HANDSOMER FACES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4799, 14 January 1925, Page 1

HANDSOMER FACES.

IMVBVVIiMra'I IN LOOMS.

SIGN OF BEAUTY OF MIND. Sir W. Orpen, the famous .arllst, «ays 11l at the handsomer men ami women of to-day .are a reflection of the improved mentality of the age. “A year or so ago, when critics were in full tongue telling the world how much it had deteriorated since the century before, 1 voiced the heresy that men and women were not only better looking, and therefore better minded than they had ever been betorc, but that they were steadily improving. Every day confirms me in that belief,” he writes in the "Sunday .■Pictorial.” "It is my business in life to study facets. It is also my lot in doing my job to get to know automatically what is in the mind that is behind the face, .and 1 do not hesitate to say that there is no such thing as real beauty of face without beauty of mind. And there is a lot of both kinds of beauty about to-day. “1 am not a subscriber to the view that beauty is but skin-deep, nor have I ever, found ‘a goodly apple rotten at tlie heart’ that did not show some blemish on its rosy cheek to show where the worm got in. “Beauty is more than a regular bone structure covered with healthy ileish and skin, and whether a face is a fortune or not, it is always a hallmark. "It is not by sheer coincidence that you find in one profession hundreds of faces that look as though they had been turned out by the same mould. It is not salt water that shapes the sailors face, or court, rooms that shape the lawyer’s, or preaching the parson’s. "A face proclaims his vice, whether he likes it or not, as clearly as an honest man’s proclaims his worth. This is no more a coincidence than the fact that pipe-smokers, from Mr Baldwin downward, cannot keep a crease in their, trousers.. All faces and all appearances are shaped through an attitude, of mind. As you think, so you become. “Do not suspect me of confuting features with expression. Expression is a physical change and not something behind a face which shines through it. No one can sneer, smile, experience horror, languor, love, fear, or any emotion without using some of the innumerable face muscles to raise or lower eyebrows or eyelids, move the lipw produce a wrinkle or a dimple, or bringing about some actual change, oven if it is only the dilation of the pupils.

"Each change tells a story to the student. Expression is part of the face, though it is dictated by the mind, and the face eventually adapts itself to the expression most.freauently used. If a man is bora an Adonis and goes through the world scowling, the scowl will be part of hip Uace when he dies, and his children will ■very likely start life. With an inherited scowl.

"When 1 see, therefore, better-look-ing men and women about me I know tliey are inspired with better thoughts, and that these will be handed on vo and multiplied in our great-great-grandchildren?

"If we cannot look into the faces of the future to make sure that the race is improving, we can look at thJ past. Consider the goad old dayp of one or two centuries ago, and compare the faces of these good old men and women with those of our own day. We have the excellent evidence of Gainsborough, Reynolds, Lely, and others to show up what they looked like. . ;

"Lely’s pictures, for all I know, were not very like his sitters. They all look very much alike, but we may take it that he painted the type of-his own. day, and from his popularity we may assume that he was flattering rather than the reverse. “Even so, his pictures of the graceful bucks of Charles’ Court compare badly with the average strong-faced, square-jawed citizen of the present day. Without the curlis, ruffs, and trappings of the Restoration the average man of 1924 can beat his ancestors hollow for looks, physique, and manliness.

"The average modern man cannot squeeze into the largest sizes of mediaeval coats of mail, and the ern girl would find it even more difficult to wear an Elizabethan stomacher.

“Woman has not been left behind in the race. It may seem unfair to compare an outstanding beauty like Mi's Siddons with the modern girl, but Miss 1924 does not. suffer by the comparison. Mrs Siddons' beauty was famous because beauty was rarer ini her day. I can readily think of a dozen now who would outshine her. 1 sec rivals for most of the oltner canvas beauties daily.

“The average of beauty is rising, and it is rijsing because there is going on a steady rise in virtue. 1 do not use the word in any priggish sense, but for want of a better term to describe the inherent decency of instinct and goodness of n.ind which, are evident all around us. "Exercise has improved our bodies, but it is the healthy mind that’puts ■ men and women into the sports field.”,