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CHAP, I.] ciples which they profess to advocate, instead of gaining converts to them. The principles are perfectly correct, but these ladies, having got a smattering of them, tack on to them their own particular fads. Those who are truly concerned in the welfare of their fellow-beings, for the most part, work unseen and unknown by the public. It is time, however, that true sanitarians should come forward to clear themselves from the imputation which has, as it were, been cast upon them by the false prophets. Far from having no idea of the beautiful, we have what time will prove to be the highest and purest of all ideals. Beauty for us is the perfect adaptation of the means to the end.

This definition will be found equally applicable to anything and everything in nature or art; but in its application to the subject in hand—dress—it implies a great deal. The end of clothes, so far as we are concerned, is in warm weather to cover people without overheating them, and in cold weather to keep them sufficiently warm. Hence, as clothes to be beautiful must be perfectly adapted to this end, we must have no garments fitting so tightly as to impede the vital processes, none so heavy as to weary the wearer, none cut in such a way as to cramp her movements, and none dyed with poisonous substances.

What we want is reform, not revolution. We want in dress to obtain the maximum of health with the maximum of beauty. If our girls were taught the laws of health and a few of the principles of art as known to the ancient Greeks, they would soon