1880.] on Fashion in Deformity. 411 



and 18), ono acknowledged by all tlio artistic and anatomical world 

 to be a perfect exami)le of the natunil female form, to bo convinced 

 of the gravity of the structural changes that must have taken placo 

 in such a form, before it could be reduced so far as to occupy tho 

 space shown in the second figure, an exact copy of one of the models 

 now held up for imitation in the fashionable world. Tho wonder is 

 not that people suffer, but that they continue to live, under such 

 conditions. 



It is quite possible, or even probable, that some of us may think 

 the latter the more beautiful of the two. If any should do so, let us 

 pause to consider whether we are sure that our judgment is sound on 

 the subject. Let us remember that to the Australian, the nose-peg is 

 an admired ornament ; that to the Thlinkeet, the Botocudo, and the 

 Bongo negro, the lip dragged down by the heavy plug, and the ears 

 distended by huge discs of wood, are things of beauty; that the 

 Malay j)refers teeth that are black to those of the most pearly white- 

 ness, that the Western Indian desjDises the form of a head not flattened 

 down like a pancake, or elongated like a sugar-loaf, and then let us 

 carefully ask ourselves whether we are sure that in leaving nature 

 as a standard of the beautiful, and adopting a purely conventional 

 criterion, we are not falling into an error exactly similar to that of all 

 these people whose tastes we are so ready to condemn. 



The fact is, that in admiring such distorted forms as the con- 

 stricted waist, and symmetrically pointed foot, we are simply putting 

 ourselves on a level in point of taste with those Australians, Botocudos, 

 and negroes. We are taking fashion and nothing better, higher, or 

 truer for our guide ; and after the various examples brought forward 

 this evening, may I not well ask, 



" Seest thou not, what a deformed thief this fashion is?" 



" Much Ado about Nothing," III. 3. 



[W. H. F.] 



