th white paint and enamelled? No flush of pleasure, no
thrill of hope, no light of love can shine through the incrusted
mould. Her face is as expressionless as that of a painted mummy. And
let no woman imagine that the men do not readily detect this poisonous
mask upon the skin. Many a time have I seen a gentleman shrink from
saluting a brilliant lady, as though it was a death's head he were
compelled to kiss. The secret was that her face and lips were bedaubed
with paints.

A violently rouged woman is a disgusting sight. The excessive red on
the face gives a coarseness to every feature, and a general fierceness
to the countenance, which transforms the elegant lady of fashion into
a vulgar harridan. But, in no case, can even _rouge_ be used by ladies
who have passed the age of life when roses are natural to the cheek. A
_rouged_ old woman is a horrible sight--a distortion of nature's
harmony!

Paints are not only destructive to the skin, but they are ruinous to
the health. I have known paralytic affections and premature death to
be traced to their use. But alas! I am afraid that there never was a
time when many of the gay and fashionable of my sex did not make
themselves both contemptible and ridiculous by this disgusting trick.

Let every woman at once understand that paint can do nothing for the
mouth and lips. The advantage gained by the artificial red is a
thousand times more than lost by the sure destruction of that delicate
charm associated with the idea of "nature's dewy lip." There can be no
_dew_ on a painted lip. And there is no man who does not shrink back
with disgust from the idea of kissing a pair of painted lips. Nor let
any woman deceive herself with the idea that the men do not instantly
detect paint on the lips.

A BEAUTIFUL BOSOM

I am aware that this is a subject which must be handled with great
delicacy; but my book would be incomplete without some notice of this
"greatest claim of lovely woman." And, besides, it is undoubtedly true
that a proper discussion of this subject will seem _peculiar_ only to
the most vulgar minded of both sexes. If it be true, as the old poet
sung, that

"Heaven rests on those two heaving hills of snow,"

why should not a woman be suitably instructed in the right management
of such extraordinary charms?

The first thing to be impressed upon the mind of a lady is that very
low-necked dresses are in exceeding bad taste, and are quite sure to
leave upon the m