account of its convenience, or in his choosing the colour of his common apparel because it was gay, or delicate, or splendid.
"This difference of expression constitutes the only distinction that seems to subsist between the colours that are fit for common and those that are fit for ornamental purposes.
"But besides this there is another constituent of beauty of the prevailing colour—its relation to the character or situation of the person who wears it. The same colour which would be beautiful in the dress of a prince would be ridiculous in that of a peasant. We expect gay colours in the dress of youth, and sober and temperate colours in the dress of age. We feel a propriety in the cheerful colours of marriage, and in the melancholy colours of mourning. There is a propriety of relation also between the colours which distinguish the dress of certain situations, and those situations themselves which we can never see violated without some degree of pain.
"Besides all this, there is a relation of a still more delicate kind between the colours of dress and the character that distinguishes the countenance and form of the person who wears it; which, however little attended to, is one of the most important
