doll_parts85
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The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility, in Manners, Dress, and Conversation, in the Family, in Company, at the Piano Forte, The Table, in the Street, and in Gentlemen's Society. Also a Useful Instructor in Letter Writing, Toilet Preparations, Fancy Needlework, Millinery, Dressmaking, Care of Wardrobe, the Hair, Teeth, Hands, Lips, Complexion, etc. By Emily Thornwell (New York: Derby and Jackson, 1856).
[Frontispiece -- engraving of a woman entitled "Gentility"]
P. 11: THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF FEMALE LOVELINESS.
Beauty must be natural.--In order to have its full effect, beauty must be natural, and connected with perfect health. A fair skin and rosy cheeks are calculated to excite admiration; but if it be discovered that they are entirely produced by paint, that admiration becomes disgust; or if owing to disease, it is changed to pity.
P. 16: Requisites to female beauty.--Exercise is unquestionably one of the very best means for the preservation of health; but its real importance is unknown, or but too lightly considered by the majority of females. Were they, however, to be made fully sensible of its extraordinary power in preserving the vigor of the body, in augmenting its capability to resist disease, in promoting its symmetrical development, in improving the freshness and brilliancy of the complexion, as well as its influence in prolonging the charms of beauty to an advanced age, they would shake off the prejudices by which they have been so long enthralled, and [P. 17] not voluntarily abandon means so completely within their power, and so simple, of enhancing all their physical perfections. But let it be recollected, that to produce its beneficial effects, exercise must be taken in the open air. Not all the occupations appertaining to the domestic duties of a female, though they may require her to bustle from garret to cellar, will impart the kind of action to the different portions of the body by which her health and beauty shall be essentially improved.
[pp. 17-20: goes on to recommend walking, 2-4 miles per day, horseback riding; for her instructions on mounting and dismounting, see Pp. 108-109]
P. 26: CHOICE COSMETICS FOR IMPROVING AND BEAUTIFYING THE SKIN.
P. 27: Cosmetic juice.--Make a hole in a lemon, fill it with sugar-candy, and close it with a leaf gold, applied over the rind that was cut out; then roast the lemon in hot ashes. When desirous of using the juice, squeeze out a little through the hole already made, and with it wash the face with a napkin. This juice is said to cleanse the skin and brighten the complexion wonderfully,
Freckle wash.--Take one dram of muriatic acid [sic, should be muramic acid, an animo sugar found in algae], half a pint of rain water, half a teaspoonful of spirits of lavender: mix, and apply it two or three times a day to the freckles with a bit of linen, or a camel's hair pencil. White veils have a tendency to promote sunburn and freckles, by their increasing the power of the sun's light. They are also very injurious to the eyes. Green is the only color which should be worn as a summer veil.
P. 29: Pomade for removing wrinkles.--Take two ounces of the juice of onions, the same quantity of the white lily, the same of honey, and one ounce of white wax; put the whole into a new tin pan, in a warm place, till the wax is melted; keep stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon, till it grows quite cold. You will then have an excellent ointment for removing wrinkles. It must be applied at night, on going to bed, and not wiped off till the morning.
P. 31: Virgin milk for the complexion.--The virgin milk which is in most general use, and which is most salutary, is a tincture [of] benzoin [resin from trees] precipitated by water. To obtain the tincture of benzoin, take a certain quantity of that gum, pour spirits of wine upon it, and boil it till it becomes a rich tincture. Virgin milk is prepared by pouring a few drops of this tincture into a glass of water, which produces a milky mixture. This virgin milk, if the face be washed with it, will give a beautiful rosy color. To render the skin clear and brilliant, let it dry upon it without wiping.
P. 54: THE HANDS.
Means of improving the appearance of the hands.--An elegant hand is regarded by many as betokening evident prestige in its possessor. Indeed, some persons, especially gentlemen, make the hand the test of beauty, calling a lady pretty, however ugly she may be otherwise, if she only can display a beautiful hand.
Pp. 55-56: Paste for the hands.--Take one pound of sweet [P. 56] almonds, quarter of a pound of bread crumbs, one pint of spring water, the same quantity of brandy, and the yolks of two eggs. After blanching the almonds, pound them, and sprinkle them with vinegar, that the paste may not turn to oil; add the crumbs of bread, which moisten with the brandy as you mix it with the almonds and the yolks of eggs. Set this mixture over a slow fire, and keep stirring it, lest the mixture should adhere to the bottom of the vessel.
P. 59: THE BREATH
Desireableness of a pure breath.--the purity of the breath is of the greatest consequence; what, indeed, could be so afflicting to one of the gentle sex as impurity in this respect? yet it may occur without any neglect on her part, and it is not always that a remedy can be offered; in other words, there are cases where it is incurable.
[Frontispiece -- engraving of a woman entitled "Gentility"]
P. 11: THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF FEMALE LOVELINESS.
Beauty must be natural.--In order to have its full effect, beauty must be natural, and connected with perfect health. A fair skin and rosy cheeks are calculated to excite admiration; but if it be discovered that they are entirely produced by paint, that admiration becomes disgust; or if owing to disease, it is changed to pity.
P. 16: Requisites to female beauty.--Exercise is unquestionably one of the very best means for the preservation of health; but its real importance is unknown, or but too lightly considered by the majority of females. Were they, however, to be made fully sensible of its extraordinary power in preserving the vigor of the body, in augmenting its capability to resist disease, in promoting its symmetrical development, in improving the freshness and brilliancy of the complexion, as well as its influence in prolonging the charms of beauty to an advanced age, they would shake off the prejudices by which they have been so long enthralled, and [P. 17] not voluntarily abandon means so completely within their power, and so simple, of enhancing all their physical perfections. But let it be recollected, that to produce its beneficial effects, exercise must be taken in the open air. Not all the occupations appertaining to the domestic duties of a female, though they may require her to bustle from garret to cellar, will impart the kind of action to the different portions of the body by which her health and beauty shall be essentially improved.
[pp. 17-20: goes on to recommend walking, 2-4 miles per day, horseback riding; for her instructions on mounting and dismounting, see Pp. 108-109]
P. 26: CHOICE COSMETICS FOR IMPROVING AND BEAUTIFYING THE SKIN.
P. 27: Cosmetic juice.--Make a hole in a lemon, fill it with sugar-candy, and close it with a leaf gold, applied over the rind that was cut out; then roast the lemon in hot ashes. When desirous of using the juice, squeeze out a little through the hole already made, and with it wash the face with a napkin. This juice is said to cleanse the skin and brighten the complexion wonderfully,
Freckle wash.--Take one dram of muriatic acid [sic, should be muramic acid, an animo sugar found in algae], half a pint of rain water, half a teaspoonful of spirits of lavender: mix, and apply it two or three times a day to the freckles with a bit of linen, or a camel's hair pencil. White veils have a tendency to promote sunburn and freckles, by their increasing the power of the sun's light. They are also very injurious to the eyes. Green is the only color which should be worn as a summer veil.
P. 29: Pomade for removing wrinkles.--Take two ounces of the juice of onions, the same quantity of the white lily, the same of honey, and one ounce of white wax; put the whole into a new tin pan, in a warm place, till the wax is melted; keep stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon, till it grows quite cold. You will then have an excellent ointment for removing wrinkles. It must be applied at night, on going to bed, and not wiped off till the morning.
P. 31: Virgin milk for the complexion.--The virgin milk which is in most general use, and which is most salutary, is a tincture [of] benzoin [resin from trees] precipitated by water. To obtain the tincture of benzoin, take a certain quantity of that gum, pour spirits of wine upon it, and boil it till it becomes a rich tincture. Virgin milk is prepared by pouring a few drops of this tincture into a glass of water, which produces a milky mixture. This virgin milk, if the face be washed with it, will give a beautiful rosy color. To render the skin clear and brilliant, let it dry upon it without wiping.
P. 54: THE HANDS.
Means of improving the appearance of the hands.--An elegant hand is regarded by many as betokening evident prestige in its possessor. Indeed, some persons, especially gentlemen, make the hand the test of beauty, calling a lady pretty, however ugly she may be otherwise, if she only can display a beautiful hand.
Pp. 55-56: Paste for the hands.--Take one pound of sweet [P. 56] almonds, quarter of a pound of bread crumbs, one pint of spring water, the same quantity of brandy, and the yolks of two eggs. After blanching the almonds, pound them, and sprinkle them with vinegar, that the paste may not turn to oil; add the crumbs of bread, which moisten with the brandy as you mix it with the almonds and the yolks of eggs. Set this mixture over a slow fire, and keep stirring it, lest the mixture should adhere to the bottom of the vessel.
P. 59: THE BREATH
Desireableness of a pure breath.--the purity of the breath is of the greatest consequence; what, indeed, could be so afflicting to one of the gentle sex as impurity in this respect? yet it may occur without any neglect on her part, and it is not always that a remedy can be offered; in other words, there are cases where it is incurable.