Litchfield enquirer., 1879-06-26
The Reign of Beauty"


 like another Aphrodite from the foam of tn Atlantic and to gld our western shores witt the splendor of her smile. Whether the ia nous enchantress of Jersey sighs for new worlds to conquer or burns to compare he charms with those of the American womel she is said to resemble, we know not. Suffice it that the toast of three London seasons tht admired of royalty, and the exposure of fash ion will soon be among us.
 *
 It must be owned that the craze for mere physical comeliness that has broken out ir England, and which has likewise become man ifest Tn a greater or less degree in Europe anC America, is no favorable sign of the health o modern society. A strong symptom of mate. riaism, of the love of display, and of the in ordinate value attached to the pleasures of the senses, it recalls the fact that in these ways, ii not in others, the progress made during the reign of Victoria has been a retrograde one. Beauty worship is merely one of the symptoms of that drift the. broad tendency of which has been toward the letting go of things spiritual and intellectual, and as a result, to- ward what may be called the canonizat1on of the senses.
 When girls learn, as they are now taught, that good looks are more valued than anything else, they naturally strain every nerve and
 
 looking or what will pass for it. The extrav- agance Tn dress, the sad misuse of cosmetics the waste of time, the fretting and canker, the myriad evils, in brief, that come in the train of this absorbing passion are the very dry rot of the female soul. It is the thought of things like these that makes one sigh, even in the dazzling efulgence of the reign of beauty, for the homelier days of our grandmothers, when girls were told and believed that handsome is haud be really beautiful that had to be made so by paint or whtewash. Y. Eoemtn9 Post. Beauty of face and form are not without value either in man or woman but it is only in the very beginnings of civilization, like these of ancient Greece or in the decadence of society, like that of the later empires of Rome or of France, that beauty becomes pre-eminent. The Greeks love of beauty was part of his nature; it pervaded his life, his religion, his literature it made him the most consummate artist of all time. Thoigh no Greek writer equals Shakespeare in genius; though no Greek temple rivals the Gothic church in grandeur; in the chasteness of design and the beauty of execution of the perfect artist, no one has equalled him. Above all, no sculptor immertalizing the marvellous beauty and sym etry Of the human form has even approached the perfection attained by that wonderful race of artists, two thousand years ago.
 But there is ali immeasurable distance be- tween that natural love of beauty out of which all art arises, and the silly pursuit of ''beaHp ties" which often characterizes an effete socie- fv Tho nrauoilinr Eprl;ob oro1a ia e;,,rl,, n fashion-a mere foretaste of the sort of reign that bids fair to follow the decorus dullness of Victoria, but to differ from it as much as the career of George W varied from the decent ex ample of Farmer George, !" his father. The present Prince of Wales loves sbeauties :" it is probably the only kind of women he appre- ciates; hence "beauties'' are all the rage in London. Having observed how very far fash ion will sometimes follow prince, and what court that of England has been within the memory of man, we sincerely hope that matters will not go on from stiffness to vice. The statistics. however, of royalty in general of idle royalty Tn particular, and more especi- ally of idle royalty in England, are not en- couraging reading. May Heaven avert the curse oL annrner narr, uIeioas klae or Eaessaue., , or at least infuse such spirit into the over patient English people as will make such a reign imposslble
 We do not imagine that this new English craze is characteristic of our times If we may judge from the types presented in fiction beauty is not the prime requisite in woman it T,,1 ten made rather ugly girls seem extremely desirable. Apparently talent, accomplish ments, winning manners, supplement or even supply the want of beauty more effectually than formerly. Yet now, as always, the chief end of woman is mans favor. Winning this she is a success; failing here, she fails every where. Hence the studies of her life are those of becoming dress, graceful manner, pleasing talk attractive omplishment,- tall tending towards the one great object. Scanned close ly, it will be found that the weaknesses of wo- mans character are largely the product of cultivation. If she is frivolous extravagant, superstitious, hysterical even, it is mainly be- cause she has always found these weaknesses
 
 that man specially delights in them, even at the very time he suffers from, and laments them.
 We are happy to believe that the tendencies Of American society are in the opposite direc- tion. The real aim of what is called the Woman movement is simply towards turning woman's studies into different channels from those usually pursued, It proposes to give her the substance and not the mere show of education; to teach her to consider her rela- tions to man of subordinate, not of prime i'm portance. It proposes to so enlarge her sphere Of occupation that, failing to marry, her life may not be an entire failure but that many modes of useful existence may. still be open to her.
 Many, indeed, seem to apprehend that ir ceasing to make a study of the adornment o her person, of pleasing manners, and of attrac tive accomplishments, woman will lose mucf of the refining influence she now exerts or man. We have TO such fear. No doubt man will be less 6attered by woman; woman by man; so much the better for both. No one need doubt but that they will still find sufficient pleasure in each others society. Even if woman should sacrifice something of her beauty in dress, would she not gain an intellectual power that would more than com. pensate for any lack of personal adornment In fact we feel safe in appealing to the past al sure indication of the safe direction of wo mans progress towards independence. As she has been better educated, and as her inter course with man has become freer, a grea improvement has already become obvious The hateful insincerity and finesse of gallantry has given place to real respect and conside ration. People of opposite sex seem to eacl other more nearly what they really are. Mer now not only feel and acknowledge the mora superiority of women, butthey are everywhert beginning to wonder why if ia mt turnad f,