We have, however, no sympathy with the implication that women are worse
than men in this respect. Men wear all they can without interfering with
their locomotion, but man is such an awkward creature he cannot find any
place on his body to hang a great many fineries. He could not get round in
Wall street with eight or ten flounces, and a big-handled parasol, and a
mountain of back hair. Men wear less than women, not because they are more
moral, but because they cannot stand it. As it is, many of our young men
are padded to a superlative degree, and have corns and bunions on every
separate toe from wearing shoes too tight.

Neither have we any sympathy with the implication that the present is
worse than the past in matters of dress. Compare the fashion plates of the
seventeenth century with the fashion plates of the nineteenth, and you
decide in favor of our day. The women of Isaiah's time beat anything now.
Do we have the kangaroo fashion Isaiah speaks of--the daughters who walked
with "stretched forth necks?" Talk of hoops! Isaiah speaks of women with
"round tires like the moon." Do we have hot irons for curling our hair?
Isaiah speaks of "wimples and crisping pins." Do we sometimes wear glasses
astride our nose, not because we are near-sighted, but for beautification?
Isaiah speaks of the "glasses, and the earrings, and the nose jewels." The
dress of to-day is far more sensible than that of a hundred or a thousand
years ago.

But the largest room in the world is room for improvement, and we would
cheer on those who would attempt reformation either in male or female
attire. Meanwhile, we rejoice that so many of the pearls, and emeralds, and
amethysts, and diamonds of the world are coming in the possession of
Christian women. Who knows but that the spirit of ancient consecration may
some day come upon them, and it shall again be as it was in the time of
Moses, that for the prosperity of the house of the Lord the women may bring
their bracelets, and earrings, and tablets and jewels? The precious stones
of earth will never have their proper place till they are set around the
Pearl of Great Price.

CHAPTER XXXII.

LITERARY FELONY.

We have recently seen many elaborate discussions as to whether plagiarism
is virtuous or criminal--in other words, whether writers may steal. If a
minister can find a sermon better than any one he can make, why not preach
it? If an author can find a paragraph for his book better than