What a fine thing it will be when women shall combine the comeliness of youth with the wisdom of age! It is not without precedent.
Diana of Poictiers, Duchess of Valentinois, was the reigning beauty at the courts of three successive kings of France. The historian Brantôme knew her well. "I saw this noble dame," he tells us, "when she was seventy years of age, and she was as charming, as fresh, and as lovely as any lady of thirty. Her beauty, grace, and majesty were such as she had ever possessed. 'Tis a pity that such a body is now buried in the earth. It was said that certain skilled doctors and subtle apothecaries prepared for her daily a potion of soluble gold, and that this or some similar drug it was that preserved her beauty." Soluble gold it was not, Seigneur Brantôme, but another and potent recipe, which is not yet lost.
"And this recipe is—?"
Patience! we are not yet at that part of our subject. The secret of the famous Diana of Poictiers is not to be lightly told at the beginning of a book. The prudent traveller spares his funds at the outset of his journey, and is only generous to well-tried companions. But rest assured that the Fountain of Youth yet flows for her who diligently seeks it.
And now we shall try a definition. They are notoriously difficult to make, and probably we shall have no greater success than many another.
