subtracted any similar color that might exist in combination near it.
Thus red beside orange altered it to yellow; blue beside pink altered it
to cerise. Hence, if a person was so unfortunate as to have a muddy
complexion, the worst color they could wear would be their own
complexion's complementary--the best would be mud color, for it would
clear their complexion.

Passing on to the consideration of form in costume, the lecturer urged
that the proper function of dress was to drape the human figure without
disguising or burlesquing it. An illustration of Miss Mary Anderson,
attired in a Greek dress as Parthenia, was exhibited, and the lecturer
observed that while the dress once worn by Greek women was unequaled for
elegance, Greek women were not in the habit of tying their skirts in
knots round the knees, and the nervous pose of the toes suggested a more
habitual acquaintance with shoes and stockings.

An enlargement from a drawing by Walter Crane was shown as illustrating
the principles of artistic and natural costume--costume which permitted
the waist to be the normal size, and allowed the drapery to fall in
natural folds--costume which knew nothing of pleats and flounces, stays
and "improvers"--costume which was very symbolization and embodiment of
womanly grace and modesty.

A life-sized enlargement of a fashion plate from _Myra's Journal_, dated
June 1, 1882, was next shown. The circumference of the waist was but 123/4
in., involving an utter exclusion of the liver from that part of the
organization, and the attitude was worthy of a costume which was the _ne
plus ultra_ of formal ugliness.

Having shown another and equally unbecoming costume, selected from a
recent issue by an Oxford Street firm, the lecturer asked, Why did women
think small waists beautiful? Was it because big-waisted women were so
frequently fat and forty, old and ugly? A young girl had no waist, and
did not need stays. As the figure matured the hips developed, and it was
this development which formed the waist. The slightest artificial
compression of the waist destroyed the line of beauty. Therefore, the
grown woman should never wear stays, and, since they tended to weaken
the muscles of the back, the aged and weak should not adopt them. A
waist really too large was less ungraceful than a waist too small. Dress
was designed partly for warmth and partly for adornment. As the uses
were distinct, the garments should be so. A close-fitting inner