adopted with grave acquiescence and reverent submission?

"Seest thou not what a deformed thief this _Fashion_ is?" "I know that
Deformed; he goes up and down like a gentleman." Yes, we all know
_Deformed_. When any of his family come to us, from England or France
or any foreign country, we recognize the hideous brotherhood, and
extend our welcoming hands; but _Graceful_ must stay with us a long
time to be greeted kindly, and her sisters from foreign parts are
coldly looked upon, or dismissed at once.

To begin at the top,--"the very head and front of the offending." A
gentleman goes into a fashionable hatter's, and the shopman, holding
up for admiration a hat with a crown a foot high, of the genuine
stove-pipe form, and a brim an inch wide, says, "This is the newest
style, Sir." The gentleman walks home with the ugly thing on his head,
but no one stares or laughs. 'Tis a new fashion, but all "take it
easy." A year later, perhaps, the hatter shows him a thing with a brim
a half an inch wider, but rolled up at the sides, and a crown of a
much greater diameter at the top than where it joins the brim,--a
specimen of the bell-crown. This is solemnly donned, and the wearer
has the pleasure of knowing that the head-gear of all his friends is
as hideous as his own. The inverted cone is worn with a sweet,
Malvolio smile. And so "Deformed" has ruled the head of man for as
many years as any of us can number, only ringing the changes, from one
year to another, upon the three degrees of comparison of the word
_ugly_.

But a change takes place; a light, graceful, low-crowned hat, with a
brim wide enough for shelter or for shade, begins to appear as a
fashion;--and how is it received? The clergyman thinks it would be