The Mirror of the Graces: Containing General Instructions for Combining Elegance, Simplicity, and Economy with Fashion in Dress; Hints on Female Accomplishments and Manners; and Directions for the Preservation of Health and BeautyLady of distinction, active 19th century
History
The Mirror of the Graces: Containing General Instructions for Combining Elegance, Simplicity, and Economy with Fashion in Dress; Hints on Female Accomplishments and Manners; and Directions for the Preservation of Health and Beauty
Lady of distinction, active 19th century
Beauty, Personal; Clothing and dress -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Etiquette -- Great Britain
Beauty of person will ever be found a dead letter, unless it be
animated with beauty of mind. “For ’tis the mind that makes the body
rich.” We must, then, not only cultivate the shape, the complexion, the
air, the attire, the manners, but most assiduously must our attention
be devoted to teach “the young idea how to shoot,” and to fashion the
unfolding mind to judgment and virtue. By such culture, it will not be
merely the charming girl, the captivating woman we shall present to
the world, but the dutiful daughter, affectionate sister, tender wife,
judicious mother, faithful friend, and amiable acquaintance.
Let these, then, be fair images which will form themselves on the
models drawn by my not inexperienced pen! Let me see Beauty, whose soul
is virtue, approach me with the chastened step of Modesty; and, ere
she advances from behind the heavenly cloud that envelops her, I shall
behold Love, and all the graces, hovering in air to adorn and attend
her charms.
This may be thy picture, lovely daughter of Albion! Make thyself, then
worthy of the likeness, and thou wilt fulfil the fondest wish of thine
unknown friend.
APPENDIX.
ON THE USE OF CORSETS.
The following pages are abridged by an eminent English physician from
an Essay on the Use of Corsets, by Soemmerring, the German physiologist:
Fashion lives on novelty, and we have on this account much charity for
its wanderings and eccentricities. Bonnets, with a snout as long as an
elephant’s proboscis, or a margin as broad as a Winchester bushel, are
merely ridiculous. Shoulders that look like wings, and sleeves as wide
as a petticoat, we think are not particularly graceful; but they have
at least the merit of being airy, and we take no offence. We cannot,
however, extend our indulgence to the compressed waist, which is the
rage at present. We know that as often as the waist is lengthened to
its natural limits, this tendency to abridge its diameter appears; and
we confess we are puzzled to account for the fact; for surely it is
strange, that a permanent prepossession should exist in favor of a mode
of dress which is at once ugly, unnatural, and pernicious. Were fashion
under the guidance of taste, the principles of drapery in painting
and sculpture would never be lost sight of in its changes. The clothes
that cover us may be disposed in an infinite variety of forms, without
violating those rules which the artist is careful to observe. The true
form of the body ought to be disclosed to the eye, without the shape
being exhibited in all its minutiæ, as in the dress of a harlequin;
but in no case should the natural proportions (supposing the figure to
be good) be changed. Ask the sculptor what he thinks of a fashionable
waist, pinched till it rivals the lady’s neck in tenuity, and he will
tell you it is monstrous. Consult the physician, and you will learn
that this is one of those follies in which no female can long indulge
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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