Page:Personal Beauty and Racial Betterment.djvu/48

42 to the better development of the legs, but this reason is hardly sufficient, since it has been shown that leg action is the least important factor in swimming.)

The softness and roundness of contour of the female is beautiful, because it is the mark of physical fitness. The fatty layer is supposed to be an extra reserve supply of food material, laid up against the heavy demands which are made by child-bearing, and in still another way protects her in that supreme process, of whose splendid fruition beauty is the glorious blossom. When age withers, through the absorption of the adipose tissue, primary beauty is on the decline, and unless it be replaced by the secondary beauty appropriate to advancing years, the drama of life becomes a tragedy. And indeed, the great fact that we all must face at some time, that the strength and vigor of our prime is past, and that the time when the almond tree shall flourish and the grasshopper become a burden advances upon us, is usually announced to a woman in the discovery of wrinkles due to the slipping from her of her subcutaneous robe of office.

6. Complexion. The tint of the skin, of course, is largely a racial indication, but in certain respects, the tint, as well as the texture, is an index of health and vigor. The standard of beauty in complexion, whether light or dark, is that which