Therefore, whether in religion, in po^ 

 litics, in philosophy, in medicine, in lan- 

 guage, in the arts, in dress, in equipage, in 

 furniture, or in the most trifling concerns 

 of life, we see thousands move in the way 

 that some one has gone before: and if it 

 be too great a stretch of thought to mark 

 a new track, it is also too great to investi- 

 gate whether the new track marked out 

 by another be good or bad. 



Changes in the fashion, or, in other Changes 



. , by whom 



words, m the customs or a country, be- made. 

 come a source of wealth and commerce, 

 and contribute to those daily occupations 

 which make life preferable in civilized 

 society. The clown or the savage re- 

 quires no change, no variety; and the 

 vulgar, who are one degree above them, 

 slowly adopt the changes of others, al- 

 though they insensibly slide into the fa- 

 shion. On the contrary, the nice ob- 

 server, the ' elegantice formarum specta- 

 tor'' eagerly seizes and imitates whatever 

 appears ncM'-; and perhaps without en- 

 quiring into its reasonableness or pro- 

 priety. Thus forms and fashions of one 



