Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/125

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

keeping them in those troublesome times. She is sure to be remembered "when your Pompadour, Duchess of Cleveland, of Kendal, and other high-rouged, unfortunate females, whom it is not proper to speak of without necessity, shall have sunk beneath the Historical." Let us hope so, for with all her ruggedness she was true wife and of sterling metal, and worth more than the whole crowd of the others.

The mouth should be of moderate size, the corners symmetrical, when closed the line perfectly horizontal, the lips well defined and rosy red, the lower slightly more prominent than the upper, both covering readily the teeth but not redundant. The crowning charm of a pretty mouth are wreathed smiles.

"Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And lore to live in dimple sleek;"

or, lest we put the mark discouragingly high, such as may wreathe almost any face, if the owner will take care to cultivate it. How many there are whom mirth robs of half their good looks! It often demands practice before the mirror in order to correct one's self of ungracious tics, which mar the pleasure we would otherwise give by a smile. The lips should part moderately, disclosing the teeth, but not the gums, and not contorting the rest of the visage, while yet the whole face sympathizes in the mirthfulness.

It is anything but pleasing to see a grin without gladness. The ancients called such a grimace the