The Jewish Manual: Practical Information in Jewish and Modern Cookery with a Collection of Valuable Recipes & Hints Relating to the Toilette

of flannel is better than a nail-brush to clean them with, as it does not separate the nail from the finger. When dried, a little pummice-stone, finely powdered, with powdered orris-root, in the proportion of a quarter of a tea-spoonful to a tea-spoonful of the former, mixed together, and rubbed on the nails gently, gives them a fine polish, and removes all inequalities. A piece of sponge, dipped in oil of roses and emery, may be used for the same purpose. When the nails are disposed to break, a little oil or cold cream should be applied at night. Sand-balls are excellent for removing hardness of the hands. Palm soap, Castille soap, and those which are the least perfumed, should always be preferred. Night-gloves are considered to make the hands white and soft, but they are attended with inconvenience, besides being very unwholesome; and the hands may be rendered as white as the nature of the complexion will allow, by constantly wearing gloves in the day-time, and using any of the emollients we have recommended for softening and improving the skin. CHAPTER V. Dress. In dress, simplicity should be preferred to magnificence: it is surely more gratifying to be admired for a refined taste, than for an elaborate and dazzling splendour;--the former always produces pleasing impressions, while the latter generally only provokes criticism. Too costly an attire forms a sort of fortification around a woman which wards off the admiration she might otherwise attract. The true art of dress is to make it harmonize so perfectly with the style of countenance and figure as to identify it, as it were, with the character of the wearer. All ornaments and trimmings should be adopted sparingly; trinkets and jewellery should seldom appear to be worn merely for display; they should be so selected and arranged as to seem necessary, either for the proper adjustment of some part of the dress, or worn for the sake of pleasing associations. Fashion should never be followed too closely, still less should a singularity of style be affected; the prevailing mode should be modified and adapted