WHA T WE LOSE AND WHA T WE GAIN. 2OO, 



his wardrobe. Kings and queens who wear a 

 suit but once, though made by some tailor or 

 dressmaker to their majesties, cannot know the 

 comfort of wearing a suit that fits. They are no 

 better than wooden horses to hang the clean 

 clothes on. Every day our garments become 

 more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the im- 

 press of the wearer's character, until we hesitate 

 to lay them aside, without such delay and medi- 

 cal appliances and some such solemnity even as 

 our bodies. No man ever stood the lower in 

 my estimation for having a patch in his clothes, 

 yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, 

 commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean 

 and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound 

 conscience. But even if the rent is not mended, 

 perhaps the worst vice betrayed is improvidence. 

 I sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests 

 as this : Who would wear a patch, or two extra 

 seams only, over the knee? Most behaved as 

 if they believed that their prospects for life 

 would be ruined if they should do it. It would 

 be easier for them to hobble to town with a 

 broken leg than with a broken pantaloon. Often 

 if an accident happens to a gentleman's legs, 

 they can be mended, but if a similar accident 

 happens to the legs of his pantaloons there is 

 no help for it, for he considers not what is truly 

 respectable but what is respected. We know 

 but few men, a great many coats and breeches. 

 Dress a scarecrow in your last shift, you stand- 



