Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/102

94 let her use them, but not to excess; on the contrary, if her taste lead her to select those more subdued and less attractive, let her taste be her guide. In regard to ornaments, they are proper to be used, and, when worn by a person of good taste in their selection and arrangement, add very much to a woman’s appearance.

An idea prevails very generally, among some persons, that all attention to dress, or the following of the fashions, as they usually term it, is a useless waste of money and time, and an actual injury to the moral state of the person who thus pays a regard to dress. There is no doubt that following the fashions to an excess, and thinking about little else than dress, is just as great an evil as it is here alleged to be. But it is one thing to do this, and another thing to have such a regard for external order, beauty, and propriety, as shall make our appearance pleasing to our friends, and our presence welcome in circles of taste and refinement. If we dress with a singularity because of a weak prejudice against the prevailing fashions, or outrage all true taste by incongruities of attire, our presence cannot be pleasing to our friends, nor welcome in refined and intelligent circles.

The true standard of dress for a young lady is that which happens to prevail in the present;