OF AGE.

External indications of age are required chiefly where the face is
veiled, or where the woman observed precedes the observer and may
reasonably excite his interest.

In either of these cases, if the foot and ankle have lost a certain
moderate plumpness, and assumed a certain sinewy or bony appearance, the
woman has generally passed the period of youth.

If in walking, instead of the ball or outer edge of the foot first
striking the ground, it is the heel which does so, then has the woman in
general passed the meridian of life. Unlike the last indication, this is
apparent, however the foot and ankle may be clothed.--The reason of this
indication is the decrease of power which unfits the muscles to receive
the weight of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.

Exceptions to this last indication are to be found chiefly in women in
whom the developments of the body are proportionally much greater,
either from a temporary or a permanent cause, than those of the limbs,
the muscles of which are consequently incapable of receiving the weight
of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.

_THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY_;

OR A DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS STATUE
OF THE VENUS DE MEDICI.

The Venus de Medici at Florence is the most perfect specimen of ancient
sculpture remaining; and is spoken of as the Model of Female Beauty. It
was so much a favorite of the Greeks and Romans, that a hundred ancient
repetitions of this statue have been noticed by travellers. This statue
is said to have been found in the forum of Octavia at Rome. It
represents woman at that age when every beauty has just been perfected.

"The Venus de Medici at Florence," says a distinguished writer, "is like
a rose which, after a beautiful daybreak, expands its leaves to the
first ray of the sun, and represents that age when the limbs assume a
more finished form and the breast begins to develop itself."

The size of the head is sufficiently small to leave that predominance to
the vital organs in the chest, which, as already said, makes the
nutritive system peculiarly that of woman. This is the first and most
striking proof of the profound knowledge of the artist, the principles
of whose art taught him that a vast head is not a constituent of female
beauty. In mentioning the head it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing
the rich curls of hair.

The eyes next fix our attention by their soft, sweet, and g