Choice Excerpts from Dr. Shelton's BEAUTY Book
Human Beauty Its Culture and Hygiene
The greatest thing in life is not to make money, but to raise ourselves to our highest state of physical, mental and moral excellence, to call out the hidden BEAUTY of our nature, and to make ourselves attractive and helpful, instead of repellent and unsympathetic. The message of this book thrilling with love, joy and thankfulness for the revelations of more BEAUTY and more abundance in life is a message for all men and women who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and minds to understand.
I shall have much to say in this book that will appear radical and revolutionary to many of my readers. Some of it will run counter to prevailing conventions, accepted thought and approved practices. Many of my more timid readers may be frightened by some of its contents: others may think me too blunt and outspoken. If the views presented herein seem radical to my readers, if they seem revolutionary, I shall be happy; for I strive always to be "radical" in the true meaning of this much abused term, to be revolutionary in a world that is reeking with decay. Many of us feel that: "There is so much in life to unlearn." It wastes so much time to take off peel after peel, and so get by degrees slowly towards the truth. But if it is possible for us, even in a short time, to forget that which seemed incredible because it does not conform to the accepted patterns of conventional thinking, this will constitute a first step in the direction of real progress! In order to gain new and revolutionary knowledge, it is always necessary for every man and woman to utterly discard the colossal amount of false knowledge with which the mind is stored, because the erroneous concepts based on the false knowledge tend to build an impenetrable wall through which the light of truth cannot shine. Even yet, great numbers of us manifest great fear of new knowledge and new principles, hesitating to accept anything that does not come to us with the approval of the reigning clique in "science" or religion. I write this book for thinking men and women, men and women who are not afraid to exercise their own mental faculties and reach their own decisions, who do not think that knowledge is such a sacred thing that only the specialists in the various fields of knowledge can understand it. If you are afraid to think for yourself, you will save hours of agonizing inner struggle with yourself and your acquired burden of ignorance by not going beyond this introduction. If you have courage enough to think and to accept truth when it is presented to you, you are cordially invited to read on to the end of the book.
In consulting a whole library of books and hundreds of magazines and newspaper articles purporting to be on BEAUTY, during the course of the preparation
of the manuscript of this work, I found five or six books on the subject (all of them old ones) that did not deal primarily or exclusively with make-up, hair-styling, and clothing. Authors tend to think of "BEAUTY" in terms of cosmetic art rather than in terms of "human excellence and Beautiful Living Habits." When, therefore, they declare that "Being born beautiful implies no merit," they are trying to sell lipstick and eyebrow pencil. In this work, I shall endeavor to show that "To be born beautiful and to live beautifully implies the highest physiological and biological excellence possible!"
It is my hope that this book will provide the genuine beautician with a clearer conception of the scope and methods of genuine BEAUTY culture and free him or her to develop the art with a purity and power that can only make more evident whatever of greatness and nobility may lie in his or her work. If I can clearly distinguish between genuine BEAUTY culture and the fraud that is today a thriving industry in the civilized world and if I an clearly draw the line between the methods of the two, I think that I will render to American men and women a service, the value of which cannot be estimated.
Most books on BEAUTY are obviously written for the leisure class. I have written this one for those intelligent men and women among all classes who are willing to adopt and follow a common-sense way of life. Those women who want to know how to have a rose-leaf complexion while dining daily off cream puffs and pickles, how to lounge all day in a hammock and nibble fudge and have a lithe and graceful figure, how they can stay up late night after night and avoid the telltale marks of dissipation these only will be disappointed with the contents of this book. The lazy, the indolent, the indulgent, the seekers after short-cuts and get-beauty-quick schemes will find nothing in this book of interest to them.
I have attempted to embrace the practical in this book and not to keep my teachings purely in the intellectual realm. I have attempted to hold up before my readers higher ideals of BEAUTY and life than are at present held by our people. High purpose must have a realistic foundation, and I have endeavored to supply my readers with this foundation. Believing that "The touch of truth is the touch of life," I have tried, everywhere and at all points, to tell the truth. Recognizing my limitations in this sphere, I can say with Goethe: "The little we have done seems nothing when we look forward and see how much we have yet to do." The pursuit of BEAUTY may well constitute the basis for a new way of life for all Health Seekers.
