to the imagination or the heart. Having found the genial, it remains to satisfy ourselves that it is allied to reliable qualities.

"Those have most power to hurt us that we love;

We lay our sleeping lives within their arms."

a

A comparatively brief experience brings the conviction, that the most precious trait in social life, is that which inspires faith. There is nothing more wearisome than a vigilant intercourseconstant wariness and distrust either of the honor or discretion of a companion. It checks and turns away the natural current of feeling, creates hesitancy in the utterance of opinion, and never permits us to lose ourselves in candid expression. A decided vein of individuality, something which implies character, alone induces respect, without which, according to the old proverb, familiarity necessarily breeds contempt. "I love," says Montaigne," a friendship that flatters itself in the sharpness and vigor of its communications." Mutual confidence is the seal of all desirable communion; and if to sympathetic are added intelligent characteristics, in the breadth and quickness of which, the most liberal thought and the most spontaneous humor find instant recognition, there are combined the essentials of satisfactory intercourse, if based on the native affinities which are the living principle of our social existence.

128

COSTUME.

"The apparel oft denotes the man."

HAMLET.

The

Ir is to be regretted we are so limited in costume. No word is more prevalent than becoming, and no idea more commonly violated. As regards the dress of our own sex, I do not remember to have met a single exception to the feeling of its almost entire deficiency, both in elegance and adaptation. vest, cloak, and robe de chambre, are the only articles of male toilet that have any pretension to grace. It would be curious to ascertain the original idea and psychological history of the hat. There never was an item of dress invented so significant of utilitarianism. Its formal and inflexible shape, dark hue and hopeless individuality, convey the notion of selfishness and citizenship. A hat is essentially anti-chivalric. It is useful to wave and hurrah with, and to collect votes and money, and abridge the play of hearts of courtesy-for a touch upon its rim is deemed abundant salutation by the English and Americans. There is something very indicative of character in a hat and the manner in which it is worn. A demurely-shaped crown and flat rim give an air of respectability to many a "landless resolute,” while a slight lateral inclination imparts a look of dare-devilism even to a clerical physiognomy. Broad brims seem to chasten the temper, or, at least, its expression—as in the Quakers; and very narrow, curling ones, denote pertness. Hatters should have a peculiarly nice sense of the appropriate.

Non-conformity may, with singular justice, be indulged in relation to this particular of costume. It is quite absurd to wear hats of one model, unless the dissimilarities of faces and heads can be abolished.

I remember two anecdotes of hats, which, each in its way, may serve to redeem the article in the imagination of its enemies. Some years ago, a famous duellist lived at the principal hotel of Hamburg. He was for ever seeking quarrels, and always shot his man. One successful method of giving offence was to come in late to dinner, and abuse some unlucky stranger, who had inadvertently appropriated his chair. A gentleman newly-arrived was warned of this as he was about to seat himself in the bully's place. He calmly heard his feats of blood described, and glancing at the chair, inquired—“ Is this his hat, too?" On being answered affirmatively, he deliberately threw it in the fire, and appropriating the seat, went coolly on with his dinner. When the hero arrived and listened to the facts, he quietly withdrew, thinking such an adversary must have skill equal to his daring. The other incident refers to an old man remarkable for his integrity, who wore the same hat so long that it became a proverb with his neighbors. At last he was seen, one Saturday afternoon, going home with a new hat on. The next morning all the fences in the vicinity bore the inscription-“John Green has got a new hat!" A compassionate friend went to the old man and informed him of this ridicule, offering to have the inscriptions erased ere he made his appearance again in the streets. "No," said the honest economist; "go and add—' And it is paid for !"

Byron's friend, Matthews, used to pay a shilling at an eatinghouse in London, for the privilege of dining with his hat on— a mania none but an Englishman could have experienced.

The discomforts which hats occasion tall people are neither few nor small. Such as are obliged to frequent omnibuses and cabins, have especial need of a serene temper. There are so many fabrics of which caps may be made, and such a scope for taste in their design, that I marvel that good sense, to say nothing of a love of beauty, has not long ago introduced them to general use. Ophelia's minute description of Hamlet's wild bearing reaches its climax thus-"his doublet all unbraced, his hat upon his head," but the sentiment attached to hats is incidental, not intrinsic. They serve as effective back-grounds for symbolizing liberty in the form of a cockade; and poor Benedick's smooth beaver evinced that his sturdy affections were conquered at last. "If he be not in love with some woman," says Claudio," there is no believing in old signs:--he brushes his hat o'mornings."

The flowing drawers of the Turks are eminently worthy of imitation by civilized society; and why should we not substitute the blouse for the frock-coat? Grace, comfort, and economy, would all be promoted by the change; and the same garment of finer texture or richer hue--to say nothing of a little tasteful embroidery by fair hands-might become an excellent costume for special and festive occasions. Worldly-wise Polonius says, "the apparel oft denotes the man." Alas, since the frank days of Queen Bess, how has the tyranny of public opinion tended to make this maxim obsolete! Costume, I suppose, will only be reformed, like diet and the Indians, by association. Phalanxes of innovators will turn out in new garments and keep up each other's moral courage in wearing a moustache or ruffles, by example. Independence in this regard is always deemed coxcombical, especially in this republic. Beggars, chimneysweepers, and now and then, an oriental figure in our sea-ports,

A fine winter

alone give any vivacious coloring to the streets. American day, however, exhibits a dahlia-variety of hues when ladies are at their noon-promenade. Abroad, it would seem as if ingenious people sought indemnity for political restrictions by dressing to please themselves. Art continually reproaches us on this subject. Why are Vandyke's unknown portraits so attractive? Simply because they are picturesque. The most expressive face loses much of its essential meaning when transferred to canvas, on account of the stock and dress-coat on which it is mounted. The limited privileges of mankind on the score of raiment, are but typical of the monotony which society in this age seems to have entailed on life. It is in good taste that black is the accredited color, for doubtless it is the best fitted to subdue all inequalities of form, and is associated with the idea of simplicity and dignity-qualities most appropriate to manhood. It is rather in the style than the hue of our garments, that we require change; and this not to minister to courtly fopperies, but for the sake of making dress, like manner, an expression of the mind, and the machinery, like the mysteries of life, poetical.

It is pleasant to recognise the comparative freedom of the gentler sex in relation to costume. The anomalies to which they are liable spring, not as with us, from restriction, but license. There are considerations touching dress in women that go deeper than taste. This is, no doubt, a grand requisite for the lady—a sense of the appropriate one of the rarest and most indefinable instincts; a recognition in apparel of what society demands in one of her position; harmony of colors; adaptation to form, complexion, circumstances, and even character. These various elements, constituting both taste and