how little consideration that troublesome deity has ever shown to practical use or to the comfort of her votaries; but, alas! at the same time how universal has been her sway, and how little the higher intellect has done or tried to do against it. How to make locomotion most difficult, and limit the freedom of natural action; how to keep the head hot and the feet cold, in direct opposition to all that doctors and gossips might say, has been apparently her favourite object. The hardy human race has struggled on through all, it has allowed itself to be stuffed out in different directions, now here, now there, with bran in its breeches, feathers in its sleeves, iron in its petticoats. It has submitted to have its head wrapped up in heavy folds of woollen, and its feet left free and airy in silk stockings and pointed shoes. It has 'come through' centuries of troubles of every kind and description, and by dint of hardihood and patience, and immortal vanity, has lived on through all."
Mrs. Oliphant is right in saying that in the past the higher intellect did little to combat the follies of fashion, and her statement is borne out by the fact that, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the brightest days of English intellect and the classical period of English literature, fashion in dress had reached a most absurd and unhealthy stage. But at that time there was a certain science which had not yet been born into England—the science of health, or Hygiene. That science may indeed be looked upon as the outcome of the present century. It is true that the ancient Greeks and Romans were good
