which observers ever associate with the passion. No one but can recall some face where petulance, or grief, or pride, has left indelible imprints. Like a mirror, the unguarded expression tells tales of all that is passing within us. The skilled eye reads at a glance the passing thought. This authentic anecdote is told of that expert diplomatist and profound student of humannature, the Prince de Talleyrand. For a short time he was an exile to this country, and resided in New York city. One day he was walking with a friend along the Battery, in those early times a fashionable promenade. Turning and scanning closely the face of his com panion, he suddenly exclaimed: "Wretch! you are planning to assassinate me !" Detected by what seemed a superhuman insight, his pretended friend threw himself at his feet, and confessed that he was proposing in his mind to murder and rob the prince. As men are only too apt to indulge the unpleasant rather than the pleasant emotions, it has ever been advised to control the features, and whether in company or alone, by a mental effort to prevent our thoughts from acting on our expression. Volto sciolto, pensieri stretti, the countenance open, the thoughts shut, is the Italian's motto; and our own Shakspeare sings of his love "In many's looks the false heart's history, Is writ, in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange; A LAW OF COSMETICS. That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell; If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show ?" 75 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. There are some persons who, when they weep, screw up the countenance in such an unheard-of manner, that it forces the looker-on to be amused, even while he sympathizes; and there are others who, when they laugh, do such violence to all the laws of good looks that it is enough to make the judicious weep. We have heard not a few public speakers, worthy men, too, who forfeited half their power by grimacing in the pulpit like a mime on the stage. School girls often learn to chew with their mouths open, and with an exertion of the muscles of the jaws quite superfluous, even though, like Sancho Panza, they chew on both sides at once. All such habits are enemies to beauty, and are also inconsistent with good breeding. They must be reformed, not indifferently, but at once, and altogether. The reform must not stop here. It must extend to the mind itself. Violent passion, or long indulgence of any one emotion, is not less hurtful to the face than it is to the mind. Serenity of disposition is the true Fountain of Youth. We live in the ancient city of Penn, and many a visitor has asked us: "Doctor, why is it these old Quaker ladies whom I meet in the streets have such fresh complexions, and so few wrinkles? Is it their poke-bonnets which keep off the sun? Or have they some secret?" No, madam, it is not their poke-bonnets, as you are TELL-TALE BLUSHES. 77 pleased to term them, nor have they any secret, or at least it is an open one. But it is very stuff o' the conscience with them to yield to no inordinate emotion, to be temperate in all things, and to hold under strict command their bodies and their minds. You see they are rewarded by prolonged good looks; and if you step around to an insurance office you will learn their chance of long life is notably better than that of the rest of us. Vacancy or stolidity of expression, though less intolerable than the perpetual twitching we have just described, should be shunned with equal care, and can be conquered with as certain success, if one sets about it diligently. It is easy to appear interested, or or sad, when we are so. merry, Not a few women and many a young man are annoyed by a tendency to blush on slight occasion. The tell-tale blood mantles the cheeks and forehead at most inopportune moments, and seems quite beyond the control of the mind. The utmost exertion of volition does not hinder it. In some constitutions no endeavor, no custom of society can overcome it. Count Alexandre de Tilly had been page to Queen Marie Antoinette, and had lived all his life in the best circles; but he confesses in his "Memoirs" that this difficulty had been insurmountable. "I verily believe," he says, "that if any one were abruptly and in public to say to me: 'Count, I accuse you of con |