MUCH bunk is sprung concerning beauty, as something that won't keep; and writers alecky, galooty, insist it's but skin deep. "Far better have a conscience tender, that balks at sin and lies, than all the glamor and the splendor of shining hair and eyes. Far better have a love of duty, a heart with virtue warm, than win a ribbon blue for beauty, or have a queenly form." Why not have both, good looks and virtue, clean teeth and sterling worth? The combination will not hurt you, or raise unseemly mirth. It's good to send the heathen shekels, but that's no reason why you ought to wear a lot of freckles, or have a squinting eye. It's good to help our neighbors, always, but seek the barber, too; the saint who doesn't trim his galways obstructs the fairest view. Good women may convert the rowdy and rescue burning brands, but if the gowns they wear are dowdy, the world indiff'rent stands. "Be clean within," exclaims the preacher; the worldling vain retorts, "Desire to be a moral teacher is no excuse for warts." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRESIDENT GARFIELD by GEORGE SANTAYANA RIDDLE: SEWING NEEDLE AND THREAD by MOTHER GOOSE JINNY THE JUST by MATTHEW PRIOR AN EPISTLE TO CURIO by MARK AKENSIDE SIR RUPERT THE FEARLESS; A LEGEND OF GERMANY by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM MARATHON, SELECTION by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES |