[61]
And yet there must be some extraordinary fascination in the prevailing
dress, that induces nearly every European nation to give up its proper
costume and to be (as the saying is) 'like other people.' There is an
old adage that you cannot touch pitch without being defiled, and with
the people of whom we have been speaking, it certainly has its
application. What is the Normandy peasant's pride on high days and
holidays in the year 1869, but to put on a 'frock coat' and a _chapeau
noir;_ to throw away the costume that his fathers wore, to bid farewell
to colour, character, and freedom of limb, to don the livery of a high
civilization, and to become (to our poor understanding) anything but the
'noblest work of God.'
Again, in the little matter of WRITING, may we not learn
something by looking back three or four hundred years--were not our
ancestors a little more practical than ourselves? Did the monks of the
middle ages find it necessary, in order to express a single word on
paper or parchment, to make the pen (as we do) travel over a distance of
eight or ten inches?[62] Here are two words,
[Illustration: excellentis]
one written by a lady, educated in the 'pot-hook-and-hanger' school, and
another, the autograph of William of Malmesbury, an historian of the
twelfth century. Is the modern method of writing much more legible than
the old--is it more easily or quickly written; and might not we adopt
some method of writing, by which to express our meaning in a letter, at
less length than thirty feet?
We might add something about our misuse of words (as compared with the
habit of 'calling a spade a spade' in the writings of the old
chroniclers), about our unnecessary complications, and the number of
words required to express an idea in these days; and suggest another
curious consideration, as to how such prolixity affects our thoughts and
actions.
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