"I will try to do so; but shall not promise to be convinced." "No matter. Convinced or not convinced you will still be carried along by the current. As to the primary cause of the change in fashion it strikes me that it is one of the visible effects of that process of change ever going on in the human mind. The fashion of dress that prevails may not be the true exponent of the internal and invisible states, because they must necessarily be modified in various ways by the interests and false tastes of such individuals as promulgate them. Still, this does not affect the primary cause." "Granting your position to be true, Mary, which I am not fully prepared to admit or deny--why should we blindly follow these fashions?" "We need not _blindly_. For my part, I am sure that I do not blindly follow them." "You do when you adopt a fashion without thinking it becoming." "That I never do." "But, surely, you do not pretend to say that all fashions are becoming?" "All that prevail to any extent, appear so, during the time of their prevalence, unless they involve an improper exposure of the person, or are injurious to health." "That is singular." "But is it not true." "Perhaps it is. But how do you account for it?" "On the principle that there are both external and internal causes at work, modifying the mind's perceptions of the appropriate and beautiful." "Mostly external, I should think, such as a desire to be in the fashion, etc." "That feeling has its influence no doubt, and operates very strongly." "But is it a right feeling?" "It is right or wrong, according to the end in view. If fashion be followed from no higher view than a selfish love of being admired, then the feeling is wrong." "Can we follow fashion with any other end?" "Answer the question yourself. You follow the fashions." "I think but little about them, Mary." "And yet you dress very much like people who do." "That may be so. The reason is, I do not wish to be singular." "Why?" "For this reason. A man who affects any singularity of dress or manners, loses his true influence in society. People begin to think that there must be within, a mind not truly balanced and therefore do not suffer his opinions, no matter how sound, to have their true weight." "A very strong and just argument why we should adopt prevailing usages and fashions, if not immoral or injurious to health. They are the badges by which we are known--diplomas which give to our opinions their legitimate value. I could present this subject in many other points of view. But it would be of little avail, if you are determined not to be convinced." "I am not so determined, Mary. What you have already said, greatly modifies my view of the subject. I shall, at least, not ridicule your adherence to fashion, if I do not give much thought to it myself."