The Philosophy of Dress [pp. 199-211]

lThe Philosophy of Dress.
which are held the sessions of our federal legislature and supreme court, and
the very light which conveys to the outspread nerve of his eye an image of the
building, he at once finds a medium
through which the realities of Law and
moral obligation are symbolized to the
spirit. That building is indeed only a
pile of hard, cold stone. And they who
enter and sit there, and argue and decide,
are but frail and feeble creatures, sometimes alas! very wretched specimens of
our common nature. Yet is the whole
connected with an influence on the human mind, mightier far than all the combined powers of steam and lightning. A
control goes out thence which reaches
the farthest limits of the land, and which
without material cement, binds together
in the common spirit of obedience, citizens of Maine and California, of Oregon
and Florida. It is law, right, duty, the
sense of which belongs to the living spirit, that is tlgus manifested and made effective. And if there be one thing more
needful than all else for our country at
this day, when wild fancies and fanatical
theories, and disorganizing agitation,
and sectional strife are threatening untold disaster, it is a juster appreciation
of, and more sound regard for this benign
influence, Duty acknowledged and discharged. Law, that guardian presence
"whose seat is the bosom of God, whose
voice is the harmony of the world."
Now this great agency, operative only
on spiritual beings and demonstrative of
their high relations and immortal destiny, as it is symbolized by structures of
wood and stone; so may it,,be, and
so extensively it is, also symbolized by
characteristic official costumes. In a soberly appointed room of that national
capitol, sit a few grave men, over whose
ordinary apparel is thrown the imposing
drapery of flowing gown, in token of the
solemn dignity of the judgment they are
there to render. And the voice there
uttered by those gowned-men goes forth
throulghout the Union, claiming and
receiving obedience from States and
functionaries, and people, howe great
,oever be the interests invrolved; Those
dark-silken robes, valuele~ss in themselves,
become a s signs of a great i dea, incal culably important, they teach through the
eye the solemnity of th e trust comm itted
to that august tribunal, and speak to the
minds of men of the reverence due the
d e c ision s of that highe st court in the nation for the settlemen t of r ight.
Similar is the meaning of ve stment s in
religious services. Regulated, as must
be the applian ces of dress in all de partments, by the reasonable conditions o f
moderation, th ey are instructive emblems
of those sacred relations w hich bind me n
to the spiritual worsbip and sincere service of their Maker. Liable they are,
d oubt les s, to abuse, as are the co mbinations of architecture, and all elements of
art. Indeed, what most useful adjuvant
of human well-being is not? Yet, rightly used, such vestments are manifestly in
accordance with the l aws of the mind,
adapted as devotional symbols to excellent effect.
Se e alas how auth o rit y s peaks through
costume, in military command ers! Wonderful i f act is the i n fluencti e of martial
dress. Without it men cannot be dril led
into precision of movement, no r at all
fitted for the soldier's life. There is
truth and for ce in Mr. Wesley's sayin g
that if military costumes could be banished from the earth, wars would cease,
and other modes than powder and balls,
and bayonets, would be devised for adjusting the differen ces o f na tions, and securing justice in the w orld.
But these great ideas of government,
and duty, and piety, are not, as we have
seen, the only relations of the human
spirit shadowed forth by dress. Personal
qualities and social condition; a coarse,
a slovenly, or a vain mind, or good-sense,
good-taste, and a disposition regardful of
propriety are, as already remarked, all,
with more or less certainty, exhibited in
the apparel of men.
IV. Clothing sustains to individual character a very special and marked relation.
Painful and pitiable as are the exhibitions of pride and other evil passions to
which dress gives occasion alike in the
male and in the female mlind, we may
cease to wonder at the fact, when we rememlber that the necessity for clothing at
1856.]
207