THE BEAUTY THAT WEARS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2441, 1 February 1882, Page 4

THE B EAUTY THAT WEARS.

A daily flutter waß Produced at one of the watering plaeee the PMtwMonby the presence Tf a Toman who, t wintry haiwd and Janamotheriy, was *f ">«»arkably «*•«• nXfr Her styles of OOitume were dobribed as particularly *"»«»»! ht J oomXrionwairapiciomly , *»r, but so true o Cure, nevertheless, that not even experts could detect the trick; b « amiability was Hkefchafc of at: unspoiled flirted in a that was at wonder and despair of ail »%~fc gated. She was said to WW >fi offers of marriage in the las*. " / ■, years, and to be still angling for . uu '• short, she was of that interesting * women who know how to b-,ar a;ze and yet appear young, to look at the world with backward gaze, and yet preserve the royal prerogative of beauty. Such women have not beon so scaroe as we are apt to think. The idea that the fair makes all its conquests while the spring is still in the cheeks is a mistake. Esther was no longer a giddy thing of the p omcand the ball-room when her beauty saved the Jews. The woman wjo betrayed Simson was not in hey-dey of her years and experience, Helen of Troy was not under foriy when men Went id war about her j Aspasia was thirty-six when she captivated Pericles; Cleopatra was past thirty when Antony became her slave. It was when she was thirty eight that Anne of Austria was called the handsomest Queen in Europe. Mme. Beoamier was oelebrated for her beauty at sixty. Ninon de I'Enolos had a lover when she was seventy-two. _ And so | we might go on extending the list, evon down to our own day—for there are still not a few women who are dangerous in spite of the faot that the summer of life is past with them. We do not forget that Socrates said beauty was " a shortlived tyranny," but Socrates was something of a cynio and a pessimist. His experionoes with Xantippe soured him on the woman question. Wo prefer to acoept the finding of Theooritus, who pronounoed baauty " a delighted prejudice," capable of being cultivated and enforced like other prejudices. It is the privilege of woman to keep herself handsome as long as she oan, just as it is the privilege of any other tyrant to hold his sceptre ■ea long as possible. The possession of beauty is the sign by which they rule and ruin ; and we have no right to expeot them to abdioate their sway so long as they can by hook or crook maintain it. We are not sure but Raskin is correct when he says it is every woman's duty to make herself handsome, flinoe it is thus that she gains protection and power, while at the same time she confers a favor upon the world. Eve was allowed to retain her beauty though driven out of Paradise. But how do women no longer young contrive to keep their knaok of fasoinationP Ah, there's the rub. For that secret most women would barter all other fruit of the tree of knowledge. What is beauty, anyway? If we oould define the thing itself we might concoct rules for its preservation ; but, bios, ic eludes analysis and is coy to all the approaches of the philosopher. It is a sensation rather than a spectaole. When we say of a woman that she is handsome, iit is like saying that a night is splendid ; if we undertake to partieularise we beoome absurd. We acknowledge the charm, and for the rest we are dumb. There have been attractive women who conformed to no theory of art in the matter of lines and curves and cast of features. Mme. de Stael was in a sense ugly, and her olothes always ill-fitting, and yet men disputed for her favor, and Napoleon feared her ■miles more than any sword. Our own Charlotte Oushman was so noticeably homely, and who declared she woulfi give all her fame to be a pretty girl, was still able to inspire deep admiration and to make men forget her glaring deficiencies. It is not at all certain, indeed, that any of the famous women who have exeroieed special dominion over the tastes and hearts of the sons of Adam were what is conventionally called pretty. Their beauty, even when beauty was oonoeded to them, had a style that wae unique and special. It did not provoke comparison ; it was a fashion that won vogue in contempt of reigning typei. We suspeot it will be found upon close investigation that the beauty whioh is most conspicuous, and whioh best holds its own against time and contaot with the world, is usually well mixed with brains. The doll faces are not the faces that men fight and die for. When Aristotle said that " the right to command belongs to those who are beautiful," he had in mind the beauty whioh included strength and mantal vigor, good health and a form like a statue—the beauty that wai a religion with the Greeks. He did not refer to that superficial prettiness whioh boys find so entioing, nor yet to that languid and clinging but morbid and uncertain sort of thing whioh figures in so many modern novels. The beauty that keeps is the beauty that has intelligence for a handmaid, and is a bearer of gifts whioh have the stamp of thought. Suoh beauty does not grow old, and does not fade. Its power of fascination rises superior to ohanoe and change; it is a dream fulfilled, a joy for ever.