Excerpt from Lecture on Fashion: Delivered Before the New York Lyceum Leaving the fashions with thus much of notice, I come now to the subject of fashion - a term of most elusive and changeable import, and expressive of a condition oflife, which it is next to impossible to analyze or define. Fashion is a position in society attained by different avenues in different countries - but, however arrived at, giving its possessor consequence in common re port, value in private life, authority in all matters of taste, and influence in every thing. Rightly to appreciate what fashion is, 'or rather what it is likely to be hereafter in our own country, let us, without defining it further, look a little into what it is abroad. Let us see what fashion is in France, and what it is in England - for it is from these two countries, only, that we borrow any thing in the way of social distinctions - and by contrast with our future models, we can the more easily make out what fashion is in the great metropolis of our own country, if not as to which way it is tending. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.