THE BEAUTIFUL. 113 



Modesty, Intelligence, and, above all, Enthusiasm, shone 

 through her and out of her, and made her an airy, fiery, 

 household joy. Briefly, an incarnate sunbeam." * 



Beauty of person, then, is something which may be cul- 

 tivated. Hence the aspiration to be beautiful is not a 

 vain one ; were it so, kind nature would not have im- 

 planted it in our hearts. I do not speak at random when 

 I affirm that women with cultured minds and hearts 

 excel in beauty those who remain ignorant and perverse. 

 From the day when a course of intellectual and spiritual 

 training begins, you may detect an improvement in per- 

 sonal attractions. I appeal to every teacher for con- 

 firmation. And now I wish to say more: culture confers 

 not alone spiritual beauty, but also physical beauty, which 

 in turn becomes a more perfect vehicle for the beauty 

 which is spiritual. Mind and body act and react. The 

 cultured daughters of the city and the town are more 

 comely than the unlettered drudges of the alleys and of 

 the frontier. This condensed lesson I would have pla- 

 carded in illuminated letters upon the wall of every lady's 

 boudoir: As you would be beautiful, be intelligent, be 

 good. 



How vain, then, are rouges and dyes and other 

 cosmetic inventions! Beauty is not made of paint 

 and powder; it is the temple which health builds for a 

 pure, bright spirit; or, as St. Clement of Alexandria 

 says, " Beauty is the free flower of health." f The 

 tricks of misguided vanity cannot be passed unnoticed. 

 They have woven a thread continuous through the web 

 of feminine history. Hear what Aristophanes catalogues 



* Charles Reade, Hard Cash, Boston ed., p. 6. 

 Clemens Alex. Paed., Bk. iii, ch xi. 



