CONSERVATION OF HUMAN ENERGY. 399 



means certain that it could be reduced to words, or formulated with 

 exactness. Standards of beauty exist consonant with views not fixed 

 and immutable, varying with many factors, racial, national or local, 

 and fluctuating with fashion and accident or precedent. There is 

 great dearth of agreement among the arbiters, and those who have been 

 most industrious in promulgating their views differ so widely that we 

 are, in the main, reduced to accept individual opinions, and our own 

 always seems the most rational or acceptable. However, allowing for 

 the great diversity which exists between the standards prevailing in 

 Darkest Africa, the Valley of the Amazon, the South Sea Islands and 

 New York or Paris, certain rules hold good, with rare exceptions. 



As to the features of the face we need offer few comments; this 

 would become too wide a discussion. The largest measure of beauty 

 capable of preservation lies in the contours and poses of the body. It 

 will be useful to indicate briefly what standards should be held in mind 

 toward which to strive. Ease of movement and gracefulness of car- 

 riage are at the basis of what is called style. The other elements are 

 dignity and restraint, betraying reserve power; always normality and 

 accuracy of coordination and suitability of action consistent with the 

 demands of environment and circumstances. The term ' well set up ' 

 is often used and may be taken to evidence such balance in the tension 

 of the opposing symmetrical muscles as shall preserve a nicety of 

 equipoise with economy in motor energizing, so that each movement 

 follows with accurate and unconscious, though restrained, force. Full 

 relaxation is the starting point of all effort; the conservator of action. 



One so endowed will be found, as a rule, to exhibit a straight back, 

 the spinal column practically vertical, viewed from the rear, and when 

 looked at from the side, the normal curves at neck and waist line will 

 be distinctly less marked than common. The pelvis will be nearly on 

 a level and not markedly tilted forward and down in front, so obvious 

 in fat people or those of lax fiber. The shoulders are held well down 

 and directly in the mid-line (viewed from the side), but with the ribs 

 more nearly at right angles to the spinal column than is seen in those 

 who exhibit exaggerated nuchal and lumbar curves. The head is well 

 balanced upon a round straight neck, which is slightly inclined for- 

 ward, and there will be almost no curve in the upper thoracic vertebras. 

 A vertical line would fall from the back of the head to the middle of 

 the shoulders. These features originally possessed or acquired, as they 

 can be, make possible a slimness of waist fully compatible with health. 

 If this attitude is maintained the depth of the chest consists of an 

 elevated position of the ribs, giving them their largest diameters, antero- 

 posteriorly and laterally. 



The level pelvis and relatively straight lumbar spine compel a 

 wholesome action of the abdominal parietes, by which full support of 



