Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/332

 them even this cannot be said, for they contain irritating ingredients likely to inflame and injure the skin. We distinctly warn against the use of any of them. Shaving is the only method which has any virtue in it by which we can increase the growth of the beard.

It is an art which all should learn for themselves, as it is not wise, especially in travelling, to trust one's self to the tender mercies of every barber's boy, and it is not pleasant to be lathered with the brush which the minute before has been rubbed on the face of we don't know whom. A saying of Prince Talleyrand's is here in point. One day this celebrated diplomatist was dining with the poet Rogers. The latter was inquiring about the personal habits of Napoleon Bonaparte, and among other things asked whether he shaved himself. "Yes," replied the Prince. "A man who inherits a kingdom is shaved by another, but one who acquires kingdoms shaves himself."

It is an opinion which we have found expressed by some writers on this subject that the beard, to be displayed in its greatest beauty, should never be cut at all, even with a scissors, until it has attained a considerable length. They say that its softness and delicacy of texture are destroyed by repeated clippings. We are unable to say much on this point, as we do not remember ever to have seen a beard which had never known either razor or scissors.

When the beard is grown, the same attention should