l his predecessors. The only permanent beau on earth is
the American savage. The Indians, who have been lately exhibiting their
back-wood deformities in our island at shilling a-head, were prodigious
dressers; Greek taste might probably have dissented from their
principles of costume, but there could be no doubt of the study of their
decoration. Their _coiffeur_ might not altogether supersede either the
Titus or the Brutus in the eye of a Parisian, but it had evidently been
twisted on system; and if their drapery in general might startle Baron
Stulz, it evidently cost as dexterous cutting out, and as ambitious
tailoring, as the most _recherche_ suit that ever turned a "middling
man" into a figure for Bond Street.

But the charm which is the very soul of European fashion, is scorned by
the Indian. Change--the "Cynthia of the minute," the morning thought and
midnight dream of the dilettanti in human drapery--has no captivation
for the red man. He may like variety in his scalps or his squaws; but
not a feather, not a stripe of yellow on one cheek, or of green on
another, exhibits a sign of the common mutabilities of man. He struts in
the plumes which his fathers wore, is attired in the same nether
garments, exhibits the same head-gear, and decorates his physiognomy
with the sane proportion of white-wash, red-lead, bear's-grease, and
Prussian blue.

Beauism, in England, scarcely goes farther back than the days of Charles
II. It may be said that Elizabeth had her beaux; but the true beau being
an existence of which no man living can discover the use, and which is,
in fact, wholly useless except to his tailor and the caricaturists, the
chevaliers of the time of Queen Bess are not entitled to the honour of
the name. Raleigh, no doubt, was a good dresser; but then he could write
and fight, and was good for something. Leicester is recorded as a superb
dresser; but then he dabbled in statesmanship, war, and love-making, and
of course had not much time on his hands. The Sedleys, Rochesters, and
their compeers, had too much actual occupation, good and bad, to be
fairly ranked among those gossamery ornaments of mankind; they were idle
enough in their hearts for the purpose, but their lives were _not_
shadows, their sole object was _not_ self. They were more nice about
swords than snuff-boxes and, if they were spendthrifts, their profusion
was not limited to a diamond ring or a Perigord pie. They loved, hated,
read, wrote, frolicked