All sorts of cosmetics, the most penetrating oils, rubbing and scouring the hands, paring and scraping the nails, and cutting round the roots of the nails, are resorted to, in hopes of making their hands appear natural; but all avails nothing, and many a poor hand is made to perform all its manipulations _incognito_. About the piano, in the social party, in the house, and in the street, the hand--the most exquisite, or what should be the most beautiful and useful part of the human frame--is _gloved_. And why? Because it is not fit to be seen.
Now, reader, I am about to tell you of a positive cure. In the first place, never cut or scrape your finger-nails with a knife or scissors, except in paring them down to the end of the fingers. Secondly, use nothing but a good stiff nail-brush, fine soap, and water, and rub the nails and hands briskly with these every morning the _year round_. In the third place, I would have you know that surfeiting will invariably produce heavy, burning hands. An impure state of the blood will manifest itself in the hands sooner than in most other parts of the body. If you have bad hands, be assured that the quantity or quality, or both, of your diet is wrong.
If you try to profit by these suggestions, you will, before one year expires, be no longer ashamed of your hands.
There are some rules, which, being based on first principles, are of universal application. And one of these belongs to our present subject, _viz:_ nothing can be truly beautiful which is not appropriate. Nature and the fine arts teach us this. All styles of dress, therefore, which impede the motions of the wearer--which do not sufficiently protect the person--which add unnecessarily to the heat of summer, or to the cold of winter--which do not suit the age or occupations of the wearer, or which indicate an expenditure unsuited to her means, are _inappropriate_, and, therefore, destitute of one of the essential elements of beauty. Propriety, or fitness, lies at the foundation of all good taste in dressing; and to this test should be brought a variety of particulars, too numerous to be mentioned, but which may be thus illustrated: The dress that would be very proper on occasion of a morning visit in a city, would be so out of place, if worn by the same person when making preserves or pastry, or when scrambling through the bushes in a country walk, that it would cease to look well. A simple calico gown and white apron would be so much more convenient and suitable, that the wearer would actually look better in them.