story.

Rightly does Herbert Spencer say, "We have had something too much of
the gospel of work, it is time to preach the gospel of relaxation."

And this chapter will have reached its aim if it shall be the means of
inducing any to become disciples of Delsarte, restful converts of this
gospel of relaxation, which is one with the Gospel of Beauty.

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ART OF DRESS

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"Dress may be called the speech of the body," says Mrs. Haweis.

A woman's dress should be so much the expression of herself that,
seeing it, we think not of the gown, but of the woman who is its soul.
The true art of dress is reached when it serves only to heighten the
charms of the wearer, not to draw attention from her to center upon
her garments. One writer on beauty in dress claims that "the object is
threefold: to cover, to warm, to beautify," and in dealing with this
latter point farther says that, "rather than to beautify, it is to
emphasize beauty." To this statement should be added that its mission
is also to minimize or do away with defects.

Most dressing is done to enhance the beauty of the face, but women
should remember that the tint of the complexion, the color of hair and
eyes, are but a small part of the _personnel_. The physique must be
taken into account. The "type" is a fact fixed and inevitable, and the
woman is wise who sets herself steadfastly to "develop and emphasize
its beauties and overshadow and efface its defects."

It is only by real study that a woman grows to understand and analyze
her "type" and suit all accessories to her own personality; to adjust,
as it were, her "relations." Art, after all, is simply, as Edmund
Russell admirably defines it, "relations, the right thing in the right
place."

Study your own individuality and assert it in your dress. "No woman
need be ugly if she knows her own points," and some points of
attractiveness every woman has. Lord Chesterfield, that cynical man of
the world, assures us that "no woman is ugly when she is well
dressed." That is, dressed with reference to revealing good points and
concealing weak ones. Time spent in this study is gain, when one
remembers in how many ways actual outward ugliness is an impediment.
"The greater portion of ill-tempered, ugly women are ill-tempered
simply because they believe themselves hopelessly ugly." A woman,
finding her fairer friends constantly preferred despite her vain
attempts to please, grows dish