Part 3 — BEAUTY IN WOMAN: FROM A MAN'S POINT OF VIEW.

By “MEDICUS” (Dr. GORDON STABLES, R.N.).

That I am an admirer of female beauty and loveliness goes without saying, nor would I care to take tiffin with a man who isn't.

Beauty likes to be Admired.

Yes—that is true, and I don't blame beauty a bit. Nevertheless ladies who are not gifted with this great glory, prim, demure women, with prim, demure ways, may look sadly sour and say, “That Miss So-and-so thinks she is entrancing, and maybe she is good-looking after a fashion, but I feel sure she spends quite a deal of her time indoors attitudinising and gavotting before the looking-glass, and she can't pass a shop window without using it as a mirror to note how she looks.” Well, for the life of me I cannot see any harm in Miss So-and-so's turning a shop window into a mirror if she chooses. Her mind is thus satisfied. That dress does hang nicely, and she carries herself well in it.

As to Miss So-and-so spending some time before the mirror at home, the Misses Prim can only be reasoning from analogy. They themselves doubtless do the same, but it is as a forlorn hope and in order to see if there be anything about their faces and figures analogous to beauty.

But Miss So-and-so is right again. What are mirrors made for, I wonder, if not to study before, to study attitude, the set of the head, the proper use of lips and eyes, and the contour of the neck. Indeed, indeed, I'm all on beauty's side.

But in this, as in all other matters, there is a danger of over-doing it. It is quite proper to assure yourself that you look your best, but it is unwise to think too much of the matter, or to allow yourself to become a piece of human vanity.

Every Woman has a Mission.

I should be sorry indeed to speak disparagingly about the Misses Prim.

There are a great many of them in this world, and they can do much to make the world better and happier. That is their mission. Some fulfil it, some don't. Some want to die right off the reel because nature has made them somewhat angular and gray and has, in fact, denied them beauty. They become sour in temper and sharp in tongue because of envy. Ah, but just see the happiness they could shed abroad among others were they only cheerful and always willing to assist their neighbours with good sound, solid advice. And this happiness would come back to their own hearts and take up its abode there, so that blessedness should shine in their faces. Women of this description ought to dress very neatly but not gaily. They often have good figures, and these may be attired to advantage without their making any attempt at dressing to kill, which would obviously be somewhat ridiculous. They should be neat also in hands and feet and hair, the arrangement of which lends itself to much that is artistic and beautiful.

The Misses Prim may be thirty or forty years old, or more. What matters it? Their mission lies chiefly among the young, and thoughtless though these may be, they are loving and have ten times more gratitude in their souls than grown-up people. Alas! though, I may be addressing some who have but little time to help those around them, little time even to read; theirs only to work, to long, and sometimes to weep. I do in my heart feel for such as these; but the very fact that they do long for something better to come shows, I think, that there is a better world than this, and that this life is but probationary.

It is their mission then to work, and to try to do so willingly, for methinks duty well performed is a reward in itself.

Beauty's Mission.

Beauty's mission is a noble one, and if kept well apart from pride and frivolity, it is a self-ennobling one.

Beauty has been called a fatal gift. It is so only when the possessor thereof has no other attractions. Every beautiful girl should possess refinement, and by this I do not mean accomplishments that can be shown to advantage in a drawing-room. No, but refinement of mind or soul. She ought to be well read, though far indeed from being a blue-stocking. She ought to be herself a poet at heart, a lover of nature and of God's animals, His trees and His flowers. She ought to be a good but not a garrulous conversationalist; the sentences that leave her lips ought to flow like the murmur and ripple of a sparkling fountain. Forced conversation has no reality about it, and anyone can see it does not come from the heart.

Beauty should be musical. Alas! it is not always so. I may go further and say it is too often automatical. This is the result of a forced musical education. Beauty should never play what she cannot feel. If she feels, so shall others around her, and the chords will touch the heart.

A beautiful woman who can play the violin so as to bring tears to the listener's eyes, possesses a power that nothing on this dull earth of ours can excel.

And a beauty like that which I so feebly paint has a deal to be proud of, though she ought not to be vain. Vanity only proves narrowness of soul, a mind with no breadth of beam.

True enough, yet the greatest of beauties are not simply there for show. For her a nobler part is retained, and ere many years are over her head she ought to be as noble-minded and beautiful a matron as she now is a maiden.

Yes, and if health and beauty go hand-in-hand, with modesty and virtue in their train, this great kingdom of ours will never need to lower its flag to any combination in the world.

I say, then, to every girl-reader I have, “It is well to be beautiful.”

Growing Old Gracefully.

I cannot but respect and admire the women who grow old gracefully. Generally a little inclined to embonpoint are they, which but accords with their years. But there is a sincerity about them which is very creditable. A lady of this kind is never ashamed to own that she is getting up in years. No one would be rude enough to ask her age; but if anybody did, they would have a straightforward truthful answer. See, there is a sprinkling of silvery hairs on her head; she is, I believe, somewhat proud of them rather than otherwise, and if true religion dwells in her heart, she is altogether amiable. Some day she knows she will die. Some day—yes, some day; but this death will only just be going home. She is to be envied.

Should Art aid Beauty?

My answer is, “Yes, undoubtedly, if it be real art.”

Says the poet—

This is all nonsense. It is just as reasonable for beauty to call in the aid of science and art as it is for her to use soap with which to wash her hands and face. But on the other hand, a beauty that is all artificial is quite detestable. No man can stand a painted doll. We meet such in society all too often, but we soon find out that she is just as frivolous and heartless as she is artificial—a painted fraud, in fact, and I pity the poor fellow who is snared into marrying her.

But there are legitimate methods of securing greater beauty. The chief of these is health. Without good health there can be no real beauty, no beautiful complexion, no bright and sparkling eyes, and no power to please others or make others happy. One cannot bestow upon those around them that which they do not possess themselves. It is girls like this—girls who may be classed with that great army, the only middling—who, instead of endeavouring to set themselves right by the aid of judicious living and everything that conduces to health, are for ever hunting among the trashy advertisements of cheap ladies' papers for cosmetics that shall not only make them beautiful for a day, but keep them beautiful for all time.

Very catchy are many of those advertisements to the eyes of the simple and the ignorant, and they are always tastefully illustrated. In a country better governed than ours, those advertising quack-women, who charge such awful prices for specialities that are simply worse than want, would soon find themselves inside the four walls of a prison. Pray take my warning, girls, and keep your money in your purses.

Do not forget, however, that regularity in living, temperance in eating, daily pleasant exercise, no spurting if you ride, plenty of fruit, and the bath, using the mildest soaps are the passports to health and happiness; and beauty cannot exist without these latter.