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Health and Beauty.

and palms without either harshness or dry­ness, and should appear to unite insensibly with the arm. The fingers should be fine, long, round, and soft, lessening towards the tips; the nails long, rounded at the ends, and pellucid. The bosom should be white and full, and the breasts equal in roundness, whiteness, and firmness, neither too much elevated nor too much depressed—rising gently, and very distinctly separated; in one word, just like those of the Venus de Medici. The sides should be long, and the hips wider than the shoulders, and should turn off and go down gra­dually to the knee. The knee should be even and well rounded; the legs straight, but varied by a proper rounding of the more fleshy parts; and the feet finely turned, white, and small. Beauty, therefore, is not a question of face only. If you look at the face alone of the Venus de Medici, it appears extremely beautiful, but if you consider all the other elegancies of her make, the beauty of her face becomes less striking, and is almost lost in a multiplicity of charms. This idea of the Queen of Love was doubtless in the mind of the poet when he wrote—

"Slow, melting strains their queen's approach declare;
Where'er she turns the Graces homage pay: