"Dress is so copious a topic, that it would afford sufficient matter for a large volume. The amazing force and folly of fashion is placed in a most ridiculous point of view in an old book called the _Artificial Changeling_, where the author not only describes the uncouth, wild, and extravagant mode of clothing the body in different ages and countries, but also states many detestable and barbarous customs of whole nations, who mould and torture the human frame to destroy its original form. Some of the customs that he enumerates are, I believe, still practised, particularly in China, where the feet of the females are bandaged to prevent their growing; and among the Hottentots, where, to improve their children's faces, they break the gristles of their noses. Such is the force of habit, that the eye is soon reconciled, and these horrid disproportions and deformities are considered as beauties. "In this country, fancy and the love of change, to which we may sometimes add public and private interest, have generally given the lead to fashion; nor is it to be objected to,--sumptuary laws are not consonant to the spirit of a free people. In dress nothing need be restrained except the folly (I had almost said wickedness) of changing the form or colour of nature.[70] "As to the fashion of men's dresses, if they are not rendered inconvenient, it is of little consequence: the tailors may contrive them as they will.[71] But for the sex to whom nature has been so bountiful to disguise their enchanting forms, and sacrifice ease, elegance, and grace on the shrine of fashion, is defying symmetry and thwarting nature, which, in their capricious variations, they should sometimes suffer to take fancy by the hand. The principles laid down for sculpture, etc., will apply to dress; and fitness, propriety, and convenience being first established, it should be rendered pleasing. Attention to a few plain and simple rules would be conducive to its being made so. "For a degree of uniformity there is a necessity, as without it our habits would be neither commodious nor comfortable; but when uniformity can be corrected by taste, or rendered less obtrusive by slight variations, the appearance will be more graceful and becoming. Thus, feathers, jewels, and flowers should usually be worn on one side of the head.