The rise and fall of fashions is a matter that affects every nation and
practically every individual, for savages are quite as much harassed and
tortured by them as any civilized people are. Fashions are perpetuated,
as Herbert Spencer has pointed out, by imitation, and from two motives
which are widely divergent. It may be prompted by reverence for the one
imitated, on the one hand, or by a desire to assert equality with him.
In the beginning, no doubt fashions arose with an idea to improve upon
nature, though notions as to ideals of beauty must have been hazy in
many cases.
