acter, and is not to be disregarded.

We make no indiscriminate onslaught upon customs of dress. Why did
God put spots on the pansy, or etch the fern leaf? And what are
china-asters good for if style and color are of no importance?

The realm is as wide as the world, and as far-reaching as all the
generations, over which fashion hath extended her sceptre. For
thousands of years she hath sat queen over all the earth, and the
revolutions that rock down all other thrones have not in the slighest
affected her domination. Other constitutions have been torn, and other
laws trampled; but to her decrees conquerors have bowed their plumes,
and kings have uncovered. Victoria is not Queen of England; Napoleon
was not Emperor of France; Isabella was not Queen of Spain. _Fashion_
has been regnant over all the earth; and lords and dukes, kings and
queens, have been the subjects of her realm.

She arranged the mantle of the patriarch, and the toga of the Roman;
the small shoe of the Chinese women, and the turban of the Turk;
the furs of the Laplander, and the calumet of the Indian chieftain.
Hottentot and Siberian obey the mandate, as well as Englishman and
American. Her laws are written on parchment and palm-leaf, on broken
arch and cathedral tracery. She arranged how the Egyptian mummy should
be wound, and how Caesar should ride, and how the Athenians should
speak, and how through the Venetian canals the gondoliers should row
their pleasure-boat. Her hand hath hung the pillars with embroidery,
and strewn the floor with plush. Her loom hath woven fabrics graceful
as the snow and pure as the light. Her voice is heard in the gold
mart, in the roar of the street, in the shuffle of the crowded
bazaars, in the rattle of the steam-presses, and in the songs of the
churches.

You have limited your observation of the sway of fashion if you have
considered it only as it decides individual and national costumes.
It makes the rules of behavior. It wields an influence in artistic
spheres--often deciding what pictures shall hang in the house, what
music shall be played, what ornaments shall stand upon the mantle.
The poor man will not have on his wall the cheap wood-cut that he can
afford, because he cannot have a great daub like that which hangs on
the rich man's wall, and costing three hundred dollars.

Fashion helps to make up religious belief. It often decides to what
church we shall go, and what religious tenets we shall adopt. It goes