be directed to display. In making this assertion, we take everything into account which can be said to belong to the well-being of the body; more particularly health and comfort—for without health there can be no beauty. Young ladies sometimes imagine that there is something interesting in illness; but they forget that it is the melancholy interest which is bestowed upon the withered rose, and not the joyful pride which always accompanies cheerfulness and success.
What the reader may expect to find, therefore, in this book is, due consideration of all the conditions essential to health, and an effort to adapt all the clothing necessary to be worn to its conservation. This is with us the first condition; but next to this we direct the whole of our efforts to the embellishment of the person, and, taking into consideration the particular temperament that we have to deal with, give it that form and proportion which accord with the true ideal of its natural beauty. This, of course, requires that the form, the colour, and proportions should be adapted to everyone specifically, and forbids our laying down any but the most general rules for the regulation of the common costume.
The various phases of life afford us the best order in which we may distribute what we have to say; and we shall therefore point out the proper method of dressing adapted to all ages, from the cradle to the grave.
