Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/85

 That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell; Whate'er thy thoughts or thy heart's workings be, Thy looks do nothing thence but sweetness tell. How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show?"

It should be the aim of every one thus to become "the lords and owners of their faces," and it is in the power of every one, not irrecoverably wedded to some grimace, to do so.

The first step is to break at once from any of those bad practices which the French call tics, such as winking violently or with one eye, frowning, sniffing, or "turning up the nose," thrusting the tongue into the cheek, pointing the lips, pursing up the mouth or letting it loll open, opening widely the eyes, wagging the head, grinning, and so forth. Remember to obey this rule, which indeed is worthy to be classed in the Decalogue of good breeding as well as of cosmetics:— Never "make faces" while you are talking.

No tic is more certain to damage a pretty face than this twisting and contortion of the features. Cultivate placidity of expression, and rest assured that there is no danger of vacancy of countenance. On a calm face the passing emotions mirror themselves with a pleasing variety, like clouds on the surface of some unruffled mere; but with jerking and twitching muscles, the emotions are broken and lost, like the reflections of those same clouds on a wind-scourged sea.