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WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS LIBRARY
Fund of the
University of Michigan Club
of Greater Philadelphia

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THE LADIES GUTE
PERFECT BEAUTY
PERTE ANALYSIS AND CAR
ELEMENTS,
A
DARD
POIS TO THE SE QE BEAUT. OLDIND,
THE ABITS, AND ACE OF WOMEN, NOTIFIES
STANDING THE DISGUISES OF DRESS.
BY ALEXANDER WALKER, V.D.,
D.
DE INTERNAGE
WOM4,99
AMERICAN PHYSSA
DERBY
198 BROA

fare

THE LADIES' GUIDE
TO
PERFECT BEAUTY.
BEING A COMPLETE ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION
OF THE
ELEMENTS, NATURE, STANDARD, CAUSES, ANATOMY,
SPECIES, DEFECTS AND EFFECTS OF
BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
ALSO,
EXTERNAL INDICATIONS OR THE ART OF DETERMINING THE
PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY, THE MIND,
THE HABITS, AND AGE OF WOMEN, NOTWITH-
STANDING THE DISGUISES OF DRESS.
BY ALEXANDER WALKER, M.D., LL.D.,
AUTHOR OF “INTERMARRIAGE,” “WOMAN,” ETC.
EDITED BY AN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN.
NEW YORK:
DERBY & JACKSON, 498 BROADWAY.
1861.

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the yoar 1860, by
DERBY & JACKSON,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern
District of New York.
W. R. Pixson, Stereotyper
GEO. RUSSELL & Co., Printer3.

DEDICATION
TO
GEORGE BIRBECK, M.D., F.G.S.,
PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION, &c., &c. &c.
A DEPARTMENT of science, which in many respects
dedicated to any one as to the inventor of the best
mode of diffusing scientific knowledge among the
most meritorious and most oppressed classes of
society.
When the enemies of freedom, in order effectu- ,
ally to blind the victims of their spoliation, impo-
sed a tax upon knowledge, you rendered the ac-
quirement of science easy by the establishment of
mechanics' institutions — you gave the first and
greatest impulse to that diffusion of knowledge
which will render the repetition of such a conspi-
racy against humanity impossible.
You more than once also wrested a reluctant
concession, in behalf of untaxed knowledge, from the
men who had evidently succeeded, in some degree,
to the spirit, as well as to the office, of the original

IV
DEDICATION.
conspirators, and who unwisely hesitated between
the bad interest which is soon felt by all participa-
tors in expensive government, and their dread of
the new and triumphant power of public opinion,
before which they know and feel that they are but
as the chaff before the whirlwind.
For these services, accept this respectful dedi-
cation, as the expression of a homage, in which I
· am sure that I am joined by thousands of Britons.
Nor, in writing this, on a subject of which your
extensive knowledge enables you so well to judge,
am I without a peculiar and personal motive.
I gratefully acknowledge that, in one of the
most earnest and strenuous mental efforts I ever
made, in my work on “The Nervous System,” I
owed to your cautions is to logical reasoning and
careful induction, an anxiety at least, anu a zeal in
these respects, which, whatever success may have
attended them, could not well be exceeded.
I have endeavored to act conformably with the
same cautions in the present work. He must be
weak-minded, indeed, who can seek for aught in
philosophy but the discovery of truth; and he must
be a coward who, believing he has discovered it,
has any scruple to announce it.
ALEXANDER WALKER
APRIL 10. 1836.

AMERICAN ADVERTISEMENT.
The present volume completes the series of Mr.
Walker's anthropological works. To say that they nave
met with a favorable reception from the American public,
would be but a very inadequate expression of the unpre-
cedented success which has attended their publication.
* INTERNARRIAGE,” the first of the series, passed through
six large editions within eighteen months, and “WOMAN,"
has met with a sale scarcely less extensive. The numer-
ous calls for the present work, have compelled the pub-
lishers to issue it sooner than they had contemplated;
and, it is believed, that it will be found not less worthy
of attention than the preceding.
All must acknowledge the interesting nature of the
subject treated in the present work, as well as its intimate
connexion with those which have already passed under
discussion. The analysis of beauty on philosophical prin-
ciples, is attended with numerous difficulties, not the least
of which arises from the want of any fixed and acknowl-
edged standard. The term Beauty is, indeed, generally
considered as a vague generality, varying according to
national, and even individual taste and judgment.

VI
ADVERTISEMENT.
Mr. Walker claims, in his adverusement, numerous
points of originality, some of which, on examination, may
perhaps prove to have been proposed previously by other
writers. Enough, however, will remain to entitle him to
the credit of great ingenuity and acuteness. As treated
by him, the subject assumes an aspect very different from
that exhibited in any other publication. To trace the
connexion of beauty with, and its dependance on, ana-
tomical structure and physiological laws-to show how
it may be modified by causes within our control — to de-
scribe its different forms and modifications, and defects, as
indicated by certain physical signs — to analyze its eie-
ments, with a view to its influence on individuals and
society, in connexion with its perpetration in posterity —
all these were novel topics of vast and exciting interest,
and well adapted to the genius, taste, and research of our
author.
In preparing the present edition, it has been thought
expedient to make some verbal alterations, and omit a
few paragraphs, to which a refined taste might perhaps
object, and to bring together in the Appendix such collat-
eral matter, as might serve to correct, extend, or illustrate
the views presented in the text. With these explana-
tions, the work is confidently commended to the popular
as well as philosophical reader, as worthy of studions
examination.

CONTENTS.
108
PRELIMINARY ESSAY . .
Page is
English Advertisement
CHAPTER 1.- Importance of the Subject.
11
CHAPTER II.- Urgency of the Discussion of this Subject
in relation to the Interests of Decency
and Morality.
CHAPTER III.- Cautions to Youth.
CHAPTER IV. - Nature of Beauty . .
CHAPTER V. - Standard of Taste in Beauty
CHAPTER VI. - The Elements of Beauty
SECTION I. - Elements of Beauty in Inanimate Beings
Section II. — Elements of Beauty in Living Beings .
Section III.- Elements of Beauty in Thinking Beings
SECTION IV — Elements of Beauty as employed in Ob-
jects of Art
103
Beauty of Useful Objects
104
Beauty of Ornamental Objects
Beauty of Intellectual Objects
. 113
Summary of this Chapter
120
APPENDIX to the Preceding Chapters .
. 123
SECTION I. — Nature of the Picturesque
. 123
SECTION II. - Cause of Laughter
125
SECTION III. — Cause of the Pleasure received from Rep.
resentations exciting Pity . . .
CHAPTER VII.- Anatomical and Physiological Principles 139
CHAPTER VIII.- Of the Ages of Women in relation to
Beauty
. . . . . 152
CHAPTER IX. Of the Causes of Beauty in Woman . 166
CHAPTER X.- Of the Standard of Beauty in Woman . 171
CHAPTER XI.- Of the Three Species of Female Beauty
generally viewed . . . . . 185
CHAPTER XII. - First Species of Beauty: Beauty of the
Locomotive System . . . .
First Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . . . . . . 191
131

CONTENTS.
Page
Second Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . . . . . . . 197
Third Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER XIII. - Second Species of Beauty: Beauty of the
Nutritive System . . . . 203
First Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . . . . . . . 208
Second Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . . . . . . . 210
Third Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . . . . . . . 212
CHAPTER XIV.- Third Species of Beauty: Beauty of the
Thinking System . . . . 225
First Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . . . . . . . 226
Second Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . . . . . . . 227
Third Variety or Modification of this Species of
Beauty . . .
.
.
.
.
. . . 229
CHAPTER XV.- Beauty of the Face in particular . . 238
CHAPTER XVI.- Combinations and Transitions of the
Three Species of Female Beauty . 254
CHAPTER XVII. - Proportion, Character, Expression, &c. 259
CHAPTER XVIII. - The Greek Ideal Beauty. . 250
CHAPTER XIX. - The Ideal of Female Beauty . . 307
CHAPTER XX.- Defects of Beauty
320
Defects of the Locomotive System .
320
Defects of the Vital System
323
Defects of the Mental System
CHAPTER XXI.- External Indications, or Art of Deter.
mining the precise Figure, the degree
of Beauty, the Mind, the Habits, and
the Age of Women, notwithstanding
the Aids and Disguises of Dress . . 329
External Indications of Figure.
329
External Indications of Beauty.
332
External Indications of Mind.
335
External Indications of Habits.
337
External Indications of Age .
339
Appendix . . . .. . . . . . .
ystem
.
32
343

PRELIMINARY ESSAY,
BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:
Death hath no power yet upon thy beauty -
Thou art not conquered ; beauty's ensign yet
Is crinson on thy lips, and in thy cheeks.-SHAKSPEARE,
It may be set down, we suppose, as a matter sufficiently
settled to become a principle, that men are moved by
nothing more generally and certainly than by the power of
Beauty — particularly Beauty in Woman. That it has an
infiuence upon all of one sex, like that which Master
Shakspeare has given picture of in the lines we have set
upon our front, we would not pretend to say: but that the
wild bard was no freshman in his knowledge of humanity
so far as heart and mind matters were concerned, we feel
safe to assert — and feel confident that the passionate lan-
guage of Romeo trespasses no bounds, and is but a faith-
ful declaration of a power that rules with a milder or a
mi htier sway in the bosoms of all who answer to the
distinctive name of Man.
This may seem a wide assertion. But it is no less true.
The reason of the slow belief in this universality is, that
men are not always subject to the influence, while the
principle of it is always a tenant within them. There is
a time-- and with the time comes the development. The

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
mind, as it unfolds, becomes acquainted with notning so
calculated to excite its wonder, as its own properties and
capabilities — its new perceptions - its new affections.
Till progress brings with it this knowledge of ourselves,
we remain ignorant of half that is within us to affect us
like a spell, and within whose reach we have been un-
consciously passing onward and upward, by a Providential
ordering, from our childhood at least, if not from our
cradles.
Keep.ng this in view, let us consider for a moment some-
thing of the elements of Beauty, and their influence, as a
principle, upon the principles of our nature. — And first it
must be admitted that they are good — of a good origin-
and tend to a good result. They are good elements, we
believe, for we find them almost ever associated with
what is pleasing, improving, and satisfactory to us. In-
deed, in this connexion, we find them a source of conso-
lation and delight, where all else has failed to minister or
even suggest them. They are of a good origin - for, if
they were not, no such effect would be wrought upon a
system so sadly prone to evil and villanous principles, and
so little open to pure, and elevating, and comforting ones,
that they may be said to come about it, most emphatically,
like “angel-visits.” They are elements, again, that tend
to a good result, in their operation, for their consequences
are almost ever, to make men better satisfied with their
condition - where they come in, as an influence upon it,
at all-- better satisfied with almost everything about them,
so long as they are conscious they are creatures of propor-
tions and proprieties, and affected intrinsically by them.
If what we here set down respecting the elements of
Beauty be true, it is certainly of an interesting importance
in view of the influence of that quality upon the princi-
ples of our nature. We call it quality. Perhaps this is
not name enough for something so peculiar and powerful
in its connexion with the total of our spirits. We will

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
term t such, however, for want of a wider language-
and leave men to feel out such definition as they may
deem more good and grateful.
Implanted, then, so deeply as Beauty is in the human
heart - so universal, that millions bow to it as something
to fear while they worship — so certain, as a principle,
that scarcely a human being can be said to walk without
the sphere of its influence - it would be needless as well
as unphilosophical to deny that the great object of its fix-
ture — its enthronement upon its high place, should be
one of no common character, or of a tendency and effect
within us, which it would be wrong and inexcusable to
overlook.
What then is the design of this singular and mysterious
poper, in connexion with this sad and unaccountable na-
ture – so often the theme of eulogy and lament — of lofty,
long, and desperate satire, among men? The best an-
swer, we think, is rendered in the influence, where opera-
tion is open to every one who thinks, observes, reasons,
acts, among his fellows. — To enter into particular defini-
tions here, would be needless as well as wearisome. The
general effect upon man, as a sentient and moral being,
must be the point to which our simple remarks and rea-
sons must be confined.
We have somewhere seen it observed -- and have little
doubt in the publicity and good sense of the thought -
that there was perhaps no one thing which tended so ma-
terially to awaken lofty and good sentiments among the
people — to qualify the rough outline of character - and
soften and harmonize the untaught elements of their na-
ture, as the frequent, unrestrained, and encouraged con-
templation of the perfect statuary, which their master
sculptors were continually erecting in their temples.
This freedom was a perpetual lesson to a nation. The
principle was developed, and the power of Beauty had a
new, and forming, and mastering sway. A people were

xii
PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
coming into the light of better feeling -- better society –
better government, under the gradual but no less certain
operation of a living principle, brought into great and
beautiful action, under the commanding hand of Genius,
that seemed to pass at once from the sky, whose perfect
things it presented to the sons of earth!- It is not singu-
lar, we think, that such a leading forth of Beauty to the
contemplation of awakened man, should produce effects
like those to which we have adverted. It strikes us that
it would have been strange had this consequence not been
generated, and noble sculpture thus have stood before a
world as cold as the marble from which it was stricken
We believe that Beauty saw a renovating power in the
wonder of the Venus — and it would be a sad thing to
feel that it had ever ceased in its progress where woman
or the chisel were doing such things to advance it. Nor
has it ceased. History presents too many instances of the
monarch power of Beauty in woman, to permit us to doubt
upon this subject. It has passed upon the spirit of Man
like a thing of necromance -- winning him to its command,
and bowing him to its will, until royalty itself has stood
powerless in its presence, and the poor mass of mortals,
stricken and panting like cornered deer before the inexo-
rable hunter. It has been the salvation and ruin of na-
tions, as well as families and individuals — for queens
have obeyed its supremacy as well as maidens, and kings
squared their mandates, and regulated their course, by the
“ line of beauty.” All this is matter of record. Sacred
and profane story abounds with instances which admit of
no denial, while they excite our wonder. But the wonder
ceases, notwithstanding, when we turn from record to our
own experience, and see the effect, on others and ourselves,
of what we once read about in the curious annals of our
species. We now see the finished sculpture that delighted
and softened the people of an age, gazed on and admired
by every being whom we are accustomed to regard as ra-

PREI IMINARY ESSAY.
tional. No one pretends to question, much less to deny
the beauty of the lovely statue, in which the perfection of
woman is portrayed in the finished feature or the swel-
ling form. Insensibility here would properly be regarded
as a thing to be ashamed of — as little better than a moral
paralysis, which might well exclude the questionable man
from the circle of reasonable, enlightened, and rising peo-
ple, as a sad fellow, and a poor pilgrim on the earth. You
will rarely find the roughest nature with a cuticle that will
not confess some sensibility in a presence such as this -
and I think we may set it down as a thing well ascertained,
that the picture or chiselling of a beautiful woman will
command the tribute of delight -- the acknowledgment-
and loud one too -- of a whole and hearty worship from
the tar, as well as the amateur. The galleries of our ar-
tists, in which the principle of Beauty is made to speak
and command, sufficiently prove that there is no passing
away of this power which has moved, ruled, and regula-
ted, to a degree almost incredible, the world of Man, from
the time he came to this school, and this trial of the pas-
sions and affections. Let the question be asked of any
one, whose spirit is in healthful action, if his experience
before the work of art, imbodying the Beauty we speak of,
is not of a humanizing — and we will add civilizing, as
well as elevating character, and we are willing to abide
the issue of his answer, in full support of the position we
have taken. Such is our belief on the universality of this
influence or element. We have heard it denied, it is cer-
tain — but it was even by those who have never tested the
power by an application of it to themselves, or a surrender
to its mysteries, by an approach to the real presence - and
who, like bachelors upon the fearful subject of matrimony,
only betray a silliness just in proportion to their ignorance.
These are the men who have not yet unfolded. They are
in the chrysalis condition and to be pitied accordingly.
They may depend upon it, when they pass from the slough

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
they will be ready to confess they are, alas! too deep in
that other “Slough of Despond,” which is too well repre-
sented by a sad sensitiveness to the magic of Beauty, and
as sad a consciousness that there is no approach for them,
which can be crowned by a capture of the citadel, or the
least enjoyment of the glorious delights it encloses. When
we hear men deteriorating this power, or thanking the
gods they never bent knee or uttered vow at its shrine, we
are ever ready to believe they have either bowed all their
days to far other and sadder principles, and made oath to
idols of bad material and worse sculpture, or that they are
as much beyond the reach of any good, and proper, and
beautiful influence, as the clod of the valley to which they
are hastening. They may take pride in denial of such
influence -- but what is there to boast of in insensibility of
any kind, where the very betrayal of admiration is the best
evidence of a good taste- a good feeling — a good faith
-- a good principle? It cannot have escaped common ob-
servation, we presume, that a love of Beauty — or, at least,
any peculiar sensitiveness to that quality in the female sex,
has been held — and by sensible men, too -- as a weakness,
or an index only of a weak mind, or a feminine spirit.
This is certainly very foolish - and a lamentable mistake.
But it is easily accounted for. It will be observed that the
doctrine is never held save by men who see beauty in
things which other persons would hold abhorrent. They
are men who are in love with metaphysics, or glory in a
mathematical existence. They like, beyond all, the fea-
tures of a problem, and think only of the good face of a
speculation. They see, as they profess, at least, no pro-
portions, save in some cold system of an absurd philosophy,
and are only fit for judgment in things either too abstract
for the mass of men, or too decidedly “ earthy” to be wor-
thy the attention of beings made for a better sphere, and
capable of seeing something in much that is around us,
which intimates the order and beauty by which that sphere

PRELIMINARY ESSAY
XV
is distinguished. This is enough to put an end to this ob-
jection, in reference to the subtle element of which we are
venturing our humble, but we believe, orthodox sentiments.
For ourselves, we know of no more sad or senseless men-
tal condition in which we could be placed -- we mean in
the social relation -- than this one of such ungraceful stu-
pidity, as this of which a boast is made by such weary
fellows as we have adverted to. If Beauty is an outside
principle, which they argue is of no utility, and quite un-
worthy of one who should look beyond the mere coating
of this existence for his reward or his satisfaction, then we
say that even an outside of loveliness and grace, is better
than an interior of deformity, uselessness, indefiniteness,
chaos - even though it pretend to be all spiritual, while it
suggests little but nonsense, and is quite certain to end in
nothing.
There is another thought in connexion with this ele-
ment of Beauty in Woman, which certainly deserves con-
sideration. We believe the philosophy which it intimates
is founded in very good sense, and withal, in propriety.
Insensibility to the power, we have observed, is no index
of anything virtuous or elevated. It is rather, in all cases,
a bad omen. Men look upon it—and that very rationally
-- as indicative of something unhealthy in the moral sys-
tem. It seems to tell of a hardness -- bad propensities---
a crustaceous nature. In short, man regards his fellow,
who is dead to this influence, as rather to be suspected at
all times, than to be trusted at any. But this is not his
saddest trial- or what should be regarded as such, if he
can sign himself a man, with any conscience whatever.
His estimation by woman is unqualified and unquestioned.
He is set down by her as a creature as unworthy of regard
by the sisterhood, as he is devoid of warmth or wit in any-
thing that has to do with the social relations, and, above
all, with the mysteries of the passions and affections. He
is marked by them with a timble hrand. He is set apar

xvi
PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
as a poor thing, who knows nothing of what he was made
for, and whose ideas of the graceful and lovely in life are
about as defined and worthy as those of the brutes that
perish. He is run upon and laughed at by the playful, and
satirised and scathed by the witty. In the circle he is
treated – not pitied - as a piece of circulating insensibile
ity; in the street he is pointed at as one who might be
well set up as a mark at its corners. And this is right.
It is well he should be visited by rebuke from her who
presents so continually around him the elements of that
power he is foolish to resist, and unable, after all, to de-
preciate. Woman's opinion, here, is a part of the great
system which the influence she defends is meant to sup-
port-- and we truly hope that she will maintain it aloud
as long as she can utter it. Of the power of Beauty, both
the world of fact, and the world of fancy, are abounding
in instances. The records of ancient story present us with
their Helens and their Cleopatras, who wrought upon na-
tions by the magic of their faces. Later times show us
the wonder of the power in Mary of Scotland, and many
a page might be adverted to, full of the adventures which
marked the love passages of kings as well as clowns,
originating in this mysterious influence, as developed in
the graces and glories of woman.
The power of Beauty operates widely, and everywhere.
It takes the good man captive as well as the miscellaneous
one, who has no definite rule to guide him on his wander-
ings. It bows the masters and teachers of men at its
shrine, as well as the scholars and children of life. It
draws the merchant from his desk - the philosopher from
his chair. It gives new utterance to the poet, while it
wins the statesman to confess that there is some virtue in
the outside of the world, after all, and some attraction
apart from the chaos of cabinets and broad seals.
There is a beautiful exemplification of this power given
by F.orian, in his story of a Theban sculptor. He is a

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
XVII
wandering orphan in the streets of his native city, and his
first entrance into the workshop of the celebrated Praxit-
iles well proves the truth of what we have set down in
the foregoing pages. — “He is suddenly transported on be-
holding so many masterpieces of art! He gazes upon
them - he is lost in admiration! and turning to Praxitiles
with an air of grace and juvenile freedom," Father," cried
he, "give me the chisel, and teach me to become as great
as thou art.” Praxitiles stared at the boy, astonished at
the fire of enthusiasm which kindled in his eyes, and em-
bracing him with affection, “Yes!” said he,“ remain with
me; I will now be your master, but my hope shall be
that you may soon be mine."
The pupil soon becomes worthy of his teacher. He
becomes the heir of his fortune, and removes to Miletus.
There, the daughter of the governor visits his statuary,
and from the time of that visit, his destiny is sealed. Love
usurps the place of every other passion, and the chisel 15
cast aside in silence, under that supremacy. The Venus
of marble that adorned his study, was no longer a Venus
before that living one which filled his eye and his bosom.
He felt that he must tell his love, or die. He declares it,
in a hurried letter - a slave betrays him — and the indig-
nant father accuses him before the council. He is banished
from the city — and embarks in a Cretan vessel.
At this time pirates surprise the city, and pillage the
temple of Venus. The statue of that goddess is torn from
its pedestal. It was the Palladium of the island, and on
its possession hung the happiness of the Milesians. The
oracle of Delphos was consulted, and it was answered
that Miletus would not be safe till a new statue of Venus,
beautiful as the Goddess herself, should replace that rav.
ished by the pirates. The inhabitants were in despair.
They accused the governor of unjustly banishing the only
man who might now save the city. He is seized, and
hurred in chains to a dungeon. Now came the trial of

xviii
PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
the daughter, whose beauty had brought on this fearful
crisis. She equips her vessel, and with treasures about
her, determines to go in person to Athens - Corinth
Thebes — to find some artist who should emancipate her
father. Tempted to land on a delicious island, she there
comes suddenly upon her lover, whom she had been taught
to believe had been long laid under the waters that lashed
the heights of Naxos.
The story is soon told. In the humble cabin of his sol.
itude he had prepared a statue which he said would meet
the demand of the sybil. But he claimed to have it placed
veiled upon the pedestal in the temple of Miletus, before
she should even look upon the marble. She consents --
and they embark for that island. The artist is received
with shoutings and joy. The statue is borne to its trial on
the altar of Venus. It stands erect. He fears nothing –
and it is unveiled. The features are not mistaken — and
the people utter cries of joy as they behold the image of
his mistress! The enamored sculptor had made her, in
his loneliness, the model of his Venus ! — He is called on
to claim his reward. “Release him you have imprisoned,"
he cried — “release her father -- and I ask no more." - It
is done — and the father gives up the daughter to his pre
server, at the foot of her statue.
Can the power of Beauty be better illustrated than in
this simple tale? We are not shown simply its effect
upon an uneducated, artless individual — upon a mind in
its singleness, and just awakened to its own capabilities of
suífering and joy - but we see it operating in a wide and
unquestioned influence, upon the spirit of a whole people.
It was not demanded by fate that there should be merely
a replacing of the piece of marble upon the pedestal from
which it had been torn – it was required that the statue
should be as royal in its Beauty as that was whose place
it should supply. Beauty was the spirit-word of the
destiny of Miletus. It was Beauty which had been guar-

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
sis
dian of the city — and it was Beauty which must now re-
store it, by her return to her temple.
But we will not dwell upon this story, though it so
beautifully exemplifies the position we maintain. There
are many instances of frequent occurrence in the world,
which tell as strong a tale, of the influence of Grace and
Beauty, as is here presented in the Grecian record. We
may not witness them — but the power is working ever
like fate in the mingled material of our life, and it only
requires a sober faith, together with a moderate observa-
tion, to convince all men that they are the creatures o
Beauty, as much as they are of destiny and dust.
But there is another consideration connected with this
subject — an important one, too — and for that reason wo
have reserved it to the last.
We are settled in our conviction that there is something
in Personal Beauty, of a representative and correspondent
character. It represents a spiritual beauty — corresponds
with a moral symmetry. Though we call it an outward
property, still it must be a picture of the internal. It
would seem impossible that there can be a speaking exe
pression of grace and loveliness, upon a face that is but a
telegraph of an inward deformity and ugliness. Perhaps
all this may seem somewhat ideal in its philosophy — and,
perhaps, almost transcendental. But we hold it to be true.
It certainly appears to us reasonable that the minor should
reflect the reality, as well in this heaven-made human-
ity, as amid the earthy art of our drawing-rooms. That
the spirit should speak out in the language of the counte-
nance, is to us as excellent sense as that it should tell its
story in protuberances and indentations. Who can deny
this — and where will the argument fail? We pause for
a reply.
Let us be understood, however. We have no idea of
going beyond reason in a theory, which, though it may
appear more than plausible to us, may seem far this side

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
of plausible to others. Yet we think we are borne out by
example. We do not maintain, it will be remembered,
that beauty of person must necessarily be the representa-
tive of moral beauty, according to the best and highest
definition of that term. That definition, we presume,
would include the virtuous and the heavenly. That these
traits are unfailing accompaniments of noble features
the beautiful countenance — the finished form — it would
be hazardous and foolish to assert. What we intend to say
is this — that we believe external beauty is the represent-
ation of an internal and spiritual quality of the same na-
ture. That Beauty may be spiritual, though it may not
be moral — the Beauty of Virtue. It may be the beauty
of superior and surpassing powers — the Beauty of Genius.
It may be the beauty of a mind, uncommon in its attrac-
tions, and in its proportions beyond fault or question. It
may be the beauty of intellectual symmetry — and this
may find its speaking resemblance in the chiseled face and
figure, as certainly as the moral loveliness of the heaven-
inspired — the emphatically good man. Of what more
perfect mental proportions could the human countenance
have been indicative, than the countenance of Napoleon ?
The symmetry of Genius spake there, if it was true — as
it certainly was -- that moral beauty had no telegraph in
that splendid sculpture of the man.
But we have said as much as we can afford to --- though
the more particular subject of our remarks — or what in
good faith should have been, if it has not- Beauty in
Woman, would seem to be one on which it would not be
deemed unknightly to give way to a pretty expression.
We must, however, leave all considerations of gallantry
on this score, to others who can amplify better than we
can, when we have got to the end of our chapter.

ADVERTISEMENT.
THERE is perhaps no subject more universally or
more deeply interesting than that which is the chief
subject of the present work. Yet no book, even
pretending to science or accuracy, has hitherto ap-
peared upon it. The forms and proportions of
animals—as of the horse and the dog — have been
examined in a hundred volumes: not one has been
devoted to woman, on whose physical and moral
qualities the happiness of individuals, and the per-
petual improvement of the human race, are depend-
ant.
The cause of this has been, probably, the neglect
on the part of individuals, to combine anatomical
and pbysiological knowledge with the critical ob-
servation of the external forms of woman; and,
perhaps, some repugnance to anthropological know-
ledge on the part of the public. The last obstacle,
if ever it existed, is now gone by, as many circum-
stances show; and it will be the business of the
author, in this work, to endeavor to obviate the
former.
The present work, beside giving new views of
the theory of beauty, and of its application to the
arts, presents an analysis and classification of beau-
ty in woman. A subsequent work will apply the

ADVERTISEMENT.
principles here established to intermarriages and
crossings among mankind, and will explain their
results in relation to the happiness of individuals,
and to the beauty and the freedom from insanity of
their offspring. A final work will examine the rela-
tions of woman in society, will expose the extrava-
gant hypothesis of writers on this subject who
have been ignorant of anthropology, and will de-
scribe the reforms which the common interests of
mankind demand in this respect.
It is now to be seen, whether a branch of science
which is strictly founded on anatomy and physiol-
ogy- one which entangles the reader in no mys-
tical and delusive hypothesis, and presents to him
only indisputable facts—one which is applicable to
the subject most universally and deeply interesting
to mankind, the critical judgment of female beauty,
as founded on necessary functions, and one which
unravels the greater difficulties which that subject
presents— may not excite and permanently com-
mand a great degree of public interest.
A preliminary view of the importance of this
subject is given in the first chapter; the urgency
of its discussion, in relation to the interests of de-
cency and morality, is established in the second ;
and some useful cautions as to youth are offered in
the third.
In regard to the importance of the subject, I
may, even here, avail myself of the highest au-
thorities.
THOMAS MORE, speaking of the people of his
commonwealth, says: “They do greatly wonder at

ADVERTISEMENT.
the folly of all other nations, which, in buying a
colt (whereas, a little money is in hazard), be so
chary and circumspect, that, though he be almost
all bare, yet they will not buy him, unless the sad-
dle and all the harness be taken off — lest, under
those coverings, be hid some gall or sore. And yet,
in choosing a wife, which shall be either pleasure or
displeasure to them all their life after, they be so
reckless, that, all the residue of the woman's body
being covered with clothes, they esteem her scarce-
ly by one hand-breadth (for they can see no more
but her face), and so to join her to them, not with-
out great jeopardy of evil agreeing together — if
anything in her body afterward should chance to
offend and mislike them.”*
FRANCIS Bacon is of similar opinion.
Happily, the advancement of anthropological
science in modern times, inay, as is here shown, be
so applied as to render quite unnecessary the ob-
jectionable methods proposed by both these philoso-
phers, in order to carry their doctrines-into prac-
tice.
Shail I be blamed, because I avail myself of the
progress of knowledge to render all that these great
men desired on this subject of easy attainment and
inoffensive to woman? Shall I be blamed, because I
first facilitate that which the still farther advance-
ment of knowledge will inevitably render an every-
day occurrence, and the guide of the most important
act of human life?— I care not.
* Utopia, Book II., chap. viii.

ADVERTISEMENT.
In the details as to female beauty, it will be seen
how incorrectly Winckelmann says: “In female
figures, the forms of beauty are not so different,
nor the gradations so various, as in those of males,
and therefore in general they present no other dif-
ference than that which is dependant upon age ...
Hence, in treating of female beauty, few observa-
tions occur as necessary to be made, and the study
of the artist is more limited and more easy ... It
is to be observed, that, in speaking of the resem-
blance of nude female figures, I speak solely of the
body, without concluding from it that they also re-
semble each other in the distinctive characters of
the head, which are particularly marked in each,
whether goddess or heroine.”—The differences,
even in the bodies of females, are here shown to be
both numerous and capable of distinct classifica-
tion.
It is right to observe, that this work has nothing
to do with an early production of the writer, a con-
sciousness of the small value of which prevented
his attaching his name to it, which he now knows
to be utterly worthless, and which has since been
vamped up with things which are more worthless
still.
The most valuable features of the present work
are entirely new and original. Others are such as
the writer thought not unworthy of preservation
from earlier essays. He has also, throughout this
work, adopted from other writers, with no other
alteration than accuracy required, every view,
opinion, or remark, which he thought applicable to

ADVERTISEMENT.
a department of science, of which all the great
features are new.
Such being the case, he thinks it just, at once to
himself and others, to indicate here the only points
on which he can himself lay any claim to original-
ity. These are as follows:-
The more complete establishment of the truth that,
in relation to man and woman in particular, beauty
is the external sign of goodness in organization
and function, and thence its importance. — Chapter
I., and the work generally.
The showing that the discussion of this subject,
though involving the examination of the naked
figure, is urgent in relation to decency (the theory
of which is discussed), morality, and happy inter-
marriage. — Chapter II.
The showing that the ancient religion was the
cause of the perfection of the fine arts in Greece,
by its personification of simple attributes or virtues,
as objects of adoration.— Chapter II.
The exposition of the nature, the kinds, and the
characteristics of beauty; and of some errors of
Burke, Knight, &c., on this subject. — Chapter IV.
The showing that there are elements of beauty
invariable in their nature and effect, and that these
are modified and complicated in advancing from
simple to complex beings, and the arts relating to
them. - Chapter VI. '
The pointing out these elements of beauty, and
their mode of operation in inanimate beings; and
the errors of Knight and Allison on this subject.-
Sect. I., Chapter VI.

ADVERTISEMENT.
The pointing out these elements, and otherw
which are superadded, in living beings; and the
errors of Allison on this subject — Sect. II., Chap-
ter VI.
The pointing out these elements, and others
which are farther superadded, in thinking beings;
and the errors of Burke and Knight on this sub-
ject.— Sect. III., Chapter VI.
The exposition of these elements, as differing, or
variously modified, in the useful, ornamental, and
intellectual arts, respectively; and some remarks
on ornament in architecture, and in female dress —
Sect. IV., Chapter VI.
The explanation of the nature of the picturesque,
after the failure of Knight and Price in this respect.
-- Sect. I., Appendix to preceding chapters.
The vindication of the doctrine of Hobbes, as to
the cause of laughter; and exposition of the errors
of Campbell and Beattie on this subject. - Sect. II.,
Appendix.
The explanation of the cause of the pleasure re-
ceived from representations exciting pity; and of
the errors of Burke, &c., on that subject. — Sect.
III., Appendix.
The arrangement of anatomy and physiology,
and the application of the principles of these scien-
ces to the distinguishing and judging of beauty. —
Chapter VII.
The explanation of the difference in the beauty
of the two sexes even in the same country — Chap-
ter IX.
Various arguments establishing the standard of

ADVERTISEMENT.
beauty in woman; and exposure of the sophistry of
Knight, on this subject. - Chapter X.
The showing, by the preceding arrangements,
that the ancient temperaments are partial or com-
plex views of anthropological phenomena.— Chap-
ter XI., et seq.
The description of the first species of beauty, or
that of the locomotive system, and of its varieties,
as founded on examination of structure. – Chapter
XII.
The description of the second species of beauty,
or that of the nutritive system, and of its varieties,
as founded on examination of structure. – Chapter
XIII.
The description of the third species of beauty,
or that of the thinking system, and of its varieties,
as founded on examination of structure.—Chapter
XIV.
The explanation of the cause of the deformity
produced by the obliquely placed eyes of the Chi-
nese, &c.— Chapter XV.
The explanation of the mode in which the action
of the muscles of the face becomes physiognomi-
cally expressive. — Ibid.
The explanation of the physiognomical character
of the different kinds of the hair. — Ibid.
The explanation of the cause of the different ef-
fects of the same face, even in a state of repose.--
Ibid.
The indication of the faulty feature, and its
gradual increase, even in beautiful faces.- Ibid.

ADVERTISEMENT.
The exposition of the different organization of
Greek and Roman heads. — Ibid.
The explanation of the combinations and transi-
tions of beauty.- Chapter XVI.
The explanation of the numerical, geometrical,
and harmonic methods of proportion, employed by
the ancient Greeks. — Chapter XVII.
Some remarks on character, expression, and de.
tail in art. — Ibid.
Some observations on the Greek forehead, actual
as well as ideal. - Chapter XVIII.
The explanation of the reason of the Greek ideal
rule, as to the proportion between the forehead and
the other parts of the face. — Ibid.
The explanation of the reason of the Greek ideal
rule, as to the profile of the forehead and nose, or
as to the direction of the mesial line which they
form, and the exposition of Winckelmann's blunder
respecting it.— Ibid.
The explanation of the reason why the Greeks
suppressed all great degrees of impassioned ex
pression: - Ibid.
The mere indication of the Greek idealizations
as applied to the nutritive and locomotive systems,
and the explanation of the latter in the Apollo. -
Ibid.
The replies to the objections of Burke and Ali-
son, as to ideal beauty. — Ibid.
The enunciation of the ideal in attitude. — Ibid.
Various views as to the Venus de Medici, tho
conformation of the nose, and the connexion of

ADVERTISEMENT.
odor with love, in animals and plants. — Chapter
XIX.
Some remarks on the Venus de Medici. — Ibid
The pointing out and explanation of various de
fects in beauty. — Chapter XX.
The pointing out and explanation of various ex-
ternal indications of figure, beauty, mind, habits,
and age. — Chapter XXI.
The writer may possibly be mistaken as to the
originality of one or two of these points; but, leav-
ing the critical reader to deduct as many of these
as it is in his power to do, enough of novelty would
remain for the writer's ambition, in this respect, if
he had done no more than exposed the errors of
Burke, Knight, Alison, &c., and established the
true doctrine of beauty, in the first chapters -
given an analysis and classification of beauty in
woman, in the chapters which follow — and applied
this to the fine arts, and solved the difficulty of
Leonardo da Vinci, &c., in the last chapters


ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION
OF
BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
CHAPTER I.
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
It is observed by Home, in his "Elements of
Criticism,” that a perception of beauty in external
objects is requisite to attach us to them; that it
greatly promotes industry, by promoting a desire
to possess things that are beautiful ; and that it
farther joins with utility, in prompting us to em.
bellish our houses and enrich our fields. “These,
however,” he says, “are but slight effects, com-
pared with the connexions which are formed among
individuals in society by means of this singular
mechanism : the qualifications of the head and
heart are undoubtedly the most solid and most
permanent foundations of such connexions; but as
external beauty lies more in view, and is more ob-
vious to the bulk of mankind, than the qualities
now mentioned, the sense of beauty possesses the
more universal influence in forming these connex.
ions; at any rate, it concurs in an eminent degree,

12
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
with mental qualifications, to produce social inter-
course, mutual good-will, and, consequently, mu-
tual aid and support, which are the life of so-
ciety.”
Dr. Pritchard similarly observes, that “the per-
ception of beauty is the chief principle in every
country which directs men in their marriages."
|Advancing a step farther, Sir Anthony Carlisle
thinks a taste for beauty worthy of being culti-
vated. “Man,” he observés, “dwells with felicity
even on ideal female attributes, and in imagination
discovers beauties and perfections which solace
his wearied hours, far beyond any other resource
within the scope of human life. It cannot, then,
be unwise to cultivate and refine this natural ten-
dency, and to enhance, if possible, these charms of
life. We increase and heighten all our pleasures
by awakening and cultivating reflections which do
not exist in a state of ignorance. Thus, the bot-
anist perceives elegances in plants and flowers un-
known and unfelt by the vulgar, and the landscape-
painter revels in natural or imaginary scenery, with
feelings which are unknown to the multitude. It
would be absurd to pretend that the more exquisite
and more deeply attractive beauty of woman is not
worthy of more profound, as well as more univer-
sal cultivation."
Such are the observations of philosophical an-
thropologists, who, nevertheless, in these remarks,
consider mere physical beauty independent of its
connexion with corresponding functions or moral
qualities.

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
13
If, however, the external beauty of woman, cale
culated as it is to flatter the most experienced eye,
limited its effect to a local impression, to an opti-
cal enjoyment, the sentiment of beauty would be
far from having all its extent and value. Happily,
ideas of goodness, of suitableness, of sympathy,
of progressive perfection, and of mutual happiness,
are, by an intimate and inevitable association, con-
nected with the first impression made by the sight
of beauty.
The foundation of this feeling is well expressed
by Dr. Pritchard, in his observation that “the idea
of beauty of person is synonymous with that of
health and perfect organization.”
Hence, it has been observed, the great ideal
models of beauty please us, not merely because
their forms are disposed and combined so as to
affect agreeably the organ of sight, but because
their exterior appears to correspond to admirable
dition of humanity. Such do the Greek monu-
ments appear to physiologists and philosophical
artists, whose minds pass rapidly from the beauty
of forms to that locomotive, vital, or mental excel-
lence which it compels them to suppose.
Goodness and beauty in woman will accordingly
be found to bear a strict relation to each other;
and the latter will be seen always to be the exter-
There are, however (slightly to anticipate what
must afterward be explained), different kinds, both
of beauty and of goodness, which are confounded

14
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
by vulgar observers; or rather there are beauty
and goodness belonging to different systems of
which the body is composed, and which ought
never to be confounded with each other.
Where, consequently, one of these kinds of
beauty and of goodness is wanting, even in a re-
markable degree, others may be found; and, as the
vulgar do not distinguish, it is this which leads to
the gross error that these qualities have no strict
relations to their signs.
Want of beauty, then, in any one of the systems
of which the body is composed, indicates want of
goodness only in that system; but it is not less a
truth, and scarcely of less importance, on that ac-
count.— I will now illustrate this by brief exam
ples.
There may, in any individual, exist deformity of
limbs; and this will assuredly indicate want of
goodness in the locomotive system, of that or gen-
eral motion. There may exist coarseness of skin,
or paleness of complexion ; and either of these will
system, or that of nutrition. There may exist a
malformation of the brain, externally evident; and
this no less certainly will indicate want of goodness
in the mental system, or that of thought.
It follows that even the different kinds and com.
binations of beauty, which are the objects of taste
to different persons, are founded upon the same
general principle of organic superiority. Nay,
even the preferences which, in beauty, appear to
depend most on fancy, depend in rea ity on that

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
15
cause; and the impression which every degree and
modification of beauty makes on mankind, has as a
fundamental rule only their sentiment, more or less
delicate and just, of physical advantage in relation
to each individual. Such is the foundation of all
our sentiments of admiration and of love.
The existence or non-existence of these advan
tages, and the power of determining this, or the
judgment of beauty, are therefore of transcendent
importance to individuals and to families. Such
judgment can be attained by analysis and classifi-
cation alone. Nothing, therefore, can more nearly
affect all human interests than that analysis and
classification of beauty which are here proposed.
To place beyond a doubt, and to illustrate more
minutely, the extraordinary importance of this
subject, as regards advantages real to the species,
I may anticipate some of the more minute applica
tions of my doctrine.
If, in the locomotive system of the female, much
of the delicacy of form, and the ease and grace of
her movements, depend upon the more perfect de-
velopment of the muscles of the pelvis, and its
easily adapting itself to great and remarkable
changes, how important must be the ability to
determine, even by walk or gesture, the existence
of this condition !
If, in the vital system, the elasticity and fresh
ness of the skin are the characteristics of health,
and their absence warns us that the condition of
woman is unfavorable to the plan of nature rela.
tively to the maintenance of the species-- or, if

16
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
the capacity of the pelvis, and the consequent
breadth of the haunches, are necessary to all those
functions which are most essentially feminine,
impregnation, gestation, and parturition, without
danger either to parent or to child -- of what ex-
treme importance must be the ability to determine
this with certainty and ease!
If, in the mental system, the capacity and deli-
cacy of the organs of sense, and the softness and
mobility of the nervous system, are necessary to
the vivid and varying sensibility of woman — if it
is in consequence of this, that woman is enabled to
act on man by the continual observation of all that
can captivate his imagination or, secure his affec-
tion, and by the irresistible seduction of her man-
ners — if it is these qualities which enable her to
accommodate herself to his taste, to yield, without
constraint, even to the caprice of the moment, and
to seize the time when observations, made as it
were accidentally, may produce the effect which
she desires— if it is by these means that she fulfils
her first duty, namely, to please him to whom she
has united her days, and to attach him to her and
to home by rendering both delightful - if all this
is the case, of what inexpressible importance must
be the ability to determine, in each individual, the
possession of the power and the will to produce
such effects!
If (descending to still more minute inquiries)
external indications as to figure are required as to
parts concealed by drapery - if such indications
would obviate deception even with regard to those

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT
parts of the figure which are more exposed to ob-
servation by the closer adaptation of dress — if,
even when the face is seen, the deception as to the
degree of beauty, is such that a correct estimate
of it is perhaps never formed — if indications as
to mind may be derived from many external cir-
cumstances - if external indications as to the
personal habits of women are both numerous and
interesting — if such indications even of age and
health are sometimes essential — if all this be the
case, let the reader say what other object of human
inquiry exceeds this in importance.
Let us not then deceive ourselves respecting the
source of those impressions which one sex experi-
ences from the sight of the other. It is evidently
nothing else than the more or less delicate and just
perception of a certain conformity of means with a
want which has been created by nature, and which
must be satisfied.
“It is very obvious,” says Dr. Pritchard, “that
this peculiarity in the constitution of man must
have considerable effects on the physical character
of the race, and that it must act as a constant prin
ciple of improvement, supplying the place in our
own kind of the beneficial control [in the crossing
of races] which we exercise over the brute crea-
tion.” And he adds: “This is probably the final
cause for which the instinctive perception of hu-
man beauty was implanted by Providence in our
nature.”
We need not wonder, then, that the Greeks
should have preferred beauty to all other advanta

18
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
ges, should have placed it immediately after virtue
in the order of their affections, or should have
made it an object of worship.
Even the practical application of this principle
to the improvement of the human race is not a
matter of conjecture. We have seen both families
and nations ameliorated by the means which it
affords. Of this, the Turks are a striking exam-
ple. Nothing, therefore, can better deserve the
researches of the physiologist, or the exertions of
the philanthropist, than the fact that there are laws,
of which we have yet only a glimpse, according to
which we may influence the amelioration of the
human race in a manner the most extensive and
profound, by acting according to a uniform and
uninterrupted system.
Well might Cabanis exclaim : “After having
occupied ourselves so curiously with the means of
rendering more beautiful and better the races of
animals or of plants which are useful or agreeable
--after having remodelled a hundred times tha. of
horses and dogs— after having transplanted, graft-
ed, cultivated, in all manners, fruits and flowers --
how shameful is it to have totally neglected the
race of man! As if it affected us less nearly! as
if it were more essential to have large and strong
oxen than vigorous and healthy men, highly odor-
ous peaches or finely striped tulips, than wise and
good citizens !”
I actually know a man who is so deeply inter-
ested in the doctrine of crossing, that every hour
of his life is devoted to the improvement of a race

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
19
of bantain fowls and curious pigeons, and who
yet married a mad woman, whom he confines in
a garret, and by whom he has some insane pro-
geny
Let it not be imagined that the discovery of the
precise laws of crossing or intermarriage, and the
best direction of physical living forces, in relation
both to the vital faculties and to those of the mind,
upon which knowledge and skill may operate for
the improvement of our race, is a matter of diffi-
culty.
It will be shown in this work, that there exist
not only an influence of beauty and defects on
offspring, but peculiar laws regulating the resem-
blance of progeny to parents — laws which regard
the mode in which the organization of parents af-
fects that of children, or regulates the organs which
each parent respectively bestows.
It will accordingly be shown, that, as, on the
size, form, and proportion, of the various organs,
depend their functions, the importance of such
laws is indescribable — whether we regard inter-
marriages, and that immunity from mental or bod-
ily disease which, when well directed, they may
ensure, or the determination of the parentage of a
child -- or the education of children, in conformity
with their faculties — or the employment of men
n society.
I conclude this brief view in the words of the
writer just quoted: “It is assuredly time for us to
attempt to do for ourselves that which we have
done so successfully for several of our companions

20
INPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.
in existence, to review and correct this work of
nature -- a noble enterprise, which truly merits al
our cares, and which nature itself appears to have
especially recommended to us by the sympatnje
and the powers which it has given us.”

URUENCY OF THE DISCUSSION, ETC.
CHAPTER II.
URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION OF THIS SUBJECT IN REIA-
TION TO THE INTERESTS OF DECENCY AND MORALITY.
It has now been seen that beauty results from
the perfection, chiefly of external forms, and the
correspondence of that perfection with superiority
of internal functions; on the more or less perfect
perception of which, love, intermarriage, and the
condition of our race, are dependant.
This mode of considering the elements, the na-
ture, and the consequences of beauty, is equally
applicable to the two sexes; but, in woman, the
form of the species presents peculiar modifica-
tions.
In this work, it is the form of woman which is
chosen for examination, because it will be found,
by the contrast which is perpetually necessary, to
involve a knowledge of the form of man, because
it is best calculated to ensure attention from men,
and because it is men who, exercising the power
of selection, have alone the ability thus to ensure
individual happiness, and to ameliorate the species;
which are the objects of this work.
Let it not be imagined that the views now taken
are less favorable to woman than to man. What-

22
URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION
ever ensures the happiness of one ensures that of
the other; and as the variety of forms and func-
tions in man requires as many varieties in woman,
it is not to exclusion or rejection with regard to
woman that this work tends, but to a reasoned
guidance in man's choice, to the greater suitable-
ness of all intermarriages, and to the greater hap-
piness of woman as well as man, both in herself
and in her progeny.
But notwithstanding the importance of any work
which is in any degree calculated to promote such
an object, some will tell us that the analysis of
female beauty, on which it can alone be founded,
is indelicate.—I shall, on the contrary, show that
decency demands this analysis ; that the interests
of nature, of truth, of the arts, and of morality, de-
mand it.
Our present notions of sexual decency belong
more to art than to nature, and may be divided into
artificial and artful decencies.
Artificial decencies are illustrated in the habits
of various nations. They have their origin in cold
countries, where clothing is necessary, and where
a deviation from the degree or mode of clothing
constitutes indecency. They could not exist in
hot climates, where clothing is scarcely possible.
In hot climates, natural decency can alone exist;
and there is not, I believe, one traveller in such
countries whose works do not prove that natural
decency there exists as much as in cold countries.
In exemplification of this, I make a single quota-
tion: it would be easy to make thousands. Bur.

AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY.
23
chell, speaking of the Bushmen Hottentots, says:
“ The natural bashful reserve of youth and inno.
cence is to be seen as much'among these savages,
as in more polished nations; and the young girls,
though wanting but little of being perfectly naked,
evinced as just a sense of modesty as the most
rigid and careful education could have given
them.”
In mild climates, the half-clothed or slightly-
clothed people appear to be somewhat at a loss
what to do. Fond of decorations, like all savage
or half-civilized people, they seem to be divided
between the tatooing and painting of hot climates,
and the clothing of cold ones; and when they
adopt the latter, they do not rightly know what to
conceal
The works of all travellers afford the same illus
trations of this fact. I quote one. Kotzebue de
scribes the custom among the Tartar women of
Kasan, of flying or of concealing their countenance
from the sight of a stranger. The necessity of
conforming to this custom threw into great embar-
rassment a young woman who was obliged to pass
several times before the German traveller. She at
first concealed her face with her hands; but, soon
embarrassed by that attitude, she removed the veil
which covered her bosom, and threw it over her
face. “That,” adds Kotzebue, “was, as we say,
uncovering Paul to cover Jacques: the bosom re
mained naked. To cover that, she next showed
what should have been concealed; and if any-
thing escaped from her hands, she stooped, and

24
URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION
then,” says Kotzebue, “I saw both one and the
other.”
In colder or more uncertain climates, the great-
est degree of covering constitutes the greatest de.
gree of artificial decency: fashion and decency are
confounded. Among old-fashioned people, of whom
a good example may be found in old countrywomen
of the middle class in England, it is indecent to be
seen with the head unclothed; such a woman is
terrified at the chance of being seen in that condi-
tion; and if intruded on at such a time, she shrieks
with terror and flies to conceal herself. In the
equally polished dandy of the metropolis, it is in-
decent to be seen without gloves. Which of these
respectable creatures is the most enlightened, I do
not take upón me to say; but I believe that the
majority of suffrages would be in favor of the old
woman.
So entirely are these decencies artificial, that any
number of them may easily be created, not merely
with regard to man or woman, but even with regard
to domesticated animals. If it should please some
persons partially to clothe horses, cows, or dogs, it
would ere long be felt that their appearing in the
streets without trowsers or aprons was grossly in-
decent. We might thus create a real feeling of in-
decency, the perception of a new impurity, which
would take the place of the former absence of all
impure thought, and once established, the evil
would be as real as our whims have made it in
other respects.
Mora. feeling is deeply injured by this substitue

AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY.
25
tion of iripure thoughts, however fancifully found.
ed, for pure ones, or rather for the entire absence
of thought about worthless things. Artificial crimes
are thus made, which are not the less real because
artificial; for if aught of this kind is believed to
be right, there is weakness or wrong in its viola-
tion. But violated it must be, if it were but acci-
dentally.
To corrupt minds, this very violation of artificial
decency in the case of woman affords the zest for
the sake of which many of these decencies seem
to have been instituted; and thus are created the
artful decencies.
The purpose and the zest of artful decency are
well illustrated by coquetry. Coquetry adopts a
general concealment, which it well knows can
alone give a sensual and seductive power to mo-
mentary exposure. Coquetry eschews permanent
exposure as the bane of sensuality and seduction ;
and where these are great, as among the women of
Spain, the concealment of dress is increased, even
in warm climates. Nothing can throw greater
light than this does on the nature of these decen-
cies.
That coquetry has well calculated her procedure,
does not admit of a doubt. She appeals to imagi-
nation, which she knows will spread charms over
even ugly forms; she seeks the concealment un-
der which sensuality and lust are engendered ; and,
in marriage, she at last lifts the veil which grati-
fies, only to disgust, and repays a sensual halluci
nation by years of misery.

26
URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION
Ought religion to claim the right of saying grace
to such unveiling of concealment and the nuptial
rites that follow it? Ought religion to profit by
the impurities of sexual association ? Marriage is
a civil ceremony in other countries, even in Scot-
iand. Such profane and profitable sanctions have
nothing to do with primitive Christianity: they are
abhorrent to its letter as well as to its spirit. But
worldly and profitable religion is connected in busi-
ness with government, under the firm of Church
and State, and drives a thriving trade, in which the
junior partner is contented with the profit arising
from the common acts of life, while the senior one
draws much of his living from other rites.*
What is said here, is no argument for living
nudity: that, our climate and our customs forbid;
and, in so doing, we can only regret that they are
unfavorable to natural purity; while perfect famil-
iarity with the figure ensures that feeling in the
highest degree.
A distinguished artist informs me that greater
modesty is nowhere to be seen than at the Life
academy; and it was an observation of the gicat
Flaxman, that “the students, in entering the acad.
emy, seemed to hang up their passions with their
hats.” I can, from personal experience, give the
same testimony in behalf of medical students at the
dissecting-rooms. The familiarity of both these
*I do not wish to be forced into any discussion of this last point
But, if necessary, I shall not decline it.

AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY,
27
classes with natural beauty leads them only to seek
to inform their minds and to purify their taste.*
Sinibaldi observes, that “nothing is more injuri-
ous to morals and to health, than the incitements
of the women who in such numbers walk our
streets,” and that “the laws as to offences against
morals ought certainly to affect them the moment
their language or actions can be deemed offensive.”
But it is not to those who are critically conversant
with the highest beauty of the human figure, that
defective forms, ill-painted skins, rude manners,
and contagious diseases, are at all seductive.
Nothing, then, can be more favorable to virtue
than the decoration of every house with the beau-
tiful copies of the glorious works of ancient Greece;
and it is only humiliating to think that what has
been so extensively done in this respect in the best
houses, is less owing to our own taste than to the
poor wanderers from Lucca or Barga. Experiment
on this subject is peculiarly easy in London: let
any one spend an hour in the shop of the very able
Mr. Sarti, of Dean street, where he will meet the
most liberal attention, and let him ask himself, in
coming out, whether his moral feeling, as well as
his taste, is not improved.
Those who cannot make this experiment, will
perhaps be satisfied with the assurance of Hogarth,
who says: “The rest of the body, not having ad-
vantages in common with the face, would soon sa-
* We fear that Mr. Walker's analogical reasoning here is not
very conclusive. To reason from a living to a dead subject may be
very logical but it is not altogether satisfactory.

28
URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION
tiate the eye, were it to be as constantly exposed,
nor would it have more effect than a marble statue.”
Surely this is decisive enough in its way! Now let
them mark what follows. “But,” he continues,
“ when it is artfully clothed and decorated, the mind
at every turn resumes its imaginary pursuits con-
cerning it. Thus, if I may be allowed a simile, the
angler chooses not to see the fish he angles for,
until it is fairly caught.” He meant of course -
" the fish chooses not to see the angler, until it is
fairly caught !"
Be it known then to all, even the most aristo-
cratic as to sexual association - I say the most
aristocratic, and not the most religious, because
religion is in some countries made the pander to
aristocracy - be it known that the critical judg-
ment and pure taste for beauty are the sole protec-
tion against low and degrading connexions.
Home observes that “the sense of beauty does
not tend to advance the interests of society, but
when in a due mean with respect to strength. Love
in particular arising from a sense of beauty, loses,
when excessive, its sociable character: the appetite
for gratification, prevailing over affection for the
beloved object, is ungovernable, and tends violently
to its end, regardless of the misery that must fol-
low. Love in this state is no longer a sweet agree
able passion : it becomes painful, like hunger or
thirst, and produces no happiness but in the instant
of fruition. This discovery suggests a most im
portant lesson, that moderation in our desires and
appetites, which fits us for doing our duty, contrib-

AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY.
29
utes at the same time the most to happiness: even
social passions, when moderate, are more plerisant
than when they swell beyond proper bounds."
Payne Knight says: “When, at the age of puberty,
animal desire obtrudes itself on a mind already
qualified to feel and enjoy the charms of intellectual
merit, the imagination immediately begins to form
pictures of perfection, by exaggerating and combi-
ning in one hypothetic object every excellence that
can possibly belong to the whole sex; and the first
individual that meets the eye, with any exterior
signs of any of these ideal excellences, is immedi-
ately decorated with them all, by the creative magic
of a vigorous and fertile fancy. Hence, she in-
stantaneously becomes the object of the most fer-
vent affection, which is as instantaneously cooled
by possession: for, as it was not the object herself,
but a false idea of her raised in heated imagination,
that called forth all the lover's raptures, all imme-
diately vanish at the detection of his delusion; and
a degree of disgust proportioned to the disappoint-
ment, of which it is the inevitable consequence,
instantly succeeds. Thus it happens that what are
called love-matches are seldom or ever happy."
Now, nothing can more effectually prevent even
the existence of the mania described by these two
philosophers than a critical judgment and a pure
taste for beauty, which again therefore are the sole
protection against low and degrading connexions.
A just sense of this truth will give high encour-
agement te culpture and painting-arts which may
everywhere be looked upon as the best tests, as
D

SO
URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION
Fell as the best records, of civilization. Such en-
couragement they need in truth; for the monstrous
inonopoly of landed property and the accumulation
of wealth in few hands—the great aim of our po-
litical economy — renders art poor, indeed.
I am aware that the vulgar among artists think
otherwise; from the few rich they obtain employ-
ment; and, like the dog with his master, they look
not beyond the hand that doles out their pittance
But the rich are few; and their palaces are already
filled. A diffusion of wealth alone can give en-
couragement to art; nor can this ever be while
British industry is crushed under the weight of
enormous taxation
Having removed some objections to art, I would
add a few words to artists on the cause of the fine
arts in Greece, from a paper I, two years ago, con-
tributed to a monthly periodical.*
That the mythology of Greece had an influence
over its arts, is generally granted; but I am not
aware, that it has either been shown to be exclu-
sively their cause, or that its mode of operation has
ever been explained.
Religion, I may observe, is as natural to man as
his weakness and helplessness. There is not one
of its systems, not even the vilest, which has not
afforded him consolation. Of its higher and better
systems, some are equally admirable for the grand-
eur and the beauty of the truths on which they are
*
633.
The Magazine of The Fine Arts,” No. VI, for

AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY.
31
founded, the simplicity and the elegance of their
ostensible forms, the power and applicability of
their symbols, and their sympathy with, and control
over, the affections and the imagination.
These high characteristics peculiarly distinguish-
ed the religion of ancient Greece.
By bigots, we are indeed told, that, though Ho-
mer is our model in epic, Anacreon in lyric, and
Æschylus in dramatic poetry—though the music
of Greece doubtless corresponded to its poetry in
beauty, pathos, and grandeur - though the mere
wreck of her sculpture is never overlooked in
sight of her ruined Parthenon is more than a re-
ward for the fatigue or the peril of a journey to the
Eternal city — though these products of art are the
test of the highest civilization which the world has
witnessed — though to these chiefly Rome owed the
little civilization of which she was capable, and we
ourselves the circumstance that, at this hour, we
are not, like our ancestors, covered only with blue
paint or the skins of brutes — though all this is true
as to the arts of Greece, we are told that, by the
strangest exception, the religion of Greece was a
base superstition.
That religion, however, was the creator of these
arts. They not only could not have existed with-
out it, but they probably could never have been
called into existence by any other religion.
The personification of simple Beauty, Valor,
Wisdom, or Omnipotence, in Venus, Mars, Miner-
va, or Jupiter, respectively, was essential to the

32
URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION
purity and the power of expression of these attri-
butes in the worship of the deities to whom they
respectively belonged. The union of absolute
beauty and valor in one being, is not more impos-
sible than their union in one expression of homage
and admiration. Delicacy, elegance, and grace,
were as characteristic of the statue, the worship,
and the temple, of the goddess of beauty, as attri-
butes nearly opposite to these were of the statue,
the worship, and the temple, of the god of war.
Thus, were the fine arts in Greece created by the
personification of simple attributes or virtues as
objects of adoration ; and thus is excellence in
these fine arts incapable of being elicited by any
system of religion in which more than one attribute
is ascribed to the god.
They must be ignorant, indeed, of the wonderful
people of whom I now speak, who allege, that the
Greeks worshipped the mere statue of the god and
not the personified virtue. Even the history of
their religion proves the reverse. It was the tomb
which became the altar, and retained nearly its
form. It was the expression of love, of regret,
and of veneration for departed virtue, which be-
came divine adoration; and, as individual acts and
even individual names were ultimately lost in one
transcendent attribute, so were individual forms and
features, in its purified and ideal representation.
Here, then, instead of finding the worship of men
or of their representations, we discover a gradual
advance from beings to attributes — from mortal
man to eternal virtue — and a corresponding and

AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY.
33
suitable advance from simple veneration to divine
adoration.
When, in great emergencies of the state, the
sages and the soldiers of Athens, in solemn pro-
cession repaired to the temple of Minerva, turned
their faces toward the statue of the goddess, and
prostrated themselves in spirit before her— let the
beautiful history of Grecian science tell, whether
in the statue they worshipped the mere marble
structure, or, in its forms and attributes, beheld
and adored a personification of eternal truth and
wisdom, and so prepared the mind for deeds which
have rendered Greece for ever illustrious. Or,
when returning from a Marathon, or a Salamis, the
warriors of Athens, followed by trains of maidens,
and matrons, and old men, returned thanks to the
god of victories — let the immortal record of the
jong series of glorious achievements which suc
ceeded these, tell, whether gratitude to their heroes
was not there identified with homage to the spirit
or the divinity that inspired them.
True it is, that, whenever physical or moral prin.
ciples are personified, the ignorant may be led to
mistake the sign for that which is signified; but
one of the most admirable characteristics of the
external form may be traced to the spirit which it
represents, and every fable may be resolved into a
beautiful illustration of physical or moral truth
So that when mystic influences, with increasing
knowledge, ceased to sway the imagination, all
powerful truths directed the reason.

34
URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION, ETC.
The natural and poetical religion of Greece,
cherefore, differed from false and vulgar religions
in this, that it was calculated to hold equal empire
over the minds of the ignorant and the wise; and
the initiations of Eleusis were apparently the
solemn acts by which the youths and maidens of
Greece passed from ignorance and blind obedience
to knowledge and enlightened zeal. Thus, in that
happy region, neither were the priests knaves, nor
the people their dupes.*
And what has been the result of this fundamental
excellence?— that no interpolated fooleries have
been able to destroy it ; — that the religion of
Greece exists, and must ever exist, the religion of
wature, genius, and taste; - and that neither poetry
nor the arts can have being without it. Schiller has
well expressed this truth in the following lines:-
« The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,
The power, the beauty, and the majesty,
That had their haunts in dale, or piny mountains,
Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring,
Or chasms, and watery depths — all these have vanished;
They live no longer in the faith of reason;
But still the heart doth need a language; still
Doth the old instinct bring back the old names;
* And even at this day,
'Tis Jupiter who brings whate'er is great,
And Venus who brings everything that's fair.”
* I am not here called upon to vindicate the errors and absurdi
sies which poets and others introduced into mythology
† Appendix A.

CHAPTER III
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
in relation to early sexual association, it cannot
be doubted, that, when the instinct of reproduction
begins to be developed, the reserve which parents,
relatives, and instructers, adopt on this subject, is
often the means of producing injurious effects;
because, a system of concealment on this subject,
as observed in the preceding chapter, is quite im-
practicable. Discoveries made by young persons
in obscene books, the unguarded language or
shameless conduct of grown-up persons, even the
wild flights of an imagination which is then easily
excited, will have the most fatal consequences.
Parents or instructers ought, therefore, at that
critical period, to give rational explanations as to
the nature and the object of the propensity, the
mechanism of reproduction in various vegetable
and animal beings, and the fatal consequences to
which this propensity may lead. Such procedure,
if well conducted, cannot but have the most bene-
ficial results; because, in order that a sane person
should avoid any danger, it is only necessary that
he should see it distinctly.

36
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH
The advantage, it has been observed, which the
parent, relative, or instructer, derives, from himself
in forming the adolescent in the new faculty which
is developed in him, is to prevent his choosing,
among corrupt servants or ignorant youths of his
own age, the confidants of his passion The parent
or instructer, moreover, is then justly entitled to,
and has gratefully given to him, the entire confi-
dence of the adolescent; and he is thereby enabled
exactly to appreciate the degree of power of the
propensity which he desires to divert or to guide.
Such being the case, it is the business of the
parent to present a true picture of the effects of
too early association of this kind, on the stature,
the various development of the figure, the muscular
power, the quality of the voice, the health, the moral
sense, and especially on the acuteness, the power,
the dignity, and the courage, of the mind.
In doing this, it would be as stupid as injurious
to employ the slightest degree of false representa-
tion, of unjust reprimand, or too much of what is
called moralizing, which is often only the con-
temptible cant of a being who cannot reason,
especially when it takes the place of a simple and
powerful statement of facts. All of these would
only render the young man a dissembler, and would
compel him to choose another confidant,
Among other considerations, varying according
to the circumstances of the case, those stated be-
low may with advantage be presented.
At a certain period in the life both of plants and
animals, varying according to their kind and the

CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
37
climate they live in, they are fit for and disposed
to the reproduction of their species. The sexes in
both are then attracted to each other. In plants,
the powder termed pollen, in animals a peculiar
liquid which, deriving its name by analogy from
the seeds of plants, is termed seminal, is secreted
by the male plant or animal, and, by organs differ-
ently formed in each kind, is cast upon ova or eggs
either contained within, or deposited by, the female.
The details of this process are among the most
beautiful and interesting of the living economy.
In mankind, the attainment of this period is termed
puberty.
It is with this critical period, and his conduct
during it, that all that the youth deems most valu-
able, all that can decide his fortunes and his happi-
ness in the world, his stature, figure, strength, voice,
health, and mental powers, are most intimately
connected.
In regard to stature, the body appears to com
plete its increase in height chiefly at the age of
puberty, and during the first years which succeed
that age. To be assured of the powerful influence
of his own conduct, at this period, upon his staiure,
the youth has only to compare the tall men and
women of the country as in Yorkshire, Lancashire,
Westmoreland, Cumberland, and the Scottish bor.
ders, where they have not been overworked, with
the stunted and dwarfed creatures of the metropolis,
where a stranger, when he first enters it, is apt to
think he sees so many ugly boys and girls, wherea
as, they are full-grown London men and women

38
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
Half the population of the metropolis is affected in
this way; and it is the obvious consequence of the
acceleration of puberty by confinement, stimulating
food, indecent plays, and sexual association.
In regard to the perfect development and beauty
of the figure, the youth is probably aware that the
most beautiful races of horses and dogs rapidly
deteriorate, if men do not carefully maintain them
by continence as well as by crossing. The too
early employment, the depraved abuses, the injury,
or the removal, of the sexual organs, are all of
them causes still more certain of deformity. The
latter of these causes acts, of course, most obvi-
ously; and it is evidenced in the almost universal
malformation of eunuchs, geldings, &c.
That, in regard to bodily strength, sexual conti-
nence adds energy to the muscular fibre, is clearly
seen by observing the most ardent quadrupeds pre-
vious to the time of the union of their sexes. But,
this being past, precisely in the same proportion
does the act of reproduction debilitate and break
down the strongest animal. Many male animals
even fall almost exhausted by a single act of union
with the opposite sex.
Every classical student has read the beautiful
allegory of Hercules, who, having spun at the knees
of Omphale (oudalòs the navel, here put for the
most essential part of the female generative organ),
thereby lost his strength: this beautifully expresses
the abasement of power amid the indulgences of
love. Euripides also depicts the terrible Achilles
as timid before women, and respectful with Cly

CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
39
temnestra and Iphigenia. Hence, when a foolish
lord reproached the poet Dryden with having given
too much timidity toward women to a personage in
one of his tragedies, and added that he knew better
how to employ his time with the ladies, the poet
answered: “You now acknowledge that you are
no hero, which I intended that personage to be.”
As to voice, which depends on the muscles of
respiration, and more immediately on those of the
mouth and throat, as general strength does on the
muscles of the whole body, both merely affording
expressions of the mind, the influence of the sexual
union upon it is prodigious. How entirely it is
altered by the removal of the testes in eunuchs is
known to every one: in corresponding proportion,
is it altered by every act of the generative organs,
but especially by sexual indulgence during puberty
The horrible voice of early libertines and prosti-
tutes presents an alarming example of this. To
those who value voice in conversation, in the de-
lightful and humanizing exercise of music, or in
the grander efforts of public speaking, nothing
more need be said.
As to health, the less we are prodigal of life, the
longer we preserve it. Every one capable of ob-
serving may see that the stag loses his horns and
his hair after procreation; that birds fall into
moulting and sadness; and that male insects even
perish after this effort, as if they yielded their in-
dividual life to their progeny. Indeed, everything
perishes so much the more readily, as it has thus
DEBT

40
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
transmitted life to its descendants, or has cast it
away in vain pleasures.
In mankind, as in other animals, to procreate is
in effect to die to one's self, and to leave one's
life to posterity; especially, if this takes place in
early life. It is then that man becomes bald and
bent; and that the charms of woman fade. Even
in advanced age, epicures are so well aware of
this, that they are known to abstain from amorous
excess, as the acknowledged cause of premature
death.
In relation to mind --- as the generative power is
the source of several characteristics of genius, the
exhaustion of that power at an early age must take
away these characteristics. Genius as surely lan-
guishes and is extinguished amid early sexual in-
dulgence, as do the faculties of voice and locomo-
tion, which are merely its signs and expressions.
It is thus with all our faculties, locomotive, vital,
mental, at an early age. They are strengthened
by all that they do not dissipate ; and that which
their organs too abundantly dispense is not only
taken immediately from their own power, and me-
diately from that of the other organs, but it ensures
the permanent debility of the whole.
It is true that the strong passions which are
modified or characterized by the sexual impulse,
excite the imagination and impel the mind to sub-
lime exertions; but the sole means of either ob-
taining or preserving such impulsion is, to shun the
indulgence of pleasure in early life, and its waste
at later periods.

CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
It has accordingly been observed, that the pas-
sion of love appears to be most excessive in ani-
mals which least excel in mental faculties. Thus
the beasts which are the most lascivious, the ass,
the boar, &c., are also the most stupid; and idiots
and cretins display a sensuality which brutifies
them still more. Hence, the Hometic fable that
Circe transformed men into beasts.
It would also appear that the most stupid ani-
mals, swine, rabbits, &c., in general produce the
greatest number of young; while men of genius
have engendered the fewest. It is remarked that
none of the greatest men of antiquity were much
given to sexual pleasure.
It is, then, of the greatest importance to young
men who are ambitious of excellence, to mark well
this truth, that the most powerful and distinguished
in mental faculties, other things being equal, will
be he who wastes them least in early life by sexual
indulgence — who most economizes the vital stim-
ulant, in order to excite the mental powers on
great occasions. By such means may a man sure-
ly surpass others, if he have received from his
parents proportional mental energy.
Beside the means already indicated, there is one
proposed by an able writer, as serving to divert the
instinct of propagation when too early and exces-
timent of love. To employ this means, he observes,
“it is necessary to search early, after knowing the
character of the adolescent whom it is wished to
direct, for a young woman whose beauty and go!

CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
qualities may inspire him with attachment. This
means will serve, more than can easily be imagined,
to preserve the adolescent both from the grosser
attractions of libertinism and the disease it entails,
and from the more dangerous snares of coquetry. It
is,” he adds, “a virtuous young woman and a solid
attachment that are here spoken of.” — At some
future period I shall probably show how wise this
recommendation is, as well as the necessity and
the advantages of early marriages, under favorable
circumstances.
Having now shown the evils of early sexual
association, I may briefly notice those of later lib-
ertinism.
If, even in more advanced life, and when the
constitution is stronger, the instinct of propaga-
tion be not restrained within just limits, it degen-
erates into inordinate lewdness or real mania •
“Repperit obscenas veneres vitiosa libido.” By
such depravation, nobleness of character is utterly
destroyed.
This scarcely evitable consequence of great for-
tune and of the facility of indulgence, it has been
justly observed, will ever be the ruin of the rich,
and a mode of enervating the most v.gorous branch-
es of the most powerful house.
The libertine, then, owing to exhaustion, by sex-
ual indulgence, is characterized by physical and
moral impotence, or has a brain as incapable of
thinking, as his muscles are of acting.
As libertines are enfeebled by indulgence, it fol.
ows that they are proportionally distinguished hv

CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
43
fear and cowardice. Nothing, indeed, destroys
courage more than sexual abuses.
But, from cowardice, spring cunning, duplicity,
lying, and perfidy. These common results of cow
ardice are uniformly found in eunuchs, slaves,
courtiers, and sycophants; while boldness, frank-
ness, and generosity, belong to virtuous, free, and
magnanimous men.
Again, cowardice, artifice, falsehood, and perfidy,
are the usual elements of cruelty. Men feel more
wounded in self-love, as they are conscious of be-
ing more contemptible; and they avenge them-
selves with more malignity upon their enemy, as
they find themselves more weak and worthless, and
as they consequently dread him more.
These are the causes of that malignant revenge
which princes have often shown, as, in ancient
times, Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Helio-
gabalus, &c. In later times, Catharine de Medici
solicited the massacre of the Protestants; Paul,
Constantine, and Nicholas, of Russia, were happy
only when they wallowed in blood ; Charles X.,
equally effeminate and bigoted, perpetrated the
massacre of the Parisians; Don Miguel covered
Portugal with his assassinations; and nearly all
the sovereigns and sycophants in Europe upheld or
palliated his atrocities.*
The strong and brave man, on the contrary,
scarcely feels hurt, and scorns revenge.
It is not cruelty only with which we may re-
* George IV., though the first gentleman” in England, was
guilty of cheating at a horserace.-ED. -

44
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
proach these effeminate individuals: it is every vice
which springs from baseness of character.
Libertinism, moreover, is not hurtful only to the
health and welfare of these individuals: it is so
also to those of their posterity.
Finally, the results of libertinism have constantly
marked, not merely the ruin of families, but the
degeneration of races, and the decay of empires.
The delights of Capua caused the ruin of Hannibal;
and the Roman, once so proud before kings, finally
transformed himself into the wretched slave of
monsters degraded far below the rank of humanity.
So little, however, do men look to remote con-
sequences that perhaps the most frightful punish-
ments of libertinism are the diseases which it in-
flicts. Man may, then, be said to meet only death
on the path of life.
The dangers of promiscuous love are, indeed, far
beyond what young men will easily believe. I do
not exaggerate when I state, that, out of every
three women, and those the least common of the
promiscuous, two at least are certainly in a state of
disease capable of the most destructive infection.
A surgeon in the habit of receiving foul patients at
a public hospital tells me, I might safely say that
nine out of every ten are in this state.*
While writing this, Sir Anthony Carlisle observes
to me, that, “the special disease which appears to
be a punishment for sexual profligacy, is not only
malignant, painful, and hideous, in every stage of
* The above remark is true of the same class of females in - ames
country.--ED.

CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH.
45
rt, but the only remedy known for its cure, mercu-
ry, is a poison which generally leaves its own evils
for the venom which it destroys. This frightful
disease has no natural termination but in a disgust-
ing disgraceful death, after disfiguring the counte-
nance, by causing blindness, loss of the nose, the
palate and teeth, and by the spoliation of the sin
ning organs. The miserables, who thus perish in
public hospitals, are so offensive to the more re-
spectable patients, that they are confined to ap-
pointed rooms, termed foul wards, where they
linger and die in the bloom of life, either of the
penalty inflicted by their profligacy, of the poison
administered to them, or of incurable consequent
diseases, such as consumption, palsy, or madness."
Hence, it has been observed, that, if we have to
deal with a young man incapable of guidance by
the nobler motives, of feeling contempt for vice,
and horror for debauchery, there yet remain means
to be employed. Let him be conducted to the hos-
pital, where he will find collected the poor victims
of debauchery—the unhappy women whom, even
the day before, he may have seen in the streets,
with faces dressed in smiles, amid the torments,
the corrosion, and the contagion of disease. This
may leave an impression sufficiently deep. But let
him also know that these unhappy creatures are a
thousand times more pitiable than the libertine who
destroys them, and who forfeits the only good we
cannot refuse to other wretches, compassion for
the misery he endures.*
* Appendix B.

45
NATURE OF BEAUTY.
CHAPTER IV.
NATURE OF BEAUTY.
In this chapter, my aim is to show that there is
more than one kind of beauty, and that much con-
fusion has arisen among writers, from not clearly
distinguishing the characteristics of these kinds.
An essential condition, then, of all excitement
and action in animal bodies, is a greater or less de-
gree of novelty in the objects impressing them -
even if this novelty should arise only from a previ-
ous cessation of excitement.
Now, objects of greater or less novelty are the
causes of excitement, pleasurable or painful, by
means of their various relations.
The lowest degree of bodily pleasure (though,
owing to its constancy, immense in its total
amount) is that which arises, during health, from
those relations of bodies and that excitement which
cause the mere local exercise of the organs--a
source of pleasure which is seldom the object of
our voluntary attention, but which seems to me to
be the chief cause of attachment to life amid its
more definite and conspicuous evils.
All higher mental emotions consist of pleasure
or pain superadded to more or less definite ideas.

NATURE OF BEAUTY.
47
Pleasurable emotions arise from the agreeable re-
lations of things; painful emotions, from the dis-
agreeable ones.
The term by which we express the influence
which objects, by means of their relations, possess
of exciting emotions of pleasure in the mind, is
BEAUTY.
Beauty, when founded on the relations of objects,
or of the parts of objects, to each other, forms a
first class, and may be termed intrinsic beauty.
When beauty is farther considered in relation to
ourselves, it forms a second class, and may be
termed extrinsic beauty.
We are next led (hitherto this has apparently
been done without analyzing or defining the opera-
tion) to a division of the latter into two genera;
namely, the minor beauty, of which prettiness, deli-
cacy, &c., are modifications, and that which is call-
ed grandeur or sublimity.
The characters of the minor beauty or pretti-
ness, with relation to ourselves, are smallness, sub-
ordination, and subjection. Hence female beauty,
in relation to the male.
The characters of grandeur or sublimity, with
relation to ourselves, are greatness, superordina-
tion, and power. Hence male beauty, in relation
to the female,
By the preceding brief train of analysis and
definition, is, I believe, answered the question --
“whether the emotion of grandeur make a branch
of the emotion of beauty, or be entirely distinct
from it."

48
NATURE OF BEAUTY.
Having, by this concise statement of my own
views on these subjects, made the reader acquaint
ed with some of the materials of future consider-
ation here employed, I may now examine the opin-
ions of some philosophers, in order to see how far
they accord with these first principles, and what
answer can be given to them where they differ.
That beauty, generally considered, has nothing to
do with particular size, is very well shown by Payne
Knight, who, though he argues incorrectly about
it in many other respects, here truly says: “All
degrees of magnitude contribute to beauty in pro-
portion as they show objects to be perfect in their
kind. The dimensions of a beautiful horse are
very different from those of a beautiful lapdog :
and those of a beautiful oak from those of a beau-
tiful myrtle ; because, nature has formed these dif
ferent kinds of animals and vegetables upon differ-
ent scales.
“The notion of objects being rendered beautiful
by being gradually diminished, or tapered, is equally
unfounded; for the same object, which is small by
degrees, and beautifully less, when seen in one di-
rection, is large by degrees, and beautifully bigger,
when seen in another. The stems of trees are ta-
pered upward; and the columns of Grecian archi-
tecture, having been taken from them, and therefore
retaining a degree of analogy with them, were ta-
pered upward too: but the legs of animals are ta-
pered downward, and the inverted obelisks, upon
which busts were placed, having a similar analogy
to them, were tapered downward also ; while pilas-

NATURE OF BEAUTY.
49
ters, which had no analogy with either, but were
mere square posts terminating a wall, never tapered
at all.”
the distinctions I have made above, Burke, on the
contrary, states the first quality of beauty to be
comparative smallness, and says: “In ordinary
conversation, it is usual to add the endearing name
of little to everything we love ;” and “ in most lan-
guages, the objects of love are spoken of under
diminutive epithets.”
This is evidently true only of the objects of mi-
nor or subordinate beauty, which Burke confusedly
thought the only kind of it, though he elsewhere
grants, that beauty may be connected with sublim-
ity! It shows, however, that relative littleness is
essential to that first kind of beauty.
With greater knowledge of facts than Burke
possessed, and with as feeble reasoning powers, but
with less taste, and with a perverse whimsicality
which was all his own, Payne Knight similarly,
making no distinction in beauty, considered small-
ness as an accidental association, failed to see that
it characterized a kind of beauty, and argued, that
“if we join the diminutive to a term which pre-
cludes all such affection, or does not even, in some
degree, express it, it immediately converts it into a
term of contempt and reproach: thus, a bantling,
a fondling, a darling, &c., are terms of endearment;
but a witling, a changeling, a lordling, &c., are in-
variably terms of scorn: so in French, 'mon peti.
enfant,'s an expression of endearment; but 'mon

50
NATURE OF BEAUTY.
petit monsieur,' is an expression of the most pointed
reproach and contempt.”
Now, this chatter of grammatical termination and
French phrase, though meant to look vastly clever,
is merely a blunder. There is no analogy in the
cases compared : a “darling” or little dear unites
dear, an expression of love, with little, implying
that dependance which enhances love; while “wit-
ling” or little wit unites wit, an expression of tal-
ent, with little, meaning the small quantity or ab-
sence of the talent alluded to; and it is because
the latter term means, not physical littleness, which
well associates with love, but moral littleness and
mental degradation, that it becomes a term of con-
tempt.
Even from the little already said, it seems evident
that much of the confusion on this subject has arisen
from not distinguishing the two genera of beauty,
and not seeing that “the emotion of grandeur” is
merely “a branch of the emotion of beauty.”
The other genus of beauty, grand or sublime
beauty, is well described by the names given to it,
grandeur or sublimity. Some have considered sub-
limity as expressing grandeur in the highest degree:
it would perhaps be as well to express the cause of
the emotion by grandeur, and the emotion itself by
sublimity.
Nothing is sublime that is not vast or powerful,
or that does not make him who feels it sensible of
its physical or moral superiority.
The simplest cause of sublimity is presented by
all objects of vast magnitude or extent-a seem

NATURE OF BEAUTY.
51
ingly boundless plain, the sky, the ocean, &c.; and
the particular direction of the magnitude or extent
always correspondingly modifies the emotion-
height giving more especially the idea of power,
breadth of resistance, depth of danger, &c. Of the
objects mentioned above, the ocean is the most
sublime, because, to vastness in length and breadth,
it adds depth, and a force perpetually active.
Now, that these objects, though sublime, are
beautiful, is very evident; and it is therefore also
evident how much Burke erred in asserting com-
parative smallness to be the first character of beauty
generally considered. This and similar errors, as
already said, have greatly obscured this subject, and
have led Burke and others so to modify and qualify
their doctrines, as to take from them all precision
and certainty.
Hence, in one place, Burke says: “As, in the
animal world, and in a good measure in the vege-
table world likewise, the qualities that constitute
beauty may possibly be united to things of greater
dimensions [that is, littleness may be united with
a species something different both from the sublime
and beautiful, which I have before called, Fine."
So also he says: “Ugliness I imagine likewise to
be consistent enough with an idea of the sublime.
But I would by no means insinuate that ugliness of
itself is a sublime idea, unless united with such
qualities as excite a strong terror.”
Here, he confounds sublimity with terror, as do
Blair and other writers, when they say that “exact

52
NATURE OF BEAUTY.
proportion of parts, though it enters often into the
beautiful, is much disregarded in the sublime.”. It
is a fact, that exactly in proportion as ugliness is
substituted for beauty in vast objects, is sublimity
taken away, until at last it is utterly lost in the
terrible.
Even Blair shows that sublimity may exist with-
out terror or pain. “The proper sensation of sub-
limity appears,” he observes, “ to be distinguishable
from the sensation of either of these, and, on sev-
eral occasions, to be entirely separated from them.
In many grand objects, there is no coincidence with
terror at all; as in the magnificent prospect of wide-
extended plains, and of the starry firmament; or in
the moral dispositions and sentiments, which we
view with high admiration ; and in many painful and
terrible objects also, it is clear, there is no sort of
grandeur. The amputation of a limb, or the bite
of a snake, is exceedingly terrible, but is destitute
of all claim whatever to sublimity.”
Payne Knight shows that terror is even opposed
to sublimity : “All the great and terrible convul-
sions of nature; such as storms, tempests, hurri-
canes, earthquakes, volcanoes, &c., excite sublime
ideas, and impress sublime sentiments by the pro-
digious exertions of energy and power which they
seem to display: for though these objects are, in
their nature, terrible, and generally known to be so,
it is not this attribute of terror that contributes, in
the smallest degree to render them sublime....
Timid women fly to a cellar, or a darkened room
to avoid the sublime effects of a thunder-storm

NATURE OF BEAUTY.
53
because to them they are not sublime, but te. rible.
To those only are they sublime, 'qui formidina
nulla imbuti spectant,' who behold them without any
fear at all; and to whom, therefore, they are in no
degree terrible.”
This farther confirms the distinction which I
made of beauty into minor or subordinate, and
grand or sublime beauty, although Knight adopted
other principles, if principles they may be called,
and neglected such distinction.
There is but one other error on this subject
which I need to notice. Burke says: “To make
anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general
to be necessary. When we know the full extent
of any danger, when we can accustom our eyes
to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes.
Every one will be sensible of this, who considers
how greatly night adds to our dread, in all cases
of danger. . . Those despotic governments which
are founded on the passions of men, and principally
upon the passion of fear, keep their chief as much
as may be from the public eye. The policy has
been the same in many cases of religion. Almost
all the heathen temples were dark”
From what has already been said, it is evident
that all this contributes to terror, not to sublimity;
and that the same error is made by Blair when
he says, “As obscurity, so disorder, too, is very
compatible with grandeur, nay, frequently height-
ens it."
To expose the weakness and to destroy the au.
thority of some writers on this subject, can only

54
NATURE OF BEAUTY.
set the mind free for the investigation of truth. I
may, therefore, conclude this chapter by quoting
the shrewd remarks of Knight on some of the
principles of Burke. I shall afterwaru be forced
critically to examine the notions of Knight in their
turn.
Burke states that the highest degree of sublime
sensation is astonishment; and the subordinate
degrees, awe, reverence, and respect; all which
he considers as modes of terror. And Knight
observes that this graduated scale of the sublime,
from respect to astonishment, cannot, perhaps be
better illustrated than by applying it to his own
character.
“He was certainly,” says Knight, “a very re-
spectable man, and reverenced by all who knew
him intimately. At one period of his life, too,
when he became the disinterested patron of remote
and injured nations, who had none to help them,
his character was truly sublime; but, uness upon
those whom he so ably and eloquently arraigned, I
do not believe that it impressed any awe. ...
If, during this period, he had suddenly appeared
among the managers in Westminster Hall without
his wig and coat, or had walked up St. James's
street without his breeches, it would have occa-
sioned great and universal astonishment; and if
he had, at the same time, carried a loaded blunder-
buss in his hands, the astonishment would have
been mixed with no small portion of terror: but I
do not believe that the united effects of these two
powerful passions would have produced any senti.

NATURE OF BEAUTY.
ment or sensation approaching to sublime, even in
the breasts of those who had the strongest sense
of self-preservation and the quickest sensibility of
danger."
Thus, I believe, it now appears that novelty* is
the exciting cause of pleasurable emotion, and of
the consequent perception of beauty in the rela-
tions of things, and that the two genera of beauty
— the minor or subordinate beauty, and grandeur
or sublimity — have distinct characteristics, the
confounding of which by writers has led to the
obscurity of this part of the subject.
* Arnardix c.

56
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
CHAPTER V.
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY
The expression, “ standard of taste," is used to
signify the basis or foundation of our judgments
respecting beauty and deformity, and their conse-
quent certainty.
Setting aside such objection as might be raised
to a standard of taste on the doctrine of Berkeley
(which I refuted in 1809, and which I need not
enter into here), this matter was long ago settled
by David Hume; and I have nothing new to say
upon the subject (there is probably enough of nov-
elty in other chapters, whatever its worth may be),
except that Burke appears to have borrowed all he
knew about it from that incomparably more pro-
found philosopher.
As I ought not, however, to omit here a view
of the subject, I cannot do better than transcribe
the words of Hume and Burke respectively. While
this will put the reader in possession of all that I
think necessary upon this subject, it will farther
tend to show in what Burke's ability as a philoso.
pher consisted.
I must first, however, observe that the word
"taste," as expressing our judgment of beauty, is

STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
57
a metaphor whimsically borrowed from the lowest
of our senses, and is applied to our exercise of that
faculty, as regards both natural objects, and the
fine arts which imitate these.
It is not wonderful that the variety and incon-
stancy of tastes respecting the attributes and the
characters of beauty, should have led many philos-
ophers to deny that there exist any certain combi-
nations of forms and of effects to which the term
beauty ought to be invariably attached.
In his “Philosophical Dictionary,” Voltaire, after
quoting some nonsense from the crazy dreamer
who did so much injury to Greek philosophy,
says: “I am willing to believe that nothing can
be more beautiful than this discourse of Plato;
but it does not give us very clear ideas of the
nature of the beautiful. Ask of a toad what is
beauty, pure beauty, the to kalov; he will answer
you that it is his female, with two large round eyes
projecting from her little head, a large and flat
throat, a yellow belly, and a brown back. Ask the
devil, and he will tell you that the beautiful is a
pair of horns, four claws, and a tail. Consult,
lastly, the philosophers, and they will answer you
by rigmarole: they want something conformable
to the archetype of the beautiful in essence, to the
to kalov." This is wit, not reason : let us look
for that to a deeper thinker — as proposed above.
David Hume says: “It appears that, amid all
the variety and caprice of taste, there are certain
general principles of approbation or blame, whose
influence a careful eye may trace in all operations

58 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
of the mind. Some particular forms or qualities
from the original structure of the internal fabric,
are calculated to please, and others to displease.
... If they fail of their effect in any particular
instance, it is from some apparent defect or imper.
fection in the organ.
"In each creature there is a sound and a de.
fective state; and the former alone can be sup-
posed to afford us a true standard of taste and sen-
timent. If, in the sound state of the organ, there
be an entire or a considerable uniformity of senti-
ment among men, we may thence derive an idea
of the perfect beauty ; in like manner as the ap-
pearance of objects in daylight, to the eye of a
man in health, is denominated their true and real
color,”
To the same purpose writes Burke, after some
preliminary observations:-
“All the natural powers in man, which I know,
that are conversant about external objects, are the
senses, the imagination, and the judgment.
“First, with regard to the senses. We do and
we must suppose, that, as the conformations of their
organs are nearly or altogether the same in all men,
so the manner of perceiving external objects is in
all men the same, or with little difference.
“As there will be little doubt that bodies present
similar images to the whole species, it must neces-
sarily be allowed, that the pleasures and the pains
which every object excites in one man, it must
raise in all mankind, while it operates naturally,
simply, and by its proper powers only

STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
59
“Custom, and some other causes, have made
many deviations from the natural pleasures or
pains which belong to these several tastes; but
then the power of distinguishing between the
natural and the acquired relish remains to the
very last.
“There is in all men a sufficient remembrance
of the original natural causes of pleasure, to enable
them to bring all things offered to their senses to
that standard, and to regulate their feelings and
opinions by it.
“Suppose one who had so vitiated his palate as
to take more pleasure in the taste of opium than
in that of butter or honey, to be presented with a
bolus of squills; there is hardly any doubt but that
he would prefer the butter or honey to this nause-
ous morsel, or to any other bitter drug to which
he had not been accustomed; which proves that
his palate was naturally like that of other men in
all things, that it is still like the palate of other
men in many things, and only vitiated in some
particular points."
In the same manner, Payne Knight observes that
“things, naturally the most nauseous, become most
grateful; and things, naturally most grateful, most
insipid.
“ This extreme effect, however, only takes place
where the palate has become morbid and vitiated
by continued, and even forced gratification ; and
even when the metaphors taken from this sense,
and employed to express intellectual qualities, show
that it is always felt and considered as a corruption,

60
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
even by those who are most corrupted: for though
there are many who prefer port wine to malmsey,
and tobacco to sugar, yet no one ever spoke of a
sour or bitter temper as pleasant, or of a sweet one
as unpleasant.” By this concession, Knight an-
swers several of his own objections.
“When it is said,” farther observes Burke, very
properly, “taste cannot be disputed, it can only
mean, that no one can strictly answer what pleasure
or pain some particular man may find from the taste
of some particular thing. This indeed cannot be
disputed; but we may dispute, and with sufficient
clearness too, concerning the things which are
naturally pleasing or disagreeable to the sense.
But when we talk of any peculiar or acquired rel-
ish, then we must know the habits, the prejudices,
or the distempers of this particular man, and we
must draw our conclusions from those.”
Hume proceeds to a second point, by observing
that “one obvious cause, why many feel not the
· proper sentiment of beauty, is the want of that
delicacy of imagination which is requisite to con-
vey a sensibility of those finer emotions.
“Where the organs are so fine, as to allow noth-
ing to escape them, and at the same time so exact,
as to perceive every ingredient in the composition;
this we call delicacy of taste, whether we employ
these terms in the literal or metaphorical sense.”
Burke enlarges on this, after preliminary obser-
ving that “the power of the imagination is incapable
of producing anything absolutely new; it can only
vary the disposition of those ideas which it has

STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
61
received from the senses. Now, the imagination
is the most extensive province of pleasure and pain,
as it is the region of our fears and our hopes, and
of all our passions that are connected with them.
“Since the imagination is only the representation
of the senses, it can only be pleased or displeased
with the images, from the same principle on which
the sense is pleased or displeased with the realities,
and consequently there must be just as close an
agreement in the imaginations as in the senses of
men.
“There are some men formed with feelings so
blunt, with tempers so cold and phlegmatic, that
they can hardly be said to be awake during the
whole course of their lives. Upon such persons
the most striking objects make but a faint ang
obscure impression. There are others so continu-
ally in the agitation of gross and merely sensual
pleasures, or so occupied in the low drudgery of
avarice, or so heated in the chase of honors and
distinction, that their minds, which had been used
continually to the storms of these violent and tem-
pestuous passions, can hardly be put in motion by
the delicate and refined play of the imagination.
These men, though from a different cause, become
as stupid and insensible as the former; but when-
ever either of these happen to be struck with any
natural elegance or greatness, or with these qualities
in any work of art, they are moved upon the same
principle.”
On a third point, Hume says: “But though there
be naturally a wide difference in point of delicacy

62
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
between one person and another, nothing tends
farther to increase and improve this talent, than
practice in a particular art, and the frequent survey
or contemplation of a particular species of beauty.
“So advantageous is practice to the discernment
of beauty, that, before we can give judgment on
any work of importance, it will even be requisite
that that very individual performance be more than
once perused by us, and be surveyed in different
lights with attention and deliberation.”
This is well illustrated by Burke, who observes:
“It is known that the taste (whatever it is) is im-
proved exactly as we improve our knowledge, by
a steady attention to our object, and by frequent
exercise.
“To illustrate this — (that there is a difference,
not in the causes, nor in the manner of men's being
affected, but in the degree, owing to natural sensi-
bility, or greater attention to the object) — to illus-
trate this by the procedure of the senses in which
the same difference is found, let us suppose a very
smooth marble-table to be set before two men ;
they both perceive it to be smooth, and they are
both pleased with it because of this quality. So
far they agree.
“But suppose another, and after that another
table, the latter still smoother than the former, to
be set before them. It is now very probable that
these men, who are so agreed upon what is smooth,
and in the pleasure thence, will disagree when they
come to settle which table has the advantage in
point of polish .. Nor is it easy, when such a

STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
63
difference arises, to settle the point, if the excess
or diminution be not glaring.
“In these nice cases, supposing the acuteness
of the sense equal, the greater attention and habit
in such things will have the advantage. In the
question about the tables, the marble-polisher will
"In the imagination, beside the pain or pleasure
arising from the properties of the natural object, a
pleasure is perceived from the resemblance which
the imitation has to the original.
“All men are nearly equal in this point, as far
as their knowledge of the things represented or
compared extends.
“The principle of this knowledge is very much
accidental, as it depends upon experience and
observation, and not on the strength or weakness
of any natural faculty; and it is from this differ-
ence in knowledge that what we commonly, though
with no great exactness, call a difference in taste,
proceeds.
“A man to whom sculpture is new sees a barber's
block, or some ordinary piece of statuary; he is
immediately struck and pleased, because he sees
something like a human figure; and entirely taken
up with this likeness, he does not at all attend to
its defects. No person, I believe, at the first time
of seeing a piece of imitation, ever did. Some
time after, we suppose that this novice lights upon
a more artificial work of the same nature ; he be-
gins to look with contempt on what he admired at
first ; not that he admired it even then for its un

64
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
likeness to a man, but for that general though in.
accurate resemblance which it bore to the human
figure. What he admired at different times in these
so different figures, is strictly the same ; and though
his knowledge is improved, his taste is not altered.
Hitherto his mistake was from a want of knowledge
in art, and this arose from his inexperience; but he
may be still deficient, from a want of knowledge in
nature. For it is possible that the man in question
may stop here, and that the masterpiece of a great
hand may please him no more than the middling
performance of a vulgar artist; and this not for
want of better or higher relish, but because all me?
do not observe with sufficient accuracy on the hu-
man figure, to enable them to judge properly of an
imitation of it.”
On other points, Hume makes the following ob-
servations :
“Without being frequently obliged to form com-
parisons between the several species and degrees
of excellence, and estimating their proportion to
each other. ... a man is indeed totally unqualified
to pronounce an opinion with regard to any object
presented to him. By comparison alone, we fix the
epithets of praise or blame, and learn how to assign
the due degree of each.
“But to enable a critic more fully to execute this
undertaking, he must preserve his mind free from
all prejudice and allow nothing to enter into his
ted to his examination.
“It is well known, that, in all questions submitted

STANDARD OF TASTE N BEAUTY.
65
to the understanding, prejudice is destructive of
sound judgment, and perverts all operations of the
intellectual faculties: it is no less contrary to good
taste; nor has it less influence to corrupt our sen.
timents of beauty. It belongs to good sense to check
its influence in both cases; and in this respect, as
well as in many others, reason, if not an essential
part of taste, is at least requisite to the operations
of this latter faculty. In all the nobler productions
of genius, there is a mutual relation and corre-
spondence of parts; nor can either the beauties or
blemishes be perceived by him whose thought is
not capacious enough to comprehend all those parts,
and compare them with each other, in order to
perceive the consistence and uniformity of the
whole. Every work of art has also a certain end
or purpose for which it is calculated; and is to be
deemed more or less perfect, as it is more or less
fitted to attain this end.”
To a repetition of this, Burke adds some useful
remarks :-
“As many of the works of imagination are not
confined to representation of sensible objects, nor
to efforts upon the passions, but extend themselves
to the manners, the characters, the actions, and
designs of men, their relations, their virtues and
vices, they come within the province of the judg-
ment, which is improved by attention and by the
habit of reasoning.
“The cause of a wrong taste is a defect of judg-
ment. And this may arise from a natural weakness
of understanding (in whatever the strength of tha

66
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
faculty may consist), or which is much more com-
monly the case, it may arise from a want of proper
and well-directed exercise, which alone can make
it strong and ready. Beside that ignorance, inat-
tention, prejudice, rashness, levity, obstinacy, in
short, all those passions, and all those vices which
pervert the judgment in other matters, prejudice it
no less in this its more refined and elegant province.
These causes produce different opinions upon every-
thing which is an object of the understanding,
settled principles of reason.
“A rectitude of judgment in the arts, which may
be called a good taste, does in a great measure de-
pend upon sensibility ; because, if the mind has no
bent to the pleasures of the imagination, it will
never apply itself sufficiently to works of that spe-
cies to acquire a competent knowledge in them.
But though a degree of sensibility is requisite to
form a good judgment, yet a good judgment does
not necessarily arise from a quick sensibility of
pleasure ; it frequently happens that a very poor
judge, merely by force of a greater complexional
sensibility, is more affected by a poor piece, than
the best judge by the most perfect; for as every-
thing now, extraordinary, grand, or passionate, is
well calculated to affect such a person, and that the
faults do not affect him, his pleasure is more pure
and unmixed
“In the morning of our days, when the senses
are unworn and tender, when the whole man is
awake in every part, and the gloss of novelty fresh

STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
67
upon all the objects that surround us, how lively at
that time are our sensations, but how false and in
accurate the judgments we form of things!
“Every trivial cause of pleasure is apt to affect
the man of too sanguine a complexion : his appe-
tite is to keen to suffer his taste to be delicate.
... One of this character can never be a refined
judge; never what the comic poet calls “elegans
formarum spectator.'
“ The rude hearer is affected by the principles
which operate in these arts even in their rudest
condition ; and he is not skilful enough to perceive
the defects. But as arts advance toward their
perfection, the science of criticism advances with
equal pace, and the pleasure of judges is frequently
interrupted by the faults which are discovered in
the most finished compositions."
The chief idea above expressed, is again repeat:
ed by Sir J. Reynolds, who says: “The principles
of these (the imagination and the passions) are as
invariable as the former (the senses), and are to be
known and reasoned upon in the same manner, by
an appeal to common sense deciding upon the com-
mnon feelings of mankind.”
These views are thus summed by Hume: “The
organs of internal sensation are seldom so perfect
as to allow the general principles their full play,
and produce a feeling correspondent to those prin-
ciples. They either labor under some defect, or
are vitiated by some disorder; and by that means,
excite a sentiment, which may be pronounced er.
roneous. When the critic has no delicacy, he

68
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
judges without any distinction, and is only affected
by the grosser and more palpable qualities of the
object: the finer touches pass unnoticed and dis-
regarded. Where he is not aided by practice, his
verdict is attended with confusion and hesitation.
Where no comparison has been employed, the
most frivolous beauties, such as rather merit the
name of defects, are the object of his admiration
Where he lies under the influence of prejudice
all his natural sentiments are perverted. Where
good sense is wanting, he is not qualified to dis
cern the beauties of design and reasoning, which
are the highest and most excellent. Under some
or other of these imperfections, the generality of
men labor; and hence, a true judge in the finer
arts is observed, even during the most polished
ages, to be so rare a character: strong sense, uni.
ted to delicate sentiment, improved by practice,
perfected by comparison, and cleared of all preju
dice, can alone entitle critics to this valuable char
acter; and the joint verdict of such, wherever they
are to be found, is the true standard of taste and
beauty.”
Taking the principal ideas above, Burke also
concludes: “On the whole it appears to me, that
what is called taste, in its most general accepta-
tion, is not a simple idea, but is partly made up of
a perception of the primary pleasures of sense, of
the secondary pleasures of the imagination, and of
the conclusions of the reasoning faculty, concern-
ing the various relations of these, and concerning
the human passions, manners, and actions."

STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
“It is sufficient for our present purpose," Hume
farther observes, “if we have proved that the taste
of all individuals is not upon an equal footing, and
that some men in general, however difficult to be
particularly pitched upon, will be acknowledged
by universal sentiment to have a preference above
others.
“Though men of delicate taste be rare, they are
easily to be distinguished in society by the sound-
their faculties above the rest of mankind. The
ascendant which they acquire, gives a prevalence
to that lively approbation, with which they receive
any productions of genius, and renders it generally
predominant. Many men, when left to themselves,
have but a faint and dubious perception of beauty,
which is pointed out to them. Every convert to
the admiration of the real poet or orator, is the
cause of some new conversion. And though preju.
dices may prevail for a time, they never unite in
celebrating any rival to the true genius, but yield
at last to the force of nature and just sentiment.”
Hume finally obviates some apparent difficul-
ties:-
“But notwithstanding all our endeavors to fix a
standard of taste, and reconcile the discordant ap-
prehensions of men, there still remain two sources
of variation, which are not sufficient indeed to con-
found all the boundaries of beauty and deformity,
but will often serve to produce a difference in the
degrees of our approbation or blame. The one is

70
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
the different humors of particular men; the other,
the particular manner and opinions of our age and
country.
“A young man, whose passions are warm, will
be more sensibly touched with amorous and tender
images, than a man more advanced in years, who
takes pleasure in wise, philosophical reflections
concerning the conduct of life and moderation of
the passions. At twenty, Ovid may be the favorite
author; Horace at forty; and perhaps Tacitus at
fifty. Vainly would we, in such cases, endeavor
to enter into the sentiments of others, and divest
to us. We choose our favorite author as we do
our friend, from a conformity of humor and dispo-
sition.
“Such preferences are innocent and unavoidable,
and can never reasonably be the object of dispute,
because there is no standard by which they can be
decided.
“For a like reason, we are more pleased, in the
course of our reading, with pictures and characters
that resemble objects which are found in our own
age or country, than with those which describe a
different set of customs.
“A man of learning and reflection can make
allowance for these peculiarities of manners; but
a common audience can never divest themselves so
far of their usual ideas and sentiments, as to relish
pictures which nowise resemble them.”
Thus I believe the reader has before him a view
sufficiently clear, of that popular topic, the stan

STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY.
រ
dard of taste, as well as of the agreement which
subsists among the best writers on the subject.
In the next chapter, we proceed to a more funda-
mental and difficult inquiry

THE ELEMENTS OF PRAUTU,
CHAPTER VI.
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.*
On the subject of the preceding chapter, even
the reasonings of Hume appear to me to be of too
vague and indefinite a kind. It requires the more
minute scrutiny into which I shall now enter, in
order to place it upon a deeper and more scientific
rial qualities of the objects of nature and art, there
exist elements of beauty equally invariable in them-
selves and in the kind of effect they produce upon
the mind, it is evident there can be no farther dis-
pute about a standard of beauty.
Many attempts have been made to determine the
material elements of beauty, by Hogarth, Home,
and others. All have more or less failed, from not
observing that these elements are modified, varied,
and complicated, as we advance from the most
simple to the most complex class of natural beings,
or of the arts which relate to these respectively.
Many partial views of perfect truth and great in-
* To the reader unaccustomed to inquiries of this kind, it may
save trouble to peruse first the brief Summary of the contents of
this important chapter, beginning in page 120.

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
73
terest have been taken, and by every one of these
it will be my duty here to profit: but, from the
failure just pointed out, no philosophical and sys-
tematic doctrine of beauty, ascending from its ori-
gin in elements through its higher combinations,
has ever been attained by any of the numerous,
deep, acute, and elegant thinkers who have devoted
their time to this subject, as the foundation of taste
and of the fine or intellectual arts.
Profiting, as I ought to do, by the partial views
of these philosophers, I pretend here only to take
one larger view—to analyze, to generalize, to
systematize, the materials which they present to
me.
In the hope of accomplishing this, I shall now
endeavor successively to trace the elements of
beauty which belong respectively to inanimate,
living, and thinking beings, and to the useful, orna-
mental, and intellectual arts which have a refer-
ence to these, the neglect of all which I have
described as the fundamental cause of previous
failure.
Again, I repeat, it is to this analysis and gener
alization alone, and to the systemization founded
upon it, that I make any pretence. The materials
have long been presented by all the great writers
on the subject: they have only left them in confu-
sion, and without conclusion. I shall now proceed
to employ them.

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
SECTION I.
ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY IN INANIMATE BEINGS
Though Burke did not accurately trace the ele.
ments of beauty in any one class of the objects
of nature or art, he yet states a preliminary truth
on this subject so well, that I here quote it: “It
would be absurd,” he observes, “to say that all
things affect us by association only; since some
things must have been originally and naturally
agreeable or disagreeable, from which the others
derive their associated powers; and it would be,
I fancy, to little purpose to look for the cause of
our passions in association, until we fail of it in the
natural properties of things.”
Home, advancing farther, says: “If a tree be
beautiful by means of its color, its figure, its size,
its motion, it is in reality possessed of so many
different beauties, which ought to be examineu
separately, in order to have a clear notion of the
whole.
“When any body is viewed as a whole, the
beauty of its figure arises from regularity* and
simplicity; and viewing the parts with relation
to each other, from uniformity*, proportion, and
order."
• Regularity expresses the similarity of parts considered as
constituting a whole ; and uniformity, the similarity of parts car
sidered separately.

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
75
I will here only observe that these are the quali
ties, as will speedily appear, which Burke should
have set down as the fundamental and first char
acteristics of beauty, instead of relative littleness,
which belongs not to beauty generally, but only to
the minor or subordinate beauty.
Even Home, having arrived thus far, says: “To
inquire why an object, by means of the particulars
mentioned, appears beautiful, would, I am afraid,
be a vain attempt.”
But he truly adds: “One thing is clear, that
regularity, uniformity, order, and simplicity, con-
tribute each of them to readiness of apprehension,
and enable us to form more distinct images of
objects than can be done, with the utmost atten.
tion, where these particulars are not found.” And
he subjoins: “This final cause is, I acknowledge,
too slight, to account satisfactorily for a taste that
makes a figure so illustrious in the nature of man;
and that this branch of our constitution has a pur-
pose still more important, we have great reason to
believe."
Now had Home seen that the characteristics of
general beauty always are, with regard to the ob-
ject, accordant and agreeable relations, the im-
portance of the qualities he has just enumerated
would have been evident; for, without them, these
characteristics of the object could not exist : sim-
plicity, regularity, unifor nity, order, &c., are the
very elements of accordant and agreeable relations.
This is in reality the still more important purpose
in which Home believed, and to which the readiness

76
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY,
of apprehension he now alludes to eminently con.
tributes.
As to simplicity, he observes, that “a multitude
of objects crowding into the mind at once, disturb
the attention, and pass without making any im-
pression, or any lasting impression; and in a group,
no single object makes the figure it would do apart,
when it occupies the whole attention. For the
same reason, even a single object, when it divides
the attention by the multiplicity of its parts, equals
not, in strength of impression, a more simple object
comprehended in a single view: parts extremely
complex must be considered in portions succes-
sively; and a number of impressions in succession,
which cannot unite because not simultaneous, never
touch the mind like one entire impression made as
it were at one stroke.
"A square is less beautiful than a circle, because
it is less simple : a circle has parts as well as a
square; but its parts not being distinct like those
of a square, it makes one entire impression; where-
as, the attention is divided among the sides and
angles of a square..A square, though not
more regular than a hexagon or octagon, is more
beautiful than either, because a square is more
simple, and the attention less divided.
“Simplicity thus contributes to beauty.”
By regularity is meant that circumstance in a
figure by which we perceive it to be formed accord-
ing to a certain rule. Thus, a circle, a square, a
parallelogram, or triangle, pleases by its regularity.
"A square,” says Home --(who here furnishes

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
the best materials to a more general view, because
he most frequently assigns physical causes, and
whom, with some abbreviation, I therefore continue
to quote) —"a square is more beautiful than a
parallelogram, because the former exceeds the
latter in regularity and in uniformity of parts.
This is true with respect to intrinsic beauty only;
for in many instances, utility comes in to cast the
balance on the side of the parallelogram: this
figure for the doors and windows of a dwelling-
house, is preferred because of utility; and here
we find the beauty of utility prevailing over that
of regularity and uniformity.”
Thus regularity and uniformity contribute to
intrinsic beauty.
on the proportion (or relation of quantity] of its
sides. Its beauty is lost by a great inequality of
these sides: it is also lost by their approximating
toward equality ; for proportion there degenerates
into imperfect uniformity, and the figure appears
an unsuccessful attempt toward a square."
Thus proportion contributes to beauty.
“An equilateral triangle yields not to a square
in regularity nor in uniformity of parts, and it is
more simple. Its inferiority in beauty is at least
partly owing to inferiority of order in the position
of its parts: the sides of an equilateral triangle
incline to each other in the same angle, which is
the most perfect order they are susceptible of; but
this order is obscure, and far from being so perfect
as the parallelism of the sides of a square.”

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
Thus order contributes to the beauty of visible
objects.
“A mountain, it may be objected, is an agreeable
object, without so much as the appearance of
- regularity; and a chain of mountains is still more
agreeable, without being arranged in any order.
But though regularity, uniformity, and order, are
causes of beauty, there are also other causes of it,
as color; and when we pass from small to great
objects, and consider grandeur instead of beauty,
very little regularity is required.”
It follows, from all that has been here said, and
this has been shown by Burke, that any rugged,
any sudden projection, any sharp angle, is in the
highest degree contrary to the idea of beauty.
Such projections and angles are destitute of all
the qualities which have just been enumerated —
simplicity, regularity, uniformity, proportion, order;
and conformably to the principles I have laid
down in a previous chapter, they can present only
relations which are naturally disagreeable This
view is corroborated by the fact, that all -ery sharp,
broken, or angular objects, were disagreeable to
the boy couched by Cheselden, as they are to all
eyes of very nice sensibility.
Now, as angular forms give, to the sense of touch,
sharpness, roughness, or harshness, so do opposite
forms give smoothness or fineness. Hence, Burke
makes smoothness his second characteristic of
beauty, and that far more truly than he makes
littleness its first, for, as he observes, “smooth
ness is a quality so essential to beauty, that I do

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
779
not now recollect anything beautiful that is not
smooth.”
Such being really the case, I am bound to expose
Knight's sophistry on this point. “This elegant
author,” says he," has expatiated upon the gratifi-
cations of feeling smooth and undulating surfaces
in general: but, I believe, these gratifications have
been confined to himself; and probably to his own
imagination acting through the medium of his
favorite system: for, except in the communication
of the sexes, which affords no general illustration,
and ought therefore to be kept entirely out of the
question, I have never heard of any person being
addicted to such luxuries; though a feeling-board
would certainly afford as cheap and innocent a
gratification, as either a smelling-bottle, a picture,
or a flute, provided it were capable of affording any
This is a good specimen of the kind of perverted
A man affecting the character of philosopher,
ought calmly to have observed that, by young
people before puberty, and, consequently, when
there is not the slightest sexual bias, smooth ob-
jects are generally found to be agreeable, and
rough or harsh ones to be the reverse. This would
at once have set him right upon this point.
If, to such a man, it should for a moment have
appeared worth while to ask why we do not make
use of feeling-boards, as well as of smelling-bottles,
he ought to have sought the solution of his difficulty
in the nature of the senses; and then, with a trifle

80
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
more of ability than Payne Knight hereby shows
himself to have possessed, he would have seen that
smoothness affords us as much pleasure as any
smell, but that, as it would have been always
troublesome, and often impossible, to apply our
fingers to smooth surfaces, we generally receive
the varied and incessant pleasure it affords, by
means of sight; that it is borne by light to the
eye, as smell is by the air; and that this is the
reason why, except when contact is indispensable,
we have no need of anything in the way of a
feeling-board.
But Knight says: “Smoothness being properly a
quality, perceivable only by the touch, and applied
metaphorically to the objects of the other senses,
we often apply it, very improperly, to those of
vision; assigning smoothness as a cause of visible
beauty, to things which, though smooth to the
touch, cast the most sharp, harsh, and angular re-
flections of light upon the eyes; and these reflec-
tions are all that the eye feels, or naturally per-
ceives. . . . Such are all objects of cut-glass or
polished metal; as may be seen by the manner in
which painters imitate them: for, as the imitations
of painting extend only to the visible qualities of
bodies, they show those visible qualities fairly and
impartially. . . . Yet the imitative representation of
such objects in painting is far less harsh and daz-
zling than the effects of thein in reality : for there
are no materials that a painter can employ, capable
of expressing the sharpness and brilliancy of those
angular reflections of the collected and condensed

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
81
says, which are emitted from the surfaces of polish
ed metals."
It seems to me, scarcely possible to find sophis-
try more worthless thar this, or rather a more con-
temptible quibble; for that which, availing himself
of our technicalities about light, he calls angulari-
ty, sharpness, &c., has no analogy with disagreea-
ble angularity of form. To produce the brilliance
and splendor which he calls angular, and describes
as so offensive, we polish crystalline and metallic
bodies in the highest degree! — we value precisely
those which thus admit of greatest splendor ! -
and, on that very account, the diamond (rightly or
wrongly, is not the question) is deemed the most
valuable object on earth!
So much for those elements of beauty, in inani-
mate things, which fall under the cognizance of
our fundamental sense, or that of touch.
As to sight and its objects, it is true that, as this
organ varies in different persons, their taste is
modified, with regard to colors. But the preference
of light and delicate colors to dark and glaring
ones, is almost universal among persons of sensi-
bility.
Alison, indeed, ascribes the effects of all colors
to association. “White," he says, “as it is the
or gayety which the return of day brings: black, as
the color of darkness [night], is expressive of
gloom and melancholy.” And he adds: “Whether
some colors may not of themselves produce agree-
ahle sensations, and others disagreeable sensations.

82
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
I am not anxious to dispute.” But this is the very
point into which Alison ought to have inquired.
Nature does nothing without foundation in the
simplest principles; and this foundation is not only
anterior to, but is the cause of all asssociation.
That, independent of any association, blackness is
naturally disagreeable, if not painful, is happily de-
termined by the case of the boy restored to sight
by Cheselden, who tells us that the first time the
boy saw a black object, it gave him great uneasi-
ness; and that, some time after, upon accidentally
seeing a negro-woman, he was struck with great
horror at the sight. This appears to be perfectly
conclusive.
Knight indeed says: “As to the uneasiness
which the boy, couched by Cheselden, felt at the
first sight of a black object, it arose either from the
harshness of its outline, or from its appearing to
act as a partial extinguisher applied to his eyes,
which, as every object that he saw, seemed to
touch them, would, of course, be its effect.” It is
highly probable that black operates in both these
ways; and it has therefore natural effects, inde-
pendent of all association.
As to sounds, Alison observes, that the cries of
some animals are sublime, as the roar of the lion,
the scream of the eagle, &c.; and he thinks they
become so, because we associate them with the
strength and ferocity of the animals which utter
them. By opposite associations, he accounts for
the beauty of the notes of birds. And he says, that
there is a similar sublimity or beauty, in the tones

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
of the human voice, and that “such sounds are as-
sociated, in our imaginations, with the qualities of
mind of which they are in general expressive, and
naturally produce in us the conception of these
qualities."
This writer endeavors to establish his views on
this subject, by observing, that “grandeur or sub-
limity of sound, can no otherwise arise from its
loudness, than as that loudness excites an idea of
power in the sonorous object, or in some other as-
sociated with it in the mind : for a child's drum,
close to the ear, fills it with more real noise, than
the discharge of a cannon a mile off; and the rat-
tling of a carriage in the street, when faintly and
indistinctly heard, has often been mistaken for
thunder at a distance. Yet no one ever imagined
the beating of a child's drum, or the rattling of a
carriage over the stones, to be grand or sublime;
which, nevertheless, they must be, if grandeur or
sublimity belong at all to the sensation of loud
ness. But artillery and lightning are powerful
engines of destruction; and with their power we
sympathize, whenever the sound of them excites
any sentiments of sublimity.”
Now, all this is directly opposed to the doctrine
it is meant to support. It distinctly implies that
loudness is so natural and so frequent a result of
the violent contact of bodies, that we sometimes
mistakenly ascribe power to objects, of which we
have not correctly distinguished the sounds, owing
to imitatior, distance, &c. The occasional mistake
implies the general truth.

84
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
Alison, himself, notwithstanding his doctrine of
association, is accordingly led to observe, that
“there are some philosophers who consider these
as the natural signs of passion or affection, and who
believe that it is not from experience, but by means
of an original faculty, that we interpret them: and
this opinion is supported by great authorities.”
He adds the following observations, which, not-
to the purpose to be omitted here, and which in
reality illustrate a natural and true theory, better
than they do his own :-
“It is natural, however, to suppose, that in this,
as in every case, our experience should gradually
lead to the formation of some general rules, with
regard to this expression.
“ The great divisions of sound are into loud and
low, grave and acute, long and short, increasing
and diminishing. The two first divisions are ex-
pressive in themselves: the two last, only in con-
junction with others.
“Loud sound is connected with ideas of power
and danger. Many objects in nature which have
such qualities, are distinguished by such sounds;
and this association is farther confirmed from the
human voice, in which all violent and impetuous
passions are expressed in loud tones.
“Low sound has a contrary expression, and is
connected with ideas of weakness, gentleness, and
delicacy. This association takes its rise, not only
from the observation of inanimate nature, or of
animals, where, in a great number of cases, such

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
85
sounds distinguish objects with such qualities, but
particularly from the human voice, where all gen-
tle, or delicate, or sorrowful affections are express-
ed by such tones.
“Grave sound is connected with ideas of mod.
eration, dignity, solemnity, &c., principally, I be-
lieve, from all moderate, or restrained, or chastened
affections being distinguished by such tones in the
human voice.
“Acute sound is expressive of pain, or fear, or
surprise, &c., and generally operates by producing
some degree of astonishment. This association,
also, seems principally to arise from our experience
“Long or lengthened sound seems to me to have
no expression in itself, but only to signify the con-
tinuance of that quality which is signified by other
qualities of sound. A loud or a low, a grave or an
acute sound prolonged expresses to us no more
than the continuance of the quality which is gen-
erally signified by such sounds.
“Short or abrupt sound has a contrary expres-
sion, and signifies the sudden cessation of the
quality thus expressed.
"Increasing sound signifies, in the same manner,
the increase of the quality expressed.
“Decreasing sound signifies the gradual diminu-
tion of such qualities.
“Motion furnishes another sort of beauty.
“Figure, color, and motion, readily blend in one
object, and one general perception of beauty. In

86
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
many beautiful objects they all unite, and render
the beauty greater.”
These characteristics are too universal not to
support the doctrine of natural appropriation and
power, of which association is merely a conse-
quence.
It may be said, that all this chiefly regards mere
geometrical forms, not objects in nature. But, on
referring to inanimate objects, it will be found that
they everywhere present these forms.
The round, the simplest form appears to charac
terize all elementary bodies and all that are free
from compression, to be in fact the most elementary
and the most readily assumed in nature. This form,
accordingly, is presented by the drops of water and
of every liquid, by every atom probably of oxygen,
hydrogen, and azote, by the smallest as well as
the largest bodies, even the innumerable celestial
orbs.
All the other, the angular forms are presented by
inanimate bodies under compression, or by mineral
crystals.
Thus, then, do these simple geometrical forms
characterize the simplest bodies in nature; and it
appears that this first kind of beauty is peculiarly
their own. It will, in the sequel, be as clearly seen,
that cach of the other classes of natural beings
presents beauty of a different kind, which similarly
characterizes it. Hence, no rational theory of
beauty could be formed by writers, who indiscrim-
inatingly jumbled together the characteristics of all

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
87
the kinds of beauty, and expected to find them
everywhere.
As, then, from all that has been said, it appears
that all the elements of beauty which have thus
been noticed, belong to inanimate beings, and as
this is shown by the passages I have quoted from
the best writers, it seems surprising, not merely
that they should not have seen this to be the case,
but, that it should not have led them to observe,
that there exists also a second beauty, of living
beings, and third, of thinking beings, as well as
others of the useful, the ornamental, and the intel-
lectual arts respectively, in each of which some
new element was only added to the characters of
the preceding species.
It seems still more surprising that Alison, who
deviates so widely from all fundamental principles,
should have actually stumbled upon an observation
of a few of the characteristics of inanimate beings,
and traced them as they pass upward through some
living and thinking beings— whose new character
istics, however, he did not discriminate. He ob-
serves, that “the greater part of those bodies in
mature, which possess hardness, strength, or dura-
ssty, listinguished by angular forms. The
greater part of those bodies, on the contrary, which
possess weakness, fragility, or delicacy, are distin -
guished by winding or curvilinear forms. In the
mineral kingdom, all rocks, stones, and metals, the
hardest and most durable bodies we know, assume
universally angular forms. In the vegetable king.
dom. all strong and durable plants are in genera

88
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
distinguished by similar forms. The feebler and
more delicate race of vegetables, on the contrary,
are mostly distinguished by winding forms. In the
animal kingdom, in the same manner, strong and
powerful animals are generally characterized by
angular forms; feeble and delicate animals, by forms
of the contrary kind."*
SECTION II.
ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY IN LIVING BEINGS.
I HAVA now to show that, in living beings, while
the characters of the first and fundamental beauty,
that of inanimate beings, are still partially contin-
ued, new characteristics are added to them.
Plants accordingly possess both rigid parts, like
some of those described in the preceding section,
and delicate parts, which, in ascending through the
classes of natural beings from the simplest to the
most complex, are the very first to present to us
new and additional characters totally distinct from
those of the preceding class.
I. To begin as nature does, then, we find the
trunks and stems of plants, which are near the
ground, resembling most in character the inanimate
bodies from among which they spring. They as-
sume the simplest and most universal form in na-
ture, the round one; but as growth is their great
• Appendix D

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
89
function, they extend in height and become cylin-
drical.
Even the branches, the twigs, and the tendrils,
continue this elementary character; but it is in
them, or in the stem when, like them, it is tender,
that such elementary characters give way to the
purposes of life, namely, growth and reproduction,
and that we discover the new and additional char
acters of beauty which this class presents to us.
II. To render this matter plain, I must observe
that the formation of rings, which unite in tubes,
appears to be almost universally the material con:
dition of growth and reproduction. Every new
portion of these tubes, moreover, and every super-
added ring, is less than that which preceded it.
It is from this that results the first characteristic
of this second kind of beauty, namely, fineness or
delicacy. Hence, Burke made the possession of a
delicate frame, without any remarkable appearance
of strength, his fifth condition in beauty; and he
here erred only from that want of discrimination
which led him to confound together all the condi-
tions of beauty, and prevented his seeing that they
belonged to different genera.
Now, as fine and delicate bodies, which are
growing, will shoot in that direction where space,
air, and light, can best be had, and as this, amid
other twigs and tendrils, will greatly vary, so will
their productions rarely continue long in the same
straight line, but will, on the contrary, bend
Hence, the curved or bending form is the second
characteristic of this kind of beauty.

90
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
It is worthy of remark, that, as the trunks, stems,
twigs, and tendrils, of plants assume the simplest
and most universal form in nature, the round one,
so their more delicate parts have again the tendency
to bend into a similar form.
In the young and feeble branches of plants, it is
observed by Alison, that the bending form is
“beautiful, when we perceive that it is the conse-
quence of the delicacy of their texture, and of
their being overpowered by the weight of the
Hower. . . . In the smaller and feebler tribe of flow-
ers, as in the violet, the daisy, or the lily of the
valley, the bending of the stem constitutes a very
beautiful form, because we immediately perceive
that it is the consequence of the weakness and
delicacy of the flower.”
From the circumstances now described, it results
that all the parts of plants present the most sur-
prising variety. They vary their direction every
moment, as Burke observes, and they change under
the eye by a deviation continually carrying on, but
for whose beginning or end you will find it difficult
to ascertain a' point.
Variety is therefore the third characteristic of
this second kind of beauty; and in the indiscrim-
inating views of Burke, he made two similar
conditions, viz: “Thirdly, to have a variety in the
direction of the parts; but, fourthly, to have those
parts not angular, but melted as it were into each
other;" thus applying these to beauty generally,
to which they are not applicable, but in a confused
and imperfect way.

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
91
It is scarcely necessary to observe that variety,
as a character of beauty, owes its effect to the need
of changing impressions, in order to enliven our
sensibility, which does not fail to become inactive
under the long-continued impression of the same
stimulant.
It is connected with this variety that unequal
numbers are preferred, as we see in the number of
flowers and of their petals, in that of leaves grouped
together, and in the indentations of these leaves.
From all this springs the fourth and last char-
acteristic of this second species of beauty, namely,
contrast. This strikes us when we at once look at
the rigid stem and bending boughs, and all the
variety which the latter display.
It will be observed, that, of all the characteristics
of beauty, none tend to render our perceptions so
vivid as variety and contrast.
I conclude this section with a few remarks on the
errors which Alison has committed on this subject
“In the rose,” says that writer, "and the white
lily, and in the tribe of flowering shrubs, the same
bending form assumed by the stem is felt as a
defect; and instead of impressing us with the idea
of delicacy, leads us to believe the operation of
some force to twist it into this direction.”—This,
however, is no defect arising from the bending
form not being abstractly more beautiful, but
from its being contrary to the nature of the
stem of flowering shrubs to bend, from its being,
as he himself observes, the result of some force
to twist it.

92
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
He asserts, however, that in plants, angular forms
are beautiful, when they are expressive of fineness,
of tenderness, of delicacy, or such affecting quali-
ties; and he thinks that this may perhaps appear
from the consideration of the following instances:-
« The myrtle, for instance, is generally reckoned
a beautiful form, yet the growth of its stem is per-
pendicular, the junction of its branches form regular
and similar angles, and their direction is in straight
or angular lines. The known delicacy, however,
and tenderness of the vegetable, at least ir. this
climate, prevail over the general expression of the
form, and give it the same beauty which we gener-
ally find in forms of a contrary kind.” — The mis-
take here committed is in supposing the beauty of
the myrtle to depend on its angularity, instead
of its being evergreen, fragrant, and suggesting
pleasures of association.
“How much more beautiful,” he says, “is the
rose-tree when its buds begin to blow, than after
ward, when its flowers are full and in their greatest
perfection! yet, in this first situation, its form has
much less winding surface, and is much more com-
posed of straight lines and of angles, than afterward
when the weight of the flower weighs down the
feeble branches, and describes the easiest and most
varied curves.” — But he answers himself by ad-
ding : “ The circumstance of its youth, a circum-
stance in all cases so affecting, the delicacy of its
blossom, so well expressed by the care which
Nature has taken in surrounding the opening bud
with leaves, prevail so much upon our imagination,

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
93
that we behold the form itself with more delight in
this situation than afterward, when it assumes the
more general form of delicacy.”
“There are few things in the vegetable world,”
he says, “more beautiful than the knotted and
angular stem of the balsam, merely from its sin-
gular transparency, which it is impossible to look
at without a strong impression of the fineness and
delicacy of the vegetable.” — But it is its transpa.
rency, not its angularity, that is beautiful.
The beauty of color is not less conspicuous than
that of form in this class of beings.
SECTION III.
ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY IN THINKING BEINGS.
I HAVE next to show that, in thinking beings
while the characters of inanimate, and those of
living beauty; are still more or less continued, new
characteristics are also added to them.
I. In animals, accordingly, the bones bear a
close analogy to the wood of plants. They gen-
erally assume the same rounded form; krat, as
thinking beings are necessarily moving ones,
their bones are hollow to combine lightness with
strength, and they are separated by joints to permit
flexion and extension.
II. As animals, like plants, grow and reproduce,
a portion of their general organization, their vası
H

94
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
cular system, which serves the purpose of growth
and reproduction, consists, like plants, of trunks,
branches, &c.; and the surface of their bodies, the
skin, is formed by a tissue of these vessels. Ac.
cordingly, both the vessels themselves, and the
tissue which they form, present the delicacy, the
bending, the variety, and the contrast, which are
the characters of the preceding species of beauty.
The undulating and serpentine lines which art
seeks always to design in its most beautiful pro.
ductions, exist in greater number at the surface of
the human body than at that of any other animal.
Wherever, as Hogarth observes, “for the sake of
the necessary motion of the parts, with proper
strength and agility, the insertions of the muscles
are too hard and sudden, their swellings too bold,
or the hollows between them too deep, for their
outlines to be beautiful; nature softens these hard-
nesses, and plumps up these vacancies with a proper
supply of fat, and covers the whole with the soft,
smooth, springy, and, in delicate life, almost trans-
parent skin, which, conforming itself to the external
shape of all the parts beneath, expresses to the eye
the idea of its contents with the utmost delicacy
of beauty and grace.”
It is principally in the features of the face, as has
often been observed, and on the surface of the torso
and of the members of a beautiful woman, that these
delicate, bending, varied, and contrasted lines are
multiplied: by their union, they mark the outlines
of different parts, as in the region of the neck, of
the bosom, at the shoulders, on the surface of the

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
95
abdomen, on the sides, and principally in the gradual
transitions from the head to the neck, and from the
loins to the inferior extremities.
These lines vary under different circumstances;
much enbonpoint producing round lines, and lean-
ness or old age producing straight ones.
Woman and man stand pre-eminent among ani-
mals as to this kind of beauty and to them succeed
the swiſter animals, as the horse, the stag, &c.
The animals, on the contrary, of which the sur-
face presents right lines and square forms, are cor.
respondingly deprived of beauty; as the toad, the
hog, and all the animals which seem to us ugly.
In all animals, also, the beauty of color, even
when slightly varied, becomes extremely interest-
ing. — In human beauty, considerable variety is
produced by the different shades of the skin.
Such, indeed, is the variety resulting from all
this, that some degree even of intricacy is pro-
duced. The undulating lines which cross in every
direction, and the tortuous paths of the eye, are
the means of an agreeable complication.
Hence Burke, following Hogarth, says: “Observe
that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps
the most beautiful, about the neck and breasts: the
smoothness, the softness, the easy and insensible
swell, the variety of the surface, which is never for
the smallest space the same, the deceitful maze,
through which the unsteady eye slides giddily,
without knowing where to fix, or whither it is
carried. Is not this a demonstration of that change
of surface, continual, and yet hardly perceptible at

95
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
any point, which forms one of the great constitu.
ents of beauty?
The hair affords an excellent instance of this
agreeable complication. Soft curls agitated by the
wind have been the theme of every poet. And yet,
says Hogarth,“ to show how excess ought to be
avoided in intricacy, as well as in every other prin
ciple, the very same head of hair, wisped and mat-
ted together, would make the most disagreeable
figure; because the eye would be perplexed, and
at a fault, and unable to trace such a confused
number of uncomposed and entangled lines.”
III. But animals have a higher system of organs
and functions which peculiarly distinguishes them,
and which presents new and peculiar characteris-
tics of beauty. This consists of the organs by
which they receive impressions from, and react
upon the objects around them—the first organs
which Nature presents having altogether external
relations, and the first, consequently, in which we
look for fitness for any purpose.
The importance of fitness to the beauty of such
objects is learned imperceptibly. Lines and forms,
though the most elegant, fail to please us, if ill
distributed in this respect : and objects, to a great
extent destitute of the other characters of natural
beauty, Lecome beautiful when regarded in relation
to fitness. Thus would this sense appear to be so
powerful, as in some measure to regulate our oth-
er perceptions of beauty.
It is fitness which leads us to admire in one ani.
mal, what would displease us if found in another

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
97
6 The variety,” says Barry, “and union of parts,
which we call beautiful in a greyhound, are pleas-
ing in consequence of the idea of agility which they
convey. In other animals, less agility is united
with more strength; and, indeed, all the different
arrangements please because they indicate either
different qualities, different degrees of qualities, or
the different combinations of them.”
In relation to the various fitness of the human
body, the same writer says: “We should not in-
crease the beauty of the female bosom, by the ad-
dition of another protuberance; and the exquisite
undulating transitions from the convex to the con-
cave tendencies, could not be multiplied with any
success. In fine, our rule for judging of the mode
and degree of this combination of variety and unity,
seems to be no other than that of its fitness and
conformity to the designation of each species.”
But it is less necessary for me to adduce author-
ities in support of this truth, than to answer the
objections that have been made to it by some of
the ablest writers on the subject-objections which
have generally their origin in the narrow views
which these men have taken, and in those partial
hypotheses which, even when true, led them to
reject all other truth.
"It is said,” observes Burke, “that the idea of a
part's being well adapted to answer its end, is one
cause of beauty, or indeed beauty itself. ... In
framing this theory, I am apprehensive that expe-
rience was not sufficiently consulted. For, on that
principle, the wedgelike snout of a swine with its

98
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
tough cartilage at the end, the little sunk eyes, and
the whole make of the head, so well adapted to its
offices of digging and rooting, would be extremely
beautiful.”— And so they are, when the beauty of
fitness for their purpose is considered; but that
purpose being the mere growth and fattening of
an animal of sensual and dirty habits, it is a fallacy
to represent this, without explanation, as a fair
proof of the absence of connexion between fitness
and beauty.
“If beauty in our species,” says the same writer,
“was annexed to use, men would be much more
lovely than women; and strength and agility would
be considered as the only beauties." —Burke was
a stringer of fine words, not for woman, but for
queens, when that served a selfish and venal pur-
pose. The sentence just quoted shows that his
gallantry was as ignorant as it was mean. He here
asserts by implication that women are less useful
than men, although it is to women that the care of
the whole human race, during its most helpless
years, is committed, and although they take upon
themselves all that half of the duties of life which
men are as little capable of performing, as women
are of performing the portion suited to men.
"And,” says he, “I appeal to the first and most
natural feelings of mankind, whether, on beholding
a beautiful eye, or a well-fashioned mouth, or a
well-turned leg, any ideas of their being well fitted
for seeing, eating, or running, ever present them-
selves.”—Is running, then, the proper use of the
leg in woman! Rousseau more truly thought its

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
99
use was to fail in running, or not to run! Is eating
the only use of her mouth! This, too from the
man who deplored that “the age of chivalry was
gone!" - Nevertheless, I will venture to assert
that such things never were and never will be seen,
without suggesting ideas of fitness of some kind
or other.
“There is,” he proceeds, “another notion cur-
rent, pretty closely allied to the former; that per-
fection is the constituent cause of beauty. This
opinion has been made to extend much farther than
to sensible objects. But in these, so far is perfec-
tion, considered as such, from being the cause of
beauty, that this quality, where it is highest in the
female sex, almost always carries with it an idea of
weakness and imperfection.”-- For this plain rea-
son, that female perfection is utterly incompatible
with great muscular perfection or strength, which
would indeed be injurious to the performance of
every feminine function.
We may now advance another step in the subject
under discussion. What, then, are the peculiar
physical characters of beings thus possessing sense
and motion, and thus characterized by fitness?
“It must be remembered,” says Knight, “ that
irregularity is the general characteristic of trees,
and regularity that of animals.” — It would have
been more correct to say that symmetry is this
peculiar characteristic. There is little resemblance
between the parts of one side; and it is symmetry
which results from the uniform disposition of double
parts, and from the regular division of single ones.

100
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Hence an agreeable impression is produced by
the corresponding disposition and the exact resem.
blance of the eyes, of the eyebrows, of the ears, of
the hemispheres of the bosom, and of the different
parts of which the limbs are composed; and the
forehead, the nose, the mouth, the abdomen, the
back, are agreeably distinguished by means of the
median line which divides them.
It appears that the eye is pleased by the exact
ness of corresponding parts; and that symmetry is
the first character of beauty in thinking beings.
Occasional irregularity makes us better appre-
ciate the importance of symmetry. The oblique
direction of the eyes, squinting, twisting of the
nose or lips, unequal magnitude of the hemispheres
of the bosom, or unequal length of the limbs, dis-
figure the most beautiful person.
But how does symmetry contribute to fitness, or
why is it necessary?
“All our limbs and organs," says Payne Knight,
“serve us in pairs, and by mutual co-operation with
each other: whence the habitual association of
ideas has taught us to consider this uniformity as
indispensable to the beauty and perfection of the
animal form. There is no reason to be deduced
from any abstract consideration of the nature of
things, why an animal should be more ugly and
disgusting for having only one eye, or one ear,
than for having only one nose or one mouth; yet
if we were to meet with a beast with one eye, or
two noses, or two mouths, in any part of the world,
we should, without inquiry, decide it to be a mox

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
101
ster, and turn from it with abhorrence: neither is
there any reason, in the nature of things, why a
strict parity, or relative equality, in the correspond-
ent limbs and features of a man or a horse, should
be absolutely essential to beauty, and absolutely
destructive of it in the roots and branches of a tree.
But, nevertheless, the Creator having formed the
one regular, and the other irregular, we habitually
associate ideas of regularity to the perfection of
the other; and this habit has been so unvaried, as
to have become natural.”
This is the common cant of every weak man at loss
for a reason. Now, it is not by any “habitual asso-
ciation" with “our limbs and organs serving us in
pairs,” that we are “taught to consider this uniform-
ity indispensable to beauty,” but because, independ
ent of all association, we could not conveniently
walk upon one leg, or, indeed, on any unequal num-
ber of legs: and there being two sides in the moving
organs, there are necessarily two in the sensitive
organs, which are mere portions of the same gen-
eral system. Thus it is locomotion to be perform-
ed that renders “a strict parity, or relative equal-
ity, in the correspondent limbs and features of a
man or a horse” absolutely essential to beauty;
and it is the absence of locomotion which renders
it utterly worthless, and therefore very rare, in
“the roots and branches of a tree.”
In animals, proportion is not less essential than
symmetry. It is indeed the second character of
this kind of beauty. As this part of the subject

102
THB ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
has been perfectly well treated by Mr. Alison, I
need only quote what he has said :-
“It is this expression of fitness which is, I ap-
prehend, the source of the beauty of what is strict-
ly and properly called proportion in the parts of
the human form.
“We expect a different form, and a different
conformation of limbs, in a running footman and
a waterman, in a wrestler and a racing groom, in a
shepherd and a sailor, &c.
* They who are conversant in the productions
of the fine arts, must have equally observed, that
the forms and proportions of features, which the
sculptor and the painter have given to their works,
are very different, according to the nature of the
character they represent, and the emotion they
wish to excite. The form or proportions of the
features of Jove are different from those of Her-
cules; those of Apollo, from those of Ganymede;
those of the Fawn, from those of the Gladiator.
In female beauty, the form and proportions in the
features of Juno are very different from those of
Venus; those of Minerva, from those of Diana ;
those of Niobe, from those of the Graces. All,
however, are beautiful; because all are adapted
with exquisite taste to the characters they wish
the countenance to express."
In “the Hercules and the Antinous, the Jupiter
and the Apollo, we find that not only the propor.
tions of the form, but those of every limb, ar3
different; and that the pleasure we feel in these
proportions arises from their exquisite fitness for

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
103
the physical ends which the artists were consult-
ing
“The illustration, however, may be made still
more precise ; for, even in the same countenance,
and in the same hour, the same form of feature
may be beautiful or otherwise."
SECTION IV.
ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART.
I divide the arts into the useful, the ornamentai,
and the intellectual, commonly called the fine arts;
and I shall endeavor to show, that the objects of
each of these are characterized by a peculiar kind
of beauty, corresponding to one of those already
described.
I shall endeavor to show that the objects of the
useful arts are characterized by the simple geo.
metrical forms which belong to inanimate beings;
that those of the ornamental arts are characterized
by the delicate, bending, varied, and contrasted
forms of living beings; and that those of the in-
tellectual arts are, in their highest efforts, charac-
terized chiefly by thinking forms, as in gesture,
sculpture, painting, or by functions of mind actu-
ally exercised, in oratory, poetry, music.
In all these arts, purpose is implied—not pur.
pose in the hypothetical sense, as applied to the
existence, conditions, and objects, of natural be.

104
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ings - but in the common intelligible sense of the
word, as expressing the intention of men in the
pursuit of these arts.
Beauty of Useful Objects.
Here the purpose being utility, this kind of
beauty arises from the perception of means as
adapted to an end, which of course implies, the
parts of anything being fitted to answer the pur-
pose of the whole.
This implies an act of understanding and judg-
ment; for of no product of useful art can we per-
ceive the extrinsic beauty, until we know its des-
tination, and the relations which that involves.
of utility, that, though deviation from the element-
ary beauty never ceases to be felt, yet that sense
sanctions it to a great extent. Hence it is that an
irregular dwelling-house may become beautiful,
when its convenience is striking. Hence it is that,
in the forms of furniture, machines, and instru-
ments, their beauty arises chiefly from this consid-
eration; and that every form becomes beautiful
by association, where it is perfectly adapted to its
end.
The greater, however, the elementary beauty,
that can be introduced in useful objects, the more
obvious will their utility be, and the more beautiful
will they universally appear. This will be granted
the moment I mention simplicity.
Of all the elements of beauty already spoken

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
105
of- of all the means of producing accordant and
agreeable relations -- simplicity appears to be the
most efficient; and in all the useful arts, no ele
mentary consideration recommends their objects
so much.
This implies all the rest, regularity, uniformity,
proportion, order, &c., as far as is compatible with
purpose.
Thus, in regard to uniformity, says some one,
a number of things destined for the same purpose,
as chairs, spoons, &c., cannot be too uniform, be-
cause they are adapted to uniform purposes; but
it would be absurd to give to objects destined for
one purpose the form suited to those destined for
another.
So also the objects of useful art will resemble in
form precisely as they resemble in purpose ; and
where the purpose is similar, and the deviation
which is admissible is slight, this becomes a sub-
It was by the transcendent exercise of these
qualities, that the Greeks succeeded in fixing the
orders of architecture. The most beautiful col.
umns would have shocked the sight, if thcir mass
had not corresponded to that of the edifice which
they sustained; and the difference which existed
in this respect, required a difference of ornament.
Home indeed observes, that “writers on archi
tecture insist much upon the proportions of a col.
umn, and assign different proportions to the Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian: but no architect will main.

106
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
tain, that the most accurate proportions contribute
more to use, than several that are less accurate
and less agreeable.”
That such a man should have committed such
an error is surprising. It seems evident that the
different proportion in the columns of these orders
is admirably suited to the different quantity of mat-
ter in their entablatures. A greater superincum-
bent mass, required shorter and thicker columns;
a less superincumbent mass, longer and slender
ones. Many experiments, much observation, were
requisite to determine this; but the Greeks had
the means of making them, and solved every prob-
lem on the subject; and the result of the perfec-
tion they attained is, that all err who depart from
the truth they have determined.
It was, again, the differing quantities of matter
in the entablatures, and the accurately-correspond.
ing dimensions of the columns that determined, of
course amid infinite experiment and observation,
the nature of their ornaments. Hence, the Doric
is distinguished by simplicity; the Ionic by ele.
gance; and the Corinthian by lightness, in orna-
ment as well as in proportion.
Even, therefore, if we were to destroy all the
associations of elegance, of magnificence, of cost-
liness, and, still more than all, of antiquity, which
are so strongly connected with such forms, the
pleasure which their proportions would afford,
would remain, as in all cases where means are best
adapted to their end.
In his objections to proportion as an element of

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
107
beauty, Burke only confounds this kind of beauty
with that which I have next to describe.
""The effects of proportion and fitness,” he says,
“at least so far as they proceed from a mere con.
sideration of the work itself, produce approbation,
the acquiescence of the understanding, but not
love, nor any passion of that species. When we
examine the structure of a watch, when we come
to know thoroughly the use of every part of it,
satisfied as we are with the fitness of the whole,
we are far enough from perceiving anything like
beauty in the watchwork itself; but let us look on
the case, the labor of some curious artist in en-
graving, with little or no idea of use, we shall have
a much livelier idea of beauty than we ever could
have had from the watch itself, though the master-
piece of Graham.”
It is an emotion of pleasure which is the inevi.
table result of the perception of beauty, not love,
nor any passion of the kind. These will or will
not follow, according to the nature of the object,
and of the mind of the observer. A hill, a valley,
or a rivulet, may be beautiful, and it will excite an
emotion of pleasure when its beauty is discerned;
Sut it may produce no desire or passion of love.
There may exist, then, the beauty of utility, as to
the structure of the watch, and that of ornament
as to its case; and some minds will more readily
perceive the one; others, the other.
When Burke adds, “In beauty, the effect is pre-
viuus to any knowledge of the use; but to judge
of proportion, we must know the end for which

108
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
any work is designed;" he forgets, that, in the in-
stance of the barber's block, &c., he showed that
the perception of beauty, as well as proportion,
required observation, experience, and reflection.
Beauty of Ornamental Objects.
There are three great arts which, under circum-
stances of high civilization, become ornamental,
namely, landscape-gardening, architecture, and
dress — the particular arts by which our persons
are more or less closely invested ;* and all of them,
then, require beauty of the second kind, that which
belongs particularly to vegetable beings, and is
characterized by delicate, bending varied, and con-
trasted forms.
All these, regarded as ornamental arts, have
chiefly bodily and sensual pleasures for their pur-
pose ; and this I consider as distinguishing them
from the intellectual arts, which have a higher pur-
pose.
Of landscape-gardening, the materials are plants,
and therefore its beauty is evidently dependant on,
or rather composed of, theirs.
The same kind of beauty will be found in every
ornamental art. Hence, Alison says: “The greater
rt of beautiful forms in nature, are to be found
e vegetabıe kingdon, in the forms of flowers,
ge, of shrubs, and in those assumed by the
character of these arts has been overlooked.

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
109
young shoots of trees. It is from them, accord.
ingly, that almost all those forms have been imi
tated, which have been employed by artists for the
purposes of ornament and elegance.”
On this kind of beauty, mistaking it for the only
one, Hogarth founded his peculiar doctrine. “He
adopts two lines, on which, according to him, the
beauty of figure principally depends. One is the
waving line, or a curve bending gently in opposite
directions. This he calls the line of beauty; and
he shows how often it is found in flowers, shells,
and various works of nature ; while it is common
also in the figures designed by painters and sculp-
tors, for the purpose of decoration. The other
line, which he calls the line of grace, is the for-
mer waving line, twisted round some solid body.
Twisted pillars and twisted horns exhibit it. In all
the instances which he mentions, variety plainly
appears to be so important an element of this kind
of beauty, that he states a portion of the truth,
when he defines the art of drawing pleasing forms
to be the art of varying well; for the curve line, so
much the favorite of painters, derives much of its
beauty from its perpetual bending and variation
from the stiff regularity of the straight line.” It
is evident, however, that in this, he mistakes one
kind of beauty for all.
Of architecture, considered as a fine art, much
of the beauty depends on the imitation of vegetable
forms. Employing materials which require the
best characteristics of the first kind of beauty, it,
in its choicest and ornamented parts, imitates both

110
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
the rigid trunks, and the delicate and bending
forms of plants. Its columns, tapering upward,
are copied from the trunks of trees; and their dec-
dimensions, and the weight they support. The
simple Doric has little ornament; the elegant Ionic
has more; the light Corinthian has most.
On the subject of these finely-calculated orna-
ments, some observations have struck me, which I
have not seen mentioned elsewhere. The Doric
presents only columns, without any other orna-
ment than that of which their mere form admits.
The Ionic expresses increased lightness, by the
interposition of its volute, as if the superincumbent
weight had but gently pressed a soft solid into a
scroll. The Corinthian expresses the utmost light
ness, by forming its capitals of foliage, as if the
weight above them could not crush even a leaf.
The Composite expresses gayety, by adding flow-
ers to the foliage. It is from imperfect views of
this, that the meaning and effect of caryatides have
weight, they seem, when well employed, to have
no weight to support.
In nearly all internal architectural decorations,
it is the delicate, bending, varied, and contrasted
vegetable forms which are imitated.
“ There is scarce a room, in any house what-
ever," says Hogarth, “where one does not sea the
waving line employed in some way or other. How
inclegant would the shapes of all our moveables be
without it? how very plain and unornamental the

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
111
mouldings of cornices and chimney-pieces, without
the variety introduced by the ogee member, which
is entirely composed of waving lines.”
The distinctions I have here made, are farther
illustrated by the remarks of Alison, who says:
“ These ornaments being executed in a very hard
and durable substance, are in fact only beautiful
when they appear but as minute parts of the whole.
The great constituent parts of every building re-
quire direct and angular lines, because in such
parts we require the expression of stability and
strength. It is only in the minute and delicate
parts of the work, that any kind of ornament is
attempted with propriety; and whenever orna-
ments exceed in size, in their quantity of matter,
or in tue prominence of their relief, that proportion
which, in point of lightness or delicacy, we expect
them to hold with respect to the whole of the
building, the imitation of the most beautiful vege-
table forms does not preserve them from the cen.
sure of clumsiness and deformity.”
In dress, considered as an ornamental art, and, as
practised by the sex which chiefly studies it, the
chief beauty depends on the adoption of winding
forms in drapery, and of wreaths of flowers for the
head, &c. These are essential to the variety and
contrast, as well as to the gayety which that sex
“Uniformity," says Hogarth, “is chiefly complied
with in dress, on account of fitness, and seems to
be extended not much farther than dressing both
arms alike, and having the shoes of the same color

112
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
For when any part of dress has not the excuse of
fitness or propriety for its uniformity of parts, the
ladies always call it formal.”
These irregular, varying, and somewhat compli.
cated draperies excite that active curiosity, and
those movements of imagination, to which skilful
women never neglect to address themselves in
modern costume.
It is with the same feeling and intention, whether
these be defined or not, that, in the head-dress, they
seek for bending lines and circumvolutions, and
that they combine variously the waves and the
tresses of the hair.com
For the same reason, a feather or a flower is
never placed precisely over the middle of the fore-
head; and if two are employed, great care is taken
that their positions are dissimilar.
It has sometimes struck me as remarkable, that
precious stones are almost always arranged differ-
ently from flowers. While the latter are placed
irregularly, and in waving lines, not only ca the
head, but the bosom, and the skirt of the dress, the
former are in general regularly placed, either on
the median line of the person, as the middle of the
forehead and, in Eastern countries, of the nose, or
symmetrically in similar pendants from each ear,
and bracelets on the arms and wrists.
The instinctive feeling which gives origin to this
is, that flowers adorn the system of life and repro-
duction, and by their color and smell, assuciate
with its emotions, which they also express and
communicate to others--they, therefore, assume

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
113
the varied forms of that system; whereas, dia-
monds, attached generally to mental organs, or or
gans of sense, are significant of mental feelings,
love of splendor, distinction, pride, &c.— they,
therefore, assume the symmetrical form of these
organs. Hence, too, flowers are recommended to
the young; diamonds are permitted only to the old
Beauty of Intellectual Objects.
I have already said, that the intellectual arts are,
in their highest efforts, characterized chiefly by an-
imal forms, as in gesture, sculpture, and painting,
or by animal functions actually exercised, in ora-
tory, poetry, and music.
In the useful arts, the purpose is utility ; in the
ornamental arts, it is bodily or sensual pleasure;
and in the intellectual arts, it is the pleasure of
imagination.
The first elements of beauty, however, are not
forgotten in these arts. As simplicity is conspic-
uous in the works of nature, so is it a condition of
beauty in all the operations of mind. In philoso-
phy, general theorems become beautiful from this
simplicity; and polished manners receive from it
dignity and grace The intellectual arts are espe-
cially dependant upon it: it has been a striking
character of their most illustrious cultivators, and
of their very highest efforts.
How much the characters and accidents of ele.
mentary beauty influence intellectual art, has been
well shown by Mr. Knight.
"In the higher class of landscapes," he says

114
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
" whether in nature or in art, the mere sensual
gratification of the eye is comparatively so small,
as scarcely to be attended to: but yet, if there oc-
cur a single spot, either in the scene or the picture,
offensively harsh and glaring-if the landscape-
gardener, in the one, or the picture-cleaner, in the
other, have exerted their unhappy talents of pol-
ishing, all the magic instantly vanishes, and the
imagination avenges the injury offered to the sense.
The glaring and unharmonious spot, being the most
prominent and obtrusive, irresistibly attracts the
attention, so as to interrupt the repose of the whole
and leaves the mind no place to rest upon."
"It is, in some respects,” he observes," the same
with the sense of hearing. The mere sensual
gratification, arising from the melody of an actor's
voice, is a very small part, indeed, of the pleasure
which we receive from the representation of a fine
drama: but, nevertheless, if a single note of the
voice be absolutely cracked and out of tur:e, so as
to offend and disgust the ear, it will completely
destroy the effect of the most skilful acting, and
render all the sublimity and pathos of the finest
tragedy ludicrous.”
This, I may observe, is a concession of much
that he elsewhere inconsistently contends for; for
sensual beauty could never act thus powerfully, if
it possessed not fundamental importance as an ele-
ment even in the most complex beauty.
Tha: the second kind of beauty also enters into
the acts or products of intellectual beauty, is suf.
ficiently illustrated by the observation of Hogarth,

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
115
who on this subject observes, that all the common
and necessary motions for the business of life are
performed by men in straight or plain lines, while
all the graceful and ornamental movements are
made in waving lines.
As Alison has given the best view of the history
and character of beauty in the intellectual arts, as
that indeed constitutes the most valuable portion
of his work, I shall conclude this section by a
greatly abridged view of these as nearly as possible
in his own words.
There is no production of taste, which has not
many qualities of a very indifferent kind; and our
sense of the beauty or sublimity of every object
accordingly depends upon the quality or qualities
of it which we consider.
This, Mr. Alison might have observed, is in great
measure dependant upon our will. We can gener-
ally, when we please, confine our consideration of
it to the qualities that least excite pleasurable or
painful emotion, and that can least interest the im-
agination.
It is in consequence of this, that the exercise of
criticism always destroys, for the time, our sensi-
bility to the beauty of every composition, and that
habits of this kind generally destroy the sensibility
of taste
When, on the other hand, the emotions of sub-
limity or beauty are produced, it will be found that
some affection is uniformly first excited by the
presence of the object; and whether the general
impression we receive is that of gayety, or tender-

116
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
ness, or melancholy, or solennity, or terror, &c
we have never any difficulty of determining.
But whatever may be the nature of that simple
emotion which any object is fitted to excite, if it
produce not a train of kindred thought in our
minds, we are conscious only of that simple emo
tion.
In many cases, on the contrary, we are conscious
of a train of thought being immediately awakened
in the imagination, analogous to the character of
expression of the original object.
“Thus, when we feel either the beauty or sub-
Jimity of natural scenery — the gay lustre of a
morning in spring, or the mild radiance of a sum-
mer-evening — the savage majesty of a wintry
storm, or the wild magnificence of the tempestuous
ocean— we are conscious of a variety of images in
our minds, very different from those which the ob-
jects themselves present to the eye. Trains of
pleasing or of solemn thought arise spontaneously
within our minds; our hearts swell with emotions,
of which the objects before us seem to afford no
adequate cause; and we are never so much satiated
with delight, as when, in recalling our attention, we
are unable (little able, perhaps, and less disposed)
to trace either the progress or the connexion of
those thoughts, which have passed with so much
rapidity through our imagination.
“The effect of the different arts of taste is
similar. The landscapes of Claude Lorraine, the
poetry of Milton, the music of the greatest mas-
ters, excite feeble emotions in our minds when our

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
117
attention is confined to the qualities they present
to our senses, or when it is to such qualities of
their composition that we turn our regard. It is
then only we feel the sublimity or beauty of their
productions, when our imaginations are kindled by
their power, when we lose ourselves amid the
number of images that pass before our minds, and
when we waken at last from this play of fancy, as
from the charm of a romantic dream.
"The degree in which the emotions of sublimity
or beauty are felt, is in general proportioned to the
prevalence of those relations of thought in the mind,
upon which this exercise of imagination depends.
The principal relation which seems to take place
in those trains of thought that are produced by
objects of taste, is that of resemblance; the rela-
tion, of all others the most loose and general, and
which affords the greatest range of thought for our
imagination to pursue. Wherever, accordingly,
these emotions are felt, it will be found, not only
that this is the relation which principally prevails
among our ideas, but that the emotion itself is
proportioned to the degree in which it prevails.
“What, for instance, is the impression we feel
from the scenery of spring ? The soft and gentle
green with which the earth is spread, the feeble
texture of the plants and flowers, the young of
animals just entering into life, and the remains of
winter yet lingering among the woods and hills —
all conspire to infuse into our minds somewhat of
that fearful tenderness with which infancy is usually
beheld. With such a sentiment; how innumerable

118
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
are the ideas which present themselves to our
imagination! ideas, it is apparent, by no means
confined to the scene before our eyes, or to the
possible desolation which may yet await its infant
beauty, but which almost involuntarily extend
themselves to analogies with the life of man, and
bring before us all those images of hope or fear,
which, according to our peculiar situations, have
the dominion of our heart! - The beauty of autumn
is accompanied with a similar exercise of thought.
“Whatever increases this exercise or employ-
ment of imagination, increases also the emotion
of beauty or sublimity.
“This is very obviously the effect of all associa-
tions. There is no man who has not some in-
teresting associations with particülar scenes, or
airs, or books, and who does not feel their beauty
or sublimity enhanced to him by such connexions.
The view of the house where one was born, of the
school where one was educated, and where the gay
years of infancy were passed, is indifferent to no man
“In the case of those trains of thought, whick.
are suggested by objects either of sublimity or
beauty, it will be found, that they are in all cases
composed of ideas capable of exciting some affec.
tion or emotion; and that not only the whole suc-
cession is accompanied with that peculiar emotion
which we call the emotion of beauty or sublimity,
but that every individual idea of such a succession is
in itself productive of some simple emotion or other.
“ Thus the ideas suggested by the scenery of
spring, are ideas productive of emotions of cheer

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
119
fulness, of gladness, and of tenderness. The images
suggested by the prospect of ruins, are images be-
longing to pity, to melancholy, and to admiration.
The ideas, in the same manner, awakened by the
view of the ocean in a storm, are ideas of power,
of majesty, and of terror.”
To prevent circumlocution, such ideas may be
termed ideas of emotion ; and the effect which is
produced upon the mind, by objects of taste, may
be considered as consisting in the production of a
regular or consistent train of ideas of emotion.
“In those trains which are suggested by objects
of sublimity or beauty, however slight the con-
nexion between individual thoughts may be, it will
be found, that there is always some general prin.
ciple of connexion which pervades the whole, and
gives them some certain definite character. They
are either gay, or pathetic, or melancholy, or
solemn, or awful, or elevating, &c., according to
the nature of the emotion which is first excited.
Thus the prospect of a serene evening in summer,
produces first an emotion of peacefulness and tran-
quillity, and then suggests a variety of images cor-
responding to this primary impression. The sight
of a torrent, or of a storm, in the same manner, im.
presses us first with sentiments of awe or solemnity,
or terror, and then awakens in our ininds a series
of conceptions allied to this peculiar emotion.”
The intellectual, or fine arts are those whose
objects are thus addressed to the imagination;
and the pleasures they afford are described, by way
of distinction, as the pleasures of the imagination

120
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
SUMMARY OF THIS CHAPTER.
Thus, by analysis, generalization, and systema-
tization, of the materials which the best writers
present, I have, in this chapter, endeavored to take
new and larger views; and, by an examination of
the elements of beauty, I have endeavored to fix
its doctrines upon an immoveable basis.
I have shown that there exist elements of beauty
equally invariable in themselves, and in the kind
of effect they produce upon the mind; that these
elements are modified, varied, and complicated, as
we advance from the most simple to the most
complex class of natural beings, or of the arts
which relate to these respectively; that the ele-
ments of beauty in inanimate beings, consist in
the simplicity, regularity, uniformity, proportion,
order, &c, of those geometrical forms which are
so intimately connected with mere existence; that
the elements of beauty in living beings, consist in
adding to the preceding the delicacy, bending,
variety, contrast, &c., which are connected with
growth, and reproduction ; that the elements of
beauty in thinking beings, consist in adding to the
preceding the symmetry, proportion, * &c., which
are connected with fitness for sense, thought, and
motion; that the elements of beauty in the objects
of useful art, consist in the same simplicity, regu.
* Proportion is here employed, not as expressing an intrinsic
relation, as in the beauty of inanimate beings, but as expressing
an extrinsic relation to fitness for ends.

THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. I
121
larity, uniformity, proportion, order, &c., of geo-
metrical forms which belong to inanimate beings;
that the elements of beauty in the objects of orna.
mental art consist in the same delicacy, bending,
variety, contrast, &c., which belong to living heings;
and that the elements of beauty in the objects of
intellectual art consist in thinking forms, in gesture,
sculpture, and painting, or in functions of mind
actually exercised, in oratory, poetry, and music.
The elements of beauty have hitherto been con-
founded by many writers, as more or less applicable
to objects of all kinds; and as this general and
confused application was easily disproved as to
many objects, uncertainty and doubt have been
thrown over the whole. The remaining writers
have consequently been led to adopt, as characters
of beauty, only one or two of these elements, which
were consequently capable of application only to
one or two classes of its objects. Hence, no sub-
ject of human inquiry has hitherto been left in a
more disgraceful condition than this, the very
foundation of taste.
I do not hesitate to state that, owing to the near
approximations to truth, and the insensible transi-
tions into error, which I have found in every wri-
ter, and the immense mass of confused materials
which they present, this subject has cost me more
trouble than any one I have ever investigated, ex-
cept that of my work on the mind ;* nor without
* «The Nervous System, Anatomical and Physiological: in
which the Functions of the various parts of the Brain are, for the
first time, assigned.”

122
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY.
some physiological knowledge, do I think tasks of
this kind at all practicable. Generally speaking,
each branch of knowledge is most surely advanced
by acquaintance with its related branches; and
philosophers cannot too much bear in mind the
words of Cicero: “Etenim omnes artes quæ ad
humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam commune
vinculum, et quasi cognatione quadam inter se con-
tinentur."

APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS
23
APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
SECTION I.
NATURE OF THE PICTURESQUE.
In landscape, the nature of the beautiful and the
sublime seems to be better understood than that
of the picturesque. There are few disputes as to
the former; many as to the latter. These dis-
putes, moreover, are not as to what is picturesque,
but as to what picturesque is.
Payne Knight asserts, that the picturesque has
no distinctive character, and merely designates
what a painter would imitate. Price, on the con-
trary, has given so many admirable illustrations of
it, that its characteristics are before every reader
Strange to tell, its nature or essence has not been
penetrated, because these characteristics have not
been rigidly analyzed.
Price has, indeed, generalized considerably on
this subject, by showing that irregularity, rough-
ness, &c., enter into all scenes of a picturesque
* Communicated by the writer to the Magazine of the Fina
Lrts," No. 11, for June, 1833.

121
APPENDIX TO THE
description; and the examination of any one of
them will certainly verify the truth of his observa-
tion
Thus, on a remote country-road, we often ob-
serve the deep ruts on its surface which in winter
would render it impassable — the huge and loose
moss-grown stone, ready to encumber it by falling
from the bank — the stunted pollard by its side,
whose roots are exposed by the earth falling away
from it, and which must itself be swept away by
the first wind that may blow against it in an unfa-
vorable direction — the almost ruined cottage,
above and beyond these, whose gable is propped
up by an old and broken wheel, and whose thatched
roof, stained with every hue of moss or lichen, has,
at one part, long fallen in—the shaggy and ragged
horse that browses among the rank weeds around
it - and the old man, bent with age, who leans
over the broken gate in front of it.
Here, in every circumstance, is verified the ir-
regularity and roughness which Price ascribes to
the picturesque. But he has failed to observe, that
the irregularity and roughness are but the signs of
that which interests the mind far more deeply, name-
ly, the universal DECAY which causes them. This
is the essence of the picturesque— the charm in it
which begets our sympathy.
Confining his remark merely to ruins, the author
of “Observations on Gardening,” says: “At the
sight of a ruin, reflections on the change, the de-
cay, and the desolation, before us naturally occur;
and they introduce a long succession of others, all

PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
125
tinctured with that melancholy which these have
inspired; or if the monument revive the memory
of former times, we do not stop at the simple fact
which it records, but recollect many more coeval
circumstances which we see, nor perhaps as they
were, but as they are come down to us, venerable
with age, and magnified by fame.” — What is here
said of ruins, and is indeed as to them sufficiently
striking, is true of the picturesque universally, and
it is only surprising that, amid such disputes, this
simple and obvious truth should not have been ob-
served.
In landscape, therefore, the picturesque stands
in the same relation to the beautiful and sublime,
that the pathetic does to them in poetry. Hence,
speaking also of ruins only, Alison says: “The
images suggested by the prospect of ruins, are
images belonging to pity, to melancholy, and to
admiration."
A thousand illustrations might be given in sup
port of this truth and the principle which it affords;
but I think it better to leave these to the sugges-
ion or the choice of every reader.
SECTION II.
CAUSE OF LAUGHTER.
This has been partly explained by Beattie, partly
by Hobbes; and it is chiefly to vindicate the la:ter,
who knew much more of the human mind than the

126
APPENDIX TO THE
people who have attacked him, that I write the
pages immediately following.
Speaking of the quality in things, which makes
them provoke the pleasing emotion or sentiment
of which laughter is the external sign, Beattie
says: “It is an uncommon mixture of relation and
contrariety, exhibited, or supposed to be united, in
the same assemblage.” And elsewhere he says:
“ Laughter arises from the view of two or more
inconsistent, unsuitable, or incongruous parts or
circumstances, considered as united in one com.
plex object or assemblage, or as acquiring a sort of
mutual relation from the peculiar manner in which
the mind takes notice of them.”
“The latter may arise from contiguity, from the
relation of cause and effect, from unexpected like-
ness, from dignity and meanness, from absurd.
ity, &c.
“Thus, at first view, the dawn of the morning
and a boiled lobster seem utterly incongruous, but
when a change of color from black to red is sug-
gested, we recognise a likeness, and consequently
a relation, or ground of comparison.
“And here let it be observed, that the greater
the number of incongruities that are blended in
the same assemblage, the more ludicrous it will
probably be. If, as in the last example, there be
an opposition of dignity and meanness, as well as
of likeness and dissimilitude, the effect of the
contrast will be more powerful, than if only one
of these oppositions had appeared in the ludicrous
idea.”

PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
127
The first part of the subject seems, indeed, so
clear as to admit of no objection.
Hobbes, viewing more particularly the act of the
mind, defines laughter to be a “sudden glory,
arising from a sudden conception of some eminen-
cy in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity
of others, or with our own formerly.” And else-
where he says: “Men laugh at jests, the wit
whereof always consisteth in the elegant discov-
ering and conveying to our minds, some absurdity
of another."*
Dr. Campbell objects that "contempt may be
raised in a very high degree, both suddenly and
unexpectedly, without producing the least tendency
to laugh.” But if there exist that incongruity in
the same assemblage described as the fundamental
cause of this sudden conception of our own supe-
riority, laughter, as Beattie has shown, “will al-
ways, or for the most part, excite the risible emo.
tion, unless when the perception of it is attended
with some other emotion of greater authority,"
dependant on custom, politeness, &c.
Dr. Campbell also observes, that “ laughter may
be, and is daily, produced by the perception of in-
congruous associations, when there is no contempt.
“We often smile at a witty performance or pase
sage, such as Butler's allusion to a boiled lobster,
in his picture of the morning, when we are so far
from conceiving any inferiority or turpitude in the
•
Human Nature," chap. ix., sec. 13,

128
APPENDIX 10 THE
author, that we greatly admire his genias, and wish
ourselves possessed of that very turn of fancy
which produced the drollery in question
“Many have laughed at the queerness of the
comparison in these lines,
"For rlıyme the rudder is of verses,
With which like ships they steer their courses,'
who never dreamed that there was any person or
party, practice or opinion, derided in them.
“If any admirer of the Hobbesian philosophy
should pretend to discover some class of men whom
the poet here meant to ridicule, he ought to con-
sider, that if any one hath been tickled with the
passage to whom the same thought never occurred,
that single instance would be sufficient to subvert
the doctrine, as it would show that there may be
laughter where there is no triumph or glorying
over anybody, and, consequently, no conceit of
one's own superiority.
Now, the class of men laughed at in both cases
is the same, namely, poets, whose lofty allusions
are ridiculed by the former, and silly rhymes by
the latter; nor can any one duly appreciate or be
pleased with either, to whom this intention of the
writer is not obvious. Who ever dreamed of “tur-
pitude in the author," as Dr. Campbell supposes !
“As to the wag,” says Beattie, “who amuses
himself on the first of April with telling lies, he
must be shallow, indeed, if he hope, by so doing, to
acquire any superiority over another man whom he

PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
129
knows to be wiser and better than hunself; for, on
these occasions, the greatness of the joke, and the
loudness of the laugh, are, if I rightly remember,
in exact proportion to the sagacity of the person
imposed on.”No doubt; but it is because he is
thrown into an apparent and whimsical, though
momentary inferiority; and the greater his saga
city, the more amusing does this appear.
“Do we not,” says he,"sometimes laugh at for-
tuitous combinations, in which, as no mental energy
is concerned in producing them, there cannot be
either fault or turpitude ? Could not one imagine a
set of people jumbled together by accident, so as to
present a laughable group to those who know their
characters ?” — Undoubtedly; but then the slouch
of one, and the rigidity of the other, &c., make both
contemptible, as to physical characteristics at least,
and there is no need of turpitude in either.
The strongest apparent objection, however, is
that of Dr. Campbell, who says: “Indeed, men's
telling their own blunders, even blunders recently
committed, and laughing at them, a thing not un-
common in very risible dispositions, is utterly in-
explicable upon Hobbes's system. For, to consider
the thing only with regard to the laugher himself,
there is to him no subject of glorying, that is not
counterbalanced by an equal subject of humiliation
(he being both the person laughing, and the person
laughed at), and these two subjects must destroy
one another."
But he overlooks the precise terms employed by
Hobbes, who says: "The passion of laughter is

130
APPENDIX TO THE
nothing else but sudden glory, arising from a sud.
den conception of some eminency in ourselves, by
comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our
own formerly. For men laugh at the follies of them
selves past, when they come suddenly to remem.
brance, except they bring with them any present dis-
honori'
It is not therefore true, as Dr. Campbell says,
that “with regard to others, he appears solely un-
der the notion of inferiority, as the person triumph-
ed over.” He, on the contrary, appears as achieving
a very glorious triumph, that, namely, over his own
errors.
This shows also the error of Addison's remarks,
that “according to this account, when we heall a
man laugh excessively, instead of saying that he is
'very merry, we ought to tell him that he is very
proud.” — A man may contemn the errors both of
nimself and others, without pride : and, indeed, in
contemning the former, he proves himself to be far
above that sentiment, and verifies Dr. Campbell's
remark that no two characters more rarely meet in
the same person, than that of a very risible man,
and a very self-conceited supercilious man.
It is curious to see a great man, like Hobbes,
thus attacked by less ones, who do not even under.
stand him.

PRECEDING CHAPTERS
133
SECTION III.
SAUSE OF THE PLEASURE RECEIVED FROM REPRESENTATIONS
EXCITING PITY.
Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain
this cause.
According to the Abbé Du Bos,* in order to get
rid of listlessness, the mind seeks for emotions ;
and the stronger these are the better. Hence, the
passions which in themselves are the most distres.
sing, are, for this purpose, preferable to the pleas.
ant, because they most effectually relieve the mind
from the less endurable languor which preys upon
it during inaction.
The sophistry of this explanation is evident.
Pleasant passions, as Dr. Campbell has shown, ought
in every respect to have the advantage, because,
while they preserve the mind from this state of in-
action, they convey a feeling which is agreeable
Nor is it true that the stronger the emotion is, so
much the fitter for this purpose; for if we exceed
a certain measure, instead of a sympathetic and de-
lightful sorrow, we excite only horror and aversion.
The most, therefore, that can be concluded from
the Abbé's premises, is, that it is useful to excite
passion of some kind or other, but not that the dis
tressing ones are the fittest.
According to Fontenelle,† theatrical representa:
"Reflexions Critiques sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture.”
“Refiexions sur la Poetique.”

132
APPENDIX TO THE
tion has almost the effect of reality : but yet not
altogether. We have still a certain idea of false-
hood in the whole of what we see. We weep for
the misfortunes of a hero to whom we are attached.
In the same instant, we comfort ourselves by re-
flecting, that it is nothing but a fiction.
The short answer to this is, that we are conscious
of no such alternation as that here described.
According to David Hume, whose hypothesis is
a kind of supplement to the former two, that which
" when the sorrow is not softened by fiction, raises
a pleasure from the bosom of uneasiness, a pleasure
which still retains all the features and outward
symptoms of distress and sorrow, is that very elo-
quence with which the melancholy scene is repre-
sented.”
In reply, Dr. Campbell has shown that the ag-
gravating of all the circumstances of misery in the
representation, cannot make it be contemplated
with pleasure, but must be the most effectual
method for making it give greater pain; that the
detection of the speaker's talents and address,
which Hume's hypothesis implies, is in direct op-
position to the fundamental maxim, that “it is es-
sential to the art to conceal the art;" and that the
supposition that there are two distinct effects pro
duced by the eloquence on the hearers, one the
sentiment of beauty, or of the harmony of orato-
rical numbers, the other the passion which the
speaker purposes to raise in their minds, and that
when the first predominates, the mixture of the
two effects becomes exceedingly pleasant and the

PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
133
reverse when the second is superior, is altogether
imaginary.
According to Hawkesworth,* the compassion in
question may be “resolved into that power of im-
agination, by which we apply the misfortunes of
others to ourselves;" and we are said “to pity no
longer than we fancy ourselves to suffer, and to be
pleased only by reflecting that our sufferings are
not real; thus indulging a dream of distress, from
which we can awake whenever we please, to exult
in our security, and enjoy the comparison of the
fiction with the truth.”
This hypothesis is evidently too gross to need
reply.
Dr. Campbell has answered the preceding hy-
potheses at great length, and quite satisfactorily. I
regret to say that his own is as worthless, as well
as remarkably confused and unintelligible.
To Burke, who wrote at a later period, it falls to
my lot to reply at greater length.
“To examine this point concerning the effect of
tragedy in a proper manner,” says that writer,“ we
must previously consider how we are affected by
the feelings of our fellow-creatures in circumstances
of real distress. I am convinced we have a degree
of delight, and that no small one, in the real mis-
fortunes and pains of others; for, let the affection
be what it will in appearance, if it does not make
us shun such objects, if on the contrary it induces
us to approach them, if it makes us dwell upon
. “ Adventurer," No. 110

134
APPENDIX TO THE
them, in this case I conceive we must have a de-
light or pleasure of some species or other in con-
templating objects of this kind. . . Our delight in
cases of this kind is very greatly heightened, if the
sufferer be some excellent person who sinks under
an unworthy fortune. . . The delight we have in
such things hinders us from shunning scenes of
misery; and the pains we feel, prompt us to relieve
ourselves, in relieving those who suffer. . . In imi-
tated distress, the only difference is the pleasure
resulting from the effects of imitation."
A more monstrous doctrine than this was never
perhaps enunciated. A very little analysis will
expose its fallacy.
In relation to events of this kind, there are three
very distinct cases-real occurrence, subsequent
inspection or historical narration, and dramatic
representation; in each, the affection of the mind
is very different; and nearly all the errors on this
subject seem to have occurred from confounding
them. Burke has done this in the greatest degree.
The real occurrence of unmerited suffering is
beheld with no delight, but with unmixed pain, by
every well-constituted mind. Hume,* therefore,
justly observes, that “the same object of distress,
which pleases in a tragedy, were it really set before
us, would give the most unfeigned uneasiness.” It
is only by confounding this with the next case, of
subsequent inspection or historical narration, that
Burke gets into error here.
• Essay on Tragedy.

PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
135
“We do not,” says Burke, “sufficiently distin-
guish what we would by no means choose to do [or
to see done- he should have added] from what we
should be eager enough to see if it was once done.
We delight in seeing things [after they are done-
he should have added], which, so far from doing,
our heartiest wishes would be to see redressed.”
That the additions I have made, more truly state
the case, seems as evident, as it is, that they afford
a very different conclusion from Burke's, of our
beholding unmerited suffering with delight. But
he himself proves this by the very instance which
he gives in illustration of his doctrine.
“This noble capital,” he says, “the pride of
England and of Europe, I believe no man is so
strangely wicked as to desire to see destroyed by a
conflagration or an earthquake, though he should
be removed himself to the greatest distance from
the danger. But suppose such a fatal accident to
have happened, what numbers from all parts would
crowd to behold the ruins, and among them many
who would have been content never to have seen
London in its glory!”.
Here the words which I have put in italics clearly
show that I was right in the additions I suggested
in his previous statement, and that he there con-
founded delight in seeing the infliction of unmerited
suffering, with delight in seeing it after infliction,
or of seeing it historically narrated; for, in this his
illustration, it is the latter, and not the former, that
he supposes-nay he now says “no man is so
-strangely wicked as to desire to see destroyed!" &c

136
APPENDIX TO THE
Indeed, it is quite plain that, supposing an attempt
made to destroy London, so far would every one be
from being delighted to see it done, that he would
eagerly prevent it. There is here, therefore, on the
part of this writer, only his common and charac-
teristic confusion of ideas.
“Choose a day," he says, “ on which to represent
the most sublime and affecting tragedy we have;
appoint the most favorite actors; spare no cost
upon the scenes and decorations; unite the greatest
efforts of poetry, painting, and music; and when
you have collected your audience, just at the mo-
ment when their minds are erect with expectation,
let it be reported that a state-criminal, of high rank,
is on the point of being executed in the adjoining
square; in a moment the emptiness of the theatre
would demonstrate the comparative weakness of
the imitative arts, and proclaim the triumph of the
real sympathy.”
This presents only another instance of want of
discrimination. If the “state-criminal, of high
rank,” were not a real criminal - if he were an
unmerited sufferer, the place of execution, suppo-
sing his rescue impossible, would assuredly be fled
from by every person of feeling and honor; as we
read of in the public papers, lately, when a murder
of that kind was perpetrating by some one of the
base little jailor-princes of Germany. And we
know that, in the case of legal perpetrations of
that kind in England, even upon real criminals,
none but the most degraded wretches go to witness
such scenes

PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
137
In tragic representation, then, we know that the
suffering is not real, else should we fly. There
have, indeed, in such cases, been instances of a
sort of momentary deception, but it is only chil-
dren, and very simple people, utter strangers to
theatrical amusements, who are apt to be so de.
ceived; and as their case always excites the sur-
prise and laughter of every one, it clearly proves
that others are under no sort of deception.
Even Burke, notwithstanding his want of dis-
crimination, and his monstrous hypothesis, says:
"Imitated distress is never so perfect, but we can
perceive it is imitation, and on that principle are
somewhat pleased with it.” And his case of de-
sertion of the theatre, if it occur under any cir-
cumstances, illustrates this.
Burke adds, indeed : “But then I imagine we
shall be much mistaken if we attribute any consid-
erable part of our satisfaction in tragedy to the
consideration that tragedy is a deceit, and its repre-
sentations no realities. [We seek no satisfaction
of the kind: we know it to be a deceit throughout!]
The nearer it approaches the reality, and the far-
ther it removes us from all idea of fiction, the more
perfect is its power."
The nearest possible approach to reality, is only
necessary tothe success of fiction, to the pleasure
of imagination. He himself has said: “Imitated
distress is never so perfect, but we can perceive
it is imitation!” Again, therefore, here is only
Burke's characteristic confusion of ideas

138
APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
My own doctrine on this subject is already ob-
vious from the remarks made on others. We never
cease to know that tragic representution is a mere
deception ; our reason is never imposed upon ; our
imagination is alone engaged; we are perfectly con-
scious that it is so; and we have all the sensibility,
fine feeling, and generosity of pity, as well as the
satisfaction of being thereby raised wonderfully in
our own esteem, at the small cost of three shillings !
It is not a little curious, that this should not have
been evident to those who have written so much
about it. Dr. Campbell, alone, has approached it
“So great,” he says, “is the anomaly which some.
times displays itself in human characters, that it is
not impossible to find persons who are quickly
made to cry at seeing a tragedy, or reading a
romance, which they know to be fictions, and yet
are both inattentive and unfeeling in respect of the
actual objects of compassion who live in their
neighborhood, and are daily under their eye. . .
Men may be of a selfish, contracted, and even
avaricious disposition, who are not what we should
denominate hard-hearted, or unsusceptible of sym-
pathetic feeling. Such will gladly enjoy the luxury
of pity (as Hawkesworth terms it) when it nowise
interferes with their more powerful passions; that
is, when it comes unaccompanied with a demand
upon their pockets.” — This should have led him
to the simple truth, and should have prevented his
framing the most confused, unintelligible, and
worthless hypothesis upon this subject

ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES, 139
CHAPTER VIII.
ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
10 any inquiry respecting the beauty of woman,
the replics are, in general, various, inconsistent,
or contradictory. The assertion might, therefore,
appear to be true, that, even under the same climate,
beauty is not always the same.
Our vague perceptions, however, and our vague
expressions respecting beauty, will be found to be,
in a great measure, owing to the inaccuracy of our
mode of examining it, and, in some measure, to
the imperfect nomenclature which we possess for
describing it.
Beauty, and even true taste, respecting it, are
always the same; but, in the first place, we observe
beauty partially and imperfectly; and in the second
place, our actual preferences are dependant on our
particular wants, and will be found to differ only
because these wants differ in every individual, and
even in the same individual at different periods of
life.
The laws regulating beauty in woman, and taste
respecting it in man, have not been attempted to
be explained, except in the worthless work alluded

140
ANATOMICAL AND
to in the advertisement. Yet nothing perhaps is
more universally interesting.
As, in this view, the kinds of beauty demand the
first and chief attention, the following illustrations
are necessary :-
We observe a woman possessing one species of
beauty:- Her face is generally oblong; her neck
is rather long and tapering: her shoulders, without
being angular, are sufficiently broad and definite;
her bosom is of moderate dimensions; her waist,
remarkable for fine proportion, resembles in some
respects an inverted cone; her haunches are
moderately expanded; her thighs, proportional;
her arms, as well as her limbs, are rather long and
tapering; her hands and feet are moderately small;
her complexion is often rather dark; and her hair
is frequently abundant, dark, and strong. — The
whole figure is precise, striking, and brilliant. Yet,
has she few or none of the qualities of the succeed.
ing species.
We observe, next, another species of beauty:-
Her face is generally round; her eyes are generally
of the softest azure; her neck is often rather short;
her shoulders are softly rounded, and owe any
breadth they may possess rather to the expanded
chest, than to the size of the shoulders themselves;
her bosom, in its luxuriance, seems laterally to
protrude on the space occupied by the arms; her
waist, though sufficiently marked, is, as it were,
encroached on by the enbonpoint of all the con-
tiguous parts; her haunches are greatly expanded;
her thighs are large in proportion ; but her limbe

PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
141
and arms, tapering and becoming delicate, termi-
nate in feet and hands which, compared with the
ample trunk, are peculiarly small; her complexion
has the rose and lily so exquisitely blended, that
we are surprised it should defy the usual operation
of the elements, and she boasts a luxuriant pro-
fusion of soft and fine flaxen or auburn hair. -- The
whole figure is soft and voluptuous in the extreme.
Yet has she not the almost measured proportions
and the brilliant air of the preceding species; nor
has she the qualities of the succeeding one.
We observe, then, a beauty of a third species:-
Her face is generally oval; her high and pale fore-
head announces the intellectuality of her character;
her intensely expressive eye is full of sensibility;
in her lower features, modesty and dignity are
often united; she has not the expanded bosom, the
general embonpoint, or the beautiful complexion,
of the second species; and she boasts easy and
graceful motion, rather than the elegant proportion
of the first. — The whole figure is characterized by
intellectuality and grace.
Such are the three species of beauty of which all
the rest are varieties.
Now, as it is in general one only of these species
which characterizes any one woman, and as each
of these species is suited to the wants of, and is
consequently agreeable to, a different individual, it
is obvious why the common vague reports of the
beauty of any woman are always so various, incon.
sistent, or contradictory.
In the more accurate study of this subject, it is

142
ANATOMICAL AND
indispensable that the reader should understand the
analysis of female beauty, as reducible to three
species, is founded.
To attain this knowledge, and to acquire facility
in the art of distinguishing and judging of beauty
in woman, a little general knowledge of anatomy
is absolutely essential. The writer begs, therefore,
attention to the following sketch. It may not at
first seem interesting to the general render; but it
is the sole basis of a scientific knowledge of female
beauty; the study of it during one hour is sufficient
to apprehend it in all its bearings; and it will ob-
viate every future difficulty.
In viewing the human organs in a general man-
ner, a class of these organs at once obtrudes itself
upon our notice, from its consisting of an appara-
tus of levers, from its performing motion from place
to place or locomotion, and from these motions
being of the most obvious kind.—A little more
observation presents to us another class, which is
distinguished from the preceding by its consisting
of cylindrical tubes, by its transmitting and trans-
muting liquids, performing vascular action or nu-
trition, and by its motions being barely apparent.
Farther investigation discovers a third, which dif-
fers essentially from both these, in its consisting of
nervous particles, in its transmitting impressions
from external objects, performing nervous action or
thought, and in that action being altogether invisible
Thus, each of these classes of organs is distin
guished from another by the structure of its parts

PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
143
:
by the purposes which it serves, and by the greater
or less obviousness of its motions.
The first consists of levers; the second, of cyl-
indrical tubes; and the third, of nervous particles.
The first performs motion from place to place or
locomotion; the second transmits and transmutes
liquids, performing vascular action or nutrition;
and the third transmits impressions from external
objects, performing nervous action or thought
The motion of the first is extremely obvious; that
of the second is barely apparent; and that of the
third is altogether invisible.
Not one of them can be confounded with an-
other: for, considering their purposes only, it is
evident that that which performs locomotion, nei-
ther transmits liquids nor sensations; that which
transmits liquids, neither performs locomotion nor
is the means of sensibility; and that which is the
means of sensibility, neither performs locomotion
nor transmits liquids.
Now, the organs employed in locomotion are the
bones, ligaments, and muscles; those employed in
transmitting liquids or in nutrition, are the absorb-
ent, circulating, and secreting vessels; and those
employed about sensations or in thought, are the
organs of sense, cerebrum, and cerebel, with the
nerves which connect them.
The first class of organs may, therefore, be
termed locomotive, or (from their very obvious
action) mechanical; the second, vascular or nutri-
tive, or (as even vegetables, from their possessing
vessels, have life) they may be termed vital; and

144
ANATOMICAL AND
mind results from them) mental.
The human body, then, consists of organs of
three kinds. By the first kind, locomotive or me.
chanical action is effected ; by the second, nutritive
or vital action is maintained ; and by the third,
thinking or mental action is permitted.
Anatomy is, therefore, divided into three parts,
namely, that which considers the mechanical or
locomotive organs; that which considers the nu-
tritive or vital organs; and that which considers
the thinking or mental organs.
Under the mechanical or locomotive organs are
classed, first, the bones or organs of support; sec-
ond, the ligaments or organs of articulation; and
third, the muscles or organs of motion.
. Under the nutritive or vital organs are classed,
first, the absorbent vessels or organs of absorption;
second, the bloodvessels, which derive their con-
tents from the absorbed lymph, or organs of cir-
culation; and third, the secreting vessels, which
separate various matters from the blood, or organs
of secretion.*
* To some it may appear, that the organs and functions of di-
gestion, respiration, and generation, are not involved by this ar.
rangement; but such a notion can originate only in superficial ob-
servation.
Digestion is a compound function easily reducible to some of the
simple ones which have been enumerated. It consists of the mo.
tion of the stomach and contiguous parts, of the secretion of a li.
quid from its internal surface, and of that heat, which is the com
mon result of all action, whether mechanical, vital, or mental, and

PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
145
Under the thinking or mental organs are classed,
first, the organs of sense, where impressions take
place; second, the cerebrum or organ of thought,
properly so called, where these excite ideas, emo-
tions, and passions; and third, the cerebel or organ
which is better explained by such motion, than by chymical theo.
ries. Similarly compound are respiration and generation.
Thus, there is no organ nor function which is not involved by the
simple and natural arrangement here sketched.
Compound, however, as the organs of digestion, respiration, and
generation, are, yet, as they form so important a part of the sys.
tem, it may be asked, with which of these classes they are most
allied. The answer is obvious. All of them consist of tubular
vessels of various diameter; and all of them transmit and trans-
mute liquids. Possessing such strong characteristics of the nutri.
tive or vital system, they are evidently most allied to it.
is taken up by absorption — the first of the simple nutritive func-
tions ; respiration renovates it in the very middle of its course —
between the two portions of the simple function of circulation;
and generation, dependant on secretion - the last of these func-
tions, communicates this nutritive matter, or propagates vitality to
a new series of beings. In such arrangement, the digestive or.
gans, therefore, precede, and the generative follow, the simple
nutritive organs; while the respiratory occupy a middle place be
tween the venous and the arterial circulation.
Nothing can be more improper, as the preceding observations
show, than considering any one of these as a distinct class.
More fully, therefore, to enumerate the nutritive or vital organs,
we may say, that, under them, are classed, first, the organs of di.
gestion, the external and internal absorbent surfaces, and the ves.
sels which absorb from these surfaces, or the organs of absorption ;
second, the heart, lungs, and bloodvessels, which derive their con-
tents (the blood) from the absorbed lymph, or the organs of cir
culation ; and third, the secreting cavities, glands, &c., which sep
arate various matters from the blood, or the organs of secretion
and of which generation is the sequel.

146
ANATOMICAL AND
of vožtion, where acts of the will result from the
last. *
We may now more particularly notice the func-
tions of these organs, which are the subject of
physiology.
In the locomotive functions, the bones at once
give support, and form levers for motion; the lig-
aments form articulations, and afford the points of
support; and the muscles are the moving powers.
To the first, are owing all the symmetry and ele-
gance of human form; to the second, its beautiful
flexibility; and to the third, all the brilliance and
grace of motion which fancy can inspire, or skill
can execute.
In the nutritive functions, the food, having passed
into the mouth, is, after mastication, aided by mix-
ture with the saliva, thrown back, by the tongue
and contiguous parts, into the cavity behind, called
fauces and pharynx; this contracting, presses it into
the æsophagus or gullet; this also contracting,
propels it into the stomach, which, after its due di-
gestion aided by the gastric juice, similarly con-
tracting, transmits whatever portion of it, now
called chyme, is sufficiently comminuted to pass
through its lower opening, the pylorus, into the in-
testines; these, at the commencement of which it
receives the bile and pancreatic juice, similarly
pressing it on all sides, urge forward its most solid
part to the anus; while its liquid portion partly ese
capes from the pressure into the mouths of the ab
• Appendix E.

PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
147
sorbents. The absorbents arising by minute open.
ings from all the internal surfaces, and continuing
a similar contractile motion, transmit it, now called
chyle, by all their gradually-enlarging branches, and
through their general trunk, the thoracic duct,
where it is blended with the lymph brought from
other parts, into the great veins contiguous to the
heart, where it is mixed with the venous or return-
ing and dark-colored blood, and whence it flows
into the anterior side of that organ. The anterior
side of the heart, forcibly repeating this contraction,
propels it, commixed with the venous blood, into
the lungs, which perform the office of respiration,
and in some measure of sanguification ; there, giv-
ing off carbonaceous matter, and assuming a ver-
milion hue and new vivifying properties, it flows
back as arterial blood, into the posterior side of the
heart. The posterior side of the heart, still simi-
larly contracting, discharges it into the arteries;
these, maintaining a like contraction, carry it over
all the system ; and a great portion of it, impreg-
nated with carbon, and of a dark color, returns
through the veins in order to undergo the same
course. Much, however, of its gelatinous and
fibrous parts is retained in the cells of the paren
chyma, or cellular, vascular, and nervous substance
forming the basis of the whole fabric, and consti-
tutes nutrition, properly so called; while other
portions of it become entangled in the peculiarly-
formed labyrinths of the glands, and form secretion
and excretion—the products of the former con-
tributing to the exercise of other functions, and

148
ANATOMICAL AND
those of the latter being rejected. As digestion
precedes the first, so generation follows the last of
these functions, and not only continues the same
species of action, but propagates it widely to new
existences in the manner just described.
In the thinking functions, the organs of sense
receive external impressions, which excite in them
sensations; the cerebrum, having these transmitted
to it, performs the more complicated functions of
mental operation, whence result ideas, emotions,
and passions; and the cerebel, being similarly influ-
enced, performs the function of volition, or causes
the acts of the will.
It is not unusual to consider the body as being
divided into the head, the trunk, and the extremi.
ties; but, in consequence of the hitherto universal
neglect of the natural arrangement of the organs
and functions into locomotive, nutritive, and think-
ing, the beauty and interest which may be attached
to this division, have equally escaped the notice of
anatomists.
It is a curious fact, and strongly confirmative of
the preceding arrangements, that one of these
parts, the extremities, consists almost entirely of
locomotive organs, namely, of bones, ligaments,
and muscles ; that another, the trunk, consists of
all the greater nutritive organs, namely, absorbents,
blood-vessels, and glands; and that the third, the
head, contains all the thinking organs, namely, the
organs of sense, cerebrum, and cerebel.*
• In perfect consistency with the assertion, that, though the

PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
149
It is a fact not less curious, nor less confirmative
of the preceding arrangements, that, of these parts,
those which consist chiefly of locomotive or me-
chanical organs — organs which, as to mere struc-
ture, and considered apart from the influence of
the nervous system over them, are common to us
with the lowest class of beings, namely, minerals*
— are placed in the lowest situation, namely, the
extremities; that which consists chiefly of nutri-
tive or vital organs - organs common to us with
a higher class of beings, namely, vegetablest -- is
placed in a higher situation, namely, the trunk;
and that which consists chiefly of thinking or men-
tal organs-organs peculiar to the highest class of
beings, namely, animalsț— is placed in the highest
situation, namely, the head.
It is not less remarkable, that this analogy is
supported even in its minutest details; for, to
choose the nutritive organs contained in the trunk
as an illustration, it is a fact, that those of absorp-
tion and secretion, which are most common to us
organs of digestion, respiration, and generation, were really com-
pound, still they were chiefly nutritive or vital, and properly be.
longed to that class, it is not less remarkable, that, in this division
of the body, they are found to occupy that part, the trunk, in
which the chief simple nutritive organs are contained. This also
shows the impropriety of reckoning any of these a separate system
from the vital.
* The bones resemble these, in containing the greatest quantity
of earthy mineral matter.
† It is the possession of vessels which constitutes the vitality of
vegetables.
* In animals, alone, is nervous matter discoverable.

150
ANATOMICAL AND
with plants, a luwer class of beings, have a lower
situation in the cavity of the abdomen; while
those of circulation, which are very imperfect in
plants,* and more peculiar to animals, a higher
class of beings, hold a higher situation — in the
cavity of the thorax.
It is, moreover, worthy of remark, and still illus-
trative of the preceding arrangements, that, in each
of these three situations, the bones differ both in
position and in form. In the extremities, they are
situated internally to the soft parts, and are gener-
ally of cylindrical form ; in the trunk, they begin
to assume a more external situation and a flatter
form, because they protect nutritive and more im-
portant parts, which they do not, however, alto-
gether cover; and, in the head, they obtain the
most external situation and the flattest form, espe-
cially in its highest part, because they protect
thinking and most important organs, which, in
some parts, they completely invest.
The loss of such general views is the conse-
quence of arbitrary methods.t
* Plants have no real circulation, nor passage of their nutritive
liquids through the same point.
† This arrangement of anatomy and physiology was first pub-
wishes by me in 1806; and, notwithstanding its being the arrange-
meat of nature, it has not been adopted by any one that I know
of, until very lately, when it was in some measure used by Dr.
Roget, without acknowledgment.
The originality, as well as the truth and value, of this arrange-
ment, will be illustrated by referring to any other published pre.
vious to 1806, or even to 1808, when I repablished it in “Prelim.

PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
151
We may now apply these anatomical and physi-
ological views to the art of distinguishing and
judging of beauty in woman.
It is evidently the locomotive or mechanical
system which is highly developed in the beauty
whose figure is precise, striking, and brilliant.
It is evidently the nutritive or vital system which
is highly developed in the beauty whose figure is
soft and voluptuous.
It is not less evidently the thinking or mental
system which is highly developed in the beauty
whose figure is characterized by intellectuality and
grace.
Thus can anatomical principles alone at once
illustrate and establish the accuracy of the three
species of beauty which I have analytically de-
scribed

OF THE AGES OF WOMAN
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE AGES OF WOMAN IN RELATION TO BEAUTY.
The variations of the organization of woman do
not distinctly mark the seasons of life. Many
connected phenomena glide on imperceptibly; and
ent and distinct ages, only at periods remote from
each other. Although, therefore, woman is per.
petually changing, it requires some care to dis-
criminate the principal epochs of her life.
The first age of woman extends from birth to
the period of puberty.
In beginning the career of life, woman is not yet
truly woman; the characters of her sex are not
yet decided; she is an equivocal being, who does
not differ from the male of the same age even by
the delicacy of the organs; and we observe be-
tween them a perfect identity of wants, functions,
and movements. Their existence is, then, purely
individual; we perceive none of the relations
which afterward establish between them a mutual
dependance ; each lives only for self.
This conformity and independence of the sexes
are the more remarkable, the earlier the age and
the less advanced the development

IN RELATION TO BEAUTY.
153
Confining our view to woman alone, it is not
only in dimensions that, at this age, her person
differs from that in which the growth is termi-
nated: it presents another model. The various
parts have not, in relation to each other, the same
proportions.
The head is much more voluminous; and this
is not a result of the extent of the face, for that is
small and contracted, because the apparatus of
smell and of mastication are not yet developed.
Nor is the head only more voluminous; it is also
more active, and forms a centre toward which is
directed all the effort of life.
The spine of the back has not either the minuter
prominences or the general inflexions which favor
the action of the extensor muscles, a circumstance
which is opposed to standing perpendicularly during
the first months. The infant consequently can only
crawl like a quadruped.
Little distinction can then be drawn, and that
with difficulty, from the comparative width of the
haunches, and magnitude of the pelvis. That part
is scarcely more developed in the female than in
the male; its general form is the same; and its
different diameters have similar relations to each
other.
The length of the trunk is great in proportion
to the limbs, which are slightly and imperfectly
developed.
Owing to the great length of the chest, and the
imperfection of the inferior members, the middle
of the body then corresponds to the region of the

,54
OF THE AGES OF WOMAN
umbilicus. An infant having other proportions,
would appear to be deprived of the characters of
its age.
In the locomotive system, the muscles have not
yet acted with sufficient power and frequency to
modify the direction of the bones, and to bestow a
peculiar character upon their combination in the
skeleton. The fleshy and other soft parts do not
yet appear to differ from those of the male, either
as to form or as to relative volunie.
The vital functions of digestion, of circulation
and respiration, of nutrition, secretion, and excre-
tion, are performed in the same manner. The
want of nourishment is unceasingly renewed, and
the movements of the pulse, and of inspiration and
expiration, are rapidly performed, owing to the
extreme irritability of all the organs.
The mental functions present the same resem
blance; the ideas, the appetites, the passions, have
the greatest analogy; and similar moral disposi-
tions prevail. Little girls, it has been observed,
have in some measure the petulance of little boys,
and these have in some measure the mobility and
the inconstancy of little girls.
Owing to the pelvis not being yet developed,
little girls walk nearly like children of the other
sex.
These points of resemblance do not continue
during a long period: the female begins to acquire
a distinct physiognomy, and traits which are pecu-
liar to her, long before we can discern any of the
symptoms of puberty; and although the especial

IN RELATION TO BEAUTY.
155
marks which distinguish her sex do not yet show
themselves, the general forms which characterize
it may be perceived. These differences, however,
are only slight modifications, more easily felt than
determined.
The cartilaginous extremities of the bones ap-
pear to enlarge ; and the mucous substance, which
ultimately gives the soft reliefs which distinguish
woman, is not yet secreted. She is now perhaps
more easily distinguished by the nature of her in-
clinations and the general character of her mind :
while man now seeks to make use of his strength,
woman endeavors to acquire agreeable arts. The
movements, the gait, of the little girl begin to
change.
These shades are so much the more sensible as
the development is more advanced. Still, woman,
in advancing toward puberty, appears to remove
less than man from her primitive constitution; she
alwayspreserves something of the character proper
to children; and the texture of her organs never
loses all its original softness.
At the near approach to puberty, woman becomes
daily more perfect.
We observe a predominance of the action of the
lungs and the arteries; the pelvis enlarges; the
haunches are rounded; and the figure acquires
elegance.
There is in particular a remarkable increase of
the capacity of the pelvis, of which the circum-
ference at last presents the circular form; it being
no longer, as in the little girl and in man, the an:

156
OF THE AGES OF WOMAN
teroposterior diameter which is the greatest, but
the transverse one. It has been observed that the
same occurs in the females of the greater quad-
rupeds. The pelvis, however, does not acquire,
till the moment of perfect puberty, its proper form
and dimensions
The changes which the same cause produces at
the surface, are a general development of the cel-
lular tissue, the delicacy of all the outlines, the
fineness and the animation of the skin, and the new
state of the bosom.
The fire of the eyes, and the altogether new ex-
pression of the physiognomy, show that there now
also exists the sensation of a new want, which
various circumstances may for a time enfeeble or
silence, but can never entirely stifle; and with it
come those tastes, that direction of the mind, and
those habits, which are the effect of an internal
power now called into activity.
The gait and bearing of woman are now no longer
the same; and the voice changes as well as the
physiognomy.
In all that has yet occurred, it will be observed
that nutrition and growth take place with great
rapidity in woman Her internal structure, her
external form, her faculties, are all developed
promptly. It would appear that the parts which
compose her body, being less, less compact, and
less strong, than those of man, require less time to
attain their complete development.
Woman consequently arrives earlier at the age
of puberty, and her body is commonly, at twenty

IN RELATION TO BEAUTY.
157
years of age, as completely formed as that of a
man at thirty. Thus beauty and grace, as has been
observed, seem to demand of nature less labor
and time than the attributes of force and grandeur
In many women, however, nutrition languishes
even until the sexual organs enter into action, and
determine a revolution under the influence of which
growth is accomplished.
Still it is certain that, for several years, the
locomotive system predominates in young women,
even in figures promising the ultimate development
of the vital system in the highest degree.
The second age of woman extends from puberty
to the cessation of the menses, or, we may say,
from the period of full growth, the general time of
bearing children, to the time of ceasing to bear -
generally perhaps from twenty to forty.
It is at the beginning of this period that woman
has acquired all her attributes, her most seducing
graces. She is not now distinguished merely by
the organs which are the direct instruments of
reproduction : many other differences of structure,
having a relation to her part in life, present them
selves to our view.
At this maturer age, the whole figure is, in the
female, smaller and slenderer than in the male,
The ancients accordingly gave seven heads and a
half to the Venus, and eight heads and some mod-
ules to the Apollo.
The relations between the dimensions of the
different parts differ also in the two sexes.
In woman, the head, shoulders, and chest, are

158
OF THE AGES OF WOMAN
smail and compact, while the haunches, the hips,
the thighs, and the parts connected with the abdo-
men, are ample and large. Hence, her body tapers
upward, as her limbs taper downward. And this
is the most remarkable circumstance in her gen-
eral form.
Owing to smaller stature, and to greater size of
the abdominal region, the middle point, which is
at the pubis in the male, is situated higher in the
female. This is the next remarkable circumstance
in a general view.
The inferior members still continue shorter.
In general, woman is not only less in stature,
and different in her general proportions, but her
haunches are more apart, her hips more elevated,
her abdomen larger, her members more rounded,
her soft parts less compact, her forms more soft-
ened, her traits finer.
During youth, especially, and among civilized
nations, woman is farther distinguished by the
softness, the smoothness, the delicacy, and the
polish, of all the forms, by the gradual and easy
transitions between all the parts, by the number
and the harmony of the undulating lines which
these present in every view, by the beautiful out-
line of the reliefs, and by the fineness and the ani-
mation of the skin.
The soft parts which enter into the composition
of woman, and the cellular tissue which serves to
unite them, are also more delicate and more sup-
ple than those of inan.
All these circumstances indicate very clearly

IN RELATION TO BEAUTY.
159
the passive state to which nature has destined
woman, and which will be fully illustrated in a fu-
ture volume.
If, in a living body, any part liable to be dis-
tended had too much firmness, or even elasticity,
it might press against some essential organ; and
the liquids being impeded in their course, would
in that case be speedily altered, if the neighboring
parts offered not flexible vessels for their recep-
tion.
Now, in the body of woman, certain parts are
exposed to suffer great distentions and compres-
sions. It is therefore necessary that her organs
should be of such structure as to yield readily to
these impressions, and to supply each other when
their respective functions are impeded.
From this it follows, that woman never enjoys
existence better, than when a moderate plumpness
bestows on her organs, without too much weak
ening them, all the suppleness of which they are
capable.
This leads to the consideration of the natural
mobility of the organs of woman.
Their mobility is a necessary consequence, in
the first place, of their littleness. The movements
of all animals, appear to be executed with more
rapidity, the less their bulk. It has been observed,
that the arteries of the ox beat only thirty-five
times, while those of the sheep beat sixty, and that
the pulse of women is smaller and more rapid than
hat of men.
A second physical quality, which concurs to

160
OF THE AGES OF WOMAN
render more mobile the various parts of woman, is
their softness.
A certain feebleness is the necessary conse-
quence of these two circumstances. But it is
thence that spring woman's suppleness and light-
ness of movement, and her capacity for grace of
attitude.
It has been conjectured, that even the elements
of the parts which constitute woman, have a par-
ticular organization, on which depends the ele-
gance of the forms, the vivacity of the sensations,
and the lightness of the movements, which charac
terize her.
The result of these circumstances is that, while
man possesses force and majesty, woman is distin-
guished by beauty and grace. The characteristics
of woman are less imposing and more amiable;
they inspire less admiration than love. As has
been observed, a single trait of rudeness, a severe
air, or even the character of majesty, would injure
the effect of womanly beauty. Lucian admirably
represents to us the god of love frightened at the
masculine air of Minerva.
While man, by force and activity, surmounts the
obstacles which embarrass him, woman, by yield-
ing, withdraws from their action, and adds to beau-
ty, a gentle and winning grace which places all the
vaunted power of man at her disposal.
It is evidently the influence of the organs distin.
guishing the two sexes, which is the primary cause
of their peculiar beauty.
As the liquid which, in man, is secreted in cer

IN RELATION TO BEAUTY.
161
tain vessels for the purpose of reproduction, com-
municates a general excitement and activity to the
character, so when, in woman, the periodical ex-
sparkle, the countenance becomes more expres.
sive, but at the same time more timid and reserved,
and a character of flexibility and grace distin-
guishes every motion.
Conformably with this view, the appearance and
the manners of eunuchs approach to those of wo-
men, by the softness and feebleness of their organ-
ization, as well as by their timidity, and by their
acute voice.
The very opposite is naturally the result of the
extirpation of the ovaries in women. Pott, giving
an account of the case of a female, in whom both
the ovaries were extirpated, says, the person "has
become thinner, and more apparently muscular;
her breasts, which were large, are gone ; nor has
she ever menstruated since the operation, which
is now, some years.” Haighton found that, by
dividing the Fallopian tubes, which connect the
ovaries with the womb, sexual feelings were de-
stroyed, and the ovaries gradually wasted.
The women, also, in whom the uterus and the
ovaries remain inert during life, approximate in
forms and habits to men. It is stated, in the Philo
sophical Transactions for 1805, that an adult fe
male, in whom the ovaries were defective, presented
tution
To the same general principle, it has been ob.

162
OF THE AGES OF WOMAN
served, we must refer the partial growth of a beard
on females in the decline of life, and the circum-
stance that female-birds, when they have ceased to
lay eggs, occasionally assume the plumage, and, to
a certain extent, the other characters of the male.
Under the influence of this cause, the first exer-
cise of her new faculty determines remarkable
modifications in woman. Her neck swells and
augments in size -
"Non illain nutrix orienti luce revisens
Hesterno collum poterit circumdare filo ;*
her voice assumes another expression; her moral
habits totally change: and many women owe to
love and marriage more splendid beauty.
The women thus happily constituted are not those
of hot climates, but those of cooler regions and
calmer temperament, whose placid features and
more elastic forms announce a gentler and more
passive love.
Impassioned women, on the contrary, do not so
long preserve their freshness: the expansive force,
* The cause of this has never been explained; and it could not
well be explained, without a perception of the views in my prece-
ding physiological arrangement.—The brain, at this period, be-
comes inore subservient to purposes connected with generation;
the communication between the trunk and the head is more fre-
quent, intense, and sustained and the neck, which contains the
communicating organs, necessarily increases in size. This unex-
plained circumstance led to the mistake of the craniologists re-
specting the cerebel. Here, therefore, as in other cases pointed
out in my work on Physiognomy, Gall and Spurzheim ascribe to
deeper-seated organs what belongs to more superficial ones.

IN RELATION TO BEAUTY.
163
from which the organs derived their form and col-
oring, abates; and a less agreeable flaccidity suc-
ceeds to the elasticity with which they were en-
dowed, if the plumpness which adult age commonly
brings does not sustain them.
During pregnancy and suckling, the firstmention.
ed class of women retain a remarkable freshness
and plumpness.
The lastmentioned class of women most fre.
quently become meager, and lose their freshness
during the continuance of these states.
If, however, during these states, suitable precau-
tions and preservative cares be not employed, it is
the first class who most suffer from traces of ma-
ternity.
Conception, pregnancy, delivery, and suckling,
being renewed more or less frequently during the
second age, hasten debility in feeble and ill-consti-
tuted women; especially if misery or an improper
mode of life increase the influence of these causes.
In the third age of woman, extending generally
from forty to sixty, the physical form does not
suddenly deteriorate; and, as has often been ob
served, “when premature infirmities or misfor-
tunes, the exercise of an unfavorable profession, or
a wrong employment of life, have not hastened
old age, women during the third age preserve many
of the charms of the preceding one."
At this period, in well-constituted women, the
fat, being absorbed with less activity, is accumula-
ted in the cellular tissue under the skin and else.
where; and this effaces any wrinkles which might

164
OF THE AGES OF WOMAN
have begun to furrow the skin, rounds the outlines
anew, and again restores an air of youth and fresh-
ness. Hence, this period is called “the age of
return."
This plumpness, though juvenile lightness and
freshness be wanting, sustains the forms, and
sometimes confers a majestic air, which, in women
otherwise favorably organized, still interests for a
number of years.
The shape certainly is no longer so elegant; the
articulations have less elasticity; the muscles are
more feeble; the movements are less light ; and in
plump women we observe those broken motions,
and in meager ones that stiffness, which mark the
walk or the dance at that age.
At this period occurs a remarkable alteration in
the organs of voice. Women, therefore, to whom
singing is a profession, ought to limit its exercise.
When women pass happily from the third to the
fourth age, their constitution, as every one must
have observed, changes entirely; it becomes
stronger: and nature abandons to individual life
all the rest of existence.
Beauty, however, is no more; form and shape
have disappeared; the plumpness which supported
the reliefs has abandoned them ; the sinkings and
wrinkles are multiplied; the skin has lost its polish;
color and freshness have fled for ever.
These injuries of time, it has been observed,
commonly begin by the abdomen, which loses its
polish and its firmness; the hemispheres of the
bosom no longer sustain themselves; the clavicles

IN RELATION TO BEAUTY.
165
project; the neck becomes meager ; all the reliefs
are effaced; all the forms are altered from round-
ness and softness to angularity and hardness.
That which, amid these ruins, still survives for a
long time, is the entireness of the hair, the placidi.
ty or the fineness of the look, the air of sentiment,
the amiable expression of the countenance, and, in
women of elegant mind and great accomplishments,
caressing manners and charming graces, which al.
most make us forget youth and beauty.
Finally, and especially in muscular or nervous
women, the temperament changes, and the consti-
tution of woman approaches to that of man; the
organs become rigid; and, in some unhappy cases,
a beard protrudes.
Old age and decrepitude finally succeed.

166
OF THE CAUSES OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE CAUSES OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
The crossing of races is often spoken of as a
means of perfecting the form of man, and of de.
veloping beauty; and we are told that it is in this
manner that the Persians have become a beautiful
people, and that many tribes of Tartar origin have
been improved, especially the Turks, who now pre-
sent to us scarcely anything of the Mongol.
In these general and vague statements, however,
the mere crossing of different races is always deem-
ed sufficient; whereas, every improvement depends
on the circumstance that the organization of the
races subjected to this operation is duly suited to
each other. It is in that way only, that we can ex-
plain the following facts stated by Moreau : -
In one of the great towns of the north of France,
the women, half a century ago, were rather ugly
than pretty ; but a detachment of the guards being
quartered there, and remaining during several
years, the population changed in appearance, and,
favored by this circumstance, the town is now in-
debted to strangers for the beauty of the most in-
teresting portion of its inhabitants.
The monks of Citeaux exercised an influence no

OF THE CAUSES OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
167
less remarkable upon the beauty of the inhabitants
of the country around their monastery; and it may
be stated, as the result of actual observation, that
the young female-peasants of their neighborhood
were much more beautiful than those of other
cantons. And, adds this writer, “there can be no
doubt that the same effect occurred in the different
places whither religious houses attracted foreign
inmates, whom love and pleasure speedily united
with the indigenous inhabitants !”
The other circumstances which contribute to
female beauty, are, a mild climate, a fertile soil, a
generous but temperate diet, a regular mode of
life, favorable education, the guidance and sup-
pression of passions, easy manners, good moral,
social, and political institutions, and occupations
which do not injure the beautiful proportions of
the body.
Beauty, accordingly, is more especially to be
found in certain countries. Thus, as has often
been observed, the sanguine temperament is that
of the nations of the north ; the phlegmatic is that
of cold and moist countries; and the bilious is that
of the greater part of the inhabitants of southern
regions. Each of these has its degree and modifi-
cation of beauty.
The native country of beauty is not to be found
either in regions where cold freezes up the living
juices, or in those where the animal structure is
withered by heat. A climate removed from the
excessive influence of both these causes constitutes
an essential condition in the production of beauty;

168
OF THE CAUSES OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
and this, with its effect, we find between the 35th
and 65th degree of northern latitude, in Persia, the
countries bordering upon Caucasus, and principally
Tchercassia, Georgia and Mongrelia, Turkey in
Europe and Asia, Greece, Italy, some part of Spain,
a very small part of France, England, Holland,
some parts of Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden,
and a part of Norway and even of Russia.
Even under the same degree of latitude, it is ob-
served that the position of the place, its elevation,
its vicinity to the sea, the direction of the winds,
the nature of the soil, and all the peculiarities of
locality which constitute the climate proper to each
place, occasion great differences in beauty.
In relation to the causes of beauty, some obser-
vations which seem to be important, arise out of
the remarks of de Pauw on the Greeks.
De Pauw endeavored to show, that, though the
men of ancient Greece were handsome, the women
of that country were never beautiful. He thence
accounted for the excessive admiration which there
prevailed of courtesans from Ionia, &c.
This, however, was so contrary to the notions
formed of the beauty of that people from what was
known of their taste, that it was considered as a
paradox. Travellers, accordingly, sought for such
beauty in the women of modern Greece. They
were disappointed in not finding it.
What rendered this the more remarkable was,
that in various places they found the ancient and
beautiful cast of countenance among the men, and
not among the women of that country -- thus

OF THE CAUSES OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
169
corroborating in all respects the doctrine of de
Pauw.
On considering that doctrine, however, and com-
paring it with more extended observations, it would
general law unknown to de Pauw - that, in most
countries, one of the sexes excels the other in
beauty.
we find the men as remarkable for beauty as the
women for ugliness; while, in some eastern coun-
ties of England, we find precisely the reverse.
The strong features, the dark curled hair, and the
muscular form, of the highlander, are as unsuitable
to the female sex, as the soft features, the fiaxen
hair, and the short and tapering limbs, of the woman
of the eastern coast, are unsuitable to the male.
If the soil, climate, and productions, of these
countries be considered, we discover the causes
of the differences alluded to. The hardships of
mountain life are favorable to the stronger de-
velopment of the locomotive system, which ought
more or less to characterize the male; and the
luxuriance of the plains is favorable to those de-
velopments of the nutritive system, which ought
to characterize the female.
This is illustrated even in inferior animals
Oxen become large-bodied and fat in low and rich
soils, but are remarkable for shortness of legs;
while, in higher and drier situations, the bulk of
the body is less, and the limbs are stronger and
more muscular.

170
OF THE CAUSES OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
The quantity and quality of the aliments are an-
other cause, not less powerful in regard to beauty.
Abundance, or rather a proper mediocrity, as to
nutritious food, contributes to perfection in this
respect.
Beauty is also, in some measure, a result of
civilization. Women, accordingly, of consummate
beauty, are found only in civilized nations.
Professions can rarely be said to favor beauty;
but they do not impede its development when their
exercise does not compel to laborious employ-
ments an organizatioc suited ɔnly to sedentary
occupations.

OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 13:
CHAPTER X.
OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
The ideas of the beautiful vary in different in-
dividuals, and in different nations. Hence, many
men of talent have thought them altogether relative
and arbitrary.
“Ask," says Voltaire, "a Negro of Guinea [what
is beauty]: the beautiful is for him a black oily
skin, deep-seated eyes, and a broad flat nose.”
“Perfect beauty,” says Payne Knight, “taking
perfect in its most strict, and beauty in its most
comprehensive signification, ought to be equally
pleasing to all; but of this, instances are scarcely
to be found: for, as to taking them, or, indeed, any
examples for illustration, from the other sex of our
own species, it is extremely fallacious; as there
can be little doubt that all male animals think the
females of their own species the most beautiful
productions of nature. At least we know this to be
the case among the different varieties of men, whose
respective ideas of the beauty of their females are
as widely different as those of man, and any other
animal, can be. The sable Africans view with pity
and contempt the marked deforinity of the Europe-
ins; whose mouths are compressed, their noses

172 OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
pinched, their cheeks shrunk, their hair rendered
lank and flimsy, their bodies lengthened and emaci-
ated, and their skins unnaturally bleached by shade
and seclusion, and the baneful influence of a cold
humid climate. . . . Who shall decide which party
is right, or which is wrong; or whether the black
or white model be, according to the laws of nature,
the most perfect specimen of a perfect woman?..
The sexual desires of brutes are probably more
strictly natural inclinations, and less changed or
modified by the influence of acquired ideas, or
social habits, than those of any race of mankind;
but their desires seem, in general, to be excited
by smell, rather than by sight or contact. If,
however, a boar can think a sow the sweetest and
most lovely of living creatures, we can have no
difficulty in believing that he also thinks her the
most beautiful.”
“ Among the various reasons,” says Reynolds,
“ why we prefer one part of nature's works to an-
other, the most general, I believe, is habit and cus-
tom; custom makes, in a certain sense, white black,
and black white; it is custom alone determines our
preference of the color of the Europeans to the
Ethiopians, and they, for the same reason, prefer
their own color to ours. I suppose nobody will
doubt, if one of their painters were to paint the
goddess of beauty, but that he would represent her
black, with thick lips, flat nose, and woolly hair ;
and it seems to me, he would act very unnaturally
if he did not; for by what criterion will any one
dispute the propriety of his idea? We indeed say,

OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
173
chat the form and color of the European are pre-
ferable to those of the Ethiopian; but I know of
no other reason we have for it, but that we are
! more accustomed to it.”
The coquetry of several tribes, it has been ob-
served, leads them to mutilate and disfigure them-
selves, to flatten their forehead, to enlarge their
mouth and ears, to blacken their skin, and cover it
with the marks of suffering. — We make ugliness
in that way, says Montaigne.
But, to confine our observations to individual na-
tions, and these civilized ones; we every day see
irregular or even common figures preferred to
those which the enlightened judge deems beautiful.
How, then, it is asked, amid these different tastes,
these opposite opinions, are we to admit ideas of
absolute beauty ?
These are the strongest objections against all
a standard of womanly beauty, equal talent has
been employed; but the reasoning, though suffi-
cient for such objections, has been rather of a vague
description. As, however, the subject is of great
importance, I shall endeavor to abridge and concen.
trate the arguments of which it consists, before I
point out the surer method which is founded on the
Elements of Beauty already established.
To refute these objections, it has been thought
sufficient to examine the chief conditions which are
necessary, in order to appreciate properly the im-
pression of those combinations, which woman pre-

174
OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
sents, and to expose the principal circumstances
which are opposed to the accuracy of opinions, and
judgments respecting them.
The conditions necessary to enable us to pro-
nounce respecting the real attributes of beauty, are,
first, a temperate climate, under which nature brings
to perfection all her productions, and gives to their
forms and functions, generally, and to those of man
in particular, all the development of which they are
capable, without excess in the action of some, and
defect in that of others; — secondly, in man in par-
ticular, a brain capable of vigorous thought, sound
judgment, and exquisite taste; — and thirdly, a very
advanced civilization, without which these faculties
cannot be duly exercised or attain any perfection.
It is evident enough that none of these condi-
ons are to be met with in the whimsical judgments
and tastes of many nations.
The consequence of the absence of these con-
inhabitants of hot climates, is marked in their
deeming characteristics of beauty, the thick lips of
Negresses, the long and pendent mamma of the
women in several nations both of Africa and
America, or the gross forms of those of Egypt.
The consequence of the absence of these con
ditions, in relation to the uncivilized and ignorant
their deeming characteristics of beauty the short
figures of the women of icy regions, in which, de-
prived of the vivifying action of heat and light,
living beings appear only in a state of deformity

OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
175
and alteration; and in their similarly deeming
beautiful the obliquely-placed eyes of the Chinese
and Japanese, and the crushed nose of the Cal
mucs, &c., &c.
Those who take these views, which are true,
I think, have seen and added, that the deviations
from beauty in the forms of the women of hot cli-
mates are commonly in excess, owing to the great
development of-organs of sense or of sex; while
the deviations from beauty, in the forms of the
women of cold climates, are commonly in defect,
owing to the imperfect development of organs of
sense, and of the general figure.
This view renders it more clear that both these
kinds of deviation are deformities, incompatible
with the consistent and harmonious development of
the whole. And without this view, the preceding
arguments are indeed too vague to be easily tenable.
In relation more especially to the second of the
preceding conditions, the possession of a brain ca
pable of vigorous thought, sound judgment, and
exquisite taste, Hume observes that the same ex-
cellence of faculties which contributes to the im-
provement of reason, the same clearness of con-
ception, the same exactness of distinction, the same
vivacity of apprehension, are essential to the oper-
ations of true taste.
Here, again, those who take these true, but vague
and inconclusive views, should, I think, have seen
and added that this excellence of the thinking fac-
ulties is incompatible with the obviously constricted

176
OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN
brain, which is a defect common both to the Negro
and the Mongol-a defect which is incompatible
with beauty either of form or function, and which
I have shown, in my work on physiognomy, to be
intimately connected with climate. This renders
Those who employ these arguments as to a stand-
modes in which defects of this kind unfit persons
to judge of beauty; and though their farther argu-
ments are similarly vague, they nevertheless tend
to support the truth.
If, say they, among the forms and the features
which we compare, some are associated by us with
certain qualities or sentiments which please us, they
equally lead us to a predilection or prejudice, in
consequence of which the most common or the
least beautiful figure is preferred to the most per-
fect. In this case, the imagination has perverted
the judgment.
Winckelmann truly observes, that young people
are most exposed to such errors: placed under the
influence of sentiment and of illusion, they often
regard, as very beautiful, women who have nothing
capable of charming, but an animated physiognomy,
in which breathe desire, voluptuousness, and lan.
guor. The results of this as to life may easily be
foreseen.
Of the excess to which such prejudice may go, a
good instance is adduced in Descartes, who pre
ferred women who squinted to the most perfect
beauties, because squinting was one of the most

OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
177
remarkable features of the woman who was the first
object of his affections.
Winckelmann observes that even artists them
selves have not always an exquisite sentiment of
beauty: their first impressions have often an in-
fluence which they cannot overcome, nor even
weaken, especially when, at a distance from the
admirable productions of the ancients, they cannot
rectify their first judgments.
Circumstances of profession, it is truly observed,
may also lead to associations of ideas capable o
deceiving us in our opinions respecting beauty.
Men are apt to refer everything to their exclusive
knowledge and the mode of judging which it em-
ploys. The “what does that prove” of the math-
ematician, when judging the finest products of ima-
gination, has passed into a proverb. And every
one knows of that other cultivator of the same
science, who declared that he never could discover
anything sublime in Milton's Paradise Lost, but
that he could never read the queries at the end of
one of the books in Newton's Optics, without his
hair standing on end and his blood running cold.
The necessity of the third condition, namely, ad-
vanced civilization, to a right judgment respecting
a standard of beauty in woman, is evident, when
we consider that it requires a taste formed by the
habit of bringing things together and of comparing
them.
One accustomed to see, says Hume, “and ex-
amine, and weigh the several performances, ad.
mired in different ages and nations, can alone rate

178
OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
the merits of a work exhibited to his view, and
assign its proper rank among the productions of
genius.”
From all this, it is certainly evident—not merely
that that which pleases us is not always beautiful;
that numerous causes may form so many sources of
diversity and of error on this subject; and that we
cannot thence conclude that the ideas of beauty
are relative and arbitrary — but that certain condi-
tions are indispensable to form the judgment re-
specting beauty; and that the principal of these
conditions are, a temperate climate and fertile
soil, a well-developed brain, sound judgment,
and delicate taste, and a highly-advanced civili-
zation.
This is perfectly conformable with the practical
fact that it was under a most delightful climate,
among a people of unrivalled judgment, genius,
and taste, and amid a civilization which the world
has never since witnessed, that the laws of Nature
as to beauty were discovered, and applied to the
production of those immortal forms which the un-
favorable accidents occurring to the existence of
all beings, have never permitted Nature herself to
combine in any one individual.
Though I have endeavored to amend these argu
ments respecting a standard of beauty in woman, I
prefer those which may be founded on the doctrine
I have laid down respecting the Elements of Beau-
ty. It will be found that the greatest number of
these elements are combined in the woman whom
we commonly deem the most beautiful.

OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
179
To illustrate this, it will be sufficient to examine
their most striking and distinctive characteristic,
namely, their fair complexion, which is intimately
connected with all their other characteristics, and
which gives increased splendor and effect to their
form and features.
It is remarkable that even Alison, though the ad-
vocate of all beauty being dependant on associa-
tion, grants that the pure white of the countenance
s expressive to us, according to its different de-
grees, of purity, fineness, gayety ; that the dark
complexion, on the other hand, is expressive to us
of melancholy, gloom, or sadness; and that so far
is this from being a fanciful relation, that it is gen-
erally admitted by those who have the best oppor-
tunities of ascertaining it, the professors of medical
science. He also observes that black eyes are
commonly united with the dark, and blue eyes with
the fair complexion; and that, in the color of the
eyes, blue, according to its different degrees, is
expressive of softness, gentleness, cheerfulness, or
severity ; and black, of thought, or gravity, or of
sadness.
Even this, however, is less conclusive than the
pathological or physiological facts stated by Ches-
elden, as to the boy restored by him to sight,
namely, that the first view of a black object gave
him great pain, and that that of a negro-woman
struck him with horror.
Independently of this, white, as every one is
aware, is the color which reflects the greatest num
ber of luminous rays; and, for that reason, it be

180
OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
stows the brilliance and splendor upon beautiful
forms with which all are charmed.
Winckelmann, indeed, observes that the head of
Scipio the elder, in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, execu-
ted in basalt of a deep green, is very beautiful. But,
in that case, it is the form, not the color, of the
head, that is beautiful. While greenness of com-
plexion would not be beautiful in a man, it would
certainly be hideously ugly in a woman.
Moreover, while, in a dead black or any dark
color of face, it cannot be pretended that, consid-
ering its color only, we should have more than
blackness or darkness for admiration, it is evident
that, in a fair complexion, we have, in addition to
its general brilliance or splendor, the infinite varie-
y of its teints, their exquisite blendings, and the
beautiful expression of every transient emotion.
I have now only to expose the sophistry which
Payne Knight has employed upon this subject.
“I am aware," he says, “indeed, that it would
be no easy task to persuade a lover that the forms
upon which he dotes with such rapture, are not
really beautiful, independent of the medium of affec-
tion, passion, and appetite, through which he views
them. But before he pronounces either the infidel
or the skeptic guilty of blasphemy against nature,
let him take a mould from the lovely features or
lovely bosom of this masterpiece of creation, and
cast a plum-pudding in it (an object by no me:
disgusting to most men's appetite), and I th.
will no longer be in raptures with the f
ever he may be with the substance"

OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
181
Now, it happens that a grosser incongruity can
scarcely be supposed than that which exists be-
tween lovely features or a lovely bosom and a
plum-pudding, or between the sentiment of love
and the propensity to gluttony; and therefore to
place the substance of the pudding, in which inter-
nal composition is alone of importance, and shape
of none, under the form of features or a bosom, in
which internal structure is unknown or unthought
of, and shape or other external properties are alone
considered, is a gross and offensive substitution,
intended, not to enlighten judgment respecting
form, but to pervert.it, and to degrade the higher
object by comparison with the lower one. The
shape, moreover, is a true sign in the one case,
and a false one in the other. — Of nearly similar
character is the following:
"If a man, perfectly possessed both of feeling
and sight - conversant with, and sensible to the
charms of women were even to be in contact with
what he conceived to be the most beautiful and
lovely of the sex, and at the moment when he was
going to embrace her, he was to discover that the
parts which he touched only were feminine or
human; and that, in the rest of her form, she was
an animal of a different species, or a person of his
own sex, the total and instantaneous change of his
sentiments from one extreme to another, would
abundantly convince him that his sexual desires
depended as little upon that abstract sense of touch,
as upon that of sight.”
That, in detecting an imposture of this kind,

182
OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN
admiration would give place to disgust, only proves
that the external qualities which were admired
were the natural and appropriate signs of the in-
ternal qualities expected to be found under them,
and that they now cease to interest only because
they have become, not naturally less the signs of
these qualities, but because they have by a mere
trick been rendered insignificant, because truth and
nature have been violated, and because the mind
feels only disgust at the imposture. I cannot help
saying that if Knight was in earnest when he
framed such arguments, his mind was sometimes
dull as well as perverse.
6. The redness of any morbid inflammation," he
says, “may display a gradation of teint, which, in
a pink or a rose, we should think as beautiful as
the purple light of love and bloom of young de-
sire;' and the cadaverous paleness of death or
disease, a degree of whiteness, which, in a piece
of marble or alabaster, we should deem to be as
pure, as that of the most delicate skin of the fairest
damsel of the frigid zone: consequently, the mere
visible beauty is in both the same; and the dif-
ference consists entirely in mental sympathies,
excited by certain internal stimuli, and guided by
habit.”
There is here the same confusion of heteroge-
neous and inconsistent objects, as in the preceding
cases. To judge of beauty in simple objects,
each quality may be separately considered; and
in this view, if the inflammation presented the
same teint as the pink or the rose, then, as a mere

OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
183
teint, abstracted from every other quality of the re-
spective objects, it would be precisely as beautiful
in the one as in the other; but as the color of a
rose on the human body would indicate that flow
of blood to the skin which can result only from
excessive action, it ceases to be considered intrin-
sically, and is regarded only as a sign of disease.
The same observations are applicable to the other
case here adduced.
“The African black,” he says, “when he first
beholds an European complexion, thinks both its
red and white morbid and unnatural, and of course
disgusting. His sunburnt beauties express their
modesty and sensibility by variations in the sable
teints of their countenances, which are equally at-
tractive to him, as the most delicate blush of red
to us."
In treating of the Elements of Beauty, I have
endeavored to show, that the more those simpler
elements of beauty, which characterize inanimate
bodies, are retained in more compound ones, the
more beautiful these become; but that the latter
retain these elements in very different degrees, de-
pendant upon internal or external circumstances,
and that such elementary beauty is often sacrificed
to the higher ones of life or mind. Now, in the
case of the African, he is born whitish, like the
European, but he speedily loses such beauty for
that of adaptation, by his color, to the hot climate
in which he exists. The latter beauty is the higher
and more important one, and forms for the African
a profitable exchange; but the European is stil!

184
OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN
more fortunate, because, in the region he inns
the simple and elementary beauty is compatible
with that of adaptation to climate. The climate
of Africa, the cerebral structure of its inhabitants,
and the degree of their civilization, are as unfavor-
able to the existence of beauty as to the power of
judging respecting it. What he adds as to varia-
tion in sable countenances is a mere exaggeration.
“Were it possible for a person to judge of the
beauty of color in his own species, upon the same
principles and with the same impartiality as he
judges of it in other objects, both animal, vegetable,
and mineral, there can be no doubt that mixed
teints would be preferred ; and a pimpled face have
the same superiority over a smooth one, as a zebra
has over an ass, a variegated tulip over a plain one,
or a column of jasper or porphyry over one of a
common red or white marble.”
Here the same mistake is committed. Element
ary beauty is preferred to that of adaptation to cli
mate, fitness for physiognomical expression, &c
Knight's other arguments all involve similar errors,
and admit of similar answers.

THE THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
CHAPTER XI.
THE THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY GENERALLY
VIEWED.
THESE have been already briefly mentioned. They
are repeated and illustrated here.
The view which is given of them will throw light
on the celebrated temperaments of the ancients.
It will appear that all the disputes which have oc-
curred respecting these, have arisen from their
being founded, not on precise data, but on empirical
observation, at a time when the great truths of
anatomy and physiology were unknown; that, to
the rectification of the doctrine of temperaments,
the arrangement of these sciences, laid down in a
preceding chapter, is indispensable; that some of
these temperaments are comparatively simple, and
consist in an excessive or a defective action of loco-
motive, nutritive, or thinking organs; that others,
which have been confounded with these, are, on
the contrary, compound; and that, from this want
of classification, their nature has been imperfectly
understood.
To make this clear, it is necessary to lay before
the reader a succinct view of the doctrine of tem
peraments.

186
THE THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
The ancients classed individuals in one or other
of four temperaments, founded on the hypothesis
of four humors, of which the blood was supposed
to be composed — the red part, phlegm, yellow
and black bile. These were regarded as the ele-
ments of the body, and their respective predomi-
nance passed for the cause of the differences which
it presented. Hence were derived the names of
the sanguine, the phlegmatic, the choleric, and the
melancholic temperament.
Although the hypothesis on which this doctrine
was founded is universally discarded, the phenomena
which observation had taught the ancients, and
which they had hypothetically connected with these
elements, were so true, that that classification has
been more or less employed in all the hypotheses
which have since been invented to explain their
cause; and their nomenclature has continued in
use to the present day.
A temperament may be defined a peculiar state
of the system, depending on the relative propor-
tion of its different masses, and the relative energy
of its different functions, by which it acquires a
tendency to certain actions:
The predominance of any particular organ or
system of organs, its excess of force, extends its
sphere of activity to all the other functions, and
modifies them in a peculiar manner. Thus, con-
forming in the illustration to the preceding ar-
rangement, in one person, the muscles are more
frequently employed than the brain ; in another,
the stomach or the organs of reproduction are

THE THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
187
more employed than the muscles; and in a third,
the brain and nerves are more employed than either.
This predominance or excess establishes the tem-
perament.
The relative feebleness of any organ or system
of organs, similarly forms modifications not less
important. Thus in one person, the organs of the
abdomen are less employed; in another, those of
the chest; in a third, the brain.
Disease, it is observed, “commonly enters into
the organization by these feeble points : death even
attacks them first ; extends afterward from one to
another; and makes progress more or less rapid,
according to the importance of the organ primi-
tively affected.”
Temperaments, however, vary infinitely. It may
be said that every individual has a peculiar one, to
which he owes his mode of existence and his de-
gree of health, ability, and happiness.
The temperament, moreover, of each individual
is not always characterized by well-marked symp-
toms; and even where it has been strongly marked
by nature, education, age, the influence of climate,
the exercise of professions and trades, and various
habits, produce in it infinite changes.
Temperaments also combine together, so that all
men are, in some degree, at once sanguine and bil-
ious, or otherwise compound. Thus all interme-
diate shades of temperament are produced ; and it
is often difficult, or, under particular circumstances,
impossible, to determine under which temperament
individuals may be classed.

188
THE THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
The simple temperaments are therefore abstrac-
tions, which it is difficult to realize; and the influ-
erce of any temperament is sometimes undiscov-
erable except in some extraordinary circumstances
of disorder or disease, during which it may be ob-
served.
Cullen admits the four temperaments of Hippo-
crates, and remarks concerning them, that it is
probable they were first founded upon observation,
and afterward adapted to the theory of the ancients,
since we find they “have a real existence.”
Dr. Prichard remarks, that “this division of
temperaments is by no means a fanciful distinction.”
To the four temperaments of Hippocrates, Gre.
gory adds a fifth, the nervous temperament.
Thus are formed five temperaments generally
admitted, namely, 1st, the phlegmatic or relaxed ;
2d, the sanguine arterial; 3d, the sanguine venous
or bilious; 4th, the nervous; and, 5th, the muscu
lar or athletic.
Some writers join to these the partial tempera-
ments which determine the ascendency of the func-
tions exercised by particular organs; whence prin-
cipally come the temperaments which they call the
cerebral, epigastric, abdominal, hepatic, genital, &c.
As already said, it will in the sequel appear that
some of these temperaments are comparatively
simple, that others are compound, and that from
this want of classification, their nature has been
imperfectly understood. *
* Appendix F.

BEAUTY OF THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM.
189
CHAPTER XII.
FIRST SPECIES OF BEAUTY
BEAUTY OF THE LOCOMO-
TIVE SYSTEM.
The average stature of woman, as already said,
is two or three inches less than that of man.
The bones of woman remain always smaller than
those of man; the cylindrical ones being more
slender, and the flat ones thinner, while the former
are also rounder. The muscles render the surfaces
of the bones less uneven; the projections of the
latter are less; and all their cavities and impres-
sions have less depth. The bones of woman have
likewise less kardness than those of man.
Such being the solid and fundamental parts of
this system in woman, the most remarkable cir-
cumstances in their combination should next be
noticed.
In woman, the magnitude of the pelvis or lower
part of the trunk, has the greatest influence on the
apparent proportion of parts, and on the general
figure.
The most remarkable differences between the
two sexes, in relation to this system, are conse-
quently those presented by the inferior and supe-
rior part of the trunk in each. The breast and the
O

190
FIRST SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
haunches are in an inverse proportion in the two
sexes. Man has the breast larger and wider than
that of woman: woman has the haunches less cir-
cumscribed than those of man.
The upper part of the body is also less promi-
nent, and the lower part more prominent, in woman
than in man; and therefore, when they stand up-
right, or lie on the back, the breast is most promi-
nent in the male, and the pubes in the female. The
indication this affords of the fitness of woman for
From the same cause, the back of woman is
more hollow.
. Still farther to increase the capacity of the lower
part of the body, woman has the loins more ex-
tended than man. This portion of her body is in
every way enlarged at the expense of neighboring
thighs and legs are shorter below.de
The thigh-bones of woman are also more sepa-
rated superiorly; the knees are more approximated;
the feet are smaller; and the base of support is
less extended.
The reader desirous of thoroughly understand-
ing these matters, should compare the beautiful
plates of the male and female skeletons by Albinus
and Sæmmerring.
Beauty of the locomotive system in woman, de-
pends especially upon these fundamental facts, and
those tendencies of structure which thus distin-
guish her from man.
In the woman possessing THIS SPECIES of beauty,

THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM.
191
therefore, the face is generally somewhat bony and
oblong ;—the neck, less connected with the nutri-
tive system, is rather long and tapering; — the
shoulders, without being angular, are sufficiently
broad and definite for muscular attachments;
the bosom, a vital organ is of but moderate di-
mensions;—the waist, enclosing smaller nutritive
organs, is remarkable for fine proportion, and re-
sembles, in some respects, an inverted cone ;-the.
haunches, for the same reason. are but moderately
expanded ;— the thighs are proportional ;- the
arms, as well as the limbs. being formed chiefly of
locomotive organs, are rather long and moderately
tapering ; — the hands and feet are moderately
small;— the complexion, owing to the inferiority
of the nutritive system, is often rather dark ;-and
the hair is frequently dark and strong. - The whole
figure is precise, striking, and often brilliant. -
From its proportions, it sometimes seems almost
aerial; and we would imagine, that, if our hands
were placed under the lateral parts of the tapering
waist of a woman thus characterized, the slightest
pressure would suffice to throw her into the air.
To this class belong genera..y the more firm,
vigorous, and even actively-impassioned women:
though it may doubtless boast many of greatly
modified character.
First Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
It may here be observed, that the varieties or
modifications of each species of ieauty naturally

292
FIRST SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
correspond with the greater or less development
of some one of the various organs on which the
species is founded. Thus, the modifications of
beauty of the locomotive system correspond with
the greater or less development of the bones, the
sigaments, or the muscles; those of the nutritive
system correspond with the greater or less develop-
ment of the absorbents, the bloodvessels, or the
glands; and those of the thinking system corres-
pond with the greater or less development of the
organs of sense, the brain, or the cerebel. A little
reflection will show, that some of these modifica-
tions will be more, and others less beautiful.
To understand the present variety, the bony
structure on which it especially depends, must
now be more minutely described.
Commencing with the trunk of the body — the
chest in woman is shorter but more expanded; the
oreast-bone is shorter but wider; the two upper
ribs are flatter; the collar-bones are more straight
or less curved, and do not present that prominent
relief which appears on the chest of man; the
shoulders are carried farther back, and project less
from the trunk.
The haunches, as already stated, are propor.
tionally wider in woman than in man, and the in-
terior cavity of the pelvis, which is between them,
being adapted to gestation, is more capacious.
This greater capacity of the pelvis arises from the
lateral parts having in woman more convexity out
ward; from the bones called ossa pubis, which form
the anterior part, touching at a smaller number of

THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM.
193
points, and running obliquely or forming a greater
angle, to enlarge the space which is between them
and the inferior extremity of the posterior part of
the pelvis; from the arch of the pubis being larger;
from the greater concavity and breadth of the os
sacrum or posterior bone of the pelvis, its posterior
part forming a greater prominence outward ; and
from the whole pelvis being thus wider and less
deep, its circumference approaching more to the
circular form. The cavities, it may be added, in
which the heads of the thigh-bones are received,
are of course farther apart: they are also oblique
and less deep.
The arms of woman are shorter than in man. --
As these members are well marked in beauty of
the locomotive system, they may the more fully
be considered here. — The arms, and especially
their extremities, are susceptible of a degree of
beauty of which we see few examples. Their
bases, the bones, ligaments, and muscles, belong
to the locomotive system ; and their fundamental
beauty consequently depends upon its proportions ;
but to the nutritive system are owing the circum-
stances that, in woman, the arm is fatter and more
rounded, has softer forms and more flowing and
purer outlines. The hand in woman is smaller,
more plump, more soft, and more white. It is
peculiarly beautiful when full; when it is gently
dimpled over the first joints; when the fingers
are ong, round, tapering toward the ends; when
the other joints are marked by slight reliefs and
shadows; and when the fingers are delicate and

194
FIRST SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
flexible. Beauty of the hand becomes the moro
precious, because it is the principal organ of a
sense which may be considered as the most valu-
able of all.
In regard to the lower extremities, it has been
observed, that the lateral convexity of the pelvis
causes the bones of the thighs attached to them to
be farther separated from each other; and this
separation of the bones of the thighs causes an
increase of the size of the haunches. It is over
the posterior part of the space thus produced, that
we observe the reliefs which the inferior members
present superiorly, and which unite them with
the trunk, by forms so beautifully rounded. The
thighs are also proportionally larger, on account
of this separation : they are more rounded, as well
as much more voluminous: they are also more
curved before than in man. At their inferior part,
they approximate; and the knees project a little
inward. It has been truly observed, that this con.
formation manifests, relatively to gestation and
parturition, advantages of which the exterior ex-
pression is not found in the women who are com-
monly regarded as well made, and who, however,
are not so, if the best conformation or beauty re-
sult from a direct and well-marked relation between
the form of the organs and their functions. It is
owing to the thighs of woman being thus carried
more inward when she walks, that the change of
the point of gravity which marks each step, is in
her much more remarkable. All the other parts
of the inferior members are in general distinguished

THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM.
195
by forms more softly rounded; the leg is remark-
able for its delicacy; the long line of the anterior
bone is entirely hid under its envelope ; its inferior
part is shaped with more elegance; the foot is
smaller; and the base of support is less extended.
The feet, like the hands, are susceptible of a kind
of beauty of which nature is sparing.
From all this it appears that the only bones
which nature tends to enlarge in woman are those
of the pelvis; that all the rest are small; and that
they proportionally diminish in size, as we pass
from that central part to the extremities.
The FIRST MODIFICATION, therefore, of this species
of beauty, is that in which the development of the
bones, those of the pelvis excepted, is proportion-
ally small.
This character will be especially apparent where
the long bones approach the surface; as in the arm
immediately above the wrist, and, in the leg, im-
mediately above the ankle. Its effect will be pro-
portionally delicate and feminine.
Various subordinate modifications of this kind
of beauty are found in various countries, and under
the influence of various circumstances.
The women of Rome, we are told, present beauty
of the shoulders in the highest degree, when they
arrive at that period of life in which plumpness
succeeds to juvenile elasticity.
It has been suggested, that the Greek or Ionian
women, whose arms were of so perfect a form,
owed that beauty in some measure to the custom
of leaving them nude, or covered only by loose

196
FIRST SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
drapery: as in that case, no pressure constricted
the roundness of the fleshy parts, and prevented
their development; no ligature, binding the upper
part of the arm, altered the color of the skin; and
the arm, being always uncovered, received at the
toilet the same attention as other parts Hence,
it is supposed antique statuary has left us such
admirable models of the beauty of this part.
It is certainly not improbable that we may at-
tribute the absence of this beauty, in some measure,
to a custom which, in many cases, medicine may
approve, but which is unfavorable to the arm, that
of wearing long sleeves; but want of exercise is
its great cause.
The form of the hand often announces the occu-
pation of the person to whom it belongs, and some-
times even her particular capabilities. There cer-
tainly are hands that we may call intellectual; and
there are others that we may call foolish or stupid.
Of the hand, Lavater says, that, whether in move-
ment or in repose, its expression cannot be mis-
taken: its most tranquil position indicates our
natural dispositions; its flexions, our actions and
our passions.
The ancients, it has been observed, attached
much importance to the form of the feet: the phi
losophers did not neglect it in the general view of
the physiognomy; and the historians as well as the
poets made mention of their beauty, in speaking
of Polyxene, Aspasia, and others; as they did of
their deformities in speaking of the emperor Do-
mitian.

THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM
197
in general hereditary ; but good management will
preserve the former of these, and repair the latter.
We commonly deform these parts by means of our
shoes: the second toe, observes a writer on this
subject, which naturally projects most, as we see
from the antique, is arrested in its development,
and the foot, which ought, in the outline of its
extremity, to approach to the elegant form of the
ellipsis, is rounded without beauty, and is disfig-
ured by our ridiculous compressions.*
Second Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
The joints generally are small in woman, and
is softly rounded; and the various joints of the
fingers are marked chiefly by little reliefs and faint
shadows. The articulation of the knee is feebly
indicated; the ankles are disposed in such a man-
ner as to offer only agreeable outlines; and there
are dimples over the first joints of the toes, with
exceedingly gentle indications of the other joints.
The SECOND MODIFICATION, therefore, of this spe-
cies of beauty, is that in which the development of
the ligaments and the articulations they form, is
proportionally small.
This conformation will be especially apparent -
in the arm, at the wrist — and, in the leg, at the
ankle. Its effect will be proportionally handsome
• Appendix G
· 10

198
FIRST SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
Third Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
The muscles of women are more slender and fee-
ble than those of man; their bundles are rounder;
their fibres are finer, more humid, soft, and deli-
cate, and less compact; their central parts or bel-
lies are less prominent; their reliefs do not appear
in any strength at the surface of the body; but
being, on the contrary, surrounded on all sides by
a loose cellular tissue, they only render that sur-
face beautifully rounded.
Although, however, the muscular system of wo-
man is weaker, and the muscles proportionally
smaller, yet, as already said, in some parts the
muscular system is more developed than in man.
This, owing to the magnitude of the pelvis, is most
remarkable about the thighs. The muscles of
these parts having larger origins from the pelvis,
and being less compressed by reciprocal contact,
have more liberty to extend themselves. It is from
this, that results much of the delicacy of the female
form, as well as the ease, suppleness, and capabil-
ity of grace in its movements.
It is otherwise in all parts remote from the pel-
vis. Women, accordingly, can less be said to have
calves, than legs which, like their arms and fingers,
gently taper.
The THIRD MODIFICATION, therefore, of this species
of beauty, is that in which the development of the
muscles is proportionally large around the pelvis,
and delicate elsewhere.

THE LOCOMOT VE SYSTEM.
199
This conformation being concealed by the dra-
pery, may nevertheless be conjectured from the
imperfect view of the hip, or of the calf of the leg,
or more accurately by means of the external indi-
cations of forms which are given in a subsequent
chapter. Its effect will be proportionally elegant.
Woman's power of muscular motion being thus
limited to the vicinity of the pelvis, that of her ex-
tremities is generally feeble.
Other causes contribute to this. Thus, with re-
gard to the upper extremities, it has been observed,
that the collar-bone, not separating so much the
arm from the axis of the body, the extent of its
movements is limited ; and this circumstance ex-
plains why women, who wish to overcome great
resistances with the superior members, experience
difficulty in doing so — why, for example, when
they wish to throw a stone, they are obliged to
turn the body on the foot opposite to the arm with
which they throw.
Thus also the largeness of the pelvis, and the
approximation of the knees, influence the gait of
woman, and render it vacillating and unsteady.
Conscious of this, women, in countries where the
nutritive system in general and the pelvis in par-
ticular are large, affect a greater degree of this
vacillation and unsteadiness. An example of this
is seen in the lateral and rotary motion which is
given to the pelvis in walking, by certain classes
of the women of London.
For the same reason, united to a smaller foot,
and some other circumstances, women, it is ob

200
FIRST SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
served, who execute gentle and light movements
with so much skill, do not attempt with advantage
great evolutions, run with difficulty and without
grace, and fly-in order to be caught, as Rousseau
has said.
In woman, however, the muscular fibre is thus
soft, yielding, feeble, and incapable of great evo-
lutions, because it is necessary that it should easily
adapt itself to remarkable changes.
From all this, from women having more address
in the use of their fingers, from their aptitude for
little and light domestic works, the care of chil-
dren, and sedentary occupations, it is evident that
they cannot devote themselves to toilsome labors
without struggling against their organization, and
suffering proportionally.
The voice being connected with the motive or-
gans, it may here be noticed that the larynx or
flute part of the throat in woman is more contracted
and less prominent than in man; that the glottis
does not enlarge in the same proportion ; that the
tongue-bone is much smaller; and that the tongue,
its muscles, and the organs of speech in general,
being, like all the other parts, more mobile, young
girls articulate and pronounce much more quickly.
Their voice is also so much more acute, that if
man and woman sing in unison, there is always
between them the relation of an octave, which
forms the most natural and most agreeable conso.
nance.

THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM
201
It is evidently the UNION of all that is good in
these varieties which renders beauty in the loco-
motive system perfect.
This is perfectly represented in the Diana of
Grecian sculpture, in which, with admirable taste,
it is neither the nutritive nor the thinking, but the
locomotive system, which is developed.
I have already said, that the temperaments of the
ancients are only partial views of some of the vari-
eties I am now describing. The athletic tempera-
ment falls under the last of these varieties; and it
is the only one that falls under this species. Hap-
pily, it does not occur in woman.
This temperament results from a great develop-
ment of the bones and muscles, and it is that of
mere physical strength. It is marked by all the
outward signs of strength: the head is small, the
neck thick behind, the shoulders broad, the chest
expanded, the haunches firm, the intervals of the
muscles deeply marked, the tendons apparent
through the skin, and all the joints not covered by
muscles, seemingly small.
In this temperament, muscular strength prevails
over the functions of the other organs, and espe.
cially usurps the energies necessary to the produce
tion of thought; the perceptions are deficient in
quickness, delicacy, accuracy, and strength; and
all the mental functions are with difficulty excited;
but the body is capable of great exertion, and it
surmounts great physical resistance when roused.
The Farnese Hercules, says a French physiolo.

202
BEAUTY OF THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM.
gist, exhibits a model of the physical attributes of
relates of the exploits of this demi-god, gives us
the idea of the moral dispositions that accompany
it. In the history of his twelve labors, without
reflection, and as by instinct, we see him courage-
ous, because he is strong, seeking obstacles to con-
quer them, certain of overwhelming whatever re-
sists him, but joining to such strength so little sub-
tlety, that he is cheated by all the kings he serves,
ana by all the women he loves

BEAUTY OF THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM
203
CHAPTER XIII
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY — BEAUTY OF THE NUTR.
TIVE SYSTEM.
With the vital system of woman, the capacity of
the pelvis, and the consequent breadth of the
haunches, are still more connected than with the
locomotive system; for, with these, all those func-
tions which are most essentially feminine—im.
pregnation, gestation, and parturition-are inti-
mately connected.
Camper, in a memoir on physical beauty, read to
the Academy of Design, at Amsterdam,* showed,
that, in tracing the forms of the male and female
within two elliptical areas of equal size, the female
pelvis extended beyond the ellipsis, while the shoul-
ders were within; and the male shoulders reached
beyond their ellipsis, while the pelvis was within.-
The pelvis of the African woman is said by some
to be greater than that of the European.
The abdominal and lumbar portion of the trunk,
as already said, is longer in woman. In persons
above the common stature, there is almost half a
* Memoire sur le Beau Physique

204
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
face more in the part of the body which is between
the mamma and the bifurcation of the trunk.
The abdomen, placed below the chest, has more
projection and roundness in woman than in man:
but it has little fulness in a figure capable of serv
ing as a model; and the slightest alteration in its
outlines or its polish is injurious.
The waist, which is most distinctly marked in
the back and loins, owes all its advantages to its
elegance, softness, and flexibility.
The neck should, by the gentlest curvature, form
an almost insensible transition between the body
and the head. It should also present fulness suffi-
cient to conceal the projection of the flute part of
the throat in front, and of the two large muscles
which descend from behind the ears toward the pit
above the breast-bone.*
Over all these parts, the predominance of the
cellular tissue, and the soft and moderate plump-
ness which is connected with it, are a remarkable
characteristic of the vital system in woman. While
this facilitates the adaptation of the locomotive
system to every change, it at the same time oblit-
erates the projection of the muscles, and invests
the whole figure with rounded and beautiful forms
It has been well observed that the principal ef
* A curious but true remark is made by Moreau, namely, tha.
if these conditions are met with without being united to a certain
expression, and to the most complete combination of the elements
of beauty of countenance, they frequently give an air of insensi
bility and of mental weakness, which greatly enfeebles the im
pression that a first view had ca ased.

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
205
fect of such forms upon the observer must be re-
ferred to the faculties which they reveal; for, as
remarked by Roussel, if we examine the greater
part of the attributes which constitute beauty, ir
reason analyze that which instinct judges at a
glance, we shall find that these attributes have a
reference to real advantages for the species. A
light shape, supple movements, whence spring bril-
liance and grace, are qualities which please, because
they announce the good condition of the individual
who possesses them, and the greater degree of
aptitude for the functions which that individual
ought to fulfil.
Beauty, then, of the nutritive system in woman,
depends especially upon these fundamental facts,
and those tendencies of structure which thus dis-
tinguish her from man.
In the woman possessing THIS SPECIES of beauty,
therefore, the face is generally rounded, to give
greater room to the cavities connected with nutri-
tion ; — the eyes are generally of the softest azure,
which is similarly associated ;— the neck is often
rather short, in order intimately to connect the
head with the nutritive organs in the trunk ;— the
shoulders are softly rounded, and owe any breadth
they may possess rather to the expanded chest,
containing these organs, than to any bony or mus-
cular size of the shoulders themselves; -- the bo-
som, a vital organ, in its luxuriance seems laterally
to protrude on the space occupied by the arms;
the waist, though sufficiently marked, is, as it were,
cncroached on by that plumpness of all the contig

206
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
uous parts, which the powerful nutritive system af
fords ; — the haunches are greatly expanded for the
vital purposes of gestation and parturition ;-- the
thighs are large in proportion ;— but the locomo-
tive organs, the Timbs and arms, tapering and be-
coming delicate, terminate in feet and hands which,
compared with the ample trunk, are peculiarly
small; — the complexion, dependant upon nutrition,
has the rose and lily so exquisitely blended, that
we are surprised it should defy the usual operation
of the elements;- and there is a luxuriant profu.
sion of soft and fine flaxen or auburn hair. — The
whole figure is soft and voluptuous in the extreme.
To this class belong all the more feminine, soft,
and exquisitely-graceful women.
The kind of beauty thus characterized is seen
chiefly in the Saxon races of our eastern coast;
and it is certainly more frequent in women of short
stature.
The vital system is peculiarly the system of wo-
man; and so truly is this the case, that any great
employment, either of the locomotive or mental
organs, deranges the peculiar functions of woman,
and destroys the characteristics of her sex.
Women who greatly occupy the locomotive or-
gans, acquire a coarse and masculine appearance;
and so well is this incompatibility of power, in the
use of locomotive organs with the exercise of vital
ones, known to the best female dancers, that, du-
ring the time of their engagements, they generally
live apart from their husbands.
As to intellectual ladies, they either seldom be

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
207
come mothers, or they become intellectual when
they cease to be mothers.
These few facts are worth a thousand hypotheses
and dreams, however amiable they may be.
The vital system is relatively largest in little
women, especially after they have been mothers.
The shorter stature of woman ensures, indeed, in
almost all, a relative excess of the vital system af-
ter, if not before, they become mothers; for, what-
ever the stature, the mammæ, abdomen, &c., neces-
sarily expand. In those of short stature, these
parts, of course, become nearly as large as in the
tall; and this circumstance causes them to touch
on the limits of each other in little women.
| As, in pregnancy and suckling, the abdomen and
mammæ necessarily expand, and as they would
afterward collapse and become wrinkled, were not
a certain degree of plumpness acquired, that acqui-
sition is essential to beauty in mothers. Meager-
ness in them, accordingly, becomes deformity.
A French writer indeed says: “Most of our
fashionables are extremely slender; they have con-
stituted this an essential to beauty ; leanness is in
France necessary to the air élégant.” It must be
remembered, however, that the vital system—that
which we have just said is peculiarly the system of
woman-is, in its most beautiful parts, peculiarly
defective in France; and that, owing in a great
measure to that circumstance, the women of France
are among the ugliest in Europe - But of that in
its proper place.

208
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
First Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
It may here be observed, that the varieties of
beauty of the locomotive system, and also those of
beauty of the mental system, are easily explicable,
because these systems are, in some respects, more
limited and simple. The varieties of beauty of the
vital system are, on the contrary, more difficult of
explanation, because that system is, in some re-
spects, more diffused and complicated.
Even the preparatory vital organs and functions
differ somewhat in the two sexes.
Woman has frequently a smaller number of molar
teeth than man; those called wisdom teeth not
always appearing. Mastication is also less ener-
getic in woman.
The stomach, in woman, is much smaller; the
appetite for food is less; hunger does not appear
to press her so imperiously; and her consumption
of food is much less considerable.* Hence, in-
dubitable cases of long abstinence from food, have
generally occurred in females.
In the choice and the preference of certain ali.
ments, woman also differs much from man. In
general, women prefer light and agreeable food,
which flatters the palate by its perfume and its
savor. Their appetites are also much more varied.
Women, whom vicious habits have not depraved,
• Statistical results in relation to the supply of hospitals and
prisons, carry the expense of a man much beyond that of a woman.

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
209
use also beverages less abundantly than men.
Fermented, vinous, and spirituous beverages are
indeed used only by the monsters engendered in
the corruptions of towns — amid the insane dissi-
pation of the rich, or the wretched and pitiable
suffering of the poor; and both are then brought
to one humiliating level, marked by the red and
pimpled, or the pallid face, the swimming eye, the
haggard features, the pestilential breath. The scarf-
skin in these cases divides all that may be worthy
from all that is utterly worthless: the worthy part
may be external to the cuticle, in substantial,
though polluted clothing; the worthless is the yet
living portion, which, whether called body or soul,
is no longer worth picking off a dunghill.*
Digestion in woman is made, however, with great
rapidity; and the whole canal interested in that
process, possesses great irritability.
The absorbent vessels in woman are much more
developed, and seem to enjoy a more active vi-
tality. The circumstances of pregnancy and suck-
ling, appear also to augment the energy of these
vessels.
The FIRST MODIFICATION, therefore, of this species
of beauty, is that in which the digestive and ab.
sorbent system is small but active; for the great
purpose of life in woman is secretion, whether it
regard the formation of the superficial adipose subi
stance which invests her with beautiful and attrac.
* Appendix H.

210
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
tive forms, or the nutrition of the new being which
is the object of her attractions and of her life.
Hence it is, that women naturally and instinct-
ively affect abstemiousness and delicacy of appetite.
Hence it is, that they compress the waist, and en-
deavor to render it slender.
Second Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
Women have, in greater abundance than men,
several of the fluids which enter into the composi.
tion of the body. They appear to have a greater
quantity of blood; and they certainly have more
frequent and more considerable hemorrhages. There
is less force in the circulation and respiration; but
the heart beats more rapidly. The pulse also is
less full, but it is quicker.
In woman, the purer lily and more vivid rose of
complexion, depend on various causes.
It would appear that, in women, the blood is in
general carried less abundantly to the surface and
to the extremities, where also the white vessels are
more developed; and that, to this, as well as to the
subjacent adipose substance, the skin owes its
whiteness.
In youth, however, one of the constituent parts
of the skin, the reticular tissue, or whatever the
substance under the scarf-skin may be called, ap-
pears to be more expanded, especially in women;
and it would seem that this tissue is then filled
with a blood which is less dark, and which forms
the coloring of youth. This, differently modified

THE NUTRITIVE SISTEM.
211
by the scarf-skin, gives the blue, the purple, and
and all the teints formed by these and the color of
the skin. Where the vessels are more patent, and
the skin more thin, delicate, and transparent, as in
the cheeks, the hue of the rose is cast over that of
the lily. In addition to this, the slightest emotions
of surprise, of pleasure, of love, of sharne, of fear,
often diversify all these teints.
Lightness of complexion, however, is probably
dependant more particularly on the arterial circula
tion, and darkness of complexion on the venous
circulation ; for we know that in fairer woman the
arteries possess greater energy, while in darker
man the veins are more developed, larger, and
fuller.
Farther confirmation of this is afforded by an
observation, which physiologists have neglected to
make, that the kidneys, receiving arterial blood,
are the artery-relieving glands, while the liver, re-
ceiving venous blood, is the vein-relieving gland.
secretion and fairness prevail; while, in hot cli-
mates, the hepatic secretion and darkness prevail.
Many physiologists have indeed made the insulated
remark, that the dark complexion has much to do
with the hepatic secretion. The more abundant
urinary and hepatic secretions, however, may not
be the causes, but only concomitant effects of the
same cause with fairness and darkness of com.
The SECOND MODIFICATION, therefore, of this species
of beauty, is that in which the circulating vessels

212
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
being moderately active and finely ramified, bestow
upon the skin a whiteness, a transparency, and a
complexion, which are necessary to beauty.
The whiteness, the transparency, and the color
of the skin, have, in all highly civilized nations
been deemed essential conditions of beauty.
The ancients regarded whiteness, in particular,
as the distinctive character of beauty; and they
estimated that character so highly, that the name
of Venus, from the Celtic ven, ben, or ban, signifies
white, or whiteness; and Venus herself is said to
be fair and golden-haired.
Among the civilized moderns, also a taste which
women seek always to satisfy, is that for whiteness
of the skin : hence, the white lily, new-fallen snow,
white marble, or alabaster, are the images which
poetry employs, when the color of a woman is its
subject. So greatly, indeed, does whiteness con-
tribute to beauty, that many women deemed beauti.
ful by us, have little other right to that epithet ex
cept what they derive from a beautiful skin.
Third Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
The branches of the great artery of the body,
the aorta, supplying the abdomen and pelvis, are
larger in woman than in man, as well as more ha.
bitually liable to variation in the quantity of their
contents. The quantity of blood, also, which pas-
ses to the abdomen, is greater.
At the same time, the excretions are generally
less in woman. Hippocrates says: “Nam corpus

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
213
muliebre minus dissipatur quam virile;” the expend-
iture of the body of woman is less than that of
man.
It is evident, then that the secretions, nutrition,
in particular, must be greater. We actually know
them to be so.
But the nourishment of the organs concerned in
locomotion is less active, and that of the cellular
and adipose substance is generally more active,
than in man. And on this, important consequences
depend.
Woman is subject to crises which would destroy
all her organs, if they offered too powerful a re-
sistance. Some parts of her body are exposed to
great shocks, to alternate extensions, compres-
sions, and reductions, which could not take place
with impunity, but by means of this predominance
of the cellular and adipose structure.
The cellular expansion, the general basis of the
structure, appears then to be more abundant in
woman, more lax and yielding, more dilated and
fuller of liquids; and it is by yielding gradually,
by decomposing and weakening shocks by means
of the general suppleness of the different organs,
thus procured, that nature seems, in woman, to
zvoid, or to destroy, every hurtful effort.
It is observed, moreover, that certain parts, nat-
urally more loose, receive into all their vessels a
more considerable quantity of liquid, and assume
a particular enlargement, at the moment when
their sympathy with the uterus causes them to
enter into action in concert with it, and it is also

214
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
observed that they dilate more easily during preg
nancy.
It is thus, then, that nature gives to all the parts
of woman that suppleness which renders her capa-
ble of easily yielding to the great revolutions
which affect her organization in regard to repro-
duction, as well as mark the different periods of
her life.
The great development of the cellular and fatty
tissue in woman is illustrated by the remarkable
fact, that anciently the Romans, in order to burn
the bodies of dead men, were obliged to join to
them those of women, the fat of which greatly fa-
cilitated combustion.
Now, with the great purposes described above,
beauty is naturally associated. It is principally
this excess of the cellular and fatty tissues which
gives to the members of woman those round and
beautiful outlines, that soft and polished surface,
which the body of man does not possess.
In every part, however, of the human figure, as
observed by Reynolds, " when not spoiled by too
great corpulency, will be found distinctness, the
parts never appearing uncertain or confused, or as
a musician would say, slurred; and all those small-
er parts which are comprehended in the larger
compartment are still found to be there, however
marked.”
Now, while all this is the case, it appears that
the true skin is much thinner and more delicate in
woman than in man, and that it derives more or
less of its clear whiteness from the quantity of fat

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
215
which is below it; for meagerness inevitably tar-
nishes and dries it. Hence, to possess a fine, soft,
white, and fresh skin, it is also indispensable to
possess plumpness.
In relation to this purer white, it must also be
observed, that transpiration, which might soil it,
appears to be much less abundant in woman; and
that the liver or vein-relieving gland, is very large.
The excretions of the skin in women are indeed
chiefly limited to certain parts; and it is thence
that it has, in various parts, an odor which a
French writer observes “it is difficult to describe,
but which an exercised sense of smell easily suc-
ceeds in distinguishing in women who fully enjoy
all the attributes of their sex, and who are women
even in the atmosphere which exhales from them.”
While the skin is thus more white in women, it
is also more transparent. The reticular tissue, or
substance interposed between the true skin and
scarf-skin, appears to have more clearness and
turgescence, especially on the face, where, under
the influence of various emotions, it easily permits
a passage to the blood, as we see in blushing. It
is in youth that this turgescence and clearness are
most evident.
Hence, the skin in woman less conceals the
veins, of which the color, only enfeebled or modi-
fied by the skin, “gives all those shades of azure
which the charmed eye follows with so much
pleasure on the surface of the bosom and of all the
parts where the skin has least of thickness.”
All this constitutes freshness, or animation,

216
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
which is nearly synonymous with health, and with
out which there is no beauty. When that quality,
as observed by Roussel, “is wanting, all other
attractions strike but feebly, because the prompt
judgment, which instinct suggests, warns us that
the woman whose person does not present all the
characters of perfect health, is in a disposition lit-
tle favorable to the plan of nature, relatively to the
maintenance of the species.”
The whiteness and the animation of the skin,
however, do not alone constitute its beauty: there
is still another quality which is absolutely neces-
sary to it. This is the softness and the polish
which, as the reader has seen, is one of the first
conditions of physical beauty. In woman, this is
probably derived from a slight degree of oleagin-
ous secretion. Hence, she has few asperities of
the skin, especially on the surface of the bosom,
and other parts, where the skin is excessively
smooth.
Brown women, who probably have more of this
oleaginous secretion, are said to possess in a great-
er degree the polish of skin which gives impres-
sions so agreeable to the organ of touch; and
hence, Winckelmann has said that persons who
prefer brown women to fair ones allow themselves
to be captivated by the touch rather than the sight.
There is reason, however, to doubt the accuracy
of this. Brown women appear to have greater
softness, but less smoothness of skin.
The body of woman is nearly deprived of hairs
upon all parts, except the head, axillæ, &c.; and

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
217
the hair of her head is generally long, fine, ard
flexible.
The quantity and the color of the hair are al-
ways in relation to the constitution of the individ-
ual to which it belongs, and generally to the tem-
perature of the place. The people of northern
countries have the hair of a silken fineness and of
surprising length.
The hair which is most admired is not only very
fine and flexible, but light colored. Fair golden
hair was, of all its teints, that which the ancient
artists preferred.
In woman, the hair of the head whitens and falls
later than in man.
It is curious that, in regard to the hair, the dis-
tinctive characters of the sexes should not always
have been preserved. Though nature gives long
hair to woman, it has sometimes been the fashion
to wear it short ; and though man has naturally
shorter hair, it has sometimes been the fashion to
cherish its growth, and to shave the beard from
his face. The latter has especially been the case
in degenerate and effeminate times; and this has
sometimes been accompanied by remarkable con-
sequences.
One of the greatest misfortunes, says a French
writer, which France ever had to lament, the divorce
of Louis le Jeune from Elinor of Guyenne, resulted
from the fashion, which this prince wished to in-
troduce, of shaving his chin and cropping his head.
The queen, his wife, who appears to have possessed,
with a masculine beauty, considerable acuteness of

218
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
intellect, observed with some displeasure, that she
imagined herself to have espoused a monarch, not
a monk. The obstinacy of Louis in shaving him.
self, and the horror conceived by Elinor at the sight
of a beardless chin, occasioned France the loss of
those fine provinces which constituted the dowry
of this princess; and which, devolving to England
by a second marriage, became the source of wars
which desolated France during four hundred years.
The habit of wearing the beard is a manly and
noble one. Nature made it distinctive of the male
and female; and its abandonment has commonly
been accompanied not only by periods of general
effeminacy, but even by the decline and fall of
states. They were bearded Romans who con-
quered the then beardless Greeks; they were
bearded Goths who vanquished the then beardless
Romans; and they are bearded Tartars who now
promise once more to inundate the regions occu-
pied by the shaven and effeminate people of west-
ern Europe.
In farther illustration of the manliness of this
habit we may observe, that throughout Europe,
wars have generally led to its temporary and par-
tial introduction, as at the present day. Those
assuredly blunder, who ridicule the wearing of the
beard. Silly affectation, on the contrary, is im-
putable only to those who, by removing the beard,
take the trouble so far to emasculate themselves!
and who think themselves beautified by an unnatural
imitation of the smoother face of woman!
As appendages of the skin, the nails may here

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
219
de noticed. Their beauty consists in their figure,
their surface, and their color.
By their figure, they serve as a defence to the
delicate extremities of the fingers, which would
otherwise be easily hurt against hard bodies.
They form at once shields and supporting arches
to the fingers; and they give facility in laying
hold of bodies which would escape from their
smallness. They ought accordingly to be arched,
and to extend as far as the flesh which terminates
the fingers. — The form of the nails depends much
on the care employed in cutting them during in-
fancy, and still more on the mode of employing
the hand.
The nails ought also to be smooth and polished,
somewhat transparent, and rose-colored. Their
rosy color seems to show that their texture has
less density and more transparence.
It is in this view of the nutritive system and
the characteristics which render it beautiful, and
especially after this portion of it which regards the
organs and functions of secretion, that the mammæ
and their beauty should be considered.
In woman, the bust is smaller and more rounded
than in man; and it is distinguished by the volume
and the elegant form of the bosom.
The external and elevated position of the mammæ
is by far the most suitable for a nursling, which,
no longer deriving subsistence from within the
mother, nor yet able of itself to find it without,
must be gently and softly borne toward her; an
admirable position, says a French writer, “which

220
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
in keeping the infant under the eyes and in the
arms of the mother, establishes between them an
interesting exchange of tenderness, of cares, and
of innocent caresses, which enables the one the
better to express its wants, and the other to enjoy
the sacrifices which she makes, in continually con-
templating their object.”
According to Buffon, in order that the mammæ
be well placed, it is necessary that the space be-
tween them should be as great as that from the
mammæ to the middle of the depression between
the clavicles, so that these three points form an
equilateral triangle.
The two portions of the mammæ should be well
detached. The whole presents, in beautiful models,
more elegance than volume; and the areola, it
may be observed, is red in fair women and deeper
colored in brown ones.
Winckelmann observes that, in the antique
statues, the mammæ terminate gently in a point,
and that they have always virginal forms, as a
consequence of the system of the ancient artists,
which consists in not recalling in the ideal the
wants and the accidents of humanity.
Finally on this particular head, I must observe
that the reproduction of the species is, in woman,
the most important object of life, and that every
thing in her physical organization has evident re.
ference to it. Of all the passions in woman, says
Richerand, “love has the greatest sway: it has
even been said to be her only passion. All the
others are modified by it, and receive from it a

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
221
peculiar cast, which distinguishes them from those
of man. . . . Fontenelle used to say of the devo-
tion of some women, 'One may see that love has
been here. It has been said, in speaking of St.
Theresa, “To love God, is still to love. Thomas
maintains that, "With women a man is more than
an episode in the life of man; it is the whole history
of the life of woman.”
The THIRD MODIFICATION, therefore, of this species
of beauty, is that in which the secreting vessels
being active, not only cause the plumpness, &c.,
necessary to beauty, but furnish the mammary and
uterine secretions, on which progeny is dependant.
This must inevitably be followed by moderate ex-
cretions.
It should not pass unobserved that there exist,
in some women, a fair skin and dark hair, forming
a rather extraordinary and striking combination.
As such women have the skin remarkably smooth
and moist, this is probably connected with some
peculiarity of secretion and excretion.
It is evidently the UNION of all that is good in
these varieties which renders beauty in the vital
system perfect..
This union is nowhere so frequently to be seen,
as in England and in Holland.
It is curious that cleanliness among women
seems necessarily to increase with the develop-
ment of this system ; and that, in general slovenli-
ness and filth increase as we pass from England

222
SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
and Holland, toward France, Italy, Spain, and Por
tugal, even among women of the highest condition,
Of the temperaments of the ancients, which, as
already said, are only partial views of some of the
varieties I am now describing, two, the phlegmatic
temperament and the sanguine temperament, appear
to belong fundamentally to this species. It has
been supposed, that the first affects the absorbent,
the second the circulating system. They appear
to me to be exactly opposite affections of the whole
nutritive system at least.
The phlegmatic temperament may exist in both
sexes. The causes which tend to develop it, are
infancy, humidity with cold, the absence of light,
indolence, and the feeble influence of the repro-
ductive functions upon the general system.
In this temperament, there exists an excess in
the proportions of the absorbent vessels; the pulse
is weak, slow, and soft; there is a turgescence of
the cellular tissue, and a more marked development
of the glands; the internal stimulants, having less
energy than in the other temperaments, life is less
active, and all its actions are more or less languid;
even the uterus is not endowed with suitable
energy.
But these characteristics are not confined to the
nutritive system : they extend to the thinking one.
The attention is not continuous; the perceptions
succeed with some difficulty; the memory is not
to be trusted; the imagination is weak; and the
propensities, the appetites, and the passions, are so

THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
223
languid, as to be scarcely capable of troubling the
quietude and the indolence which depend on such
a constitution.
These characteristics of the phlegmatic temper-
ament, present to us forms more rounded and less
expressive, a general softness, a feeble color of the
skin, a sort of etiolation, a pale countenance, a light
and abundant hair, and, generally, an insurmount-
able inclination to sloth, averse alike to labors of
the mind and body.
It has been observed, that the sanguine tem
perament, so generally met with among northern
nations, is the necessary consequence of the con-
tinual and very energetic reaction of the powers of
circulation, against the effects of external cold;
that it is only by the constant activity of the heart
and vessels that calorification can be effected with
the necessary vigor: and that the effects of this
redoubled action are the same to the organs of cir-
culation as to the muscles, under the influence of
volition ; exertion in both increasing the power of
the organs exerted.
In the sanguine temperament, the lymphatic, cir-
culating, and secreting systems appear to be in a
sort of equilibrium ; the chest is larger, and the
lungs more voluminous; the circulation is more
rapid, the arterial predominance is obvious; the
pulse is sharp, frequent, and regular; the com-
plexion is ruddy; all the vital actions are extreme-
ly easy; and the health is rarely altered.
The mental functions correspond. The concep-
tion is quick; the memory is prompt; the imagi.

BEAUTY OF THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM.
nation is lively; the judgment has more readiness
than depth and extent; the mind, easily affected
by the impressions of outward objects, passes
rapidly from one idea to another; the tastes, pro-
pensities, appetites, passions, are equally epheme-
ral; and there is much activity, but the strength is
soon exhausted.
In persons of this temperament, the countenance
is animated ; the hair is fair, and inclining to chest-
nut; the shape is good; the form is softened,
thougn distinct; and the muscles are of tolerable
consistence, and moderate development. The whole
appearance is generally so amiable, that this tem-
perament may be called that of health, beauty, and
happiness.
In the women who present the attributes of their
sex with the greatest unity, we distinguish, espe.
cially during youth and adult age, the traits of the
sanguine temperament, which may be regarded 18
the most suitable to the organizat'on of woman.

BEAUTY OF THE THINKING SYSTEM.
225
CHAPTER XIV.
THIRD SPECIES OF BEAUTY — BEAUTY OF THE THINKING
SYSTEM.
In woman, the organs of sense are proportionally
larger, and the sensibility is more quick and deli.
cate than in man.
Hence, also, the mental quickness and delicacy
of woman are greater. Her perceptions succeed
with rapidity and intenseness; and the last of them
generally predominates. In well-organized women,
accordingly, the forehead and the observing facul
ties are peculiarly developed.
The general nervous system of woman is like-
wise far more mobile than that of man.
Beauty of the thinking system in woman depends
especially upon these fundarnental facts, and those
from man.
In the woman possessing THIS SPECIES of beauty,
accordingly, the greater development o its upper
part gives to the head, in every view, - pyriform
appearance ; -- the face is generally oval;— the
high and pale forehead announces the excellence
of the observing faculties ; —the intensely expresa
sive eye is full of sensibility ;-in the lower fea.
tures, modesty and dignity are often unived; - she

226
THIRD SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
has not the expanded bosom, the general plump-
ness, or the beautiful complexion, of the second
species of beauty ; — and she boasts easy and
graceful motion, rather than the elegant proportion
of the first. — The whole figure is characterized by
intellectuality and grace.
This species of beauty is less proper to woman,
less feminine, than the preceding. It is not the
intellectual system, but the vital one, which is, and
ought to be most developed in woman.
First Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
In woman, the nervous extremities appear to be
larger than in man; a pulpy appearance is more
remarkable in them; and the papillæ in which they
terminate, appear to have less rigidity.
The organs of sense are proportionally larger,
and more delicately outlined. There is indeed in
woman more development in the organs of sensa-
tion, than in that of understanding, reasoning, and
judging; while the contrary is the case in man.
The sensations, accordingly, are in woman more
acute, and their minute differences are more easily
discerned. Man reflects more than he feels: woman
always feels more than she reflects.
The FIRST MODIFICATION, therefore, of this species
of beauty, is that in which the development of the
organs of sense is proportionally large, and the
sensibility greater.
It ought to be observed, that though, in woman,
when well organized, the whole head is propor

THE THINKING SYSTEM.
227
cionally less than in man, yet, the organs of sense
will be found to be proportionally larger. This
sufficiently indicates the importance of such pro-
portional development. Upon it, indeed, depend
that increased sensibility and quickness of observa-
tion, which are essential to the female character.
Second Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
Of all parts of the brain in woman, when well
formed, the forehead, especially, is found to be
large. Without this, she would have sensibility
without observation, a most unhappy condition of
the nervous system.
In woman, the brain partakes of the softness of
all the other parts of her structure. The cellular
tissue which covers it, and which descends between
its convolutions, is more abundant, mucous, and
loose.
The mind, correspondingly, is more impressed by
any new object of thought; the whole nervous sys-
tem is more extensively affected by impressions on
the brain; the propensity to emotion is stronger,
and women are more habitually under its influence.
The intimate connexion of the thinking, with a
peculiar modification of the reproductive faculties,
inspires in woman the want of maternity, which is
more powerful than life, and which renders her ca-
pable of every sacrifice. Associated with this, are
her affection, tenderness, and compassion.
Upon the whole, sensibility in woman is greater
than understanding; the involuntary play of the

228
THIRD SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
imagination, more active than its regulated combi-
nations; and passion, generally of the gentler kind,
predominates rather than resolve or determination
She has, therefore, more finesse and activity, than
depth or force of thought; and her nervous system
is also more frequently deranged by accidents un
known to man.
The extent of the brain, anteriorly, is measured
by the different degrees of the opening of an an-
gle, which Camper has called the facial angle; and
so far it is favorable to woman well conformed;
but it gives no notion of the magnitude of the brain
superiorly, posteriorly, or laterally. *
The brain of woman, however, in general, ex
tends a good deal posteriorly as well as anteriorly
though it narrows in the former of these directions;
and, to the proportional length thus acquired, is
owing that intensity in her functions, which I have
just described. Superiorly, centrally, and laterally,
the brain of woman is generally much less than
that of man; and hence the want of elevation,
depth, and endurance, in her mental faculties.
Upon the whole, the brain of woman is less than
that of man, and it is especially less in its superior,
central, and, intellectually considered, more im-
portant portions.
The SECOND MODIFICATIon, therefore, of this spe-
cies of beauty, is that in which the development of
* Appendix I.
† See the causes of this explained in my work on “Physiog
domy."

THE THINKING SYSTEM.
229
the brain is proportionally small. This is an evi.
dent corollary from what we have just stated as to
the first modification of this species; for it is not
possible that the organs of sense should be propor-
tionally large, without the rest of the head being
proportionally small.
This is not quite conformable with the wishes of
phrenology; but we must leave any dispute be-
tween that art and nature to its own issue. A Ve.
nus, moreover, with a small, yet beautifully propor-
tioned head, is often seen to be the mother of a boy
who has a large head; the difference of sex caus-
ing a vast modification and difference of develop-
ment.
Third Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty.
From what has been already said, it may be con-
cluded that, in action or conduct, women are less
guided by intellect, and are more biased by feeling
and emotion ; and it may also be concluded, that
all their movements to fulfil the purposes of feeling
and emotion, are made in a manner more easy and
more prompt, though less sustained. This is in.
creased by the ready obedience of the muscular
fibre, and the relative shortness of the stature.
This more easy and less forcible action is per-
fectly conformable physically with the small and
elongated form of the cerebel, or organ of the will,
in woman; as it is morally with the part which
woman performs in life, and her desire to please,
while it is that of man to protect and to defend.

230
THIRD SPECIES OF BEIUTY.
Conformably with the smaller size of the cerea
bel, and especially with its smaller breadth (the
influence of which is explained in the work last
referred to), the disposition of woman to sustained
exertion, whether mental or bodily, is much less;
and hence the character “varium et mutabile sem-
per fæmina.”
It is, then, the prompt and easily-affected sensi-
bility of woman, not her understanding or force of
mind, which renders her so eminently fit to be in-
terested in infancy, which enables her to surmount
maternal pains by the sentiment of affection and
pity, and which makes agreeable to her the cares
and the details of housekeeping; and it is this
which sometimes renders nothing too irksome or
too painful for a mother, a wife, or a mistress, to
endure.
Hence, the constitution of woman is perfectly
adapted to these functions; hence, her existence is
more sedentary than man's; hence, she has more
gentleness of character than he ; and hence, she
is less acquainted with great crimes.
of beauty, is that in which the development of the
cerebel or organ of the will, as well as the muscles
which it actuates, is proportionally small.
The situation of this considerable organ is in the
accurately indicated by saying, that a line passing
through it would complete, posteriorly, a longer
line passing backward from the nose through the

THE THINKING SYSTEM.
231
When this organ, which is that of the will, is
high, and more especially when it is large, a deter-
mination and force seem to be given by it to the
character, which render it the reverse of feminine.
Having spoken here of the ready exercise of the
will in woman, and its adaptation to her wish to
please, it seems to be here that some circumstances
dependant on these should be noticed.
With this ready exercise of the will and desire
to please, are evidently connected the light care-
lessness, the graceful ease, and the gentle softness,
which add so much to the power of beauty. Hence,
artists give to woman the bending form which as-
sociates so well with all her characteristics; for all
feel with Hogarth that undulating lines are more or
less formed in all movements executed with the in-
tention of expressing sentiments of courtesy, re-
spect, benevolence, or love.
But it is grace that we must especially consider
here— grace which directly emanates from this
ready exercise of the will and desire to please, es-
pecially when combined with observing faculties so
perfect and so perpetually active as those of woman.
“Gracefulness,” says Burke, “is an idea not
very different from beauty; it consists in much the
same thing. . . Gracefulness is an idea belonging to
pesture and motion. In both these, to be graceful,
it is requisite that there be no appearance of diffi-
culty; there is required a small inflexion of the
body; and a composure of the parts in such a
manner, as not to encumber each other, nor to ap-
pear divided by sharp and sudden angleş In this

232
THIRD SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
ease, this roundness, this delicacy of attitude and
motion, it is that all the magic of grace consists,
and what is called "je ne scais quoi.'”
It is not in these mere physical qualities, that all
the magic of grace consists, which, in the state of
Burke's knowledge, he might indeed well call “ je
ne scais quoi !" Let the reader hear what is saia
on this subject by a man who could look a little
deeper than Burke, and who owed no fame to the
little art of substituting a flash of words for depth
of thought, and serving by it a venal purpose as
little as the art itself.
“What grace," says Smith, “what noble pro-
priety do we not feel in the conduct of those who
exert that recollection and self-command which
constitute the dignity of every passion, and which
bring it down to what others can enter into! We
are disgusted with that clamorous grief, which,
without any delicacy, calls upon our compassion
with sighs and tears and importunate lamentation.
But we reverence that reserved, that silent and
majestic sorrow, which discovers itself only in the
swelling of the eyes, in the quivering of the lips
and cheeks, and in the distant, but affecting address
of the whole behavior. It imposes the like silence
upon us; we regard it with respectful attention,
and watch over our whole behavior, lest, by any
impropriety, we should disturb that concerted tran-
quillity which it requires so great an effort to sup-
port.” This is eloquence, indeed.
Alison duly appreciates this earliest definition of
grace. “It is,” he says, “this recollection and

THE THINKING SYSTEM.
233
self-command,' which in such scenes constitute
what even in common language is called the grace-
ful in behavior or deportment, and it is the ex-
pression of the same qualities in the attitude and
gesture, which constitutes, in my apprehension,
the grace of such gestures or attitudes. . . Where-
ever, in the movements of the form, self-command
or self-possession is expressed, some degree of
grace, at least, is always produced. . . Whenever
in such motions grace is actually perceived, I think
it will always be found to be in slow, and, if I may
use the expression, in restrained or measured mo
tions.
“The motions of the horse, when wild in the
pasture, are beautiful; when urged to his speed,
and straining for victory, they may be felt as sub
lime ; but it is chiefly in movements of a different
kind that we feel them as graceful, when, in the
impatience of the field, or in the curvetting of
the manege, he seems to be conscious of all the
powers with which he is animated, and yet to re-
strain them, from some principle of beneficence or
of dignity. Every movement of the stag almost is
beautiful, from the fineness of his form and the
ease of his gestures; yet it is not in these or in
the heat of the chase that he is graceful: it is when
he pauses upon some eminence in the pursuit, when
he erects his crested head, and when, looking with
disdain upon the enemy who follows, he bounds to
the freedom of his-hills. It is not, in the same
manner, in the rapid speed of the eagle when he

234
THIRD SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
darts upon his prey, that we perceive the grace of
which his motions are capable. It is when he
soars slowly upward to the sun, or when he wheels
with easy and continuous motion in airy circles in
the sky.
“In the personification which we naturally give
to all inanimate objects which are susceptible of
movement, we may easily perceive the influence of
the same association. We speak commonly, for
instance, of the graceful motions of trees, and of
the graceful movements of a river. It is never,
however, when these motions are violent or ex-
treme, that we apply to them the term of grace.
It is the gentle waving of the tree in slow and
measured cadence which is graceful, not the tos-
sing of its branches amid the storm. It is the slow
and easy winding which is graceful in the move-
ments of the river, and not the burst of the cataract,
or the fury of the torrent.
“It is only in the perfection of the human sys-
tem, in the age when the form has assumed all its
powers, and the mind is awake to the conscious-
ness of all the capacities it possesses, and the lofty
obligations they impose, that the reign of physical
grace commences; and that the form is capable ou
expressing, under the dominion of every passion or
emotion, the high and habitual superiority which it
possesses, either to the allurements of pleasure or
the apprehensions of pain. It is this age, accord-
ingly, which the artists of antiquity have uniformly
represented, when they sought to display the per-
fection of grace, and when they succeeded in leav

THE THINKING SYSTEM.
235
ing their compositions as models of this perfection
to every succeeding age."
It is evidently the UNION of all that is good in the
varieties now described which renders beauty, in
the thinking system, perfect.
This is well illustrated in the Minerva of the
Giustiniani gallery, which, in this respect, is
scarcely the less valuable because it is draped, for
it is the head that ever bears the greatest impress
of intellectuality.
This union is by no means perfect in the English
female head, although, from the considerable de-
velopment of the forehead and the moderate one
of the backhead, the general form of that head is
beautiful. As to the French female head, a French-
man, writing under the name of Count Stendhal,
scruples not to say: “The form of the head in
Paris is ugly; the cranium approaches to that of
the ape; and this occasions the women to have the
appearance of age very early in life.” The women
of Paris differ not, in this respect, from those of
France generally. Nearly all have the character
here described.
It is under this species that the nervous tempera.
ment falls, which is constituted by great sensibility
and corresponding mobility, and therefore belongs
to the first and the last of those varieties ; a tem-
perament chiefly to be found among women.
This temperament scarcely exists in the athletic,
is weak in the phlegmatic, is moderate in the san-
guine, and is rather active in the bilious.

236
THIRD SPECIES OF BEAUTY.
It is characterized by the smallness and the emacie
ation of the muscles, the quickness and intensity
of the sensations, and the suddenness and fickleness
of the determinations.
It is seldom natural, but commonly depends on
a sedentary and inactive life, on a diseased con-
dition of the brain produced by reading works of
imagination, and on habits of sensual indulgence.
In confirmation of this, we are told that the Roman
ladies became subject to nervous affections only in
consequence of those depraved manners which
marked the decline of the empire; and that these
affections were extremely common in France in the
licentious times preceding the fall of the corrupt
and corrupting monarchy.
Another partial view falling under this species,
and properly under the second variety, is the cer-
ebral temperament, which results from the energy
and influence of the brain.
This temperament, being thus determined by an
excess in the power of the brain, has been called
the temperament of genius. When it is increased
by education and habits, the other organs are gen-
erally more feeble.
In woman, the cerebral temperament is more
particularly characterized by a predominance of
imagination, which is evidently dependant on the
organization which has already been described.
It has been truly observed, that to contribute to
the perfection of reason as well as to the preserva-
tion of health, the brain ought to be exercised and
developed in every direction; that the mere exer.

THE THINKING SYSTEM.
237
cise of memory carried too far renders persons
foolish; that the predominance of imagination dis-
poses to nervous affections, and even to alienation;
that meditation alters the digestive functions; and
that the dry and minute contention which business
requires, disposes, when joined to a defect of exer-
cise (and I may add the vinous excesses in which
men of business indulge), to apopiexy and to
paralysis

238
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
CHAPTER XV.
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR
“It is probable,” says Dr. Prichard, “ that the
natural idea of the beautiful in the human person
has been more or less distorted in almost every
nation. Peculiar characters of countenance, in
many countries, accidentally enter into the ideal
standard. This observation has been made par-
ticularly of the negroes of Africa, who are said
to consider a flat nose and thick lips as principal
ingredients of beauty; and we are informed by
Pallas that the Kalmucs* esteem no face as hand-
some, which has not the eyes in angular position,
and the other characteristics of their race. The
Aztecs of Mexico have ever preferred a depressed
forehead,t which forms the strongest contrast io
the majestic contour of the Grecian busts: the
former represented their divinities with a head
more flattened than it is ever seen among the
Caribs, and the Greeks, on the contrary, gave to
• Pallas - Voyages en Siberie.
† Humboldt's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain.

BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
239
their gods and heroes a still more unnatural eleva.
tion.”
Knowing, as the reader now does, what consti-
tutes the worth, the dignity, and the beauty, of the
various organs, this statement tends to show the
value of that standard of beauty which we owe to
the Greeks. I proceed to illustrate it in regard to
the FACE.
The beauty of the human countenance is de-
scribed by various writers, as including the beauty
of form, in the various features of the face; the
beauty of color, in the shades of the complexion ;
the beauty of character, in some distinctive and
permanent relations; and the beauty of expression,
in some immediate and temporary feeling.
In regard to the form of the face, considered as
a whole, the opening of the facial angle of Camper,
in measuring geometrically the extent of the upper
part of the head, marks the development of the
brain or organ of thought, and shows the propor-
tion which it bears to the middle and lower part
of the face, or to the organs of sense and expres-
sion.
This development of the upper part of the head
contributes essentially to beauty, by giving to the
whole head that pyriform appearance already de-
scribed, by which in every view it is larger at the
superior part, diminishes gradually as it descends,
and terminates by the agreeable outline of the
chin.
In the most beautiful race of men, the facial an-
gle extends to eighty-five degrees, acquiring an in

240
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
crease of ten degrees above the inferior varieties,
the face is diminished; the eyes are better placed;
the nose assumes a more elegant form ; and all
appearance of muzzle vanishes.
In the Greek ideal bead, the development pre-
senting a facial angle of ninety degrees, confers
the highest beauty of the form of the head, the
majesty of the forehead, the position of the eyes
upon a line which divides the face into two equal
parts, the elegant projection of the nose, the ab-
sence of all tumidity of the lips. — But of that, in
the sequel.
| In the face, generally, as observed by Winckel-
mann, beauty of form depends greatly upon the
profile, and particularly on the line described by
the forehead and nose, by the greater or less de-
gree of the concavity or declivity of which, beauty
is increased or diminished. The nearer the profile
approaches to a straight line, the more majestic,
and at the same time softer, does the countenance
appear, the unity and simplicity of this line being,
as in everything else, the cause of this grand, yet
soft harmony.
The face being the seat of several organs, each
inust be examined in its turn.
Winckelmann observes, that "a large high FORE-
HEAD [an excess, in this respect] was regarded by
the ancients as a deformity.”— And “Arnobius
says, that those women who had a high forehead,
covered a part of it with a fillet.” The reason of
this will afterward be pointed out.
The sense of TOUCH resides in all parts of the

BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
241
es.
face, but especially in the lips. It is most perfect,
however, at the tips of the fingers.
A thinner skin permits to the touch of woman
more vivacity, delicacy, and profoundness. It
seizes the details which generally escape the touch
of man. It is more easily hurt by hard, rough and.
angular, cold or hot bodies.
Hence, woman requires vestments which are
light and smooth; and she enjoys more than man
the pleasure of reposing on flocculent substances
which softly resist her pressure.
In the face, the lips are peculiarly the organ of
touch.
Of all the organs of sense, the mouth admits, I
believe, of the greatest beauty and the greatest de-
formity. Considered in repose, nothing certainly
is more lovely than this organ when beautifully
formed in a beautiful woman. And in action, du-
ring speech, the simplest words passing through it
receive a charm altogether peculiar.
The mouth ought to be small, and not to extend
much beyond the nostrils : a large mouth and
thick lips are contrary to beauty. The curve of
the upper lip is said to have served as a model to
the ancient artists for the bow of Love. The
lower lip should be most developed, rounded and
turned outward; so as to produce, between it and
the chin, that beautiful hollow which assists so
much in giving the latter a more perfect rotundity.
Both, but especially the upper, should become thin
coward the angle of the mouth.
Although we see many lips without evident and

242
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
offensive defects, there are very few of them really
beautiful; and indeed it is only persons of great
delicacy and of refined taste who attach the high-
est value to perfect beauty of the lips.
Lips of beautiful form and of vermillion hue,
teeth which are small, equal, slightly rounded,
white, clean, and well arranged, and a pure breath,
are the circumstances which constitute a beautiful
mouth.
The sense of TASTE is more delicate and more
exquisite in woman than in man. She accordingly
seeks for savors which are less rough and irritating
than those which are agreeable to him.
The NOSE is the most prominent and conspicu-
ous feature of the face; it is the central fixed point
around which are arranged all its other parts; and
it is thus essential to the regularity of the features.
When these, moreover, are in action, the nose, by
its immobility, marks the degree of change which
they undergo, and renders intelligible all the
movements produced by admiration, joy, sadness,
fear, &c.
To perfect beauty of the nose, it is necessary
that it should be nearly in the same direction with
the forehead, and should unite with that part,
without leaving more than a slight inflexion to be
seen. This constitutes the Greek profile; and thu
various degrees of deviation from it constitute,
as to this organ, the various degenerations from
beauty the most consummate to ugliness the most
disgusting.
· Nature says Winckelmann, is sparing of this

BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
243
beauty both in burning climates and in frozen re-
gions.*
The same writer says: “The flat compressed
nose of the Kalmucs, Chinese, and other distant
nations, is also a defect, because it destroys the
harmony of forms, according to which all the other
parts are constructed: nor is there any reason
why nature should compress and hollow it, instead
of continuing the straight line begun in the fore-
head.” The fact is true ; the reasoning false, as
will be seen in a subsequent chapter, to which this
point properly belongs.
Under the influence of passion, the nostrils ex
pand and are drawn upward; and these two motions
are the only ones of which the lower and moveable
part of the nose is capable.
The sense of smell, like that of taste, is more
delicate and more exquisite in woman than in man.
Woman accordingly enjoys more, and suffers more,
by that sense than man does; and its influence is
said to dispose her more than man to those pleas-
ures which have remarkable relations to that sense.
To beauty of the EYE, magnitude and elongated
form contribute more perhaps than color: if its
form be bad, no color will render it beautiful. In
woman, however, the most beautiful eyes, in rela-
tion to color, are those which appear to be blue,
• It is remarkable that, in infants, the nose is almost always
flat, and that, in some members of the sarne family, it always re-
mains so, while in others, it rises. This is attended by differenca
of function,

244
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PRTICULAR.
hazel, or black. But no color of the eye is beau-
tiful without clearness in every part.
“ The more obliquely, and at an angle to each
other,” says Winckelmann, “that the eyes are
placed, as in cats, the more their position is re-
moved from the base, or from the fundamental
lines of the human face, which form a cross that
divides it into four parts, the nose dividing it per
pendicularly into two equal parts, and the eyes
dividing it horizontally. When the eyes are placed
obliquely, they form an angle with a line parallel
to that which we suppose to pass through their
centre. And this indeed is doubtless the reason
why it displeases us to see a mouth which goes
awry, because it generally offends the eye to see
two lines diverging from each other without any
reason. Thus eyes placed obliquely, as may be
seen sometimes among ourselves, and commonly
among the Chinese, Japanese, and in Egyptian
heads, are an irregularity and a deformity.”
Here, again, Winckelmann's fact is true, and his
reasoning false, or rather, perhaps, superficial. The
real cause of the deformity of obliquely-placed eyes
is, that the vital parts of the head preponderate.
The cavities of the upper jaw, which open into the
internal nose, are, in the Mongelic races, so large,
that they raise the cheek-bones, throw the orbit
upward at its lateral part, and encroach apparently
upon the space which should contain a nobler or-
gan, the brain. The causes assigned by Winckel.
mann are but consequences of this.
The eyelids in woman, when well formed, pre

BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
245
sent the gentlest inflexions. The eyelashes, when
long and silky, form a sign of gentleness, and some.
times of softness. The eyebrows ought to be fur.
nished with fine hairs, arched, and separated : it
they are too thin, they do not sufficiently protect
the organ of sight: if they unite, they render the
physiognomy sombre; their too-marked approxi.
mation, and their extreme separation, are real de.
formities.
The sense of sight in woman is rapid and active;
yet, in her, the slow and languid motion of the eye
is generally employed, and is more beautiful than
a brisk one. Woman requires a mild light, and
colors of moderate vividness, rather than other
wise.
The beauty of the EAR is too little regarded. To
an experienced eye it presents great beauties, and
great deformities, in form, magnitude, and projec-
tion.
The size and prominence of the ear, which char-
acterize several nomadic tribes, are contrary to
beauty, not merely because they alter the reguları
ty of the oval of the head, and surcharge its out-
line with prominences, but because they are in
themselves ugly, indicating rather the coarse
strength common to inferior animals than the
delicacy to be found in man.
In woman, the ear is also more delicate, more
sensible, but more feeble, than in man. Strong
sounds, loud noises, which may be agreeable to the
ear of man, are offensive to her. She prefers soft

246
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
and tender, gay, or pathetic music, to every other;
and whatever may be the perfection of her musical
education, she also prefers sweet and tender melo
dy to the most complicated Sclavonic harmony.
Such are the organs of sense or those of impres-
sion, which form the first and most important
portion of the face of woman. — The organs of
expression, the MUSCLES of the face, on the can-
trary, are feeble in her; and correspondingly
feeble and rounded are the bony points to which
they are attached.
Woman presents very little prominence of the
frontal sinuses; the cheek-bones display beautiful
curves; the edges of the alveoli containing the
teeth are much more elliptical than in man; and
the chin is softly rounded. Of the chin, it should
be observed that it is a distinctive character of the
human species, and is not found in any other ani.
mal. When well formed, it is full, united, and gen-
erally without a dimple ; and it passes gently and
almost insensibly into the neighboring parts. In
woman especially, the chin ought to be finely
rounded; for when projecting, it expresses, owing
to its connexion with muscular action and power, a
firmness and a determination which we do not wish
to discover in her character. “The apparent con-
vexity of the cheeks,” says Winckelmann, “which
in many heads appears greater than natural, con.
tributes to this rotundity: it is not, however, ideal,
but taken from natural beauty."
The muscles of the face express all the shades of
emotion and passion, not because such expression

BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
247
is the primary, or the proper object of their motion,
but because their various motions adapt the organs
to the farther purposes required of them in conse-
quence of preceding impressions; and these mo-
tions become expressive to us only because we are
thus enabled to infer the feeling and purpose of the
person in whom they occur. This is a fundament-
al principle of physiognomy; and its not being
understood has led to many of our errors in that
science.
In woman, the countenance is more rounded, as
well as more abundantly furnished with that cellular
and, fatty tissue which fills all the chasms, effaces,
all the angles, and unites all the parts by the gen-
tlest transitions. At the same time, the muscles are
feebler, more mobile, resigned for a shorter time to
the same contraction, and as inconstant as the
emotions and passions which their rapid play ex-
presses.
The result of all this is, that the muscles do not
profoundly modify the face, which consequently
has not so much of permanent character as that of
a man, and which permits us more difficultly to dis-
cover, through the rounded, short, and shifting
parts, the nature of her various feelings. As, how
ever, the abundance of the cellular tissue diminish
es with age, and as the sentiments become at the
same time less ephemeral, the physiognomical
character and expression of woman become more
decided.
As to COLOR of the face, it may be observed that
the forehead, the temples, the eyelids, the nose

248
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
the upper part of the superior lip, and the lower
part of the inferior lip, ought in woman to be of a
beautiful and rather opaque white. The approach
to the cheeks and the middle of the chin ought to
have a slight teint of rose-color, and the middle of
the cheeks ought to be altogether roʻsy, but of a
delicate hue. --- Cheeks of an animated white are
preferable to those of a red color, although less
beautiful than those of rosy hue.
With regard to the hair, it may be observed,
that sometimes, rising from its bulbs, it turns in
irregular rings, and, by displaying a forehead rather
large, confers a certain sanguine, as well as open
air upon the physiognomy. This, however, is most
frequently seen in men, and chiefly in men of ex-
uberant vitality, rather than intellectuality: it in-
deed depends entirely on the former.
In other men, and almost always in women, the
hair generally divides in a line extending from the
crown to the forehead, and falls over the temples.
The line thus formed, uniting with the median line,
of the face in general, and that of the nose in par-
ticular, gives to the whole of the features a pecu
liar symmetry and beauty.
I have said, already, that symmetry is a charac-
teristic of thinking beings, and I have explained the
reason of this. The present case admirably illus.
trates it. This symmetrical arrangement of the
hair bestows an intellectual air; and it well may,
for, when natural, it derives its tendency to fall on
each side, from the top of the head, either from the
general elevation of the calvarium, or from the par

BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
249
ticular elevation of the forehead, which is charac.
teristic of beauty in woman.
It accordingly announces in the individual higher
observing faculties: hence, the ancient sculptors
never omitted this in their highest personages :
hence, we find it in the heads of Raffaelle and
Guido.
“A fair hue, Favo às," says Winckelmann, “has
ever been regarded as the most beautiful; and
flaxen-colored hair was assigned to the most beau-
tiful, not only among the gods, as Apollo [xpuookójav
Atól/wva, golden-haired Apollo] and Bacchus, but
also among the heroes : Alexander the Great had
flaxen hair.” The modern Italiars call Cupid “Il
biondo Dio.”
Having concluded what I have here to say of the
parts of the face, I may observe, that the different
effects of the same face, even in a state of repose,
have often been observed, never explained. I have,
however, in another work, shown that the face is
composed of motive, nutritive, and thinking parts
or organs. Now, circumstances bring these vari-
ously into action ; and the different effects alluded
to, in reality depend on the motive, or the nutritive,
or the intellectual expression being at the time, re.
spectively, most apparent, or most attended to by
us. The study of this subject, which I have not
space here to develop, is of infinite importance to
the man of taste, the physiognomist, and the artist,
The latter cannot easily excel without understand.
ing it.
Another curious fact, no. hitherto observed, is,

250
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
that though beauty of face is, owing to the power
of the vital system, almost universal at a certain
age, there is always a faulty feature, which the
physiognomist may observe, and which ever con-
tinues to exaggerate, until it terminate in relative
ugliness. Thus we scarcely observe the long up-
per lip during youth, in some women; and yet it
afterward gives to them the sober grimace of ba-
boons. We admire in youth the spirit of the pier-
cing eye, and aquiline nose in others, to whom these
afterward give the look of so many old hawks. In
others, still, we are charmed with the round, rosy,
and innocent cheeks, which, when they become
paler and more pendent, confer on them the aspect
either of seals or of mastiffs, according to other
circumstances of temper and disposition. I could
easily trace these, and many more, from youth to
middle age, and illustrate them convincingly, by
drawings: but I have no room for it here.
Each, indeed, of the subjects of the two imme-
diately preceding paragraphs, is worthy of a vol.
ume; for the first is as essential to all judgment of
existing beauty at the instant of its being before
us, as the second is to all prescience of what beauty
will very soon be -- to all who have no love for a
leap in the dark.
I add to this chapter but a few words on the very
different organization of the head and face, and the
very different mind, of the Greeks and Romans
Whoever, for the purpose of comparing the heads
of these two nations, may walk into the British

BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
251
Museum, will be struck with the difference between
them.
The forehead is almost always rather narrow, and
rather high, in the most illustrious Greeks; and.
this could not so uniformly have been so represented
in sculpture, unless it had been so also in fact
This is verified, in the third room of the Townley
collection, by the heads of Homer, Hippocrates,
Epicurus, Pericles, &c.— by the almost universa.
conformation of Greek heads, to which there are
but few exceptions: Sophocles, in this room, and
Demosthenes, in the eleventh, are rather broader.
On the contrary, the forehead, the face, the jaws,
are excessively broad, and the cranium is depressed
and low, in the Romans — in Severus, Nero, Cara-
calla, &c., in the sixth room, and in Tiberius and
Augustus, in the eleventh ; nor is this owing to the
circumstance that these generally were men det
graded in feeling or intellect, for nearly the same
configuration is found in Trajan, Hadrian, &c., in
the fourth, sixth, and other rooms. The faces of
the Romans are not less ugly than their heads; and
those of their women are absolutely detestable, as
may be seen in Faustina, Plautilla, Sabina, Domitia,
&c., in the sixth of these rooms.
If farther illustration of this be wanting, it may
be found in the circumstance that, while the Greeks
preferred the rather high forehead, and invented
the ideal one, the Romans, on the contrary, pre-
ferred a little forehead and united eyebrows. Ovid
ssures us that the women of his time painted their

252
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
eyebrows in such a manner, that they might appear
to form only one.
In the work so often referred to, I have shown
that the intensity of functions is as the length of
their organs, and the permanence of functions ar
the breadth of their organs. No truth can be bet
ter illustrated than this is, in the organization and
the faculties of the Greeks and Romans. With the
higher and larger head of the Greeks was united
an intensity of genius, which no other people has
yet rivalled ; and with the broader head of the Ro
mans, a perseverance, equally obstinate and unfeel
ing, which has been similarly unrivalled.
A good illustration of the vaunted Roman virtue
is recorded in Porcia, the daughter of Cato, the
wife of Brutus, who plunged a toilet-knife into her
thigh, and kept it eight days in the wound, without
complaining, to prove to her husband that her
courage and her discretion rendered her worthy of
entering into the conspiracy, which he meditated;
and who also destroyed herself by swallowing
hurning coals, when she heard of his defeat. Ob-
stinacy and insensibility were great sources of the
crimes either perpetrated, or, by their lying histo-
rians, pretended to be perpetrated, under the name
of Roman virtue.
It would be out of place, here, to enter farther
into the character and expression of the face
Those whon these remarks dispose to do so, may
refer to the physiognomical work, which I have

BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
253
been so often compelled to allude to.* To tnose
who are satisfied, neither with the vague, though
tasteful inspirations of Lavater, nor with the em-
pyrical or unreasoned manifestations of Gall and
Spurzheim, but who desire the assignment of a reason
for every description of physiognomical character or
expression, that work may afford some satisfaction.
That the Greeks, either intuitively or reasonedly,
distinguished the three species of beauty as to the
figure, has been already seen. The heads of Diana,
Venus, and Minerva, respectively present beauty of
the locomotive, vital, and mental systems.
* “ Physiognomy founded on Physiology, and applied to various
Countries, Professions, and Individuals: with an Appendix on the
Bones at Hythe - the Sculls of the ancient Inhabitants of Britain,
and its Invaders : illustrated by Engravings." - Smith, Elder, &
Co., Cornhill.

254
COMBINATIONS AND TRANSITIONS OF THE
CHAPTER XVI.
COMBINATIONS AND TRANSITIONS OF THE THREE SPECIES
OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
As to the COMBINATIONS of beauty, it must now be
observed, that some one of these species of beauty
always characterize the same individual during
every stage of life; and, to the experienced ob-
predominates. Attention to the preceding prin-
ciples will render this easy.
It is right to mention here the cause of this
general predominance of one species of beauty
over the rest. It depends on this, that the slight
est original or accidental preponderance of strengt!
in one system above that of the rest, though unob
served at first, leads to a more frequent employ
ment of its functions, and therefore to a more
perfect development of its organs, until at last the
disproportion between these and those of the other
systems, becomes characteristic of the individual.
In a truly beautiful woman, none of the systems
described can exist in a great degree of degrada-
tion; but of the three, the nutritive or vital system
is to woman the most essential. In England, from
thirty to forty is generally the age of its highest
perfection,

THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
255
It often, however, occurs, that two, or even the
whole of these species of beauty, are blended in
considerable perfection. In those females in which
it is found, the locomotive system is well developed
in the length and elegance of the limbs; the vital
or nutritive system everywhere presents soft forms,
and rounds both body and limbs; and the mental
or thinking system displays a capability of grace
in action, notwithstanding the constrained attitude
assumed to conceal the face.
Although there can indeed be no great degree
of beauty in which this combination is not more
or less the case, yet a union of all the three species
of beauty, in the greatest compatible degree, is to
be found only in some of those immortal images
of ideal beauty, which were created by the genius
and the chisel of the Greeks.
Having briefly spoken of these combinations, i
may notice also those combinations which similarly
occur among the temperaments, which, as already
said, constitute partial views of the varieties I have
been describing.
In relation to a combination of the phlegmatic
and nervous temperament, I may refer to Richerand,
who says, that, “among the moderns, the easy
Michael Montaigne, all of whose passions were so
moderate, who reasoned on everything, even on
feeling, was truly pituitous. But in him the pre-
dominance of the lymphatic system was not carried
so far, but that he joined to it a good deal of ner.
vous susceptibility.”
Of women, more especially, it is observed, that

256
COMBINATIONS AND TRANSITIONS OF THE
they rarely present examples of the lymphatic tem-
perament, unmodified by nervous mobility; whence
come extreme vivacity in the sensations with great
feebleness, determinations equally precipitate and
unsteady, excited imagination and ephemeral tastes,
absolute will, &c.
The sanguine temperament is similarly combined
with the nervous one. Hence, the physiologist
above quoted says, that “to the extreme love of
pleasure, sanguine men join, when circumstances
require it [he should have said, in some cases],
great elevation of thought and character, and can
bring into action the highest talents in every de-
partment: the history of Henry IV., of Mirabeau,
and others, proves that.”
The ancients gave the name of bilious, to a tem-
perament in which the sanguineous system is ener-
getic, the pulse strong, hard, and frequent, the sub-
cutaneous veins prominent, the development of the
liver excessive, the superabundance of bile remark-
able, the sensibility easily excited, yet capable of
dwelling upon one object, the passions violent, the
movements abrupt and impetuous, and the charac-
ter inflexible. This is evidently a very compound
temperament, and should never have been classed,
any more than the two preceding, with the simple
temperaments, the athlectic or muscular, the phleg-
matic or lymphatic, the sanguine, and the nervous,
which I have noticed under the heads to which
they belong.
In persons of this temperament, the skin is of a
yellowish brown the hair black, the muscles

THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
257
marked, the form harshly expressed. “Bold in
the conception of a project," says Richerand,"con-
stant and indefatigable in its execution, it is among
men of this temperament, that we find those who,
in different ages, have governed the destinies of
the world : full of courage, boldness, and activity,
they have signalized themselves by great virtues
or great crimes, and have been the terror or admi.
ration of the universe. Such were Alexander,
Julius Cesar, Brutus, Mahomet, Charles XII., the
Czar Peter, Cromwell, Sixtus V., Cardinal Richelieu
Land, he should have added, Bonaparte] ... To
attain to results of such importance, the profoundest
dissimulation and the most obstinate constancy are
equally necessary; and these are the most eminent
qualities of the bilious.”
A still more compound temperament is the mel-
ancholic, in which disease is added to the bilious
temperament, a derangement of the functions of
the nervous system, and the diseased obstruction
of some one of the organs of the abdomen, so that
the nutritive functions are feebly or irregularly
performed, the bowels sluggish, the pulse hard and
contracted, the excretions difficult, the imagination
gloomy, the disposition suspicious.
In persons of this temperament, the skin is of a
still deeper hue, and the look uneasy and gloomy.
Rousseau and Tiberius are excellent examples of
this temperament, as associated with genius and
virtue in one, and with truly royal vice in the
other. In women, this temperament is rarely so
intense as in men,

258
THIRD SPEC ES OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
Of the TRANSITIONS of beauty, I have now to obu
serve, that, though one species of beauty always
characterizes the same individual during every
stage of life, yet it is remarkable, that the young
woman (whatever species of beauty predominates)
has always a tendency to beauty of the locomotive
system ; — that the middle-aged woman has always
a tendency to beauty of the nutritive system ;-
and that the woman of advanced age has always a
tendency to beauty of the thinking system.
Some women would seem, in the progress of
life to pass through all these systems (and the
more perfect the whole organization, the more
will this seem to be the case); but the accurate
observer will always see the predominance of the

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 259
CHAPTER XVII.
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
WINCKELMANN says: “I cannot imagine beauty
without the PROPORTION which is always its founda-
tion. — The drawing of the naked figure is founded
upon the idea and the knowledge of beauty; and
this idea consists partly in measures and relations,
and partly in forms, the beauty of which was, as
Cicero observes, the object of the first Grecian
artists: the latter determine the figure; the former
fix the proportions."
The great variety of proportions presented by
the human body causes much difficulty in deter.
mining with precision what are the best. The
difficulty becomes quite insurmountable if we at-
tempt to assign precise dimensions to the details of
configuration or to minute parts.
Many circumstances are opposed to the exact-
ness of these measures. Even in the same person,
one part is rarely in all respects similar to the cor-
responding part; we are taller in the morning than
in the evening; and the proportions change at dif-
ferent periods of life. In different individuals, the
differences are still more evident. Moreover, hab-
its, professions, trades, all unite to oppose regular
ity in the proportions.

260
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
It has farther been observed that, in the con
formation of woman, both as regards the whole
and as regards the various parts, nature still more
rarely approaches determinate proportions than in
man.
It is remarked by Hogarth, whose views I now
abridge, that in society we every day hear women
pronounce perfectly correct opinions as to the
proportions of the neck, the bosom, the hands, and
the arms of other women, whom they have an in-
terest in observing with severity. It is evident
that, for such an examination, they ought to be
capable of seizing, with great precision, the rela-
tion of length and thickness, and of following the
slight sinuosities, the swellings, the depressions,
almost insensible and continually varying, at the
surface of the parts observed. If so, it is certainly
in the power of a man of science, with as observing
an eye, to go still farther, and conceive many other
necessary circumstances concerning proportion.
But he says: “Though much of this matter
may be easily understood by common observation,
assisted by science, still I fear it will be difficult to
raise a very clear idea of what constitutes or com-
poses the utmost beauty of proportion. . We
shall soon find that it is chiefly to be effected by
means of the nice sensation we naturally have of
what certain quantities or dimensions of parts are
fittest to produce the utmost strength for moving
or supporting great weights, and of what are most
fit for the utmost light agility, as also for every
degree, between these two extremes"

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 261
After some illustrations of this, which naturally
leave the method very vague, he adds: “I am ap
prehensive that this part of my scheme, for explain-
ing exact proportion, may not be thought so suffi-
ciently determinate as could be wished.” So that
Hogarth's method as to proportions, both general
and particular, reduces itself to the employment of
the eye and the nice sensation we have of quanti-
ties or dimensions.
But the Greek artists had not only done what
Hogarth thus vaguely speaks of, but advanced much
farther; and indeed all that has been done on this
important subject belongs rather to the history of
art than that of nature.
“It is not,” says Buffon, “ by the comparison of
the body of one man with that of another man, or
by measures actually taken in a great number of
subjects, that we can acquire this knowledge [that
of proportion]: it is by the efforts which have been
made exactly to copy and imitate nature ; it is to
the art of design that we owe all that we know in
this respect. Feeling and taste have done all that
mechanics could not do; the rule and the compass
have been quitted in order to profit by the eye; all
the forms, all the outlines, and all the parts of the
human body, have been realized in marble; and
we have known nature better by the representation
than by nature itself. It is by great exercise of
the art of design and by an exquisite sentiment,
that great statuaries have succeeded in making us
feel the just proportions of the works of nature.
The Greeks have-formed such admirable statues,

262 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
that with one consent they are regarded as the
most exact representation of the most perfect hu-
man body. These statues, which were only copies
from man, are become originals, because these
copies were not made from any individual, but
from the whole human species well observed, so
well indeed, that no man has been found whose
figure is so well proportioned as these statues: it
is then from these models that the measures of the
human body have been taken.”
It is now necessary to lay before the reader the
principles of the Greeks, as to the proportions of
the human body. Much has been well done on
this subject by Winckelmann, Bossi, and others;
but, at the same time, from want of enlarged ana-
tomical and physiological views, they have over-
looked some fundamental considerations, and have
failed to unravel the greatest difficulties which the
subject presents. That the reader may be satisfied
of the accuracy of my representations, I shall lay
the statements of these writers before him in their
own words, rendering them only as succinct as
possible. *
Of the first epoch of art among the Etruscans
and Greeks, Mengs says: “They preferred the
most necessary things to those which were less
so; and therefore they directed their attention first
to the muscles, and next to proportion, these con.
* of the best works on this subject, those of Mengs alone, I
Delieve, have been translated ; but the translation is so inaccurate
as to be worthless.

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
263
stituting the two parts the most useful and neces
sary of the human form ; and this is, throughout,
the character of their primitive taste. All this we
observe in history, and in the divine and human
figures which they have represented.
“In these figures,” he farther observes, “we find
a proportion, impossible to be known and practised,
without an art which furnishes sure rules. These
rules could not be founded otherwise than in pro-
portion, which was invented and practised by the
Greeks.”
In this, Flaxman agrees, when he says: “It must
not be supposed that those simple geometrical forms
of body and limbs, in the divinities and heroes of
antiquity, depended upon accidental choice, or blind
and ignorant arbitration. They are, on the con-
trary, a consequence of the strict and extensive
examination of nature, of rational inquiry into its
most perfect organization and physical well-being,
expressed in outward appearance.”
“ That the Greeks,” says Bossi,“ wrote much on
this subject [their doctrine respecting symmetry]
we have ample evidence in Pliny, Vitruvius himself,
Philostratus the younger, and others.
“Polycletus did not confine himself to giving a
commentary upon this fundamental point, but, in
illustration of his treatise, according to Galen,
made an admirable statue that confirmed the pre-
cepts laid down in the work; and The Rule of
Polycletus,' the name given to this statue, became
so famous for its beauty, that it passed into a prov-

264 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
erb to express a perfect body, as we may find in
Lucian.
“But of so many writings, which ought at least
to equal the works that remain to us, and probably
were superior, inasmuch as it is easier to lay down
precepts than to put them in execution — of so
many treatises, I say, not a fragment remains [ex-
cept the few lines of Vitruvius], nor is there, now,
any hope that a vestige will be found, unless some-
thing may remain for posterity among the papyri
of Herculaneum.”
Now, to approach to the ancients in excellence
is quite impossible, until some one shall explain the
great principles on which they acted. Assuredly
they are, in some of the most important respects,
unknown at present. Servile imitation will never
answer the purpose; and to learn as the ancients
did, and reach perfection, perhaps, in as many ages,
is not very rational, when we can avail ourselves
of their practice to discover their principles. I
will, in this chapter, endeavor to point out some of
these principles in the practice of art, as I have al-
ready done in the general theory of beauty.
“It is probable,” says Winckelmann, " that the
Grecian artists, in imitation of the Egyptians, had
fixed, by well-determined rules, not only the largest,
but even the very smallest proportions, and the
measure of the length proper to every age and to
every kind of contour; and probably all these rules
were learned by young persons, from books that
treated of symmetry.”
These rules, we know, were of three kinds --

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 265
numerical, geometrical, and harmonic; and we
shall see, in the sequel, that the loss of them has
been much deplored. It is not a little curious,
however, that the numerical and geometrical meth-
ods are, in some measure, actually practised even
at the present day, and that the harmonic method
(the loss of which has caused the greatest confu-
sion) is easily deducible from anatomical and phys-
iological principles, as I shall endeavor to show.
As to the NUMERICAL METHOD, it is evidently that
of which Vitruvius has preserved some notions,
and which is at present practised by artists.
“As it is the painter's business,” says Bossi,“ to
imitate a great variety of human bodies, and as the
difference of parts in beautiful bodies is generally
slight, and becomes, as it were, imperceptible, in
the most usual imitations less than life, Leonardo
perceived it was necessary for the artist to use a
general measure, for the purpose of preparing his-
torical compositions quickly. He required that the
figure to be employed should be carefully selected
on the model of some natural body, the proportions
of which were generally considered beautiful. —
This measure, he required, should be employed
solely for length, and not for width, which requires
more evident variety."
“It has been observed,” says Flaxman, “that
Vitruvius, from the writings of the most eminent
Greek painters and sculptors, informs us that they
made their figures eight heads high, or ten faces,
and he instances different parts of the figure
measured according to that rule, which the great

266
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
Michael Argelo adopted, as we see by a print from
a drawing of his."
Winckelmann, however, shows that the foot
served the Greeks as a measure for all their larger
dimensions, and that their sculptors regulated their
proportions by it, in giving six times its length, as
the model of the human figure. Vitruvius says,
“Pes vero altitudinis corporis sextæ.”
“ The foot,” says Wincklemann, “which among
the ancients was used as the standard of measures
of every magnitude (for a given measure of fluids
was also called by this name), was very useful to
sculptors in fixing the proportions of the body, and
with reason; for the foot was a more determinate
measure than that of the head or face, of which
the moderns generally make use. The ancient
artists regulated the size of their statues by the
length of the foot, making them, according to
Vitruvius, six times the length of the foot. Upon
this principle, Pythagoras determined the height
of Hercules, by the length of the feet with which
he measured the Olympic stadium at Elis.
“This proportion of six to one between the foot
and the body, is founded upon experience of nature,
even in slender figures: it is found correct, not
only in the Egyptian statues, but also in the Gre-
cian; and it will be discovered in the greater part
of the ancient figures where the feet are preserved."
“We would not omit mentioning,” says Bossi,
6s the erroneous opinion of those, who esteem the
feet of females beautiful in proportion to their
smallness. The beauty of the feet consists in the

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
267
handsomeness and neatness of their shape, not in
their being short, or extremely small: were it
otherwise, the feet of the Chinese and Japanese
women would be beautiful, and those of the Venus
de Medici frightful.”
Such, then, is evidently the numerical method
of the ancients. — Of the GEOMETRICAL METHOD, we
have many illustrations.
A man standing upright, with his arms extended,
is as Leonardo da Vinci has shown, enclosed in a
square, the extreme extent of his arms being equal
to his height. This is evidently the most general
measure of the latter kind.
Of the latter kind, also, is Camper's ellipsis for
male, and the pelvis in the female.
So also is the measure from the centre of one
mammæ to that of the other, as equal to the dis-
tance from each to the pit over the breast-bone.
We now approach the chief difficulty, which
evidently formed a stumbling-block even to Leo-
nardo da Vinci — that HARMONIC METHOD which,
strange as it may appear, will be found to afford
rules that are at once perfectly precise, and yet
infinitely variable. The apparent impossibility
indeed of such a rule seems to have embarrassed
every one. And the statement which Bossi makes
in regard to Leonardo da Vinci, in this respect, is
exceedingly interesting.
“He thought,” says Bossi, “but little of any
general measure of the species; and that the troue
proportion admitted by him, and acknowledged so

268 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
be of difficult investigation, is solely the proportion
of an individual in regard to himself, which, ac-
cording to true imitation, should be different in all
the individuals of a species, as is the case in nature.
Thus, says he, all the parts of any animal should
correspond with the whole; that which is short and
thick, should have every member short and thick;
that which is long and thin, every member long:
and thin; and that which is between the two,
members of a proportionate size.' From this and
other precepts, it follows, that, when he speaks of
proportion, he is to be understood as referring to
the harmony of the parts of an individual, and not
to the general rule of imitation in reference to
dimensions." —How clearly (notwithstanding the
error as to all being short and thick) does this
point to the harmonic method of proportion forth-
with to be explained ?
“It would seem he felt within himself that he
did not reach the perfection of those wonderful
ancients of whom he professed himself the admi-
rer and disciple.
"It became, therefore, Leonardo's particular care
and study to approach as nearly as he could to the
ancients in the true imitation of beautiful nature
under the guidance of philosophy.
“But whether from want of great examples, or
from not sufficiently penetrating, as he himself
thought, into these artifices, or from comprehend-
ing them too late, he modestly laments that he did
not possess the ancient art of proportions He
then protests that he has done the little he was able

to do, and asks pardon of posterity that he has not
done more. Such are the sentiments that Platino
exhibits in the following epitaph:
“ Leonardus Vincia (sic) Florentinus
Statuarius Pictor que nobilissimus
de se parce loquitur.
«Non sum Lysippus ; nec Apelles; nec Policletus,
Nec Zeuxis; nec sum nobilis ære Myron.
Sum Florentinus Leonardus Vincia proles ;
Mirator veterum discipulusque memor.
Defuit una mihi symmetria prisca : peregi
Quod potui: veniam da mihi posteritas."
“It is evident that these sentiments are not to
Bossi, having no glimpse of the great principles
for which Leonardo sought in vain, says: “Since,
then, this great man could not satisfy himself in
the difficult task of dimensions, while on other
points he seems to dread no censure, it should give
us a strong idea of the difficulty of determining the
laws of beautiful symmetry, and preserving it in
works with that harmony which is felt, but cannot be
explained, and which varies in every figure, accord-
ing to the age, circumstances, and particular charac-
ter of each.
“And when we recollect that, though Leonardo
sought successfully in Vitruvius the proportions
which Vitruvius himself seems to have drawn from
the Greeks, he yet lamented that he did not possess
the ancient symmetry, it is easily seen that he did
not mean by this science, as already stated, a de-
terminate general measure for man, but that har.
1
13

270 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
mony of parts which is suited to each individual,
according to the respective circumstances of sex, age,
character, and the like.” Again, how clearly does
this point to the harmonic method of proportion to
be presently explained !
“But,” Bossi proceeds, “how difficult it is to
combine the beautiful and elegant, with easy and
harmonic measures, may be judged from the vain
attempts of many otherwise ingenious men, as I
will here relate for the benefit of artists. The dif
ficulty will be still more evident if we reflect how
arduous a task it is to make the proportions that
the Greeks denominated numerical, harmonic, and
geometrical, agree together, and to apply them thus
agreeing, to the formation of rules and measures
of a visible object so various in its component parts
as the human body.” — In despair, Bossi tries to
show its absolute impossibility!
“In the second place, to penetrate completely
the natural reason of the proportions of the human
body, would require a knowledge of physics, which
it is not in man's power to obtain. The universal
equilibrium of the numerous constituent parts of
the human machine, every one of which eminently
attains the end for which it was destined, without
interrupting the course that every other part takes
to its respective end, in which true proportion
seems to consist, is more easily stated than under-
stood. And even if an artist coud arrive at such
a knowledge of man as to be able, so to speak, to
compose him, he would have done but little, be-
cause he would have made but one man. By the

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
271
alteration of only one of the infinite parts that
compose the human frame, the equilibrium and
respective relation of the others are necessarily
altered : in short, each separate individual would
be the subject of a totally new study.
"Every human habit, of whatever nature it may
be, has an influence over the human figure, and
from the indefinable variety and incalculable mix-
ture of such habits, there results an infinite variety
of figures. Thus, it is evident that true general
proportions cannot be laid down without violating
nature, which it is the object of art to imitate.” —
If, by “general proportions,” Bossi here means
proportions applicable to all or to a great number,
he completely loses sight of the object of the great
man on whose opinions he comments; for he sought
a rule for the harmony of parts in each distinct in-
dividual !
Again, Bossi abandons, as impossible, the finding
of the harmonic rule, which was the great object
of Leonardo.—“From what has been said, we
may finally conclude th t large proportions only
can be established, and that placing too much con-
fidence in measures, retards, rather than favors the
arts.
“It was written of Raphael, and is seen, that he
had as many proportions as he made figures. Mi-
chael Angelo did the same, and it was his saying,
that he who had not the compasses in his eye,
would never be able to supply the deficiency by
artificial means. Vincentio Danti, who treasured
the doctrine of Michael Angelo, asserts in his

272
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
work, that the proportions do not fall under any
measure of quantity. We have seen the infinite
exceptions of Leonardo, respecting the measure
ment of man, and his own few works confirm it.
I speak no more of inferior persons among the
moderns; but turning to the ancients, I find that
the proportions of every good statue are different.”
- And this will be found conformable to the har
monic rule.
“And speaking generally of works in relievo,
what canons can determine the largeness or small-
ness of some parts, so as to obtain a greater effect
according to the circumstances of light, distance,
material, visual point, &c. ? Certainly none.” —
This was not to be expected from the rule sought
for.
“I shall deem that I have gained some recom-
pense for the toil of wading through so many tedi-
ous works, if it shall induce any faith in the advice
I now give, namely, that every student of paint-
ing should himself measure many bodies of ac-
knowledged beauty, compare them with the finest
imitations in painting and sculpture, and from these
measures make a canon for himself, dividing it in
the manner best suited to his genius and memory.
If this plan were more generally adopted, art and
its productions would both be gainers.'” — It might
do so, among as ingenious a people as the Greeks,
in as many ages as the same method cost them to
do it in! Leonardo da Vinci wanted to abridge
the time, instead of beginning again!
Winckelmann as little understands this great

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 273
man's object, when, after saying, “As the ancients
made ideal beauty their principal study, they de-
termined its relations and proportions,” he adds
“from which, however, they allowed themselves to
deviate, when they nad a good reason, and yielded
themselves to the guidance of their genius.”
Why, the whole purpose of the rule sought for
was to regulate every possible deviation, as will
now be seen.
The harmonic method of the Greeks — that mea-
sure which Leonardo calls the “true proportion” —
“the proportion of an individual in regard to him-
self” — “which should be different in all the indi-
viduals of a species,” but in which “all the parts
of any animal should correspond with the whole,"
which constitutes “the harmony of the parts of an
individual,” and which, as Bossi adds, “ varies in
every figure, according to the age, circumstances,
and particular character of each”-in short, this
method for the harmony of parts in each distinct in-
dividual — this method presenting rules, perfectly
precise, and yet infinitely variable, has, in all its
elements, been clearly laid before the reader (though
not enunciated as a rule) — in the relative propor-
tions of the locomotive, nutritive, and thinking
systems, or, generally speaking, of the limbs, trunk,
and head, and in the three species of beauty which
are founded on them.
These, it is evident, present to the philosophie
observer, the sole means of judging of beauty by
harmonic rule, the great object of Leonardo da
Vinci's desires and regrets. They present the

274
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
great features of the Greek method—if that method
conformed to truth and nature, as it undeubtedly
did. This will be rendered still clearer by a single
example
Thus, if any individual be characterized by the
development of the nutritive system, this harmonic
rule of nature demands not only that, as in the
Saxon-English, the Dutch, and many Germans, the
trunk shall be large, but consequently, that the
other two portions, the head and the limbs, shall
be relatively small; that the calvarium shall be
small and round, and the intellectual powers re-
stricted; that the head shall, nevertheless, be
broad, because the vital cavities of the head are
large, and because large jaws and muscles of mas-
tication are necessary for the supply of such a sys-
tem; that the neck shall be short, because the
locomotive system is little developed ; that it shaly
be thick, because the vessels which connect the
head to the trunk are large and full, the former
being only an appendage of the latter ; that the
lower limbs shall be both short and slender; that
the calves of the legs shall be small and high ;*
that the feet shall be little turned out, &c., &c.
So also, if any individual be characterized by
the development of the locomotive system, the
harmonic rule demands, not only that the limbs
shall be large, but, consequently, that the other
* Thus it is not correct, as stated by Leonardo, that when some
parts are broad or thick, all are broad; though, in peculiar com
binations, that may occur.

PROPORTION, CHARACTER EXPRESSION, ETC. 273
tively small; that the calvarium shall be small and
long, and the intellectual powers limited; that the
head shall be long, because the jaws and their
muscles are extended, &c., &c.
So likewise, if any individual be characterized by
the development of the thinking system, the har.
monic rule demands, not only that the head shall
be large, but, consequently, that the other two
portions, the trunk and limbs, shall be relatively
small; that the head shall not only be large, but
that its upper part, the calvarium, shall be largest,
giving a pyramidal appearance to the head; that
the trunk and limbs, however elegantly formed,
shall be relatively feeble, the former often liable to
disease, the latter to accident, as we have seen in
the most illustrious examples, &c., &c.
It must be borne in mind, however, as already
explained, that there may be innumerable combi-
nations and modifications of these characteristics;
certain greater ones, nevertheless, generally pre-
dominating
Such, doubtless, was the harmonic method of the
Greeks; whether, by them, it was thus clearly
founded on anthropology, or not.
It is curious that several writers, and Winckel-
mann among the rest, should have adopted a triple
division of the body — without, however, duly
founding it in anthropology. Thus Winckelmann
says "the entire body is divided into three parts,
three. The parts of the body are the trunk, the

276
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
thighs, and the legs!” — a distribution and division
founded neither in nature nor in truth.
That the Greeks were more or less aware of the
principles here stated, though their writings have
not descended to us, is proved by their idealizations
founded upon them.
“If different proportions,” says Winckelmann,
“are sometimes met with in any figure, as for ex-
ample, in the beautiful trunk of a naked female
figure in the possession of Signior Cavaceppi at
Rome, in which the body from the navel to the
sexual parts is of an uncommon length, it is most
probable that such figures have been copied from
nature, that is, from persons so formed.” — Nothing
certainly would be better founded in natural ten-
dency than such idealization.
All the three Greek methods of proportion being
now before the reader, I must briefly notice other
circumstances.
In the head in particular, may be observed CHAR-
ACTER, or a permanent and invariable form, which
defines its capabilities, and EXPRESSION, or tempo-
rary and variable forms, which indicate its actual
functions.
The teachers of anatomy for artists have not,
that I know of, clearly described the causes of
these. I may therefore observe, that as character
is permanent and invariable, it depends fundament-
ally on permanent and invariable parts—the bones;
and as expression is temporary and variable, it de-
pends on shifting and variable parts—the muscles.
It is well observed by Mengs that, in relation to

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 277
character, “the peculiar distinction of the ancients
is, that from one part of the face, we may know the
character of the whole.?! And, of expression,
Winckelmann observes that “the portion which
possesses beauty of expression or action, or beauty
of both added to the figure of any person, is like
the resemblance of one who views himself in a
fountain ; the reflection is not seen plainly unless
the surface of the water be still, limpid, and clear,
quiet and tranquillity are as suitable to beauty as to
the sea. Expression and action being, in art as in
nature, the evidence of the active or passive state
of the mind, perfect beauty can never exist in the
countenance unless the mind be calm and free from
all agitation, at least from everything likely to
change and disturb the lineaments of which beauty
is composed.”
Now the details which, during the period of per-
fection in art, were so skilfully employed, were
these very means of expression or circumstances
attending and indicating them— minuter forms
which are universal, and without which nature is
imperfectly represented— minuter forms of the
highest order, because the means of expressing in-
tellect, emotion, and passion, if required.
These higher details we find, for instance, in the
turn of the inner end of the eyebrow, or constric-
tion and elevation of the under eyelid, or a hundred
other traits dependant on subjacent muscles. We
find them in slight risings of mere cutaneous parts,
when they lie over and are elevated by the attach-
ment of muscles, as at the inner angles of the eyes,

278 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC.
the corners of the mouth, and elsewhere. We find
drawn down by contiguous muscles. These are of
higher character, because they belong to expression
or its means; and there is a corresponding want of
completeness, of truth, of nature, without them.
Between these intellectual means, these higher
details, and those of a lower order, accidental de-
tails, the great artists of Greece distinguished.
Accidental details have nothing to do with expres-
sion or the means of expression ; they depend upon
an inferior system, that merely of life, and consti-
tute all the depositions, excrescences, and growths,
which confuse the vision of the inexperienced, and
embarrass that of the most discriminating, in the
examination of higher beauty.
These lower details we find, for instance, in the
puffings of adipose substance which project from
the spaces between the muscles of the face, and
from other accidents of the vital system, as wrin-
kles or folds from the absence of adipose substance,
fulness or emptiness of the vessels, projecting veins,
peculiar conditions of the skin, turbidity of the
eyes, hairs of the head, beard, or skin, &c. These
have always characterized inferior artists and infe-
rior periods of art.
From these observations, it will be seen that
such unqualified statements as the following by
Azara, lead only to misconception : “A human
face, for example, is composed of the forehead,
brows, eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, chin, and beard
These are the great parts; but each of these con.

PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 279
tains many other minor parts, which also contain
an infinity of others still less. If the painter will
content himself to express well the great parts
which I have taken notice of, he will have a grand
style ; if he depicts also the second, his style will
be that of mediocrity; and if he pretends to intro-
duce the last, his style will be insignificant and
ridiculous."

280
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
CHAPTER XVIII,
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
On this important doctrine of art, of which Winck
elmann says: “The ideal is as much more noble
than the mechanical as the mind is superior to the
body,” I shall follow, so far as I can advantage-
ously, the great writers on this subject, in order
that the reader may have all the confidence in its
recognised portions that authority can bestow, and
that he may the better distinguish them from the
new views which are here added.
“There are,” says Winckelmann, “two kinds
of beauty, individual and ideal: the former is a
combination of the beauties of an individual; the
latter, a selection of beautiful parts from several.
“The formation of beauty was begun from some
beautiful individual, that is, from the imitation of
some beautiful person, as in the representation of
some divinity. Even in the ages when the arts
were flourishing, the goddesses were formed from
the models of beautiful women, and even from
those who publicly sold their charms: such was
Theodota, of whom Xenophon speaks. Nor was
any one scandalized at it, for the opinion of the
ancients on these matters was very different from
ours."

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
281
Winckelmann adds: “There is rarely or never,
a body without fault, all the parts of which are such
that it is impossible to find or draw them more
perfect in other persons. The wisest artists, being
aware of this ... did not confine themselves to
copying the forms of beauty from one individual ..
but seeking what is beautiful from various objects,
they endeavored to combine them together, as the
celebrated Parrhasius says in his discourse with
Socrates. Thus, in the formation of their figures,
they were not guided by any personal affections,
by which we are frequently led, in the pursuit of
beauty that pleases us, to abandon true beauty,
“From the selection of the most beautiful parts
and their harmonious union in'one figure, arises
ideal beauty: nor is this a metaphysical idea, be-
cause all the portions of the human figure taken
separately are not ideal; but merely the entire
figure." And he elsewhere says: “It is called
ideal, not as regards its parts, but as a whole, in
which nature can be surpassed by art."
With deeper observation still, he adds that,
“though nature tends to perfection in the forma-
tion of individuals, yet she is so constantly thwarted
by the numerous accidents to which humanity is
subject, that she cannot attain the end proposed;
so that it is in a manner impossib.e to find an in-
dividual in whom all parts of the body are perfectly
beautifu.."
It was to the same purport that Proclus had in
ancient times said: "He who takes for his modeli
such forms as nature produces, and confines him

282
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
self to an exact imitation of them, will never attain
nature are full of disproportion, and fall very short
of the true standard of beauty. So that Phidias,
when he formed his Jupiter, did not copy any ob-
ject ever presented to his sight, but contemplated
only that image which he had conceived in his
mind from Homer's description."*
In short, while the Greek artists perpetually
studied nature, they discovered her best and highest
tendencies even in her most perfect forms; their
works accordingly present nothing foreign to that
which is strictly beautiful; they present not only
no inferior forms, but no idle ornaments; and
everything in them is accordingly at once simple
and sublime.
Barryt affords me the means of continuing the
view I now wish to present. “In all individuals,
he says, “ of every species, there is necessarily a
visible tendency to a certain point or form. In
this point or form, the standard of each species
* Lib. II. in Timæum Platonis.
written that "republics had done more for the advancement of the
fine arts than monarchies. The late George III., who did not
approve of truths of that kind, was thereby so much enraged,
that he instantly sent for the list of the members of the academy,
and therefrom erased the name of Barry. The academicians
humbly submitted to the indignity which hereditary wisdom thus
inflicted. It would appear, however, that bad principles are
spreading among the Royal academicians; for the works of this
expelled member are now daringly given by them as a prize to
students at the academy!

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
283
rests. The deviations from this, either by excess
or deficiency, are of two kinds: first, deviations
indicating a more peculiar adaptation of certain
characters of advantage and utility, such as strength,
agility, and so forth; even mental as well as cor-
poreal, since they sometimes result from habit and
education, as well as from original conformation.
In these deviations, are to be found those ingre-
dients which, in their composition and union, ex-
hibit the abstract or ideal perfection in the several
classes or species of character. The second kind
of deviation is that which, having no reference to
anything useful or advantageous, but rather visibly
indicating the contrary, as being useless, cumber-
some, or deficient, is considered as deformity; and
this deformity will be always found different in the
several individuals, by either not being in the same
part, in the same manner, or in the same degree.
The points of agreement which indicate the species,
are therefore many; of difference which indicate
the deformity, few.”
Barry, however, wrongly says: “Mere beauty,
then, though always interesting, is, notwithstand-
ing, vague and indeterminate ; as it indicates no
particular expression either of body or mind.” But
it indicates the highest character, the capability of
all noble expression, and this is better than its sac-
rifice to actuality in one.
I am now led to the greater rules which their
ideal method suggested to the Greeks. Payne
Knight indeed says: “Precise rules and definitions,
in matters of this sort, are merely the playthings

284
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
or tools of system-builders ;” and, unchecked by
any recollection of the practical and unrivalled
excellence of the founders of these rules, he
adds a great deal of narrow-minded and mista-
ken nonsense upon the subject, never distinguish-
ing between rules in them.selves rational, and the
stretching of them to utter inapplicability. On this
subject, even Reynolds properly observes, that
"some of the greatest names of antiquity, and
those who have most distinguished themselves in
works of genius and imagination, were equally
eminent for their critical skill. Plato, Aristotle,
Cicero, and Horace; and among the moderns,
Boileau, Corneille, Pope, and Dryden, are at least
instances of genius not being destroyed by atten-
tion or subjection to rules and science.”
But the grossest errors on this subject have been
committed by Alison, who says: “ Artists, in every
age, have taken pains to ascertain the most exact
measurement of the human form, and of all its
parts. . . If the beauty of form consisted in any
original proportion, the productions of the fine arts
would everywhere have testified it; and, in the
works of the statuary and the painter, we should
have found only this sole and sacred system of pro-
portion. The fact however is, as every one knows,
that, in such productions, no such rule is observed;
that there is no one proportion of parts which be-
longs to the most beautiful productions of these
arts; that the proportions of the Apollo, for instance,
are different from those of the Hercules, the Anti-
nous, the Gladiator, &c.; and that there are not,

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
285
in the whole catalogue of ancient statues, two, per-
haps, of which the proportions are actually the
same."
Now, I believe, we may say that this original or
most perfect proportion is presented in the Apollo,
which is not, as generally supposed, an example of
peculiar, but of universal beauty — the locomotive
system presenting as much strength as is compati-
ble with agility, and as much agility as is compati-
ble with strength, and any other modification of
either ensuring diminution of power; while the
vital and mental systems are equally perfect.
Wherever this model is deviated from by the an-
cient artists it is peculiar beauty, I believe, that is
represented.
He farther says: “They have imagined also
various standards of this measurement; and many
disputes have arisen, whether the length of the
head, of the foot, or of the nose, was to be consid-
ered as this central and sacred standard. Of such
questions and such disputes, it is not possible to
speak with seriousness, when they occur in the
present times.” So also Burke says: “It must be
likewise shown, that these parts stand in such a
relation to each other, that the comparison between
them may be easily made, and that the affection of
the mind may naturally result from it.”
Now, no man in his senses ever cared which of
these measures was adopted, except as a matter of
convenience, or ever imagined that peculiar virtue
resided in any of them.
The following are some of the principal rules

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
which either by intuition or with due definition,
resulted from and guided the practice of the an-
cient Greeks.
First, in regard to the THINKING SYSTEM, when
the ancient artists, either from taste or from prin-
ciple, gave greater opening to the facial angle than
eighty degrees, they believed that an increase of
intelligence corresponded to that conformation.
By increasing the angle beyond eighty-five de-
grees, they impressed upon their figures the grand-
est character, as we see in the heads of the Apollo,
to or exceeds ninety degrees.
In regard to the forehead, then, this afforded their
rule for distinguishing beings of a superior kind.
How well they observed the tendency of nature to
increase that angle with the increase of some of
the thinking faculties, we now know. . This ideal
rule was, therefore, admirably founded.
Whoever reflects on the nature of this angle will
perceive that its increase tended nowise to raise
the forehead, but to throw it forward, and therefore
to lengthen the head. This conforms to the meta-
phor by which a long head is used for a wise head,
and which has not yet given place to a broad head,
preferred by the German craniologists, in compli-
ment to their own organization.
With regard to the height of the forehead, it has
already been observed that it was, among the an-
cient Greeks, more considerable than its breadth,
as may be seen by the busts of their most illustri-
ous men. Still, neither the natural nor the ideal

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY
287
forehead much exceeded the space from the fore-
head to the bottom of the nose, or that from the
nose to the bottom of the chin.
Winckelmann accordingly says: “The forehead
to be beautiful should be low [meaning, as his ex-
pressions elsewhere show, no higher than the other
two spaces just mentioned]; and its lowness was
so fixed among the ideas of beauty by the Grecian
artists, that it serves as a mark to distinguish mod-
ern heads from ancient. The reason of this ap-
pears founded in the very rules of proportion, which,
as in the whole human body, was among the an-
cients tripartite: thus, the face also was divided
into three parts; so that the forehead should be of
the same length as the nose, and the remainder of
the face to the chin of the same length likewise.
This proportion was founded on observation, and
we may at any time convince ourselves of it in
any individual with a low forehead, by covering
with a finger the hair at the top of the forehead,
so as to render it so much higher, and we shall
then see a want of harmony of proportion and how
detrimental a high forehead is to beauty."
These views of Winckelmann, the ideal rule
which they illustrate, and, above all, the actual di-
mension of the forehead among the philosophers,
the poets, and the legislators of Greece, whose
genius has been unequalled in modern times, show
the folly of the craniological hypothesis. The rea-
son of the ideal rule has not, indeed, been assign-
ed: it appears to me to be this, that the three parts
of the face which, as I have shown both here and

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
in my work on physiognomy, are respectively con.
nected with ideas, emotions, and passions, should
be equal one to another, or that these acts of the
organs of sense and brain should be in due propor-
tion and harmony. While, therefore, I do not, with
the craniologists, seek the predominance of any
one of them, neither do I, with Giovani de Laet,
take no notice of the space between the top of the
head and the commencement of the forehead, and
say this part is not to be considered in the height
of a man, quia pars excrementosa est !
Their next rule regarded the form of the nose, in
nearly the same line with the forehead, and with
little indentation between these parts.
The foundation of this rule I have not seen point-
ed out; and it was indeed difficult of discovery,
without previous knowledge of the physiological
fact first mentioned in my physiognomical work,
namely, that the nose is the inlet of vital emotion
or pleasure, as the eye is of mental emotion; while
the passions connected with nutrition and thought
respectively, depend upon other organs, the mouth
and the ear. Anatomists know how closely asso-
ciated are the nose and the eyes, and the mouth
and the ears, respectively.
Now, as in these ideal representations, their ob
ject was to increase the means of emotion, but not
those of passion, the organs of the former, the nose
and the eyes, were all, at the same time, enlarged
by raising the junction of the forehead and the
nose; while those of passion, the mouth and the
ears, were relatively decreased. Not only was the

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
289
passage of nose or of the olfactory nerves to the
brain strikingly dilated by this elevation of the in-
termediate part, but the orbits of the eyes were en-
larged. As then we naturally associate the increase
of organs with the increase of their sensations and
with corresponding effects upon the brain, and as the
tendency to such configuration is as conspicuous
in the countries they inhabited, as is the energy of
the emotions with which they are connected, this
rule was as admirably founded as the former in
natural tendencies.
I deem this a pendant to Camper's discovery of
the facial angle, and one too which was not quite
so obvious or so easy to be made. It disposes of
this middle or intermediate part of the face, and
shows that the Greeks in beings of the highest
character, desired the gradual predominance of
emotion over passion, and of ideas or intellect over
emotion.
A vague feeling of the curious fact I have here
explained, Alison, as a man of taste, had, when he
said : “Apply, however, this beautiful form to the
countenance of the warrior, the bandit, the martyr,
&c., or to any countenance which is meant to ex-
press deep or powerful passion, and the most vulgar
spectator would be sensible of dissatisfaction, if not
disgust.”
In endeavoring to assign a reason for the con-
figuration which I have just explained, Winckel-
mann, in ascribing it to the mere production of ef-
fect, is driven into a ridiculous inconsistency. He
thinks that for large statues seen at a distance, it

290
THE GREEK DEAL BEAUTY.
was necessary, and so came to be used for small
medals seen near, for which it was not necessary.
“In the heads of statues, and particularly in
ideal heads, the eyes are deeper set : the bulb re-
mains more deep than is usual in nature, in which
sunken eyes render the countenance austere and
cunning instead of calm and joyful. In this respect,
art has departed with reason from nature; for, in
figures placed to be seen at a distance, if the bulb
of the eye were level with the edge of the orbit,
there would be no effect produced of light and
shade ; and the eye itself, placed under the eye-
brows which do not project, would be dull and in-
expressive. This maxim, adopted for large statues,
became in time universal ; so that it may be ob-
served even on medals, not only in ideal heads but
in portraits.” And elsewhere he says: “Art sub
sequently established it as a rule to give this form,
to the eyes even in small figures, as may be seen
in the heads on coins.”
Thus Winckelmann's reason avowedly explains
only the half of that to which it is applied, and in
reality explains nothing, because it leaves a gross
inconsistency, of which Greek genius was incapa.
ble.
Of the general outline thus formed of the face,
Winckelmann more truly says: “In the formation
of the face, the Greek profile is the principal
characteristic of sublime beauty. This profile is
produced by the straight line, or the line but very
slightly indented, which the forehead and nose
form in youthful faces, especially female ones.

THE GREEK IDEAL FEAUTY.
291
Nature seems less disposed to accord this form
to the face in cold than in mild and temperate
climes; but wherever this profile is found, it is
always beautiful. The straight full line expresses
a kind of greatness, and, gently curved, it presents
the idea of agreeable delicacy. That in these
character of the opposite line; for the greater the
inflection of the nose, the less beautiful is the face;
and if, when seen sidewise, it presents a bad profile,
it is useless to look for beauty in any other view."
Athird rule of the Greek artists, in heads of the
highest character, is greatly illustrated by the new
views just stated. If, in these, they desired to
render ideas and intellect more dominant than
emotions of pleasure or pain, and emotions more
dominant than passion, it becomes evident why
they equally sought to avoid the convulsions of
impassioned expression.
A very beautiful object of this, is mistaken by
Winckelmann. I quote his words:-
“Taken in either sense [of action or of passion],
expression changes the features of the face, and
the disposition of the body, and, consequently, the
forms which constitute beauty; and the greater the
change, the greater the loss of beauty. Therefore,
the state of tranquillity and repose was considered
as a fundamental point in the art. Tranquillity is
the state proper to beauty.
“The handsomest men are generally the most
mild and the best disposed.
“Besides, tranquillity and repose, both in men

292
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
and animals, is the state which allows us best to
examine and represent their nature and qualities;
as we can see the bottom of the sea or rivers only
when the waves are tranquil and the stream runs
smoothly.
“Therefore, the Grecian artists, wishing to de-
pict, in their representations of their deities, the
perfection of human beauty, strove to produce, in
their countenances and actions, a certain placidity
without the slightest change or perturbation, which,
according to their philosophy, was at variance with
the nature and character of the gods. The figures
produced in this state of repose, expressed a perfect
equilibrium of feeling.
“But, as complete tranquillity and repose cannot
exist in figures in action, and even the gods are
represented in human form, and subject to human
affections, we must not always expect to find in
chem the most sublime idea of beauty. This is
then compensated for by expression. The ancient
artists, however, never lost sight of it: it was
always their principal object, to which expression
was in some sort made subservient.
“Beauty without expression would be insignifi-
cant, and expression without beauty would be un-
pleasing; but, from their influence over each other,
from combining together their apparently discord-
ant qualities, results an eloquent, persuasive, and
interesting beauty."
Some of these remarks are true and beautiful;
but the great object of the Greeks, in suppressing the
convulsions of impassioned expression, was the be-

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
293
stowal of gruce, the highest quality in all represent-
ation. It is surprising that this should have been
so universally overlooked, that, even among artists,
nothing is more common than to hear regrets that
the Greeks gave so little expression to their figures!
Let the reader now peruse again Dr. Smith's and
Mr. Alison's account of grace, and if he is ac
quainted with the productions of ancient art, he
will see that the Greeks suppressed impassioned
expression only to bestow the highest degree of
grace. Those, therefore, who complain of this,
show themselves ignorant of the best object of
their art.
If the explanation of this great purpose be clearly
borne in mind, the remaining observations of
Winckelmann will receive a better application than
that to which he limited them :--
“Repose and tranquillity may be regarded as the
effect of that composed manner which the Grecians
studied to show in their actions and gestures.
Among them, a hurried gait was regarded as con-
trary to the idea of decent deportment, and parta-
king somewhat of expressive boldness. . . While on
the other hand, slow and regulated motions of the
body were proofs among the ancients of a great
mind.
“The highest idea of tranquillity and composure
is found expressed in the representations of the
divinities; so that from the father of the gods to
the inferior deities, their figures appear free from
the influence of any affection. The greatest of the
poets thus describes Jupiter as making all Olympus
14

294
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
tremble by merely moving his eyebrow or shaking
his locks. . . All the figures of Jupiter are not how-
ever made in the same style.
“The Vatican Apollo represents this god quiet
and tranquil after the death of the serpent Python
which he had slain with a dart, and should also ex-
press a certain contempt for a victory so easy to
him. The skilful artist, who wished to imbody the
most beautiful of the gods, has depicted anger in
the nose, which according to the most ancient poets
was the seat of it, and contempt in the lips: con-
tempt is expressed by the drawing up of the under
lip, and anger by the expansion of the nostrils.
“The expression of the passions in the face
should accord with the attitude and gestures of the
body; and the latter should be suitable to the dig-
nity of the gods in their statues and figures: from
this results its propriety.
“In representing the figures of heroes, the an-
cient artist exercised equal care and judgment; and
expressed only those human affections which are
suitable for a wise man, who represses the violence
of his passions, and scarcely allows a spark of the
internal flame to be seen, so as to leave to those
who are desirous of it, the trouble of finding out
what remains concealed.
“We have examples of this in two of the most
beautiful works of antiquity, one of which is the
image of the fear of certain death, the other oí
suffering exceeding anguish.
“Niobe and her daughters, against whom Diana
shot her fatal arrows, are represented as seized with

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
295
terror and horror, in that state of indescribable an-
guish, when the sight of instant and inevitable death
deprives the mind of the power of thought. Of
this state of stupor and insensibility, the fable gives
us an idea in the metamorphosis of Niobe into a
stone; and hence Æschylus introduces her in his
tragedy as stunned and speechless. In such a mo-
ment, when all thought and feeling ceases, in a state
bordering upon insensibility, the appearance is not
altered nor any feature of the face disturbed, and
the mighty artist could here depict the most sub-
lime beauty, and has indeed done so. Niobe and
her daughters are, and ever will be, the most per-
fect models of beauty.
« Laocoon is the image of the most acute grief,
that puts the nerves, the muscles, and the veins, in
action. His blood is in a state of extreme agitation
from the venomous bite of the serpents; every part
of his body evinces pain and suffering; and the
artist has put in motion, so to speak, all the springs
of nature, and thus made known the extent of his
art and the depth of his knowledge. In the repre-
sentation, however, of this excessive torment, we
can still recognise the conduct of a brave man
struggling against his misfortunes, stifling the .emo-
tions of his anguish, and striving to repress them.”
“The ancient artists have preserved this air of
composure even in their dancing figures, except
the Bacchanals; and thus an opinion obtained that
the action of their figures should be modelled on
the manners adopted in their ancient dances, and
therefore, in their later dances, the ancient figures

296
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
served as a model to the performers to prevent their
overstepping the bounds of a modest deportment:
Molli diducunt candida gestu
Brachia.
Propert.
“No immoderate or violent passions are ever
found expressed in the public works of the ancients.
“The knowledge of the ancients cannot be better
known than by comparing their performances with
the majority of those of the moderns, in which a
little is expressed by much, instead of much by a
little. This is what the Greeks call tapevbúpoos ;
a word that aptly expresses the defect produced
by too much expression in modern artists. Their
figures resemble in action the comedians of the
ancient theatre, who, to render themselves visible
even to the most distant portion of the audience,
were compelled to exceed the limits of nature and
truth; and the faces of modern figures are like the
ancient masks, which for the same reason, the in-
crease of expression, became hideous.
“ This excess of expression is taught in a book
which goes into the hands of all young artists, 'A
Treatise on the Passions,' by Carlo Le Brun, and
in the annexed drawings, not only is the highest
degree of passion expressed on the face, but in
some even to madness."
Hence, we may say with Azara, that “the Greeks
possessed that art in such perfection, that in their
statues one scarcely discovers that they had thought
of expression, and nevertheless each says that which
it ought to say. They are in a repose which showa

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
297
all the beauty without any alteration; and a soft
and sweet motion, of the mouth, the eyes, or the
mere action, expresses the effect, enchanting at
once the mind and the senses.”
In the inferior beings, however, when passion is
expressed, the features are varied by the Greek
artists as they are in nature.
Such are the great ideal rules with regard to the
head and the functions of thought.
With regard to the body and the NUTRITIVE SYS
TEM, the Greeks similarly idealized. “Seeking for
images of worship, consequently of a nature supe-
rior to our own, so that they might awaken in the
mind veneration and love, they thought that the
representations most worthy of the Divinity, and
most likely to attract the attention of man, would
be those expressing the continuance of che gods in
eternal youth and in the prime of life.
“ To the idea derived from the poets, of the
eternal youth of the deities, whether male or fe-
male, was added another by which they supposed
the female divinities should have all the appearance
of virgins.
“ The form of the breast in the figures of the
divinities, is like that of a virgin, which, to be
beautiful, must possess a moderate fulness. This
was particularly shown in the breasts, which the
artists represented without nipples, like those of
young girls, whose cincture, in the poet's phrase,
Lucina has not yet undone.
On their treatment of the limbs and LOCOMOTIVE
SYSTEM, Hogarth throws light; and, as I am not

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
aware that he was anticipated in this respect, I
quote him :-
“May be," he says, “I cannot throw a stronger
light on what has been hitherto said of proportion,
than by animadverting on a remarkable beauty in
the Apollo Belvidere, which hath given it the pref-
erence even to the Antinous: I mean a superaddi-
tion of greatness, to at least as much beauty and
grace as is found in the latter.
“ These two masterpieces of art are seen to-
gether in the same apartment at Rome, where the
Antinous fills the spectator with admiration only,
while the Apollo strikes him with surprise, and, as
travellers express themselves, with an appearance
of something more than human; which they of
course are always at a loss to describe: and this
effect, they say, is the more astonishing, as, upon
examination, its disproportion is evident even to a
common eye. One of the best sculptors we have
in England, who lately went to see them, confirmed
to me what has been now said, particularly as to
for the upper parts.
“Although, in very great works, we often see an
inferior part neglected, yet here it cannot be the
case, because, in a fine statue, just proportion is
one of its essential beauties: therefore, it stands
to reason, that these limbs must have been length-
ened on purpose, otherwise it might have been
easily avoided.
“So that if we examine the beauties of this
figure thoroughly we may reasonably conclude

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
299
that what has been hitherto thought so unaccount-
ably excellent in its general appearance, has been
owing to what has seemed a blemish in a part of it:
but let us endeavor to make this matter as clear as
possible, as it may add more force to what has
been said.
- “Statues, by being bigger than life (as this one
is, and larger than the Antinous), always gain some
nobleness in effect, according to the principle of
quantity, but this alone is not sufficient to give
what is properly to be called greatness in propor-
tion. . . Greatness of proportion must be considered
as depending on the application of quantity to those
parts of the body where it can give more scope to
its grace in movement, as to the neck for the larger
and swanlike turns of the head, and to the legs and
thighs, for the more ample sway of all the upper
parts together.
“By which we find that the Antinous being
equally magnified to the Apollo's height, would not
sufficiently produce that superiority of effect, as to
greatness, so evidently seen in the latter. The
additions necessary to the production of this great
ness in proportion, as it there appears added to
grace, must then be, by the proper application of
them to the parts mentioned only.
“I know not how farther to prove this matter
than by appealing to the reader's eye, and common
observation, as before. . . The Antirous being al.
lowed to have the justest proportion possible, let
us see what addition, upon the principle of quanti-

300
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
ty, can be made to it, without taking away any of
its beauty.
"If we imagine an addition of dimensions to the
head, we shall immediately conceive it would only
deform— if to the hands or feet, we are sensible of
something gross and ungenteel—if to the whole
lengths of the arms, we feel they would be dan-
gling and awkward —if, by an addition of length or
breadth to the body, we know it would appear heavy
and clumsy—there remains then only the neck,
with the legs and thighs to speak of; but to these
we find, that not only certain additions may be ad-
mitted without causing any disagreeable effect, but
that thereby greatness, the last perfection as to the
proportion, is given to the human form, as is evi-
dently expressed in the Apollo.”
This is well done by Hogarth. It required but
a little anatomical knowledge to see the reason of
this. The length of the neck, by which the head
is farther detached from the trunk, shows the inde-
pendence of the higher intellectual system upon
the lower one of mere nutrition ; and the length of
limbs shows that the mind had ready obedience in
locomotive power.
I have now to obviate some OBJECTIONS to the
existence of simple, pure, high, and perfect ideal
beauty, objections, which writers on this subject
bave hitherto neglected.
Alison says: “The proportions of the form of
Lie infant are very different from those of youth;
Litse again from those of manhood; and these
figuin perhaps still more from those of old age and

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
301
decay... Yet every one knows, not only that
each of these periods is susceptible of beautiful
form, but, what is much more, that the actual beau
ty in every period consists in the preservation of
the proportions peculiar to that period, and that
these differ in every article almost from those that
are beautiful in other periods of the life of the same
individual.”
But the beauty of the infant is not perfect beau-
ty: it is that, on the contrary, of mere promise,
not that of fulfilment. So also the beauty of old
age is not perfect beauty : it is that, on the con-
trary, which affects and interests us chiefly by the
regret we feel that its perfection has passed, or is
gradually vanishing.
"The same observation,” says Alison, “is yet
still more obvious with regard to the difference of
sex. In every part of the form, the proportions
which are beautiful in the two sexes are different;
and the application of the proportions of the one
to the form of the other, is everywhere felt as
painful and disgusting.” So also says Burke:
“Let us rest a moment on this point; and consider
how much difference there is between the meas-
ures that prevail in many similar parts of the body,
in the two sexes of this single species only. If
you assign any determinate proportions to the
limbs of man, and if you limit human beauty to
these proportions, when you find a woman who
differs in the make and measure of almost every
part, you must conclude her not to be beautiful in
spite of the suggestions of your imagination; or
V

302
in obedience to your imagination you must re-
nounce your rules; you must lay by the scale and
compass, and look out for some other cause of
beauty. For, if beauty be attached to certain
measures which operate from a principle in nature,
why should similar parts with different measures
of proportion be found to have beauty, and this,
too, in the very same species ?”
To this I might say the beauty of woman is not
the highest beauty: it is beauty of the nutritive
more than of the higher thinking system. But
there is another and a better answer: the differ-
ence of sex which affects all the higher animals is
a greater difference than that which subsists be-
tween some of their varieties or even of their spe-
cies; and the same laws of ideal beauty are as
inapplicable to different sexes as to different spe-
cies.
“We see, every day, around us," says Alison,
“some forms of our species which affect us with
forms of the legislator, the man of rank, the gen-
eral, the man of science, the private soldier, the
sailor, the laborer, the beggar, &c. In the other
sex, we see the forms of the matron, the widow,
the young woman, the nurse, the domestic servant,
&c. . . We expect different proportions of form
from the painter, in his representation of a warrior
and a shepherd, of a senator and of a peasant, of a
wrestler and a boatman, of a savage and of a man
of cultivated manners. We expect, in the
same manner, from the statuary, very different pro

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
303
portions in the forms of Jove and of Apollo [this
should have been excepted], of Hercules and of
Antinous, of a Grace and of Andromache, of a
Bacchanal and of Minerva,” &c.
That, in all these cases, the beauty is partial, .s
evident from the circumstance that what is found
in one is wanting in another; and partial beauty is
not perfect beauty. But this last point has been
well stated by Reynolds and Barry.
"To the principle I have laid down,” says Rey-
nolds, “ that the idea of beauty in each species of
being is an invariable one, it may be objected, that
in every particular species there are various cen-
tral forms which are separate and distinct from
each other, and yet are undeniably beautiful, that
in the human figure, for instance, the beauty of
Hercules is one, of the Gladiator another, of the
Apollo another [again the same error] ; which
makes so many different ideas of beauty. .. It
is true, indeed, that these figures are each perfect
in their kind, though of different character and
proportions; but still none of them is the repre-
sentation of an individual, but of a class. And as
there is one general form, which, as I have said,
belongs to the human kind at large, so in each of
these classes there is one common idea and cen-
tral form, which is the abstract of the various indi-
vidual forms belonging to that class. Thus, though
the forms of childhood and age differ exceedingly,
there is a common form in childhood, and a com-
mon form in age, which is the more perfect, as it
is more remote from all peculiarities. But I must

304
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
add farther, that though the most perfect forms of
each of the general divisions of the human figure
are ideal, and superior to any individual form of
that class, yet the highest perfection of the human
figure is not to be found in any one of them. It
is not in the Hercules, nor in the Gladiator, nor in
the Apollo, but in that form which is taken from
all, and which partakes equally of the activity of
the Gladiator, of the delicacy of the Apollo, and
of the muscular strength of the Hercules. For
perfect beauty in any species must combine all the
characters which are beautiful in that species. It
cannot consist in any one to the exclusion of the
rest: no one, therefore, must be predominant, that
no one may be deficient.”
“A high degree of particular character,” says
Barry, “cannot be superinduced upon pure or
simple beauty without altering its constituent parts;
this is peculiar to grace only; for particular char-
acters consist, as has been observed before, in those
deviations from the general standard for the better
purpose of effecting utility and power, and become
so many species of a higher order; where nature
is elevated into grandeur, majesty, and sublimity.”
There is AN IDEAL IN ATTITUDE as well as in the
form of the head and body.
This ideal is exactly opposed to the academical
rule mentioned by Dufresnoy, Reynolds, and others,
namely, that the right leg and left arm, or the left
leg and right arm, should be advanced or with-
drawn together. These are the mere attitudes of
progression, not those of expression; and the

THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
308
academical rule is only an academical blunder
To anything but walking — to the free and unem-
barrassed expressions of the body, it is, indeed,
quite inapplicable, and could produce only con-
tortion.
The rule of ideal attitude, which I long ago de-
duced, both from physiological principles, and from
parts of one side of the body should be advanced
or withdrawn together; that when one side is ad-
vanced, the other should be withdrawn; and that
when the right arm is elevated, extended, or bent
forward, the left leg should be elevated, extended,
the academical rule, so complacently mentioned by
Dufresnoy, Reynolds, &c.
The foundation of this rule in the necessary bal-
ance of the body, and that distribution of motion
which equally animates every part, must be obvious
to every one. It is illustrated by the finest statues
of the Greeks, wherever the expression intended
was free and unembarrassed, and even in those, as
the Laocoon and his sons, where, though the ac-
tion was constrained and convulsive, the sculptor
was yet at liberty to employ the most beautiful at-
titude. It is abandoned in these great works,
when either action embarrassed by purpose, or
clownishness, as in the Dancing Faun are ex-
pressed. *
* This rule is wel: explained, and variously illustrated by Donald
Walker, in his work, equally philosophical, instructive, and amu

306
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY.
I have now only to add, with Moreau, that in.
dividual beauty, the most perfect, differs always
greatly from the ideal, and that which is least re-
moved from it, is very difficult to be found. Hence,
in all languages, the epithet rare is attached to
beauty; and the Italians even call it pellegrina,
foreign, to indicate that they have not frequently
an opportunity of seeing it: they speak of "bel-
lezze pellegrine," — “leggiadria singolare e pelle-
grina.”
sing, entitled “Exercises for Ladies," a knowledge of which, and
the practice of its principles, would render beauty, and especially
beauty of the shoulders and arms, far more common in every
family.

THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
307
CHAPTER XIX.
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
es Hominum divômque voluptas, alma Venus.”
Of this, the most perfect models have been
· created by Grecian art. Few, we are told, were
the living beauties, from whom such ideal model
could be framed. The difficulty of finding these
among the women of Greece, must have been con-
siderable, when Praxiteles and Apelles were obliged
to have recourse, in a greater or less degree, to
the same person, for the beauties of the Venus of
Cnidos, executed in white marble, and the Venus
of Cos, painted in colors. It is asserted by Athe-
næus, that both these productions were, in some
measure, taken from Phryne of Thespia, in Baotia,
then a courtesan at Athens.
Both productions are said to have represented
Phryne coming out of the sea, on the beach of
Sciron, in the Saronic gulf, between Athens and
Eleusis, where she was wont to bathe.
It is said, that there, at the feast of Neptune,
Phryne, in the presence of the people of Eleusis,
having cast aside her dress, and allowing her long
hair to fall over her shoulders, plunged into the

308
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY
sea, and sported long amid its waves An immense
number of spectators covered the shore; and when
she came out of it, all exclaimed, “It is Venus who
rises from the waters!” The people would actually
have taken her for the goddess, if she had not been
well known to them.
Apelles and Praxiteles, we are told, were both
upon the shore ; and both resolved to represent
the birth of Venus according to the beautiful model
which they had just beheld.
Such is said to have been the origin of two of
the greatest works of antiquity. The work of
Apelles, known under the name of Venus Anady.
omene, was placed by Cesar in the temple of Venus
Genitrix, after the conquest of Greece. An idea
of the sculpture of Praxiteles is supposed to have
been imperfectly preserved to modern times in the
Venus de Medici.
We are farther told, that, after having studied
several attitudes, Phryne fancied to have discover-
ed one more favorable than the rest for displaying
all her perfections; and that both painter and
sculptor were obliged to adopt her favorite posture.
From this cause, the Venus of Cnidos, and the
Venus of Cos, were so perfectly alike, that it was im-
possible to remark any difference in their features,
contour, or more particularly in their attitude.
The painting of Apelles, it is added, was far from
exciting so much enthusiasm among the Greeks,
as the sculpture of Praxiteles. They fancied that
the marble moved ; that it seemed to speak; and
their illusion, says Lucian, was so great, that they

THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
309
ended by applying their lips to those of the god.
dess.*
“Praxiteles," says Flaxman, “excelled in the
highest graces of youth and beauty. He is said to
have excelled not only other sculptors, but himself,
by his marble statues in the Ceramicus of Athens;
but his Venus was preferable to all others in the
world, and many sailed to Cnidos for the purpose
of seeing it. This sculptor having made two stat-
ues of Venus, one with drapery, the other without,
the Coans preferred the clothed figure, on account
of its severe modesty, the same price being set
upon each. The citizens of Cnidos took the re-
jected statue, and afterward refused it to King
Nicomedes, who would have forgiven them an
immense debt in return; but they were resolved to
suffer anything so long as this statue by Praxiteles
ennobled Cnidos. ... This figure is known by the
descriptions of Lucian and Cedrenus, and it is rep-
resented on a medal of Caracalla and Plautilla, in
the imperial cabinet of France. This Venus was
still in Cnidos during the reign of the emperor
Alcadius, about four hundred years after Christ.
* It was at the extremity of the modern Cape Crio, anciently
Triopium, a promontory of Doris, a province of Caria, that was
built the celebrated city of Cnidos. Here Venus was worshipped:
here was seen this statue of that goddess, the most beautiful of the
works of Praxiteles. A temple, far from spacious, and open on
all sides, contained it, without concealing it from view; and, in
whatever point of view it was examined, it excited equal admira.
tion. No drapery veiled its charms; and so uncommon was its
beauty, that it inflamed with a violent passion another Pygmalion.

310
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
This statue seems to offer the first idea of the
Venus de Medici, which is likely to be the repe-
tition of another Venus, the work of this artist.”
He elsewhere says of the Venus of Praxiteles, it
was “the most admired female statue of all an-
tiquity, whose beauty is as perfect as it is elevated,
and as innocent as perfect; from which the Medi-
cean Venus seems but a deteriorated variety.”
Flaxman states that he himself had seen, in the
stables of the Braschi palace, a statue which he
supposed might be the original work of Praxiteles.
Strange to tell, nothing is now known of its fate!
A supposed cast from this, or from a copy of it,
conforming to the figure on the model of Caracalla,
is to be seen at the Royal Academy.
Of the VENUS DE MEDICI, Flaxman says, it " was
so much a favorite of the Greeks and Romans, that
a hundred ancient repetitions of this statue have
been noticed by travellers. The individual figure
is said to have been found in the forum of Octavia.
The style of sculpture seems to have been later
than Alexander the Great.
Let us now briefly examine this Model of Female
Beauty.
The Venus de Medici represents woman at that
age when every beauty has just been perfected
- The Venus de Medici at Florence,” says Winckel-
mann, "is sike a rose which, after a beautiful day-
brcak, expands its leaves to the first ray of the sun,
and represents that age when the limbs assume a
more finished form and the breast begins to devel
op itself.”

THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY
311
The size of the head is sufficiently small to leave
that predominance to the vital organs in the chest,
which, as already said, makes the nutritive system
peculiarly that of woman. This is the first and
most striking proof of the profound knowledge of
the artist, the principles of whose art taught him
that the vast head, on the contrary, was the char-
acteristic of a very different female personage* —
In mentioning the head, it is scarcely possible to
avoid noticing the rich curls of the hair.
The eyes next fix our attention by their soft,
sweet, and glad expression. This is produced with
exquisite art. To give softness, the ridges of the
eyebrows are rounded. To give sweetness, the
under eyelid, which I would call the expressive
one, is slightly raised. “The eyes of Venus,” says
Winckelmann,“ are smaller, and the slight eleva-
tion of the lower eyelid produces that languishing
look called by the Greeks, vypov.” To give the ex.
pression of gladness or of pleasure, the opening of
the eyelids is diminished, in order to diminish, or
partially to exclude, the excess of those impres-
sions, which make even pleasure painful. Other
exquisite details about those eyes, confer on them
unparalleled beauty. Still, as observed by the same
* The phrenologists have told us that the head of this Venus is
too small. They might as well have said, that the head of the
Minerva, or of the Jupiter, is too large, or a hundred other ignor-
ant inapplicabilities, and ridiculous pedantries. But to set aside
ideal forms, I may observe, that sex makes a vast difference in the
head, and a woman with a small head often produces a son with a
large one.

312
THE IDEAL OF PEMALE BEAUTY,
writer, this look is far from those traits indicative
of lasciviousness, with which some modern artists
have thought to characterize their Venuses. Love
was considered by the ancient masters, as by the
wise philosophers of those times, to use the expres.
sion of Euripides, as the counsellor of wisdom :
tñ copía Tupédpos pwras. One thing must be observed:
there is not here, as in some less happy represent.
ations of Venus, any downcast look, but that aspect
of which Metastasio, in his Inno a Venere, says:
66 Tu colle lucide
Pupille chiare,
Fai lieta e fertile
La terra e'l mare.”
And again :
« Presto à tuoi placidi
Astri ridenti,
Le nubi fuggono,
Fuggono i venti."'*
Art still profounder was perhaps shown in the
configuration of the nose. The peculiar connexion
of this sense with love was evidently well under-
stood by the great artist; and it is only gross ig-
norance that has made some persons question the
appropriateness of that development of the organ
which is here represented. Not only is smell pecu-
* This is beautiful, but is evidently borrowed from the great
philosophical poet's
"Te, Dea, te fugiunt ventei, te nubila coeli.
Adventumque tuum.”

THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
313
mals, but it is associated with reproduction in
plants, the majority of which evolve delicious odors
only when the flowers or organs of fructification
are displayed.* — Connected, indeed, with the ca.
pacity of the nose, and the cavities which open into
it, is the projection of the whole middle part of the
face.
In the mouth, also, is transcendent art displayed.
It is rendered sweet and delicate by the lips being
undeveloped at their angles, and by the upper
lip continuing so, for a considerable portion of
its length. It expresses love of pleasure by the
central development of both lips, and active love
by the especial development of the lower lip.I By
the slight opening of the lips, it expresses desire.
These exquisite details, and the omission of
nothing intellectually expressive that nature pre-
sents, have led some to imagine the Venus de
Medici to be a portrait. In doing so, however, they
see not the profound calculation required for near-
ly every feature thus imbodied. More strangely
still, they forget the ideal character of the whole:
the notion of this ideal head being too small, is
* That, in plants, these odors are even necessary to their repro
duction, is proved by their uniform existence at that period. And
if being affected by odors implies a sense of smell, or some modi.
fication of it, then must plants possess it.
† In all grossly sensual nations and individuals, the lips are
everted even at the angles.
† See this explained in “ Physiognomy."
$ “Venere suol tenere alquanto aperte le labbra, come per ipdi
care un languido desiderio ed amore.”-Sioria delle Arti.

314
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
especially opposed to such an opinion. If more is
wanting, it will surely be enough that the other
works which we are supposed to possess of Prax-
iteles, the Faun and the Cupid, present similar fine
details. *
Withal, the look is amorous and languishing,
without being lascivious, and is as powerfully
marked by gay coquetry, as by charming inno-
cence.
The young neck is exquisitely formed. Its beau-
tiful curves show a thousand capabilities of motion ;
and its admirably-calculated swell over the organ
of voice, results from, and marks, the struggling
expression of still mysterious love.
In short, I know no antique figure that displays
such profound knowledge, both physiological and
physiognomical, even in the most minute details;
and all who are capable of appreciating these
* In the Cupid, the form of the head is godlike. The hair not
only curls with all the vigor of early years, but, with perfect knowl.
edge of nature's tendency, is bent into a ridge along the middle of
the upper head. The brow, full, open, and charmingly rounded, is
the evident throne of young observation, and it flows with such
beauty into the parts behind, as if it actually said its purpose was
to fling its observations back on thought and will. Its beginnings
at the eyebrows display exquisite knowledge: the bony ridge is ad-
mirably shown to be yet uniformed; and while its outer extremity
forms but the orbital convexity, or shell for the globe of the eye,
the inner extremity of the eyebrow is with infinite art drawn over
soft and hollow space, as if the few hairs that composed it made
there its only convexity. In short, in every part of the face, fine
and faint as is every youthful feature, no detail is lost; and this,
added to the pointed chin and upper lip, declare the purpose of
the little god.

THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
things, may well smile at those who pretend to
compare with this any other head of Venus now
known to us.
With regard to the rest of the figure, the admi-
rable form of the mammæ, which, without being
too large, occupy the bosom, rise from it with va-
rious curves on every side, and all terminate in
their apices, leaving the inferior part in each pre-
cisely as pendent as gravity demands; the flexile
waist gently tapering little farther than the middle
of the trunk; the lower portion of it beginning
gradually to swell out higher even than the umbili-
cus; the gradual expansion of the haunches, those
expressive characteristics of the female, indicating
at once her fitness for the office of generation and
that of parturition— expansions which increase till
they reach their greatest extent at the superior part
of the thighs; the fulness behind their upper part,
and on each side of the lower part of the spine,
commencing as high as the waist, and terminating
in the still greater swell of the distinctly-separared
hips; the flat expanse between these, and immedi-
ately over the fissure of the hips, relieved by a con-
siderable dimple on each side, and caused by the
elevation of all the surrounding parts; the fine
swell of the broad abdomen which, soon reaching
its greatest height, immediately under the umbili-
cus, slopes gently to the mons veneris, but, narrow
at its upper part, expands more widely as it de-
scends, while, throughout, it is laterally distin-
guished by a gentle depression from the more mus-
cular parts on the sides of the pelvis; the beautiful

316
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
elevation of the mons veneris; the contiguous ele.
vation of the thighs which, almost at their com-
mencement, rise as high as it does; the admirable
expansion of these bodies inward, or toward each
other, by which they almost seem to intrude upon
each other, and to exclude each from its respective
place; the general narrowness of the upper, and
the unembraceable expansion of the lower part thus
exquisitely formed ; - all these admirable charac-
teristics of female form, the mere existence of
which in woman must, one is tempted to imagine,
be, even to herself, a source of ineffable pleasure -
these constitute a being worthy, as the personifica-
tion of beauty, of occupying the temples of Greece;
present an object finer, alas! than nature seems
even capable of producing; and offer to all nations
and ages a theme of admiration and delight.
Well might Thomson say:-
"So stands the statue that enchants the world,
So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
The mingled beauties of exulting Greece."
And Byron, in yet higher strain :-
The air around with beauty;
within the pale
We stand, and in that form and face behold
What Mind can make, when Nature's self would fail;
And to the fond idolaters of old
Envy the innate flash which such a soul could mould:
We gaze and turn away, and know not where,
Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart
Reels with its fulness; there – for ever there --
Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art,
We stand as captives, and would not depart'

THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
317
PROPORTIONS OF THE VENUS DE MEDICI.
Has seven heads, seven parts, and three minutes in height.
From the top of the head to the root of the hair, three
parts.
From the root of the hair to the eyebrows, three parts.
From the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose, three parts.
From the bottom of the nose, to that of the chin, three
parts.
From the bottom of the chin to the depression between the
clavicles, four parts, three minutes and a half.
From the depression between the clavicles to the lowest
part of the breast, ten parts, five minutes.
From the lowest part of the breast to the middle of the
navel, eight parts, three minutes.
From the middle of the navel to the base of the belly and
beginning of the thighs, eleven parts, four minutes
and a half.
From the bottom of the belly to the middle of the knee-
pan, eighteen parts, two minutes.
From the middle of the kneepan to the beginning of the
flank, twenty-seven parts, three minutes.
From the middle of the kneepan to the ground, twenty-
five parts, three minutes.
The greatest height of the foot, three parts, five minutes
and a half.
From the neck of the leg to the end of the toes, nine parts
and half a minute.
From the commencement of the humerus to the elbow,
twenty parts, two minutes.
From the elbow to the beginning of the hand, fourteen
parts.
The greatest breadth of the forearm, five parts.
The greatest breadth of the arm, four parts, five minutes.
From the depression between the clavicles to the begin.
ning of the deltoid, six parts, four minutes.
W
15

THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
From the depression between the clavicles to the point of
the nipple, ten parts and half a minute.
Be:ween the points of the nipples, eleven parts, two min-
utes.
The breadth of the torso, at the level of the lowest part
of the breast, fifteen parts, four minutes and a half.
The least breadth of the torso, at the commencement of
the flanks, fourteen parts, one minute.
The greatest breadth of the torso, at the bottom of the
flanks, seventeen parts, five minutes.
The breadth from the trochanter of one thigh to that of
the other, nineteen parts, three minutes.
The greatest breadth of the thigh, nine parts, five min.
utes.
The greatest breadth of the knee, six parts.
The greatest breadth of the calf of the leg, six parts,
three minutes and a half.
The breadth from one ankle to another, four parts.
The least breadth of the foot, three parts, three minutes
and a half.
The greatest breadth of the foot, five parts and one min.
ute.
The arms of the Venus de Medici, it should be
observed, are of modern construction, and unwor.
thy of the figure.
The VENUS OF NAPLES is of altogether a different
species of beauty.
That figure represents an ample and rather vo-
luptuous matron, in an attitude of scarcely sur-
passable grace. The character of the face is beau-
tiful, in profile especially, and its expression is
grave. The mouth has much of nature about it,
resembling greatly in character that feature as seen

319
in Southern Europe ; but its expression, though
tender, is somewhat serious or fretful.
It presents, however, many faults. The head is
monstrous. The neck is equally so, as well as
coarse. The forehead, eyes, nose, and cheeks,
present none of the finely-calculated details, which
surprise and delight us in the Venus de Medici.
The mammæ are not true.
After these, the androgynous being, called the
VENUS OF ARLES, is scarcely worthy of being men-
tioned. She derives some grandeur from antique
character and symmetry, and some from her mas
culine features. The head is monstrous; the neck
horrid ; the nose heavy; the mouth contemptuous.
Upon the whole, neither the graceful matron of
Naples, nor the manlike woman of the Louvre, can
be brought into competition with the Venus de
Medici.

320
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY
CHAPTER XX.
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY,
Defects of the Locomotive System.
1. If the whole figure be either too broad or too
tall; because, the first is inelegant, and the last
unfeminine. Persons who are too tall are gener-
ally ill at ease and destitute of grace, a greater
misfortune to a woman than to a man.— Too low
a stature is a defect less disagreeable, especially for
women. If, however, on the one side, it gives
prettiness, on the other, it deprives of all imposing
appearance.
2. If the bones, except those of the pelvis, be
not proportionally small; because, in woman, this
portion of the locomotive system ought to be com-
pletely subordinate to the vital.
3. If the ligaments, and the articulations they
form, be not proportionally small; because, in wo-
man, this portion of the locomotive system ought
also to be completely subordinate to the vital.
Either of the last two defects will produce what
is termed clumsiness.
4. If the muscles, generally more slender, feeble,
soft and yielding than in man, be not large around
the pelvis, and delicate elsewhere; because, this

DEFECTS OF BEAUTY.
321
is necessary, for reasons which will be afterward
assigned, as well as to permit the ease and supple-
ness of the movements.
5. If, in a mature female, the length of the neck,
compared with the trunk, be not proportionally
somewhat less than in the male ; because, in her
the subordination of the locomotive system, the
predominance of the vital, and the dependance of the
mental, are naturally connected with the shorter
vertebræ and shorter course of the vessels of the
neck.
(The following defects, from 6 to 15 inclusive,
have necessarily a reference also to the vital sys.
tem; because, the form and capacity of the cavities
here spoken of, as formed by the osseous frame of
the locomotive system, have an obvious relation to
the vital organs, which these cavities are destined
to contain.)
6. If the upper part of the body (exclusive of the
bosom) be proportionally more, and the lower part
of the body less prominent, than in man, so that,
when she stands perfectly upright or lies on the
back, the space between the breasts is more promi.
nent than the mons veneris; because, such confor-
mation is injurious to impregnation, gestation, and
parturition.
7. If the shoulders seem wider than the haunches;
because, this appearance generally arises from the
narrowness of the pelvis, and its consequent unfit.
ness for gestation and parturition.
8. If, on the contrary, the shoulders be much

32%
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY.
narrower than the pelvis ; because, this indicates
extreme weakness of the locomotive system.
part of the neck; because, this shows that the
apper part of the chest is not sufficiently wide of
itself, but is rendered angular by the muscularity,
&c., of the shoulders.
10. If the upper part of the chest be not rela-
tively short and wide, and if it owe not its width
because, this shows that the vital organs contained
in the chest are not sufficiently expanded.
11. If, in youth, the upper part of the trunk, in-
cluding the muscles moving the shoulders, do not
form an inverted cone, whose apex is the waist;
the locomotive system are destroyed by the unre-
strained expansion of the vital.
12. If the loins be not extended at the expense
of the chest above and of the limbs below; because,
on this depends their capacity to receive organs
enlarged or displaced during gestation.
13. If the back be not hollow; because, this
shows that the pelvis is not sufficiently deep to
project posteriorly, nor consequently of sufficient
capacity for gestation and parturition.
14. If the haunches be not widely expanded (as
already implied in speaking of the shoulders); be-
cause, the interior cavity of the pelvis is then in-
sufficient for gestation and parturition.
15. If, in consequence of the form of the pelvis,
and the arch of the pubis being larger, the mons

DEFECTS OF BEAUTY
323
veneris be not more prominent than the chest;
because, the pelvic cavity is then also insufficient
for gestation and parturition.
16. If the thighs of woman be not wider than
those of man; because, the width of the female
pelvis, and the purposes which it serves, require
this.
17. If the size of the thighs be not large, the
haunches as it were increasing till they reach their
greatest extent at the upper part of the thigh,
which anteriorly rises as high as the mons veneris,
and if the knees do not approximate.
18. If the arms and the limbs be not relatively
short, if they do not taper greatly as they recede
from the trunk, and if the hands and feet be not
small; because, it is the vital system and the
trunk, which is by far the most important part in
the female.
19. If the larynx or flute part of the throat be
not small; because their magnitude indicates a
masculine character.
Defects of the Vital System.
(Defects of the contained vital parts, which have
been already implied in enumerating those of the
containing locomotive parts, are not again men
tioned here, as the intelligent reader can easily
supply these and similar omissions.)
1. If, in consequence of marriage taking place

324
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY.
before their full growth, women remain always of
diminished stature, weak, and pale.
2 If the digestive organs being large rather than
active, is inconsistent with the greater activity and
less permanence of all the other functions, secre-
tion, gestation, &c., excepted.
3. If the absorbing vessels, being inactive, are in-
sufficient for large secretions
4. If the circulating vesseis, being inactive and
imperfectly ramified, leave the skin cold, opaque,
and destitute of complexion.
5. If the secreting vessels, being inactive, furnish
neither the plumpness necessary to beauty, nor
those ovarian, uterine, and mammary excretions on
which progeny is dependant.
6. If the neck form not an insensible transition
between the body and head, being sufficiently full
to conceal the muscles of the neck and the flute
part of the throat.
7. If, in a young woman, the mammæ, without
being too large, do not occupy the bosom, and rise
from it with nearly equal curves on every side,
which similarly terminate in their apices; or if,
in the mature woman, they do not, when supported,
seem laterally to protrude somewhat on the space
occupied by the arms; because, these show that
this important part of the vital system is insuffi.
ciently developed.
8. If the waist, tapering little farther than the
middle of the trunk, and being sufficiently marked,
especially in the back and loins, by the approxi-
mation of the expanded pelvis, be not also slightly

DEFECTS OF BEAUTY.
325
encroached on by the plumpness of all the contig-
uous parts, without however destroying its ele-
gance, softness and flexibility ; because, this sim-
ilarly shows feebleness in a portion of that system,
which is by far the most important to woman.
9. If the waist be broader than the upper part of
the trunk, including the muscles moving the shoul-
ders; because, this indicates that expansion of the
stomach, liver, and other glands, which is gener-
ally the result of their excessive use or excitement.
It is attended with a common look and an inele-
gant appearance.
10. If the abdomen be not moderately expanded,
its upper portion beginning to swell out, higher
even than the umbilicus, and its greatest projection
being almost immediately under that point; be-
cause, this shows a weakness of the vital system,
and a disproportion to the parts immediately above.
11. If the abdomen, which should be highest
immediately under the umbilicus, slope not gently
toward the mons veneris, and be more prominent
elsewhere; because this is the result of that ex-
cessive expansion which takes place during partu-
rition.
12. If the abdomen, which, as well as being ele-
vated, should be narrow at its upper part, become
as broad there as below, and lose that gentle lateral
depression by which it is distinguished from the
more muscular parts on the sides of the pelvis;
because, this indicates the operation of the causes
mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
13. If a remarkable fulness exist not behind the

326
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY.
apper part of the baunches, and on each side of
the lower part of the spine, commencing as high
as the waist, and terminating in the still greater
swell of the distinctly separated hips; the ílat
expanse between these and immediately over the
fissure of the hips, being relieved by a considera-
ble dimple on each side, caused by the elevation
of all the surrounding parts; because, it indicates
feebleness in that system which is most essential
to woman.
14. If the cellular tissue and the plumpness
which is connected with it, do not predominate, so
as to obliterate all distinct projection of the mus-
cles; because, this likewise shows that an impor-
tant portion of the vital system is feeble, and it
deprives woman of the forms which are necessary
to love. Nothing can completely compensate, in
woman, for the absolute want of plumpness. The
features of meager persons are hard ; they have a
dry and arid physiognomy; the mouth is without
charm; the color is without freshness; their limbs
seem ill united with their body; and all their move-
ments are abrupt and coarse.
15. If plumpness be too predominant; because,
it then destroys the distinctness of parts, and con-
stitutes an excess productive of inconvenience.
16. If that excessive plumpness be broken, as it
were, into masses; because, it constitutes coarse-
ness of the vital system.
17. If former plumpness have left the previously-
filled cellular tissue and expanded integuments en
feebled; because, that constitutes flaccidity.

DEFECTS OF BEAUTY
327
18. If the almost entire absorption of adipose
substance have finally left the bones angular, the
muscles and other parts permanently rigid, and the
skin dry; because, that indicates decay of the vital
system, and characterizes age.
19. If the skin be not fine, soft, and white, deli-
cate, thin, and transparent, fresh and animated, if
the complexion be not pure and vivid, if the hair
be not fine, soft, and luxuriant, and if the nails be
not smooth, transparent, and rose-colored ; because,
these likewise show the feebleness of that system
which is most important to woman.
for
Defects of the Mental System.
1. If the head, compared with the trunk, be not
less than that of the male ; because, the mental
system, in the female, ought to be subordinate to
the vital, and the reverse is inconsistent with the
healthful and happy exercise of her faculties as
woman.
2. If the organs of sense be not proportionally
larger, when compared with the brain, and more deli-
cately outlined than in the male; because, sensibility
should exceed reasoning power, in the female.
3. If the brain (in other words) be not propor-
tionally smaller, when compared with the organs of
sense, than in the male ; because, reasoning power
should be subordinate to sensibility in the female.
4. If the cerebel be not proportionally smaller,
when compared with the organs of sense, than in
the male ; because, voluntary power should also
be subordinate to sensibility, in the female

328
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY.
5. if the cerebel be not narrow and pointed pos
teriorly, that is, long rather than broad (its genera
form in woman); because, the volitions of woman
should be intense, not permanent.
6. If the forehead be not large in proportion to
the backhead but on the contrary low, or very
narrow; because, the former being the seat of ob-
servation, if the organ be small, the function must
be correspondingly so, and in that case passion
will probably predominate.
7. If the delicacy of the skin permit not to the
touch of woman corresponding delicacy.
8. If the mouth be not small, or extend much
beyond the nostrils, and if the lips be not delicately
outlined and of vermillion hue.
9. If the nose be not nearly in the same direction
with the forehead, or if more than a slight inflexion
is to be seen.
10. If the eyes be not relatively large and per-
fectly clear in every part.
11. If the eyelids, instead of an oblong, form
nearly a circular aperture, resembling somewhat
the eye of monkeys, cats, or birds; because, this
round eye, when large, and especially when dark,
is always indicative of a bold, and, when small, of
a pert insensibility of character,
12. If the eyelashes be not long and silky, and
if the eyebrows be not furnished with fine hairs,
and be not arched and distinctly separated.
13. If the ears be prominent, so as to alter the
regularity of the oval of the head, or surcharge its
outline with prominences..

EXTERNAL INDICATIONS, AS TO BEAUTY.
329
CHAPTER XXI
EXTERNAL INDICATIONS; OR ART OF DETERMINING TII E
PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY, THE MIND,
THE HABITS, AND THE AGE OF WOMAN, NOTWITH-
STANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISES OF DRESS.
External Indications of Figure.
EXTERNÁL indications as to figure are required
chiefly as to the limbs which are concealed by
drapery. Such indications are afforded by the
walk, to every careful observer.
In considering the proportion of the limbs to the
body- if, even in a young woman, the walk, though
otherwise good, be heavy, or the fall on each foot
alternately be sudden, and rather upon the heel,
the limbs, though well formed, will be found to be
slender, compared with the body.
This conformation accompanies any great pro-
portional development of the vital system ; and it
population of England, as in the counties of Norfolk,
Suffolk, &c.
In women of this conformation, moreover, the
slightest indisposition or debility is indicated by

330
EXTERNAL INDICATIONS,
a slight vibration of the shoulders, and upper part
of the chest, at every step, in walking.
In considering the line or direction of the limbs-
if, viewed behind, the feet, at every step, are thrown
out backward, and somewhat laterally, the knees
are certainly much inclined inward.
If, viewed in front, the dress, at every step, is
as it were, gathered toward the front, and then
tossed more or less to the opposite side, the knees
are certainly too much inclined.
of the limbs — iſ, in the walk, there be a greater
or less approach to the marching pace, the hip is
large; for we naturally employ the joint which is
surrounded with the most powerful muscles, and,
in any approach to the march, it is the hip-joint
which is used, and the knee and ankle-joints which
If, in the walk, the tripping pace be used, as in
an approach to walking on tiptoes, the calf is large;
for it is only by the power of its muscles that, under
the weight of the whole body, the foot can be ex-
tended for this purpose.
If, in the walk, the foot be raised in a slovenly
manner, and the heel be seen, at each step, to lift
the bottom of the dress upward and backward,
neither the hip nor the calf is well developed.
Even with regard to the parts of the figure which
are more exposed to observation by the closer
adaptation of dress, much deception occurs. It is,
therefore, necessary to understand the arts em-
ployed for this purpose, at least by skilful women

AS TO BEAUTY.
331
A person having a narrow face, wears a bonnet
with wide front, exposing the lower part of the
cheeks.— One having a broad face, wears a closer
front; and, if the jaw be wide, it is in appearance
diminished, by bringing the corners of the bonnet
sloping to the point of the chin.
A person having a long neck has the neck of the
bonnet descending, the neck of the dress rising,
and filling more or less of the intermediate space.
One having a short neck has the whole bonnet
short and close in the perpendicular direction, and
the neck of the dress neither high nor wide.
Persons with narrow shoulders have the shoul-
ders or epaulets of the dress formed on the outer
edge of the natural shoulder, very full, and both
the bosom and back of the dress running in oblique
folds, from the point of the shoulder to the middle
of the bust.
Persons with waists too large, render them less
before by a stomacher, or something equivalent,
and behind by a corresponding form of the dress,
making the top of the dress smooth across the
shoulders, and drawing it in plaits to a narrow
point at the bottom of the waist.
Those who have the bosom too small, enlarge it
by the oblique folds of the dress being gathered
above, and by other means.
Those who have the lower posterior part of the
body too flat, eevate it by the top of the skirt being
gathered behind, and by other less skilful adjust-
ments, which though hid, are easily detected.
Those who have the lower part of the body too

332
EXTERNAL INDICATIONS,
prominent anteriorly, render it less apparent by
shortening the waist, by a corresponding projection
behind, and by increasing the bosom above.
Those who have the haunches too narrow, take
care not to have the bottom of the dress too wide.
Tall women have a wide skirt, or several flounces,
or both of these : shorter women, a moderate one,
but as long as can be conveniently worn, with the
flounces, &c., as low as possible.*
External Indications of Beauty.
Additional indications as to beauty are required
chiefly where the woman observed precedes the
observer, and may, by her figure, naturally and
reasonably excite his interest, while at the same
time it would be rude to turn and look in her face
on passing
There can, therefore, be no impropriety in ob-
serving, that the conduct of those who may happen
to meet the woman thus preceding, will differ ac-
cording to the sex of the person who meets her.
— If the person meeting her be a man, and the lady
observed be beautiful, he will not only look with an
expression of pleasure at her countenance, but will
afterward turn more or less completely to survey
her from behind.— If the person meeting her be a
woman, the case becomes more complex. If both
be either ugly or beautiful, or if the person meet-
ing her be beautiful and the lady observed be ugly,
then it is probable, that the approaching person
* Appendix K.

AS TO BEAUTY.
333
may pass by inattentively, casting merely an indif.
ferent glance: if, on the contrary, the woman
meeting her be ugly, and the lady observed be
beautiful, then the former will examine the latter
with the severest scrutiny, and if she sees features
and shape without defect, she will instantly fix her
eyes on the head-dress or gown, in order to find
some object for censure of the beautiful woman,
and for consolation in her own ugliness.
Thus he who happens to follow a female may be
aided in determining whether it is worth his while
to glance at her face in passing, or to devise other
means of seeing it.
Even when the face is seen, as in meeting in the
streets or elsewhere, infinite deception occurs as to
the degree of beauty. This operates so powerfully,
that a correct estimate of beauty is perhaps never
formed at first. This depends on the forms and
still more on the colors of dress in relation to the
face. For this reason, it is necessary to understand
the principles according to which colors are em-
ployed at least by skilful women.*
When it is the fault of a face to contain too
much yellow, then yellow around the face is used
to remove it by contrast, and to cause the red and
blue to predominate.
When it is the fault of a face to contain too
much red, then red around the face is used to re-
* I speak not of paint here. It is now used only by meretricinus
persons and by those harridans of higher rank who resemble them
in every respect, except that the former are ashamed of their pro-
fession, and the latter advertise it.

354
blue to predominate.
When it is the fault of a face to contain toc
much blue, then blue around the face is used to
remove it by contrast, and to cause the yellow and
red to predominate.
. When it is the fault of a face to contain too
much yellow and red, then orange is used.
When it is the fault of a face to contain too
much red and blue, then purple is used.
When it is the fault of a face to contain too
much blue and yellow, then green is used.
It is necessary to observe that the linings of
bonnets reflect their color on the face, and trans-
parent bonnets transmit that color, and equally
tinge it. In both these cases, the color employed
is no longer that which is placed around the face,
and which acts on it by contrast, but the opposite
As green around the face heightens a faint red in
the cheeks by contrast, so the pink lining of the
bonnet aids it by reflection.
Hence linings which reflect, are generally of the
teint which is wanted in the face; and care is then
taken that these linings do not come into the direct
view of the observer, and operate prejudicially on
the face by contrast, overpowering the little color
which by reflection they should heighten. The
fronts of bonnets so lined, therefore, do not widen
greatly forward, and bring their color into con-
trast.
When bonnets do widen, the proper contrast is
used as a lining; but then it has not a surface

AS TO BEAUTY.
335
much adapted for reflection, otherwise it may per-
form that office, and injure the complexion.
Understanding, then, the application of these
colors in a general way, it may be noticed, that
fair faces are by contrast best acted on by light
colors, and dark faces by darker colors.
Dark faces are best affected by darker colors,
evidently because they tend to render the complex-
ion fairer; and fair faces do not require dark col-
ors, because the opposition would be too strong.
Objects which constitute a background to the
face, or which, on the contrary, reflect their hues
upon it, always either improve or injure the com-
plexion. For this and some other reasons, many
than in the streets. Apartments may, indeed, be
peculiarly calculated to improve individual com-
plexions
External Indications of Mind.
External indications as to mind may be derived
from figure, from gait, and from dress.
As to figure, a certain symmetry or disproportion
of parts (either of which depends immediately
upon the locomotive system) - or a certain softness
or hardness of form (which belongs exclusively to
the vital system) -- or a certain delicacy or coarse-
ness of outline (which belongs exclusively to the
mental system) — these reciprocally denote a loco-
motive symmetry or disproportion —or a vital
softness or hardness - or a mental delicacy or

336
EXTERNAL INDICATIONS,
coarseness, which will be found also indicated by
he features of the face.
These qualities are marked in pairs, as each
belonging to its respective system ; for, without
this, there can be no accurate or useful observa-
tion.
As to gait, that progression which advances, un-
modified by any lateral movement of the body, or
any perpendicular rising of the head, and which
belongs exclusively to the locomotive system - or
that soft lateral rolling of the body, which belongs
exclusively to the vital system - or that perpen-
dicular rising or falling of the head at every im-
pulse to step, which belongs exclusively to the
mental systemthese reciprocally indicate a cor-
responding locomotive, or vital, or mental charac-
ter, which will be found also indicated by the fea-
tures of the face.
To put to the test the utility of these elements
of observation and indication, let us take a few
instances. - If, in any individual, locomotive sym-
metry of figure is combined with direct and linear
gait, a character of mind and countenance not ab-
solutely repulsive, but cold and insipid, is indica-
ted. — If vital softness of figure is combined, with
a gentle lateral rolling of the body in its gait, vo-
luptuous character and expression of countenance
are indicated. - If delicacy of outline in the figure,
be combined with perpendicular rising of the head,
evity, perhaps vanity, is indicated.—But there are
innumerable combinations and modifications of the
elements which we have just described. Expres.

AS TO MIMD.
337
sions of pride, determination, obstinacy, &c., are
all observable.
The gait, however, is often formed, in a great
measure, by local or other circumstances, by which
it is necessary that the observer should avoid being
misled.
Dress, as affording indications, though less to
be relied on than the preceding, is not without its
taste, and a corresponding expression of counte-
nance, will generally be tastefully dressed ; and
the vulgar woman, with features correspondingly
rude, will easily be seen through the inappropriate
have invested her.
External Indications of Habits.
External indications as to the personal habits of
women are both numerous and interesting.
The habit of child-bearing is indicated by a flat
ter breast, a broader back, and thicker cartilages
of the bones of the pubis, necessary widening the
pelvis.
The same habit is also indicated by a high rise
of the nape of the neck, so that the neck from that
point bends considerably forward, and by an ele-
vation which is diffused between the neck and
shoulders. These all arise from temporary disten-
sions of the trunk in women whose secretions are
powerful, from the habit of throwing the shoulders
backward during pregnancy, and the head again

338
EXTERNAL INDICATIONS,
forward, to balance the abdominal weight; and
they bestow a character of vitality peculiarly ex-
pressive.
The same habit is likewise indicated by an ex-
cess of that lateral rolling of the body in walking,
which was already described as connected with
voluptuous character. This is a very certain indi-
cation, as it arises from temporary distensions of
the pelvis, which nothing else can occasion. As
in consequence of this lateral rolling of the body,
and of the weight of the body being much thrown
forward in gestation, the toes are turned somewhat
inward, they aid in the indication.
The habit of nursing children is indicated, both
in mothers and nursery-maids, by the right shoul
der being larger and more elevated than the left.
The habits of the seamstress are indicated by
the neck suddenly bending forward, and the arms
being, even in walking, considerably bent forward
or folded more or less upward from the elbows.
Habits of labor are indicated by a considerable
thickness of the shoulders below, where they form
an angle with the inner part of the arm ;'and, where
these habits are of the lowest menial kind, the
elbows are turned outward and the palms of the
hands backward.
The habits of many of the inferior female pro-
fessions might easily be indicated; but they would
be unsuitable to a work like this.

AS TO MIND
339
External Indications of Age.
External indications of age are required chiefly
where the face is veiled, or where the woman ob-
served precedes the observer and may reasonably
excite his interest.
In either of these cases, if the foot and ankle
have lost a certain moderate plumpness, and as-
sumed a certain sinewy or bony appearance, the
woman has generally passed the period of youth.
If in walking, instead of the ball or outer edge
of the foot first striking the ground, it is the heel
which does so, then has the woman in general
passed the meridian of life. — Unlike the last indi-
cation, this is apparent, however the foot and ankle
may be clothed. — The reason of this indication is
the decrease of power which unfits the muscles to
receive the weight of the body by maintaining the
extension of the ankle-joint.
Exceptions to this last indication are to be found
chiefly in women in whom the developments of the
body are proportionally much greater, either from
a temporary or a permanent cause, than those of
the limbs, the muscles of which are consequently
maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.


APPENDIX
MR. WALKER's extravagant admiration of the Grecian mythology
has led him to over-estimate its influence upon poetry and the arts.
That these were influenced, in a very important degree, by the
religion of Greece, an one acquainted with the history of that na-
tion, can doubt; bu', that the arts cannot exist where the Grecian
mythology is not the popular religion, is an opinion unsupported
by the history of the past, and altogether opposed to their present
flourishing state in civilized countries. In no age or nation has
the art of painting, for example, attained higher perfection, than
in Italy during the 13th and 14th centuries; a period which has been
called “the golden age of Italian art," and its high excellence has
been justly attributed to the introduction of Christianity. “The
walls and cupolas," says a late writer, “ of new and splendid
churches were immediately covered, as if by enchantment, with
the miracles of paintings and sculpture — the eager multitude were
not compelled to wait till genius had labored for years on what it
had been years in conceiving. Those eager spirits seemed to breathe
out their creations in full and mature beauty — performing at once,
by the buoyant energies of well-disciplined genius, more than all
the cold precision of mechanical knowledge can ever accomplish."
Allan Cunningham, in his life of Flaxman, the artist, speaking of
these paintings, remarks: “Into these Flaxman looked with the
eye of a sculptor and of a Christian. He saw, he said, that the
mistress to whom the great artists of Italy had dedicated their
genius was the Church; that they were unto her as chief priests,
to interpret her tenets and her legends to the world in a more
brilliant language than that of relics and images. To her illiterate
people, the Church addressed herself through the eye, and led
16

344
APPENDIX.
their senses captive by the external magnificence with which she
overwhelmed them.”
But it is unnecessary to multiply quotations to prove this point.
Flaxman never uttered a truer saying, than when he remarked,
that “the Christian religion presents personages and subjects no
less favorable to painting and sculpture than the ancient classics.''
Accordingly, we find among his own immortal productions, that
the monument erected in memory of Miss Lushington, in Kent,
representing a mother mourning for her daughter, comforted by a
ministering angel, was inspired by that text of holy writ, "Blessed
are they that mourn ;” and the monument in memory of the family
of Sir Francis Baring imbodies these words, “Thy will be done -
thy kingdom come-deliver us from evil.” To the first motto
belongs a devotional figure as large as life-
“Her looks communing with the skies;"
a perfect image of piety and resignation. On one side, imbodying
Thy kingdom come," a mother and daughter ascend to the skies
welcomed rather than supported by angels; and on the other, ex-
pressing the sentiment “ Deliver us from evil," a male figure, in
subdued agony, appears in the air, while spirits of good and evil
contend for the mastery. This has been considered one of the
finest pieces of motionless poetry in England. We hold, then, that
Mr. Walker's remark that “neither poetry nor the arts can have
being, without the religion of Greece,'' is far from being sustained,
either by history or observation.
B.
The remarks of Mr. Walker, in relation to the duty of parents
and teachers, seem to us well-founded and judicious. If moral, as
well as intellectual and physical education, be part of the parental
duty, then it would seem to follow, that it should embrace 'hose
subjects which are of the most importance, both to the physical
and moral well-being of the child ; and surely, the relation of the
sexes, and the due subjection of the animal propensities, are not
the least important of these. There is a delicacy generally felt
and observed on this point, which springs from a principle that we
honor and respect, while, at the same time, we doubt whether it
leads to favorable and auspicious results. No one, who looks back

APPENDIX.
345
upon the years of his own childhood, can for a moment doubt that
judicious advice and seasonable information on certain subjects,
which were probably considered of a too delicate nature to be even
hinted at, would have been highly useful. The young will inevitably
become initiated into certain vices and evil practices, unless put on
their guard, by the warning voice of those they love and respect.
There are a variety of passions, affections, and appetites, which be-
long to our nature, and were intended when properly directed and
indulged, to promote our interest and happiness. Those under
consideration, early begin to manifest themselves, and, when left
without the restraints of enlightened intellect and the moral sense,
invariably lead to disastrous consequences. The question then is,
shall the young and inexperienced be left to the mere accidents of
its condition, without an effort to give it sound principles to govern
it, or without bringing some conservative influence to bear upon
it? We think, with Mr. Walker, that it should not. Both philoso.
phy and reason prove the danger of such a course. The circum-
stances which are connected with sexual vices cannot be wholly
kept out of view. They meet the eye, or are suggested to the
imagination, at almost every turn. A thousand scenes and incidents
occur to excite the passions, if the mind is not fortified against
their influence. Those who are fastidious, and believe that delica-
cy forbids all allusion to such subjects, will say, “Keep the youth
in ignorance - conceal, iſ possible, everything from his view, that
may excite the passions." Still, there remain the constitutional
susceptibilities; passion and appetite cannot be eradicated, and
they will often be excited by incidents, which the most wakeful
vigilance will not detect or suspect. The fact is, that long before
parents are aware of it, the child has obtained knowledge on these
subjects through many corrupt channels; and the associations first
formed, are destined to exert, ever afterward, a powerful influence
for evil. The early associations might, by judicious instruction on
the part of parents, be of such character, as to throw around the
youth a barrier almost impregnable. As to the time and manner
of imparting this instruction, it must be left to the wisdom and
prudence of teachers and parents and, perhaps, as a general rule,
it should be left wholly to the latter.

346
APPENDIX
Much has been written on the nature of beaucy, from the divine
Plato, who dedicated one of his dialogues to this subject, to Lord
Jeffries, the editor of the Edinburgh Review ; who, in his celebra-
ted article in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, has
excelled all previous efforts in its elucidation, and produced an
essay, which will stand an imperishable monument of his taste,
learning, and genius. It is not our design to enter upon a conside
eration of beauty in the abstract, or to attempt its analysis, as this
has been done by our author in a very able, if not satisfactory
manner. We take it, however, to denote that quality, or assem
blage and union of qualities in the objects of our perception, wheth-
er material, intellectual, or moral, which we contemplate with
emotions of pleasure; and we refer it to that internal sense,
which is usually called taste. When it is asked, why a thing is
beautiful, it is not always easy to find a satisfactory answer. We
find beauty in color, in sound, in form, in motion, in everything.
We have beauties of speech, beauties of thought, beauties in art, in
nature, in the sciences, in actions, in affections, and in characters.
Dr. Reid well asks," In things so different, and so unlike, is there
any quality, the same in all, which we may call by the name of
beauty ?We shall not attempt to fathom this difficulty; indeed,
it could not be done, without entering upon a metaphysical discus.
sion, dry in detail, and uninteresting in result.
When we come to inquire in what female beauty consists, we
shall find that there is something which enters into it, beside phy-
sical goodness. It is not a mere matter of flesh and blood; but
color, form, expression, and grace, are all essential to its perfec-
tion. The two first have been called the body, the two latter, the
soul of beauty -- and without the soul, the body is but a mass of
deformed and inanimate matter:-
Mind, mind, alone ! bear witness earth and heaven,
The living fountains in itself contains
Of beauteous and sublime. Here, hand-in-hand.
Sit paramount the Graces. Here, enthroned
Celestial Venus, with divinest airs,
Invites the soul to never-failing joy."
AKENSIDB
Color and form are only beautiful, because they are expressive of
health, delicacy and softness, in the female sex. It has been re

APPENDIX
347
marked, that expression has greater power than either beauty or
form, as it is only the expression of the tender and kind passions
chat gives beauty; that all the cruel and unkind ones add to de
formity, and that on their account, good-nature may very properly
be said to be the est feature, even in the finest face. Modesty,
sensibility, ands eetness, blended together, so as either to enliven
or correct eacli her, give almost as much attraction as the pas-
sions are cap, e of adding to a very pretty face. It is owing to
this force of) usingness, which attends all the kinder passions,
that lovers n . only seen, but really are, more beautiful to each
other than to the rest of the world; and in their mutual presence
erd intercourse, says a French writer, there is a soul upon their
I puntenances, which does not appear when they are absent from
each other or even in company that lays a restraint upon their fea-
tures. Indeed, it will appear that all the ingredients of beauty ter.
minate in expression, and this may be, either perfection of the
body, or the qualities of the mind. Dr. Reid indeed goes so far as
to say, that beauty originally dwells in the moral and intellectual
perfections of mind, and in its active powers. Thus beauty may
be ascribed to all those qualities which are the natural objects of
love and kind affections, as the moral virtues, innocence, gentle-
ness, condescension, humanity, natural affections, and the whole
train of soft and gentle virtues — qualities amiable in their nature,
and on account of their moral worth. So also do intellectual tal
ents excite our love and esteem of those who possess them; these
are knowledge, good sense, wit, humor, cheerfulness, good taste
excellence in any of the fine arts — as music, painting, sculpture,
embroidery, &c. Thus, for example, the beauty of good breeding
is not originally in the external behavior in which it consists, but is
derived from the qualities of mind which it expresses; for it has
been well observed, that though there may be good breeding with-
out the amiable qualities of mind, its beauty is still derived from
what it naturally expresses.
Flaxman has truly said, that neither mind nor any one of its
qualities or powers, is an immediate object of perception to men
These are perceived through the medium of material objects, on
which their signatures are impressed. The signs of these qualities
are immediately perceived by the senses, and by them reflected to
the understanding; and we are apt to attribute to the sign, the
beauty which is properly and originally in the thing signified.
Thus, the invisible Creator hath stamped on his works signatures
of his divine wisdom, power, and benignity, which are visible to all

348
APPENDIX.
men. The works of men in science, in the arts of taste, and
in the mechanical arts, bear the signatures of those qualities
of mind which were employed in their production. Their ex-
t rnal behavior or conduct in life, expresses the good or bad
qualities of their minds. In every species of animals we perceive,
by visible signs, their instincts, appetites, affections, or sagacity;
and even in the inanimate world, there are many things analogous
to the qualities of mind; so that there is hardly anything belong.
ing to mind which may not be represented by images taken from
objects of sense; and, on the other hand, every object of sense is
beautiful, by borrowing attire from attributes of the mind. Thus,
the beauties of mind, though invisible in themselves, are perceived
in the objects of sense, in which their beauty is impressed. Thus,
also, in those qualities of sensible objects to which we ascribe
beauty, we discover in them some relation to mind, and the greatest
in those that are most beautiful. Every beauty in the vegetable
creation, of which we can form any rational judgment, expresses
some perfection in the object, or some wise contrivance in the
author. In the animal kingdom we perceive superior beauties, re.
sulting from liſe, sense, activity, various instincts and affections,
and, in many cases, great sagacity; which are attributes of mind,
and possess an original beauty. In their manner of life, we ob.
serve that they possess powers, outward forin, and inward struc-
ture, exactly adapted to it; and the more perfectly any individua.
is fitted for its end and manner of life, the greater is its beauty.
This, also, was manifestly Milton's theory of beauty; for, in his
unrivalled description of our first parents in Paradise, he derives
their beauty from those expressions of moral and intellectual
qualities which shone forth in their outward form and demeanor :-
“ Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall,
God-like erect! with native honor clad.
In naked majesty, seemed lords of all,
And worthy seemed, for, in their looks divine,
The image of their glorious Maker, shone
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude, severe and pure ;
Severe, but in true filial freedom placed,
Whence true authority in man; though both
Nut equal, as their sex not equal seemed,
For contemplation he, and valor formed,
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace."
From these remarks, it will appear that we do not regard novelty
alone as being the exciting cause of pleasurable emotions, and of

APPENDIX.
349
the consequent perception of beauty in the relation of things."
The beautiful, both in statuary and painting, we believe to depend
chiefly on the perfection with which the artist succeeds in expres.
sing the qualities of the mind, whether good or evil; and it is worthy
of notice, that Plato, in his Dialogues, declares that the good and
the beautiful are one and the same. Hence, the Greeks called the
beautiful KAAOL.
The influence of novelty has been so well illustrated in an Essay
by the author of a Treatise on Happiness, that we trust no apology
will be required for transferring a portion of it to our pages:-
"The term novelty applies to everything new - either newly
invented, or newly exhibited to us; in the former case the thing is
novel to the world, in the latter it is novel to ourselves. Novelty
powerfully influences the senses, the passions, and the manners of
human beings; it furnishes amusement, employment, and main-
tenance for man; it accompanies him in his progress through this
variable being, from the commencement of life to the period of
dissolution.
"Novelty may be either pleasing or unpleasing. When it affects
the senses by grateful infiuences, it occasions admiration and de-
light. How powerfully must the vision of Adam have been affect-
ed, when he was introduced to being ! Everything which he beheld
was new. There was drawn out before him, the plain, the fruitful
valley, the verdant hill. Shrubs and trees were distributed around
hin. Tlie earth was strewed with flowers: rivulets and rivers
diversified the scene
'Rolling on orient pearl, and sands of gold.'
The ocean, perhaps, was stretched out as a plain of silver in the
distant view; the heavens were robed in splendor; the sun shone
brilliantly. His own person - himself, was an inextricable mys-
tery. He could move; he could think ; he could behold the dis-
play of creation ; he could close his eyes, and exclude every im-
pression. All was new; and everything, he might naturally have
fancied, would remain the same; but, he was destined to behold a
series of novelties. In a short time, he saw the sun sinking below
the horizon. The heavens were adorned in their most splendid
robes, like the gorgeous display of an Eastern monarch. A shade
was cast over the valleys, and darkness began to gather among
the trees, while their tops and branches were still illumined in the
sunbeams. The shadows of evening are now gathered around
him; the twinkling stars adorn the heavens; but the beauties of

350
APPENDIX.
hill, vale, waters, trees, and flowers, are depar.ed! How sens bly
must he have been affected! He would now couc ude that his
future time must be spent in darkness; but he looks toward the
East, and across the wide expanse of waters he beholds a gleam
of light, which leads the eye to some great luminary, rising above
the horizon, to cheer the nightly solitude; and, as it mounts to
the zenith, new beauties delight the vision of this lonely and
astonished inhabitant of the earth. After a short period the moon
sinks, the sun rises in the heavens, and the same delightful scenery
is exhibited which was beheld the previous day.
"We can imagine the effect of novelty in producing admiration;
when travellers, who having been toiling for many days or weeks
on the burning sands of interminable deserts, come suddenly upon
some lovely valley, watered by cooling streams, shaded by groves
of trees, and beautified with clusters of flowers. Or, we can fancy
the pleasure which would be produced on wayworn voyagers,
who had been long toiling on the great deep and they come to
some blest isle,
- Where the voluptuous breeze
The peaceful native breathes, at eventide,
From nutmeg-groves, and bowers of cinnamon
To the infant everything is novel, and almost everything is a
source of admiration. The people who move to and fro; the
walls and furniture of the room; the fire and the candles; the
bustle and movement of men and carriages; the heavens, sunshine,
and rain. These occasion interest and surprise. Dr. Brown has
inquired, 'What metaphysician is there, however subtile and pro-
found in his analytical inquiries, and however successful in the
analyses which he has made, who vould not give all his past dis-
covery, and all his hopes of future discovery, for the certainty of
knowing, with exactness, what evr y infant feels?” But he would,
probably, meet with few who would sacrifice so much for the
purpose; and yet the feelings of an infant must be exceedingly
interesting.
“We can easily suppose the effect which would be produced on
a company of savages, if, in the midst of their woods, one of our
best military bands were to strike up a powerful strain of martial
music. At first they would sit motionless, or stand as statues ;
then look toward the place whence the sounds proceeded,
where they would behold a company of persons, in many-colored

APPENDIX
351
dresses, and splendid ornaments, with curious musical instruments,
dropped, as they would fancy from the clouds.
"But the effect of novelty may be painful; and this feeling will
be powerful in the same proportion as the circumstances are im-
portant and new. Suppose, for instance, a person who had been
trained in the ways of propriety and virtue were introduced, for
the first time, to a village-wake, or some such brutal holyday,
where he would behold bull-baiting and cock-fighting, boxing
and drunkenness; where he would listen to quarrelling and pro-
fane swearing; how would his feelings be shocked! He would
scarcely have fancied that a spot so small, on the surface of the
globe, could have exhibited so great a variety of wickedness.
“Or, we may imagine some one endowed with a delicate ear for
music, who had been accustomed to the practice of delightful
harmony, obliged, for the first time, to listen to the harsh scraping
of some barbarous laborer on the violin, or the useless attempts of
some tasteless practitioners to perform a piece of music! How
irksome and insufferable must such an ordeal be to a man of re-
finement; and how would its painſulness be increased by its
novelty !
“By the same rule, a person who may have been accustomed to
luxury and dainty food, but is obliged, for the first time, to feed
on loathsome bread and nauseous water, feels doubly the misery
of his condition. And thus the man who has been used to salubri.
ous air and grateful scents, will be the more effected by disgusting
smells.
“Novelty operates also in powerfully exciting the passions.
Suppose a general to be usually unfortunate in his combats with
the enemy, and his army to be consequently dispirited; hut, upon
some particular occasion, the favors of fortune and of Providence
are bestowed upon them, their efforts are successful, and the main
body of the enemy begin to waver, how would this inspirit them,
and brighten their courage! They would rush forward, uncon-
scious and careless of danger, and the foe must fly before such
umconquerable ardor!
"If a man who had lived in poverty, in dependance on others
for a subsistence, had constantly wished for independence and
comparative influence, and had endeavored to swim against the
stream of adversity but had never succeeded, and, all at once, a
handsome fortune were left to him, how would his eyes sparkle
with exultation ! If a person had been separated from his friends
and doomed to spend his days in the solitade of a foreign land,

352
APFENDIX.
and he met, unexpectedly, with some of his nearest and kindest
friends, how would his countenance beam with delight! The
novelty of the circumstance would increase the amount of his joy!
"A traveller in a foreign country would be exceedingly pleased
to discover some trinket which had been made in his native city;
and especially if he saw on it the name of an intimate friend as the
manufacturer. A toy, a dog, or a cat, under some circumstances,
has occasioned tears. A beautiful female has appeared more
lovely, when interesting events have introduced her to our notice;
and one who is not usually attractive, has appeared so, when
novelty has thrown its fascinations around her.
« The feeling of hope may be excited most powerfully by novel
and unexpected circumstances. When the mariner has been long
toiling in storms and dangers; when the heavens have been cover.
ed with darkness, and no information or guidance could be gained
from the stars or the sun, the tempest suddenly ceases, the cheer-
ing sunbeams break upon him, and he finds himself, unexpectedly,
near the haven where he would be - how does his heart exult with
hope, and the consciousness of security!
« The passions may be excited, also, in an unpleasing manner
the feeling of fear may be powerfully produced by novelty. Sup-
pose, for instance, a youth, who was trained in the ways of tran-
quillity and enjoyment, with a feeling heart for the sufferings of
others, to be brought, all at once, on the field of war and blood-
shed. Suppose him passing along some narrow defile, where the
distant scenes could scarcely affect him, and where he would
perceive only a din of discordant sounds. But, on a sudden, he
reaches the termination of the passage, and all the pomp, and
circumstance, and horror of war, are exhibited before him. Here
he beholds rank opposed to rank, in deadly conflict; troops of
horsemen butchering each other; forests of deadly weapons
gleaming in the sunbeams. Now he listens to the shouts of ric-
tors, the cries of the vanquished, the groans of the wounded and
dying; to the swelling notes of some musical band ; the discord-
ant sounds of the drum ; *he clashing of arms, and the shrill
clamor of trumpets; to the rattling of musketry and the roaring of
artillery! How would his heart sink within him at these nove]
scenes !
“ Novelty will also occasion surrow; as, when a man has been
accustomed to independence, and the comforts which wealth,
judiciously managed, may produce, and his riches are suddenly
swept away, he is reduced from affluence to dependance, from

APPENDIX.
353
comforts to privations. And when a person has been useu to the
society of pleasant friends, and these are removed by the hand of
death and the clay-cold body alone remains as the representative
of a cheerful and amiable companion, the novelty of this event
will occasion heartfelt sorrow.
“When those who have been accustomed to associate as faithful
friends; or, when a monarch has been surrounded by persons who
have pretended feelings of attachment, and evinced much hypo.
critical fidelity, and, all at once, the veil of deception has been
drawn aside, and an aspect has presented itself of a new and
treacherous kind, how powerful have been the feelings of abhor.
rence and anger !
“And when a person, who has been nurtured in the lap of ease
and comfort, and blessed with that best of all blessings (if it be
rightly managed), the gift of liberty, is torn from his home,
and his family, and his engagements, and carried into a land of
slavery, where he is laden with oppressive chains, and insulted by
a cruel task-master, with no chance of freedom, nor any ray of
happiness, how will his spirits sink, and how will the haggard
lineaments of despair be drawn on that countenance which was
formed for cheerfulness ! Or, suppose a person who was accus.
tomed to a dwelling in some verdant valley, undisturbed by storms
or the hazards of the sea; and he was introduced, for the first
time, to some of the most aggravated dangers of that boisterous
element. Suppose the winds were driving furiously over the
ocean, and the huge billows were breaking on the helpless bark,
while the darkness of the night was varied only by the gleam of
the lightning, which exhibited breakers, and rocks, and over.
hanging precipices, how would this new and dangerous condition
agitate his mind, and drive him to despair!
"Novelty influences the customs or habits of mankind. On
some occasions novel engagements are pleasing; and thus we
practise them again, and acquire a habit of performing them. For
instance, the citizen who has walked into the country as a novelty,
has been pleased with his ramble, and induced to practise it daily.
It sometimes occasions a progress in the arts; and thus the first
attempts at music, at painting, and at sculpture, have produced a.
pleasure which has stimulated the person to future and continued
tabors.
“Sometimes, when the first impression has been rather un-
pleasing, a custom has been acquired, because, afterward, it had
been found pleasing or advantageous. Thus there are many kinds

354
APPENDIX.
of food, which were originally ungrateful, but are now esteemed
delicious. Port wine is nauseous for a child, but it is pleasing to
the taste of a person who has been accustomed to it. Smoking,
the taking of snuff, and masticating of tobacco, with many other
useless and dirty customs, are not produced by the pleasing in.
fluence of novelty; but they are rather opposed to it. They arise
principally from the inclination of following injurious examples.
In some cases ladies have set their faces against such customs,
and have prohibited the practice among those who woull gain
their esteem: in other cases they have been more lenient, be cause
they have found that a flame of love may burn amid volumes of
smoke from cigars or tobacco-pipes. Novelty has occasioned a
sensation of unpleasantness, with regard to particular modes of
dress; but afterward these fashions have become necessary to our
comfort.
"In some instances, the very things which we commonly hate
most, become essential to our happiness. When Louis XVI.
ascended the throne of France, the doors of some of the dark cells
in the Bastile were opened, and the hapless residents were allow.
ed once more to breathe the pure air of heaven. Among the rest,
there was one man who had been immured for nearly fifty years
in a wretched cell, the area of which was so small as scarcely to
allow him room to move about; but, having a vigorous body and
a firm mind, he supported himself, until he had almost forgotten
the world in which he lived, having had no intercourse with any
one but the jailer, who brought him his daily food. When he
received the summons to depart, which seemed like a message in
a dream, he was astonished; but when he walked through the
spacious passages and the open courts, and saw the heavens ex-
tended above him, and the sun shining in his splendor, he was
overcome by his feelings. He could badly walk, and badly speak,
and he seemed as if he had entered a new world. He went into
the city, and found the street in which he had formerly lived, but
his friends were dead; there was no living being in the world that
knew him, and the poor man wept with sorrow. He was a stran-
ger in a strange country. He went to the minister who had given
him his freedom, and said : Sir, I can bear to die, but to live in a
world unknown and forlorn, the last human being of my race, is
insupportable; do, therefore, send me to my cell, that I may finish
my days there !' No blessing of Providence will be felt as a
benefit, unless it be possessed by a person for whom it is adapted.
"Impressions of a novel and pleasing kind soon lose their

APPENDIX.
353
attraction ; and thus the honors which are acquired by civil and
literary eininence, quickly fade away. They are like a beautiful
cloud in the heavens, or a dew-drop on a leaf, which glitters and
exhibits its beauties for a while, but the fervent sun absorbs both.
or, they are like a gaudy flower, which a man fixes in his bosom -
very lovely at first, but its attractions soon vanish. On the other
hand, painful occurrences leave but a faino impression. Although,
at first, a man may be bowed down with crouble, yet he will soon
regain an erect position and a smiling countenance. A few weeks
or months hide most of our sorrows from us ; and this is an emi.
nent proof of the wisdom and beneficence of the Deity: for the
general amount of human happiness is by this means more equally
divided. A state of elation is temporary, and so is a state of de.
pression, and thus, whether a man rises or sinks in worldly pos,
sessions and honors, although there will be some difference in the
amount of enjoyment, yet there will be much less than we are
generally disposed to imagine.
"A taste for novelty affects the engagements of society: it is
the source of fashion ; it gives labor to the mechanic, to the artist,
and to almost every man who obtains his maintenance by industry.
And thus there are new buildings, new vehicles, new machines,
and new methods of doing most things. There are dresses of
various kinds the result of ingenuity and taste. One thing is new
and attractive, but it soon becomes stale, and then we look for
something novel. Some kinds of food are scarce and costly:
these are approved by the great, but they become plentiful and
cheap, and then the rich man looks for something rare, some new
discovery in the art of cookery. The round of pleasures and
amusements is continually varying. Formerly the men, and even
the ladies, were delighted by exhibitions of combats among savage
beasts - lions, elephants, and tigers; they feasted their eyes on
the bloody combats of human beings with each other, or with bulls
and other furious animals. They attended dog-fights, cock-fights,
and other barbarous diversions. But the taste has become im.
proved; novelty has taken a praiseworthy direction : boxing,
wrestling, and other disgraceful exhibitions, are now transferred to
the vulgar and disreputable; many innocent amusements have
been introduced, and these also have been regulated by the
universal love of novelty. The same variety has existed in lan-
guage. A certain style of speech, and certain phrases, are fash
ionable in the best society; these are gradually introduced among
the lower ranks, and then the better classes look for someining

356
APPENDIX.
novel. Many words and phrases originally introduced for the
purpose of expressing things delicately, become vulgar: terms
which were primarily intended as a reproach become a designation
of honor, and those once deemed honorable become reproachful.
“The love of novelty occasions the great variety of tunes which
we possess, and the diversity of musical skill. A newly-construct.
ed instrument, a new or superior mode of performing on it and
the last new tune, are objects of universal attraction. The same
disposition arises with respect to books. Novelty has occasioned
all the variety which the history of literature exhibits, from the
bulky folio to the penny pamphlet, and the annual publication to
the daily newspaper: it has occasioned, also, in a great degree,
the multitude of opinions which have deluged the world. Some-
thing new, as the loungers of Athens demanded, has been the
requirement of the public in all ages. If it be new, it will be
attractive, and if pleasing or convenient, it will be embraced, and
then its strength and consistency will soon be deemed demon-
strated: but when the writers on the subject, and the readers of
those writings, become cool; when reason takes the place of
imagination, then the system will be often discovered to be de-
fective, the vapory fapric will fade away, and some other will
obtain its place. We are too frequently going round in our prog-
ress, rather than forward. In many respects we are not much
farther advanced than the ancients, and yet we ought to be, and
should be if we had pursued a direct course.
"But one of the most pleasing sources of novelty is that which
the Almighty has given us in the seasons of the year; and this
distinctly shows us that the love of novelty is not only natural, but
it is allowable and praiseworthy, if it be regulated by reason; for
the Great Creator himself indulges us in this respect. And thus
we have all the variety of summer and winter, of sultry and frosty
days, of clear and cloudy skies ; of the budding and blooming on
spring, and the richness and luxuriance of autumn; the breaking
forth of the sun in the morning, and the setting of that glorious
luminary; the light of the stars; the silvery splendor of the moon;
the glare of lightnings and meteors, the rolling of thunder, with
vapors, rain, hail, and snow.
16 The love of novelty is injurious only when it is carried beyond
what the Almighty intended; when it does not animate a person
to perform his necessary engagements, but carries him away from
them; when it makes him restless and wavering. Novelty ac
companies man in nfancy and in youth: it cheers and exalts him

APPENDIX.
357
in the changing scenes of manhood; and when we leave this earthly
sphere, and the soul bursts forth from its corporeal dwelling, it
will fly upward to regions of still greater novelty, and never-
lailing interest !”
D.
cerebellum, " the organ of volition," and, at page 145, he attributes
ideas, emotions, and passions, to the cerebrum, though he states
that acts of the will result from these. Now, if there is any truth
established, it is that the will is the result of the simultaneous ac.
tion of the higher intellectual powers, and supposes attention, re-
flection, comparison, and judgment, mental operations, which Mr
Walker himself attributes to the cerebrum. Gall has made it very
evident, that the will is not the impulse that results from the ac-
of a single organ, but the concurrent action of many of the
higher intellectual faculties - motives must be weighed, compared,
and judged, before there can be any will, or determination of mind.
The decision resulting from this determination, is called will. We
consider it then proved, that there is no particular organ of the
will. “Every fundamental faculty,” says Dr. Gall, “ accompanied
by a clear notion of its existence, and by reflection, is intellect or
organ; but reason supposes the concerted action of the higher fac-
ulties. It is the judgment pronounced by the higher intellectual
faculties. A single one of these, however, could not constitute rea
son, which is the compliment, the result of the simultaneous action
of al. the intellectual faculties. It is reason that distinguishes
man from the brute ; intellect they have in common to a certain
degree. There are many intelligent men, but few reasoning ones.
Nature produces an intelligent man; a happy organization, culti-
vated by experience and reflection, forms the reascning man."
Nearly all physiologists deserving of the name, are now united
in the opinion that the cerebellum is the organ of amativeness, as
well as concerned in the regulation of voluntary motion. “It is
impossible,” says Dr. Spurzheim," to unite a greater number of
proofs in demonstration of any natural truth than may be present-
ed to determine the funcion of the cerebellum." _"Mr. Scott,"
says George Combe, “in an excellent essay on the influence of

358
APPENDIX.
amàtiveness on the higher sentiments and intellect, observes that it
has been regarded by some individuals, as almost synonymous
with pollution; and the notion has been entertained, that it canno
be even approached without defilement. This mistake has origi-
nated from attention being directed too exclusively to the abuses of
the propensity. Like everything that forms part of the system of
nature, it bears the stamp of wisdom and excellence in itself, al-
though liable to abuse. It exerts a quiet but effectual influence in
the general intercourse between the sexes, giving rise in each to a
sort of kindly interest in all concerns the other. This disposition
to mutual kindness between the sexes, does not arise from benevo-
lence or adhesiveness, or any other sentiment or propensity alone;
because, if such were its sources, it would have an equal effect in
the intercourse of the individuals of each sex among themselves,
which it has not. In this quiet and unobtrusive state of the feel.
ing,' says Mr. Scott, there is nothing in the least gross or offen-
sive to the most sensitive delicacy. So far the contrary, that the
want of some feeling of this sort is required, wherever it appears,
as a very palpable defect, and a most unamiable trait in the char-
acter. It softens all the proud, irascible, and antisocial principles
of our nature, in everything which regards that sex which is the
object of it; and it increases the activity and force of all the kindly
and benevolent affections. This explains many facts which appear
in the mutual regards of the sexes toward each other. Men are,
generally speaking, more generous and kind, more benevolent and
charitable, toward women, than they are to men, or than women
are to one another. The abuses of this propensity are the sources
of innumerable evils in life; and as the organ and feeling exist,
and produce an influence on the mind, independently of external
communication, Dr. Spurzheim suggests the propriety of instructe
ing young persons in the consequences of its improper indulgence
as preferable to keeping them in a state of ignorance that may
provoke a fatal curiosity, compromising in the end their own and
their descendants' bodily and mental constitution."
It may be proper in this place, to point out some of the anatomi-
cal differences of the sexes more definitely than has been done by
Mr. Walker, as they are intimately connected with the form and
contour of the body, and must be understood to appreciate fully
the bearing of much that is laid down by our author :-

APPENDIX.
359
ANATOMICAL SEXUAL DIFFERENCES.
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM.
The stomach is the only portion of the alimentary canal which
presents sexual differences. It is larger, shorter, and broader, in
the male; smaller, narrower, and longer, in the female. Its
muscular coat, like that in the whole alimentary canal, is generally
also thinner in the female.
S OSSEOUS SYSTEM.
Ribs. — The ribs of the female are generally straighter than
those of the male. The posterior segment unites sooner with the
anterior; its curve differs less from that of the last, and disappears
sooner in the female; hence, the chest is narrower. The ribs are
usually thinner ; hence, the edges are sharper. Sometimes, how.
ever, this is far from being true. Their length is nearly the same;
but according to Mechel, the length of the two upper ribs is pro-
portionally, and when the subject is short, absolutely greater in
the female than in the male.
Clavicle. - The clavicle is generally straighter, and proportion-
ably smaller in the female than in the male. The greater straight
ness depends particularly on the lesser curve of its external portion,
while in man it extends far backward, and then comes forward.
The internal anterior half presents nearly the same curve in both
sexes. The clavicle of the female is rounder than that of the male ;
we however find clavicles of females perfectly like those of males,
and vice versa. Sometimes, of the two clavicles in the same body,
one is constructed in the type of the male, and the other in that of
the female.
Pelvis. --The chief points of difference between the male and
female skeleton, beside the disparity in the size and the greater
smoothness of the bones, lie in the pelvis. In the female this is
less strong and thick, and contains less osseous matter than that of
the male. In the female, the arch of the pubis is much the great.
est, and the long diameter of the brim of the pelvis is from side to
side ; in the male it is from before backward ; in the female, the
brim is more of the oval shape, in the male more triangular ; in the
female, the ilia are more distant; the tuberosities of the ischia are
also more remote from each other, and from the os coccygis, and as
these three points are farther apart, the notches between them are
consequently wider, and there is of necessity a considerably great.
er space between the os coccygis and pubis than in the male. The
female sacrum is broader and less curved than in the other sex

360
APPENDIX
The ligamentous cartilage at the symphysis pubis is broader and
shorter. In consequence of the cavity of the pelvis being wider in
woman, the superior articulations of their thigh bones are farther
removed from each other, which circumstance occasions their pe-
culiarity in walking; they seem to require a greater effort than
men to preserve the centre of gravity, when the leg is raised ;
owing to the greater length of the crural arch, there is less resist.
ance to the pressure of the abdominal viscera ; consequently fe-
males are more subject to femoral hernia than males. The angle
grees, whereas, in the female it is ninety degrees. The mean
height of the male, at the period of maturity, is about five feet
eight and a half inches, and that of the female about five feet five
inches; a well-formed pelvis has a circumference equal to one.
fourth of the height of the female.
ORGAN OF VOICE.
The larynx is one of the organs which presents most manifestiy
the differences of sex. That of the female is usually one third, and
sometimes one half smaller than that of the male: all its constitu-
ent cartilages are much thinner; the thyroid cartilage also is even
flatter, because its two lateral halves unite at a less acute angle.
part of the neck a prominence which is not visible in the female.
The glottis in the female is much smaller than in the male, and
the vocal cords are shorter. These sexual differences do not appear
till puberty ; until then the larynx has precisely the same form in
the two sexes, and consequently the voice is nearly the same in
both. In eunuchs it is small as in females.
PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF THE BEAUTY OF
FORM.
A very ingenious Physiological explanation of the beauty of
form, has been suggested by Professor B. T. Joslin, of the Uni-
versity of the city of New York, which is published in the Trans-
actions of the New York State Medical Society for 1836. As this
theory is characterized by great originality and genius, and but
little known, we shall present our readers with some extracts
from the Essay, calculated to elucidate the views of the talente:
author.
Speaking of material objects, not including the human form, Dr
J. remarks:-

APPENDIX.
361
« There is an objects a kind of beauty which is intrinsic and
physical, which belongs to them in every association, and whether
at rest or in motion ; such is the beauty of color, and that of con-
figuration. The contemplation of the beauty of coloring and of
form gives physical pleasure, i. e., physical as opposed to mental,
but physiological as opposed to physical. Employing physical in
its comprehensive sense, I say that this physical pleasure attending
vision is of two distinct kinds; 1st, that which depends on the
character of the impression on the retina, and consequently on the
intensity and nature of the light; and 2dly, that which depends
upon the form of the object, and, consequently, on the muscular
actions employed in tracing its outlines. As the latter constitutes
the proper subject of this essay, I shall dismiss the former with a
single remark.
“Some colors are more agreeable than others, but these differ
with different eyes, and with the nature of the color to which the
eyes have been previously exposed. A bluish green relieves the
eye when over-excited with red, and a mild red is agreeable after
the protracted action of intense green; and in general, the com.
plementary colors are most agreeable in succession. Again, it is
well known, that no kind of light is painful, unless excessively
vivid ; we are pleased with a mild radiance in objects of every hue,
from the whiteness of the moon to the crimson of the setting sun.
But is there no other physical property by which these luminaries
directly contribute to the gratification of taste? It is true that
light, abstractedly from all objects is agreeable, and agreeable on
the same principle that sweetness is to the taste, i. e., from the
mere character of the nervous impression. But this is a pleasure
nierely passive, and in an active being it is, perhaps, on that ac-
count, one grade lower than the gratification afforded by the
beauty of form, and is more allied to the gross pleasure of literal
taste. Hence, we scarcely employ a figurative expression, in de-
claring that light is sweet. But the highest degree of physical
gratification is not enjoyed by the cye, unless this agreeable ex.
citant proceeds from an object of beautiful form. “Light is
sweet,” but “it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun."
What is the source of this additional pleasure which we receive,
when light proceeds either by radiation or reflection from regular
curvilinear objects ?
"I shall offer what I believe to be an original and savisfactory
explanation of the beauty of form, on principles purely physiologi.
cal. It is based on the proposition, that the action of every muscle

362
APPENDIX.
is attended with a sensation which is at first agreeable, but
which, if the action is continued for a short time with intensity, and
without intermission, becomes painful. That there is pleasure
attending those varied motions which depend upon the actions of
different muscles in succession after intervals of rest in each, we
know from our own consciousness as well as from that instinctive
propensity to play which we observe in children and young animals.
That the prolonged action of a muscle is painſul, we may readily
convince ourselves by endeavoring to hold the arm for some time
at right angles with the erect trunk. With the arm in this posi-
tion, a pound weight on the hand or even the weight of the arm
itself becomes in a few minutes almost insupportable. We pre-
sently begin to feel pain in the shoulder and anterior part of the
arm, the former from fatigue of those muscles which originate
from the scapula and keep the os humeri elevated, and the latter
from fatigue of the muscles which originate from the scapula and
os humeri, whose muscular fibres are in front of the os humeri and
by their contraction elevate the fore-arm in consequence of their
tendinous attachment to its bones. Yet a man may labor all day
with his arms without this painful sensation; because a muscle
requires but a momentary rest, in order to regain that degree of
energy which is momentarily lost by action.
“None but an anatomist can duly appreciate the variety of
separate actions, on which depend the motions of a single limb,
and the consequently numerous opportunities of rest which the
muscles enjoy. To the superficial and unscientific observer, an
arm is an arm ; it is a single member which may be fatigued by a
day's work and recruited by a night's rest. But to the anatomist
the arm is a complex object, and its muscular energy is that of its
component muscles, each of which may be fatigued by a minute's
action and recruited by a minute's repose. It would be easy to
extend this farther, and state reasons for believing that the com
ponent fasciculi and fibres of an individual muscle act still more
transiently, and that their momentary and successive actions con-
stitute the action of a single muscle.
"But waiving this refinement, it will be sufficient for our pur-
pose to consider a single muscle as having a simple action, an ac-
tion which cannot be sustained with uniformity a minute of time
without actual pain, nor a second of time with positive pleasure.
This, however, is not to be understood as an attempt to fix these
limits with precision. To express the law in more general terms,
as we diminish he duration of a muscle's action we diminish tha

APPENDIX.
363
pain until we arrive at an action whose attendant sensation is
neutral, i. e., neither painful nor pleasurable; as soon as we have
passed that point and have begun to execute motions a little more
transient, the attendant sensation becomes positively pleasurable,
and the pleasure increases as the separate actions become more
transient. It is not necessary to infer that there is attending each
action of shorter duration a pleasure exceeding that which attends
each action of greater duration ; for the more transient actions
are, in a given time, more numerous; so that with the same amount
of pleasure for each muscular contraction, the amount of pleasu.
rable sensation in a given time — say a second — would exceed the
amount attending the less frequent and more prolonged actions in
the same period : a greater number of separate impressions be.
come-so to speak — crowded together and condensed, and thus
produce a more vivid pleasure. Several contiguous impressions
thus conspire to heighten the contemporaneous effect, inasmuch as
we are unable to distinguish those impressions which are made at
very short intervals on the muscular sense, any more than we are
those made at very short intervals on the retina. We have an ex.
ample of the latter in the familiar experiment of swinging a coal of
fire in a circle, and in various optical instruments for combining
3olors and images.
“The proposition which I have endeavored to establish is, that
there is a neutral point to which, if constant action is prolonged,
its pleasurable character begins to be reversed; that the vividness
of the sensation increases with the distance from this point, being
on the one side pleasurable, on the other painful; the more tran-
sient the actions are, the more pleasurable ; the more prolonged
they are, the more painful.
"I am of opinion that this physiological principle is susceptible
Df interesting applications to a class of pleasures, which metaphy
si sians have regarded as exclusively mental, and dependant upor
certain supposed ultimate principles of the constitution of mind,
principles not resolvable into others more elementary. As physi.
ology shall advance, it may be expected that many of these imagi.
nary elements will yield to its searching analysis. Whether the
writer has been so fortunate as to resolve any of the generally ade
mitted elements of mental taste, the reader will be able to judge
from the sequel.
As preparatory to the consideration of the beauty of form, it
will be necessary to give an explanation of the gracefulness of
notion. Althoug£ this has been vaguely and in part referred to

364
APPENDIX.
case of execution, yet, the physiological principle on which easa
of execution depends, not having been clearly understood and dis-
tinctly stated, the gracefulness of all motions could not be referred
to their true source. Thus, writers on taste have been under the
necessity of admitting, as a distinct and independent source of
gracefulness, the curvilinear direction of motions, and have been
able to generalize this fact no farther than by referring it to the
beauty of curved forms, which beauty was considered an ultimate
fact. In applying the principles above developed, to the explana-
tion if the pleasure or pain attending the contemplation of particu.
lar ino.cons, we shall defer for the present the investigation of the
intrinsic beauty of curved motions, which is the same as that of
curved lines, and assume that in general those motions which are
physically pleasurable to the agent are agreeable to the observer
The pleasure or pain of the agent will engage the sympathy of the
observer; for he associates the observed action with his own ex-
perience. To make a single application, suppose a public speaker
extend his arm horizontally and move it slowly in a horizontal po.
sition, through one third of a circle. This motion would not ap-
pear graceful. That it would not be performed with perfect ease,
any one might prove by experiment. The principal difficulty is in
preserving for a long time the horizontal position.”
"In the crdinary state of the muscular system, and within certain
limits, the motion of the eye in any direction is pleasurable.
of a line will, to a certain extent and for a certain time, afford some
degree of positive pleasure ; in other words, any short line will
possess some degree of positive beauty, and the infant becomes
conscious of an emotion of which he was previously ignorant -
the emotion of beauty of form. A point awakens no such emotion;
it never wil.; it can possess no beauty. It must be recollected,
that this has been restricted to minute points of inappreciable
form. Circular dots will be considered under the head of figures.
on which it is placed, may afford that kind of ocular pleasure
which is foreign to the present inquiry.
“From points as compared with lines, we naturally proceed to
lincs as compared with each other.
“When the head is erect, in examining a straight horizontai line
we employ one of the lateral recti; if the line be vertical we cm.
ploy the rectus inferior or superior. In either case, but one muscle
acts, and that continuously. The muscle is not relieved, and its

APPENDIX.
366
action is not attended with the maximum amount of pleasurable
sensation. When the vision has been extended along the whole
line, if we then immediately proceed to examine it in the opposite
direction, the opposite rectus must at one exert a force sufficient to
overcome the momentum of the eyeball, and then exert a continu-
ous action. Both these circumstances are unfavorable to pleasure.
If the line is oblique, one lateral together with one inſerior or one
superior muscle is exerted, and the same principles which have
been applied to the single muscles, apply to the muscles acting in
pairs.
" The Beauty of Curved Lines. — As from the foregoing analy.
sis of the vision of straight lines in general, it results that they are
deficient in the elements of ocular agreeableness, in other words,
of beauty; little more need be said of regular and gentle curves.
than that the survey of them is not attended with the abovemen-
tioned disadvantages. In viewing a regular curve, no muscle of
the eyeball acts continuously and uniformly, but enjoys partial re-
lief by remissions, or total relief by intermissions of its action ; and
the regularity of these remissions and intermissions, as well as the
equal distribution of exercise, is promoted by the regularity of the
curve. Acting in succession, the muscles afford mutual relief after
actions of such short duration and variable intensity, as to afford
positive pleasure ; and in this muscular pleasure of the eye con-
sists the beauty of configuration.
6 The successive and accurate survey of distant points is not,
however, invariably requisite to a degree of similar pleasure, in
viewing a figure of such small angular extent as to be instantly
recognised by one location of its image, as analogous to a larger one
whose survey has directly afforded muscular pleasure. Although
I thus recognise the influence of association, the facts of this very
case afford an interesting confirmation of the physiological theory;
for a large circle or ellipse is more beautiful than one of diminu.
tive size. The beauty of the one is original, its influence is direct;
the beauty of the other is in part borrowed, and this part is weak.
ened by reflection. Or, to express it more literally, the one ex-
cites a pleasurable sensation, the other suggests a similar idea;
che one affords a perception, the other a conception, of beauty.
Such, even with similar color and brilliancy, would be the differenco
between the full moon and a circular dot () or period ; such the
difference between a rainbow and a diminutive arc (-), a short
accent inverted. Here the critic might be inclined to charge ug
with confounding the beautiful with the sublime But the fact is

366
APPENDIX.
that criticism has constructed the sublime - as it has the beauti-
ful -- from heterogeneous materials, one of which is identical with
one of the elements of beauty, and should, in a physiological ar.
rangement, be referred to the same class. In many instances a
magnifying instrument will disclose minute irregularities and blem.
ishes; but in every other case, physiology would show, that, with-
in certain limits, to magnify a beautiful object is to magnify beauty.
"The foregoing statements of general principles preclude the
necessity of minute details in relation to particular curves. I shall
at present consider those which do not return into themse_ves, so
as to constitute the outlines of figures in the geometrical sense.
Let us first select a semi-circumference, for example, that of a
rainbow of maximum dimensions. In tracing it once, we employ
three out of the four muscles. They are brought into action suc-
cessively and rapidly, but not abruptly. All these circumstances
are favorable to pleasure. Yet they are not conducive to it in the
highest possible degree; for each muscle acts only once unless the
examination be repeated; and in case of its repetition, the momen-
tum of the eyeball is destroyed in stopping and reversing its mo.
tion. The waving line, as Hogarth's line of beauty, obviates the
first difficulty. This ensures not only the suocessive action of dif-
ferent muscles, but a repetition of action in the same. If the line
tional to the number of waves, and will alternately and totally re-
lieve, at least two muscles, and allow, in the action of a third,
regular remissions of intensity at equal intervals. We have proved
then, that on this physiological theory, a semi-circumference pos-
sesses more of the elements of beauty than any straight line, and a
regular-waved line more than either. These results are conforma-
ble to experience. If there is any difficulty in admitting this, it will
vanish on comparing the ocular with other muscles.
os Let us select a joint, which, in its spherical form, and the cir.
cular arrangement of its muscles, is analogous to the eye; for ex.
ample, the shoulder joint. I think it will be uniformly found, that
in the use of this joint, the curves most readily traced, are those
of gentle and nearly equal curvature, and being such as are most
easily traced by the eye, they would appear more beautiful than
those drawn by the fingers with the same education. For example,
with a light stick or cane on the surface of snow: the lines most
easily drawn (or most easily traced if already drawn), will be
curves of considerable beauty, and nearly equal curvature ; such

APPENDIX.
367
as wared lines and spirals and looped curves. Circles and ellipses
would also be among the figures with most facility and precision
at present considering figures in the proper geometrical sense of
the term. In writing letters by the above method, a succession of
fe's, would be more readily drawn than a succession of 'i's, or a
zigzag line with acute angles.
figures, the component lines of the figures should be as beautiful
as the terminated lines with which they are compared. With this
precaution, physiology will conduct to the conclusion, that figures
are more beautiful than terminated lines. For the survey of any
figure requires the successive action of all these ocular muscles,
and a repeated survey requires no reversal of the motion.
"We may apply the same principles to figures as compared with
each other. Here we shall find the advantage on the side of those
which are geometrically regular. We perceive that the circle and
ellipse must possess in great perfection the essentials of beauty.
“From figures, the transition is natural and easy to solids or
bodies of three dimensions. The form of a body depends on those
of all its faces and sections; and these last are plane figures.
The elliptical sections of a regular spheroid are all highly beauti.
ful, but its sections are not all elliptical. Unless the spheroid be
in certain positions, the sphere possesses still higher beauty, as
presenting the same circular and highly beautiful outline in every
position ; although a variety of positions is not essential to the
perception of its peculiar beauty, whenever the observer has
learned by different methods, and especially by different degrees
of convergence of the two optic axes, to estimate the relative dis.
tances of the different points of the visible hemisphere, and thus
to recognise the spherical form. I will only add, from the anaıy.
sis of the beauty of the circle it is evident, that within certain
limits, to magnify a sphere is to magnify its beauty.
"The relative beauty of the sphere and spheroid, and of the
spheroid as compared with itself in different positions, is modified
by symmetry. The principle of symmetry, is in some measure
distinct from any other heretofore considered. It may be treated
under the heads of 1st, geometrical symmetry, or symmetry of
form; 2d, of symmetry of position.
“Symmetry of form, though implied in geometrical regularity,
is not identical with it, and requires a separate consideration. The
beauty of forms geometrically symmetrical, in contradistinction
17

368
APPENDIX.
from those deficient in the correspondence of opposite halves Je
pends upon two similar series of actions in different pairs or
muscles. For example, the survey of an ovate leaf, or indeed
that of almost any vegetable leaf – so numerous are the provisions
for our gratification - requires for its opposite halves two series of
muscular actions, the different parts of the one corresponding
with those of the other in duration, intensity, and order of suc-
cession. The gratification in this case results from the harmony
of muscular sensations individually pleasurable. The agreeable-
ness of this harmony may depend upon a principle more psycolon
gical than that of the agreeableness of its elementary sensations.
Yet the former is to a certain extent susceptible of a physiological
generalization. This harmony would probably have been impaired
by any considerable inequality in the distances between the points
of insertion of the recti muscles, or in the strength of the antag.
onists. It is a curious coincidence, that in both these respects, these
muscles are more nearly symmetrical than any others in the hu-
man body. Physiology, then, explains, not only the agreeableness
of the elementary sensations, which give rise to the perception of
beauty in regular curves, but unfolds the provisions for two similar
series of such sensations, not only in figures simply regular, but in
those which are simply symmetrical, and in those which are both
symmetrical and regular. The principles of muscular action ex.
plain the agreeableness of a rapid succession of varied actions
equally distributed among the muscles, and the structure of the
optical apparatus explains why the curvature and regularity of an
object require such actions in vision. Again, we discover in the
symmetrical structure and arrangement of the ocular muscles, a
provision for two similar series of pleasurable sensations in the
survey of a symmetrical figure, in whatever position it may be
placed, provided it retains its symmetry with respect to some
visual plane. The coincidence between the location of the ocular
muscles diametrically opposite, on the one hand, and our propen-
sity to compare the opposite haives of bodies, and the pleasure
afforded by their similarity on the other hand, is curious, and to a
certain extent affords a physiological explanation of the beauty of
symmetrical forms.
66 The same principles which apply to the beauty of form of
inanimate objects are applicable to the paths described by them
in motion. The intrinsic beauty of their motions is exclusively
referrible to sensations in the ocular muscles of the observer

APPENDIX.
369
while the gracefulness of human motions is referrible in part to
these, and in part to sensations in other muscles.
“It would be foreign to the subject of the present menioir, to
consider the beauty of expression of the human countenance; al.
though this species of beauty is in a great degree referriile to mus.
cular action. That muscular action which belongs to the present
topic is not that of the object, but that of the observer. It may
be scarcely necessary again to disclaim any design of giving a
complete analysis of beauty in general, or to repeat the concession
that man's notions of beauty are modified by various associations.
« Final Cause.-The benevolence of the Autho: of nature is stri.
kingly manifested in connecting present pleasure with obedience to
the natural laws. It has been shown that vision is attended with
quired no muscular action, we should have wanted one of our
present stimuli to the acquisition of knowledge. This stimnlus is
especially necessary in infancy, and then powerfully prompts to
observation, even anterior to the dawnings of intellectual curiosity,
ment, the exemplification of a principle which extensively pervades
the laws under which we are placed by the Creator - which is,
that mental attainments, as well as other acquisitions, shall re-
quire action; and that action shall be attended with pleasure.
Whether the acquisition is to be made by the manual labor of the
artisan, by the manipulations of the artist, the chymist, or the ex.
perimental philosopher, by the sedentary student of books, or by
the observer of natural phenomena in his original survey of the
universe - in every case it is muscular action.
"This application to natural theology, has thus far had reference
to that degree of intrinsic agreeableness which is common to forms
in general. But the laws of nature specially tend to the production of
curved, regular, and symmetrical objects and motions, in inorganic
vegetable and animal bodies; and impose the necessity of similar
forms in artificial structures. With a different structure and ar-
rangement of the ocular muscles, those forms peculiarly condu.
cive to our welfare and that of the universe, had possessed no
peculiar attractions; and we had felt no special inpulse of this
kind to conform our own artificial structures to those laws of na-
ture, or to investigate many of the most important works of the
Creator. Yet neither gravity or any other law of the external
world could have determined the peculiar formation of the mus.
cles of the human eye. We must, therefore, refer their actual

370
APPENDIX
structure and location to that Being who gives to the objects of
his creative power, and to the principles by which he governs them,
such a mutual adaptation as conduces to the greatest achierable
good. Thus, while muscular pleasure originally prompts to the
observation of the Creator's works, this observation is rewarded and
subsequently prompted by a pleasure of an incomparably higher
oraer, of a character purely mental, by the discovery of moral
beauty, which in rank and refinement surpasses all others. Still,
the muscular pleasure of the eye strongly incites to the examina-
tion of the numberless forms of beauty in the organic and inorgan.
ic kingdoms, such as the symmetrical leaf, the bending bough, the
symmetry of the tree itself that of inferior animals, and of the
human form. Or we may extend our view to the circular or undu-
lating horizon, the apparent limits of the apparently round world;
or we may elevate the eyes to the arched dome of the firmament,
on which the arches of the iris and aurora occasionally confer ad-
ditional beauty. Or with the telescope we may pierce this appa-
rent limit of upward vision, and discover beyond it a universe of
spherical and spheroidal worlds, revolving in circular and elliptical
orbits, worlds and orbits which present, even in our diminutive
diagrams, a high order of beauty, designed to incite us to the con-
templation of these most magnificent works of the Creator.
"All this beauty had been lost to man, but for the property of the
eye, which, on a superficial reflection, might seem a defect. It is
no less true than paradoxical, that the perception of these beauties
depends on indistinctness of vision. To a being so constituted as
to see with equal distinctness by oblique and direct vision, the same
forms might be presented, but not as forms of beauty. Has the
Creator, then, sacrificed a portion of our perceptive powers to our
sensual gratification? I answer no. Has he, then, sacrificed a por.
tion of our direct means of acquiring knowledge, to afford an in-
citement which should ultimately and indirectly enhance our ar-
tainments? Again I am compelled to answer in the negative.
There is, in this arrangement, no intellectual sacrifice whatever,
direct or indirect. This indistinctness of oblique vision, which
might seem a defect, I consider an excellence. A simultaneous and
distinct impression received from the whole field of vision, would
distract the attention and preclude a minute and accurate examina.
tion of any particular part. But as our eyes are so constiinted as
to receive a strong and distinct impression only from the images
of those objects toward which their axes are directed, and as our
minds are so constituted that we can in a great measure neglect

PPENDIX.
371
the weaker or less distinct impressions, we are able to acquire a
more exact knowledge of any part of the field to which we choose
to attend. To see everything at once, would be to examine nothing.
Such a constitution of the eye would be to vision what an idis.
criminating memory is to the understanding.
E.
STANDARD OF BEAUTY.
To show that the sentiments of mankind with regard to female
beauty, have been very various in different ages and nations, and
that it is not possible to establish a standard which shall compre.
hend all, without discriminations, a few facts may be mentioned.
Among the ancients, a small forehead and joined eyebrows were
much admired in a female countenance; and in Persia, large
joined eyebrows are still highly esteemed. In some parts of
Asia, black teeth and white hair, are essential ingredients in the
character of a beauty; and in the Marian Islands, it is customary
among the ladies to blacken their teeth with herbs, and to black
their hair with certain liquors. Beauty, in China and Japan, is
composed of a large countenance, small, and half-concealed eyes,
a broad nose, little and useless feet, and a prominent belly. The
Flat-head Indians compress the heads of their children between
two boards, with a view to enlarge and beautify the face; some
tribes compress the head laterally; others depress the crown, and
others make the head as round as possible. “The Moors of
Africa," says Park, "have singular ideas of female perfection;
the gracefulness of figure and motion, and a countenance enlivened
by expression, are by no means operative points in their standard;
with them corpulency and beauty are terins nearly synonymous.
Or women of eren moderate pretensions, must be one who cannot
walk without a slave under each arm to support her, and a perfect
beauty is a load for a camel. In consequence of this prevalent
taste for uwieldiness of hulk, the Moorish ladies take great pains
to acquire it early in life, and for this purpose many of the young
girls are compelled by their mothers to swallow a great quantity
of kouskous, and drink a large bowl of camel's milk every morn.
ing. It is of no importance whether the girl has an appetite or
ni, the kouskous and milk must be swallowed, and obedienca is

372
APPENDIX.
frequently enforced by blows. I have seen a poor girl sit crying
with the bowl at her lips for more than an hour, and her mother
with a stick in her hand watching her all the while, and using the
stick without mercy whenever she observed that her daughter wat
not swallowing. This singular practice, instead of producing in.
digestion and disease, soon covers the young lady with that degree
of plumpness, which in the eye of a Moor, is perfection itself.”
These facts show that every nation almost has ideas of beauty
peculiar to itself; and it is no less evident that nearly every in.
dividual has his own notions and taste concerning it. "The em-
pire of beauty, however," says a writer already quoted, " amid
these discordant ideas, with respect to the qualities in which it
consists, has been very generally acknowledged, and particularly
in all civilized countries; and when it is united with other accom-
plishments that tend to render females amiable, it contributes in no
small degree, to give them importance and influence, to polish the
manners of society, and to contribute to its order and happiness.”
TEMPERAMENT
The views of Mr. Walker in relation to Temperaments, corre.
spond with those usually entertained by physiological writers. It
is to be observed, however, that they rarely occur simple in any in-
dividual, two or more being generally combined. The bilious and
nervous, for example, is a common combination, which gives
strength and activity; the lymphatic and nervous, is also common,
and produces sensitive delicacy of mental constitution, conjoined
with indolence. The nervous and sanguine combined, give extreme
vivacity, but without corresponding vigor. Dr. Thomas of Paris,
has advanced the following theory of the temperaments: When
the digestive organs, filling the abdominal cavity, are large, and
the lungs and brain small, the individual is lymphatic; he is fond
of feeding, and averse to mental and muscular exertion When
the heart and lungs are large, and the brain and abdomen small,
the individual is sanguine ; blood abounds, and is propelled with
vigor; he is therefore fond of muscular exercise, but averse to
thought When the brain is large, and the abdominal and thoracic
viscera small, great mental energy is the consequence. These

APPENDIX.
373
proportions may be combined in great varieties, and modified re.
sults will ensue. Mr. Combe, in his late lectures in this city,
laid great stress on the relative size of the three great visceral
cavities, in determining the temperament. Thus, if the abdominal
and thoracic cavities be small, and the cranial cavity large, the
nervous temperament is indicated. If the abdomen and scull be
comparatively small, and the chest large, the sanguine tempera.
ment is indicated. The predominance of the abdominal cavity in-
dicates the lymphatic temperament. Mr. C. also pointed out the
important changes produced in the temperament by a long con-
tinued course of training. It is common for the bilious, to be
changed into the nervous temperament, by habits of mental ac-
tivity, and close study; and, on the other hand, we often see the
nervous or bilious changed into the lymphatic about the age of 40,
when the nutritive system seems to acquire the preponderance
Spurzheim used to say, that he had originally a large portion of
the lymphatic temperament, as had all his family; but that in
himself the lymphatic had gradually diminished, and the nervous
gradually increased ; whereas, in his sisters, owing to mental in-
activity, the reverse had happened, and when he visited them,
after being absent inany years, he found them, to use his own ex.
pression, "as large as tuns.” The subject of temperament has
been treated with consummate ability by Dr. Charles Caldwell of
Kentucky; and as his essay is but little known, we shall present
some extracts from it. It will be seen that his views bear a close
resemblance to those of Dr. Thomas, already mentioned; but Dr.
C. has shown that they were publicly maintained by him, at least
two years before the appearance of Dr. Thomas's work.† After
explaining the doctrine of the temperaments, as taught by the
ancients, and showing that it is founded on the exploded hypothesis
of humoralism, Dr. C. goes on to show, that it is the solids of the
body which make man what he is ; that they form the fluids, and
give them their character; that they are, in short, the cause, and
the fluids the effect.
“ The difference," says Dr. C., “between individuals, or rather
classes, of the human family, which temperament is made to desig.
nate, appears to depend on two causes; diversity of organization
* Combe's Phrenology.
+ Physiologie des Temperamens on Constitutions. Paris, 1826.

374
APPENDIX.
in parts or the whole of the bodies of different persons giving
rise to a corresponding diversity in the vital properties; and
difference of size and vigor in certain ruling organs of the system,
The existence and influence of the former of these causes are in the
highest degree probable; those of the latter certain. The one is
susceptible of strong support, the other of proof that may be term-
ed positive. By organization' is here meant, the minute interior
or radical structure of the tissues which compose the human body.
Tha: diversity in this creates a diversity in the vital properties,
and that again a diversity in character, cannot I think be doubted.
Whether the difference of organization here referred to, consists in
different proportions of the element of living matter that form the
tissues, united in the same way, or in their different modes of ar-
rangement and union, or both, or whether it may not arise in part
from different proportions of the simpler tissues entering into the
formation of the more compound organs, is not known. Minute
anatomy has not yet attained a degree of perfection competent to
settle a point of such subtility."
Dr. C. afterward goes on to prove that no single nerve, or
organ, can perform two distinct functions, but that each is capable
of one mode of action, and no more; that between a nerve, a
muscle, and a gland, the only difference known to exist, is that of
organization, and that if they are organized alike, and endowed
with life, their properties will be similar, and they will act in the
same way. So also between animals of the same race, we dis.
cover innumerable differences, which can be referred to nothing
but differences in organization, and the same may be affirmed 01
vegetables. The conclusion to which Dr. C. arrives, and which he
maintains with great ingenuity is, that independently of all other
causes, differences in human temperament are to be attributed, in
part, to corresponding differences in the organization of certain
portions, or the whole of the body; and that, other things being
equal, in consequence of this source of influence alone, one person
differs from another in many of the qualities of both person and
intellect. In other words, he is more highly gifted, sprightly, and
vigorous, or the reverse; or he is more courageous or tind, gen.
erous or selfish, according to his organization.
But the second cause that was represented to be instrumental
in diversifying the human temperaments is by ar the most power-
lui. It will be remernbered to have been, difference of size and
vigor in certain ruling organs of the system. The organs alludeid
ho are those contained in the three great cavities of the body; the

APPENDIX
375
chylopoetic, situated in the abdomen, ard including the stoinach
and intestines, with the liver, pancreas, mesentery, and lacteals;
those of sanguification and circulation, situated in the thorax, and
consisting of the lungs, heart, and blood vessels; and the brain,
with its appendages, the spinal cord and nerves. These three
groups (for the brain is multiplex as well as the other two) are
not only the ruling organs in the person of man; connected with
the hard and soft parts that enclose them, they constitute the per.
son. The upper and lower extremities are but appendages; im-
portant and necessary, it must be acknowledged ; but still appen.
dages. The individual can exist and be a human being without
them. Nor have they any influence in imparting constitutional
character to their possessors. Standing only in the capacity of
subordinates to the controlling organs, they are not only nourished
and put in motion by them; they labor mechanically for their
uses, and serve as instruments to execute their purposes. They
are composed of the extreme ends of the organized matter of the
system, constitute only its outworks, and possess but little influ-
ence over its central parts. This representation rests on evidence
that may be termed demonstrative. Many persons destitute of
the upper or lower extremities, or both, have strong characters and
well-marked temperaments. But the extremities, if deprived of
the influence of any one group of the ruling organs, are converted
not only into useless but lifeless masses. Of the skin, muscles,
and bones, which compose the head, neck, and trunk of the body,
the same is true. Of themselves they possess no character, and
can therefore bestow none. They also are but appendages to the
organs they cover, affording them a secure lodgment and protec.
tion from external injuries, and aiding them in the performance of
some of their functions. And from this alone is their importance
derived. Were it possible for them to exist apart from the viscera
they contain, their grade of being would be below that of many
vegetables. Most fatal diseases, moreover, have their original
seat in the viscera of one of the three great cavities of the body,
and no disease originating elsewhere can become fatal, until, by
sympathy or metastasis, some of those parts are deeply affected.
To enlightened physiologists this statement presents but a series
of familiar truths. To the groups of organs exclusively, then, I
repeat, contained in the abdomen, the thorax, and the cranium,
must we look as the main source of human character. And that
character is different according to the predominance, in different
individuals, of one group or another, or of any two of them. An

376
APPENDIX.
equilibrium between the three groups constitutes another variety,
by bestowing on character a corresponding equilibrium. Let the
word temperament be substituted for character, and what is
true of the latter will be so of the former. As already mentioned,
the organs referred to will be its source; and the differences in
their predominance will give diversity to it."
Dr. C. then shows that the strength and perfection of each of
the senses are proportioned to the size of the nerve on which that
sense depends. This is illustrated by a powerful array of facts,
drawn from different orders of the animal kingdom, as well as
from the different varieties of mankind. It is also stated, that
where any nerve or set of nerves, is peculiarly large, the portion
of the brain to which they belong, and by which they are influenced
and commanded, is correspondingly large.
"Inasmuch, then, as, other things being equal, size gives power
to everything else, we are not only justified in believing, on
grounds of analogy we are compelled to believe, that the same is
true of the organs contained in the cranium, the thorax, and the
abdomen. When they are in a sound and natural condition, their
size is also the measure of their power. Were not this the case,
they would be either altogether abnormal, or subject to laws that
govern no other kind of matter, whether organie or inorganic, of
er organic or inorganic, of
which we have any knowledge. But the position I am contending
for is not to be regarded as a mere inference in a process of rea.
soning. It will appear hereafter that it is a positive fact, which
observation has discovered, and continues to confirm.
I have alleged that the size of the three groups of ruling organs
may be ascertained by that of the cases in which they are contain.
ed. Nor do I perceive on what ground any one, who is even mod-
erately acquainted with the structure of the human body, can con.
trovert the belief, or cherish the slightest doubt on the subject of
it. In healthy persons (and my remarks relate only to such) the
size of the brain is necessarily known by that of the head. As the
viscus completely fills the cranium, the case cannot be otherwise.
Although the bones of the head and the soft parts that cover them
are thicker in some individuals than in others, the difference is so
small as not materially to affect the result. The chest is filled by
thie lungs, heart, and large blood vessels. Its measure, therefore,
cannot fail to be the measure of them. Any deviation from exact.
ness in this, that may be produced by varieties in the thickness of
the skin, muscles, and other parts, is of no moment. Of the chylo
poetic viscera the same is true. They also fill exactly the cavity

APPENDIX.
377
prepared for them. The size of the abdomen, therefore, affords a
knowledge of their size sufficiently accurate for all practical pur-
lute measure of the groups of organs I am considering, as well as
their magnitude in relation to each other, can be fairly ascertained.
And it will appear on examination, as already stated, that the pre-
dominance in size and energy of any one or two of them, always
imparts a corresponding diversity to the human character. Does
the brain predominate? the individual to whom it belongs is more
remarkable for the vigor of his intellect or feeling, or both, than
for any other constitutional quality. These modes of mental mani.
festation constitute the natural functions of the brain ; and when
of an order unusually high, they give a peculiarity of charac-
ter to the whole system. The person thus endowed feels more
keenly, thinks more strongly, is more eager in pursuit of knowl.
edge, and attains it with more facility. His relish for pleasure is
also inordinately keen, and he pursues it at times with burning ar-
dor. Such was the constitutional character of Mr. Fox, and also
of our distinguished countryman the late Mr. Bayard. I need
scarcely add, that this predominance of sensibility and mental ac.
tain. But of this I shall speak hereafter. Do the lungs, heart, and
bloodvessels predominate? A larger volume of highly arterialized
blood is formed, and thrown more forcibly and in greater quanti-
ties throughout the system. From the abundance of that fluid,
and the superior size of the vessels conveying it, those parts of the
body nourished by the red blood will be comparatively most copi.
Jusly supplied. But it is more especially the muscles that are thus
nourished. They will be therefore large and powerful. Hence
persons with broad and full chests have well-developed and vigorous
inuscles. In proportion to their size their animal strength is neces.
sarily great. Nor can such constitutional peculiarities fail to be pro-
ductive of peculiarities in disease? Do the chyiopoetic viscera pre.
dominate? The amount of chyle formed is very large in propor.
tion to the quantity of food eaten. But the lungs, heart, and blood.
vessels being comparatively small, neither is sanguification abun.
dant and perfect nor circulation vigorous. The blood is not either
highly arterialized or animalzed. Its amount of red globules is.
small, and it circulates feebly through vessels of a limited size.
The consequence is, that the muscles receive less red blood, and
are less fully nourished; the system at large is not so highly en
Ared with life, and the soft parts generally have a lower tone. The

378
APPENDIX
individual thus marked is less robust and vigorous than one whose
system is supplied abundantly with highly arterialized blood, and
less intellectual and sprightly than those whose brain predomi.
nates. It is almost needless to say, that, under such circumstan.
ces, disease must be modified in conformity to the constitution.
“From the preceding views it clearly appears, that the compara-
tive standing of individual man, as relates to his race, is graduated
by the predominance of his leading organs. Do his abdominal vis-
cera preponderate? He has much of the animal in him, and his
grade is low. Are his thoracic viscera most highly developed ? His
qualities are of a superior order ; but he still partakes too much of
the animal. Does his cerebral system predominate ; and is it well
developed in all its parts? He rises above the sphere of animal
nature, and stands high in that of humanity. He is formed for an
intellectual and moral being, with no more of animality in his
constitution, than is necessary to give him practical energy of
character.
"This subject may be farther illustrated by a reference to some
of the animals below us. The worm commonly denominated a
grub is but little else than a mass of abdominal matter. It is there.
fore one of the humblest and grossest of worms. The insect has
also a large abdomen, with a very small chest, and a smaller head.
Hence, though superior to the grub, it is low in the scale of animal
nature. Reptiles and fish are more elevated, because their ab-
dominal viscera preponderate less. But still they do preponderate;
and therefore the rank of the animals is humble. In the hog the
abdominal viscera are most strongly developed, and hence his
standing among quadrupeds is low. The same is true of the bear
and the ox, and also of the sheep and the goat, but in an inferior
degree. The horse, especially the barb and the racehorse, furnish
no bad specimens of the mixed or balanced temperament. When
the latter is undergoing preparation for the course, the object of
his keeper is to make the thoracic temperament preponderate as
much as possible, for the time, in order to increase his vigor and
endurance; in the language of the turf, to give him more strength
and better bottom. The warhorse approaches the thoracic tem.
nerament. In the canine race, more especially in the greyhound,
the thoracic viscera hold the ascendency. Hence the muscular
power of the dog is greater, and his grade among quadrupeds
higher than those of most of the preceding animals. The same
is true of the wolf, the panther, and the tiger. In some dogs there
is a considerable cerebral deve.opment, but i is never large enough

APPENDIX.
379
to counterpulance the theracic. Of all animals, the lion affords
the most finished specimen of thoracic preponderance. In propor.
tion to his size, his lungs and heart, especially the latter, are im-
mensely large. And his muscular power corresponds to them. The
magnitude of his heart is generally considered the cause of his
boldness. Hence a very courageous man is said to have a great
heart, or to be lion-hearted. All this is popular error. The heart
is but a muscle; and, in man, has no more connexion with courage
than the gastrocnemii muscles; nor, in the lion, than the muscles
that move his tail. Courage is exclusively a cerebral attribute,
an'l has its seat in an organ specifically appropriated to it. In none
of the inferior animals does the brain preponderate. That prepon.
derance belongs to humanity, and, as already mentioned, indicates
its highest grade. Of all the beings below us, some of the ape
tribe have the highest cerebral development. And they approach
nearest to man in their degree of intellect. This is farther proof
that, other things being alike, the brain gives the measure of men.
tal power. I have lately seen a publication, in which it is gravely
and makes a rude basket of osiers to contain them. Notwithstand-
strongly of the tale of a traveller.'”
“Considered in relation to these principles, temperament may
be divided into seven varieties. 1, the mixed or balanced, in which
the ruling organs are in fair proportion to each other; 2, the ence.
phalic; 3, the thoracic; 4, the abdominal; 5, the encephalo-thora.
cic; 6, the encephalo-abdominal ; and 7, the thoracico-abdominal."
"1. The mixed or balanced variety. In this the name explajas
the temperament. The external marks of it are plain. They con-
sist in a well-adjusted proportion between the sizes of the head,
thorax, and abdomen. If the limbs are in harmony, the symmetry
of the entire person is complete. Although individuals, in whom
this temperament prevails, are usually above the middle height,
and well-formed, they are not necessarily so. They may be of any
stature, and any shape, straight or crooked, provided the three
great cavities and their contents be accurately balanced. This is
not the temperament of either early life or old age. It commences
with manhood, and continues until the fortieth or forty-fiſth year,
and then passes into somewhat of the abdominal. The Apollo
Belvidere, by Phidias, is an exquisite specimen of it. But some
modern artists have violated it, in painting that statue, by making
the chest and the head too large. Although the inanifestation of

380
ΛPPEN LIX
strength, majesty, and intellect, is heightened by this, the beauty
of the youthful god is marred. The figure, though more imposing,
has lost its charm.”
62. The encephalic. In this variety the head is relatively large,
but is not always equally developed in every part, a circumstance
which varies greatly, as will presently appear, the characters of
those who possess the temperament. The development of the
thorax and abdomen is moderate, the person lean, and the counte.
nance expressive of intense feeling and deep passion. In some in-
dividuals, however, the countenance beams with inte..igence, with-
out much passion, while, in others, manifestations of powerful in.
tellect and passion are united. The thoracic and abdominal ac-
tivity is never high; yet in many instances the personal hardihood
and endurance are invincible. It is men of this temperament alone
that can immortalize themselves by great achievements, good or
· bad All history and observation testify to this. Is the develop-
ment very large in the moral and intellectual regions of the brain,
and so moderate in the animal as to be held fully in check? The
individual will distinguish himself by a dignified purity of deport.
ment, and by the performance of great and good deeds."
“Are the animal and mere knowing compartments largely de.
veloped, and the moral and reflecting very slightly? As relates
to vice and profligacy in their foulest shapes, this is the worst of
all temperaments. Nothing more prone to depravity can be ima.
gined. The person possessed of it delights in some sort of animali.
ty alone; and if he ever engages in anything higher or purer, it is
for a sinister purpose, that he may return to his chosen indulgen-
ces in more security, or on a broader scale."
"Is the development very large, and equally so in all the de.
partments of the brain, animal, moral, and intellectual, giving to
the head unusual size? The individual possessing it has a lofty
and powerful character, is capable of attaining the highest renown,
and making an impression, not to be erased, on the age and coun.
try in which he lives. His career may be occasionally stained by
irregularities and checkered with clouds, but will be brilliant in
the main. His designs are vast, because he feels his power, the in-
struments with which he works are men, and he wields them in
masses. The term little has no place in his vocabulary, nor its
prototype in his thoughts. His aim is greatness of some kind -
high achievement or deep catastrophe.”
63. The thoracic. Under this variety the head is small, usually
round, and covered with thick curling hair, the abdomen of limited

APPENDIX
381
dimensions, the chest spacious and powerful, and the muscles
plexion is strong. Respiration is full and deep, and the action of
the heart regular and vigorous; and the pulse has great volume.
Like the result, in every other kind of inordinate vital action, the
auitnal temperature is high. This temperament, in which neither
feeling nor intellect prevails, begins to show itself about puberty,
and continues until the decline of life, when it undergoes a change.
The Farnesian Hercules is the beau idoal of it. This shows that it
was known to the ancient Greeks, who were probably indebted for
their acquaintance with it to observations made on the persons of
cheir wrestlers. In modern times it is strongly developed in box-
ers and porters, and sufficiently so in bakers, wood-choppers, op.
erative agriculturists, and others who have been habituated to la.
bor from their boyhood. I have observed no little of it among the
London boatmen, the occupation of whose life is to ply the oar, a
mode of exercise well calculated to develop the chest, together
with the muscles of the upper extremities. I have seen good speci.
mens of it also in the African race.”
164. The abdominal. This temperament is easily recognised by
the character it imparts to the person and intellect. The pelvis is
large and prominent, and the adipose matter abundant, filling up
the interstices of the muscles, and often forming a layer between
them and the skin, in consequence of which the limbs are round
and smooth and soft to the touch. In such constitutions, ecchy-
mosis succeeds with unusual readiness, to slight contusions. Cir.
culation in the skin being feeble, the complexion may be fair and
delicate, but never very ruddy or strong. The size of the head is
limited, the intellectual moderate, the eye deficient in lustre and
the countenance in expression, and the movements heavy and sel-
dom graceful. The abdominal viscera seem to draw everything
into the vortex of their action. The amount of vitality is evidently
below its common measure in the human system, and, in some in-
stances, the flesh seems to hang as a load on the spirit.”
"5. The encephalo-thoracic. This temperament is a type of
power both bodily and mental. Its compound name expresses fully
the external appearances that mark it, as well as the attributes
ihat arrays accompany them. With an abdomen of inoderate
dimensions, the head of the individual who possesses it is largo
powerful to execute, and hardy to endure. It is the temperament
Aa

382
APPENDIX.
of masculine and comprehensive thought and strong propensity,
united to energetic action, rather than of seclusion and profound
meditation. As in all other cases, the character is varied in it ac
cording to the portion of the brain that is most largely developed.
He to whom it belongs feels himself in his proper sphere when he
is among men, and is well fitted to act his part in times of tumult
and scenes of difficulty. Is his brain large in each of its compart-
ments? If an occasion present itself, he not only mingles in the
moral storm, but aspires to direct it. In case of his becoming a
warrior, his genius and sword are alike formidable. In battle, pre-
viously to the invention of fire-arms, such a man was the terror of
his enemies and the hope of his friends. Ulysses, as sketched by
Homer, is as fairly the beau ideal of this temperament, as Hercules
is of the thoracic. That chieſtain was alike wise to counsel, in-
trepid to dare, and powerſul to perform. Plato, so called from the
uncommon breadth of his chest, who had also a very large head,
is another excellent model of the same. Even in times of peace
the corporeal attributes of a man of this description add to his in
Auence. Jupiter, the emblem of wisdom and power, as represented
by the ancient statuaries, with an immense head and trunk, and
arms of matchless strength, is as finished a specimen of the ence.
phalo-thoracic temperament, as Apollo is of the mixed.”
“6. The encephalo-abdominal. Here again the name bespeaks
sufficiently the development, form, and character of those who
possess the temperament. The head and abdomen are compara-
tively large, the thorax small, and the shoulders narrow. Hence
the sensibility is keen, and the intellect, if not powerful, active and
respectable. For the reasons given, when the abdominal tempera-
ment was considered, the limbs and person, under the present one,
are round and smooth, and the flesh is soſt; but, owing to the in
fluence of a well-developed brain, and nerves that correspond to it,
the movements are sprightly and the air graceful. Though rarely
powerful, the character is attractive. This is the temperament of
childhood and woman, much more than of adult life and man.
Fine genius, but clegant and playful, rather than strong and bril.
liant, is often connected with it. It is females, in whom the ence.
phalic development is larger than usual, that possess minds truly
masculine.”
“7. The thoracico-abdominal. In this temperament the head is
comparatively small, and the thorax and abdomen large, with a
corresponding size of the muscles and bones, and much adipose
substance. It is the temperament of mere animal strength and

APPENDIX.
383
patient endurance, without any of the elevated, sprightly, or at.
tractive qualities of human nature. It forms good laborers and
fatigue-men, but is entirely unfit for those whose province is to
ineditate, plan, and direct. It comports well enough with the
character of soldiers of a certain description, but is altogether ou:
of harmony with that of an officer. It is, I thik, more favorable
to health than any of the other temperaments, except perhaps the
mixed. If those who possess it have weak intellects, their pas.
sions are usually moderate, and rarely hurry them into pernicious
excesses. The tenor of their lives is but little interrupted by either
irregularity or disease. Pince they retain their vigor uncommonly
well, and are often day-laborers and industrious husbandmen at an
advanced age. True, their appetite for food is strong; but they
are not prone to an excessive indulgence of it; I mean at a single
meal. Like those possessed of the abdominal temperament, they
eat oſten rather than superabundantly at once. Besides, such is the
strength of their chylopoetic viscera, that they subdue and digest
without sustaining any injury, as much food as would produce dis-
ease in those of different constitutions. Nor are they so much en-
dangered by vascular fulness as persons of the simple abdominal
temperament. The reason of this is plain. Their bloodvessels are
larger, and their excretions more copious, especially those by the
skin and the organ of respiration. From the warmth of their con-
stitutions, owing to an abundance of well-arterialized blood, and a
concomitant vigorous circulation, they perspire freely, and secrete
and exhale copiously from the lungs. This temperament is rarely
found among women, and is not very common among men.”
Dr. C. maintains that at certain periods of life, one temperament
passes into another, as the result of the natural changes which
take place, in the progress of the growth and decay of the human
body; and that every one, who attains longevity, partakes, in the
progress of growth and decline, of five temperaments; the purely
abdominal, which prevails before birth; the encephalo-abdo ninal,
which exists at birth, and for some years afterwarl; the encephalo.
thoracic; the mixed; and the abdominal of real senility. Thus
passes the circle of life, beginning with ihe abiominal tempera-
ment of the foetal state, and terminating in that of extreme old
age.
That there is an intimate connexion between temperament and
personal beauty, will be manifest from the above view of the sub-
ject. Our limits, however, forbid an application of Dr. Caldwell's
views in illustration of Mr. Walker's theory; these, however

384
APPENDIX.
have been given so much in detail, that the reader will be able to
There is hardly any habit relating to female dress more destruc
tive of grace and beauty, at least of deportment, than that of
compressing the foot in a shoe of one half the proper size. It
would seem that our ladies were trying to ape the fashion of the
Chinese, in this respect, and though they do not at present carry
it to the same extent, yet they carry it sufficiently far to destroy
their comfort. We look in vain for the sprightly, light, and elas-
tic step, where the feet are bound tight, and cramped up in dis-
proportionately tight shoes; and it would be strange in such a
case, if we did not find an unhappy, and distressed expression of
countenance—the muscles of the face sympathizing with the dis-
torted and painful feet. Such a custom, also, interferes materially
with taking that measure of exercise which is necessary to health.
Mrs. Walker, in her work on Female Beauty, remarks as follows:
" Ladies are very apt to torture their feet to make them appear small.
This is exceedingly ridiculous: a very small foot is a deformity.
True beauty of each part consists in the proportion it bears to the
rest of the body. A tight or ill-made shoe, not only destroys the
shape of the foot, it produces corns and bunions; and it tends to
impede the circulation of the blood. Besides, the foot then swells,
and appears larger than it is, and the ankles become thick and
olumsy."
The pernicious effect of tight or ill-made shoes, is evident also
in the stiff and tottering gait of these victims of a foolish preju
dice; they can neither stand upright, walk straight, nor enter a
room properly.
To be too short, is one of the greatest defects a shoe can have;
because it takes away all chance of yielding in that direction, and
without offering any compensation for tightness in others, and in
itself, it not only causes pain, and spoils the shape of the foot, by
turning down the toes, and swelling of the inster, but is the cause
use of shoes of very thin materials in wet weather; but no female
who has the slightest regard for her health, or indeed for the pres.
ervation of her beauty, will object to wear shoes thicker than are
usually worn, if the pavement is at any time wet or damp.

APPENDIX
385
H.
The effect of alcoholic drinks upon beauty, has not been orer.
estimated by Mr. Walker, though he is doubtless mistaken in sup.
posing that none but those who reside amid the artificial customs
of city life, experience the deleterious influence of such beverages.
Not only alcoholic stimulants, but tea and coffee, and especially
opium, which has of late come into very extensive use as a substi-
tute for the former, tend to produce an unhealthy action of the
skin, from their influence upon the secerent system, causing
blotches, pimples, and discolorations, in a greater or less degree.
Where used moderately, they produce either an unnatural pale.
ness, deadness, or duskiness of complexion, or a bloated appear.
ance, far removed from the fresh roseate hue of health. Such is
the effect of wine, cordials, and malt liquors, which are exten-
sively employed by ladies, particularly in cities, during the period
of nursing, under a mistaken impression that they cause a greater
flow of milk, and tend to invigorate the system. Whoever desires
to attain health, strength, and beauty, should not seek them
through the agency of bitters, tonics, and cordials, or distilled, or
fermented liquors, which only inflame the blood, but from free
exercise in the open air, regular occupations, tranquillity of mind,
a mild diet, and a proper allotment of time for sleep.
It has been remarked that the lower classes of females in cities,
consume as much, and probably more intoxicating drinks, than
men of the same class, and this is no doubt true. But to the
honor of our countrywomen, a great change has been brought
about within last few years, with respect to the use of alcoholic
liquors, not only in this, but in other countries, with a correspond.
ing improvement in health, happiness, and beauty. In advancing
this blessed reform, the ladies have borne a conspicuous part--as
they have in every other philanthropic work — and their combined
influence is only needed, to banish such drinks entirely from
civilized society.
THE FACIAL LINE OF CAMPER.
In order to determine the cerebral mass, and, consequently,
the intellectual faculties, Camper draws a base line from the roots

386
APPENDIX.
of the upper incisors, to the external auditory passage; then
another straight line, from the upper incisors to the most elevated
point of the forehead: according to him, the intellectual faculties
of the man or animal, are in direct proportion to the magnitude of
the angle, made by those two lines. Lavater with this idea for a
busis, constructed a scale of perfection from the frog to the Apollo
Belvidere. As natyre really furnishes many prooſs in support of
this opinion, it has been generally received, even by anatomists
and physiologists; and, notwithstanding the arguments by which
it is victoriously opposed, the learned cannot resolve to abandon
it. Cuvier himself furnishes a list of men and animals, in support
of this doctrine ; few naturalists oppose it, but almost all give it
their support.*
Camper's attempt necessarily failed; for his manner of drawing
the lines and measuring the facial angle, enabled him to take into
consideration the anterior parts only of the brain situated near the
forehead: he entirely neglects the posterior, lateral, and inferior
cerebral parts. This method, then, at most, could decide upon
those faculties only, whose organs are placed near the forehead.
Cuvier estimates the facial angle of the new-born infant at ninety
degrees; that of the adult, at eighty-five; that of decrepit old
age, at fifty.
From this statement it appears, that, at different ages, changes
take place in the form, either of the brain or the cranium; here.
after I shall prove that such changes really occur.
The forehead of the newborn infant is flattened; on the conj.
trary, that of a child some months old, and until the age of eight
or ten years, especially in the case of boys possessed of superior
talents, it is projecting, and forms, notwithstanding the approxi
mation to the age of puberty, a larger facial angle than in the
adult; this angle, therefore, does not diminish in the inverse ratio
of the age. In like manner we find decrepit old men, whose facial
angle is as great as it was in the vigor of manhood; for, although
in decrepitude the brain is subject to atrophy, there are old men,
the exterior contour of whose crania undergoes no change. The
angle, as stated by Cuvier, for different ages, were measured upon
different individuals ; if it were estimated upon the same persons
at different epochs of his liſe, the result would be entirely dif.
ferert.
In general, the proportion between the forehead and the face, i
* This doctrine is revived, Dict. des Sciences med. Delpit and Reydellet.

APPENDIX.
387
different in different individuals. No conclusion can be drawn
from the proportions, which exist in one person, relative to those
of another; among a hundred individuals of the same sex and
age, no two can be found, in whom the same proportion exists be-
tween the forehead and the face; it necessarily follows then, that
no wo will have the same facial angle. Physiologists seem to
adm.., that the proportion between the brain and the bones of the
face, is different in different species of animals : but they appear
to think that, in all the individuals of the same species, all the
young, all the adults, all the old, there exists a constant propor.
tion between the cerebral mass and the face.
The researches of Blumenbach show that threefourths of the
animals known, have nearly the same facial angle; and yet what
a disparity between their instincts and faculties! What informa-
tion, then, do we derive from Camper's facial angle?
Moreover, as Cuvier himself observes, the cerebral mass is by
no means placed in all animals, immediately behind or beneath
what is called the forehead. In a great many species of animals,
on the contrary, the external table of the frontal is at a consider.
able distance from the internal, and this distance increases with
the age of the animal. The brain of the swine is placed an inch
lower than the frontal bones seem to indicate; that of the ox, in
some parts three inches; that of the elephant, from six to thir.
teen. In other animals, the measurement is generally com-
menced at the frontal sinus instead of the cerebrum. From these
considerations, Cuvier was induced to draw a tangent to the inter-
nal instead of the external surface of the cranium. The cerebrum
of the wolf and many species of dogs, especially when the indi.
viduals are very old, is placed directiy behind the frontal sinuses.
In the wolf, especially the large and most ferocious variety, it is
depressed as in the hyena; in the dog it is situated higher or
lower, according to the species; but, notwithstanding this differ-
ence in the situation of the brain, the facial angle, as it is com
monly measured, must be the same; from this the inference woulu
be, that the dog, the wolf, and the hyena, have the same qualities,
and each in the same degree. In the greater part of the rodentia,
the morse, &c., the brain is so depressed and so placed behind the
frontal sinuses, that the facial line cannot be drawn. The facial
tine of the cetacea, on account of the singular conformation of the
head, would lead to results ausolutely false.
I know many negroes, who, with very prominent jawa, are gaite
distinguished for their intellectual faculties; yet the projection of

388
APPENDIX.
the jaws renders the facial angle much more acute, than it would
be with the usual conformation of Europeans. In order that the
same angle should exist in a European, the forehead must be flat:
tened and retreating. But the foreheads of the negroes in ques
tion, on the contrary, are very projecting. Who, under these cir
cumstances, would expect to find the same amount of intellect
corresponding to the same facial angle?
The facial line cannot be applied to birds, as many naturalists
have already observed.
From what has been said, we should expect that naturalists
would at length renounce the facial-angle of Camper; but the
most ignorant are generally the most conceited.
In spite of this complete refutation of Camper's facial line,
Delpit extols it in the following terms :-
"If ever a relation of this kind presented characters of generality
and fixedness, adequate to excite a reasonable 'confidence in mat-
ters belonging to the domain of empiricism, rather than that of
science, it is the relation or proportion of magnitude, which Camper
first perceived and revealed, by comparing the brain of man with
that of the different species of animals. We here see a successive
decrease of intelligence, proportionate to the acuteness of the
facial angle and the consequent diminution of the cerebral cavity,
This affords a constant and fixed relation. It can be appreciated
with a sufficient degree of exactness by the direct light of com-
parative anatomy, and by observation of the habits and intelligence
of the different classes of animals; it can also be verified by the
comparison of men very unequally endowed with intellectual
faculties, in whom the contraction of the cerebral carity and the
magnitude of the facial angle exhibit the most remarkable diversi.
ties. Here the physiognomical sign has, if I may be allowed the
expression, a wide extent of acceptation; it rests upon a broad
basis, upon a definite division, and one of casy comprehension and
verification ; for, if there is some discrepancy of opinion, in regard
to the number and nomenclature of the faculties of the mind, the
sentiments of the soul, the modifications or shades of character
which give birth to particular passions, moral dispositions, habits,
whether virtuous or vicious ; if these classifications are, in a great
measure, arbitrary, and the language used somewhat vague; iſ, in
short, the greater part of these nominal faculties are mere abstrace
tions of the mind, purely imaginary existences, and therefore can.
not be actually located in any part of the brain ; the case is quite
different, when we merely seek to establish a general relation be

APPENDIX.
389
tween a constant sign manifested in the organization, and the de.
gree of reason, mind, or intellect, attributed to different men, or
the degrees of sagacity attributed to different species of animals,
Here, no one is at a loss, because there is ample latitude for com:
paring and judging; in the system of Gall, on the contrary, the
comparisons rest upon minute points, which are subject to discus.
sion, exceptions, a thousand uncertainties in the signs and various
applications."*
If the reader will review what I have said against Camper's
facial line, he will find a refutation of all this reasoning of Delpit;
a proof that he defends it merely because it is in vogue. It is this
very generality and fixedness, which render it, in almost all cases,
inapplicable; this is the inherent defect in the supposed impor-
tance of Camper's facial angle. It is implicitly supposed, that no
difference but that of degree, exists between the capacities of wie
different species and individuals of the human race, and the dir.
ferent species and individuals of the animal kingdom. Thus the
intelligence of men and viher animals would always be propor.
tioned to the magnitude of the facial angle. This being premised
I ask, which, out or two, three, four, &c., has the most intell
gence, the dog, ape, beaver, the ant, or the bee? Ants and bees
live in an admirable republic, and form astonishing constructions
which they know how to modify according to circumstances. The
beaver and penduline build with equally marvellous skill, and with
a foresight which seldom errs; the dog and the ape have ver
little foresight, and are incapable of the most insignificant con
struction. Which has the greater intelligence. Voltaire or Des
cartes ? Could the former have been a mathematician and the
latter a poet? Which has the higher degree of intellect, Mozart
or Lessing, who, with all his genius, detested music? In short,
which has the most intelligence, my dog who retraces his steps
through the most complicated routes, or myself, who am always
going astray? Measure now the facial angle of the ant, bee,
beaver, penduline, ape, iny dog, and of myself, and estimate the
result. Acknowledge, then, that your division, so definite, so
easy to be apprehended, is absolutely useless, and that you are
obliged to advert to divers instincts, propensities, faculties, and
their different degrees of energy, to which your facial angle is
wlolly inapp.icable. Your intelligence, instinct, address, are in
* Dictionnaire des Sciences Méd. t. xxxviii. p 263

390
APPENDIX
reality mere abstractions, imaginary existences. Do you consider
the propensity to procreation, the love of offspring, the carnivorous
instinct, the talent for music, poetry, &c., as imaginary existences ?
You see, then, that it is more convenient to tread the lealen rath
than in verify observations.Gall on the Functions of the Brain
mazo la





sh, Walker, Alexander,
Wa