To prepare it for molding from these ingredients, cut the gelatin up into little bits, in a wide-mouthed vial, and, after adding to it the fluidounce of water, melt the mixture in a hot-water bath (the receptacle holding the mixture placed in another receptacle containing the water, to which heat is applied). When the mixture is melted, add the glycerin, previously warmed. Then shake the mixture thoroughly up, add to it a drop or two of oil of roses, pour it into molds, and put it away in a cool place until it sets. When removed from the molds, wrap it up in paraffin-paper, such as the confectioners use. In using it, first moisten the skin with water, and then apply it.

We have indicated from the first, that the most cosmetic things in the world for the skin are fresh, cool water, bland soap, and gentle friction, and have expressed our disapproval of arti ficial modes of beautifying the complexion, or, rather, not of beantifying it, but of concealing it from view. We have carefully pointed out that a wholesome, handsome complexion can come only of the aggregated effects of fresh air, exercise, good food and clothing, and generally good habits of life. At the same time we recognize that there are occasions when one has need of suppressing summarily the glistening of the face from perspiration, and also that, do what we will, there are persons who will not heed our words of wisdom. Recognizing these facts, we. philosophically resign ourselves to communicating such information as to safe artificial cosmetics as will include those of which the reader may desire to know.

The following, it will be seen, is composed of very simple ingredients, with whose nature every one is acquainted. It forms a powder for the face, which, if desired of flesh color, can be so tinted by the addition of 3 grains of powdered carmine:—

Carbonate of magnesia,

Pulverized chalk,

1/2

Scent with rose. For flesh color, add 3 grains of carmine.

The best rouge of which we know, for fineness of quality and for facility of application, is that contained in Madame Lowenberg's pastilles de Florence. The pastilles are sometimes dissolved in rose-water, and the lotion thus made is applied to the face. This mode of using them produces the vulgar effect of a painted face, which, it need hardly be said, is an effect far from respectable. To avoid this, the pastille should be powdered, a piece of fine flannel dipped into the powder, and the face treated as follows, à la français: Pass the flannel gently over the forehead and temples, avoiding the eyebrows, then over the nose, then over the upper lip, then over the chin and around the mouth, omitting throughout to touch the cheeks or the parts under the eyes, the two points which do not need re-inforcing with color, and, if so re-inforced, revealing its presence as being artificial. After having delicately passed the flannel over the parts described, pass over the same parts a soft piece of fine linen. The effect will be far more natural than that produced by powdering the substance on the skin, or smearing it dissolved over the skin, both which modes of using the pastilles, especially the latter, produce a highly unnatural appearance. Flecks of powder that may have fallen on the eyebrows or the eyelashes can be removed with a piece of moistened linen. A brunette uses the pastilles of a creamy-pink tint, and a blonde of a roseate one. For bare neck and shoulders, Lubin's violet powder is a famous preparation.

NEX

CHAPTER XIX.

THE HANDS.

[EXT to the face the hand has, of all the members of the body, the most expression. And like all things capable in action, it has expression even in repose. Its physiognomical traits, so to speak, may or may not have been developed by education; they are apparent and significant without it, almost from the beginning, from nature alone. Its range of expression in repose is great, and its range of expression in activity exceeds all but the artist's capacity to depict. Sully used to say that, such was the beauty, grace, and diversity in the hands of a number of figures in a certain foreign painting representing the calling of St. Matthew, he had for his own instruction repeatedly copied them.

Of two pairs of hands of which neither has ever done a stitch of work, a good observer recognizes which are the capable ones. And when we say work, we do not mean mere work, except as special work performed in conformity with the particular quality of brain. If any one choose to consider the fact significant merely as to relative muscular endowment, let him observe beyond, that, independent of the capacity of brute force exhibited by any hand, it reveals the presence of a more or less highly gifted nervous organization. One does not find, even before toil has marred symmetry, elegantly-shaped hands as the possession of a clodhopper, nor such hands as his as the possession of a statesman. Nature is harmonious in her works, from the masses of her sculpture, down to the pettiest details. Pinched nostrils consort with imperfect lungs, as full nostrils consort with fine breathing apparatus. Refinement of organization, without special muscularity, is conjoined with delicacy and

refinement of traits throughout, and so also the. opposite conditions harmoniously prevail. Function is everywhere represented by appropriate structure, down to the big mouth of the orator and the big foot of the pedestrian.

The nervous system dominates the man; in fact, the nervous system is the man. When we think of the brain as dominating that, we should so think qualifiedly, for the brain is a part of that system. If ever there were a sovereign ruling by consent of the governed, the brain is thus dependent upon its subjects. It rules only upon the condition, not that the body politic, but that the body corporate, shall be sound. It is absolutely dependent upon the well-being of its subjects, from the highest to the lowest. That their fundamental constitution shall not be violated, that their labors shall not be excessive, that they shall have, under law, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, sum themselves up in the ruler's own possibility of pleasurable existence and life itself. The brain, without its prime minister, the spinal cord; without its cabinet of advisers, the special senses; the afferent and efferent nerves, without integrity, may make the brain absolutely helpless to have a command executed, or, if affected in some lesser degree, unable to insure any measure of sane rule such as we recognize as emanating from mind.

Thus the brain being informed, prompted, or restrained by every part of the body, and in turn informing and controlling it, dominant only upon condition of its own dependence, prime ruler of the general nervous system only upon condition of the soundness of both, is also harmonized with reference to the mechanical means by which it deals with outside nature, and chiefly as to this by the possession of the hand, a servant characteristic of and by which we may judge of the character of the master. Through the possession of this, the chief mechanical attendant of the mind, man has acquired his present high status

in the animal kingdom. But man is enormously differentiated as to different races and individuals within the confines of the species to which he belongs. With this differentiation, back of which is infinite differentiation in the nervous system, lies corresponding complexity in the character of the hand as well as of other parts of the body. The hand, as the principal mechanical executor of the will, representing the individual brain, the chief daily agent of the nervous system in the struggle for existence, has originally, and by education comes to have still more, affinity with the individual brain, and to present a specific type of expression by which we recognize it in repose or in action as a member determined in character by individual organization.

All that has been said may be condensed thus. Structure and character of function being inseparable, the individual nervous system being everywhere harmonious, and the brain being the chief seat of the system, of which the hand is the principal mechanism, the hand must physically express the general character of the brain as representing character of mind, and we appeal to observation to show that it does. This member of the body, although performing the most menial offices, takes part also on the highest state occasions. Its. pudgy contours lie on the mother's breast, characterless until life and experience have given to it traits which they will with time surely impart; but thenceforward it has its life to live, and its joint history with its master or mistress to tell. It wars, or points the moral, turns to love, or in the wildest flights of oratory rises supremely over the scene. It betrays in action or repose the helpless imbecility of a torpid mind, and equally reveals the mental vigor that is latent, not deployed. That it is what it is, the most active physical representative of the personality of every human being, entitles it to a regard and care which it amply repays.