HINTS ON DRESS.

"Can a maid forget her ornaments?" Jer. ii. 32.

"Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair or of putting on of apparel," &c. 1 Pet. iii. 3.

SOME years ago, almost all women professing to be religious, thought it right to adopt a plain and even severe style of dress, especially in this country (Ireland); no "serious" lady then thought of putting a flower in her bonnet or a flounce to her gown, any more than of going to a theatre; and some went so far as to censure their young relatives or friends for wearing a frill or an end of red ribbon. They thought it a duty to inveigh against a poor girl if she purchased any but a brown dress, and seemed ready to quarrel with the very flowers for their glorious hues.

But opinions are much changed; from one extreme we are fallen into another, and instead of a distinction between the Christian and the worldling so marked as to be Pharisaical, we have no distinction at all; and the love of dress, so deeply engrained in woman's nature, seems to have regained its unlimited empire. "Can a maid forget her ornaments?" Under many circumstances, one would certainly suppose that she might, but the inspired Word is fully borne out by facts. When a girl is about to enter on the responsibilities of a wife, does not her bridal dress too frequently occupy a larger share of her attention than anything else? and even in scenes of bereavement, is not the purchase and arrangement of mourning too frequently allowed to divert the mind from the solemn thoughts which alone should engage it at such times?

But all this, you will say, applies only to the worldly. No one who is really devoted to the Lord's service, will

allow herself to be thus governed by the thoughts of outward adornment. Now granting this (which however we are hardly prepared to concede), is not there much remaining which hinders Christian women from being the example they ought to be to their children and servants, and all around them? What did St. Peter mean when he said, "Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning," &c.? Not that Christian ladies were to be clad in sackcloth, you say, nor that gold and plaited locks were literally sinful. True, but he must have meant something, and something applicable to ourselves as well as to the believers of his day, for we must not forget that the Apostle is but the instrument of the Holy Ghost, and that the Scripture is written for all. Let us discuss the matter in a friendly spirit, and try to discover what is that golden mean between asceticism on the one hand and frivolity on the other. We question whether the weak sister is not oftener caused to err by the over-dressed appearance of really pious women, than by the still greater extravagance of the world's acknowledged votaries; and we know that the love of dress, which seems comparatively so trifling an error in ladies, is one of the chief causes of misery in a lower class, leading, as it does, to expensive habits,-to love of admiration,-and thence, too often, to bad company. Yet how can we preach to the poor, if we do not set them an example of sobriety in this respect?

The increasing cheapness and variety of "finery," is one of the features of this age. Our shops teem with useless additions to dress of every sort, so that even persons of very slender means can be as fine as their richer neighbours. Our churches look like gardens of tulips, or a naturalist's collection of butterflies, and the attention of the young or giddy is diverted from the preacher to the showy bonnets of the congregation. Now it is not that we suppose the true servant of God really spends as much thought or money

on her attire as the mere nominal Christian who attends church without a serious thought of the privilege; but it is to be regretted, we think, that the outward appearance should in general be so much the same.

It is not easy, perhaps, to define what is "sobriety of appearance," but it is easy, at least, to know what it is not. Surely to wear what a little reflection and good sense would show to be unsuited to our age is not "sobriety!" Yet how constantly do we see women, long past youth, filling their bonnets with roses and sweet peas, and seeking all the most brilliant and delicate colours, as if on purpose to contrast unfavourably with their time-worn faces! It is a fact, obvious to every person of taste, that the few women who really do suit their dress to their age, look both younger and more attractive than their gayer acquaintances; and certainly nothing is a better lesson for girls just entering life, than to see their mother gradually laying aside youthful trappings, and, by degrees, adopting the grave attire becoming her advancing years. But it is chiefly to the young that we address ourselves. The elderly lady who has bought a fresh wreath of blush roses for every succeeding summer during twenty years, is not likely to be persuaded to lay them aside by us, even though her thoughts be really fixed on better things; habit has become second nature, and she cannot perceive the extreme unsuitableness of grey hair with garlands of flowers. We would, therefore, suggest to the young woman who is beginning to feel that life has an end beyond amusement and admiration, to look into this feminine concern before her habits are unalterably fixed. Let us see if there be no medium between the extravagance and gaudiness of dress in the present day, and the starched severity of the old Puritans. It seems to us that the Christian woman may, if she wishes it, be as happily independent of the world in this point as she is in other things, and that

she may follow the fashions of the age without being led by them. Now we know many young persons whose allowance is too small, they say, to permit them to spend anything in charity, and who yet always appear in the extreme of the fashion; much of their time and thoughts is, of course, consumed in the alterations of dress necessary to keep them thus on a level with their richer acquaintance, and more injury is done to their minds than if their purses allowed them to obtain such luxuries without any contrivances. Are not such girls slaves to Fashion?

It is natural and harmless, indeed, that a young woman should wish to look well in the eyes of those who love her, and like a lady to every one; but if she will try the experiment, she will be surprised to find how many etceteras may be cut off from her expenditure without rendering her either less pleasing or less lady-like; we might almost venture to affirm that the contrary would be the result. We do not advise her to banish all cheerful colours; the eye has a natural pleasure in them which it is reasonable to indulge in moderation (especially for young people); but in our days there is a degree of showiness in dress which seems to us beyond moderation, so that it is impossible to be in the height of the fashion without being exceedingly gay, if not actually gaudy.

If desire to be unobtrusive in your appearance you (and we think a Christian woman of whatever age ought to desire this), you will be wise in avoiding all showy and conspicuous colours in dresses of rich or even lasting material (especially if you reside in a town); for the same person who looks modest and simple in her country dress of pink or blue print, appears showy, if not actually flaunting, in silks of the same lively hues. We cannot help wondering that as advancing years bring successive sorrows and successive bereavements, that they should not also bring an

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increasing sobriety of taste in attire, but it is not so; and, as the distinctions of youth and age seem now broken down, and the eye is accustomed to combinations at which Titian or Murillo would have shuddered, it is best to take a higher ground than good taste alone. We would, indeed, take the highest ground, and no other, but that the error not being very definable, the inferior arguments against it are wanted partly as explanations.

If we could know how much the opinions of others are unconsciously influenced by our dress, simplicity would perhaps have more votaries. For instance, a servant girl comes after a place in a quiet, religious family; and by way of looking her best, appears in as much vulgar finery as her limited purse allows, her object being apparently to look as unlike what she really is as possible, unaware that she is not the more like a lady for being unlike a respectable housemaid, or that if she were, she would fail of being hired as a servant. The mistress laughs at this folly, yet is she not encouraging it by example, if, while advising her attendant to be plain and economical in dress, she is herself procuring every chiffon that appears in the shop-windows, and making as great a point about the matching of a ribbon as if the fate of an empire depended upon it? Can she she reasonably wonder if her servant considers dress as a matter of the deepest importance, and "looking well" as a more serious affair than "doing well?"

Too many mistresses, however, forgetful of the terrible evils frequently resulting from a passion for finery in servant girls, put temptation in their way, by giving them articles of useless frippery unfit for their station, and letting them wear artificial flowers, &c., so that the modest-looking maidservant we remember in our childhood is now quite a pleasing rarity to encounter.

Then, again, we frequently meet with women as objects of