Buttons have from time to time done a great deal in the way of decorating clothes, in addition to the part which they have played as fastenings. We saw in an earlier chapter how many of our buttons, which are now only ornamental, were once of use, and any history of costume which goes into details will show how largely, superfluous buttons have figured as ornaments. The older Quakers, of course, refused to wear any buttons that were not needful, and brought down upon them the criticisms of Cobbett, who referred to other things which they lacked besides buttons. Although at the present time we may be inclined to appreciate some of our purposeless buttons, on account of their historic associations, we cannot say the same for many of those which now appear on ladies' dresses. There is little sense in having on the front of a bodice a series of buttons of which the first member is very large and the last very small, with the others graduated in size between them, while there seems to be no rhyme nor reason in many other individual buttons or patches of them which are dotted here and there over the costume. It is not as if these additions were really handsome. Not long ago they looked as if the wearer had saved up all her old glove buttons, and then had sewed them to her frock, for they were quite tiny and made of brass. Now, though they are larger, they are merely covered with the cloth of which the dress is made and are usually quite plain. In some cases buttons show great beauty of design, and for this reason, if not on account of the material of which they are made, may be exceedingly valuable. Bearing on the antiquity of buttons, we may say that they are found among prehistoric remains in this country, and though they were foreign to the ancient Egyptians, we learn (through the kindness of Professor Flinders Petrie) that engraved buttons or seals were usual from the sixth to the nineteenth dynasty, probably among foreign immigrants, for the designs are never true Egyptian. In the present year, 1907, Professor Petrie found a cornelian button with a copper shank which belongs to the twelfth dynasty. The use of flowers, whether artificial or natural, on the person, and more particularly the wearing of feathers, also takes us back to the primitive instinct of early or uncivilized man.