in draperies soothingly uncertain of outline.
But putting her into uniform is like stripping her. Instantly all her
alleged beauty vanishes.

Moreover, it is extremely rare to find a woman who shows even the modest
sightliness that her sex is theoretically capable of; it is only the
rare beauty who is even tolerable. The average woman, until art comes to
her aid, is ungraceful, misshapen, badly calved and crudely articulated,
even for a woman. If she has a good torso, she is almost sure to be
bow-legged. If she has good legs, she is almost sure to have bad teeth.
If she has good teeth, she is almost sure to have scrawny hands, or
muddy eyes, or hair like oakum, or no chin. A woman who meets fair tests
all 'round is so uncommon that she becomes a sort of marvel, and usually
gains a livelihood by exhibiting herself as such, either on the stage,
in the half-world, or as the private jewel of some wealthy connoisseur.

But this lack of genuine beauty in women lays on them no practical
disadvantage in the primary business of their sex, for its effects
are more than overborne by the emotional suggestibility, the herculean
capacity for illusion, the almost total absence of critical sense of
men. Men do not demand genuine beauty, even in the most modest doses;
they are quite content with the mere appearance of beauty. That is
to say, they show no talent whatever for differentiating between the
artificial and the real. A film of face powder, skilfully applied, is
as satisfying to them as an epidermis of damask. The hair of a dead
Chinaman, artfully dressed and dyed, gives them as much delight as the
authentic tresses of Venus. A false hip intrigues them as effectively as
the soundest one of living fascia. A pretty frock fetches them quite as
surely and securely as lovely legs, shoulders, hands or eyes. In brief,
they estimate women, and hence acquire their wives, by reckoning up
purely superficial aspects, which is just as intelligent as estimating
an egg by purely superficial aspects. They never go behind the returns;
it never occurs to them to analyze the impressions they receive. The
result is that many a man, deceived by such paltry sophistications,
never really sees his wife--that if, as God is supposed to see, her, and
as the embalmer will see her--until they have been married for years.
All the tricks may be infantile and obvious, but in the face of so naive
a spectator the temptation to continue practising them is ir