All the other parts of modern dress and furniture are comprised
in my anathema, and will always continue to be so.
It is said that every thing is simplified and brought down to the reach
of the most moderate fortunes. That is true in one sense; that is to
say, our confectioner has muslin curtains and gilt rods at his windows,
and his wife has a silk cloak as well as ourselves, because it is become
so thin that it is indeed accessible to every one, but it keeps no one
warm. It is the same with all the other stuffs. We must not deceive
ourselves; we have gained nothing by all these changes. Do not say, "So
much the better, this is equality." By no means; equality is not to be
found here, any more than it is in England, or America, or anywhere,
since it cannot exist. The consequence of attempting it is, that you
will have bad silks, bad satins, bad velvets, and that is all.
The throne of fashion has encountered during the Revolution another
throne, and it has been shattered in consequence. The French people,
amidst their dreams of equality, have lost their own hands. The large
and soft arm-chairs, the full and ample draperies, the cushions of eider
down, all the other delicacies which we alone understood of all the
European family, led only to the imprisonment of their possessors; and
if you had the misfortune to inhabit a spacious hotel, within a court,
to avoid the odious noise and smells of the street, you had your throat
cut.
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