398 • POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



men, and women also, who are of the age of grandparents, and yet are 

 altogether attractive and beautiful. 



The time was, and recent too, when most men on reaching the age 

 of thirty-five or forty adopted a quiet costume and demeanor of sta- 

 bility and left off regarding themselves as sharing in any part of their 

 resigned youth. The same voluntary transition was even more notice- 

 able among women, especially the married ones. When the duties of 

 life lay most largely about the domestic hearth the duties and privi- 

 leges of parenthood were accepted and enjoyed with no, or little, 

 thought of acquiring the pose of perpetual adolescence. A change has 

 been wrought, for good or otherwise, and it becomes a matter of com- 

 mon remark that we have no middle-aged folk any more. People are 

 either young or they are old. As for inevitable conditions, little need 

 be said; they must be accepted and made the most of. It has been 

 decided, however, that now-a-days we shall stay young as long is pos- 

 sible, hence it behooves those of us who are the conservators of health 

 to teach our clients the best measures by which youthfulness may be 

 conserved and cellular structures held in equipoise. 



There is much to be said in favor of such a decision. Assuredly, a 

 man is to be commended for* desiring to see the wife of his bosom long 

 retain those qualities which first swayed his judgment and determined 

 his choice. The Almighty put into the heart of his people certain 

 instinctive impulses, the following of which brings about mating. 

 Beauty of face and form, varying as it inevitably must, in accordance 

 with racial or local standards, is the deciding factor in espousals. No 

 doubt we can be made to believe that soul appeals to soul in these 

 momentous yet sudden decisions, which we all made, and our children 

 will make yet after us. But comeliness is and should be the final arbit- 

 rament. Happily there are many types and adequate varieties. 



" There is a beauty of the flesh, and there is likewise a glory of 

 the spirit which illumines the flesh. In the most pleasing of human 

 countenances these good gifts are blended in just, though varying, 

 degrees." It is possible for one or the other extreme to prevail and 

 each be satisfactory to the beholder. This again depends upon the 

 caliber of the spectator; his or her mood and training. If the spirit 

 works so powerfully here as some would have us believe, it follows that 

 the wisest men and women should make their choice less by reason of 

 propinquity than is demonstrated by history and experience. The 

 instinctive impulses are primarily wholesome, and make for good, but, 

 unless modified by judgment, tend inevitably toward selfish indulgences 

 which mar the most beautiful human complex. 



It would seem pertinent, however, to make some effort at under- 

 standing what the elements of that beauty are, which is so well worth 

 the preserving. While this concept might be attained, it is by no 



