The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-09
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
in Answer to
Marcel Provost

Nj < MANUEL PRENOST declares
| lVI in the Figaro that beauty no
longer rules the world Women
OF brains now take the sceptre. ne
claims.
1t is possible that Mr.. Provost is
merely little belated in his discovery.
Some of the greatest women the
| world has ever known-women who
I nave helped to make history and to
| ehange the atlas. of the earth-were
| women of greater brains than beauty
Cleopatra was not beautiful, accord
/ ing to the artists ideal. Indeed, there
| IS every reason to believe that she
! lacked size. symmetry and youth, when
/ Sne welded her most powerful sway
! over men and nations.
| NOBODY knows how Helen of Troy
| looked, but the statement has been
/ made BY learned men that she was
past forty when he turned the world
/ into theatre where a continuous per
formance of battle took place on her
| account
Aspa-sia was more famed for her tai
| ents than for her physical attractions
though she was a beautiful woman.
She was said to have written part of
! Pericles' famous funeral Grafton and
| was accused of bringing on war with
Samos. Her house was the center of
| 1terf Y and philosophical circles in
| Athens
Catharine of Russia is remembered
| for her marvellous aehievements-as
statesman, warrior and friend to art
ana literature and for her many low
| ers- So masculine a nature as hers
| could not have dwelt in a femininely
| beautiful body.
The great beauties who have ,-lIed
| their worlds TO any important extent
have always coupled brains and tact
| with their physical charms.
NinOn de L'Enclos was exceptionally
| gifted mentally, and so was Madame
| Recamier. Neither woman could have
| exerted so vast and permanent an in
! huenee by beauty alone.
| Very many of their subjects who
| imagined they wOrshiped at beauty's
/ shrine were undoubtedly held in bond
| age by other qualities.
| Without question the world respects
| and admires intellect in women more
/ today than in former eras.
| There was a time-the time of AS
! pasta and her INSTRUMENTATION a
| woman was obliged TO rank herself
| among the declasse, If she wished for
a general education.
| To think outside of domestic and SEN
| timental subjects was supposed to I'M
sex her. A woman was forced to defy
! conventionalities and forego domes-
| ITCHY, if she insisted upon being intel
| lectuaI.
The progress Of the world has
/ changed all that.
Woman is allowed to do as she
| pleases in the mental realm. and her
achievements are applauded and re-
| Spected. The intelligent girl puts the
| ignorant beauty to confusion.
But the really wise, we'll as brainy
| woman, knows the value OF beauty,
| and cultivates it.
Beauty is, after all, a matter of in
! There is no standard by which it can
/ be decided to please everybody.
/ The most exquisite brunette of per-
sonal attractions will be found lacking
/ in charm by somebody who adoTes
/ blondes and vice versa The tall Diana.
| viii be criticised by the lover OF the
pocket Venus" Let either woman.
! however. add mental charm and tact
| (of all things. tact. which is the result
I of kindness and breeding), and she may
/ have the world at her feet.
I do not believe A hslf-dozen authen-
| tic cases can be found in history where
drOll and ignorant beauties maintained
| a long reign in the world of fashion.
/ Beauty attracts, but IT must be sup
| plemented by other qualities to hold
| more than one infatuated man-and
| even that rarely occurs.
! Every day we may observe beautiful
| women neglected for palmer ones, who
| know how 20 amuse and entertain
! men.
| If we carefully study the lives of
| the beautiful and brainless women of
every era we will find they were never
/ permanent rulers. They were COM
/ PEELED to seek new audiences constantly,
! and their lovers left them for other
/ charners. This is not true of the men
| tally endowed beauty. In the career of
/ Mile. de L'Enclos, which lasted until
| her eightieth year, it is said only one
1 of her many admirers ever wearied of
4 her, so completely was she skilled in
/ the art of fascination which means
/ simply the ability to entertain
1 hope Mr.. Prevost's idea that men
! have ceased to demand beauty in wom-
| en- viii never be exemplified by fact.
/ do not believe 1t viii. Never were
women so wisely prepared to combat
! time and his train of petty prosecutors
! care. and worry, and disease. as now.
| Science and specialists are teaching
! them how to preserve complexion and
( form into old age
! The New Thought Science is teaching
1 them how to illuminate features by ex-
! pression-the expression of the Divine
! Self-which is TO mere beauty of face
| what the electric spark is to the pOrce-
/ lain globe.
The old ideas of gloomy, pessimistic
! piety, which used to elongate the faces
| of many devout believers in hell fire
and eternal damnation, have given way
to a religion of cheerful optimism and
love, which radiates the countenance
! and oiefies sge.
The outdoor life which women indulge
in so universally now is another aid to
beauty and good health, And it seems
safe to predict that the coming genera
ton of women will combine brains and
physical beauty as never before in the
| history of the race.
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
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