Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/17



OMEN are now young longer than they are beautiful. This book is designed to teach them how to be beautiful longer than they are young. Is it worth while to do this? Let us look in history for a reply.

The most intellectual woman at the court of the First Consul was Madame de Staël; the most beautiful was Madame Récamier. Madame de Staël was not pretty, and her talents brought her fame rather than love. Madame Récamier, though with some claims to be a bel esprit, gained no distinction by her learning, but brought every one to her feet by her beauty. The two were not rivals, and therefore they were friends. Each saw the other's power, and we have it on record that Madame de Staël said more than once that she would gladly exchange her intellectual superiority for the beauty of Madame Récamier. ( 9 )