Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/736

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This section will be a complete guide to the art of preserving and acquiring beauty. How wide will be its scope can be seen from the following summary of Its contents : Beautiful Wofnen in History The Beatitiful Baby Beauty Secrets Mothers ought Treatment of the Hair The Beautiful Child to Teach their Daughters The Beauty of Motherhood and Health and Beauty The Complexion Old Age Physical Culture The Teeth The Effect of Diet on Beauty How the Housewife may Pre- The 'Eyes Freckles, Sunburn sei've Her Good Looks The Ideal of Beauty Beauty Baths Beauty Foods The Ideal Figure, Manicure 1 etc., etc. BEAUTIFUL WOMEN IM HISTORY No. 6. MADAME' RECAMIER By PEAR " I-fER angelic face can bear no other name ; one look suffices to bind your heart to her for ever." So said Lamartine of Madame Recamier, the wonderful woman who ruled French society for thirty-four years. A list of her attractions is so long that it sounds almost impossible. She was lovely, graceful, with charming manners ; she Was generous, unselfish, hard-working in the cause of others ; she was affectionate ; she Was a force in politics and a power in litera- ture, wrote wonderful letters herself, and inspired fine Work in others ; she was an accomplished musician, and a perfect hostess ; she was dowered with sympathy, tact, and self-effacement in a very liberal degree ; she possessed the power of attracting love from every human creature she met ; she could turn her lovers into friends ; and, in a Icose age, no one could ever so much as breathe upon the purity of her good name. Melted the Iron Duke At the age of fifteen she was married to a middle-aged, grave man, to whom she was bound by merely a nominal tie. From him she could have obtained at any time her release ; but, when her heart Was touched by the young Prince Augustus of Prussia, and she Wrote to her husband to ask for her freedom, a single tender, sorrowful letter from him was enough to bring her back to his side. She refused the advances of an emperor, a prince, a reigning grand duke, and as for the lesser men — philosophers, writers, states- men, poets, artists, noblemen — who loved her, they were reckoned by the dozen. She must have lost count of them herself. She Was adored by women — even by the wives of the men who loved her ! The Duke of L ADAM Wellington himself could not resist her charms. She touched the zenith of wealth, and fell to the depths of poverty, without altering in character, without losing a single friend. Because she refused his advances. Napo- leon hated her and persecuted her. He could not bear her social supremacy, and later, to revenge himself for her coldness, he ruined her husband. It was of little avail. People flocked to her, loved her, praised her, all the more for the reverses she bore with such patience and gentleness. He exiled her ; and wherever she went a brilliant circle of adorers sprang up. Paris at Her Feet She was the daughter of Bernard, first a notary of Lyons, then a collector of Customs under Louis XVI. in Paris. Her mother was very lovely, and, it is said, affectionate to others besides her husband. This gave rise to a curious explanation of the strange marriage between Juliette, then but a child, and the grave, rich banker, Jacques Recamier, which took place at the very height of the Reign of Terror. The marriage was one in name only, and it was said that Juliette was Recamier's daughter, and that he took this way of securing his fortune to her, should he perish on the scaffold, as seemed at that time almost inevitable. When the Reign of Terror was over, Madame Recamier burst upon Paris in the days when, with Gallic light-heartedness, people were throwing themselves madly into amusements. She was a little shy — never a drawback in a very young and extremely beautiful girl. Her fame filled Paris. She was asked, in accordance with a custom then I