DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL - It is not possible for human beings to attain their full stature of humanity, except by loving long and perfectly. Mark that matronly woman. In the bosom of her family she is more than a queen and goddess combined. All her looks and actions express the outflowing of some or all of the human virtues. To know her is to love her. She became thus perfect, not in a day or year, but by a long series of appropriate means. Then by what? Chiefly in and by love, which is specially adapted thus to develop this maturity.
PHYSICAL STATURE - Men and women generally increase in stature until about the twenty-fifth year, and it is safe to assume, that perfection of function is not established until maturity of bodily development is completed. The physical contour of these representations plainly exhibits the difference in structure, and also implies difference in function. Solidity and strength are represented by the organization of the male, grace and beauty by that of the female. His broad shoulders represent physical power and the right of dominion, while her bosom is the symbol of love and nutrition.
The navel is the central point of the human body; and if a man should lie on his back with his arms and legs extended, the periphery of the circle which might be described around him, with the navel for it's center, would touch the extremeties of his hands and feet. The height from the feet to the top of the head is the same distance from the extremity of one hand to the extremity of the other when the arms are extended.
To produce this result a strong rigid corset was worn night and day until the waist was laced down to the required size. Then over this corset was placed a steel apparatus that reached from the hips to the throat, and produced a rigid figure which the dress would fit with perfect smoothness.
During the eighteenth century corsets were largely made from a species of leather known as "Bend", which was not unlike that used for shoe soles, and measured nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness. One of the most popular corsets of the time was the corset and stomacher. (which thinned the waist and flattened the tummy)
It is reserved to our own time to demonstrate that corsets and tight lacing do not necessarily go hand in hand. Distortion and feebleness are not beauty. A proper proportion should exist between the size of the waist and the breadth of the shoulders and hips, and if the waist is diminished below this proportion, it suggests disproportion and invalidism rather than grace and beauty.
The perfect corset is one that possesses just that degree of rigidity which will prevent it from wrinkling but at the same time will allow freedom of the bending and twisting of the body. Corsets boned with whalebone, horn or steel are necessarily stiff, rigid and uncomfortable. After a few day's wear the bones or steels become bent and set in position, or, as more frequently happens, they break and cause injury to the wearer.
About seven years ago (c1887) an article was discovered for the stiffening of corsets, which has revolutionized the corset industry. This article is manufactured from the natural fibres of the Mexican lxtle plant, and it is known as Coraline. It consists of straight, stiff fibres, like bristles, bound together into a cord by being wound with two strands of thread passing in opposite directions. This produces an elastic fibre intermediate in stiffness between twine and whalebone. It cannot break, but it possesses all the stiffness and flexibility necessary to hold the corset in shape.
We congratulate the young ladies of today upon the advantages they enjoy over their sisters of two centuries ago.
Under such compression as is commonly practiced by the ladies, the development of the bones, which are still tender, does not take place comforably to the intention of nature, because nutrition is necessarily stopped, and they consequently become twisted and deformed.
Those who wear these appliances of tight-lacing often complain that they cannot sit upright without them - are sometimes, indeed, compelled to wear them during all the twenty-four hours; a fact which proves to what extent such articles weaken the muscles of the trunk.
Beauty is in reality but another name for expression of countenance, which is the index of sound health, intelligence, good feelings and peace of mind. All are aware that uneasy feelings, existing habitually in the breast, speedily exhibit their signature on the countenance, and bitter thoughts or a bad temper spoil the human expression of it's comliness and grace.
