IN N all questions of etiquette for women, dress plays a great part. I need not in this article go into details, which" Sylvia" deals with so effectively, but a few general observations on this point are within my province. Dr. Doran says "Man is the only animal born without being provided with a necessary costume; plants die that man may live, and animals are skinned that the lords of the creation may be covered; and this is so true that the greatest philosopher is obliged to think about his shirts. Of course, I do not pretend to give here any hints upon fashion, for

"Our dress still varying,

Nor to forms confined.

Shifts like the sand, the sport

Of every wind."

Each age has a toilette of its own, and each face and each physiognomy requires to be studied when dress is in question. The great art of dressing is to set off our good points, and to do it whilst adhering to fashion without being its slave. I must simply try to show the style and character of dress suitable for different occasions.

It cannot be denied that character has an influence on dress, and dress upon character; we cannot do better than reproduce a few lines of George Eliot's upon this subject. They occur in the opening chapter of "Middle. march." The author says that the heroine, Miss Brooke, "had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. Her hand and wrists were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in which the blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters, and her profile, as well as her stature and bearing, seemed to gain the more dignity from her plain garments, which, by the side of provincial fashion, gave her the impressiveness of a fine quotation from the Bible or one of our elder poets, in a paragraph of to-day's newspaper." . . . Her sister Celia " wore scarcely more trimmings, and it was only to close observers that her dress differed from her sister's, and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements, for Miss Brooke's plain dressing was due to mixed conditions, in most of which her sister shared. The pride of being ladies had something to do with it. .. Young women of such birth, living in a quiet country-house, and attending a village church, hardly larger than a parlour, naturally regarded frippery as the ambition of a huckster's daughter."

One of the great arts of dressing well is to know that what is appropriate to a morning négligé would be out of place in an afternoon, and would not do at all for the evening.

Except the very prettiest, all women require the charms of dress, and even those who are beautiful in a

nightcap ought to be doubly so in a ball dress. Perhaps the morning toilette is the one most neglected in England, and yet it is of the same importance as the rest. Every woman cannot afford an embroidered muslin dressing-gown lined with pink taffetas, but everyone can have a simple morning dress of irreproachable taste; all that is necessary is a good housewife's care and economy. "Best rooms," company manners, and “ company dress, stamp their owners with vulgarity. The habit of being particular in dress only when you expect company, is a bad one, and an "ill habit has the force of an ill fate." If you wish to appear a well-bred woman, never let anyone see you till you have made a complete toilette after rising from your bed; whether young or old, the bad consequences are the same. If you are young you lose your advantages, and you deprive yourself of your most powerful charms.

It is all very well for a woman to say, "I ought to please my husband by the qualities of my mind, and not by the charms of my appearance," but human nature was not made upon any such theoretical foundation. I remember once reading that some man said to Goethe that he was upon the point of falling in love with a beautiful girl, only he could not affirm that she had a very brilliant intelligence.

"Bah!" said Goethe, "as if love had anything in common with intelligence! In a girl we love everything except her mind. We love, in her, her beauty, her youth, her teasings, her abandon, her character, her defects, her caprices, and many things which it is impossible to express. But her mind? Not a bit of it.

When it is brilliant we appreciate it, and on its account a girl may gain considerably in our eyes. I agree that her intelligence may keep us in her chains when we love. her already, but of itself it cannot influence us nor inspire us with a passion."

If you are no longer young, any negligence of attire adds another injury to those of time. An old lady who respects herself, and who wishes still to keep the pleasures and affections suitable to her age, ought to be more careful in the details of her toilette than if she were only twenty, not to beautify herself, but to make herself more agreeable.

In this particular Englishwomen have much to learn from their French sisters. I have seen Frenchwomen of fifty who managed to make themselves more charming than many Englishwomen of thirty. Englishwomen are too much in the habit of thinking that, once married and mothers of a family, nothing more is expected of them, and they can be as untidy or dowdy as they please.

In a morning, Frenchwomen generally cover their hair with a cap, which, if not always elegant, is always exquisitely white; all that is white round the face suits the physiognomy and complexion, and makes it look

younger.

Nothing is more vulgar than to wear untidy slippers or boots in the house; have your slippers made as large as you like if you are fond of your ease, but never wear untidy ones. Remember, and I cannot repeat it too often, that a woman's distinction is revealed in the slightest details, and a well-bred person will judge you in five minutes by them alone.

Frenchwomen excel, too, in the assortment and harmonising of colours. They never dream of decking themselves in all the colours of the rainbow; if they go to the rainbow at all it is to see how the delicate shades fade into one another, and to choose those that best suit the colour of their hair and complexion. Alas and alack! for most English women in these matters. How often do we see a drab face and a drab dress, or have our teeth set on edge by the proximity of colours that have no connection in nature. Again, they will put on all the contents of their jewel-box at once, and they often make themselves look like Juggernaut idols, they are so bedizened and bedecked!

But we must go on with our enumeration of the different styles of dress suitable for different occasions. The dress worn by a mother at her child's christening and her own churching should be handsomely plain and richly neat. A silk or velvet dress will always do; a muslin would be entirely out of place.

Costumes for calls, when you are obliged to pay them on foot, should be different to those donned if your carriage is at the door. Dr. Johnson once said that he was sure some lady was well dressed, because he could not remember what she had on; and the impression of a walking toilet should always be the same as that left by his visitor upon the worthy doctor. It may be light or dark, according to the season, but it must not be liable to attract attention.

Nothing is more ridiculous or much dirtier, to speak plainly, than a long dress in the street. A long dress is elegant and graceful in a room, it gives charming lines to the toilette, whereas a short dress often breaks off those lines too abruptly, but any woman who goes out in a long dress except in a carriage, seems to be aping the fine lady; and as Voltaire says, "all affectation is a vice."

Carriage dresses have much more licence than walking costumes. Light-coloured silks, elaborately trimmed and sweeping skirts, feathery bonnets and lace parasois, would look quite out of place out of a carriage. Light gloves are always worn for calls except in mourning.

Costumes for lawn parties, bazaars, flower-shows, and occasions of that sort, should be of fresh light materials and colours. Muslins are there in their place, and light bonnets and hats; still there is a great distinc

tion to be noticed between these and ball toilettes. Elderly ladies should wear light silks and lace and dressy bonnets, but not hats.

It is a great mistake to go to a pic-nic in a dress that will spoil by contact with the ground, or that prevents its wearer having complete ease in all her movements. Nothing looks worse either for pic-nics, excursions, or seaside wear, than a thin, flimsy fabric, or a shabby silk; they are out of keeping with nature, which is always fresh and strong. The best dresses are of some strong washing material, or otherwise; the best are those that will look as well as the end as at the beginning of a day's wear.

Sailor blue, or other coloured serges or tweeds, are the best things for a trip by sea, as they do not spoil under the action of sea air and water.

A dinner dress should be made of silk, satin, velvet, or moiré, and trimmed with lace. Completely low bodies have gone out for dinner dresses, though they are usually open in front.

Young ladies wear a spray of flowers, others caps or lappets, with flowers and feathers. I need scarcely enlarge upon ball-room toilettes, tarlatane, tulle, or something as light for young people; silks for their chapé

rons.

They are all low cut; the elders cover their shoulders with an opera cloak or a lace shawl, etc.

Dark women should never wear mauve, nor light ones yellow. The true colours for the brunette are cerise, orange, currant, and pink. Blondes have blue, lilac, green, black; but their greatest triumph is white muslin, especially Indian muslin: it forms admirable drapery, and gives another charm to a beautiful complexion.

Precious stones suit few people. I know I shall be thought eccentric for saying so, but it is artistically true. Diamonds, especially, never look well near the skin. Steele said of them, "They may indeed tempt a man to steal a woman, but never to love her." The only gems that help to set off nature are pearls, and even false ones if you are not rich enough to wear others.

Unless you are sure of your success, never try to outshine another by the richness of your dress. Dispute the palm of elegant simplicity if you like. The greatest merit of a toilette is to seem natural, improvised, even when it has cost hours of study and preparation.

If you are rich there is nothing easier than to spend a good deal of money, and buy very expensive things; but it is not so easy to choose them as to wear them. The greatest merit of all is to be able to do without them, and yet to dress better than their possessors, and this is quite possible.

Brides are dressed entirely in white, unless they are widows, when some delicate silk is chosen. The dress is made of silk or satin, trimmed with lace, and a lace or tulle veil falls equally back and front.

Bridesmaids generally wear white, trimmed with colours, with white bonnets or veils; but bridesmaids'