TWENTY-THIBD ANNUAL MEETING. 73 



of most of our actions, it is little wonder that there are few faces that are beautified 

 by refined emotions and reflected unselfishness. 



The struggle for existence in our selfish commercial life is quite as fierce as in 

 the days of our ancestors. 



The fittest in physical prowess survived then, and the fittest in commercial 

 shrewdness survive now. There is a difference, however, that the unfit are cared 

 for to some extent by the more fortunate in our day, especially when intellectually 

 or spiritually superior. But the financial conflict and the grinding care this con- 

 flict brings upon all classes, weighs down the minds of men and furrows the face 

 with lines. The daily anxiety about the means of living does more to destroy 

 facial beauty than grief or suffering. It springs from and fosters selfishness and 

 misanthropy, and crowds out higher thoughts and better emotions. It is this care 

 and anxiety that destroys all traces of beauty, either natural or acquired, in ordi- 

 nary faces. Surely civilization has done little for the struggling masses; — ^ better 

 the communism of barbarism than this sonl-destroying conflict and anxiety ! 



And yet there some beautiful and spiritual faces to-day — the reflection of lofty 

 minds and souls on which the sordid cares and anxieties and selfishness of life seem 

 to have had little effect. They are such as have been saved by circumstances from 

 toil and anxiety and are thereby enabled to give their thoughts to lofty themes, or 

 those who by temperament are oblivious to care and carry the burdens of life 

 lightly, or of those who by strength of mind ignore the petty things of life and live 

 in a world of their own; or, more rarely, a face is illuminated by a soul lit by divine 

 fires, and tells of a spirit not of our poor, common humanity. But the faces worth 

 looking at and analyzing occur as rare oases in the desert of mediocrity around us, 

 and serve but to redeem the mass from total condemnation. 



Much depends upon contour, for beauty of the face. Youth is the season of 

 freshness of beauty, as the face is then full and well rounded. This beauty of contour 

 is produced by adipose tissue, and as age progresses this disappears, the features 

 shrink and lose their expression, the muscles become less mobile, the skin loses its 

 youthful color and texture, and, as the years toll off, the face assumes more and 

 more the shape of the bony framework beneath, betraying approaching dissolution. 

 Then, again, the experience of the years leaves its marks. The face in age may be 

 serene and placid, or plowed with the furrows of suffering, as the life may have 

 been happy or otherwise. Disease may also cause the face to shrink prematurely, 

 and reduce the contour by emaciation. This, however, is usually corrected on the 

 restoration of health by the redeposit of fat, except in the case of chronic disease 

 and insufficient nourishment of the tissues. Contour is a principal element of 

 beauty, in a mechanical and artistic sense, and, other things being equal, the plump 

 face is the most agreeable and attractive. A certain amount of fullness, or tissue 

 body, is necessary for the proper support of expression; for shriveled features 

 cannot be expressive and active in conveying the workings of the mind. 



Beauty everywhere is for enjoyment. Nature created beauty to excite pleasurable 

 emotions. It never ministers to misery or pain. So, indeed, a beautiful face is 

 created to be admired and enjoyed. The first thing that strikes us favorably in a 

 face is exactness of proportion, and then harmony of the features, whatever the 

 type. These give pleasure to our artistic sense, be it crude or cultivated; for the 

 artistic sense is innate in all men. We enjoy a beautiful face, be it young or old, 

 man or woman, as other beauties in nature or art, with an additional pleasure from 

 the consciousness of it being living beauty, and that it is animated by a soul behind 

 it whose beauty it reflects. So in the beautiful face of a child: it is the innocence 

 and joy and freedom from care, that the face reflects, that attract us, while we 

 admire the mere form and contour and color. So, also, with the face made beautiful 



