nor should it be disfigured by being surmounted by a kind of cushion or roll of hair which gives the idea of weight and size.  Nor should the hair have the appearance of a bird’s nest, and look tumbled and untidy.  This was lately the “beau ideal” of a well dressed head.  It was desired that it should appear unkempt and uncombed, as if it had been drawn through a quickset hedge.  The back of the head, if well shaped, has a beautiful appearance, reminding one of a stag, which is so graceful in look and motion.  But when it is disfigured by a large mass of hair, resembling a large pin-cushion, all that peculiar native grace which we so much admire is lost sight of.  When all heads are made to look alike and equally large, there is no advantage in having a small and well shaped head.  It seems as if the study of the present day were to make the head look large, and to conceal all its points.  We miss the smooth braids of hair which set off the expanse of forehead, and the coils of plaits of hair, which ornamented, but did not conceal the back of the head.  We miss the glossy look of the hair which indicated care, and prefer it infinitely to that which simulates neglect.  It is perfectly true that one style does not suit all persons alike, any more than that the powder which was worn by our great-grandmothers was equally becoming to all.  A low forehead, if the points of the brow are good, should have the hair drawn off it, whereas a high forehead which does not betoken any great intellectual power is disfigured by the same process.  Smooth braids will not become a long face, nor puffs a broad one.  A forehead which is already too high cannot bear to be heightened by coronets and cushions of hair, nor a countenance which indicates weakness to be made weaker still by limp luxurious curls.  A stern face requires to be softened, while a weak one requires strength.  The hair can generally do this.  It depends upon how it is dressed.

They who are no longer young endeavour to impose upon the world by the use of wigs and fronts.  These are an abomination, and in every instance they are easy of detection.  There is something in the way in which false hair protests against the face and the face against it, which infallibly exposes it to be false.  A lady with all the signs of years about her face makes her age the more apparent by the contrast of glossy dark hair which belongs to youth.  Why is she afraid to wear her own grey hair?  Grey hairs are no reproof, and we are quite sure they would harmonize better with the other marks of age than the wigs and fronts which prevail.  There is something in the white hair of age which has a charm of its own.  It is like the soft and mellow light of sunset.  But unfortunately an old woman is not always inclined to accept the fact that she is old.  She would rebel against it, but rebellion is useless.  The fact remains the same.  She is old notwithstanding her “rouge” pot and her front, and she is growing older day by day.