"The lips of woman out of roses take
The tints with which they ever stain themselves.
They are the beautiful, lofty shelves
Where rests the sweetness which the young hours make,
And which the earnest boy, whom we call Love,
Will often sip in sorrow or in play.
Health, when it comes, doth ruddiness approve,
But his strong foe soon flatters it away!
Disease and health for a warm pair of lips,
Like York and Lancaster, wage active strife:
One on his banner front the White rose keeps,
And one the Red; and thus with woman's life,
Her lips are made a battle-field for those
Who struggle for the color of a rose."

A beautiful mouth is one that is moderately small, and has a
well-defined and graceful outline; and beautiful lips are gracefully
molded, neither thick nor thin, nor compressed nor lax, and that are
endowed with expression and are tinted with the hues of health.

The ladies of Eastern nations commonly heighten the hue and freshness
of their lips by means of cosmetics, a practice which in Western
Europe is only adopted on the stage, and occasionally by courtesans
and ladies of the demimonde.

Chapped lips most frequently occur in persons with pale, bluish, moist
lips and a languid circulation, who are much exposed to the wind or
who are continually moving from heated apartments to the external air.
East and north-east winds are those that generally produce them. The
occasional application of a little cold cream, lip salve, spermaceti
ointment, or any other mild unguent, will generally prevent them, and
remove them when they have already formed. A still more elegant and
effective preventive and remedy is glycerine diluted with about twice
its weight of eau-de-rose, or glycerinated lip salve or balsam.

The moist vesicular eruption of the lips, referred to above, may also
generally be prevented by the use of glycerine, or any of the
preparations just mentioned. After its accession, the best treatment
is to freely dust the affected portion of the lips with violet powder,
finely powdered starch, prepared chalk, or French chalk or talc
reduced to an impalpable powder by scraping or grating it.

The following formulas of preparations are all valuable for
beautifying and preserving the beauty of the lips:--

=White Lip Salve--No. 1.=--Take half a pound spermaceti ointment,
liquify it by the heat of warm water, and stir in one-half dram neroli
or essence de pet