THE CONGRESS OE WOMEN.

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always one of its chief charms, but also tend to harden the entire countenance, engrav­ing harsh, rigid lines where only softest curves and dimples belong. Again, unhappy states of mind habitually indulged, particularly fretfulness, discontent and despond­ency, by depressing the animal spirits, tend directly to paralyze the sympathetic nerves which control the vital functions. The general physical tone or vitality being thus lowered, stagnation more or less complete of all the vital organs is the sure result. Those members most directly and unfavorably effected are the stomach, liver and heart; and right here, in indigestion, torpid liver and sluggish circulation, is to be found the origin of nearly all unhealthiness, and at the same time the chief blemishes of beauty. Is it not a most significant fact, and one worthy of respectful attention, that every noble, worthy, generous, gentle and pure emotion, without one solitary exception, tends directly to beautify the face and to produce physical grace? The beautifying power of love is well known. Under the magic influence of this gentle and tender emotion the hardest face will soften into lines of beauty. Sometimes the transformation is so marked that beholders are amazed and wonder how it is that homely, commonplace Mary is actually growing beautiful. On the other hand do not fail to observe the boldly destructive work of all harsh, violent, ignoble and selfish emotions stamping their ugly traces deep into the brow and about the mouth. Obtuse indeed must be the woman who does not read between these lines a message both of warning and of inspiration. I would have every woman understand that it is worldly wisdom to cultivate an angelic disposition. Why, I personally know numbers of beautiful women who simply can not be ruffled by any annoyance. The world wonders at their remarkable preservation of youthful charms, their grace, their love­liness. Only those who penetrate into the charmed circle of their private life can know that the physical beauty so largely a reflection of the angelic spirit is the result of absolute self-control. The woman who realizes that she is undeniably plain and unattractive should at once take a strict and careful inventory of her traits of character and her ruling emotions. She must show herself no mercy in this intro­spection-beholding herself “ as in a looking glass.” If she be an intelligent woman she will not go about the task in an-aimless, haphazard manner, thereby lessening her chances of final victory. She will not only take a rigid inventory of her defects, but also she will seek out the most scientific and trustworthy methods for their eradica­tion. She is doubtless in danger of becoming disheartened, but she must be made to realize that her case however serious is not hopeless; that it all rests with her whether she shall continue to sit idly down and nurse her defects, silently envying those graces in others which she lacks, or whether she shall nobly gird on the armor of high resolve and successfully encounter and overcome every foe. I have a gospel of hope for every daughter of Eve. I hold that there is no woman blessed with reason, aver­age physical endowment and good common sense, who may not, if she will, become an ideal woman after her type.