Fashion

As to the moral view that may be taken of the whimsicalities of female fashions, we might refer to the numerous papers of Steele in the Tatler and Spectator, and also the writings of other 18th c. essayists; passing these over, it is enough to quote the words of Hazlitt, a more recent essayist. " fashion," he says, " constantly begins and ends in two things it abhors most—singularity and vulgarity. It is the perpetual setting up and then disowning a certain standard of taste, elegance, and refinement, which has no other formation or authority than that it is the prevailing distraction of the moment; which was yesterday ridiculous from its being new, and to-morrow will be odious from its being common. It is one of the most slight and insignificant of all things. It can not be lasting, for it depends on the constant change and shifting of its own harlequin disguises; it cannot be sterling, for, if it were, it could not depend on the breath of 'caprice; it must be superficial, to produce its immediate effect on the gaping crowd; and frivolous, to admit of its being assumed at pleasure by the number of those who affect to be in the fashion, to be distinguished from the rest of the world. It is not .anything in itself, nor the sign of anything, but the folly and vanity of those who rely upon it as their greatest pride and ornament. It takes the firmest hold of weak, flimsy, and narrow minds, of those whose emptiness conceives of nothing excellent but what is thought so by others. That which is good for anything is the better for being widely diffused. But fashion is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism: it is haughty, trifling, affected, servile, despotic, mean and ambitious, precise and fan tastical, all in a breath—tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every rule of the minute." For a large variety of amusing particulars concerning fashions, "stars of fashion," etc., during the past two centuries, we refer to Mrs. Stone's Chronicles of Fash ion (Loud., 2 vols., 1845.) w.c.

FAST (a word common to the Teutonic tongues, which Grimm derives from a root signifying primarily to hold, keep, observe, and hence to restrain one's self; Lat. jejunum, Gr. nest4ia, Hebr. tsom) is the word used to express a certain self-imposed restraint with respect to the nourishment of the body. The abstinence enforced may be either partial, when the restriction is confined to certain articles of food; or total, when all sustenance is dispensed with for a specified time. The origin of the custom seems to be coeval with man's first experience of the salutary influence which abstinence exercises on the health, and with his more or less instinctive consciousness of the neces sity of retaining the body in due subjection to the soul. By degrees, the self-mortifica tion which it implied raised it into a sacrifice offered to the Deity; it became a religious observance, was surrounded with rites and ceremonies, and finally bore the stamp of a divine law. Climate, the habits of a people, and their creed, gave it at different periods different characteristics; but it may be pronounced to have been a recognized institu tion with all the more civilized nations, especially those of Asia, throughout all historic times. We find it in high estimation among the ancient Parsecs of Irania. It formed a prominent feature in the ceremonies of the mysteries of Mithras; and found its way, together with these, over Armenia, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia Minor, to Palestine, and northward to the wilds of Scythia. The ancient Chinese and Hindus, and princi pally the latter, in accordance with their primeval view—which they held in common with the Parsees—of heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, of the transmigration of the soul, and of the body as the temporary prison of a fallen spirit, carried fasting to an unnatural excess. Although the Vedas attach little importance to the excruciation of the body, yet the Pavaka, by the due observance of which the Hindu believer is puri fied from all his sins, requires among other things an uninterrupted fast for the space of twelve days. Egypt seems to have had few or no compulsory general fasts; but it is established beyond doubt, that for the initiation into the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, temporary abstinence was rigorously enforced. In Siam, all solemn acts are preceded by a period of fasting, the seasons of the new and full moon being especially consecrated to this rite. In Java, where abstinence from the flesh', of ,oKeu. is part of the religion of all, Buddhists and worshipers of Brahma alike, the manner and times of the observ ance vary according to the religion of the individual. Again, in Thibet, the Dalai-lama ites and Bogdo-larnaites hold this law in common. That Greece observed and gave a high place to occasional fast days—such as the third day of the festival of the Eleusin ian mysteries, and that, for instance, those who came to consult the oracle of Tropho nius, had to abstain from food for twenty-four hours—is well known. It need hardly be added, that the Romans did not omit so important an element of the festivals and ceremonies which they adopted from their neighbors, though with them the periods of fasting were of less frequent recurrence. See THESMOPHORIA.

As to the Semitic races, although we find the people of Nineveh undergoing occa sional fasts, to which even animals were made to conform, yet the Mosaic law set apart one day only in the whole year for the purpose of fasting. The 10th day of the seventh month (Tishri), called "the Day of Atonement" (Yom Kippur), or, as the holiest of the whole year, " the Sabbath of Sabbaths," was ordained for " the chastening of the Nephesh," which the traditional law explains as meaning the strictest and most rigorous abstinence from all food or drink, as also from washing, anointing, the putting on of sandals, etc., from the sunset of the ninth to the rising of three stars on the evening of the tenth day. In process of time, five days of compulsory fasting were added, in com memoration of certain days of humiliation and national misfortune—viz., the 17th of the fourth month (Tamus), as the anniversary of the taking of Jerusalem both by Neb uchadnezzar and Titus; the 3d of the seventh month (Tishri), when Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the Jewish governor appointed by the Babylonians (Jer. xli. 2); the 10th of the tenth month (Tebeth), in remembrance of the siege of Nebuchadnezzar; the 13th of the twelfth month (Adar), the F. of Esther, and the day most rigorously kept, next to the great day of atonement:—the 9th of the fifth month (Ab), the anniversary of the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and of the second by Titus. That the people had at all times been prone to attach great importance to the use of this penance as a visible sign of outward contrition, is clear from that ordinance of the Mosaic law which puts into the hands of the head of a family the power of confining self imposed vows of abstinence within due limits. The community loved to express their penitence for sin, or their grief on the death of great men, by occasional fastings. They were also considered an efficient means of averting the divine wrath, of insuring victory over an enemy, or of bringing down rain from heaven. Besides, fasting was not unfrequently resorted to by those who wished to free their minds from all hindrances to meditation, as in the forty days of Moses (Exod. xxxiv. 28), or the F. of Daniel (Daniel, x. 2 and 3). This F. of contemplation, as it might be called, seems also to have been the model imitated by the cabalists, some of whom are known to have fasted from Sabbath to Sabbath. In later times, when, after the destruction of the temple, sacri fices bad ceased, fasting, as causing a decrease in the flesh and fat of the individual, was considered to be in some degree a substitute for the animal which had formerly been offered up by the priest. From a means to repentance and inward purification, which purpose alone it had been originally intended to serve, it became an end and a virtue in itself; an abuse, indeed, neither unknown nor undenounced even in the days of the prophets. If we add to this the endless chain of dire calamities and ever-renewed persecutions of which the Jews have been the victims for many a long century, the ever increasing number of their fasts commemorative of deaths and tribulations will be far from surprising. Most of these, however, which were superadded from time to time, soon fell into oblivion. Over and above the six already mentioned, but few entire days are now observed by the orthodox, and these merely of a local character. Fasting, with the Jews, always implies entire abstinence, and lasts, except on the day of atone ment and the 9th of Ab—when the sunset of the previous evening is the sign for its commencement—from the break of the day to the appearance of the first three stars.

Sackcloth and ashes, the garb of the penitent in ancient times, are no longer worn; but as the special holiness of the day of atonement is celebrated by various solemnities (see FEsTrvALs), so the deepest mourning over the loss of temple and country is visibly expressed by many ceremonies in the Jewish synagogues and homes on the 9th of Ab. On that day also, to add the individual to the national sorrow, the cemeteries are gen erally visited. Of several half-days of fasting that have survived, we will mention the first two Mondays and the first Thursday in the second month (Iyar) and in the eighth month (Cheshwan), (sheni vachamishi vesheni), in celebration of the two meeting points of summer and winter; as also, several days before the new-year or day of judgment, and before the day of atonement. The individual is hound to celebrate by fasting the anniversary of the death of his parents, his own wedding-day until the per formance of the marriage-ceremony, and the birth of his first-born male child (up to its thirteenth year—when the duty falls upon the latter himself), on the day preceding the Pesach (Pasha)—in commemoration of the sparing of the Israelite first-born in Egypt. For the several hours' fasts on the two new-years' days, and on the first six days of the feast of tabernacles, we refer likewise to FESTIVALS, and we will only add in conclu sion, that the Sabbath causes the postponement of any F.—that of the day of atonement only excepted—which may happen to be coincident with it; and that children—girls up to their twelfth, boys to their thirteenth year—pregnant women, and the sick, are exempted from the observance. niniti7Pri ht Mirrnenft 67' In the time of Christ, fasting, as we have seen, was held in high estimation. The Mon days and Thursdays—the market-clays, on which the judges sat, and the law was read in the synagogues—were especially set aside for this purpose by the Pharisees. The Essenes fasted even more frequently. The Sadducecs alone took exception to this rite, and were therefore considered ungodly, Christ himself neither approved nor disapi proved of the custom, but, as in all matters of ceremony, allowed his disciples, Jews and Gentiles, to act according or contrary to their old habits. He is distinctly against such a commandment, and even excuses those who did not fast. His own abstinence from food for forty days was like that of Moses, entirely an individual act; and against a voluntary and limited imitation of such abstinence, to which the spirit might move a man, no objection whatever was to be taken.* During the first centuries of Christianity, these voluntary fasts were frequent enough; the new converts adhering in most cases to their old rite, and only taking care to change the days, which had been days of abstinence in their former religions, for others. Besides, they were considered a befitting preparation for holy acts and feasts, for ordination and baptism. The time mostly celebrated annually in common by all were the 40 hours from Friday afternoon to Sun day morning, during which time Christ lay in the sepulcher. But not before the end of the 2d c. was anything like an ordinance promulgated with respect to fasting in the new religion. It was first Montanus who, as the Paraclete, introduced, among other laws of excessive severity and rigor, fasting, as an inhibition upon the faithful. The Wednesdays and Fridays as the days when Christ was taken prisoner and crucified, were made days of strictest abstinence from all food; while on the other days of the week, dried, uncooked victuals only were allowed. Asceticism and monachism had their share in the gradual development of the doctrine of the necessity of mortifying th.?, flesh, and as a natural consequence, in the growth and diffusion of the custom of fasting. Yet, in the first six centuries, the difference in the various Christian communi ties was not greater in auy other doctrine or ceremony than in this. Bishops and councils, however, gradually fixed the times and seasons for the whole of Christen dom. The 40 hours had gradually become 40 days, called the Quadragesima; and the council of Orleans, in 541, made it binding upon every Christian not to eat any meat dur ing this time, save only on the Sundays.f The eighth council at Toledo, in the 7th c., declared those who ate meat during Lent, sinners unworthy to partake in the resurrec tion. From the 8th c. to the 11th, when a gradual reaction set in, the laws of fasting and the punishments awarded to the transgressors became stricter and stricter; interdict and excommunication were among the penalties. By degrees they had become so numer ous and different in kind, that they were divided into-1. Jejunium generale (a fast binding for all); 2. Consuetudinarium (local fast, etc.); 3. Penitentiale (atonement for all transgressions); 4. Votivum (consequent upon a vow); 5. Voluntare (for the better car rying out of an undertaking). These, again, were kept either as-1. Jejunium naturale (an entire abstinence from food or drink, especially in preparation for the reception of the Eucharist); 2. Abstinentia (certain food only being allowed, but several times a day); 3. Jejunium cum abstinentia (the same food, but which must be taken once a day only); and 4. Jejunium sine abstinentia (all kinds of food, but only once a day). The food prohibited on partial fast-days included, during certain periods, not only the flesh of quadrupeds, fowl, and fish, but also the "lacticinia"—i.e., all that comes from quad ruped and bird, as butter, eggs, milk, etc. We cannot here enter into detail ; the dis crepancies and differences of opinion with respect to the times and modes of fasting, or to the food prohibited, being, even among successive popes and contemporary bishops and elders of the church so numerous, and involved in such obscurities, that the church historians themselves shrink from enumerating them. Suffice it to say, that they gradu ally developed in the Roman church into-1. Weekly fasts, of which Friday, as the day of the crucifixion, seems to have been early and generally observed. To this was added the Wednesday, as the day on which the death of Christ was resolved upon. These two days received the name of stations; a term borrowed from the stationes of the Roman soldiers, in accordance with the views held by the ascetics and monks, that they were the warriors of Christ. At a synod in Spain in the beginning of the 4th c., the Saturday was superadded, but this innovation met with great opposition, especially in the east, where Jewish notions regarding the Sabbath had obtained a more permanent recogni tion. 2. Vigils, originally night-services observed by the first Christians on the eve of Sundays and festivals, partly in imitation of the Jewish custom of celebrating the entrance of the Sabbath and of festivals on the evening of the previous day, and partly in fear of the danger to which a service in the day-time would have exposed the early converts. Although these night-services became unnecessary in the course of time, they were still continued up to the 4th c., when, to the abuses to which they led, they were abolished, or rather transformed into fast-days, kept on the eve of great festivals in honor of Christ, Mary, saints, and apostles. 3. The great or 40 days' F. (Quadra gesimal F.), the most important and most rigorously enforced of all. The 40 hours of F., in commemoration of the 40 hours during whin Christ's body lay in the tomb, gradually expanded to 36, or rather 40 days, as mentioned before, in pious allusion to the 40 days of Moses, Elijah, Christ, the 40 years' sojourn in the desert, or the 40 camps —all considered typical—and the fasting became severer the nearer Passion-week itself approached, in which many other signs of mourning and contrition were generally exhibited. 4. The Quatember fasts on the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in one week of each season, in imitation of the four Jewish fasts in the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 10th month.—There were still many other fasts, such as those of ordination, etc., but as they had only a temporary existence, we cannot treat of them here Nor can we enter into the various dispensations granted by the church, or the special pastoral letters generally issued before Quadragesima, nor into the variations in the observance of fasts and fast ing in our own days; we can only add, that they have in a great measure lost their former severity, and that only partial abstinence is the rule in all cases. The opinion held by the church in former days, that fasting is meritorious, and conducive to the salvation of the soul, has undergone no change.