Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Yale Literary Magazine, Vol. 21: July 1856
In external matters, public Opinion is called fashion. We suppose the power of fashion to be as old as man's ability of imitation. Doubtless there was a fashion in the Ark. Probably the fair Jewesses of old would not have worn nose jewels and tinkling ornaments for the feet, for the sake of beauty or convenience, had they not been proof posi tive of gentility. We learn that fashion elicited mou'staches from the lip of a Spartan youth, as assiduously as it now does from that of an aspiring young American. Periwigs and ru?ied shirts were part of the tribute which our ancestors paid to this divinity. Now, portentous looking cylinders for the head, and dresses of hogshead shape, are among the tithes required. Certainly fashion has given currency to many violations of common sense, and not a few active brains find con stant exercise in keeping pace with the progress of the millinery art. But if public Opinion did not force all to conform to its own enact ments, would taste and good sense be outraged any the less?
Upon manners, the in?uence of public Opinion is almost solely good. Since organized society is that out of which they arise, it seems proper that the general consent should regulate them. He who despises the civilities and decencies of life as mere outside show, proves that he has very little courtesy of heart. He who aims at little oddities in dress and manners, appears afraid (justly) that his originality will not other wise become known. There have been attempts, indeed, to heap upon society such 'a mass of forms and ceremonies that a man who under stood them would understand nothing else but such law-books are in little danger of being adopted as the public standard. Until this is the case, common Opinion is the best guide.
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