The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-05-09
WOMAN AND HER HOME.
PHYSICAL GRACE IN WOMAN Is BE-
INEFFICIENT SUNSHINE.
One of the Worlds Heroines-How She
Entered journalism Consider the
ChiIdren's Tastes--SOme Simple Des-
serts-woman I'm Business.

A perfect woman should be a chef
d'oeuvre Of grace and refinement. and to
this end she must be exempt from toll
As the human form and, above all, the
expression of the face are only the
products of the emotions which an in
dividual oftenest experiences. woman
can only be beautiful and graceful in
person in so far as the greater proper
ton OF her emotional experiences are
sweet. tender and peaceful. This is a
theory that Mr.. Balm has developed with
great fullness and clearness. But the
emotions which toll entails in the strug-
gle for life are violent and strong. An
ger, hatred, enthusiasm. boldness, cour-
age, these may impart strength and
grandeur TO the individual, but they can
never endow her with the attractiveness
Of grace.
The working woman grows ugly and
loses her feminine characteristics. She
loses what is most exquisite and aes-
thetic in woman. I foresee here many
objections. It is man, you say, who de-
SireS grace in woman. 1t is but another
proof Of masculine egotiSm thus to foster
idleness in woman in order that she
may become that which he specially de-
sires. Do not let us dignity as a natural
law what is but the outcome of mas
culine psychical tastes and habits. I be-
1ieve this to be a mistake. Grace in
woman is not merely the product of ca
price and selfishneSs in the man who
chooses the prettiest woman because
she touches his sense of the beautiful
Grace plays a far higher role in the
social and psychicaI evolution of hu-
mainly. 1t is an ever active and moral
force, always benefcent, the fruits Of
which are far greater than could be
produced by any labor by woman. Wom-
anly grace and the love which men bear
a beautiful woman have perhaps been
the origin Of paternal love and OF all
the other sweet and tender feelings OF
which the male is capable.
Grace is the aesthetic side of weak
ness, ana since man seeks this quality in
woman II follows by the well-known psy-
Geological law Of association that the per-
ception of grace and the sweet emotions
of love become more closely connected
the more psychical progress increases.
Once this combination is fairly estab-
1ished all graceful and pretty things by
reason Of this law awaken the emotion
of love feebly, yet in a sufficient degree
that all pretty things. be they human
beings, natural objects or artistic produc-
tons, give us pleasure, and this pleasure
is only in a lesser degree a reproduction
of the pleasures of love.
But grace, as we have just said is the
aesthetic side Of weakness. Hence the
associate between the emotions of
love and the perception of grace becomes
stronger. 1t extends itself from graceful
things to weak things, for at certain
times almost all weak things present
themselves to us under the aesthetic as
pect Of grace, so that as the association
between these two sensations widens it
becomes as association between love and
weakness. Weaker creatures, for exam
pie. young children, who are par excel
lence the weakest of all beings, awaken
in US profound sympathy, which is but
a rushlight in comparison with the in
tensity Of the flame of sympathy which
unites us to woman. We find then that
physical grace in woman is a. beneficent
sunshine, calling into bloom the softer
emotions of man. 1t would be a great
misfortune were this sunshine to be over
clouded-Monist-