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The mirror of the graces; or, the English lady's costume: combining and harmonizing taste and judgment, elegance and grace, modesty, simplicity and economy, with fashion in dress; and adapting the various articles of female embellishments to different ages, forms, and complexions; to the seasons of the year, rank, and situation in life: with useful advice on female accomplishments, politeness, and manners; the cultivation of the mind and the disposition and carriage of the body: offering also the most efficacious means of preserving beauty, health, and loveliness. The whole according with the general principles of nature and rules of propriety
(1811)
[On the detail of dress cont'd], pp. 125-137
Page 125
ON THE DETAIL OF DRESS. 125 sweet apparel of the fairest season? Flowers recal so many pleasing images to the mind, that when a beholder sees them he is ever put in a temper to admire; and, when they are found blended with the beauties of a lovely girl, the effect is irresistible, The simple wreath of roses, the jessamine, the lily of the valley, the snow-drop, the bril- liant ranunculus, and a long train of rival sweets, offer themselves at the shrine of female taste. From this rich assemblage are select- ed and formed those delicious garlands which deck the snowy brows of Celia, which twine with Chloe's golden hair. From this fair par- terre we collect the variegated bouquet, which, reposing on the bosom of beauty, mingles its fragrant breath with hers. This tender, this exquisite sweetness, which we inhale from the lily, the rose, or the violet, is far preferable to all the extracted perfumes that ever were wafted " from Indus to the pole." They are not only purer and more balny; but, when on approaching a lovely h
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