The Subjection of Women

John Stuart Mill

Chapter 3, Footnote #02


``It appears to be the same right turn of mind which enables a man to acquire the truth, or just idea of what is right, in the ornaments, as in the more stable principles of art. It has still the same centre of perfection, though it is the centre of a smaller circle.---To illustrate this by fashion of dress, in which there is allowed to be a good or bad taste. The component parts of dress are continually changing from great to little, from short to long; but the general form still remains; it is still the same general dress which is comparatively fixed, though on a very slender foundation; but it is on this which fashion must rest. He who invents with the most success, or dresses in the best taste, would probably, from the same sagacity employed to greater purposes, have discovered equal skill, or have formed the same correct taste, in the highest labours of art.''---Sir Joshua Reynold's Discourses, Disc. vii.


[Back to:]
SW Chapter 3