nobler classes of females, dress had
certainly attained a high, if not its highest point of picturesque and
elegant effect. Look at some of those admirable Flemish pictures, where
you will see many a pretty face enveloped in a fur-trimmed hood, and
observe how much grace and modest dignity is given by that simple
habiliment. It is something of this kind which we would recommend. For
example--if a hood, so cut as not to admit of too close a conformation
to the shape of the head, were attached to a tippet which might descend
and protect the shoulders, or come even lower, at the fancy of the
wearer, and were fastened round the neck, the hood itself might be
elevated so as to cover the head, and might be drawn even over the face;
or it might be instantly thrown back, and would lie on the upper part of
the neck in picturesque and graceful folds. The lines of such a
covering, not so flowing, indeed, as those of a veil, would yet be not
inelegant; and they would afford sufficient contrast to the features of
the face, while they would be far superior to the unmeaning rigidity of
the bonnet. Hoods, such as those, are even now worn by some ladies for
carriage purposes, or while going to evening parties; and they would
look just as well in the bright light of the sun, as by the pale rays of
the moon. Consider for a moment the comfort