THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF COATS. 



" Give me his coat." OLD PLAY. 



THE only distinctive mark of a gentleman remaining in these 

 modern times, is the wearing of an old coat ; and herein is shown 

 one of the most striking peculiarities of the true gentleman, a fine 

 taste. No man, but one of the purest taste, can wear an " old coat" 

 without looking shabby, an appearance a gentleman never has : for 

 with an " old coat" every other part of a man's dress must be in the 

 truest keeping ; and here lies the distinction between taste and want 

 of taste. Now-a-days new coats are as common as blackberries, so 

 that a gentleman is absolutely ashamed of mingling with the herd of 

 " well-dress'd gentlemen, 1 ' whose wit and whose wisdom, whose 

 pedigree and whose parentage, are solely dependent upon the 

 tailor. 



Again, not only is an " old coat" an irrefragable proof that the 

 .wearer is a gentleman, but it indicates, also, that he is a man of 

 reflection, and of philosophic temperament; it shows that he is not 

 one of the common herd. A new coat, when habitually worn, is an 

 indubitable sign of an empty head and of a barren heart. To us, an 

 " old coat" is a kind of note-book, becoming the more valuable the 

 longer we wear it. It is the only visible link connecting us with a 

 multitude of by-gone incidents, and hence it is an invaluable com- 

 panion. Now a man whose coat smells only of the tailor's goose 

 has no resource of this kind : when he is alone, he is alone ; and in 

 place of having a friend and monitor at hand in the shape of an " old 

 coat," it is a hundred to one if he thinks of any thing beyond the 

 price, cut, fit, and colour of his last novelty. What a thing a man 

 becomes who ever dwells in a new coat ! 



It is astonishing, by the bye, what clever fellows tailors are ! and 

 if we are ever to have a system of physiognomy worth attention, it 

 must come from this quarter. Lavater, Gall, Coombe, and others, 

 must hide their heads before a tailor. The knowledge displayed of 

 character, and the wonderful adaptation of a coat to it, has always 

 appeared to us as the very triumph of skill. Indeed, we wonder 

 that Camper, Blumenbach, and other noted physiologists should 

 have taken such pains to measure out a man's intellect and disposi- 

 tion by his face and his head ; and this because a better criterion 

 of both one and the other may be found in a man's coat. This is an 

 unerring guide. A man may mould his face, and may look as inno- 

 cent as an angel, although he has the heart of a devil ; but not so his 

 coat. Look at that of a choleric man for example; mark what a 

 multiplicity of corrugations are figured upon it how angular and 



