eyes at least, exceedingly pleasing in the general desire evinced
by the humbler classes of society, to appear neat and clean on this
their only holiday. There are many grave old persons, I know, who
shake their heads with an air of profound wisdom, and tell you that
poor people dress too well now-a-days; that when they were
children, folks knew their stations in life better; that you may
depend upon it, no good will come of this sort of thing in the
end,--and so forth: but I fancy I can discern in the fine bonnet
of the working-man's wife, or the feather-bedizened hat of his
child, no inconsiderable evidence of good feeling on the part of
the man himself, and an affectionate desire to expend the few
shillings he can spare from his week's wages, in improving the
appearance and adding to the happiness of those who are nearest and
dearest to him. This may be a very heinous and unbecoming degree
of vanity, perhaps, and the money might possibly be applied to
better uses; it must not be forgotten, however, that it might very
easily be devoted to worse: and if two or three faces can be
rendered happy and contented, by a trifling improvement of outward
appearance, I cannot help thinking that the object is very cheaply
purchased, even at the expense of a smart gown, or a gaudy riband.
There is a great deal of very unnecessary cant about the over-
dressing of the common people. There is not a manufacturer or
tradesman in existence, who would not employ a man who takes a
reasonable degree of pride in the appearance of himself and those
about him, in preference to a sullen, slovenly fellow, who works
doggedly on, regardless of his own clothing and that of his wife
and children, and seeming to take pleasure or pride in nothing.

The pampered aristocrat, whose life is one continued round of
licentious pleasures and sensual gratifications; or the gloomy