Some of our silks in the natural state are of a chalky white.  This silver green is obtained by exposing the silk, when woven into the piece, to the rays of the sun during the half-hour after noon; no other time of the day will answer as well.  If the silk were kept beyond the half-hour, the tint given would be unequal.  The material is exposed to the influence of the sun in a machine, which has two different actions; by one, that lasts for a quarter of an hour, the silk is unrolled, and by the other, which is of exactly the same duration, it is rolled back, the two operations being so regulated as to finish in the half-hour two “pangartas,” equal to about twenty of your yards, the quantity required for a lady’s dress.  The colour penetrates through the silk, but the side exposed to the sun is the more brilliant.

Our Ladies also wear a silk most beautiful in texture and colour, called “Sun Silk.”  To obtain this silk, the sun is made to bear on silk-worms at particular hours of the day, and the result is, that the silk of the cocoon is of a colour resembling that of a bright sun.

There are numerous other beautiful colours prepared in different ways under the influence of the sun, and, by the action of the same luminary, fabrics for ladies’ dresses are endowed with the power of repelling heat.

THE ART OF PLEASING.

Women are instructed in the art of pleasing, and the handsomest and most gifted exert themselves to this end.  They are required to attend to their personal appearance abroad and at home.  The married especially are enjoined to attend to this as much in the presence of their husbands as before strangers.  A different custom prevailed in former times, when women after they had been some time married, thinking that their husbands’ affection was secured, gave themselves no further care to please him, though still taking pains to appear handsome and fascinating to others.  It was for visitors and strangers that the most comely apparel and the most engaging manners were put on; the consequence was, that the husband often preferred the society of those who in appearance at least seemed to care more for him than did his own wife.  This was the cause of much of the immorality which formerly existed in our world.

The example, too, on children, was most injurious; it schooled them in deceit and disingenuousness.  My laws declare that those, whether man or woman, are dishonest, who wear a behaviour to each other after marriage different to what they did before, for they have gained the affections of their victim by deceit—­pretending one thing and doing another.

XXII.

COSTUMES.

     “The harmonious beauty of dress gives often indication of the mind
     of the wearer.”

While speaking of materials for dress, I will venture to interrupt “the preparations for the marriage” by giving a short description, of some of our costumes.