PAST AND PRESENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 849, 8 June 1888, Page 1

PAST AND PRESENT.

A writer in the Daily News has a curious remark-about costumes past and present. He says : : —“ It was curious, at the private views, to contrast the dress of the'laet century portraits with that of the men and women' who came in to look at them. Not only costume, but even type of face,.seems to have altered since then. There seems to be more alertness and intel-. lectual expression in the female faces of to-day, more decision and firmness in those of the men/’ Doubtless education, and self-reliance consequent upon the power of earning a living, will tell upon the • countenance ; but .we should have fancied the contrast between the men and women of to day, both in face and costume, and fjiose presented to us by Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Sir Peter Lely, would have beemwholly in favor of the latter. Whatever inay be ; the intellectual superiority of modern men and women,* they certainly lack the grace and elegance of the past. There is no repose— and anxiety to forge ahead regardless of consequences ; and no wonder, when we are told—“ It is now possible to construct a complete sewing machine in a minute, or sixty in one hour ; a reaper every fifteen minutes or less ; three hundred watches a day, fcomplete in-all their appointments. More important than this, even, is the fact that it is possible to construct a locomotive in a day. From, the plans of the draughtsman to the execution of them by. the-.workmen, every wheel, lever, valve, and rod may be constructed from the metal to the engine intact. Every rivet; may be driven in the boiler, every tube in tjte tube sheets, and, from the smoke . slack to tho ash pun, a locomotive may be turned out in a working day completely equipped, ready to do the wort'.of one hundred horses.” Are we not .all in danger of becoming machines, turning out work at so much an hour, without any thoughts as to its beauty ? Perhaps so; yet there are among us poetic dreamers still, who seek pleasure iu contemplation. Sir Ed"win Arnold and his followers see a divinity in Buddhism ; and in reading such works as “Tho L:ght of Asia,” “ India Revisited,” &c , one is tempted to envy the .dwellers in the land of the “ Lotus and Jewel.” There are, however, many things which are much more beautiful when viewed through other eyes than our own, especially when those other eyes have'donnecV rose-colored spectacles for us. As it ia; the active life is that which best suits the temperament and the needs of the greater part of mankind.