Her hand hath hung the pillars with embroidery,
and strewn the floor with plush. Her loom hath woven fabrics graceful
as the snow and pure as the light. Her voice is heard in the gold
mart, in the roar of the street, in the shuffle of the crowded
bazaars, in the rattle of the steam-presses, and in the songs of the
churches.
You have limited your observation of the sway of fashion if you have
considered it only as it decides individual and national costumes.
It makes the rules of behavior. It wields an influence in artistic
spheres--often deciding what pictures shall hang in the house, what
music shall be played, what ornaments shall stand upon the mantle.
The poor man will not have on his wall the cheap wood-cut that he can
afford, because he cannot have a great daub like that which hangs on
the rich man's wall, and costing three hundred dollars.
Fashion helps to make up religious belief. It often decides to what
church we shall go, and what religious tenets we shall adopt. It goes
into the pulpit, and decides the gown, and the surplice, and the style
of rhetoric.
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