II. ITS CAUSES. There must be powerful causes to produce such a wide-spread effect. Like all things that are wrong, these evil things--the pride and luxury of so many women--are due to perversions of things that are right,--mainly, to certain things which are among the _differentia_ of the female sex, such as--1. A keener love of beauty than is common among men. The love of many women for soft textures and bright colours is as innocent, and free from all trace of personal vanity, as is the love of children for flowers. 2. A stronger yearning for admiration than is common among men. There are vain men, always on the outlook for indications of admiration, and they are simply contemptible. But it is an instinct of the true woman-nature to desire to be loved, and to value highly all things that tend to win love. 3. A recognition of the gifts of personal beauty. As a rule, women have more to be proud of in this respect than have men. If a woman is fair, she is simply a hypocrite if she pretends not to know it. Then there come in, 4. Rivalry, which in itself is a right thing, but becomes a harmful thing when women set themselves to out-dress each other. 5. Timidity, one of the graces of the female character, but that often leads to great evils. Few men have the courage to be singular, and fewer women sufficient self-reliance not to follow the fashion. But the pride and luxury of women is largely due also to the folly of men:--(1) Most men esteem and reward clothes more than character. Men are taken by such things as are mentioned in our text, and the fisher is not much to be blamed for adapting the bait to the taste of the fish. (2.) Even of those men who condemn female luxury in the abstract, few have the courage to banish it from their own homes. (3.) The lips of many men are sealed on this question by their own vices. They have _their_ indulgences, and one of the prices which they pay for peace in their pursuit is silence as to this indulgence on the part of their wives and daughters. There is an unexpressed but wicked compromise on this matter. III. ITS CONSEQUENCES. 1. The intellectual degradation of woman, the concentration of nearly all her thoughts on the question of dress. 2. The moral debasement of many women. For the means of gratifying their craving for luxury and display, how many have sold their virtue! 3. The destruction of that female influence which should always be exerted, and when exerted is so powerful in aid of moral nobility. Sensual grossness in men is at once a cause and consequence of licentious vanity in women. 4. Commercial frauds, to which men resort to provide the means for the maintenance of the luxury of their homes. Men and women are thus partakers in this sin, and as such, in the days of visitation, they shall suffer together (ver. 17, 25; iv. 1).[1] FOOTNOTES: