i88o.] 
English and American Physique . 
37 
The Character of Woman as revealed by Dress. 
The dress is the woman : all of female character is in the 
clothes for him who can read their language. 
A psychologist of much acuteness once asked me : “ Why 
are bright colours beautiful in the sky, but out of taste in 
dress ? Why should it be a sign of coarse taste to dress in 
the most brilliant colours, when all go to see an imposing 
sunset ? ” 
The answer is, that high culture and sensitive nerves re- 
adft to slight irritation : while low culture and insensitive 
nerves require strong irritation. Loudness of dress is, 
therefore, justly regarded as proof of coarseness of nerve- 
fibre. The American girl is exquisitely susceptible, is 
impressed by mild irritation acting upon any of the senses. 
She dresses in taste, and, where the means are at hand, 
with elegance, in colours that are quiet and subdued, and 
noticeable only at a short distance. If we could clothe our- 
selves in sunsets ; if all this resplendency of crimson and 
scarlet and gold, and all these varieties of hue and form, 
could descend upon the delicate maiden, and fall about her 
in palpitating folds like a rich garment, the eye of that 
maiden and of those who gazed upon her would soon weary ; 
the irritation of such splendour would become a pang, and 
only be worn as a badge and sign of a nature in the lower 
stages of evolution. Bright colours — scarlet and red, so 
common in Switzerland and in certain parts of Germany — 
are never seen in America in any class ; and, among men, 
the custom of wearing gorgeous and jewelled apparel in 
public assemblies, as at courts or on occasions of state, is a 
survival of the barbarian period through which all Europe 
has passed. 
The physiological problem, whether the surface of the 
eye-ball, independent of the muscles that cover and sur- 
round it, can express emotion, a near study of the American 
girl seems to answer quite in the affirmative. The time 
that nerve-force takes in traversing the fibres from centre to 
extremity is now mathematically measured, and it is known 
to vary with the individual, the temperament, and the 
season ; with race, and climate, and sex, it must also vary. 
In the brain of the American girl thoughts travel by express, 
in that of her European sister by accommodation. 
America, if archaeology is to be trusted, is a modern 
Etruria, the delicate features and fine forms of prehistoric 
