DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0053
LECT. II.] HISTORY OP ART. 43
or extravagant in its contrivance, if confused, or
wild in its distribution, how can it answer its purpose ?
—which is, to please the eye.
I would not be understood to assert, that we are
pleased by rules only ; nor do I wish them tyranni-
cally to confine genius: by no means; rules are of
advantage in their place, but not out of their place ;
their province is, not to cramp and bind genius, but
to direct the wandering taste to elegance, and to ex-
clude whatever is disgustful, or deformed.
Will the Ladies indulge the remark, that in that
important article dress, a knowledge of the just
principles of Art has considerable utility : on appeal-
ing to times past, we are permitted to regret, that
a kind of opposition to nature has been too often
visible in many modes of dress which the sex has
adopted, not because of their elegance, their sym-
metry, or their use, but merely through the enchant-
ment, or rather bewitchery, of fas hi ox. With
what surprise do we now survey the habits of our
ancestors; with what astonishment do we exclaim,
that ever such accoutrements should have been
deemed handsome ! becoming 1 ornamental ! and
when the personal accomplishments, the virtues, and
the beauties, of the present wearers of—need T name
the fashion r—are forgotten, who will insure these
inventions from the disdain of future generations ?
In many ornaments of dress (and ornaments are a
principal part of dress) the principles of Art direct
to embellishments greatly superior to many which
have been adopted ; the absurdity was once very
fashionable of adorning the elegant dresses of British
G 2 ladies
or extravagant in its contrivance, if confused, or
wild in its distribution, how can it answer its purpose ?
—which is, to please the eye.
I would not be understood to assert, that we are
pleased by rules only ; nor do I wish them tyranni-
cally to confine genius: by no means; rules are of
advantage in their place, but not out of their place ;
their province is, not to cramp and bind genius, but
to direct the wandering taste to elegance, and to ex-
clude whatever is disgustful, or deformed.
Will the Ladies indulge the remark, that in that
important article dress, a knowledge of the just
principles of Art has considerable utility : on appeal-
ing to times past, we are permitted to regret, that
a kind of opposition to nature has been too often
visible in many modes of dress which the sex has
adopted, not because of their elegance, their sym-
metry, or their use, but merely through the enchant-
ment, or rather bewitchery, of fas hi ox. With
what surprise do we now survey the habits of our
ancestors; with what astonishment do we exclaim,
that ever such accoutrements should have been
deemed handsome ! becoming 1 ornamental ! and
when the personal accomplishments, the virtues, and
the beauties, of the present wearers of—need T name
the fashion r—are forgotten, who will insure these
inventions from the disdain of future generations ?
In many ornaments of dress (and ornaments are a
principal part of dress) the principles of Art direct
to embellishments greatly superior to many which
have been adopted ; the absurdity was once very
fashionable of adorning the elegant dresses of British
G 2 ladies