HUMAN PEACOCKS.

ranted him in walking about with a jewel-
ler's shop upon his gala suit A buyer
might give the aigrette to his wife, but
even the Princess of Wales, or Empress
of the French, or Queen of Spain would
look overweighted by such an ornament,
would feel that she had committed the
cardinal solecism in dress that of dis-
tracting attention from the wearer to her
apparel. The sword may be sold easily,
though it is only the taste of the Second
Empire to which it will seem admirable,
true luxury suggesting that it is not the
scabbard, but the blade, which should be
priceless. There are blades to be procured
in the East which will gratify a respectable
taste for expense, and a single stone in the
hilt has always been held allowable, -
if worth a king's ransom so much the
better. Scabbards should be plain, but
still there are occasions, coronations and
other ceremonials, when great nobles are
expected to be themselves pageants, and
for such this scabbard, as symbolizing power
hidden in splendour, is sufficiently well
fitted. But the jacket! They are uniform
jackets for dress and undress, of purple
velvet, embroidered in patterns a foot
broad, with countless pearls-the "peck of
pearls" is a joke suggested by the allitera-
tion- and on the back of any human being
but the Esterhazy would suggest nothing
but ridiculous vanity. The designs are
pretty good, though not better than those
which Affghan tailors embroider on camel's
hair robes, and the manipulation wonder-
ful; but the pearls themselves seem very
unequal in quality, a large number being
misshapen uglinesses. There is always one
grand objection to a pearl that corn on
an oyster's toe, that it is the only gem
which is inferior in every artistic quality to
the imitation. Human skill can never im-
itate the diamond, though it may one day
create diamonds, because human skill can
never make a material with so high a
refractive and so low a dispersive power.
But Roman jewellers can make pearls with
every apparent quality of the original, and
much better shaped. There is no glory of
colour, or unique brightness, or visible dura-
bility in a pearl, and one has to think of
price before one feels the dull sense of
lavish magnificence which alone these Es-
terhazy jackets can produce.

THE Esterhazy Jewels, now on view at Mr. Boore's, in the Strand, are worth seeing for more than one reason. To those who admire precious stones, who obtain a genuine pleasure from the sight of intense and so to speak, living colour, no inducement is necessary, except to say that no such collection is likely to be gathered together again in our time; that it includes one group of diamonds- an aigrette made of them, the feathers drooping with the weight of brilliants as pure as dew - which is, we imagine, without a rival in Europe; and at least two emeralds which to gem fanciers will alone repay their trouble. Looking into their depths gives one a new sense of the luxury of colour, suggests the thought that we have yet to extract from nature one great Art secret. It is not, however, for connoisseurs in gems that we are now writing, though their special taste, so long as it is a taste, and not a mere excuse for ostentation, does not quite deserve the contempt graver men are apt to lavish on what they consider a vanity fit only for women and Asiatics. There are not so many things which are at once imperishable, unchangeable, and beautiful that we should despise diamonds. Men however, who care nothing about jewels may still be interested in the fact that this collection, worth so many tens of thousands, is neither more nor less than a man's dress, -a single suit, probably the last suit which will ever be made in Europe to express "princedom" in a form visible to every eye. The jewels, The jewels, on jackets, sword, snuff-box, chieftain's feather, &c,were all intended to be worn together, and were so worn, we believe, at the coronation of the Emperor of Russia, and it is a curious instance of the change passing over civilization that they will never be so worn again. Nobody would buy the whole dress, for nobody could wear it. We very much doubt if even the aigrette can be sold entire, except to break up. It might be purchased by some Pasha, rich with the oppression of millions, to present to the Sultan, and if the Bombay men had kept their money some one of them would doubtless have made a daring bid. But no Western man of the class which has the cash to buy such an ornament would nowadays venture to wear it. The display Apart from price, these pearl-bestrewn would be insolent in the wealthiest mil-jackets are slightly contemptible, and we lionaire, undignified in the oldest noble, are glad to hear they will be broken up; bad taste in the loftiest potentate. The but it is curious to speculate whether, if Esterhazy could wear it, but only because they could be kept, say for a couple of hunhe was the Esterhazy and history war-dred years, they would find a purchaser

who could wear them. Is there any chance | Americans., Englishmen know they canof such a change in Western civilization as not, and a secret consciousness of the fact is would enable men again to bedizen them- one great buttress of the existing uniformity. selves in gorgeous array? The taste for it If, as is quite possible, the rich have soon to is certainly not extinct, and probably never stand aside from the battle of life, and rewill be. Men are just as vain as woman, nounce politics, there will be a great desire and just as fond of splendour, and there are to avenge themselves on the world by provhundreds of men in London at this minute ing a superiority of some kind. In the who if they could wear pearl-bespattered abler sort the feeling will display itself in jackets without ridicule, would wear them, over-refinement of culture and fastidiousand rejoice in their liberty. Murat was of ness, in the sort of Medicean life, half our time, and there are hundreds of Murats. artistic, half intellectual, both halves just The taste for plain dress is artificial, a re- tinged with a graceful or ungraceful voluptusult of culture and special circumstances; it ousness. Lives of that sort are led now by is the taste for finery which is natural, else men to whom earth has nothing to offer except why do savages wear feathers, and why are the chance of governing it, which they have the Guards fretting because somebody at renounced or been deprived of. Beckford the Horse Guards wants to make their uni- led it at Cimbra and dreamed it in Vathek. form more economical? The love of person- The feebler sort are just as likely to go in al splendour is a permanent instinct, and so for personal splendour as for anything else, is the desire for ostentation, and nothing and, indeed, do it now, though opinion comgratifies both so completely and so immedi- pels them not to make lavishness too visible. ately as dress of excessive brilliancy and It may be that Sybaritism will remain simcostliness. At present display of this kind ple on this single point, luxury having usualis voted vulgar by the men of the West, for ly an instinct of seclusion but the direct two reasons. An aristocracy still leads so- pressure from below removed, we do not see ciety, and an aristocracy knows by instinct why it should. At this moment a millionthat it must rely on incommunicable quali- aire cannot in Paris walk the Boulevards ties like birth and, to some extent, manner, in a jewelled collar, but he can attend a and not on a display in which it runs the masked ball at the Tuileries in one, and he risk of being defeated by every upstart who does whenever he gets a chance. Suppose, accumulates cash. Moreover, the very what is quite likely, that in the stage of wealthy feel by a sort of instinct that per- semi-culture on which the masses of Westsonal display offends the masses who cannot ern men are just entering there should be a indulge in it, and the masses have grown phase of admiration for mere splendour, a strong. But neither of these causes may liking for a man because he is splendidly operate for ever. Already in two wealthy dressed, instead of a disliking. The Irish countries an aristocracy has ceased to lead, have it now, and so have all Asiatics. It is and we perceive a tendency both in France quite conceivable that such a feeling might and America to a revival of personal mag-flower out, as its kindred feeling, the enjoynificence. There is the spirit of an older ment of pageantry, has often done; and if it world in a good many of the acts recorded does, we shall see millionaires dressing like of Mr. Jerome, of New York, and several of Oriental Princes, and the Esterhazy jacket the French millionaires. No man dresses considered a poor affair. Somebody may himself in bank notes yet, but many men produce a white velvet jacket spattered dress their wives. 66 Anybody," said a mil- with flowers, leaves of emerald, roses of lionaire's wife the other day, can have ruby, and crocuses of topaz who knows? splendid dresses, but only we can have dia- It is not likely, but it is possible. Or supmonds like these!" An instinct of humani- pose the spirit of individualism to win the ty forbids men from being annoyed with fe- game, and everybody to be honestly allowed male magnificence, and the annoyance of to do as he likes, subject to the laws. A poorer women does not count in politics, is genuine respect for idiosyncrasies, such as only perhaps just a very little titillating. we have always thought Greeks must have The spirit which makes a French "share- felt, is by no means an improbable developjobber" exult in seeing his wife with a ment among mankind, particularly in stomacher costing 50,000l. may yet, if the America, where upon certain points it pressure of opinion relaxes, spread to men, exists now. Suppose one's dress as free as particularly to men who feel that they can one's faith, and that the only remark likely do the theatrical safely—that is, all French- to be made upon Smith walking about in a men, most Italians, all Magyars, many diamond cap was, "What a fancy Smith Russians, and a very great number of has got for diamonds!" should we not see

4.

Think not the eternal Good Is measured by Man's rood, thoughts scanned, as the stars are, one by

many Smiths diamonded? If everybody
were permitted to live his own life frankly,
instead of living somebody else's, as we
most of us do, a certain number would His
dress magnificently; and permission to live
one's own life may, after a century or two
of progress, be accorded. It is not, indeed
very likely. We agree with Mr. Mill that God's
the tendency is the other way, towards the
stereotyping of life, and suspect that our
children will be very much in the position
of men living in houses like glass prisms,
with a pair of eyes staring down through One
every facet. But that cannot last, and in
the recoil we should not wonder if the love
of personal display, which is just as instinc-
tive in man as in the peacock who hides Love's
himself when his tail is moulting, or the
bull who dies of vexation because a ribbon
is taken off his neck, should once more
burst forth. Wise men might regret, but
why are the wise to dictate to the fools in
raiment, any more than in beliefs?

one

No prophet, saint, or sage

Shall sum up Truth, or gauge purpose ripening as the ages run.

5.

In crocus and in rose,

flower waves crimson, and one trembles Though the same sunshine glows,

gold

Dost thou alone claim sight?
Is love less free than light,
rays in human hearts less manifold?

6.

Nay, yet, thro' scorn and hate,
We hail but one thing great,

One power the universal heart approves.
With Love's free sandals shod,
Man's feet may find out God,
Far from the world's great ways and echoing
grooves.
- Spectator.

J. R.

THE Pall Mall Gazette says: "Our readers will be rather startled to learn that a new edi tion of Winkelmann's " Allegory of Art," which was published in 1766, is about to appear, prepared by the author himself. The fact is that his own large paper copy, covered with a vast number of corrections, additions, &c., on almost every page, was discovered some time ago in the Albany Library, of which he was keeper. He was, as will be remembered, mur. dered at Trieste, on his way back to Germany, far the sake of some antique gold coins he hap pened to have with him. His death prevented his carrying this carefully prepared new edition through the press, and its very existence was unknown. The new editor, Dr. Cressel, of Leipsic, intends to add several hitherto unprinted and partly unknown letters by the great archæologist, and an Italian one to Mengs, in Madrid, including several particulars (wanting in Rosetti) regarding his last moments, which were obtained from an eyewitness, and were lately found among the papers of the Avvocato

Shoots bitterer arrows barbed with self-disdain;
The beaten ways are sweet,
Worn with a thousand feet
Not with old foot-prints must my path be plain. Carlo Fea."

No. 1191. Fourth Series, No. 52. 30 March, 1867.

JOURNAL OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES, 1865. Together with the Constitution and a Digest of the Canons of the Church.

THE INITIALS; a Love Story of Modern Life. By the Baroness Tautphoeus, Author of Quits," "At Odds,” “ Cyrilla," &c. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers.

66

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