in the argument, for it seems to lead to the conclusion
that beautiful women will enjoy undue advantage when dressed as are the
ill-favored. But this is not a true conclusion; it is not even true to
say that one cannot be distinctive in uniform, as anybody will realize
who compares a smart soldier with an untidy one. I have myself worn a
soldier's coat and know what care may make of it. Nor do I believe that
the beautiful would win; by winning is meant winning men, but we know
perfectly well that it is not body which wins men: it wins them only to
lose them after a while. It is something else which wins men:
individuality, wit, gaiety, cleverness, or cleverness clever enough to
appear foolish. And we men who wear uniform, does not our individuality
manage to attract? It does; and indeed I go further: I assert that
fashions smother individuality because they are tyrannical and much more
obtrusive than uniforms. Woman's charms are to-day dwarfed because men
are dazzled and misled by the meretricious paraphernalia which clothe
woman; the true charms have to struggle for life. I want to give them
full play, to enable men to choose better and more sanely, no longer the
empty odalisque but the woman whose personality is such that it can
dominate her uniform. That will be a true race and a finer than the game
of sex-temptation which women think they are playing.

It may be said that uniform will do away with class distinctions, that
one will no longer be able to tell a lady from one who is not. That is
not true. What one will no longer be able to tell is a rich woman from a
poor one; and who is to complain of that? Surely it will not be men, for
it is not true, I repeat, that men admire extravagant clothes; nor are
they tempted by them; nor do women dress to tempt them: at any rate, the
seduction of Adam was not compassed in that way.

Besides, women give away their own case: if their clothes were intended
to attract men, then surely married women would cease to follow the
fashions unless, which I am reluctant to conclude, they still desire to
pursue after marriage their nefarious, heart-breaking career.

The last suggestion is that women would not wear the uniform. Not follow
a fashion? This has never happened before.

I adhere therefore to my general view that if woman is to be diverted
from the path that leads straight toward a greater degradation of her
faculties; if household budgets are to be relieved so as to leave mo