Health and Beauty
Excerpts from Chapter XXXVIII
body. Rosy cheeks do not belong to the woman with a deficient heart or circulatory system, nor to the anemic or physically compromised woman. Only healthy blood and good circulation can give the normal rosiness to the cheeks.
To be beautiful, one must have perfect health, must be in the full enjoyment of her faculties, exhilarated by the very tie of life that throbs in her veins, showing by every act and gesture that she feels to the full, the wondrous joy of living! She must be the embodiment of the BEAUTY of health. BEAUTY and health are married to each other in an indissoluble union; and without health, no woman can ever hope to attain BEAUTY. The brilliancy of BEAUTY is but the outward and visible radiance of perfect physical comfort and well-being. The attraction of health and physical wholesomeness, vivacity of manner, well groomed hair, bright eyes and a clean body, in which every natural charm is developed to its fullest extent may be cultivated by the majority of women. They simply need to know how.
"'BEAUTY'," the sign of health, has no fellowship with disease." A woman cannot be beautiful and fascinating if she is not healthy. Only a perverted taste admires a pale, pasty, sentimental look. As we gaze upon dull, thin hair; tired, lack-lustre eyes; oily and blotched skins and wrinkled faces, we may theorize all we desire upon "inner beauty." But we cannot make ourselves believe that we are viewing a beautiful creature. She must appeal and inspire us if she is to be called "beautiful." An anemic Helen could never have inspired the Greeks to war.
The enjoyment of exuberant health (BEAUTY) and entire freedom from aches and pains is possible only for the individual who lives according to a simple Laws of Life. The woman who will find and respect her limitations will never find herself lacking the precious energy of life. Overstepping one's individual limitations constitutes excess dissipation. If dissipation becomes habitual, it results in a profound Enervation that lowers all the functions of life.
Learn your limitations and learn to control yourself. Self-control, rather than the all too common self-indulgence, is the greatest need of our time. Women who are content to linger on in the half-alive, half-dead state of physical depletion and mental confusion, those who prefer a life of dissipation to one of order and control, cannot expect to inherit the kingdom of health and BEAUTY.
NATURAL HYGIENISTS claim to have discovered valid rules and Laws of Life that enable them to penetrate the secrets of nature as no other school of thought is able do to. We now have the simple task of living according to these simple Laws. For those who embark upon The Natural Hygiene Path to Health and BEAUTY, it will first take a revolution in their thinking and living practices. It will take knowledge and self-discipline. And such pursuit will result in the miracle of living BEAUTY!
All writers on BEAUTY, even writers on cosmetics and fashion, are agreed: "Health is the basis of BEAUTY." Few of them, however, have any adequate knowledge of how to maintain and regain health; hence, while they do lip-homage to health, they cannot delineate its requirements when they attempt to tell others how to become more beautiful. Lacking any fundamental knowledge of the conditions of health, they cannot guide their readers into good health, but prescribe drugs and cosmetics with a freedom that is frightening.
"Health" and "BEAUTY" are inseparable, if we define "health" in broad terms. A man or woman may be deformed in structure but enjoy what is commonly called "good health." But if we use the term "health" in its broadest signification, to mean "perfection of bodily form and of organic function," then BEAUTY is indeed a reflection of health.
Genuine health is an active, vigorous state of the body in which all the structures are sound and unimpaired, all the functions are efficient, and in which, by reason of its own vigor and energy, the body can wade through all the common emergencies of life with flags flying and banners streaming. Germs? Viruses? The healthy body laughs at them! Vaccines? Serums? It has no need for these abominations. In this sense, health and BEAUTY are one and inseparable. " If you are healthy," says one authoress, "you are bound to be attractive. If you are good looking and attractive, it is because you have beautiful, lustrous hair clear, sparkling eyes fresh, glowing skin in two words, you have 'good health.'"
What is it that attracts our eyes and compels wonder and admiration in the face of a fair lady? It is the glowing blush that mantles the cheeks, the dazzling fire and sparkle of the eyes, the soft, shimmering sheen of vibrant hair, the ivory whiteness of the teeth revealed for an instant by the sunny smile. Yet, these are but the expressions of health. These last only so long as health lasts. The woman who maintains her health and youthfulness will retain her attractiveness. If she permits her health to slip away from her, if she values indulgences and frivolities more than she does health, and impairs her health in the pursuit of false pleasures, she will lose her BEAUTY; and no art of the cosmetician and dress maker will be able to preserve it for her.
The healthy glow of the skin, glossy and abundant hair, the brightness of the eyes, the fragrance of a wholesome, clean, genuine woman, the vibrance of personality and the radiant charm so much desired are products of health. A clear skin belongs not to the woman of poor health. Sparkling eyes are signs of health dull, lusterless eyes are evidences of poor health. It is physically impossible to be beautiful if you do not possess a sound mentality, a strong and healthy organism, and a normally developed
