BUREAU OF COSMETIC RESTRICTIONS |
| DIRECTOR Hermanus Zane |
ABOUT
In things which in themselves, and in their attendant circumstances, are indifferent, custom is generally the proper guide: and ohstinately to resist its authority, with respect to objects in reality of that description, is commonly the mark either of weakness or of arrogance. The variations of dress, as in countries highly polished frequent variations will exist, fall within its jurisdiction. And as long as the prevailing modes remain actually indifferent; that is to say, as long as in their form they are not tiuctured with indelicacy, nor in their costliness are inconsistent with the station or the fortune of the wearer ; such a degree of conformity to them, as is sufficient to preclude the appearance of particularity, is reasonable and becoming. It is modestly to acquiesce in the decision of others, on a subject upon which they have at least as good a title as ourselves to decide, and upon which they have not decided amiss. When other unobjectionable modes are generally established, the same reasoning indicates the propriety of acceding to them. But it neither suggests nor justifies the practice of adopting fashions which intrench either on the principles of decency, or on the rules of reasonable frugality. Fashions of the former kind are not unfrequently introduced by the shameless, of the latter by the profuse; and both are copied by the vain and the inconsiderate. But deliberately to copy either, is to shew that delicacy, the chief grace of the female character; or that oeconomy, the support not merely of honesty alone, but of generosity, is deemed an object only of secondary importance. To copy either inadvertently, denotes a want of habitual liveliness of attention to the native dictates of sensibility, or to the suggestions of equity and kindness.