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
Between these two lies the whole range of female character in form;
and, in proportion as the figure approaches the one extreme or the
other, we call it grave or gay, majestic or graceful. Not but that
the same person may, by a happy combination of charms, unite these
qualities in different degrees, as we sometimes see graceful majesty
and majestic grace. Unless the commanding figure softens the amplitude
of its contour with a gentle elegance, it may possess a sort of regal
consequence, but it will be that of a heavy and harsh importance;
and, on the other hand, unless the slight and airy form, full of
youth and animal spirits, superadds to these attractions the grace of
a restraining dignity, her vivacity will be deemed levity, and her
activity the romping of a wild hoyden.
Young women, therefore, when they present themselves to the world, must
not implicitly fashion their demeanors according to the levelling rules
of the generality of school-governesses; but, considering the character
of their own figures, allow their deportment, and select their dress,
to follow and correct the bias of nature.
There is a class of female contour which bears such faint marks of any
positive character, that the best advice I can give to them who have
it, is to assume that of the sedate. Such an appearance is unobtrusive;
it is amiable, and not only secure from animadversion, but very likely
to awaken respect and love. Indeed, in all cases, a modest reserve is
essential to the perfection of feminine attraction.
As it has been observed, that, during the period of youth, different
women wear a variety of characters, such as the gay, the grave, &c.
when it is found that even this loveliest season of life places its
subjects in varying lights, how necessary does it seem that women
should carry this idea yet further by analogy, and recollect that she
has a summer as well as a spring, an autumn, and a winter! As the
aspect of the earth alters with the changes of the year, so does the
appearance of a woman adapt itself to the time which passes over her.
Like the rose, she buds, she blooms, she fades, she dies!
When the freshness of virgin youth vanishes--when Delia passes her
teens, and approaches her thirtieth year, she may then consider her
day as at the meridian; but the sun which shines so brightly on her
beauties, declines while it displays them. A few short years, and the
jocund step, the airy habit, the sportive manner, must all be exchanged
for “faltering steps and slow.” Before this happens, it would be well
for her to remember that it is wiser to throw a shadow over her yet
unimpaired charms, than to hold them in the light till they are seen to
decay.
Each age has an appropriate style of figure and pleasing; and it is
the business of discernment and taste to discover and maintain those
advantages in their due seasons.
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