Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/407

 Rh admirers and supporters. Green! cool, lovely, refreshing green! Green, the universal livery of nature! These and similar exclamations from the lovely lips of accomplished beauty, made me almost waver in in opinion, and tempted me to recal the anathema pronounced against it. This was not all.

The passage soon occurred in which the writer looks forward to the tine when the “dress of the British fair shall be established on the simple and unerring principles of nature.”Here the lovely reader made a sudden pause.“Principles of nature,” she repeated (as if to ascertain whether she had read the author aright), and at the same instant the “principles of nature” was echoed through the room, accompanied by all the marks of confused apprehension. The whole of the passage was repeatedstill nothing could be made of it. At length a maiden lady, with a prudish gravity of aspect and contemptuous elevation of nose, observed, that, in her opinion, it was mere impudence.“Nature indeed!” said she. “It would make the ghosts of our grandmothers blush, could they see how much of nature is already exposedand has this fellow the assurance to wish for more? For my own part, I was not without the hope of seeing the modish innovations of the present day set aside, and the hoop petticoat, with all its modest and becoming appendages, again introduced into the circles of fashion:but if this fellow be permitted to go onreally I have not patience to think of itI will write myself to the Bishop of London, or to the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and get a stop put to his impudence.”

All this, and much more, was I, in my character of incognito, compelled to listen to; and now I again make my appearance, to defend myself from so dreadful a charge. I only entreat to be heard out, and I promise that even the fastidious delicacy of “Cœlebs” (who is now become the fashionable monitor) shall find nothing to object to in all has been advanced.

It has been the aim of all nations to convert those garments which the climate renders necessary, into something decorative and ornamental; and as long as the decorations are kept in subordination to the object decorated, they will be in good taste, but no longer; the moment dress becomes principal, all beauty and consistency is lost. That dress, then, which displays as much of the form as is required by grace, without infringing the laws of modestywhich shall leave the limbs to act with the greatest ease to the wearer, and the most agreeable effect on the eye of the beholder, and admit only such ornaments as will add to, rather than diminish the beauty of the face and figure, may, in strict propriety, be said to be composed upon the principles of nature.

But my limits will not admit of enlarging at present on this idea. I will resume the subject next month, and will endeavour then to lay down some general rules for the adaptation of the colours introduced in dress to the various characters and complexions of the lovely wearers. .