ok at it from before; there it is seen to best advantage
as an oval frame, set with ribands, flowers, and laces, for the sweet
picture within; but look at it from the side, and the genuine, vulgar,
cookmaid form of the coal-scuttle is instantly perceived. It serves in
this view evidently as blinkers do to a horse in harness, just to keep
the animal from shying, or to guard off a chance stroke of the whip. But
it is uncommonly tantalizing into the bargain. You walk along Regent
Street some fine day, and for a hundred paces or more you are troubled
by the crowd keeping you always in the rear of an old, faded, frumpy
bonnet, that hinders you from watching a sweet little _chapeau-de-soie_
immediately beyond. Your patience is exhausted, and your curiosity
driven to the highest pitch of anxiety; you make a desperate stride,
push by the old bonnet, and look round with indignation to see what
beldam had thus been between you and the "cynosure of neighbouring
eyes:"--whew! 'tis the pretty young shop-girl that served you with your
last pair of gloves, and measured them so fascinatingly along your hand,
that your heart still palpitates with the electrical touch of her
fingers. You pocket your indignation, exchange one of your blandest
smiles, and pass on, still striding to see what lovely features grace
that exquisite _chapeau_. Half afraid, of course--for she is a lady
evidently, and you pique yourself on being a perfect gentleman--you
venture, as you pass, to let your eye just glance within the sacred
enclosure of blonde and primroses;--pshaw! it's old Miss Thingamy, that
you had to hand down to dinner the other day at Lady Dash's; and
instantly catching your eye, she gives you a condescending nod, and
you're forced to escort her all the way up to Portland Place! It's
enough to make a man hang himself; and, to say the truth, many a poor
fellow has been ruined by bonnets before now--even Napoleon himself had
to pay for _thirty-six_ new bonnets within _one month_ for Josephine!

Bonnets, however, have more to do with women than with men; and we defy
our fair friends to prove that these articles of dress, about which they
are always so anxious, (a woman--a regular genuine woman, reader--will
sacrifice a great deal for a bonnet,) are either useful or ornamental.
And first, for their use; if they were good for any thing, they would
protect the head from cold, wet, and sunshine. Now, as far as cold is
concerned, they do so to a certain