BEAUTY. 301 



bad clij:festion. So decidedly do we associate 

 these signs of health in the skin with all our 

 notions of the highest beauty that pearl-powder 

 and rouge have been invented to simulate the 

 virtue in those who do not naturally possess it, or 

 at least to heighten it in those who do. Pearly- 

 white teeth, once more, are great elements of 

 beauty in such as can boast of them ; and the 

 soundness of the teeth has mucli to do with the 

 digestion, and therefore with all the general 

 health of the whole body. People with bad teeth 

 sufler much directly from the defect, and still 

 more indirectly in the insufficient chewing of all 

 their food. If we take these two small matters 

 alone, it is quite clear at once that the idea of 

 beauty we form about them is far from skin-deep; 

 it is the natural expression of a great underlying 

 physical truth. If people did not care as a rule 

 whether those they were going to choose as 

 partners for life had good complexions or good 

 teeth, the result would be that many more chil- 

 dren in the next generation would suffer from 

 indigestion and toothache, and that the race in 

 the long run would thereby be permanently weak- 

 ened. Of course, when a young man falls in love, 

 he does not consciously think to himself whether 

 his lady-love has a sound digestion and a strong 

 lieart; but he is attracted to a certain extent — 

 in most instances — by the outward and visible 



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