To make the world more and more beautiful, not in a narrow sense, but in the widest and deepest sense possible, that surely ought to be the ideal of civilization. And in this ideal, physical beauty has surely an important place allotted to it. One is virtuous, after all, for one’s own benefit; one “makes the best of oneself” for the benefit of the whole world. There is no virtue in being plain, though I must confess it usually makes virtue a much easier achievement. As a rule, Nature is more often a conscientious than an inspired artist, and there is nothing mere conscientiousness requires more than a helping hand. That conscientiousness has also its divinely inspired moments—moments which come to it unpremeditated and unforeseen—that also is a fad. That is why Nature, who “bungle” her best points hopelessly so often, does occasionally achieve a veritable “masterpiece.” That, too, is why Beautiful Women have every reason to be proud of their loveliness and seek to preserve its colouring and its contour. Moreover, their beauty also absolves them from the necessity of being remarkable in any other direction. After all, if one is beautiful, it is not also obligatory to be useful. One does not demand of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” to be a screen as well as a picture, nor appreciate an exquisite piece of Sevres china any the less because it is also neither a candlestick nor an ash‐ tray! We demand from them nothing beyond their beauty, and, finding it, we are satisfied. Also we count our life worth while according to the loveliness which it contains. Every man starts out in the hope that he will marry a pretty woman. That most men’s taste is not exacting, and love proverbially blind, is a blessing for which few lovers are sufficiently grateful. In the prayers of gratitude offered up by Humanity to God, such an one should be included: “Praise be unto Him who makes most of us beautiful at some time to some one!” Beauty is, after all, its own forgiveness of sins in the heart of those who love it. Only when a woman’s looks are fading does her husband begin to realize that neither can she cook. Until then, he is only too glad to suffer indigestion at her hands. That a beautiful woman should die young is, after all, only to wish her the best of all possible blessings in this best of all possible worlds. “As rich and purposeless as is the rose, Thy simple doom is to be beautiful.”