by a cord or narrow galloon of yellow, or of golden yellow with gilt nails; or better still, a narrow galloon of green or black, according as we wish the border to be more or less prominent. The red woods always lose a portion of their beauty when in juxtaposition with red stuffs. And hence it is that we can never ally mahogany to vivid reds, such as cherrycolour; and more particularly to orange-reds, such as scarlet, nacarat, and aurora; for these colours are so bright that, in taking away from this wood its peculiar tint, it becomes no better than oak or walnut. Ebony and walnut can be allied with brown tones, also with certain shades of green and violet.

A well-known essayist, perplexed with the question, What is civilisation? at length inclined to think that the boardingschool miss was not far wrong who answered that it was "the last fashions from Paris." And really, if one consider what antecedents and concomitants these "last fashions" implywhat surplus wealth and abundance of skilled labour-what taste, what leisure, and what highly-developed social habits— even a philosopher may agree with the young lady's opinion. Unfortunately we cannot dogmatise much as to the coloured proprieties of this crowning product of civilisation, Dress. When it comes to be a nice question of shades and halfshades and mixed patterns, modified by the natural style of the person prescribed for, we lay down our pen and make a bow of confessed inferiority to the leading gentlemen of the cloth,-assured that even M. Chevreul, Frenchman and scientific colorist though he be, would feel it the height of presumption to dissent from the suggestions so quietly made by the "dictator of fashion" in Stulz's establishment. There is one remark I would make, however, which deserves to be noted by two numerous and very opposite sections of the community,-to wit, clergymen and lawyers on the one hand, and sportsmen and other cognate classes on the other. These gentlemen always, or most frequently, wear a one-coloured suit; the

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clergy all black, and sportsmen plaid or mixtures of various kinds. This style of dress is often very pleasing to the eye, and recommends itself on various grounds; yet it must be remembered, that of all modes of apparel a one-coloured suit is the least economical. It presents no contrast of colour by which the leading hues may be kept in apparent freshness. Moreover a coat, waistcoat, and trousers of the same colour cannot be worn together with advantage except when they are all new; for when one of them has lost its freshness in consequence of having been more worn than the others, the difference will be increased by contrast. Thus, new black trousers worn with a coat and waistcoat of the same colour, but old and slightly rusty, will exaggerate this latter tint; while at the same time the black of the trousers will appear brighter. White trousers, and also ones of a reddish-grey mixture, will correct this tendency to rustiness in black upper clothes,-and indeed there is nothing like white trousers for making every kind of coat look well in its old age.

Civilians seldom indulge in much liveliness or contrast of colour in their dress, but the opposite is the case with military uniforms. In the French army the uniforms are especially brilliant, almost entirely eschewing suits of one colour, except in the case of special corps, such as the Rifles. In this respect the French outfit is, we do not say better, but more economical than ours, especially in our cavalry regiments, where the monochromic style of dress is not unfrequent. Let us take, for example, a uniform of red and green, like that of many regiments of French cavalry: by the law of contrast, the two colours, being complementary, or the opposite of each other, mutually strengthen one another; so that the green renders the red redder, and the red renders the green greener. Thus, a bi-coloured uniform, if the colours be complementary, exhibits, after a good deal of wearing, cloths which look quite as well as each did when new and viewed separately. Whitening of the seams—a disagreeable vestiarian phenomenon produced

by the surface, or best-coloured portion, of the cloth being rubbed off-is likewise much less apparent in a coat of two or more colours (i.e. braided or edged with a different colour from the ground) than it is in a monochromic coat; because the vivid contrast of different colours, fixing directly the attention of the spectator, prevents the eye from perceiving the inequalities which would be visible enough in a one-coloured coat. The same thing occurs, but in a lower degree, with uniforms of which the colours, without being complementary, are very contrasting. For example, blue and yellow, which accord well together, and are seen in the masses of yellow embroidery upon the blue of some of our hussar uniforms;-also deep-blue and scarlet, in which assortment is included the uniform of indigoblue and madder-red of many French regiments;—also green and yellow, which form an association pleasing to the eye from its gaiety, and especially suitable for a cavalry dress.

It is not enough, however, to choose for uniforms colours which assort well: it is necessary, in order to obtain the best result, that we should employ those colours in certain relative proportions, and distribute them suitably. Thus, when one colour is in smaller proportion than another, it is requisite that it be distributed as equally as possible throughout the uniform for instance, in the Artillery uniform of blue and scarlet, the latter colour, which is far from appearing in equal proportion with the blue, produces a very good effect when distributed over the whole uniform. Further, we must say, with M. Chevreul, "in a many-coloured uniform, where one colour is found on different pieces of the dress-on both coat and trousers, for example-we must take care that the colour does not cause the eye to confound contiguous or superimposed parts in such a way that a part of the one piece seems to belong to the other. Thus, some regiments of the French army wear with madder-red trousers a blue coat, the facings of which are of the same red but what is the result? Why, at a certain distance, the red facings confound themselves with the trousers,-the skirts

of the coat appear diminished to their blue parts, and accordingly are judged too narrow. It would be easy to remedy this defect, by adopting facings of blue with a red edging." And we may sum up our remarks upon military facings and embroidery with two propositions: Firstly, that whenever the coat and trousers are of the same colour, and there is in the former a second colour which exists only in small proportion, it ought to be repeated upon the trousers in a broad stripe if the soldier wears boots, and in simple edging if he wears shoes. Secondly, that whenever the trousers are of a colour distinct from the coat (that is to say, different from what we regard as the ground), a stripe or simple edging of the colour of the coat will produce this colour in the trousers.

Colour is so intimately associated with beauty that we cannot possibly disregard it in its relations to the fair sex. Moreover, we would willingly, before closing, earn a meed of thanks from the ladies, if such be within reach of our feeble powers, by a few hints upon the coloured æsthetics of female dress. Here, still more emphatically than in the male attire, we cannot enter into the minutiae of costume. It is only in the matter of simple colour that we can assume to prescribe. In regard to the general assortment of colours in a dress, we have already indicated the true principles to be followed, in our remarks upon the effects which contiguous colours produce upon one another. What we would more especially look to now, is not the general costume, so much as that portion of it which surrounds or adjoins that star-point of every figure—that noble region where life and heart and mind all shine most conspicuously — the Face.

Now, there are two types of face, in regard to colour or complexion, in this country-namely, the blonde and the dark the one with fair hair, fair skin, blue eyes, and rosy cheeks-the other with black hair, dark eyes, and brunette complexion. In the fair type, the various hues are all of the same class; and accordingly the harmonies of analogy predominate over

the harmonies of contrast. In the dark type the reverse is the case in fact, the black hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and eyes, contrast, in point of tone and colour, not only with the white of the skin, but also with the complexion, which in this type is redder or less rosy than in the blonde type,—and it must not be forgotten that when a decided red, like that of a brunette's complexion, is associated with black (as in her hair and eyes), the latter colour acquires an excessively deep tone, much darker than it really is. It is owing to the one class being pervaded by the harmony of analogy, and the other by the harmony of contrast, that the faces of blondes are generally characterised by softness and sweetness of expression, while brunettes are distinguished by brilliance and style.

In coming to consider what colours suit best in the head and neck dress of blondes and brunettes respectively, we find that general opinion confirms our fundamental principles, by holding that blue accords well with fair complexions, and yellow (apricot, for instance) and orange-red with dark ones, these colours being respectively the complementaries or contrasts to the predominant hue in fair and dark complexions. We may add, that yellow and orange-red, contrasting by colour and brilliancy with black-and their complementaries, violet and blue-green, in mixing with the tint of the hair-frequently produce a good effect upon ladies of the dark type. But as an interesting study for ladies, let us give, in an abridged form, M. Chevreul's opinions upon this subject:

"Red drapery :-Rose-red cannot be put in contact with the rosiest complexions without causing them to lose some of their freshness. Dark-red is less objectionable for certain complexions than rose-red, because, being higher than this latter, it tends to impart whiteness to them in consequence of contrast of tone. Green drapery :-A delicate green is, on the contrary, favourable to all fair complexions which are deficient in rose, and which may have more imparted to them without inconvenience. But it is not as favourable to complexions that are more red than