Etc. [pp. 479-487]

ETC.
slime animals. Neither of these women for the superfluous would not. Those who
knows anything of the glow, the exhilaration, want the things they see others possess, no
the good circulation, the joy of winter walk- matter what they are, would not enjoy a
ing, belonging to the better order of being, peignoir. The women who have their floors
to the wise woolen-stocking-and —peignoir covered with tulips and roses as big as a
wearer and exercise taker. warming-pan, and their mantel-pieces cram Of old, it was known that long life was med with tawdry images instead of upholdthe reward of philosophy and of the study ing "some vase shaped to the curl of a god's
of the humanities. Democritus, who lived lip'-their walls hidden with raw chromos in
one hundred and four years, Plato, Buffon, place of showing us the one picture of beFranklin, Goethe, Humboldt, and legions of nignity and divine tranquillity we wish to see
other munificent spirits, show how life may -could not perceive the charms ofa peignoir.
be prolonged in joy and strength by intelli- Such women are not satisfied until they have
gence. Persons recover from the effects of wholly incased themselves in tight garters,
disease in proportion as they are mentally pads, tough ruffles like Russia piping, and
cultivated. To omit the cultivation of the belts like Scotch pig-iron, with countless inmind is to endanger the bodily health. At nominable other things. They insist on perthe same time, to neglect the body is to di- forming the duties of life in an imitation Parminish the mental power. It is disgraceful isian visiting costume- a costume intended
for a woman to grow old in self- neglect, for idleness, a costume in which it is destruc -
without knowing what she would become by tion to move, and which makes quadrupeds
rendering herself vigorous in body. Many of them, to quote Celia Burleigh, since they
fail greatly in good thinking from ill health. must employ their hands to hold it while
To be well is the first duty of life; nothing walking. They set themselves against scielse is so serviceable, so beautiful; on the entific facts, and refuse to believe that a light
other hand, nothing is so absolutely vile and dress is a safeguard against illness and faintolerable as disease. We can not know in- tigue. Their self-satisfaction is the last doom
tense joy without a strong bodily frame. The of ignorance and folly. Their requiem must
possession of a strong body in its prime gives be
us the greatest rapture that we can taste. " The sad rhyme of those who fondly clung
Many women who might live in an ocean of To their first fault, and withered in their pride."
happy days, live in torments on account of Since our women have such an overmasailments born of laziness. Many women tering passion for the beautiful, it is strange
give over the gladness of energetic health to that they have not developed better taste in
the Irish washerwoman to be enjoyed by her dress, peignoirs aside. "Difference in taste is
alone, and sink into languor and decrepi- difference in skill," declared Dr. Johnson.
tude -consent to be old, hundreds of years To Alice Carey's question,
old, hundreds of thousands of years old; for "What is it that doth spoil the fair adorning
when we are weary, then only are we old- With which her botly she would dignify?"
for the sake of their clothes. For the sake of the reply would be, ignorance, pure igno "Smug routine, things allowed," rance. American imitations of French fashthey go about life "as a tired slave goes, add- ions would not be the travesties they someing stone to stone," dreading to walk, de- times are, were our women students of form,
pendent on horse-cars and hoisting appara- size, color, and of art in general. All this
tus for locomotion. This dislike of exertion sounds like scolding, but I say with merry
shows a diseased condition of the muscles, a Suzanne, "Au diantre qui rdpond une mot."
bad education, and a low race. But if our Just look at this photograph of a French acfair friends will not work, let them at least tress; one glance will explode the fallacy that
resign themselves to the luxury of wearing Frenchwomen are not beautiful - at least
the peignoir of mornings, and they will soon when dressed in a rich black dinner costume.
find their general health improving. The pose, the folds of drapery, are grand.
Some women would not be content with The skirt, though long and full, affords an
the peignoir; such as have the monomania ample disclosure of the grand outline of the
482
[Nov.