drawing room of St. James's, can boast no degree of elevation or natural refinement over those of the court of the King of Leetakoo! Every custom or external decoration of life, in one climate or the other, which has no immediate connection with morals, is in every sense on a natural, an indisputable equality. It is in the highest degree curious to observe the operation of this overweening conceit in fashion, in a national point of view. A traveller like Sir John Carr, or any other dunce, who fails to get a living by honest industry, puts up a couple of shirts in a bag, and sets sail on a journey of observation. In the true spirit of cockney wonder, he notes down as marvels, that in the first country the men kiss each other's cheeks; in a second, the form of salutation is a gentle or brisk rubbing of noses according to the ardor of congratulation; in a third, that hospitality is shown by washing the feet of the guest; in another, that train oil and blubber ointments exhibit tokens of the most exalted and cordial respect. And so of dress and decoration. Some carry rings in their noses, others in their ears; some wear untanned skins, others no skins but their own; some wear breeches of a peculiar cut, some none at all. The whole nation is filled with laughter and derision at these accounts. They look round on each other with smiles, and with hearts swelling with gratitude, thank God that their lots have been cast in a happy land, where no such barbarous and unnatural habits obtain, where men reserve the kisses for their female friends, and where good kerseymeres may often be obtained---upon credit! The duty of a traveller is to see and relate things as they exist, his deductions and reasonings are no better than other people's, no better because he is a traveller. It is very right that we should know about this rubbing of noses and knocking of foreheads, but desperately foolish that we should swell with pride at our own fancied superiority; let our own most approved fashions be honestly related in black and white, and we should be ready to swear they were the manners of a newly-discovered island, and appeal to the Committee of the Missionary Society. "The chief inhabitants sometimes as"semble in considerable numbers in a large building erected for that "purpose, the sides of which are divided by small compartments, "which are allotted according to the power and rank of the visitors "and chiefs. A portion of the floor, which is partitioned from the "rest, is occupied by a number of performers of a kind of noisy and "discordant music. This music consists of the simultaneous exer"tions of many instruments. The greatest number of these instru"ments consists of small boxes of wood, over which the intestines of "some animal are tightly strained. These are held in the left hand; "the right holds a wooden stick, by which a number of hairs from "the tail of a horse are extended. These sticks are then scraped sharply on the strings, which produces a squeaking and vibratory "sound. There are also some kinds of wooden tubes or whistles "which accompany the former, and altogether produce sounds which "are unlike any thing in nature, are hideous beyond description, "and must be heard to be adequately conceived. Then some na 66 ❝tives who are bred up from infancy to the art, and receive a stipu "lated hire, come forward on an elevated floor, and recite amatory "verses in long drawn sounds alternately high and low, accompanied "with the most grotesque inflexions and shakings of the voice. We were overcome with laughter, but the natives seemed to listen with "great composure, and very frequently shewed their approbation by "a loud clapping of hands and exclamations of approval. Many of "the females wore birds' feathers in their head dresses, which waving "as they moved their heads, had a pleasing effect. They also had "the lower extremity of their ears perforated, in which was sus"pended a white and glittering species of glass. "The manners and habits of the private associations of the na“tives are absurd to the last degree. We were invited to what we "were told was an assembly of men of influence with their families. "The company did not assemble until near midnight. The only amusement at all general, was a most extraordinary and solemn "kind of dancing. A number of performers on the same kind of "wooden boxes as we have just described, were present. They "began their squeaking noises, and suddenly every male advanced, "leading the female of his choice by the hand unto the middle of "the floor. They formed into small companies, independent of each "other standing in squares, those in the parties facing each other; " at a given signal many began to hop on each leg alternately in a "prescribed direction, so that the whole party seemed to be actively "engaged the instruments playing loudly the whole time. Their "mode of dancing seemed to us chiefly to consist in certain vibratory "motions of the feet and legs, and altogether had to us a very grave "and formal appearance. During the intervals of the music, con"versation ensued, and we were told that these were the chosen op"portunities in which affairs of love frequently had their origin, and "which often led to the marriage of the younger natives. We had 66 66 reason to believe the ties of wedlock are not very rigidly observed among them. The same occupation was repeated without inter"mission or variety, until the conclusion of the entertainment." Where can these ridiculous customs prevail-in Nootka Sound? No, it is an autograph account by one of the late unhappy Sandwich savages, who were crammed by kindness to suffocation and death, giving a description of the Italian Opera and of Lady G's quadrille party show me any thing in Captains Parry or Lyon more unnatural than this, with less moral meaning or intelligence, and our theory falls to the ground. Now what in the popular acceptation of the term is the proper province of fashion? It seems to rule especially in dress, equipage, furniture, diversions, compliments, the modification of language and colloquial idioms. These, though not all, are the most important of its agents, its channels of operation and influence. Well, then, with regard to dress: turn to Lord Kames, and you will find some very good reasons for putting on covering to the body, and some still better for putting it off. His lordship, after reflection and observation, decides for nudity as being more favorable to morals; but, like poor Smart in Bedlam, who remarked that he and the world differed in opinion-he thought. the world mad, and they believed him to be so, and the majority had prevailed,—the world and Lord Kames have disagreed, and people have, for some reasons best known to themselves, put on clothes of various forms, figures, and materials. In what, then, is one form of dress to be preferred to another? Convenience and adaptation for use! Surely no man of fashion will admit this test. By what influence on the mind does a certain form grow to be agreeable, and overcome all the force of long continued custom? Fashion breaks through the most inveterate ties of habit, as well as of pig-tails. First of all we hear people talk about dignity of dress, the flowing robe, the majesty of drapery and fur, the toga of the ancients! just as though there existed in nature some power in yards of cloth and velvet irresistibly to bring to our minds notions of greatness and wisdom. We look at a piece of statuary, and remark on the surpassing beauty and simplicity of the robe, and contrast it with the meanness of our square-tailed coats and starched neck-cloths; and yet if any one actually appeared abroad in such a remnant, he would have a commission of lunacy, the quickest of all chancery processes, after him in a trice. We never see a bag wig without thinking of the drawing room of King George. We then go into our courts of law, and see our judges with loads of powdered horse-hair on their heads and shoulders, and pronounce for the natural dignity of wigs. Why even Mr. passes with the great and little vulgar for a wise man, merely on the authority of his well-ordered peruke, his lime and horse-hair. His barber is his best friend---let him hang up his wig on its peg, and then---If loose folds of cloth so forcibly convey notions of dignity; if Mr. Fuller's object of derision, the Speaker's wig, is essential wisdom---there are less robes worn than there ought to be; and Alderman Wood and Lord Calthorpe had better bargain forthwith in Lincoln's Inn for castoff wit and authority. But the truth is, that the dignity which is vulgarly attached to these external distinctions, rests precisely on the same foundation that we say that Captain R-in or out of regimentals is the best dressed man in the world. Who intends to say it is the inherent nature of his morning frock, or the collar of his dress coat, that gives us the notion of a well-informed, active, and most agreeable companion? Let him wear seal-skin breeches and a ring in his nose for one month, and every body who approached him would go away satisfied that nothing in life was half so charming as felt smalls and nose tunnelling. The course of fashion, under all circumstances and situations, is this---In all gradations of society, from the barbarous to what is called the most refined, there are qualities which must be admired, independent of any external decoration or appearance whatever. Thus, in savage life the most dexterous and adventurous hunter, or he of the most inflexible courage, is so distinguished by these qualities, that he has only to assume certain forms of dress and manners to lead the fashion without appeal. Does he at first, in the wantonness of caprice, puncture his skin with coloring matter? Tattooing then naturally becomes the external symbol of his admired qualities, and hosts of aspiring savages endeavour to gain some share of this exclusive applause by so palpable an imitation: in short, any second-rate man in New Zealand would be supposed to be a wretched dastard, a white-livered pagan, who did not fall in with this assumed distinction. And so operates in rude life all the original, and, as it seems to us, petty distinctions of exterior refinement and manners. They have their great exemplars, their Wellingtons and Brummells, as well as we. The foundation of fashion may be summed up in one word---association. So long as any peculiar ideas are connected with external decorations, those forms will be agreeable or the reverse. Any man who has ever heard Lord Eldon deliver a judgment, heard his wisdom, knowledge, law, and learning, must be a knave if he would not give five guineas for the wig from under which it all proceeded; though, as a matter of merchandize, this would be a bad bargainLord Eldon is not wasteful in wigs. Who could ever survey it as it hung without feeling emotions of intellectual pleasure by the principle of association? It ought, like the relics of devotees, to inspire every lawyer with reverence, and every suitor with ideas of the necessity of chancery reform. A curious specimen of capillary attraction. As a contrast to this, what notions would the wig of the Att-y Gen-1 convey?-Weariness of spirit and dog latin! Nothing is more untrue, or ill-founded, than the belief that the changes of fashion are wrought by men, who have nothing but their eccentricity or quality to boast of. Your real man of fashion is nine times out of ten a man who is deserving to lead, who in his own mind and person is capable of associating agreeable ideas with any peculiar and personal distinction. He is not learned, nor a statesman, nor a poet, nor a mathematician, but he sums up all the really inviting qualities of all these in one common centre. In all the engagements of life, he carries by his wit and elegance that influence which none but himself can at all aspire to. A man of fashion is in fact a companion for all---he can be delightful to the parson or player, to wisdom and levity, to men and maids, and this it is by which he justly commands influence and admiration. Does such a man begin wearing a coat of peculiar and unheard-of shape or texture? Every one who sees him, finds him just as engaging in these, as in those which he has dismissed. They are identified with his wit and address. He is smiled at, at first, for the harsh contrast, and in a week's time the town has imitated him. The original peculiarity ceases to have the original associations, and he is at liberty to invent a fresh distinction for himself--this is the main principle of the workings of fashion: the glory of wealth, and the badges of office, often lead to imitation, but these seem greatly apart from the personal distinctions which are more closely referred to. Every body knows that Brummell had neither house nor land, was neither an M. P. nor of the Privy Council, and yet he invented and carried the starched neck-cloth, although in direct opposition to the HeirApparent to the throne! These influences of association are peculiarly seen in the history of female fashions in Europe. At one time mountains of false and filthy hair, pomatum, and mal-odor. One year hoops and lateral extent; another the opposite extreme, waists and no waists. The only fashion which keeps its place as it deserves to keep it, is the exposure of the white shoulder. Once get that covered by fashion, and who would care a pin's point for public amusements. What would the Opera boxes be without these jewels, without the flashing radiance of these snow drifts? The European female dress is more unnatural than any that was ever framed by the imagination of maids, wives, or widows. Look at the history of waists, very well discoursed upon in a late number. If one were to look at a tightly laced waist for the first time, if he were a lover of abstract grace and nature, it would inevitably throw him into epilepsy. We do hate them in fact, but the other attractions of their mistresse's cause us to forget our first horror; nay, it may teach us to look on them with complacency. Nothing on earth can so completely put the power of association in fashion beyond dispute, as to remember the compression, stricture and obstruction, the violation of nature in some parts of female habiliments, which passes without causing murder and rebellion. Physicians generally have a hobby---some give prominence to one source of malady, and some to another, and a very useful plan it is. A very excellent man in London, Dr. P—, is inclined to trace almost the whole of female complaints to the ligatures of their dress. This idea is always uppermost in his mind. The other day being at a concert, and observing a bustle on the further side of the room, he asked the reason, and was told it was a lady fainting: he immediately jumped on his chair, and in the voice of a boatswain called out loud enough to be heard by five hundred people, " For "God's sake loosen the stays; d-n the stay laces!" We approve of the spirit, though not the form, of Dr. P-'s sentiment. LINES TO A DREAM. Fairy phantom of the brain, In the sinner's slumbering hour, |