Some two thousand
years later Brummell in an age when extravagance and effeminacy
often marked the fashions of men, introduced a new ideal of
unobtrusive simplicity, extreme cleanliness (with avoidance of
perfumes), and exquisite good taste; he abhorred all
eccentricity, and may be said to have constituted a tradition
which Englishmen have ever since sought, more or less
successfully to follow; he was idolized by women.
It may be added that the attentiveness of women to tactile
contacts is indicated by the frequency with which in them it
takes on morbid forms, as the _delire du contact_, the horror of
contamination, the exaggerated fear of touching dirt. (See, e.g.,
Raymond and Janet, _Les Obsessions et la Psychasthenie_.)
FOOTNOTES:
[168] William Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, second edition, 1832, vol.
1, p. 215.
[169] Stendhal (_De l'Amour_, Chapter XVIII) has some remarks on this
point, and refers to the influence over women possessed by Lekain, the
famous actor, who was singularly ugly. "It is _passion_," he remarks,
"which we demand; beauty only furnishes _probabilities_."
[170] The charm of a woman's garments to a man is often due in part to
their expressiveness in rendering impressions of energy, vivacity, or
languor.
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