Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/173

 handsomest of any woman of her day—so far as the observers could learn. She devoted uncommon care to its preservation. She always wore white satin slippers, exquisitely fitted, and not laced or buttoned, but sewed on every morning, and ripped off at night. So she wore a new pair every day.

The foot should be slender, rounded, in length a little less than one-eighth of the height of the body, the heel only slightly prominent, and the middle of the foot arched.

A flat foot has never been admired. It is brought about either by carrying heavy burdens, or wearing ill-shaped shoes. Therefore the arched foot used to be considered a sign of high-birth, and delicate breeding. In Spain, one of the proofs of ancient lineage, of true old "sangre azul," was to stand on a marble pavement, and let a tiny stream of water flow under the arch of the foot without wetting it.

If the natural beauty of this member is so much defaced, the shoemakers must answer for it. Their art is wofully behind the age in an æsthetic as well as a hygienic point of view. We cannot reform them, and we don't intend to try, so we shall content ourselves with giving a few hints to those who would display their feet to the best advantage, and preserve them in the most comfort.

First, then, every one with the slightest wish for either of these good things, should have a last made