CALL NO OR 
 ACCESSION NO. 
 

BEAUTY 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY AN 
 
 ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION 
 
 OF 
 
 BEAUTY IN WOMAN, 
 
 WITH 
 
 A CRITICAL VIEW OF THE HYPOTHESES OF HUME, HOGARTH, BURKE, 
 KNIGHT, ALISON, ETC. 
 
 AND OF 
 
 THE HYPOTHESES OF BEAUTY IN SCULPTURE AND PAINTING, BY 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI, WINCKELMANN, MENGS, BOSSI, ETC. 
 
 BY ALEXANDER WALKER. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY DRAWINGS FROM LIFE 
 
 BY HENRY HOWARD, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF PAINTING TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY; 
 DRAWN ON STONE BY M. GAUCI AND R. J. LANE, A.R.A. 
 
 “ E la bellezza, dopo Dio, il piu sublime oggetto, di cui occupar si possa l’umano spirito.” 
 
 WlNCKBLMANN. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HENRY Gr. BOHN, YORK STREET, COYENT GARDEN. 
 
 MDCCCLII. 
 
C. AND J. 
 
 ) LAUD 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO 
 
 GEORGE BIRKBECK, M.D. E.G.S. 
 
 PRESIDENT OP THE LONDON MECHANICS 5 INSTITUTION, 
 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 A department of science, which in many 
 respects must be regarded as new, cannot so 
 properly he 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 
 effectually to blind the victims of their spolia- 
 tion, imposed a tax upon knowledge, — You 
 rendered the acquirement of science easy by the 
 establishment of Mechanics’ Institutions, — You 
 
IV 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 gave the first and greatest impulse to that 
 diffusion of knowledge which will render the 
 repetition of such a conspiracy 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 conspirators, and who 
 unwisely hesitated between the bad interest 
 which is soon felt by all participators in ex- 
 pensive government, and their dread of the new 
 and triumphant power of public opinion, before 
 which they know and feel that they are but as 
 chaff before the whirlwind. 
 
 For these services, accept this respectful 
 dedication, as the expression of an 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 per- 
 sonal motive. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 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 as to logical reasonmg 
 and careful induction, an anxiety at least, and a 
 zeal hi these respects, which, whatever success 
 may have attended them, could not well he 
 exceeded. 
 
 I have endeavoured 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. 
 

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 appeared 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 perpetual improvement of 
 the human race, are dependent. 
 
 The cause of this has been probably the 
 neglect, on the part of individuals, to combine 
 anatomical and physiological knowledge with 
 the critical observation of the external forms of 
 woman; and perhaps some repugnance to an- 
 thropological knowledge on the part of the 
 
Vlll 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 public. The last obstacle, if ever it existed, 
 is now gone by, as many circumstances show; 
 and it will be the business of the author, in this 
 work, to endeavour to obviate the former. 
 
 The present work, besides giving new views 
 of the theory of beauty, and of its application to 
 the arts, presents an analysis and classification 
 of beauty in woman. A subsequent work will 
 apply the principles here established to inter- 
 marriages 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 relations of 
 woman in society, will expose the extravagant 
 hypotheses of writers on this subject who have 
 been ignorant of anthropology, and will describe 
 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 physiology, — one which entangles the reader 
 in no mystical and delusive hypothesis, and 
 presents to him only indisputable facts, — one 
 which is applicable to the subject most uni- 
 versally and deeply interesting to mankind, the 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 IX 
 
 critical judgment of female beauty, as founded 
 on necessary functions, — and one which unravels 
 the greater difficulties which that subject pre- 
 sents, — 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 
 decency 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 
 authorities. 
 
 Thomas More, speaking of the people of his 
 commonwealth, says, “ They do greatly wonder 
 at 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 saddle 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 dis- 
 pleasure to them all their life after, they be so 
 reckless, that, all the residue of the woman’s 
 
X 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 body being covered with clothes, they esteem 
 her scarcely by one hand breadth (for they can 
 see no more but her face), and so to join her 
 to them, not without great jeopardy of evil 
 agreeing together — if anything in her body 
 afterward should chance to offend and mislike 
 them . 1 
 
 Feancis Bacon is of similar opinion. 
 
 Happily, the advancement of anthropological 
 science in modern times, may, as is here shown, 
 be so applied as to render quite unnecessary 
 the objectionable methods proposed by both these 
 philosophers, in order to carry their doctrines 
 into practice. 
 
 Shall 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 winch 
 the still further advancement of knowledge will 
 inevitably render an every-da/y occurrence and 
 the gmde of the most important act of human 
 life? — I care not. 
 
 In the details as to female beauty, it will be 
 seen how incorrectly Winckelmann says “ In 
 
 1 ‘Utopia, 1 Book ii, Chap. viii. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 XI 
 
 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 difference than that which is 
 dependent upon age. . . . Hence, in treating 
 of female beauty, few observations 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 resemblance 
 of nude female figures, I speak solely of the 
 body, without concluding from it that they also 
 resemble each other in the distinctive characters 
 of the head, which are particularly marked in 
 each, whether Goddess or Heroine .” 1 — The 
 differences, even in the bodies of females, are 
 here shown to he both numerous and capable of 
 distinct classification. 
 
 All the drawings which illustrate this volume, 
 
 1 "Nelle figure femminili, la bellezza non lia si diverse forme e si 
 vaij gradi, come nelle virili; anzi generalmente altra differenza non v’ e, 
 fuor di quella che proviene dall’ eta. . . . Indi e che, trattando della 
 femminile bellezza, poclie cose ci si offrono da osservare, e piu limitato e 
 facile e lo studio dell’ artista. . . . Osservisi che, ov’ io parlo del 
 somigliarsi che fanno tra di loro le figure muliebri ignude, intendo di 
 parlare della sola corporatura, senza che quindi abbia a conchiudersi che 
 pur si somigliano ne’ carratteri distintivi della testa, i quali in ciasche- 
 duna si delle dee che delle eroine vengono particolarmente indicati.” 
 (Storia delle Arti.) 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 xii 
 
 except the Frontispiece and Plates Yin, xv, 
 xyt, xvi and xviii, are from the pencil of 
 Mr. Howard, executed at various times during 
 his earlier studies at the Life-Academy, and 
 selected for this work from his drawing books. 
 It would he impertinent to eulogise drawings by 
 an artist who inherits so much of the spirit of 
 the ancients. 
 
 Plate xvi has been lithographed, and Plates 
 xv and xvib have been both drawn and 
 lithographed by Mr. M. Grauci, the first of our 
 lithographers, equally distinguished by correct 
 anatomical knowledge, learning in ancient art, 
 and exquisite taste. It is needless to say that 
 the productions of such a man needed no super- 
 intendence of the author. 
 
 The rest of the drawings Mr. Lane engaged 
 to represent by lithography, with all the skill of 
 which he is capable, and in his very best 
 manner. That he has conscientiously done so, 
 the author cannot doubt ; and indeed he knows 
 that, in a few instances, Mr. Lane has even 
 made out some subordinate parts which were 
 left intentionally unfinished by the distinguished 
 painter. Still Mr. Lane’s lithographs present 
 some errors, which are described in subsequent 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 notes, because that appeared to be due both to 
 the painter and to the author’s intention. The 
 blame of these, however, the author takes en- 
 tirely upon himself, being deceived by the 
 superficial beauty of the lithographs when on 
 the stone, and rendered thereby less quick in 
 detecting any deviation of the lithographer. 
 
 It is right to observe that this work has 
 nothing to do with an early production of the 
 writer, a consciousness 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 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 
 
XIV 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 only points on which he can himself lay any 
 claim to originality. These are as follows : 
 
 The more complete establishment of the truth 
 that, in relation to man and woman in par- 
 ticular, beauty is the external sign of goodness 
 in organisation and function, and thence its 
 importance. — Chapter i, and the work generally. 
 
 The showing that the discussion of this sub- 
 ject, though involving the examination of the 
 naked figure, is urgent in relation to decency 
 (the theory of which is discussed), morality, and 
 happy intermarriage. — Chapter n. 
 
 The showing that the ancient religion was 
 the cause of the perfection of the fine arts in 
 Greece, by its personification of simple attri- 
 butes or virtues, as objects of -adoration. — 
 Chapter n. 
 
 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. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 XV 
 
 The pointing out these elements of beauty, 
 and their mode of operation in inanimate beings, 
 and the errors of Knight and Alison on ths 
 subject. — Sect, i, Chapter yi. 
 
 The pointing out these elements, and others 
 which are superadded, in living beings, and 
 the errors of Alison on this subject. — Sect, n, 
 Chapter vi. 
 
 The pointing out these elements, and others 
 which are further superadded, in thinking beings, 
 and the errors of Burke and Knight on this 
 subject. — Sect, m, 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 pic- 
 turesque, 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, n, Appendix. 
 
 The explanation of the cause of the pleasure 
 
XVI 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 received from representations exciting pity, and 
 of tlie errors of Bnrke, &c., on that subject. 
 Sect, hi, Appendix. 
 
 The arrangement of anatomy and physiology, 
 and the application of the principles of these 
 sciences 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. — 
 Chapter rx. 
 
 Various arguments establishing the standard 
 of 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 
 complex views of anthropological phenomena. — 
 Chapter 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 struc- 
 ture. — 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, 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 XVII 
 
 or that of the thinking system, and of its 
 varieties, as founded on examination of struc- 
 ture. — Chapter xiv. 
 
 The explanation of the cause of the deformity 
 produced by the obliquely placed eyes of the 
 Chinese, &c. — Chapter xv. 
 
 The explanation of the mode in which the 
 action of the muscles of the face becomes phy- 
 siognomically expressive. — lb. 
 
 The explanation of the physiognomical cha- 
 racter of the different kinds of the hair. — lb. 
 
 The explanation of the cause of the different 
 effects of the same face, even in a state of 
 repose. — lb. 
 
 The indication of the faulty feature, and its 
 gradual increase, even in beautiful faces. — 
 lb. 
 
 The exposition of the different organisation 
 of Greek and Roman heads. — lb. 
 
 The explanation of the combinations and 
 transitions of beauty. — Chapter xn. 
 
 The explanation of the numerical, geometrical, 
 and harmonic methods of proportion employed 
 by the ancient Greeks. — Chapter xvn. 
 
 Some remarks on character, expression, and 
 detail in art. — lb. 
 
 b 
 
xvm 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 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. — lb. 
 
 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. — lb. 
 
 The explanation of the reason why the Greeks 
 suppressed all great degrees of impassioned ex- 
 pression. — lb. 
 
 The mere indication of the Greek idealisa- 
 tions as applied to the nutritive and locomotive 
 systems, and the explanation of the latter in 
 the Apollo. — lb. 
 
 The replies to the objections of Burke and 
 Alison, as to ideal beauty. — lb. 
 
 The enunciation of the ideal in attitude. — 
 lb. 
 
 Various views as to the Venus de Medici, 
 the conformation of the nose, and the con- 
 nection of odour with love, in animals and 
 plants. — Chapter xix. 
 
 Some remarks on the Venus de Medici. — lb. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 XIX 
 
 The pointing out and explanation of various 
 defects in beauty. — Chapter xx. 
 
 The pointing out and explanation of various 
 external 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, leaving 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 bad 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, hi the chapters which follow, — and 
 applied this to the fine arts, and solved the 
 difficulty of Leonardo da Vinci, &c., in the last 
 chapters. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. — Importance of the Subject .1 
 
 II. — Urgency of the Discussion of this Subject in relation to 
 
 the Interests of Decency and Morality . . 11 
 
 III. — Cautions to Youth . . . 26 
 
 IV. — Nature of Beauty . . .38 
 
 V. — Standard of Taste in Beauty . . 49 
 
 VI. — The Elements of Beauty . . .66 
 
 Section I. — Elements of Beauty in Inanimate beings 68 
 „ II. — Elements of Beauty in Living Beings . 83 
 
 „ III. — Elements of Beauty in Thinking Beings 89 
 „ IV. — Elements of Beauty as employed in 
 
 Objects of Art . . 100 
 
 Beauty of Useful Objects . . 100 
 
 Beauty of Ornamental Objects . 105 
 
 Beauty of Intellectual Objects . . 110 
 
 Summary of this Chapter . . . , 119 
 
 Appendix to the preceding Chapters . . . 122 
 
 Section I. — Nature of the Picturesque . . 122 
 
 „ II. — Cause of Laughter . . .125 
 
 „ III. — Cause of the Pleasure received from 
 
 Bepresentations exciting Pity 130 
 
XXII 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 VII. — Anatomical and Physiological Principles . .104 
 
 VIII. — Of the Ages of Woman in relation to Beauty . . 154 
 
 IX. — Of the Causes of Beauty in Woman . 169 
 
 X. — Of the Standard of Beauty in Woman . .174 
 
 XI. — Of the Three Species of Pemale Beauty generally viewed 190 
 
 XII. — First Species of Beauty; Beauty of the Locomotive 
 
 System ..... 195 
 First Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty 198 
 Second Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty 204 
 Third Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty 204 
 
 XIII. — Second Species of Beauty; Beauty of the Nutritive 
 
 System ..... 210 
 First Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty 215 
 Second Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty 218 
 Third Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty 220 
 
 XIV. — Third Species of Beauty ; Beauty of the Thinking System 234 
 
 First Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty 235 
 Second Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty 236 
 Third Variety or Modification of this Species of Beauty . 239 
 
 XV. — Beauty of the Face in particular . . . 248 
 
 XVI. — Combinations and Transitions of the Three Species of 
 
 Female Beauty . .266 
 
 XVII. — Proportion, Character, Expression, &c. . . 272 
 
 XVIII.— The Greek Ideal Beauty . .300 
 
 XIX. — The Ideal of Female Beauty . . . 336 
 
 XX. — Defects of Beauty .... 350 
 
 Defects of the Locomotive System . . 350 
 
 Defects of the Vital System . . 354 
 
 Defects of the Mental System . . .358 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 XXI.— External Indications ; or Art of Determining the precise 
 Figure, the degree of Beauty, the Mind, the Habits, 
 and the Age of Women, notwithstanding the Aids 
 and Disguises of Dress . . . . 
 
 External Indications of Figure 
 External Indications of Beauty 
 External Indications of Mind 
 External Indications of Habits 
 External Indications of Age 
 
 xxiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 361 
 
 361 
 
 364 
 
 368 
 
 370 
 
 371 
 
LIST OE PLATES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Frontispiece. — T he Venus de Medici. 
 
 '• Plate I. — Locomotive System predominating in Young 
 
 Women . . . to face 159 
 
 II. — The same System still most apparent . 161 
 
 III— The Age of Return . . 167 
 
 IV.— Age . . . .168 
 
 V. — Front View illustrating Locomotive Beauty . 198 
 
 VI. — Side View illustrating Locomotive Beauty . 199 
 
 VII. — Back View illustrating Locomotive Beauty . 201 
 
 VIII. — Diana, the Greek Ideal of Locomotive Beauty . 208 
 
 IX. — Front View illustrating Vital Beauty . 213 
 
 X. — Side View illustrating Vital Beauty . . 215 
 
 XI. — Back View illustrating Vital Beauty . 217 
 
 XII. — Front View illustrating Mental Beauty . . 235 
 
 XIII. — Side View illustrating Mental Beauty . . 236 
 
 XIV. — Back View illustrating Mental Beauty . . 238 
 
 XV. — Minerva, the Greek Ideal of Mental Beauty . 245 
 
 XVI. — The Three Species of Beauty as affecting the 
 
 Head and Face . 265 
 
 XVIA — Heads of Diana, Venus, and Minerva, the Greek 
 
 Ideals of these . . . 266 
 
 XVH. — Combination of the Three Species of Beauty . 267 
 
 XVIII. — Effects of Gestation, Parturition, and Lactation . 349 
 
 XIX. — Excessive Breadtli of Trunk . . 350 
 
 XX. — Excessive Length of Waist . . . 355 
 
 XXI. — Aridness or Want of Plumpness . . 357 
 
 ' XXII. — Flaccidity . . . . 358 
 
ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION 
 
 OF 
 
 BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 It is observed by Home, in his ‘ Elements of Cri- 
 ticism/ that a perception of beauty in external objects, 
 is requisite to attach us to them ; that it greatly pro- 
 motes industry, by promoting a desire to possess things 
 that are beautiful; and that it further joins with utility, 
 in prompting us to embellish our houses and enrich 
 our fields. “ These, however,” he says, “ are but 
 slight effects, compared with the connections 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 connections; but, 
 as external beauty lies more in view, and is more 
 obvious to the bulk of mankind than the qualities 
 
 1 
 
2 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 now mentioned, the sense of beauty possesses the 
 more universal influence in forming these connections : 
 at any rate, it concurs in an eminent degree with 
 mental qualifications, to produce social intercourse, 
 mutual good-will, and consequently mutual aid and 
 support, which are the life of society.” 
 
 Dr. Pritchard similarly observes, that “ the percep- 
 tion of beauty is the chief principle in every country 
 which directs men in their marriages.” 
 
 Advancing a step further, Sir Anthony Carlisle thinks 
 a taste for beauty worthy of being cultivated. “ Man,” 
 he observes, “ 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 tendency, 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 
 botanist perceives elegances in plants and flowers 
 unknown aud 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 women is not worthy of 
 more profound, as well as more universal cultivation.” 
 Such are the observations of philosophical anthropo- 
 
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 3 
 
 logists, who, nevertheless, in these remarks, consider 
 mere physical beauty, independent of its connection 
 with corresponding functions or moral qualities. 
 
 If, however, the external beauty of woman, calculated 
 as it is to flatter the most experienced eye, limited its 
 effect to a local impression, to an optical 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, connected with the first impres- 
 sion 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 organisation.” 
 
 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 qualities, and to announce an 
 elevation in the condition of humanity. Such do the 
 Greek monuments appear to physiologists and philo- 
 sophical artists whose minds pass rapidly from the 
 beauty of forms to that locomotive, vital, or mental 
 excellence 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 
 
4 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 latter will be seen always to be the external sign of the 
 former. 
 
 There are, however, (slightly to anticipate what must 
 afterwards be explained,) different kinds both of beauty 
 and of goodness, which are confounded 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 remarkable de- 
 gree, 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 good- 
 ness only in that system ; but it is not less a truth, and 
 scarcely of less importance, on that account. I will 
 now illustrate this by brief examples. 
 
 There may, in any individual, exist deformity of * 
 limbs ; and this will assuredly indicate want of good- 
 ness in the locomotive system, or that of general motion. 
 There may exist coarseness of skin, or paleness of com- 
 plexion, and either of these will as certainly indicate 
 want of goodness in the vital system or that of nutri- 
 tion. There may exist a malformation of the brain, ex- 
 ternally evident; and this no less certainly will indicate 
 want of goodness in the mental system, or that of thought. 
 
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 5 
 
 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 pre- 
 ferences which, in beauty, appear to depend most on 
 fancy, depend in reality on that cause ; and the impres- 
 sion 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 advantages, 
 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 classification 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 applications of 
 my doctrine. 
 
 If, in the locomotive system, it is especially from the 
 muscles connected with the pelvis being more developed 
 in woman than in man, that result much of the delicacy 
 
6 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 of her form, the ease and grace of its movements, 
 and its easily adapting itself to great and remarkable 
 changes, — of what importance must not be the ability 
 to determine, even by walk or gesture, the existence of 
 this condition ! 
 
 If, in the vital system, the elasticity and freshness of 
 the skin are the characteristics of health, and their 
 absence warns us that the condition of woman is un- 
 favorable to the plan of nature relatively to the main- 
 tenance of the species, — or, if the capacity of the pelvis 
 and the consequent breadth of the haunches, are neces- 
 sary to all those functions which are most essentially 
 feminine, impregnation, gestation, and parturition, 
 without danger either to parent or to child, — of what 
 extreme importance must not be the ability to determine 
 this with certainty and ease ! 
 
 If, in the mental system, the capacity and delicacy 
 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 affection, and by the irresis- 
 tible seduction of her manners, — 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 
 
IMPORTANCE OF THE 8UBJECT. 
 
 7 
 
 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 not 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 parts of the 
 figure which are more exposed to observation 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 circumstances, — 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 
 bases of those impressions which one sex experiences 
 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. 
 
8 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 It is very obvious, says Dr. Pritchard, “ that this 
 peculiarity in the constitution of man, must have con- 
 siderable effects on the physical character of the race, 
 and that it must act as a constant principle of improve- 
 ment, supplying the place in our own kind of the bene- 
 ficial control [in the crossing of races] which we exercise 
 over the brute creation.” And he adds, “ This is pro- 
 bably the final cause for which the instinctive percep- 
 tion of human beauty was implanted by Providence in 
 our nature/’ 
 
 We need not wonder, then, that the Greeks should 
 have preferred beauty to all other advantages, 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 example. 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 in- 
 fluence 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 occu- 
 
IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 9 
 
 pied ourselves so curiously with the means of render- 
 ing more beautiful and better the races of animals 
 or of plants which are useful or agreeable, — after 
 having remodelled a hundred times that of horses 
 and dogs, — after having transplanted, grafted, culti- 
 vated, 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 odorous peaches, or 
 finely striped tulips, than wise and good citizens.’’ 1 
 
 I actually know a man who is so deeply interested 
 in the doctrine of crossing, that every hour of his 
 life is devoted to the improvement of a race of 
 bantam fowls and curious pigeons, and who yet 
 married a mad woman, whom he confines in a garret, 
 and by whom he has some insane progeny. 
 
 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 
 
 1 “Apres nous etre occupes si curieusement des moyens de rendre 
 plus belles et meilleures les races des animaux, ou des plantes utiles et 
 agreables ; apres avoir remanie cent fois celle des chevaux et des cliiens ; 
 apres avoir transplante, greffe, travaille de toutes les manieres, les fruits 
 et les fleurs, combien n’est il pas honteux de negliger totalement la race 
 de rhomme ! Comme si elle nous toucbait de moins pres ! comme s’il 
 etait plus essentiel d’avoir des bceufs grands et forts que des homines 
 vigoureux et sains; des peches bien odorantes, ou des tulipes bien 
 tachetees, que des citoyens sages et bons !” 
 
10 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 which knowledge and skill may operate for the im- 
 provement of our race, is a matter of difficulty. 
 
 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 resemblance of 
 progeny to parents — laws which regard the mode in 
 which the organisation of parents affects 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 inde- 
 scribable, — whether we regard intermarriages, and 
 that immunity from mental or bodily disease which, 
 when well directed, they may ensure, — or the deter- 
 mination of the parentage of a child, or the education 
 of children, in conformity with their faculties, — or the 
 employment of men in 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 in exist- 
 ence, to review and correct this work of nature — a 
 noble enterprise, which truly merits all our cares, 
 and which nature itself appears to have especially 
 recommended to us by the sympathies and the powers 
 which it has given us.” 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 URGENCY OE THE DISCUSSION OF THIS SUBJECT IN 
 RELATION TO THE INTERESTS OF DECENCY AND 
 MORALITY. 
 
 It has now been seen that beauty results from 
 the perfection, chiefly of external forms, and the cor- 
 respondence of that perfection with superiority of 
 internal functions ; on the more or less perfect per- 
 ception of which, love, intermarriage, and the condition 
 of our race is dependent. 
 
 This mode of considering the elements, the nature 
 and the consequences of beauty, is equally applicable 
 to the two sexes ; but, in woman, the form of the 
 species presents peculiar modifications. 
 
 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 
 
12 
 
 URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION 
 
 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- 
 ever ensures the happiness of one ensures that of the 
 other; and as the variety of forms and functions 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 a 
 man’s choice ; to the greater suitableness of all 
 intermarriages, and to the greater happiness 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 decency forbids 
 nudity, and the analysis of female beauty on which 
 it can alone be founded. — I shall, on the contrary, 
 show that decency demands this analysis, that the 
 interests of nature, of truth, of the arts, and of 
 morality demand it. 
 
 Our present notions of sexual decency belong more 
 to art than to nature, and may be divided into arti- 
 ficial 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 con- 
 
AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY. 
 
 13 
 
 stitutes 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. — Burchell, 
 speaking of the Bushmen Hottentots, says, “The 
 natural bashful reserve of youth and innocence 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, evince 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 civilised 
 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 describes 
 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 embarrassment a young 
 
14 
 
 URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION 
 
 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 atti- 
 tude, 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 Jaques ; 
 the bosom remained naked. To cover that, she next 
 showed what should have been concealed; and if 
 anything escaped from her hands, she stooped, and, 
 then, says Kotzebue, I saw both one and the other. 
 
 In colder or more uncertain climes, the greatest 
 degree of covering constitutes the greatest degree of 
 artificial decency : fashion and decency are confounded. 
 Among old fashioned people, of whom a good example 
 may be found in old country women 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 condition ; and, if in- 
 truded on at such a time, she shrieks with terror, and 
 flies to conceal herself. In the equally polished dandy 
 of the metropolis, it is indecent to be seen without 
 gloves. Which of these respectable creatures is the 
 most enlightened, I do not take upon me to say; 
 but I believe that the majority of suffrages would be 
 in favour 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 
 
AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY. 
 
 15 
 
 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 inde- 
 cent. We'might thus create a real feeling of indecency, 
 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. 
 
 Moral feeling is deeply injured by this substitution 
 of impure thoughts, however fancifully founded, 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 violation. But violated it 
 must be, if it were but accidentally. 
 
 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 is well 
 illustrated by coquetry. Coquetry adopts a general 
 concealment which it well knows can alone give a 
 sensual and seductive power to momentary exposure. 
 Coquetry eschews permanent exposure as the bane of 
 sensuality and seduction ; and where these are great, 
 
16 
 
 URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION 
 
 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 decencies. 
 
 That coquetry has well calculated her procedure, 
 does not admit of a doubt. She appeals to imagina- 
 tion, which she knows will spread charms over even 
 ugly forms ; she seeks the concealment under which 
 sensuality and lust are engendered ; and, in marriage, 
 she at last lifts the veil which gratifies, only to disgust, 
 and repays a sensual hallucination by years of misery. 
 
 Ought religion to claim the right of saying grace 
 to such unveiling of concealment and the sensual feast 
 that follows it ? Ought religion to profit by the im- 
 purities of sexual association ? Marriage is a civil 
 ceremony in other countries, even in Scotland. 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 profit- 
 able religion is connected in business with govern- 
 ment, under the firm of Church and State, and drives 
 a thriving trade, in which the junior partner is con- 
 tented with the profit arising from the common acts 
 of life, while the senior one draws much of his living 
 from its sexual acts P 1 
 
 What is said here is no argument for living nudity : 
 
 ' I do not wish to be forced into any discussion on this last point. 
 But, if necessary, I shall not decline it. 
 
AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY. 
 
 17 
 
 that, our climate and our customs forbid ; and, in 
 so doing, we can only regret that they are unfavorable 
 to natural purity ; while perfect familiarity 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 great 
 Flaxman, that “ the students, in entering the academy, 
 seemed to hang up their passions with their hats.” 
 I can, from personal experience, give the same tes- 
 timony in behalf of medical students at the dissecting 
 rooms. The familiarity of both these classes with 
 natural beauty leads them only to seek to inform their 
 minds and to purify their taste. 
 
 Sinibaldi observes, “ that nothing is more injurious 
 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 
 
 o o 
 
 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 sexual 
 virtue than the decoration of every house with the 
 beautiful copies of the glorious works of ancient 
 Greece ; and it is only humiliating to think, that what 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION 
 
 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. Experi- 
 ment 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 advan- 
 tages in common with the face, would soon satiate 
 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 concern- 
 ing 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 aristocratic 
 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 
 
AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY. 
 
 19 
 
 that the critical judgment and pure taste for beauty 
 are the sole protection against low and degrading con- 
 nections. 
 
 Home observes that “ the sense of beauty does not 
 tend to advance the interests of society, but when in 
 a due mien with respect to strength. Love in par- 
 ticular, arising from a sense of beauty, loses, when 
 excessive, its sociable character : the appetite for grati- 
 fication, prevailing over affection for the beloved object, 
 is ungovernable, and tends violently to its end, re- 
 gardless of the misery that must follow. Love in this 
 state is no longer a sweet agreeable passion : it be- 
 comes painful, like hunger or thirst, and produceth no 
 happiness but in the instant of fruition. This dis- 
 covery suggests a most important lesson, that modera- 
 tion in our desires and appetites, which fits us for 
 doing our duty, contributes at the same time the 
 most to happiness : even social passions, when mode- 
 rate, are more pleasant than when they swell beyond 
 proper bounds / 5 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 
 combining 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 immediately 
 
20 
 
 URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION 
 
 decorated with them all, by the creative magic of a 
 vigorous and fertile fancy. Hence she instantaneously 
 becomes the object of the most fervent 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 immediately vanish at the detection of his 
 delusion; and a degree of disgust, proportioned to 
 the disappointment, of which it is the inevitable con- 
 sequence, 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 philo- 
 sophers than a critical judgment and a pure taste for 
 beauty, which again, therefore, are the sole protection 
 against low and degrading connections. 
 
 A just sense of this truth will give high encourage- 
 ment to sculpture and painting — arts which may 
 everywhere be. looked upon as the best tests, as well 
 as the best records, of civilisation. Such encourage- 
 ment they need in truth ; for the monstrous monopoly 
 of landed property and the accumulation of wealth in 
 few hands — the great aim of our political economy 
 — renders art poor indeed. 
 
 I am aware that the vulgar among artists think 
 otherwise ; from the few rich they obtain employment ; 
 and, like the dog with his master, they look not 
 
AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY. 
 
 21 
 
 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 encouragement 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 . 1 
 
 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 exclusively 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 grandeur and the 
 beauty of the truths on which they are 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 distinguished 
 the religion of ancient Greece. 
 
 By bigots, we are indeed told that, though Homer 
 1 The ‘ Magazine of the Fine Arts,’ No. 6, for October, 1833. 
 
22 
 
 URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION 
 
 is our model in epic, Anacreon in lyric, and iEschylus 
 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 modern war and 
 negotiation, — though the mere sight of her ruined 
 Parthenon is more than a reward for the fatigue or 
 the peril of a journey to the eternal city, — though 
 these products of art are the test of the highest 
 civilisation which the world has witnessed, — though 
 to these chiefly Rome owed the little civilisation of 
 which she was capable, and we ourselves the cir- 
 cumstance 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 without 
 it, but they never can be called into existence by any 
 other religion. 
 
 The personification of simple Beauty, Valour, 
 Wisdom, or Omnipotence, in Venus, Mars, Minerva, 
 or Jupiter, respectively, were essential to the purity 
 and the power of expression of these attributes in the 
 worship of the deities to whom they respectively be- 
 longed. The union of absolute beauty and valour in 
 one being, is not more impossible than their union in 
 
AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY. 
 
 23 
 
 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 attributes 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 
 beautiful 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 vene- 
 ration for departed virtue, which became divine 
 adoration ; and, as individual acts, and even individual 
 names, were ultimately lost in one transcendent attri- 
 bute, so were individual forms and features, in its 
 purified and ideal representation. Here, then, instead 
 of finding the worship of men or of their representa- 
 tions, we discover a gradual advance from beings to 
 attributes — from mortal man to eternal virtue, and a 
 corresponding and suitable advance from simple 
 veneration to divine adoration. 
 
24 
 
 URGENCY OF THE DISCUSSION 
 
 When, in great emergencies of the state, the sages 
 and the soldiers of Athens, in solemn procession 
 repaired to the temple of Minerva, turned their faces 
 toward the statue of the goddess, and prostrated them- 
 selves in spirit before her — let the beautiful history of 
 Grecian science tell whether, in the statue, they wor- 
 shipped 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 long series 
 of glorious achievements which succeeded these, tell, 
 whether gratitude to their heroes was not there identi- 
 fied with homage to the spirit or the divinity that 
 inspired them. 
 
 True it is, that whenever physical or moral princi- 
 ples are personified, the ignorant may be led to mis- 
 take the sign for that which is signified ; but one of 
 the most admirable characteristics of the Grecian 
 religion is, that, with little effort, every 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 in- 
 fluences, with increasing knowledge, ceased to sway the 
 imagination, all powerful truths directed the reason. 
 
AS TO DECENCY AND MORALITY. 25 
 
 The natural and poetical religion of Greece, there- 
 fore, 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 ignor- 
 ance and blind obedience to knowledge and enlightened 
 zeal. Thus, in that happy region, neither were the 
 priests knaves, nor the people their dupes . 1 
 
 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 nature, 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 vanish’d ; 
 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 Yenus who brings everything that’s fair.” 
 
 1 I am not here called upon to vindicate the errors and absurdities 
 which poets and others introduced into mythology. 
 
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 instructors adopt on this subject is often the means 
 of producing injurious effects; because a system of 
 concealment on this subject, as observed in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, is quite impracticable. Discoveries 
 made by young persons in obscene books, the un- 
 guarded 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 con- 
 sequences. 
 
 Parents or instructors ought, therefore, at that criti- 
 cal 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 beneficial results ; because, in order 
 
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 27 
 
 that a sane person should avoid any danger, it is only 
 necessary that he should see it distinctly. 
 
 The advantage, it has been observed, which the 
 parent, relative, or instructor 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 amorous passion. The parent or 
 instructor, moreover, is then justly entitled to, and has 
 gratefully given to him, the entire confidence of the 
 adolescent ; and he is thereby enabled exactly to ap- 
 preciate 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, 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 representation, 
 of reprimand, or even of what is called moralising, 
 which is only the contemptible cant of a being who 
 cannot reason, 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. 
 
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 Among other considerations, varying according to 
 the circumstances of the case, those stated below may 
 with advantage be presented. 
 
 At a certain period in the life both of plants and 
 animals, varying according to their kind and the 
 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, de- 
 riving its name by analogy from the seeds of plants, 
 is termed seminal, is secreted by the male plant or 
 animal, and, by organs differently 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 transition to this 
 period is termed puberty. 
 
 It is with this critical period, and his conduct 
 during it, that all that the youth deems most valuable, 
 all that can decide his fortunes and his happiness in 
 the world, his stature, figure, strength, voice, health, 
 and mental powers are most intimately connected. 
 
 In regard to stature, the body appears to complete 
 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 stature, the youth has only to 
 compare the tall men and women of the country, as in 
 
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 29 
 
 Yorkshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, 
 and the Scottish borders, 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, whereas they are full-grown London men 
 and women. Half the population of the metropolis 
 is affected in this way; and it is the obvious con- 
 sequence of puberty being generally accelerated 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 obviously; and it is evidenced in the almost 
 universal malformation of eunuchs, geldings, &c. 
 
 That, in regard to bodily strength, sexual con- 
 tinence 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 effusion necessary to reproduction debilitate and 
 break down the strongest animal. Many male animals 
 
30 
 
 CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 even fall almost exhausted by a single act of union 
 with the opposite sex. 
 
 Every classical student has read the beautiful alle- 
 gory of Hercules, who, having spun at the knees of 
 Omphale, (o^paAoc, the navel, here put for the most 
 essential part of the female generative organ,) thereby 
 lost his strength: this beautifully expressed the 
 abasement of power amidst the indulgences of love. 
 Euripides also depicts the terrible Achilles as timid 
 before women, and respectful with Clytemnestra 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 respi- 
 ration, 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 cor- 
 responding 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 prostitutes presents an alarming example of this. 
 
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 31 
 
 
 To those who value voice in conversation, in the delightful 
 and humanising 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 moult- 
 ing and sadness; and that male insects even perish U.-r" 
 after this effort, as if they yielded their individual 
 life to their progeny. Indeed, everything perishes 
 so much the more readily, as it has thus 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 pos- 
 terity; 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, epi- 
 cures 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 ex- 
 haustion of that power at an early age must take away 
 these characteristics. Genius as surely languishes, 
 and is extinguished, amidst early sexual indulgence, 
 as do the faculties of voice and locomotion, which are 
 merely its signs and expressions. 
 
 04 
 r 
 
 
 iyih 
 
32 
 
 CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 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 im- 
 mediately from their own power, and mediately 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 characterised by the sexual impulse, excite 
 the imagination and impel the mind to sublime exer- 
 tions ; but the sole means of either obtaining or pre- 
 serving such impulsion is to shun the indulgence of 
 pleasure in early life, and its waste at later periods. 
 
 It has accordingly been observed, that the passion 
 of love appears to be most excessive in animals 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 Homeric fable that Circe transformed men into 
 beasts. 
 
 It would also appear that the most stupid animals 
 — swine, rabbits, &c., in general produce the greatest 
 number of young; while men of genius have en- 
 gendered 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 
 
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 33 
 
 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 in- 
 dulgence — who most economises the vital stimulant, 
 in order to excite the mental powers on great 
 occasions. By such means may a man surely surpass 
 others, if he have received from his parents propor- 
 tional 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 excessive, 
 and consequently dangerous : that is, the sentiment 
 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 good 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 liber- 
 tinism and the diseases 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. 
 
 Plaving now shown the evils of early sexual 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 association, I may briefly notice those of later 
 libertinism. 
 
 If, even in more advanced life, and when the con- 
 stitution is stronger, the instinct of propagation be not 
 restrained within just limits, it degenerates into in- 
 ordinate lewdness or real mania : “ Reperrit obscsenas 
 veneres vitiosa libido.” By such depravation, noble- 
 ness of character is utterly destroyed. 
 
 This scarcely evitable consequence of great fortune 
 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 vigorous branches of the 
 most powerful houses. 
 
 The libertine, then, owing to exhaustion by sexual 
 indulgence, is characterised 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 follows 
 that they are proportionally distinguished by fear and 
 cowardice. Nothing, indeed, destroys courage more 
 than sexual abuses. 
 
 But from cowardice spring cunning, duplicity, lying, 
 and perfidy. These common results of cowardice are 
 uniformly found in eunuchs, slaves, courtiers, and 
 sycophants, while boldness, frankness, and generosity 
 belong to free and magnanimous men. 
 
 Again, cowardice, artifice, falsehood, and perfidy 
 are the usual elements of cruelty. Men feel more 
 
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 35 
 
 wounded in self-love, as they are conscious of being 
 more contemptible ; and they avenge themselves 
 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, Heliogabalus, 
 &c. In later times, Catherine de Medici solicited the 
 massacre of the Protestants ; Paul, Constantine, and 
 Nicholas of Russia were happy only when they wal- 
 lowed in blood ; Charles the Tenth, equally effemi- 
 nated 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 atro- 
 cities. 
 
 The strong and brave man, on the contrary, scarce 
 feels hurt, and scorns revenge. 
 
 It is not cruelty only with which we may reproach 
 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 
 
36 
 
 CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 delights of Capua caused the ruin of Hannibal : and 
 the Roman, once so proud before kings, finally trans- 
 formed himself into the wretched slave of monsters 
 degraded far below the rank of humanity. 
 
 So httle, however, do men look to remote conse- 
 quences, that perhaps the most frightful punishments 
 of libertinism are the diseases which it inflicts. Man 
 may, then, be said to meet only death on the path 
 of hfe. 
 
 The dangers of promiscuous love are indeed far 
 beyond what young men will easily beheve. I do 
 not exaggerate when I state, that, out of every three 
 women, and those the least common of the pro- 
 miscuous, two at least are certainly in a state of 
 pohution capable of the most destructive infection. 
 A surgeon in the habit of receiving foul patients at 
 a public hospital tells me, 1 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 it, 
 but the only remedy known for its cure, mercury, 
 is a poison which generally leaves its own evils for 
 the venom it destroys. This frightful disease has 
 no natural termination but in a disgusting disgrace- 
 ful death, after disfiguring the countenance, by causing 
 blindness, loss of the nose, the palate, and teeth, and 
 
CAUTIONS AS TO YOUTH. 
 
 37 
 
 by the spoliation of the sinning organs. The mise- 
 rables who thus perish in public hospitals are so 
 offensive to the more respectable patients that they 
 are confined to appointed 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 remains means to 
 be employed. Let him be conducted to the hospital, 
 where he will find collected the poor victims of de- 
 bauchery — the unhappy women whom even the day 
 before he may have seen in the streets, with faces 
 dressed in smiles amidst 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 re- 
 fuse to other wretches, compassion for the misery 
 he endures. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NATURE OE BEAUTY. 
 
 In this chapter, my wish is to show that there 
 are more than one kind of beauty, and that much 
 confusion 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 degree of 
 novelty in the objects impressing them, — even if this 
 novelty should arise only for a previous 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 rela- 
 tions 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 
 
NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 39 
 
 attachment to life amidst its more definite and con- 
 spicuous evils. 
 
 All higher mental emotions consist of pleasure 
 or pain superadded to more or less definite ideas. 
 Pleasurable emotions arise from the agreeable rela- 
 tions of things ; painful emotions, from the disagreeable 
 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 further 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 analysing 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 called 
 grandeur or sublimity. 
 
 The characters of the minor beauty or prettiness, 
 with relation to ourselves, are smallness, subordi- 
 nation, or subjection. Hence female beauty, in rela- 
 tion to the male. 
 
 The characters of grandeur or sublimity, with 
 relation to ourselves, are greatness, super-ordination, 
 
40 
 
 NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 or 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?” 
 
 Having, by this concise statement of my own views 
 on these subjects, made the reader acquainted with 
 some of the materials of future consideration here 
 employed, I may now examine the opinions 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 proportion as they 
 show objects to be perfect in their kind. The di- 
 mensions of a beautiful horse are very different from 
 those of a beautiful lap-dog ; and those of a beautiful 
 oak, from those of a beautiful myrtle ; because nature 
 has formed these different kinds of animals and 
 vegetables upon different 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 
 
NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 41 
 
 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 tapered 
 upwards; and the columns of Grecian architecture, 
 having been taken from them, and therefore retaining 
 a degree of analogy with them, were tapered upwards 
 too : but the legs of animals are tapered downwards, 
 and the inverted obelisks, upon which busts were 
 placed, having a similar analogy to them, were tapered 
 downwards also ; whilst pilasters, which had no 
 analogy with either, but were mere square posts 
 terminating a wall, never tapered at all.” 
 
 Speaking of beauty generally, and without seeing 
 the distinctions I have made above, Burke, on the 
 contrary, states the first quality of beauty to be com- 
 parative smallness, and says, “ In ordinary conversa- 
 tion, it is usual to add the endearing name of little 
 to everything we love/’ and, “in most languages, 
 the objects of love are spoken of under diminutive 
 epithets.” 
 
 This is evidently true only of the objects of minor 
 or subordinate beauty , which Burke confusedly thought 
 the only kind of it, though he elsewhere grants, that 
 beauty may be connected with sublimity! It shows, 
 however, that relative littleness is essential to that first 
 kind of beauty. 
 
 With greater knowledge of facts than Burke pos- 
 sessed, and with as feeble reasoning powers, but with 
 
42 
 
 NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 less taste, and with a perverse whimsicality which was 
 all his own, Payne Knight similarly, making no dis- 
 tinction in beauty, considered smallness as an acci- 
 dental association, failed to see that it characterised a 
 kind of beauty, and argued, that “ if we join the di- 
 minutive to a term, which precludes all such affection, 
 or does not even, in some degree, express it, it imme- 
 diately converts it into a term of contempt and re- 
 proach: thus a bantling, a fondling, a darling, &c., are 
 terms of endearment ; but a witling, a changeling, a 
 lordling, &c., are invariably terms of scorn: so in 
 French, ‘mon petit enfant’ is an expression of en- 
 dearment ; but ‘ mon 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 depen- 
 dence which enhances love; while “witling” or little 
 wit unites wit, an expression of talent, with little, 
 meaning the small quantity or absence 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 contempt. 
 
 Even from the little already said, it seems evident 
 that much of the confusion on this subject has arisen 
 
NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 43 
 
 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 sublimity as ex- 
 pressing 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 seemingly 
 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 resist- 
 ance, 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 beau- 
 tiful, is very evident ; and it is therefore also evident 
 how much Burke erred in asserting comparative small- 
 ness to be the first character of beauty generally con- 
 sidered. This and similar errors, as already said, 
 have greatly obscured this subject, and have led 
 
44 
 
 NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 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 vegetable 
 world likewise, the qualities that constitute beauty 
 may possibly be united to things of greater dimensions 
 [that is, littleness may be united with bigness !] ; 
 when they are so united they constitute 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 
 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 sub- 
 stituted 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 without 
 terror or pain. “The proper sensation of sublimity 
 appears,” he observes, “to be distinguishable from 
 the sensation of either of these, and, on several occa- 
 sions, to be entirely separated from them. In many 
 
NATURE Ob' BEAUTY. 
 
 45 
 
 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, are ex- 
 ceedingly terrible, but are destitute of all claim what- 
 ever to sublimity.” 
 
 Payne Knight shows that terror is even opposed to 
 sublimity. “ All the great and terrible convulsions of 
 nature; such as storms, tempests, hurricanes, earth- 
 quakes, volcanoes, &c., excite sublime ideas, and im- 
 press sublime sentiments by the prodigious 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 ; because to them they are not sublime, 
 but terrible. To those only are they sublime ‘ qui 
 formidine nulla imbuti spectant,’ who behold them 
 without any fear at all ; and to whom, therefore, they 
 are in no degree terrible.” 
 
 This further confirms the distinction which I made 
 of beauty into minor or subordinate, and grand or 
 sublime beauty, although Knight adopted other prin- 
 
46 
 
 NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 ciples, 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 neces- 
 sary. 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.” 
 
 Erom what has been already 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 heightens it.” 
 
 To expose the weakness, and to destroy the au- 
 thority of some writers on this subject, can only 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 afterwards be forced critically to examine the 
 notions of Knight in their turn. 
 
NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 47 
 
 Burke states that the highest degree of sublime 
 sensation is astonishment; and the subordinate de- 
 grees, awe, reverence, and respect, all which he con- 
 siders 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 its character. 
 
 “ He was certainly,” says Knight, “ a very respect- 
 able 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 unless 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 West- 
 minster Hall without his wig and coat, or had walked 
 up St. James’s-street without his breeches, it would 
 have occasioned great and universal astonishment; 
 and if he had, at the same time, carried a loaded 
 blunderbuss 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 sentiment 
 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 
 
48 
 
 NATURE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 the exciting cause of pleasurable emotion and of the 
 consequent perception of beauty in the relations 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. 
 
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 consequent 
 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 novelty in other 
 chapters, whatever its worth may be,) except that 
 Burke appears to have borrowed all that he knew 
 about it from that incomparably more profound phi- 
 losopher. 
 
 • 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 the subject, it will further tend 
 
50 
 
 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 to show in what Burke’s ability as a philosopher 
 consisted. 
 
 I must first, however, observe that the word 
 “taste,” as expressing our judgment of beauty, is 
 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 philoso- 
 phers to deny that there exist any certain combina- 
 tions 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 koAov ; 
 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 
 
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 51 
 
 to the archetype of the beautiful in essence, to the 
 to Ka\ov.” This is wit, not reason : let us look for 
 that to a deeper thinker, — as proposed above. 
 
 David Hume says, “ It appears that, amidst 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 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 imperfection in the organ. 
 
 “ In each creature there is a sound and a defective 
 state ; and the former alone can be supposed to afford 
 us a true standard of taste and sentiment. If, in the 
 sound state of the organ, there be an entire or a 
 considerable uniformity of sentiment among men, we 
 may thence derive an idea of the perfect beauty; in 
 like manner as the appearance of objects in day-light, 
 to the eye of a man in health, is denominated their 
 true and real colour.” 
 
 To the same purpose writes Burke, after some pre- 
 liminary 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 
 
52 
 
 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 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, whilst it operates naturally, simply, 
 and by its proper powers only. 
 
 “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 stand- 
 ard, 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 nauseous 
 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.” 
 
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 53 
 
 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 
 then, the metaphors taken from this sense, and em- 
 ployed to express intellectual qualities, show that it 
 is always felt and considered as a corruption, 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 un- 
 pleasant.” By this concession, Knight answers several 
 of his own objections. 
 
 “When it is said,” further 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 relish, then we must know the 
 habits, the prejudices, or the distempers of this 
 particular man, and we must draw our conclusions 
 from those.” 
 
54 
 
 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 Hume proceeds to a second point, 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 convey a sensibility 
 of those finer emotions. 
 
 “ Where the organs are so fine as to allow nothing 
 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 preliminarily observ- 
 ing 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 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 these 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 
 
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 55 
 
 course of their lives. Upon such persons, the most 
 striking objects make but a faint and obscure impres- 
 sion. There are others so continually 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 honours and distinction, that their minds, 
 which had been used continually to the storms of 
 these violent and tempestuous 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 whenever 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 
 between one person and another, nothing tends further 
 to increase and improve this talent, than practice in a 
 particular art, and the frequent survey or contempla- 
 tion 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 
 
56 
 
 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 is known that the taste (whatever it is) is improved 
 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 illustrate 
 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 from thence, will disagree when they come to 
 settle which table has the advantage in point of polish. 
 
 . . . . Nor is it easy, when such a 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 unquestion- 
 ably determine the most accurately. 
 
 “ In the imagination, besides the pain or pleasure 
 arising from the properties of the natural object, a 
 
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 57 
 
 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 com- 
 pared extends. 
 
 “ The principle of this knowledge is very much 
 accidental, as it depends upon experience and obser- 
 vation, and not on the strength or weakness of any 
 natural faculty; and it is from this difference 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 some- 
 thing 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 begins to look 
 with contempt on what he admired at first; not that 
 he admired it even then for its unlikeness to a man, 
 but for that general though inaccurate resemblance 
 which it bore to the human figure. What he ad- 
 mired 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 
 
58 
 
 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 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 master-piece 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 men do not observe with suffi- 
 cient accuracy on the human figure, to enable them to 
 judge properly of an imitation of it.” 
 
 On other points, Flume makes the following obser- 
 vations. 
 
 “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 pre- 
 sented 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 con- 
 sideration, but the very object which is submitted to 
 his examination. 
 
 “It is well known, that in all questions submitted 
 to the understanding, prejudice is destructive of sound 
 judgment, and perverts all operations of the intel- 
 lectual faculties : it is no less contrary to good taste ; 
 
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 59 
 
 nor has it less influence to corrupt our sentiments 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 correspondence 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 judgment, 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 that 
 faculty may consist), or which is much more com- 
 

 60 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 monly the case, it may arise from a want of proper 
 and well-directed exercise, which alone can make it 
 strong and ready. Besides that ignorance, inatten- 
 tion, 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 everything 
 which is an object of the understanding, without 
 inducing us to suppose, that there are no settled 
 principles of reason. 
 
 “A rectitude of judgment in the arts, which may 
 be called a good taste, does in a great measure depend 
 upon sensibility ; because if the mind has no bent to 
 the pleasures of imagination, it will never apply itself 
 sufficiently to works of that species 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 
 everything new, 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 
 
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUT V. 
 
 61 
 
 unworn and tender, when the whole man is awake in 
 every part, and the gloss of novelty fresh upon all the 
 objects that surround us, how lively at that time are 
 our sensations, but how false and inaccurate the judg- 
 ments we form of things ! 
 
 “ Every trivial cause of pleasure is apt to affect the 
 man of too sanguine a complexion : his appetite is too 
 
 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 towards their per- 
 fection, the science of criticism advances with equal 
 pace, and the pleasure of judges is frequently inter- 
 rupted by the faults which are discovered in the most 
 finished compositions.” 
 
 The chief idea above expressed, is again repeated 
 by Sir J. Reynolds, who says, “The principles of 
 these (the imagination and the passions) are as inva- 
 riable 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 common feelings 
 of mankind.” 
 
 These views are thus summed by Hume : “ The 
 organs of internal sensation are seldom so perfect as 
 
62 
 
 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 to allow the general principles their full play, and 
 produce a feeling correspondent to those principles. 
 They either labour under some defect, or are vitiated 
 by some disorder ; and by that means, excite a 
 sentiment which may be pronounced erroneous. 
 When the critic has no delicacy, he judges without 
 any distinction, and is only affected by the grosser 
 and more palpable qualities of the object : the finer 
 touches pass unnoticed and disregarded. 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 
 discern the beauties of design and reasoning, which 
 are the highest and most excellent. Under some or 
 other of these imperfections, the generality of men 
 labour; 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, united to delicate 
 sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by com- 
 parison, and cleared of all prejudice, can alone entitle 
 critics to this valuable character ; 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 con- 
 
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 63 
 
 eludes, “ On the whole it appears to me, that what is 
 called taste, in its most general acceptation, 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, concerning the various relations 
 of these, and concerning the human passions, manners 
 and actions.” 
 
 “ It is sufficient for our present purpose,” Hume 
 further 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 soundness 
 of their understanding, and the superiority of then- 
 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, who yet are capable 
 of relishing any fine stroke which is pointed but to 
 them. Every convert to the admiration of the real 
 poet or orator is the cause of some new conversion. 
 And though prejudices may prevail for a time, they 
 never unite in celebrating any rival to the true genius, 
 
G4 
 
 STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 but yield at last to the force of nature and just 
 sentiment.” 
 
 Hume finally obviates some apparent difficulties. 
 
 “ But notwithstanding all our endeavours to fix a 
 standard of taste, and reconcile the discordant appre- 
 hensions of men, there still remain two sources of 
 variation, which are not sufficient indeed to confound 
 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 the different 
 humours of particular men ; the other, the particular 
 manners 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, con- 
 cerning 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, endeavour to 
 enter into the sentiments of others, and divest our- 
 selves of those propensities which are natural to us. 
 We choose our favorite author as we do our friend, 
 from a conformity of humour and disposition. 
 
 “ 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. 
 
STANDARD OF TASTE IN BEAUTY. 
 
 65 
 
 “ 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 allow- 
 ance 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 standard 
 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 fundamental and 
 difficult inquiry. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 1 
 
 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 foundation. 
 If I can here show that, in the material qualities of 
 the objects of nature and art, there exist elements of 
 beauty equally invariable in themselves, and in the 
 kind of effect they produce upon the mind, it is 
 evident there can be no further dispute 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 ob- 
 serving 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 
 
 1 To the reader unaccustomed to inquiries of this kind, it may save 
 trouble to peruse first the brief Summary of the contents of this im- 
 portant chapter, beginning in page 119. 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 (57 
 
 arts which relate to these respectively. Many partial 
 views of perfect truth and great interest 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 systematic doctrine of beauty, 
 ascending from its origin 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 founda- 
 tion 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 analyse, to generalise, to systematise 
 the materials which they present to me. 
 
 In the hope of accomplishing this, I shall now 
 endeavour successively to trace the elements of beauty 
 which belong respectively to inanimate, living, and 
 thinking beings, and to the useful, ornamental, and 
 intellectual arts which have a reference to these, the 
 neglect of all which I have described as the funda- 
 mental cause of previous failure. 
 
 Again I repeat, it is to this analysis and gene- 
 ralisation alone, and to the systematisation 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 confusion, 
 and without conclusion. I shall now proceed to 
 employ them. 
 
68 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY IN INANIMATE BEINGS. 
 
 Though Burke did not accurately trace the 
 elements 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 disagree- 
 able, 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 further, says, “If a tree be 
 beautiful by means of its colour, its figure, its size, its 
 motion, it is in reality possessed of so many different 
 beauties, which ought to be examined 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 1 and simplicity; 
 and viewing the parts with relation to each other, 
 from uniformity , 1 proportion, and order.” 
 
 1 Regularity expresses the similarity of parts considered as con- 
 stituting a whole; and uniformity, the similarity of parts considered 
 separately. 
 

 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 69 
 
 I will here only observe that these are the qualities, 
 as will speedily appear, which Burke should have set 
 down as the fundamental and first characteristics 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 regu- 
 larity, uniformity, order, and simplicity, contribute 
 each of them to readiness of apprehension, and enable 
 us to form more distinct images of objects than can 
 be done, with the utmost attention, where these par- 
 ticulars are not founded.” And he subjoins, “ This 
 final cause is, I acknowledge, too slight, to account 
 satisfactorily for a taste that makes a figure so illus- 
 trious in the nature of man ; and that this branch of 
 our constitution hath a purpose 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 object, 
 accordant and agreeable relations, the importance of 
 the qualities he has just enumerated would have been 
 evident ; for, without them, these characteristics of the 
 object could not exist : simplicity, regularity, uniformity, 
 order, &c., are the very elements of accordant and 
 
70 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 agreeable relations. This is, in reality, the still more 
 important purpose in which Home believed, and to 
 which the readiness of apprehension he now alludes 
 to eminently contributes. 
 
 As to simplicity, he observes, that a “ multitude of 
 objects crowding into the mind at once, disturb the 
 attention, and pass without making any impression, 
 or any lasting impression ; and in any 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 successively; 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 ; whereas 
 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 atten- 
 tion less divided. 
 
THE ELEMENTS OE BEAUTY. 
 
 71 
 
 “ Simplicity thus contributes to beauty.” 
 
 By regularity is meant that circumstance in a figure 
 by which we perceive it to be formed according to a 
 certain rule. Thus a circle, a square, a parallelogram, 
 or triangle, please by their regularity. 
 
 “A square,” says Home, (who here furnishes the 
 best materials to a more general view, because he 
 most frequently assigns physical causes, and whom, 
 with some abbreviations, 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 in- 
 trinsic beauty. 
 
 “ A parallelogram, again, depends for its 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 towards equality; 
 for proportion there degenerates into imperfect uni- 
 formity, and the figure appears an unsuccessful 
 attempt towards a square.” 
 
 Thus proportion contributes to beauty. 
 
72 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF 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 per- 
 fect order they are susceptible of ; but this order is 
 obscure, and far from being so perfect as the paral- 
 lelism of the sides of a square.” 
 
 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 regu- 
 larity; 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 colour; 
 and when we pass from small to great objects, and 
 consider grandeur instead of beauty, very little regu- 
 larity 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 projec- 
 tions 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 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 73 
 
 can present only relations which are naturally dis- 
 agreeable. This view is corroborated by the fact, that 
 all very 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, smoothness is a quality so 
 essential to beauty, that I do 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 gratifica- 
 tions of feeling smooth and undulating surfaces in 
 general : but, I believe, these gratifications have been 
 confined to himself ; and probably to his own imagi- 
 nation acting through the medium of his favorite 
 system : for, except in the communication of the sexes, 
 which affords no general illustration, and ought there- 
 fore 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, providing it 
 were capable of affording any gratification at all.” 
 
74 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 This is a good specimen of the kind of perverted 
 reasoning, which peculiarly distinguishes Knight. 
 
 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 objects 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 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 feel- 
 ing-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 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 75 
 
 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 reflections of light 
 upon the eyes; and these reflections are all that the 
 eye feels, or naturally perceives. . . . 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 dazzling than the effects of them 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 con- 
 densed rays, which are emitted from the surfaces of 
 polished metals.” 
 
 It seems, to me, scarcely possible to find sophistry 
 more worthless than this, or rather a more contempt- 
 ible quibble; for that which, availing himself of our 
 technicalities about light, he calls angularity, sharp- 
 ness, &c., has no analogy with disagreeable angularity 
 of form. To produce the brilliance and splendour 
 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 splendour ! — and, on that very account, the 
 
76 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 diamond (rightly or wrongly, is not the question,) is 
 deemed the most valuable object on earth ! 
 
 So much for those elements of beauty, in inanimate 
 things, which fall under the cognisance of our funda- 
 mental 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 modi- 
 fied, with regard to colours. But the preference of 
 light and delicate colours to dark and glaring ones, is 
 almost universal among persons of sensibility. 
 
 Alison, indeed, ascribes the effects of all colours to 
 association. “ White,” he says, “ as it is the colour 
 of day, is expressive to us of the cheerfulness or gaiety 
 which the return of day brings: black, as the colour of 
 darkness [night], is expressive of gloomand melancholy.” 
 And he adds, “Whether some colours may not of 
 themselves produce agreeable sensations, and others 
 disagreeable sensations I am not anxious to dispute.” 
 But this is the very point into which Alison ought to 
 have inquired. Nature does nothing without founda- 
 tion in the simplest principles ; and this foundation is 
 not only anterior to but is the cause of all association. 
 
 That, independent of any association, blackness is 
 naturally disagreeable, if not painful, is happily deter- 
 mined 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 uneasiness ; and 
 that, some time after, upon accidentally seeing a 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 77 
 
 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, independent 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 of the human 
 voice, and that “ such sounds are associated, 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 endeavours to establish his views on 
 this subject, by observing that “ Grandeur, or sub- 
 limity of sound, can no otherwise arise from its loud- 
 ness, than as that loudness excites an idea of power 
 in the sonorous object, or in some other associated 
 
78 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 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 rattling 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 loudness. But artillery and lightning are power- 
 ful engines of destruction : and with their power we 
 sympathise, whenever the sound of them excites any 
 sentiments of sublimity.” 
 
 Now, all this is directly opposed to the doclrine it 
 is meant to support. It distinctly implies that loud- 
 ness is so natural and so frequent a result of the 
 violent contact of bodies, that we sometimes mis- 
 takenly ascribe power to objects, of which we have 
 not correctly distinguished the sounds, owing to 
 imitation, distance, &c. The occasional mistake 
 implies the general truth. 
 
 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.” 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 79 
 
 He adds the following observations, which, not- 
 withstanding the error they involve, are too much 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 last two divisions are expressive 
 in themselves : the first two, only in conjunction 
 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 further 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 observations of inanimate nature, or of animals, 
 where, in a great number of cases, such sounds 
 distinguish objects with such qualities, but particularly 
 from the human voice, where all gentle, or delicate, or 
 sorrowful affections, are expressed by such tones. 
 
80 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OE BEAUTY. 
 
 “ Grave sound is connected with ideas of modera- 
 tion, dignity, solemnity, &c., principally, I believe, 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 of such 
 connections in the human voice. 
 
 “ 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 generally 
 signified by such sounds. 
 
 “ Short or abrupt sound has a contrary expression, 
 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 diminution 
 of such qualities. 
 
 “ Motion furnishes another sort of beauty. 
 
 “ Figure, colour, and motion readily blend in one 
 object, and one general perception of beauty. In 
 many beautiful objects, they all unite, and render the 
 beauty greater.” 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 81 
 
 These characteristics are too universal not to sup- 
 port the doctrine of natural appropriation and power, 
 of which association is merely a consequence. 
 
 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- 
 terise 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, and by the largest as well as the 
 smallest bodies, 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 
 characterise 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 each of the other classes of natural beings 
 presents beauty of a different kind, which similarly 
 characterises it. Hence no rational theory of beauty 
 could be formed by writers, who indiscriminately 
 jumbled together the characteristics of all the kinds of 
 beauty, and expected to find them everywhere. 
 
 6 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 As, then, from all that has been said, it appears 
 that all the elements of beauty which have thus been 
 noticed, belonged 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 intellectual 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 trace them as they pass upward through some 
 living and thinking beings — whose new character- 
 istics, however, he did not discriminate. He observes, 
 that “the greater part of those bodies in nature, 
 which possess hardness, strength, or durability, are 
 distinguished by angular forms. The greater part of 
 those bodies, on the contrary, which possess weakness, 
 fragility or delicacy, are distinguished 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. 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 83 
 
 In the vegetable kingdom, all strong and durable 
 plants are in general 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 charac- 
 terised by angular forms ; feeble and delicate animals, 
 by forms of the contrary kind.” 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY IN LIVING BEINGS. 
 
 I have now to show that, in living beings, while the 
 characters of the first and fundamental beauty, that of 
 inanimate beings, are still partially continued, 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 assume 
 
84 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 the simplest and most universal form in nature, the 
 round one ; but as growth is their great function, they 
 extend in height and become cylindrical. 
 
 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 characters of beauty 
 which this class presents to us. 
 
 n. To render this matter plain, I must observe 
 that the formation of rings, which unite in tubes, 
 appears to be almost universally the material condition 
 of growth and reproduction. Every new portion of 
 these* tubes, moreover, and every superadded 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 conditions of beauty, 
 and prevented his seeing that they belonged to 
 different genera. 
 
 Now, as fine and delicate bodies, which are grow- 
 ing, will shoot in that direction where space, air, and 
 light can best be had, and as this, amidst other twigs 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 85 
 
 and tendrils, will greatly vary, so will their produc- 
 tions 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. 
 
 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 
 obseiived by Alison, that the bending form is “ beau- 
 tiful, when we perceive that it is the consequence of 
 the delicacy of their texture, and of their being 
 overpowered by the weight of the flower. ... In the 
 smaller and feebler tribe of flowers, 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 surpris- 
 ing 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 
 
86 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OE BEAUTY. 
 
 second kind of beauty; and in the indiscriminating 
 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 apply- 
 ing these to beauty generally, to which they are not 
 applicable, but in a confused and imperfect way. 
 
 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 sensi- 
 bility, 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 character- 
 istic 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 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 bending form assumed by the stem is felt as a defect ; 
 and instead of impressing us with the idea of delicacy, 
 leads us to behold 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. 
 
 He asserts, however, that in plants, angular forms 
 are beautiful, when they are expressive of fineness, of 
 tenderness, of delicacy, or such affecting qualities ; 
 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 
 perpendicular, 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 in 
 this climate, prevail over the general expression of the 
 form, and give it the same beauty which we generally 
 find in forms of a contrary kind.” — The mistake 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 asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 “ How much more beautiful,” he says, “is the rose- 
 

 88 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 tree when its buds begin to blow, than afterwards, 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 composed of straight lines 
 and of angles, than afterwards, when the weight of 
 the flower weighs down the feeble branches, and 
 describes the easiest and most varied curves.” — But 
 he answers himself by adding, “ The circumstance of 
 its youth, a circumstance 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 imagina- 
 tion, that we behold the form itself with more delight 
 in this situation than afterwards, 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 singular trans- 
 parency, which it is impossible to look at without a 
 strong impression of the fineness and delicacy of the 
 vegetable.” — But it is its transparency, not its angu- 
 larity, that is beautiful. 
 
 The beauty of colour is not less conspicuous than 
 that of form in this class of beings. 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 89 
 
 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 generally 
 assume the same rounded form; but, 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 ex- 
 tension. 
 
 n. As animals, like plants, grow and reproduce, a 
 portion of their general organisation, their vascular 
 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. Accordingly, 
 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- 
 
90 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 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 hardnesses, 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 transparent skin, which, con- 
 forming 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 
 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 embonpoint producing round lines, and lean- 
 ness or old age producing straight ones. 
 
 Woman and man stand pre-eminent among animals 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 91 
 
 as to this kind of beauty; and to them succeed the 
 swifter animals, as the horse, the stag, &c. 
 
 The animals, on the contrary, of which the surface 
 presents right lines and square forms, are correspond- 
 ingly deprived of beauty; as the toad, the hog, and 
 all the animals which seem to us ugly. 
 
 In all animals, also, the beauty of colour, even 
 when slightly varied, becomes extremely interesting. 
 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 produced. 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 glides 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 any point, 
 which forms one of the great constituents of beauty?” 
 
 The hair affords an excellent instance of this 
 agreeable complication. Soft curls agitated by the 
 
92 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 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 matted 
 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.” 
 
 hi. But animals have a higher system of organs 
 and functions which peculiarly distinguishes them, 
 and which presents new and peculiar characteristics 
 of beauty. This consists of the organs by which 
 they receive impressions from, and re-act 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 learnt 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, become beautiful when regarded in relation 
 to fitness. Thus would this sense appear to be so 
 powerful, as in some measure to regulate our other 
 perceptions of beauty. 
 
 It is fitness which leads us to admire in one 
 animal, what would displease us if found in another. 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 93 
 
 "The variety,” says Barry, “and union of parts, 
 which we call beautiful in a greyhound, are pleasing 
 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 arrange- 
 ments 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 increase 
 the beauty of the female bosom, by the addition of 
 another protuberance; and the exquisite undulating 
 transitions from the convex to the concave 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 authorities 
 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 gene- 
 rally 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 
 
94 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 framing this theory, I am apprehensive that ex- 
 perience was not sufficiently consulted. For, on that 
 principle, the wedge-like snout of a swine, with its 
 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 connection between fitness and beauty. 
 
 “ If beauty in our own 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 
 purpose. 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 per- 
 forming the portion suited to men. 
 
 “ And,” says he, “I appeal to the first and most 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 95 
 
 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 themselves.” 
 — Is running, then, the proper use of the leg in 
 woman ! Rousseau more truly thought its 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 current, 
 pretty closely allied to the former ; that perfection is 
 the constituent cause of beauty. This opinion has 
 been made to extend much further than to sensible 
 objects. But in these, so far is perfection, 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 imper- 
 fection.” — For this plain reason, 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 characterised by fitness ? 
 
96 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 “ 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. 
 
 Hence an agreeable impression is produced by the 
 corresponding disposition and the exact resemblance 
 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 exactness 
 of corresponding parts ; and that symmetry is the first 
 character of beauty in thinking beings. 
 
 Occasional irregularity makes us better appreciate 
 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, disfigure the most 
 beautiful person. 
 
 But how does symmetry contribute to fitness, or 
 why is it necessary ? 
 
 “ All our limbs and organs,” says Payne Knight, 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 97 
 
 “ 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 indis- 
 pensable 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 monster, 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 correspondent 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 one, and ideas of irregularity 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 a 
 loss for a reason. He screens his own helplessness by 
 lugging in the Creator; and then he hopes that the 
 solemnity of the Creator’s presence, thus irreverently 
 procured, will silence his antagonist. Now, it is not 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 by any “ habitual association” with “ our limbs and 
 organs serving us in pairs,” that we are “ taught to 
 consider this uniformity indispensable to beauty,” but 
 because, independent of all association, we could not 
 conveniently walk upon one leg, or indeed on any 
 unequal number 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 
 general system. Thus it is locomotion to be performed 
 that renders “ a strict parity, or relative equality, 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 worth- 
 less, 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 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 appre- 
 hend, the source of the beauty of what is strictly 
 and properly called proportion in the parts of the 
 human form. 
 
 “We expect a different form and a different con- 
 formation of limbs in a running footman and a 
 waterman, in a wrestler and a racing groom, in a 
 shepherd and a sailor, &c. 
 
THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 99 
 
 “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 dif- 
 ferent from those of Hercules ; 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 proportions 
 of the form, but those of every limb, are different; 
 and that the pleasure we feel in these proportions 
 arises from their exquisite fitness for the physical 
 ends which the artists were consulting. 
 
 “ 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 beau- 
 tiful or otherwise.” 
 
100 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 I divide the Arts into the useful, the ornamental, 
 and the intellectual, commonly called the fine arts; 
 and I shall endeavour to show, that the objects of 
 each v>f these are characterised by a peculiar kind of 
 beauty, corresponding to one of those already described. 
 
 I shall endeavour to show that the objects of the 
 useful arts are characterised by the simple geometrical 
 forms which belong to inanimate beings; that those 
 of the ornamental arts are characterised by the deli- 
 cate, bending, varied and contrasted forms of living 
 beings ; and that those of the intellectual arts are, in 
 their highest efforts, characterised chiefly by thinking 
 forms, as in gesture, sculpture, painting, or by func- 
 tions of mind actually exercised, in oratory, poetry, 
 music. 
 
 In all these arts, purpose is implied — not purpose 
 in the hypothetical sense, as applied to the exis- 
 tence, conditions, and objects of natural beings — but 
 in the common intelligible sense of the word, as 
 expressing the intention of men in the pursuit of 
 these arts. 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 101 
 
 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 purpose of the whole. 
 
 This implies an act of understanding and judgment : 
 for of no product of useful art can we perceive the 
 extrinsic beauty, until we know its destination, and 
 the relation which that involves. 
 
 When these are known, so powerful is the sense 
 of utility, that, though deviation from the elementary 
 beauty never ceases to be felt, yet that sense sanc- 
 tions it to a great extent. Hence it is that an irre- 
 gular dwelling-house may become beautiful, when its 
 convenience is striking. Hence it is that, in the 
 forms of furniture, machines, and instruments, their 
 beauty arises chiefly from this consideration ; 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 of — 
 of all the means of producing accordant and agreeable 
 
102 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 relations, simplicity appears to be the most efficient ; 
 and in all the useful arts, no elementary 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, because 
 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 subject of great 
 nicety, and, if ornament be at the same time admis- 
 sible, a subject of exquisite taste. 
 
 It was by the transcendent exercise of these quali- 
 ties, that the Greeks succeeded in fixing the orders of 
 architecture. The most beautiful columns would have 
 shocked the sight, if their 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 architec- 
 ture insist much upon the proportions of a column, 
 and assign different proportions to the Doric, Ionic, 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 103 
 
 and Corinthian ; but no architect will maintain, 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 ad- 
 mirably suited to the different quantity of matter in 
 their entablatures. A greater superincumbent mass, 
 required shorter and thicker columns; a less super- 
 incumbent mass, longer and slenderer ones. Many 
 experiments, much observation, were requisite to deter- 
 mine this ; but the Greeks had the means of making 
 them, and solved every problem on the subject ; and 
 the result of the perfection 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 corresponding 
 dimensions of the columns that determined, of course 
 amidst infinite experiment and observation, the nature 
 of their ornaments. Hence the Doric is distinguished 
 by simplicity; the Ionic, by elegance; and the Corin- 
 thian, by lightness, in ornament as well as in pro- 
 portion. 
 
 Even, therefore, if we were to destroy all the 
 associations of elegance, of magnificence, of costliness, 
 and still more than all, of antiquity, which are so 
 strongly connected with such forms, the pleasure 
 which their proportions would afford would remain, 
 
104 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 as in all cases where means are best adapted to 
 their end. 
 
 In his objections to proportion as an element of 
 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 consi- 
 deration 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 watch- 
 work itself ; but let us look on the case, the labour of 
 some curious artist in engraving, 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 inevitable 
 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 ; but it may produce 
 no desire or passion of love. There may exist, then, 
 the beauty of utility, as to the structure of the watch. 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 105 
 
 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- 
 vious to any knowledge of the use, but to judge of 
 proportion, we must know the end for which any 
 work is designed;” he forgets, that in the instance 
 of the barber’s block, &c., he showed that the per- 
 ception 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 civilisation, 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 par- 
 ticularly to vegetable beings, and is characterised by 
 delicate, bending, varied, and contrasted forms. 
 
 All these, regarded as ornamental arts, have chiefly 
 bodily and sensual pleasures for their purpose; and 
 this I consider as distinguishing them from the intel- 
 lectual arts which have a higher purpose. 
 
 Of landscape gardening, the materials are plants, 
 
 1 The common character of these arts has been overlooked. 
 
106 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 and therefore its beauty is evidently dependent on, 
 or rather composed of, theirs. 
 
 The same kind of beauty will be found in every 
 ornamental art. Hence, Alison says, “The greater 
 part of beautiful forms in nature, are to be found in 
 the vegetable kingdom, in the forms of flowers, of 
 foliage, of shrubs, and in those assumed by the young 
 shoots of trees. It is from them, accordingly, that 
 almost all those forms have been imitated, 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 sculptors, for the 
 purpose of decoration. The other line, which he calls 
 the line of grace, is the former waving line, twisted 
 round some solid body. Twisted pillars, and twisted 
 horns, exhibit it. In all the instances which he men- 
 tions, 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 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 107 
 
 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 the 
 rigid trunks and the delicate and bending forms of 
 plants. Its columns tapering upward, are copied 
 from the trunks of trees ; and their decorations are 
 suited with consummate art to their 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 ornaments, 
 some observations have struck me, which I have not 
 seen mentioned elsewhere. The Doric presents only 
 columns, without any other ornament 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 lightness, by forming its capi- 
 tals of foliage, as if the weight above them could not 
 crush even a leaf. The Composite expresses gaiety. 
 
108 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 by adding flowers to the foliage. It is from imperfect 
 views of this, that the meaning and effect of carya- 
 tides have been mistaken: instead of being oppressed 
 by 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 whatever,” 
 says Hogarth, “where one does not see the waving- 
 line employed in some way or other. How inelegant 
 would the shapes of all our moveables be without it; 
 how very plain and unornamental the mouldings of 
 cornices and chimney-pieces, without the variety in- 
 troduced by the ogee member, which is entirely com- 
 posed 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 con- 
 stituent parts of every building require 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 when- 
 ever ornaments exceed in size, in their quantity of 
 matter, or in the prominence of their relief, that 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 109 
 
 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 censure 
 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 gaiety which that sex desires. 
 
 “ Uniformity,” says Hogarth, “ is chiefly complied 
 with, in dress, on account of fitness, and seems to 
 be extended not much further than dressing both 
 arms alike, and having the shoes of the same colour. 
 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 complicated 
 draperies, excite that active curiosity, and those move- 
 ments 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. 
 
 For the same reason, a feather or a flower is never 
 
110 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 placed precisely over the middle of the forehead ; 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 differently 
 from flowers. While the latter are placed irregularly, 
 and in waving lines, not only on the head, but the 
 bosom, and the skirt of the dress, the former are in 
 general regularly placed, either on the medium 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 colour and smell, associate with 
 its emotions, which they also express and communi- 
 cate to others — they, therefore, assume the varied 
 forms of that system; whereas diamonds, attached 
 generally to mental organs or organs of sense, are 
 significant of mental feelings, love of splendour, dis- 
 tinction, pride, &c., — they, therefore, assume the sym- 
 metrical form of these organs. Hence, too, flowers 
 are recommended to the young : diamonds are per- 
 mitted only to the old. 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Beauty of Intellectual Objects. 
 
 I have already said, that the intellectual arts are, 
 in their highest efforts, characterised chiefly by animal 
 forms, as in gesture, sculpture, and painting, or by 
 animal functions actually exercised, in oratory, poetry, 
 and music. 
 
 In the useful arts, the purpose is utility; in the 
 ornamental arts it is bodily or sensual pleasures ; 
 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 conspicuous 
 in the works of nature, so is it a condition of beauty 
 in all the operations of mind. In philosophy, general 
 theorems become beautiful from this simplicity; and 
 polished manners receive from it dignity and grace. 
 The intellectual arts are especially dependent 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, 
 “ whether in nature or in art, the mere sensual gratifi- 
 cation of the eye is comparatively so small, as scarcely 
 
112 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 to be attended to : but yet, if there occur 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 polishing, all the magic 
 instantly vanishes, and the imagination avenges the 
 injury offered to the sense. The glaring and unhar- 
 monious 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 gratifi- 
 cation, 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 tune, 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 element even in 
 the most complex beauty. 
 
 That the second kind of beauty also enters into the 
 acts or products of intellectual beauty, is sufficiently 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OP ART. 
 
 ] 13 
 
 illustrated by the observation of Hogarth, 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 dependent upon our will. We can generally, 
 when we please, confine our consideration of it to the 
 qualities that least excite pleasurable or painful emo- 
 tion, and that can least interest the imagination. 
 
 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 sublimity 
 or beauty are produced, it will be found that some 
 
114 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 affection is uniformly first excited by the presence of 
 the object; and whether the general impression we 
 receive is that of gaiety, or tenderness, or melancholy, 
 or solemnity, or terror, &c., we have never any diffi- 
 culty 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 emotion. 
 
 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 sublimity 
 of natural scenery, — the gay lustre of a morning in 
 spring, or the mild radiance of a summer evening, — 
 the savage majesty of a wintry storm, or the wild 
 magnificence of the tempestuous ocean, — we are con- 
 scious of a variety of images in our minds, very 
 * different from those which the objects 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 pro- 
 gress or the connection of those thoughts, which 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 115 
 
 have passed with so much rapidity through our ima- 
 gination. 
 
 “ The effect of the different arts of taste is similar. 
 The landscapes of Claude Lorraine, the poetry of 
 Milton, the music of the greatest masters, excite 
 feeble emotions in our minds when our 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 relation, 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. 
 
116 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY 
 
 “ 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 lin- 
 gering among the woods and hills, — all conspire to 
 infuse into our minds somewhat of that fearful tender- 
 ness with which infancy is usually beheld. With 
 such a sentiment, how innumerable 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 situa- 
 tions, have the dominion of our heart ! — The beauty 
 of autumn is accompanied with a similar exercise of 
 thought. 
 
 “ Whatever increases this exercise or employment 
 of imagination, increases also the emotion of beauty 
 or sublimity. 
 
 “ This is very obviously the effect of all associations. 
 There is no man who has not some interesting associa- 
 tions with particular scenes, or airs, or books, and 
 who does not feel their beauty or sublimity enhanced 
 to him by such connections. The view of the house 
 where one was born, of the school where one was 
 
AS EMPLOYED IN OBJECTS OF ART. 
 
 117 
 
 educated, and where the gay years of infancy were 
 passed, is indifferent to no man. 
 
 “ In the case of those trains of thought, which 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 affection or emotion ; 
 and that not only the whole succession 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 cheerfulness, of 
 gladness, and of tenderness. The images suggested 
 by the prospect of ruins, are images belonging 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 connection 
 between individual thoughts may be, it will be found, 
 that there is always some general principle of con- 
 
118 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 nection 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 tranquillity, and then suggests a 
 variety of images corresponding to this primary im- 
 pression. The sight of a torrent, or of a storm, in 
 the same manner, impresses us first with sentiments 
 of awe or solemnity, or terror, and then awakens in 
 our minds a series of conceptions allied to this pe- 
 culiar 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. 
 
119 
 
 SUMMARY OF THIS CHAPTER. 
 
 Thus, by analysis, generalisation, and systemisation 
 of the materials which the best writers present, I 
 have, in this chapter, endeavoured to take new and 
 larger views ; and, by an examination of the elements 
 of beauty, I have endeavoured to fix its doctrines upon 
 an immovable 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 ele- 
 ments 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 elements 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 , 1 &c., which are 
 
 ' 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. 
 
120 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 connected with fitness for sense, thought, and motion ; 
 that the elements of beauty in the objects of useful 
 art, consist in the same simplicity, regularity, uniform- 
 ity, proportion, order, &c., of geometrical forms which 
 belong to inanimate beings; that the elements of 
 beauty in the objects of ornamental art consist in the 
 same delicacy, bending, variety, contrast, &c., which 
 belong to living beings ; 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 con- 
 fused 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 subject of human inquiry has 
 hitherto been left in a more disgraceful condition than 
 this, the very foundation of taste. 
 
 I do not hesitate to say that, owing to the near 
 approximations to truth, and the insensible transitions 
 into error, which I have found in every writer, and 
 the immense mass of confused materials which they 
 
SUMMARY OR THIS CHAPTER. 121 
 
 present, this subject has cost me more trouble than 
 any one I have ever investigated, except that of my 
 work on the mind ; x nor without some physiological 
 knowledge, do I think tasks of this kind at all prac- 
 ticable. Generally speaking, each branch of know- 
 ledge 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 quae ad humanitatem pertinent, habent 
 quoddam commune vinculum, et quasi cognatione 
 quadam inter se continentur.” 
 
 1 1 The Nervous System, Anatomical and Physiological in which the 
 Functions of the various parts of the Brain are for the first time assigned. 
 
APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 NATURE OF THE PICTURESQUES. 1 
 
 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 disputes, more- 
 over, 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 contrary, 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 
 analysed. 
 
 Price has, indeed, generalised considerably on this 
 subject, by showing that irregularity, roughness, &c., 
 enter into all scenes of a picturesque description ; 
 
 1 Communicated by the writer to the ‘Magazine of the Fine Arts/ 
 No. xi, for June, 1833. 
 
APPENDIX TO PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 123 
 
 and the examination of any one of them, will certainly 
 verify the truth of this observation. 
 
 Thus, on a remote country road, we often observe 
 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 unfavorable 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 irregu- 
 larity and roughness which Price ascribes to the 
 picturesque. But he has failed to observe, that the 
 irregularity and roughness are hut the signs of that 
 which interests the mind far more deeply — namely, 
 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 decay, and 
 
124 
 
 APPENDIX TO 
 
 the desolation before us naturally occur; and they 
 introduce a long succession of others, all 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, not 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 pic- 
 turesque universally, and it is only surprising that, 
 amidst such disputes, this simple and obvious truth 
 should not have been observed. 
 
 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 support 
 of this truth and the principle which it affords; but 
 I think it better to leave these to the suggestion or 
 the choice of every reader. 
 
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 125 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 CAUSE OP LAUGHTER. 
 
 This has been partly explained by Beattie, partly 
 by Hobbes; and it is chiefly to vindicate the latter, 
 who knew much more of the human mind than 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 con- 
 trariety, exhibited, or supposed to be united, in the 
 same assemblage.” And elsewhere he says, “ Laugh- 
 ter arises from the view of two or more inconsistent, 
 unsuitable, or incongruous parts or circumstances, 
 considered as united in one complex object or assem- 
 blage, 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 likeness, 
 from dignity and meanness, from absurdity, &c. 
 
 “ Thus, at first view, the dawn of the morning, and 
 a boiled lobster, seem utterly incongruous, but when a 
 a change of colour from black to red is suggested, we 
 
126 
 
 APPENDIX TO 
 
 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 dis- 
 similitude, the effect of the contrast will be more 
 powerful than if only one of these oppositions had 
 appeared in the ludicrous idea.” 
 
 This 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 eminency in our- 
 selves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or 
 with our own formerly.” And elsewhere he says, 
 “Men laugh at jests, the wit whereof always consisteth 
 in the elegant discovering and conveying to our minds, 
 some absurdity of another .” 1 
 
 Dr. Campbell objects that “ contempt may be 
 raised in a very high degree, both suddenly and un- 
 expectedly, 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 superiority, laughter, 
 
 ‘ Human Nature,’ chap, ix, § 13. 
 
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 127 
 
 as Beattie has shown, “ will always, or for the most 
 part, excite the risible emotion, unless when the per- 
 ception of it is attended with some other emotion 
 of greater authority,” dependent on custom, polite- 
 ness, &c. 
 
 Dr. Campbell also observes, that, “laughter may 
 be, and is daily, produced by the perception of incon- 
 gruous associations, when there is no contempt. 
 
 “ We often smile at a witty performance or passage, 
 such as Butler’s allusion to a boiled lobster, in his 
 picture of the morning, when we are so far from con- 
 ceiving any inferiority or turpitude in the author, that 
 we greatly admire his genius, and wish ourselves 
 possessed of that very turn of fancy which produced 
 the drollery in question. 
 
 “ Many have laughed at the queerness of the com- 
 parison in these lines, 
 
 “ For rhyme the rudder is of verses, 
 
 With which, like ships, they steer their courses 
 
 who never dreamt 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 consider, 
 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. 
 
128 
 
 APPENDIX TO 
 
 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 “ turpitude in 
 the author,” as Dr. Campbell supposes ! 
 
 “ As to the wag,” says Beattie, “ who amuses him- 
 self 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 knows to be 
 wiser and better than himself ; 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 sagacity, 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 charac- 
 
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 129 
 
 ters?” — Undoubtedly; but then the slouch of one, 
 and the rigidity of the other, &c., make both con- 
 temptible, 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 uncommon in 
 very risible dispositions, is utterly inexplicable upon 
 Hobbes’s system. For, to consider the thing only 
 with regard to the laughter 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 
 nothing else but sudden glory, arising from a sudden 
 conception of some eminency in ourselves, by com- 
 parison with the infirmity of others, or with our own 
 formerly. For men laugh at the follies of themselves 
 past, when they come suddenly to remembrance, 
 except they briny with them any present dishonour.” 
 
 It is not therefore true, as Dr. Campbell says, that 
 “ with regard to others, he appears solely under the 
 notion of inferiority, as the person triumphed over.” 
 He, on the contrary, appears as achieving a very 
 glorious triumph — that, namely, over his own errors. 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 APPENDIX TO 
 
 This shows also the error of Addison’s remarks, 
 that, “ according to this account, when we hear 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 himself and 
 others, without pride ; and, indeed, in contemning the 
 former, he proves himself to be far above that senti- 
 ment, 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. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 CAUSE OF THE PLEASURE RECEIVED FROM REPRESENTATIONS 
 EXCITING PITY. 
 
 Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain 
 this cause. 
 
 According to the Abbe du Bos , 1 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 distressing, are, 
 for this purpose, preferable to the pleasant, because 
 they most effectually relieve the mind from the less 
 
 Reflexions Critiques sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture. 
 
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 131 
 
 endurable languor which preys upon it during in- 
 action. 
 
 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 inaction, 
 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 delightful sor- 
 row, we excite onlv horror and aversion. The most, 
 therefore, that can be concluded from the Abbe’s 
 premises is, that it is useful to excite passion of 
 some kind or other, but not that the distressing ones 
 are the fittest. 
 
 According to Fontenelle , 1 theatrical representation 
 has almost the effect of reality; but yet not altogether. 
 We have still a certain idea of falsehood 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 reflecting, 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, 
 
 Reflexions sur la Poetique. 
 
132 
 
 APPENDIX TO 
 
 “ 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 sym- 
 ptoms of distress and sorrow, is that very eloquence 
 with which the melancholy scene is represented.” 
 
 In reply, Dr. Campbell has shown that the aggra- 
 vating of all the circumstances of misery in the repre- 
 sentation, 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 hy- 
 pothesis implies, is in direct opposition to the funda- 
 mental maxim, that “ it is essential to the art to 
 conceal the art;” and that the supposition that there 
 are two distinct effects produced by the eloquence on 
 the hearers, one the sentiment of beauty, or of the 
 harmony of oratorical 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 reverse when the second is superior, is altogether 
 imaginary. 
 
 According to Hawkesworth , 1 the compassion in 
 question may be “resolved into that power of ima- 
 gination, by which we apply the misfortunes of others 
 to ourselves;” and we are said “to pity no longer 
 
 1 Adventurer, No. 110. 
 
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 133 
 
 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 hypo- 
 thesis 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 misfortunes 
 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 them, in this case 
 I conceive we must have a delight or pleasure of some 
 species or other in contemplating 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 
 
134 
 
 APPENDIX TO 
 
 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 imitated 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 in- 
 spection, or historical narration, and dramatic repre- 
 sentation : 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 , 1 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 confound- 
 ing this with the next case, of subsequent inspection 
 or historical narration, that Burke gets into error 
 here. 
 
 “ We do not,” says Burke, “ sufficiently distinguish 
 what we would by no means choose to do [or to see 
 
 1 Essay on Tragedy. 
 
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 135 
 
 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, seem as evident as it is that they afford a 
 very different conclusion from Burke’s, of our behold- 
 ing 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 amongst 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 illus- 
 tration, it is the latter, and not the former, that he 
 
136 
 
 APPENDIX TO 
 
 supposes — nay, he now says “ no man is so strangely 
 wicked as to desire to see destroyed 1” &c. 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 characteristic con- 
 fusion 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 moment 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 demon- 
 strate 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, supposing his rescue 
 impossible, would assuredly be fled from by every 
 person of feeling and honour; 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- 
 
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 137 
 
 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. 
 
 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 mo- 
 mentary deception, but it is only children, and very 
 simple people, utter strangers to theatrical amuse- 
 ments, who are apt to be so deceived : and as their 
 case always excites the surprise and laughter of every 
 one, it clearly proves that others are under no sort of 
 deception. 
 
 Even Burke, notwithstanding his want of discrimi- 
 nation, 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 desertion of the theatre, 
 if it occur under any circumstances, illustrates this. 
 
 Burke adds, indeed, “ But then I imagine we shall 
 be much mistaken if we attribute any considerable 
 part of our satisfaction in tragedy to the consideration 
 that tragedy is a deceit, and its representations 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 further it removes 
 us from all idea of fiction, the more perfect is its 
 power.” 
 
138 
 
 APPENDIX TO 
 
 The nearest possible approach to reality, is only 
 necessary to the success of fiction, to the pleasure of 
 imagination. He himself has said, “ Imitated distress 
 is never so perfect, but we can perceive it is imi- 
 tation !” Again, therefore, here is only Burke’s cha- 
 racteristic confusion of ideas. 
 
 My own doctrine on this subject is already obvious 
 from the remarks made on others. We never cease to 
 know that tragic representation is a mere deception; 
 our reason is never imposed upon ; our imagination is 
 alone engaged ; we are perfectly conscious that it is so; 
 and we have all the sensibility, fine feeling, and genero- 
 sity 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 sometimes 
 displays itself in human characters, that it is not im- 
 possible 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 neighbourhood, 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 
 
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 139 
 
 sympathetic 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 hy- 
 pothesis upon the subject. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 To any inquiry respecting the beauty of woman, 
 the replies 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 imper- 
 fect 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, oiir actual preferences are dependent 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 to in 
 
ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 141 
 
 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, remark- 
 able 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, strik- 
 ing, and brilliant. Yet has she few or none of the 
 qualities of the succeeding 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 embon- 
 
142 
 
 ANATOMICAL AND 
 
 point of all the contiguous parts; her haunches are 
 greatly expanded ; her thighs are large in proportion ; 
 but her limbs and arms, tapering and becoming deli- 
 cate, terminate in feet and hands which, compared 
 with the ample trunk, are peculiarly small ; her com- 
 plexion has the rose and lily so exquisitely blended, 
 that we are surprised it should defy the usual opera- 
 tion of the elements ; and she boasts a luxuriant 
 profusion 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 forehead 
 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 embon- 
 point, 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 characterised by intellectuality and 
 grace. 
 
 Such are the three species of beauty, of which all 
 the rest are varieties. 
 
 Now, as it is in general only one of these species 
 which characterises any one woman, and as each of 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 143 
 
 these species is suited to the wants of, and is con- 
 sequently agreeable to, a different individual, it is 
 obvious why the common vague reports of the beauty 
 of any woman are always so various, inconsistent, or 
 contradictory. 
 
 In the more accurate study of this subject, it is 
 indispensable that the reader should understand the 
 scientific principles on which the preceding brief 
 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, at- 
 tention to the following sketch. It may not at first 
 seem interesting to the general reader; but it is the 
 sole basis of a scientific knowledge of female beauty; 
 the study of it during one hour is sufficient to appre- 
 hend it in all its bearings ; and it will obviate every 
 future difficulty. 
 
 In viewing the human organs in a general manner, 
 a class of these organs at once obtrudes itself upon 
 our notice, from its consisting of an apparatus 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 pre- 
 sents to us another class, which is distinguished from 
 the preceding by its consisting of cylindrical tubes, by 
 
144 
 
 ANATOMICAL AND 
 
 its transmitting and transmuting liquids, performing 
 vascular action or nutrition, and by its motions being 
 barely apparent. — Further investigation discovers a 
 third, which differs 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, 
 by the purposes which it serves, and by the greater 
 or less obviousness of its motions. 
 
 The first consists of levers; the second, of cylin- 
 drical tubes ; and the third, of nervous particles. The 
 first performs motion from place to place or loco- 
 motion ; the second transmits and transmutes liquids, 
 performing vascular action or nutrition ; and the third 
 transmits impressions from external objects, perform- 
 ing 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 another : 
 for, considering their purposes only, it is evident that 
 that which performs locomotion, neither transmits 
 liquids nor sensations ; that which transmits liquids, 
 neither performs locomotion nor is the means of sensi- 
 bility; and that which is the means of sensibility, 
 neither performs locomotion nor transmits liquids. 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 145 
 
 Now, the organs employed in locomotion are the 
 bones, ligaments, and muscles; those employed in 
 transmitting liquids or in nutrition, are the absorbent, 
 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) me- 
 chanical ; the second, vascular or nutritive, or (as even 
 vegetables, from their possessing vessels, have life,) 
 they may be termed vital; and the third may be 
 named nervous or thinking, or (as mind results from 
 them) mental. 
 
 The human body, then, consists of organs of three 
 kinds. By the first kind, locomotive or mechanical 
 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 loco- 
 motive organs; that which considers the nutritive 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 ; second, 
 the ligaments or organs of articulation ; and third, the 
 muscles or organs of motion. 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 ANATOMICAL AND 
 
 Under the nutritive or vital organs are classed, first, 
 the absorbent vessels or organs of absorption ; second, 
 the blood-vessels, which derive their contents from the 
 absorbed lymph, or organs of circulation; and third, 
 the secreting vessels, which separate various matters 
 from the blood, or organs of secretion. 
 
 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, emotions, 
 and passions; and third, the cerebel or organ of 
 volition, where acts of the will result from the last . 1 
 
 1 To some it may appear, that the organs and functions of digestion, 
 respiration, and generation, are not involved by this arrangement; but 
 such a notion can originate only in superficial observation. 
 
 Digestion is a compound function easily reducible to some of the 
 simple ones which have been enumerated. It consists of the motion of 
 the stomach and contiguous parts, of the secretion of a liquid from its 
 internal surface, and of that heat, which is the common result of all 
 action, whether mechanical, vital, or mental, and which is better 
 explained by such motion, than by chemical theories. Similarly com- 
 pounded 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 system, 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 transmute liquids. Possessing 
 such strong characteristics of the nutritive or vital system, they are 
 evidently most allied to it. 
 
 In short, digestion prepares the nutritive or vital matter, which is 
 taken up by absorption — the first of the simple nutritive functions ; 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 147 
 
 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 ligaments 
 form articulations, and afford the points of support; 
 and the muscles are the moving powers. To the first, 
 are owing all the symmetry and elegance 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 mixture 
 with the saliva, thrown back, by the tongue and con- 
 tiguous parts, into the cavity behind, called fauces 
 
 respiration renovates it in the very middle of its course — between the 
 two portions of the simple function of circulation; and generation, 
 dependent on secretion — the last of these functions, communicates this 
 nutritive matter, or propagates vitality to a new series of beings. In 
 such arrangement, the digestive organs, therefore, precede, and the 
 generative follow, the simple nutritive organs; while the respiratory 
 occupy a middle place between 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 digestion, the 
 external and internal absorbent surfaces, and the vessels which absorb 
 from these surfaces, or the organs of absorption; second, the heart, 
 lungs, and blood-vessels, which derive their contents (the blood) from the 
 absorbed lymph, or the organs of circulation; and third, the secreting 
 cavities, glands, &c., which separate various matters from the blood, or 
 the organs of secretion, and of which generation is the sequel. 
 
148 
 
 ANATOMICAL AND 
 
 and pharynx; this contracting, presses it into the 
 oesophagus or gullet; this also contracting, propels 
 it into the stomach, which, after its due digestion 
 aided by the gastric juice, similarly contracting, trans- 
 mits whatever portion of it, now called chyme, is suffi- 
 ciently comminuted to pass through its lower opening, 
 the pylorus, into the intestines; these, at the com- 
 mencement of which it receives the bile and pancreatic 
 juice, similiarly pressing it on all sides, urge forward 
 its most solid part to the anus; while its liquid por- 
 tion partly escapes from the pressure into the mouths 
 of the absorbents. The absorbents arising by minute 
 openings 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 returning and dark- 
 coloured blood, and whence it flows into the anterior 
 side of that organ. The anterior side of the heart, 
 forcibly repeating this contraction, propels it, com- 
 mixed with the venous blood, into the lungs, which 
 perform the office of respiration, and in some measure 
 of sanguification ; there, giving off carbonaceous mat- 
 ter, and assuming a vermilion hue and new vivifying 
 properties, it flows back as arterial blood, into the 
 posterior side of the heart. The posterior side of the 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 149 
 
 heart, still similarly contracting, discharges it into the 
 arteries; these, maintaining a like contraction, carry 
 it over all the system; and a great portion of it, 
 impregnated with carbon, and of a dark colour, 
 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 parenchyma, 
 or cellular, vascular and nervous substance forming 
 the basis of the whole fabric, and constitutes 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 pro- 
 ducts of the former contributing to the exercise of 
 other functions, 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 influenced, 
 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 extremities ; 
 
150 
 
 ANATOMICAL AND 
 
 but, in consequence of the hitherto universal neglect 
 of the natural arrangement of the organs and func- 
 tions into locomotive, nutritive, and thinking, 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 . 1 
 
 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 mechanical 
 organs — organs which, as to mere structure, and con- 
 sidered apart from the influence of the nervous system 
 over them, are common to us with the lowest class of 
 beings, namely, minerals , 2 are placed in the lowest 
 
 1 In perfect consistency with the assertion, that, though the organs of 
 digestion, respiration, and generation, were really compound, still they 
 were chiefly nutritive or vital, and properly belonged 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. 
 
 2 The bones resemble these, in containing the greatest quantity of 
 earthy mineral matter. 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 151 
 
 situation, namely, the extremities ; that which consists 
 chiefly of nutritive or vital organs — organs common 
 to us with a higher class of beings, namely, vege- 
 tables, 1 * is placed in a higher situation, namely, the 
 trunk ; and that which consists chiefly of thinking or 
 mental organs — organs peculiar to the highest class 
 of beings, namely, animals, 3 is placed in the highest 
 situation, namely, the head. 
 
 It is not less remarkable, that this analogy is sup- 
 ported even in its minutest details ; for, to choose the 
 nutritive organs contained in the trunk, as an illus- 
 tration, it is a fact, that those of absorption and 
 secretion, which are most common to us with plants — 
 a lower class of beings, have a lower situation — in the 
 cavity of the abdomen ; while those of circulation, 
 which are very imperfect in plants, 3 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 generally of cylin- 
 
 1 It is the possession of vessels which constitutes the vitality of 
 vegetables. 
 
 s In animals, alone, is nervous matter discoverable. 
 
 3 Plahts have no real circulation, nor passage of their nutritive liquids 
 through the same point. 
 
152 
 
 ANATOMICAL AND 
 
 drical form; in the trunk, they begin to assume a 
 more external situation and a flatter form, because 
 they protect nutritive and more important parts, which 
 they do not, however, altogether cover; and, in the 
 head, they obtain the most external situation and the 
 flattest form, especially 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 consequence of 
 arbitrary methods . 1 
 
 We may now apply these anatomical and physio- 
 logical 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 
 
 1 This arrangement of Anatomy and Physiology was first published 
 by me in 1806 ; and, notwithstanding its being the arrangement 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 arrangement 
 will be illustrated by referring to any other published previous to 
 1806, or even to 1808, when I republished it in ‘Preliminary Lec- 
 tures,’ Edinburgh. 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 153 
 
 system which is highly developed in the beauty whose 
 figure is characterised by intellectuality and grace. 
 
 Thus can anatomical principles alone at once illus- 
 trate and establish the accuracy of the three species of 
 beauty which I have analytically described. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OP THE AGES OF WOMAN IN RELATION TO BEAUTY. 
 
 The variations of the organisation of woman do 
 not distinctly mark the seasons of life. Many con- 
 nected phenomena glide on imperceptibly; and we 
 can distinguish the strong characters of different and 
 distinct ages, only at periods remote from each other. 
 Although, therefore, woman is perpetually changing, it 
 requires some care to discriminate 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 between them 
 a perfect identity of wants, functions, and movements. 
 Their existence is then purely individual; we perceive 
 none of the relations which afterwards establish be- 
 tween them a mutual dependence ; each lives only 
 for self. 
 
OF THE AGES OF WOMAN, ETC. 
 
 155 
 
 This conformity and independence of the sexes are 
 the more remarkable, the earlier the age and the less 
 advanced the development. 
 
 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 terminated : it pre- 
 sents 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 towards which is directed all the 
 effort of life. 
 
 The spine of the back has not either the minuter 
 prominences or the general inflexions which favour 
 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 
 
156 
 
 THE AGES OF WOMAN 
 
 the limbs, which are slightly and imperfectly deve- 
 loped. 
 
 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 um- 
 bilicus. 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 volume. 
 
 The vital functions of digestion, of circulation and 
 respiration, of nutrition, secretion, and excretion, are 
 performed in the same manner. The want of nourish- 
 ment 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 dispositions pre- 
 vail. 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. 
 
IN RELATION TO BEAUTY. 
 
 157 
 
 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 peculiar to her 
 long before we can discern any of the symptoms of 
 puberty; and although the especial marks which dis- 
 tinguish her sex do not yet show themselves, the 
 general forms which characterise it may be perceived. 
 These differences, however, are only slight modifica- 
 tions, more easily felt than determined. 
 
 The cartilaginous extremities of the bones appear 
 to enlarge; and the mucous substance, which ulti- 
 mately gives the soft reliefs which distinguish woman, 
 is not yet secreted. She is now, perhaps, more easily 
 distinguished by the nature of her inclinations and 
 the general character of her mind : while man now 
 seeks to make use of his strength, woman endeavours 
 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 towards puberty, appears to remove less 
 than man from her primitive constitution ; she always 
 preserves something of the character proper to chil- 
 dren; and the texture of her organs never loses all 
 its original softness. 
 
158 
 
 THE AGES OF WOMAN 
 
 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 circumference at 
 last presents the circular form ; it being no longer, as 
 in the little girl and in man, the antero-posterior dia- 
 meter which is the greatest, but the transverse one. 
 It has been observed that the same occurs in the 
 females of the greater quadrupeds. The pelvis, how- 
 ever, 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 cellular 
 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. 
 
I 
 
IN RELATION TO BEAUTY. 
 
 159 
 
 The gait and bearing of woman is now no longer 
 the same ; and the voice changes as well as the phy- 
 siognomy. 
 
 In all that has yet occurred, it will be observed 
 that nutrition and growth take place with great rapi- 
 dity 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 de- 
 velopment. 
 
 Woman consequently arrives earlier at the age of 
 puberty, and her body is commonly, at twenty years 
 of age, as completely formed as that of man at thirty. 
 Thus beauty and grace, as has been observed, seem 
 to demand of nature less labour and time than the 
 attributes of force and grandeur. 
 
 In many women, however, nutrition languishes even 
 until the sexual organs enter into action, and deter- 
 mine a revolution under the influence of which growth 
 is accomplished. 
 
 Still it is certain that, for several years, the locomo- 
 tive system predominates in young women even in 
 figures promising the ultimate development of the 
 vital system in the highest degree. See Plate I, in 
 which it is very obvious ; and Plate II, in which it is 
 still apparent enough. 
 
 The second age of woman extends from puberty to 
 
THE AGES OF WOMAN 
 
 160 
 
 the cessation of the menses, or, we may say, from the 
 period of full growth, the general time of bearing chil- 
 dren, to the time of ceasing to bear — generally per- 
 haps 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 themselves 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 modules 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 small 
 and compact, whilst the haunches, the hips, the thighs, 
 and the parts connected with the abdomen, are ample 
 and large. Hence her body tapers upward, as her 
 limbs taper downward. And this is the most remark- 
 able circumstance in her general 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. 
 
OiSc 
 
IN RELATION TO BEAUTY. 
 
 161 
 
 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 softened, her traits finer. 
 
 During youth, especially, and among civilised na- 
 tions, woman is further 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 outline of the reliefs, and by the fineness 
 and the animation 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 supple than 
 those of man. 
 
 All these circumstances indicate very clearly the 
 passive state to which nature has destined woman, 
 and which will be fully illustrated in a future volume. 
 
 If, in a living body, any part liable to be distended 
 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 neighbouring parts offered not 
 flexible vessels for their reception. 
 
 Now, in the body of woman, certain parts are 
 
 11 
 
162 
 
 THE AGES OF WOMAN 
 
 exposed to suffer great distensions and compressions. 
 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 func- 
 tions are impeded. 
 
 From this it follows that woman never enjoys ex- 
 istence better, than when a moderate plumpness 
 bestows on her organs, without too much weakening 
 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, whilst those of 
 the sheep beat sixty, and that the pulse of women is 
 smaller and more rapid than that of men. 
 
 A second physical quality, which concurs to render 
 more mobile the various parts of woman, is their 
 softness. 
 
 A certain feebleness is the necessary consequence of 
 these two circumstances. But it is thence that spring 
 woman’s suppleness and lightness 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 particular 
 organisation, on which depends the elegance of the 
 
IN RELATION TO BEAUTY. 
 
 163 
 
 forms, the vivacity of the sensations, and the lightness 
 of the movements which characterise her. 
 
 The result, of these circumstances is that, while man 
 possesses force and majesty, woman is distinguished 
 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. 
 Lucien 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 yielding, 
 withdraws from their action, and adds to beauty, 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 certain 
 vessels for the purpose of reproduction, communicates 
 a general excitement and activity to the character, so 
 when, in woman, the periodical excretion appears, the 
 breasts expand, the eyes sparkle, the countenance 
 becomes more expressive, but at the same time more 
 timid and reserved, and a character of flexibility and 
 grace distinguishes every motion. 
 
 Conformably with this view, the appearance and 
 
164 
 
 THE AGES OF WOMAN 
 
 the manners of eunuchs approach to those of women, 
 by the softness and feebleness of their organisation, 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 men- 
 struated since the operation, which is now some 
 years.” Haighton found that, by dividing the Fal- 
 lopian tubes, which connect the ovaries with the 
 womb, sexual feelings were destroyed, 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 ‘ Philosophical 
 Transactions’ for 1805, that an adult female, in whom 
 the ovaries were defective, presented a corresponding 
 defect in the state of the constitution. 
 
 To the same general principle, it has been observed, 
 we must refer the partial growth of a beard on females 
 in the decline of life, and the circumstance 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 exercise 
 of her new faculty determines remarkable modifica- 
 
IN RELATION TO BEAUTY. 
 
 165 
 
 tions in woman. Her neck swells and augments in 
 size — 
 
 Non iilam 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, 
 from which the organs derived their form and colour- 
 ing, abates; and a less agreeable flaccidity succeeds 
 to the elasticity with which they were endowed, if the 
 plumpness which adult age commonly brings does not 
 sustain them. 
 
 During pregnancy and suckling, the first-mentioned 
 
 1 The cause of this has never been explained ; and it could not well 
 be explained, without a perception of the views in my preceding 
 physiological arrangement. — The brain, at this period, becomes more 
 subservient to purposes connected with generation ; the communication 
 between the trunk and the head is more frequent, intense, and sustained; 
 and the neck, which contains the communicating organs, necessarily 
 increases in size. This unexplained circumstance led to the mistake 
 of the craniologists respecting 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. 
 
166 
 
 THE AGES OF WOMAN 
 
 class of women retain a remarkable freshness and 
 plumpness. 
 
 The last-mentioned class of women most frequently 
 become meagre, 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 maternity. 
 
 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. 
 
 It is unnecessary to give here any drawings to 
 illustrate woman during her second age. That is 
 done by the plates in the sequel : it is their prin- 
 cipal object. 
 
 In the third age of woman, extending generally 
 from forty to sixty, the physical form does not sud- 
 denly deteriorate; and, as has often been observed, 
 “ when premature infirmities or misfortunes, 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 accumulated in 
 the cellular tissue under the skin and elsewhere ; and 
 
IN RELATION TO BEAUTY. 
 
 167 
 
 this effaces any wrinkles which might have begun to 
 furrow the skin, rounds the outline anew, and again 
 restores an air of youth and freshness. Hence this 
 period is called “ the age of return.” — (See Plate III.) 
 
 This plumpness, though juvenile lightness and 
 freshness be wanting, sustains the forms, and some- 
 times confers a majestic air, which, in women other- 
 wise favorably organised, 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 
 meagre 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; sinkings and wrinkles 
 are multiplied ; the skin has lost its polish ; colour 
 and freshness have fled for ever. 
 
168 THE AGES OF WOMAN, ETC. 
 
 These injuries of time, it has been observed, com- 
 monly begin by the abdomen, which loses its polish 
 and its firmness ; the hemispheres of the bosom no 
 longer sustain themselves ; the clavicles project ; the 
 neck becomes meagre ; all the reliefs are effaced ; all 
 the forms are altered from roundness and softness to 
 angularity and hardness. —(See Plate IV.) 
 
 That which, amidst these ruins, still survives for a 
 long time, is the entireness of the hair, the placidity 
 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 almost 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. 
 
IV 
 

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 developing 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 present to us scarcely 
 anything of the Mongol. 
 
 In these general and vague statements, however, 
 the mere crossing of different races is always deemed 
 sufficient ; whereas every improvement depends on 
 the circumstance that the organisation of the races 
 subjected to this operation are duly suited to each 
 other. It is in that way only, that we can explain 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 quar- 
 tered there, and remaining during several years, the 
 population changed in appearance, and, favoured by 
 this circumstance, the town is now indebted to 
 
170 
 
 THE CAUSES OF 
 
 strangers for the beauty of the most interesting por- 
 tion of its inhabitants. 
 
 The monks of Citeaux exercised an influence no 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 neighbourhood 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 suppression of passions, 
 easy manners, good moral, social, and political insti- 
 tutions, 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 coun- 
 tries ; and the bilious is that of the greater part of the 
 inhabitants of southern regions. Each of these has its 
 degree and modification of beauty. 
 
 The native country of beauty is not to be found 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 171 
 
 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 ex- 
 cessive influence of both these causes constitutes an 
 essential condition in the production of beauty; and 
 this, with its effect, we find between the 35th and 
 65 th degree of northern latitude, in Persia, the 
 countries bordering upon Caucasus, and principally 
 Tchercassia, Georgia, and Mingrelia, Turkey in Europe 
 and Asia, Greece, Italy, some part of Spain, a very 
 small part of Prance, 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 me important, arise out of the 
 remarks of De Pauw on the Greeks. 
 
 De Pauw endeavoured 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 
 
172 
 
 THE CAUSES OF 
 
 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 corroborating in all 
 respects the doctrine of De Pauw. 
 
 On considering that doctrine, however, and com- 
 paring it with more extended observations, it would 
 seem to be only a particular application of a more 
 general law unknown to De Pauw, — that, in most 
 countries, one of the sexes excels the other in beauty. 
 
 Thus, in some parts of the highlands of Scotland, 
 we find the men as remarkable for beauty as the 
 women for ugliness ; while, in some eastern counties 
 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 flaxen 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 coun- 
 tries be considered, we discover the causes of the 
 differences alluded to. The hardships of mountain 
 life are favorable to the stronger development of the 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 173 
 
 locomotive system, which ought more or less to cha- 
 racterise the male ; and the luxuriance of the plains 
 is favorable to those developments of the nutritive 
 system, which ought to characterise 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. 
 
 The quantity and quality of the aliments is another 
 cause, not less powerful in regard to beauty. Abun- 
 dance, or rather a proper mediocrity, as to nutritious 
 food, contributes to perfection in this respect. 
 
 Beauty is also, in some measure, a result of civilisa- 
 tion. Women, accordingly, of consummate beauty 
 are found only in civilised nations. 
 
 Professions can rarely be said to favour beauty; 
 but they do not impede its development when their 
 exercise does not compel to laborious employments an 
 organisation suited only to sedentary occupations. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WO MA N. 
 
 The ideas of the beautiful vary in different indi- 
 viduals, 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 per- 
 fect in its most strict, and beauty in its most compre- 
 hensive 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 
 
THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 175 
 
 view with pity and contempt the marked deformity of 
 the Europeans; whose mouths are compressed, their 
 noses pinched, their cheeks shrunk, their hair rendered 
 lank and flimsy, their bodies lengthened and ema- 
 ciated, 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 another, the 
 most general, I believe, is habit and custom ; custom 
 makes, in a certain sense, white black, and black 
 white ; it is custom alone determines our preference of 
 the colour of the Europeans to the Ethiopians, and 
 they, for the same reason, prefer their own colour to 
 ours. I suppose nobody will doubt, if one of their 
 painters were to paint the goddess of Beauty, but that 
 
176 
 
 THE STANDARD OF 
 
 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 cri- 
 terion will any one dispute the propriety of his idea? 
 We indeed say, that the form and colour of the 
 European is preferable to that 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 observed, 
 leads them to mutilate and disfigure themselves, 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 civilised ones ; we every day see irre- 
 gular or even common figures preferred to those which 
 the enlightened judge deems beautiful. 
 
 How, then, it is asked, amidst these different tastes, 
 these opposite opinions, are we to admit ideas of ab- 
 solute beauty? 
 
 These are the strongest objections against all ideas 
 of absolute and essential beauty in woman. 
 
 To establish, in opposition to these objections, a 
 standard of womanly beauty, equal talent has been 
 employed; but the reasoning, though sufficient for 
 such objections, has been rather of a vague description. 
 As, however, the subject is of great importance, I shall 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 177 
 
 endeavour to abridge and concentrate 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 impres- 
 sion of those combinations, which woman presents, 
 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 pronounce 
 respecting the real attributes of beauty, are, first, a 
 temperate climate, under which nature brings to per- 
 fection all her productions, and gives to their forms 
 and functions generally, and to those of man in par- 
 ticular, 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 particular, a 
 brain capable of vigorous thought, sound judgment, 
 and exquisite taste; — and thirdly, a very advanced 
 civilisation, without which these faculties cannot be 
 duly exercised or attain any perfection. 
 
 It is evident enough that none of these conditions 
 are to be met with in the whimsical judgments and 
 tastes of many nations. 
 
 The consequence of the absence of these conditions, 
 in relation to the uncivilised and ignorant inhabitants 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 THE STANDARD OF 
 
 of hot climates, is marked in their deeming charac- 
 teristics of beauty, the thick lips of Negresses, the 
 long and pendant mammae 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 conditions, 
 in relation to the uncivilised and ignorant inhabitants 
 of cold climates, is equally marked in their deeming 
 characteristics of beauty, the short figures of the 
 women of icy regions, in which, deprived of the vivify- 
 ing action of heat and light, living beings appear only 
 in a state of deformity and alteration ; and in their 
 similarly deeming beautiful the obliquely placed eyes 
 of the Chinese and Japanese, and the crushed nose of 
 the Calmucs, &c. &c. 
 
 Those who take these views, which are true, though 
 somewhat vague and inconclusive, should, I think, 
 have seen and added, that the deviations from beauty 
 in the forms of the women of hot climates are com- 
 monly 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 de- 
 velopment 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 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 179 
 
 whole. And without this view, the preceding argu- 
 ments are indeed too vague to be easily tenable. 
 
 In relation more especially to the second of the 
 preceding conditions, the possession of a brain capable 
 of vigorous thought, sound judgment, and exquisite 
 taste, Hume observes, that the same excellence of 
 faculties which contributes to the improvement of 
 reason, the same clearness of conception, the same 
 exactness of distinction, the same vivacity of appre- 
 hension, are essential to the operations 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 faculties is 
 incompatible with the obviously constricted 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 con- 
 nected with climate. This renders the argument suf- 
 ficiently strong. 
 
 Those who employ these arguments as to a standard 
 of beauty in woman, proceed to show the modes in 
 which defects of this kind unfit persons to judge of 
 beauty; and though their further arguments are simi- 
 larly vague, they nevertheless tend to support the 
 truth. 
 
 If, say they, amongst the forms and the features 
 which we compare, some are associated by us with 
 
180 
 
 THE STANDARD OF 
 
 certain qualities or sentiments which please us, they 
 equally lead us to a predilection or prejudice, in con- 
 sequence of which the most common or the least beau- 
 tiful figure is preferred to the most perfect. 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 languor . 1 
 The results of this as to fife may easily be foreseen. 
 
 Of the excess to which such prejudice may go, a 
 good instance is adduced in Descartes, who preferred 
 women who squinted to the most perfect beauties, 
 because squinting was one of the most remarkable 
 features of the woman who was the first object of his 
 affections. 
 
 Winckelmann observes, that even artists themselves 
 have not always an exquisite sentiment of beauty: 
 their first impressions have often an influence which 
 they cannot overcome, nor even weaken, especially 
 when, at a distance from the admirable productions 
 
 1 “ Ad un giovane, in cui ferve l’amor del piacere, sembra una dea colei, 
 che senza essere veramente bella, pur ha nel volto un non so che di vezzo 
 languido, e di vivace che alletta ; laddove mirera egli con indifferenza una 
 bella donna che ne’ gesti e nel contegno spiri modestia, ancorche abbia 
 per awentura le sublimi forme e la maesta d’una Giunone.” (Storia 
 delle Arti del Disegno.) 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 181 
 
 of the ancients, they cannot rectify their first judg- 
 ments. 1 
 
 Circumstances of profession, it is truly observed, 
 may also lead to associations of ideas capable of de- 
 ceiving us in our opinions respecting beauty. Men 
 are apt to refer everything to their exclusive know- 
 ledge and the mode of judging which it employs. 
 The “ what does that prove” of the mathematician, 
 when judging the finest products of imagination, 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 civilisation, 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 
 examine, and weigh the several performances, admired 
 
 1 "Sovente molti degli artisti formansi l’idea del bello sulle prime 
 informi impressioni che ricevono, e ben di rado avviene che l’osserva- 
 zione di un bello pm sublime e piu perfetto la indebolisca, o la cancelli 
 dalla fantasia loro, principalmente ov’ essi, lontani dai bei monumenti 
 dell’ antichita, non possano riformare, direm cosi, Pimmaginazione, e 
 eorregere lo spirito.” {Ibid.) 
 
182 
 
 THE STANDARD OF 
 
 in different ages and nations, can alone rate 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 conditions are 
 indispensable to form the judgment respecting beauty; 
 and that the principal of these conditions are a tem- 
 perate climate and fertile soil, a well-developed brain, 
 sound judgment and delicate taste, and a highly ad- 
 vanced civilisation. 
 
 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 amidst a civilisation 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 unfavorable accidents 
 occurring to the existence of all beings have never 
 permitted nature herself to combine in any one 
 individual. 
 
 Though I have endeavoured 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 Beauty. 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 183 
 
 It will be found that the greatest number of these 
 elements are combined in the woman whom we com- 
 monly deem the most beautiful. 
 
 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 splendour and effect to their 
 form and features. 
 
 It is remarkable that even Alison, though the ad- 
 vocate of all beauty being dependent on association, 
 grants that the pure white of the countenance is 
 expressive to us, according to its different degrees, of 
 purity, fineness, gaiety; 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 generally admitted by 
 those who have the best opportunities 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 colour of the eyes, blue, according to its different 
 degrees, is expressive of softness, gentleness, cheer- 
 fulness, 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 Cheselden, 
 as to the boy restored by him to sight, namely, that 
 
184 
 
 THE STANDARD OF 
 
 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 colour which reflects the greatest number of 
 luminous rays; and, for that reason, it bestows the 
 brilliance and splendour upon beautiful forms with 
 which all are charmed. 
 
 Winckelmann, indeed, observes that the head of 
 Scipio the elder, in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, executed 
 in basalt of a deep green, is very beautiful . 1 But, in 
 that case, it is the form, not the colour, of the head, 
 that is beautiful. While greenness of complexion 
 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 
 colour of face, it cannot be pretended that, considering 
 its colour 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 splendour, the infinite variety of its 
 tints, their exquisite blendings, and the beautiful ex- 
 pression of every transient emotion. 
 
 1 “La bella testa muliebre di basalte verdognolo esistente nella villa 
 Albani non potrebbe esser piu bella se fosse scolpita in marmo bianco; 
 quella di Scipione il seniore di basalte ancor piii cupo esistente nel 
 palazzo Rospigliosi supera in bellezza le tre altre teste dello stesso in 
 bianco marmo.” (Ibid.) 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 185 
 
 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 doats with such rapture are not really 
 beautiful, independent of the medium of affection, 
 passion, and appetite, through which he views them. 
 But before he pronounces either the infidel or the 
 sceptic guilty of blasphemy against nature, let him 
 take a mould from the lovely features or lovely bosom 
 of this master-piece of creation, and cast a plum- 
 pudding in it (an object by no means disgusting to 
 most men’s appetite), and I think, he will no longer 
 be in raptures with the form, whatever he may be 
 with the substance.” 
 
 Now it happens that a grosser incongruity can 
 scarcely be supposed than that which exists between 
 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 internal 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. 
 
186 
 
 THE STANDARD OF 
 
 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, ad- 
 miration would give place to disgust, only proves that 
 the external qualities which were admired were the 
 natural and appropriate signs of the internal 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 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 187 
 
 when he framed such arguments, his mind was some- 
 times dull as well as perverse. 
 
 “The redness of any morbid inflammation/’ he 
 says, “ may display a gradation of tint, which, in a 
 pink, or a rose, we should think as beautiful as ‘ the 
 purple light of love and bloom of young desire/ 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 difference consists entirely in 
 mental sympathies, excited by certain internal stimuli, 
 and guided by habit.” 
 
 There is here the same confusion of heterogeneous 
 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 tint as the pink or 
 the rose, then, as a mere tint, abstracted from every 
 other quality of the respective objects, it would be 
 precisely as beautiful in the one as in the other ; but 
 as the colour 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 con- 
 sidered intrinsically, and is regarded only as a sign of 
 disease. The same observations are applicable to the 
 other case here adduced. 
 
188 
 
 THE STANDARD OF 
 
 “ 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 sun-burnt beauties express their 
 modesty and sensibility by variations in the sable 
 tints 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 
 endeavoured to show, that the more those simpler 
 elements of beauty, which characterise 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- 
 pendent 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 bom whitish, like the European, but he 
 speedily loses such beauty for that of adaptation, by 
 his colour, 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 still more fortunate, because, in the 
 region he inhabits, 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 civilisation, are 
 as unfavorable to the existence of beauty as to the 
 
BEAUTY IN WOMAN. 
 
 189 
 
 power of judging respecting it. What he adds, 
 as to variation in sable countenances, is a mere 
 exaggeration. 
 
 “Were it possible for a person to judge of the 
 beauty of colour in his own species, upon the same 
 principles, and with the same impartiality as he 
 judges of it in other subjects, both animal, vegetable, 
 and mineral, there can be no doubt that mixed tints 
 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. Elementary 
 beauty is preferred to that of adaptation to climate, 
 fitness for physiognomical expression, &c. Knight’s 
 other arguments all involve similar errors, and admit 
 of similar answers. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE THREE SPECIES OE 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 occurred 
 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 doc- 
 trine of temperaments, the arrangement of these 
 sciences, laid down in a preceding chapter, is indis- 
 pensable; that some of these temperaments are com- 
 paratively simple, and consist in an excessive or a 
 defective action of locomotive, 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 
 
THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 191 
 
 the reader a succinct view of the doctrine of tem- 
 peraments. 
 
 The ancients classed individuals in one or other of 
 four temperaments, founded on the hypothesis of four 
 humours, of which the blood was supposed to be 
 composed — the red part, phlegm, yellow, and black 
 bile. These were regarded as the elements of the 
 body, and their respective predominance passed for 
 the cause of the differences which it presented. Hence 
 were derived the names of the sanguine, the phleg- 
 matic, the choleric, and the melancholic temperaments. 
 
 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 nomen- 
 clature has continued in use to the present day. 
 
 A temperament may be defined a peculiar state of 
 the system, depending on the relative proportion 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, conforming in the illus- 
 
192 
 
 THREE SPECIES OF 
 
 tration to the preceding arrangement, in one person, 
 the muscles are more frequently employed than the 
 brain ; in another, the stomach or the organs of repro- 
 duction are more employed than the muscles ; and in 
 a third, the brain and nerves are more employed than 
 either. This predominance or excess establishes the 
 temperament. 
 
 The relative feebleness of any organ or system of 
 organs, similarly forms modifications not less im- 
 portant. 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 
 organisation by these feeble points: death even attacks 
 them first ; extends afterwards from one to another ; 
 and makes progress more or less rapid, according to 
 the importance of the organ primitively 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 degree of 
 health, ability, and happiness. 
 
 The temperament, moreover, of each individual is 
 not always characterised by well marked symptoms; 
 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 
 
FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 193 
 
 men are, in some degree, at once sanguine and bilious, 
 or otherwise compound. Thus all intermediate shades 
 of temperament are produced; and it is often diffi- 
 cult, or, under particular circumstances, impossible, to 
 determine under which temperament individuals may 
 be classed. 
 
 The simple temperaments are therefore abstractions, 
 which it is difficult to realize; and the influence of 
 any temperament is sometimes undiscoverable, except 
 in some extraordinary circumstances of disorder or 
 disease, during which it may be observed. 
 
 Cullen admits the four temperaments of Hip- 
 pocrates, and remarks concerning them, that it is 
 probable they were first founded upon observation, 
 and afterwards adapted to the theory of the ancients, 
 since we find they “ have a real existence.” 
 
 Dr. Pritchard remarks that, “this division of tem- 
 peraments is by no means a fanciful distinction.” 
 
 To the four temperaments of Hippocrates, Gregory 
 adds a fifth, the nervous temperament. 
 
 Thus are formed five temperaments generally ad- 
 mitted — namely, 1st, the phlegmatic or relaxed; 2d, 
 the sanguine arterial; 3d, the sanguine venous or 
 bilious ; 4th, the nervous ; and, 5th, the muscular or 
 athletic. 
 
 Some writers join to these the partial temperaments 
 which determine the ascendancy of the functions exer- 
 cised by particular organs ; whence principally come 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 the temperaments which they call the cerebral, epigas- 
 tric, 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. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FIRST SPECIES OF BEAUTY.— BEAUTY OF THE 
 LOCOMOTIVE 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 impressions have less 
 depth. The bones of woman have likewise less 
 hardness than those of man. 
 
 Such being the solid and fundamental parts of this 
 system in woman, the most remarkable circumstances 
 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 consequently 
 
196 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 those presented by the inferior and superior part of 
 the trunk in each. The breast and the 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 circumscribed than 
 those of man. 
 
 The upper part of the body is also less prominent, 
 and the lower part more prominent, in woman than 
 in man ; and therefore, when they stand upright, or 
 lie on the back, the breast is most prominent in the 
 male, and the pubes in the female. The indication 
 this affords of the fitness of woman for impregnation, 
 gestation, and parturition, is obvious. 
 
 From the same cause, the back of woman is more 
 hollow. 
 
 Still further tt) increase the capacity of the lower 
 part of the body, woman has the loins more extended 
 than man. This portion of her body is in every 
 way enlarged at the expense of neighbouring parts. 
 Hence, the chest is shorter above ; and the thighs and 
 legs are shorter below. 
 
 The thigh-bones of woman are also more separated 
 superiorly; the knees are more approximated ; the feet 
 are smaller ; and the base of support is less extended. 
 
 The reader desirous of thoroughly understanding 
 these matters, should compare the beautiful plates 
 of the male and female skeletons by Albinus and 
 Soemmerring. 
 
LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 197 
 
 Beauty of the locomotive system in woman depends 
 especially upon these fundamental facts, and those 
 tendencies of structure which thus distinguish her 
 from man. 
 
 In the woman possessing this species of beauty, 
 therefore, the face is generally somewhat bony and 
 oblong; the neck, less connected with the nutritive 
 system, is rather long and tapering; — the shoulders, 
 without being angular, are sufficiently broad and defi- 
 nite for muscular attachments; — the bosom, a vital 
 organ, is of but moderate dimensions the waist, 
 enclosing smaller nutritive organs, is remarkable for 
 fine proportion, and resembles, in some respects, an 
 inverted cone; — the haunches, for the same reason, 
 are but moderately expanded; — the thighs, are pro- 
 portional ; the arms, as well as the limbs, being formed 
 chiefly of locomotive organs, are rather long and 
 moderately tapering ; — the hands and feet are mode- 
 rately 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 characterised, the slightest pressure would suffice 
 to throw her into the air. 
 
 To this class belong generally the more firm, 
 
198 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 vigorous, and even actively impassioned women ; 
 though it may doubtless boast many of greatly 
 modified character. 
 
 This species of beauty is very well illustrated in 
 Plates V, VI, and VII. 
 
 FIRST VARIETY OR MODIFICATION OF THIS SPECIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 It may here be observed, that the varieties or modi- 
 fications of each species of beauty naturally 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 develop- 
 ment of the bones, the ligaments, or the muscles ■ 
 those of the nutritive system correspond with the 
 greater or less development of the absorbents, the 
 blood-vessels, or the glands ; and those of the thinking 
 system correspond with the greater or less develop- 
 ment of the organs of sense, the brain, or the cerebel. 
 A little reflection will show, that some of these modifi- 
 cations will be more, and others less beautiful. 
 
 To understand the present variety, the bony struc- 
 ture 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 
 breast-bone is shorter, but wider ; the two upper ribs 
 
V 
 
LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 199 
 
 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 
 further back, and project less from the trunk. 
 
 The haunches, as already stated, are proportionally 
 wider in woman than in man, and the interior 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 outward; from the bones, 
 called ossa pubis, which form the anterior part, touch- 
 ing at a smaller number of points, and running ob- 
 liquely 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 pro- 
 minence outwards ; and from the whole pelvis being 
 thus wider and less deep, its circumference approach- 
 ing more to the circular form. The cavities, it may 
 be added, in which the heads of the thigh-bones are 
 received, are of course further 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 loco- 
 motive system, they may the more fully be considered 
 here. — The arms, and especially their extremities, are 
 
200 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 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 
 circumstances 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 long, round, 
 tapering towards the ends ; when the other joints are 
 marked by slight reliefs and shadows ; and when the 
 fingers are delicate and flexible. Beauty of the hand 
 becomes the more precious, because it is the principal 
 organ of a sense which may be considered as the most 
 valuable 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 further 
 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, 
 
VII 
 
LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 201 
 
 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 in- 
 ward. It has been truly observed, that this conforma- 
 tion manifests, relatively to gestation and parturition, 
 advantages of which the exterior expression is not 
 found in the women who are commonly regarded as 
 well made, and who, however, are not so, if the best 
 conformation or beauty result 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 distin- 
 guished by forms more softly rounded: the leg is 
 remarkable for its delicacy; the long line of the ante- 
 rior bone is entirely hid under its envelope ; its infe- 
 rior 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 pro- 
 portionally diminish in size, as we pass from that 
 central part to the extremities. 
 
 The first modification, therefore, of this species 
 
202 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 of beauty, is that in which the development of the 
 bones, those of the pelvis excepted, is proportionally 
 small. 
 
 This character will be especially apparent where the 
 long bones approach the surface ; as in the arm imme- 
 diately above the wrist, and in the leg immediately 
 above the ankle. Its effect will be proportionally 
 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 suc- 
 ceeds 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 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 colour of the skin ; and the arm, being always un- 
 covered, 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 attribute 
 
LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 203 
 
 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 occupa- 
 tion of the person to whom it belongs, and sometimes 
 even her particular capabilities. There certainly 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 movement or in 
 repose, its expression cannot be mistaken : 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 philosophers 
 did not neglect it in the general view of the phy- 
 siognomy; 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 Domitian. 
 
 Perfection or deformity of the feet is no doubt, in 
 general, hereditary; but good management will pre- 
 serve 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 ap- 
 
204 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 proach to the elegant form of the ellipsis, is rounded 
 without beauty, and is disfigured by our ridiculous 
 compressions. 
 
 SECOND VARIETY OR MODIFICATION OF THIS SPECIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 The joints generally are small in woman, and espe- 
 cially so in the extremities. The elbow joint 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 manner as to offer only 
 agreeable outlines ; and there are dimples over the 
 first joints of the toes, with exceedingly gentle indi- 
 cations of the other joints. 
 
 The second modification, therefore, of this species 
 of beauty is that in which the development of the 
 ligaments and the articulations they form is propor- 
 tionally 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. 
 
 THIRD VARIETY OR MODIFICATION OF THIS SPECIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 The muscles of woman are more slender and feeble 
 than those of man; their bundles are rounder; their 
 fibres are finer, more humid, soft, and delicate, and 
 
LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 205 
 
 less compact; their central parts or bellies 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 surface beautifully rounded. 
 
 Although, however, the muscular system of woman 
 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. The thighs of women are consequently 
 remarkable for their voluptuous fulness, the softness 
 of their outlines, and their exquisite polish. It is from 
 this that results much of the delicacy of the female 
 form, as well as the ease, suppleness, and capability of 
 grace in its movements. 
 
 It is otherwise in all parts remote from the pelvis. 
 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. 
 
 This conformation being concealed by the drapery, 
 
206 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 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 indications of 
 form 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 
 extremities is generally feeble. 
 
 Other causes contribute to this. Thus, with regard 
 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 explains why women, 
 who wish to overcome great resistances with the supe- 
 rior 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 ap- 
 proximation 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 particular, are large, 
 affect a greater degree of this vacillation and un- 
 steadiness. An example of this is seen in the 
 lateral and rotatory motion which is given to the 
 pelvis in walking, by certain classes of the women of 
 London. 
 
LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 207 
 
 For the same reason, united to a smaller foot, and 
 some other circumstances, women, it is observed, 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 evolutions, be- 
 cause 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 children, 
 and sedentary occupations, it is evident that they 
 cannot devote themselves to toilsome labours without 
 struggling against their organisation, and suffering 
 proportionally. 
 
 The voice being connected with the motive organs, 
 it may here be noticed that the larynx or flute part of 
 the throat in woman is more contracted and less pro- 
 minent 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 pro- 
 nounce 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 
 
208 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 an octave, which forms the most natural and most 
 agreeable consonance. 
 
 It is evidently the union of all that is good in 
 these varieties which renders beauty in the locomotive 
 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. (See Plate VIII.) 
 
 I have already said, that the temperaments of the 
 ancients are only partial views of some of the varieties 
 I am now describing. The athletic temperament falls 
 under the last of these varieties ; and it is the only 
 one that falls under this species. Happily, it does 
 not occur in woman. 
 
 This temperament results from a great development 
 of the bones and muscles, and is that of mere phy- 
 sical 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 
 
YET 
 
LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 209 
 
 over the functions of the other organs, and especially 
 usurps the energies necessary to the production of 
 thought ; the perceptions are deficient in quickness, 
 delicacy, accuracy, and strength; and all the mental 
 functions are with difficulty excited ; hut the body is 
 capable of great exertion, and it surmounts great phy- 
 sical resistance when roused. 
 
 The Farnese Hercules, says a French physiologist, 
 exhibits a model of the physical attributes of this con- 
 stitution ; and that which fabulous antiquity relates 
 of the exploits of this demigod, gives us the idea of 
 the moral dispositions that accompany it. In the 
 history of his twelve labours, without reflection and 
 as by instinct, we see him courageous, because he is 
 strong, seeking obstacles to conquer them, certain of 
 overwhelming whatever resists him, but joining to 
 such strength so little subtlety, that he is cheated 
 by all the kings he serves, and by all the women he 
 loves. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SECOND SPECIES OF BEAUTY.— BEAUTY OF THE 
 NUTRITIVE 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 functions 
 which are most essentially feminine — impregnation, 
 gestation, and parturition, are intimately connected. 
 
 Camper, in a memoir on physical beauty, read to 
 the Academy of Design at Amsterdam , 1 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 shoulders 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 
 
 1 ‘Memoire sur le Beau Physique.’ 
 
BEAUTY OF THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 211 
 
 the common stature, there is almost half a face more 
 in the part of the body which is between the mammae 
 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 serving 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 sufficient 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 . 1 
 
 Over all these parts, the predominance of the 
 cellular tissue, and the soft and moderate plumpness 
 which is connected with it, is a remarkable charac- 
 teristic of the vital system in woman. While this 
 facilitates the adaptation of the locomotive system to 
 
 1 A curious but true remark is made by Moreau, namely, that 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 insensibility and of mental 
 weakness, which greatly enfeebles the impression that a first view had 
 caused. 
 
212 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 every change, it at the same time obliterates the 
 projection of the muscles, and invests the whole figure 
 with rounded and beautiful forms. 
 
 It has been well observed that the principal effect 
 of such forms upon the observer, must be referred to 
 the faculties which they reveal ; for, as remarked by 
 Roussel, if we examine the greater part of the attri- 
 butes which constitute beauty, if reason analyse 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 brilliance 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 indi- 
 vidual ought to fulfil. 
 
 Beauty, then, of the nutritive system in woman 
 depends especially upon these fundamental facts, and 
 those tendencies of structure which thus distinguish 
 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 nutrition ; — 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 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 213 
 
 rather to the expanded chest, containing these organs, 
 than to any bony or muscular size of the shoulders 
 themselves ; — the bosom, a vital organ, in its luxuri- 
 ance seems laterally to protrude on the space occupied 
 by the arms ; — the waist, though sufficiently marked, 
 is, as it were, encroached on by that plumpness of all 
 the contiguous parts which the powerful nutritive 
 system affords ; — the haunches are greatly expanded 
 for the vital purposes of gestation and parturition ; — 
 the thighs are large in proportion ; — but the loco- 
 motive organs, the limbs and arms, tapering and 
 becoming delicate, terminate in feet and hands, which, 
 compared with the ample trunk, are peculiarly small ; 
 — the complexion, dependent 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 profusion 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 passively voluptuous women. 
 
 This species of beauty is illustrated in Plates IX, 
 X, XI. — These illustrate the vital system as fully 
 developed in forms of considerable breadth. — The 
 kind of beauty characterised by them 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 woman ; 
 
214 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 and so truly is this the case, that any great employ- 
 ment, 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 organs, 
 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, during the 
 time of their engagements, they generally live apart 
 from their husbands. 
 
 As to intellectual ladies, they either seldom become 
 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 after, if not before, 
 they become mothers ; for, whatever the stature, the 
 mammae, abdomen, &c., necessarily 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 
 mammae necessarily expand, and as they would after- 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 215 
 
 wards collapse and become wrinkled, were not a 
 certain degree of plumpness acquired, that acquisition 
 is essential to beauty in mothers. Meagerness in 
 them, accordingly, becomes deformity. 
 
 A French writer indeed says, “ Most of our 
 fashionables are extremely slender j they have con- 
 stituted this an essential to beauty; leanness is in 
 France necessary to the air elegant .” 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 amongst the ugliest in Europe. — But of that in its 
 proper place. 
 
 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 respects, 
 more diffused and complicated. 
 
 Even the preparatory vital organs and functions 
 differ somewhat in the two sexes. 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 217 
 
 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 vitality. 
 The circumstances of pregnancy and suckling 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 absorbent 
 system is small but active; for the great purpose 
 of life in woman is secretion, whether it regard the 
 formation of the superficial adipose substance which 
 invests her with beautiful and attractive 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 instinctively 
 affect abstemiousness and delicacy of appetite. Hence 
 it is that they compress the waist, and endeavour 
 to render it slender. 
 
218 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 SECOND VARIETY OR MODIFICATION OF THIS SPECIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 Women have, in greater abundance than men, 
 several of the liquids which enter into the com- 
 position of the body. They appear to have a greater 
 quantity of blood; and they certainly have more 
 frequent and more considerable haemorrhages. There 
 is less force in the circulation and respiration; but 
 the heart beats more rapidly. The pulse also is 
 less full, but it is more quick and more firm. 
 
 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 
 colouring of youth. This, differently modified by 
 the scarf-skin, gives the blue, the purple, and all 
 the tints formed by these and the colour of the skin. 
 Where the vessels are more patent, and the skin more 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 219 
 
 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 shame, of fear, often diversify 
 all these tints. 
 
 Lightness of complexion, however, is probably 
 dependent more particularly on the arterial circu- 
 lation, 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. 
 
 Further 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, receiving 
 venous blood, is the vein-relieving gland. Now, it 
 is certain that, in cold climates, the urinary secretion 
 and fairness prevail ; while, in hot climates, 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 complexion. 
 
 The second modification, therefore, of this species 
 of beauty, is that in which the circulating vessels, 
 being moderately active and finely ramified, bestow 
 
220 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 upon the skin a whiteness, a transparency, and a 
 complexion, which are necessary to beauty. 
 
 The whiteness, the transparency, and the colour 
 of the skin have, in all highly civilised 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 civilised 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 colour of a woman is its 
 subject. So greatly, indeed, does whiteness contribute 
 to beauty, that many women deemed beautiful by us, 
 have little other right to that epithet except 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 habitually 
 liable to variation in the quantity of their contents. 
 The quantity of blood, also, which passes to the 
 abdomen is greater. 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 221 
 
 At the same time, the excretions are generally 
 less in woman. Hippocrates says, “ Nam corpus 
 muliebre minus dissipatur quam virile the ex- 
 penditure 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 resistance. 
 Some parts of her body are exposed to great shocks, 
 to alternate extensions, compressions, 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 avoid, or 
 to destroy, every hurtful effort. 
 
222 
 
 REAUTY OF THE 
 
 It is observed, moreover, that certain parts, 
 naturally 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 observed that they dilate more easily during 
 pregnancy. 
 
 It is thus, then, that nature gives to all the parts 
 of woman that suppleness which renders her capable 
 of easily yielding to the great revolutions which affect 
 her organisation in regard to reproduction, 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 facilitated 
 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 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 223 
 
 never appearing uncertain or confused, or as a 
 musician would say, slurred ; and all those smaller 
 parts which are comprehended in the larger compart- 
 ment 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 which is below 
 it; for meagerness inevitably tarnishes 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 odour which a Trench writer observes 
 “it is difficult to describe, but which an exercised 
 sense of smell easily succeeds 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 
 
224 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 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 colour, only enfeebled or modified 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, which is 
 nearly synonymous with health, and without 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 little favorable to the plan 
 of nature, relatively to the maintenance of the species.” 
 The whiteness and the animation of the skin, how- 
 ever, do not alone constitute its beauty: there is still 
 another quality which is absolutely necessary to it. 
 This is the softness and the polish which, as the 
 reader has seen, is one of the first conditions of phy- 
 sical beauty. In woman, this is probably derived 
 from a slight degree of oleaginous secretion. Hence 
 she has few asperities of the skin, especially on the 
 surface of the bosom, on the inside of the thighs, 
 where the skin is excessively smooth, and elsewhere. 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 225 
 
 Brown women, who probably have more of this 
 oleaginous secretion, are said to possess in a greater 
 degree the polish of skin which gives impressions so 
 agreeable to the organ of touch ; and hence Winckel- 
 mann has said that persons who prefer brown women 
 to fair ones, allow themselves to be captivated by the 
 touch rather than the sight . 1 There is reason, how- 
 ever, 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, axillae, &c.; and the hair 
 of her head is generally long, fine, and flexible. 
 
 The quantity and the colour of the hair is always 
 in relation to the constitution of the individual to 
 which it belongs, and generally to the temperature 
 of the place. The people of northern countries have 
 the hair of a silky fineness and of surprising length. 
 
 The hair which is most admired is not only very 
 fine and flexible, but light coloured. Fair golden hair 
 was, of all its tints, that which the ancient artists 
 preferred. 
 
 In woman, the hair of the head whitens and falls 
 later than in man. 
 
 1 “ Quegli che preferisce la bruna non mal s’appone certamente, se 
 piu del tatto che dallo sguardo si lasci attrarre ; poiche generalmente la 
 pelle d’una mano bruna (quando tal sia naturalmeute, e non per l’azione 
 del sole e dell’ aria) e piu dilieata e morbida che quella d’una mano 
 caudida.” ( Storia delle Arti del Disegno.) 
 
 15 
 
226 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 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 effemi- 
 nate times ; and this has sometimes been accompanied 
 by remarkable consequences. 
 
 “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 intro- 
 duce, of shaving his chin and cropping his head. The 
 queen, his wife, who appears to have possessed, with 
 a masculine beauty, considerable acuteness of intellect, 
 observed, with some displeasure, that she imagined 
 herself to have espoused a monarch, not a monk. 
 The obstinacy of Louis in shaving himself, 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 400 years.” 
 
 The habit of wearing the beard is a manly and 
 noble one. Nature made it distinctive of the male 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 227 
 
 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 conquered the then 
 beardless Greeks ; they were bearded Goths who van- 
 quished the then beardless Romans; and they are 
 bearded Tartars who now promise once more to inun- 
 date the regions occupied by the shaven and effeminate 
 people of western Europe. 
 
 In further illustration of the manliness of this habit 
 we may observe, that throughout Europe, wars have 
 generally led to its temporary and partial introduction, 
 as at the present day. Those assuredly blunder, who 
 ridicule the wearing of the beard. Silly affectation, 
 on the contrary, is imputable 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 be 
 noticed. Their beauty consists in their figure, their 
 surface, and their colour. 
 
 By their figure, they serve as a defence to the 
 delicate extremities of the fingers, which would other- 
 wise 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 ac- 
 cordingly to be arched, and to extend as far as the 
 
228 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 flesh which terminates the fingers. — The form of the 
 nails depends much on the care employed in cutting 
 them during infancy, and still more on the mode of 
 employing the hand. 
 
 The nails ought to be smooth and polished, some- 
 what transparent, and rose-coloured. Their rosy 
 colour 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 mammae 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 mammae 
 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 towards her ; an admirable position, 
 says a French writer, “which, 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 contemplating their object.” 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 229 
 
 According to Buffon, in order that the mammae 
 be well placed, it is necessary that the space between 
 them should be as great as that from the mammae 
 to the middle of the depression between the clavicles, 
 so that these three points form an equilateral triangle. 
 
 The two portions of the mammae 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 coloured 
 in brown ones. 
 
 Winckelmann observes that, in the antique statues, 
 the mammae 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 everything 
 in her physical organisation has evident reference 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 peculiar cast, which 
 distinguishes them from those of man. . . . Fontenelle 
 used to say of the devotion 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 
 
230 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 love! Thomas maintains that ‘ With women a man 
 is more than a nation.’ ‘Love,’ says Madame de 
 Stael, e is hut 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 dependent. This 
 must inevitably be followed by moderate excretions. 
 
 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 is illustrated, though not strongly, in the 
 Venus de Medici. (See the Frontispiece.) 
 
 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 development of this 
 system; and that, in general, dirtiness increases as 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 231 
 
 we pass from England and Holland, towards France, 
 Italy, Spain, and Portugal, 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 reproductive 
 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 
 
232 
 
 BEAUTY OF 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 
 languid, as to be scarcely capable of troubling the 
 quietude and the indolence which depend on such a 
 constitution. 
 
 These characteristics of the phlegmatic tempera- 
 ment present to us forms more rounded and less 
 expressive, a general softness, a feeble colour of the 
 skin, a sort of etiolation, a pale countenance, a light 
 and abundant hair, and, generally, an insurmountable 
 inclination to sloth, averse alike to labours of the 
 mind and body. 
 
 It has been observed, that the sanguine tempera- 
 ment, so generally met with among northern nations, 
 is the necessary consequence of the continual and very 
 energetic re-action 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 
 vigour; and that the effects of this redoubled action 
 are the same to the organs of circulation 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, 
 circulating, and secreting systems appear to be in 
 
NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 233 
 
 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 complexion is 
 ruddy; all the vital actions are extremely easy; and 
 the health is rarely altered. 
 
 The mental functions correspond. The conception 
 is quick ; the memory is prompt ; the imagination 
 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, propensities, appetites, 
 passions, are equally ephemeral ; 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 chesnut ; 
 the shape is good ; the form is softened, though 
 distinct ; and the muscles are of tolerable consistence, 
 and moderate development. The whole appearance 
 is generally so amiable, that this temperament 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, 
 especially during youth and adult age, the traits 
 of the sanguine temperament, which may be re- 
 garded as the most suitable to the organisation 
 of woman. 
 
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 delicate 
 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-organised women, 
 accordingly, the forehead and the observing faculties 
 are peculiarly developed. 
 
 The general nervous system of woman is likewise 
 far more mobile than that of man. 
 
 Beauty of the thinking system in woman depends 
 especially upon these fundamental facts, and those 
 tendencies of structure, which thus distinguish her 
 from man. 
 
 In the woman possessing this species of beauty, 
 accordingly, the greater development of its upper 
 part gives to the head, in every view, a pyriform 
 appearance; — the face is generally oval; — the high 
 
XII. 
 
BEAUTY OF THE THINKING SYSTEM. 
 
 235 
 
 and pale forehead announces the excellence of the 
 observing faculties; — the intensely expressive eye is 
 full of sensibility; — in the lower features, modesty and 
 dignity are often united ; — she has not the expanded 
 bosom, the general plumpness, or the beautiful com- 
 plexion 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 
 characterised 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. 
 
 This species of beauty is tolerably well illustrated 
 in Plates XII, XIII, and XIV. — For all inferiority 
 to what these might be, the difficulty, or rather the 
 impossibility, of procuring proper persons at the Life- 
 academy, will fully account. A more suitable subject 
 would, in general, be less plump, and would present 
 outlines more elegant and delicate. 
 
 FIRST VARIETY OR MODIFICATION OF THIS SFECIES OF BEAUTY. 
 
 In woman, the nervous extremities appear to 
 be larger than in man ; a pulpy appearance is more 
 remarkable in them ; and the papillae in which they 
 terminate, appear to have less rigidity. 
 
 The organs of sense are proportionally larger, and 
 
236 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 more delicately outlined. There is indeed in woman 
 more development in the organs of sensation, than in 
 that of understanding, reasoning, and judging ; whilst 
 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 organised, the whole head is proportionally 
 less than in man, yet the organs of sense will be 
 found to be proportionally larger. This sufficiently 
 indicates the importance of such proportional de- 
 velopment. Upon it, indeed, depend that increased 
 sensibility and quickness of observation, 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. 
 
THINKING SYSTEM. 
 
 237 
 
 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 system 
 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 connection of the thinking, with a 
 peculiar modification of the reproductive faculties, 
 inspires into woman the want of maternity, which is 
 more powerful than life, and which renders her 
 capable 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 
 imagination, than its regulated combinations ; and 
 passion, generally of the gentler kind, 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 unknown to man. 
 
 As the calvarium forms the superior and posterior 
 part of the head, and contains the brain, its degree of 
 development indicates corresponding cerebral capacity, 
 and excellence of intellectual faculty. The confor- 
 
238 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 mation of this part is, therefore, of great importance 
 in the analysis of beauty. 
 
 The extent of the brain, anteriorly, is measured by 
 the different degrees of the opening of an angle, 
 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, extends 
 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 . 1 
 
 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 important 
 portions. 
 
 The second modification, therefore, of this 
 species of beauty, is that in which the development of 
 the brain is proportionally small. This is an evident 
 corollary from what we have just stated as to the first 
 modification of this species ; for it is not possible that 
 
 1 See the causes of this explained in my wort on ‘ Physiognomy.’ 
 

 
 
THINKING SYSTEM. 
 
 239 
 
 the organs of sense should be proportionally 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 between 
 that art and nature to its own issue. A Venus, 
 moreover, with a small, yet beautifully proportioned 
 head, is often seen to be the mother of a boy who has 
 a large head ; the difference of sex causing a vast 
 modification and difference of development. 
 
 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 biassed 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 increased by 
 the ready obedience of the muscular fibre, and the 
 relative shortness of the stature. 
 
 This more easy and less forcible action is perfectly 
 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. 
 
240 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 Conformably with the smaller size of the cerebel, 
 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 semper foeinina.” 
 
 It is, then, the prompt and easily affected sensibility 
 of woman, not her understanding, or force of mind, 
 which renders her so eminently fit to be interested 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. 
 
 The third modification, therefore, of this species 
 of beauty is that in w r hich 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 
 back and lower part of the head, and may be pretty 
 accurately indicated by saying, that a line passing 
 through it would complete, posteriorly, a longer line 
 
THINKING SYSTEM. 
 
 241 
 
 passing backward from the nose through the lower 
 part of the ear. 
 
 When this organ, which is that of the will, is high, 
 and more especially when it is large, a determination 
 and force seems 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 
 dependent on these should be noticed. 
 
 With this ready exercise of the will and desire to 
 please, are evidently connected the light carelessness, 
 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 associates 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 intention of expressing 
 sentiments of courtesy, respect, 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, especially 
 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 posture 
 and motion. In both these, to be graceful, it is 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 requisite that there be no appearance of difficulty; 
 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 appear divided by sharp 
 and sudden angles. In this ease, this roundness, this 
 delicacy of attitude and motion, it is that all the 
 magic of grace consists, and what is called '* je ne sais 
 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 
 sais quoi ! ’ Let the reader hear what is said 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 propriety 
 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 impor- 
 tunate 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 
 
THINKING SYSTEM. 
 
 243 
 
 address of the whole behaviour. It imposes the like 
 silence upon us; we regard it with respectful attention, 
 and watch over our whole behaviour, lest, by any im- 
 propriety, we should disturb that concerted tranquillity 
 which it requires so great an effort to support.” This 
 is eloquence indeed. 
 
 Alison duly appreciates this earliest definition of 
 grace. “It is,” he says, “this ‘recollection and self- 
 command,’ which in such scenes constitute what even 
 in common language is called the graceful in be- 
 haviour or deportment ; and it is the expression of 
 the same qualities in the attitude and gesture, which 
 constitutes, in my apprehension, the grace of such 
 gestures or attitudes Wherever, in the move- 
 
 ments 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 motions. 
 
 “ 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 sublime; 
 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 restrain them, from some prin- 
 
244 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 ciple 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 darts upon his prey, that we perceive the 
 grace of which his motions are capable. It is when 
 he soars slowly upwards 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 move- 
 ment, 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 extreme that we apply to 
 them the term of grace. It is the gentle waving of 
 the tree in slow and measured cadence which is grace- 
 ful, not the tossing of its branches amid the storm. 
 It is the slow and easy winding which is graceful in 
 the movements 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 system ; 
 

THINKING SYSTEM. 
 
 245 
 
 in the age when the form has assumed all its powers, 
 and the mind is awake to the consciousness 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 of 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, accordingly, which the artists of anti- 
 quity have uniformly represented, when they sought 
 to display the perfection of grace, and when they 
 succeeded in leaving 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 intel- 
 lectuality. (See Plate XV.) 
 
 This union is by no means perfect in the English 
 female head, although, from the considerable develop- 
 ment 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 Frenchman writing 
 
246 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 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 occa- 
 sions the women to have the appearance of age very 
 early in life.” The women of Paris differ not, in this 
 respect, from those of Prance 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 tempe- 
 rament chiefly to be found among women. 
 
 This temperament scarcely exists in the athletic, 
 is weak in the phlegmatic, is moderate in the 
 sanguine, and is rather active in the bilious. 
 
 It is characterised by the smallness and emaciation 
 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 condition 
 of the brain produced by reading works of imagina- 
 tion, and on habits of sensual indulgence. In con- 
 firmation of this, we are told that the Roman ladies 
 became subject to nervous affections only in con- 
 sequence of those depraved manners which marked 
 the decline of the empire ; and that these affections 
 were extremely common in Prance in the licentious 
 
THINKING SYSTEM. 
 
 247 
 
 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 cerebral 
 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 generally 
 more feeble. 
 
 In woman, the cerebral temperament is more 
 particularly characterised by a predominance of 
 imagination, which is evidently dependent on the 
 organisation which has already been described. 
 
 It has been truly observed, that to contribute 
 to the perfection of reason as well as to the preser- 
 vation of health, the brain ought to be exercised 
 and developed in every direction ; that the mere 
 exercise 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 exercise, 
 (and I suspect to the vinous excesses in which men 
 of business indulge,) to apoplexy, and to paralysis. 
 
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 particularly 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 1 esteem 
 no face as handsome 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 , 2 which forms the strongest con- 
 trast to 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 their gods 
 and heroes a still more unnatural elevation.” 
 
 1 Pallas ; ‘ Voyages en Siberie.’ 
 
 2 Humboldt’s ‘Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain.’ 
 
BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 249 
 
 Knowing, as the reader now does, what con- 
 stitutes 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 described 
 by various writers, as including the beauty of form, 
 in the various features of the face; the beauty of 
 colour, 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 proportion which 
 it bears to the middle and lower part of the face, or 
 to the organs of sense and expression. 
 
 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 angle 
 
250 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 extends to eighty-five degrees, acquiring an increase 
 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 head, the development presenting 
 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 absence of all tumidity of 
 the lips. — But of that, in the sequel. 
 
 In the face, generally, as observed by Winckelmann, 
 beauty of form depends greatly upon the profile, and 
 particularly on the line described by the forehead and 
 nose, by the greater or less degree 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 must 
 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 
 
FACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 251 
 
 of it with a fillet .” 1 The reason of this will afterwards 
 be pointed out. 
 
 The sense of touch resides in all parts of the 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 
 deformity. Considered in repose, nothing certainly is 
 more lovely than this organ when beautifully formed 
 in a beautiful woman. And in action, during speech, 
 the simplest words passing through it receive a charm 
 altogether peculiar. 
 
 The mouth ought to be small, and not to extend 
 
 1 “Una fronte spaziosa ed alta aveasi dagli anticlii in conto d’una 
 deformity” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
 “ Arnobio c’ insegna, che quelle feminine, che avevano la fronte alta, 
 se ne cingevano una porzione con una fascia.” ( Monumenti Inediti.) 
 
252 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 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 toward the angles of the 
 mouth. 
 
 Although we see many lips without evident and 
 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 highest 
 value to perfect beauty of the lips. 
 
 Lips of beautiful form and of vermilion hue, teeth 
 which are small, equal, slightly rounded, white, clean 
 and well arranged, and a pure breath, are the cir- 
 cumstances which constitute a beautiful mouth. 
 
 The sense of taste is more delicate and more 
 exquisite in woman than in man. She accordingly 
 seeks for savours which are less rough and irritating 
 than those which are agreeable to him. 
 
 The nose is the most prominent and conspicuous 
 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 
 
FACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 253 
 
 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 the various degrees 
 of deviation from it constitute, as to this organ, the 
 various degenerations from beauty the most con- 
 summate to ugliness the most disgusting. 
 
 Nature, says Winckelmann, is sparing of this beauty 
 both in burning climates and in frozen regions . 1 
 
 The same writer says, “ The flat compressed nose of 
 the Calmucks, 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 forehead .” 2 The fact is 
 true; the reasoning false, as will be seen in a 
 
 1 It is remarkable that, in infants, the nose is almost always flat, and 
 that, in some members of the same family, it always remains so, while in 
 others it rises. This is attended by difference of function. 
 
 2 “ Tale e pure il naso compresso e simo de’ Calmncchi, de’ Cinesi, e 
 d’altre lontane nazioni, poiche guasta l’armonia delle forme, secondo la 
 quale tntte le altre parti sono costruite : ne scorgesi ragione alcuna, per 
 cui la Natura abbia dovuto comprimerlo e incavarlo, anziche continuare 
 la linea retta in cominciata dalla fronte.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
254 
 
 BEAUTY OE THE 
 
 subsequent chapter, to which this point properly 
 belongs. 
 
 Under the influence of passion, the nostrils expand 
 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 pleasures 
 which have remarkable relations to that sense. 
 
 To beauty of the eye, magnitude and elongated 
 form contribute more perhaps than colour : if its 
 form be bad, no colour will render it beautiful. In 
 woman, however, the most beautiful eyes, in relation 
 to colour, are those which appear to be blue, hazel, or 
 black. But no colour of the eye is beautiful 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 removed 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 perpendicularly 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 
 
FACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 255 
 
 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 
 amongst ourselves, and commonly amongst the Chinese, 
 Japanese, and in Egyptian heads, are an irregularity 
 and a deformity .” 1 
 
 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 Mongolic 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 organ, the brain. The 
 causes assigned by Winckelmann are but consequences 
 of this. 
 
 1 “ Quanto piu inclinati, e posti ad angolo fra di loro sono gli ocelli, 
 come ne’ gatti, tanto piu la loro posizione s’ allontana dalla base ossia 
 dalle linee fondamentali del volto umano, che formano una croce la quale 
 lo divide in quattro, tagliando in due parti eguali perpendicolarmente il 
 naso, ed orizzontalmente gli occhi. Se questi sono inclinati vengono a 
 far angolo con una linea parallela a quella che si suppone passare pel loro 
 centro. E questa e pur senza dubbio la cagione per cui dispiace il 
 vedere una bocca che va un po’ di traverso, poiche generalmente ripugna 
 all’ occhio il vedere due linee, delle quali una dall’ altra diverga senza 
 ragione. Per tanto gli occhi obbliquamente posti, che presso di noi pur 
 talora s’incontrano, e che si vedono ne’ Cinesi e ne’ Giapponesi come 
 sulle teste egiziane, sono un’ irregolarita e un difetto.” (Ibid.) 
 
256 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 The eyelids, in woman, when well formed, present 
 the gentlest inflexions. The eye-lashes, when long 
 and silky, form a sign of gentleness, and sometimes 
 of softness. The eye-brows ought to be furnished 
 with fine hairs, arched and separated : if they are too 
 thin, they do not sufficiently protect the organ of 
 sight : if they unite they render the physiognomy 
 sombre : their too-marked approximation and their 
 extreme separation are real deformities. 
 
 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 colours 
 of moderate vividness, rather than otherwise. 
 
 The beauty of the ear is too little regarded. To 
 an experienced eye it presents great beauties, and 
 great deformities, in form, magnitude, and projection. 
 
 The size and prominence of the ear, which cha- 
 racterise several nomadic tribes, are contrary to 
 beauty, not merely because they alter the regularity 
 of the oval of the head, and surcharge its outline 
 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 
 
FACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 257 
 
 ear of man, are offensive to her. She prefers soft 
 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 melody 
 to the most complicated Sclavonic harmony. 
 
 Such are the organs of sense or those of impression, 
 which form the first and most important portion of 
 the face of woman. — The organs of expression, the 
 muscles of the face, on the contrary, 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 animal. When well 
 formed, it is full, united, and generally without a 
 dimple ; and it passes gently and almost insensibly to 
 the neighbouring parts. In woman especially, the 
 chin ought to be finely rounded ; for when projecting, 
 it expresses, owing to its connection with muscular 
 action and power, a firmness and a determination 
 which we do not wish to discover in her character. 
 “ The apparent convexity of the cheeks,” says 
 Winckelmann, “ which in many heads appears 
 greater than natural, contributes to this rotundity : 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 it is not, however, ideal, but taken from natural 
 beauty .” 1 
 
 The muscles of the face express all the shades 
 of emotion and passion, not because such expression 
 is the primary, or the proper object of their motion, 
 but because their various motions adapt the organs to 
 the further purposes required of them in consequence 
 of preceding impressions ; and these motions 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 fundamental principle of physi- 
 ognomy; 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 gentlest 
 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 expresses. 
 
 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 man, 
 and which permits us more difficultly to discover, 
 
 1 “ A una si fatta rotondita contribuisce l’apparentc convessita delle 
 mascelle, la quale sebbene in molte teste sembra maggiore del naturale, 
 non e pero ideale, ma presa dalla piu bella natura.” {Monumenti Inediti.) 
 
I'ACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 259 
 
 through the rounded, soft, and shifting parts, the 
 nature of her various feelings. As, however, the 
 abundance of the cellular tissue diminishes with age, 
 and as the sentiments become at the same time less 
 ephemeral, the physiognomical character and ex- 
 pression of woman becomes more decided. 
 
 As to colour of the face, it may be observed that 
 the forehead, the temples, the eyelids, the nose, 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 tint 
 of rose colour, and the middle of the cheeks ought to 
 be altogether rosy, but of a delicate hue. — Cheeks 
 of an animated white are preferable to those of a red 
 colour, 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 exuberant vitality, 
 rather than intellectuality: it indeed depends entirely 
 upon 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 
 
260 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 of the face in general, and that of the nose in parti- 
 cular, gives to the whole of the features a peculiar 
 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 illustrates 
 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 particular elevation of the 
 forehead, which is characteristic 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, ZavQog,” says Winckelmann, “has 
 ever been regarded as the most beautiful ; and flaxen 
 coloured hair was assigned to the most beautiful, not 
 only amongst the Gods, as Apollo [^pvaoKonav 
 'AiroWojva, golden haired Apollo,] and Bacchus, but 
 also amongst the heroes: Alexander the Great had 
 flaxen hair .” 1 The modern Italians called Cupid 
 ‘ II biondo Dio.’ 
 
 1 “ II color biondo, ZavBoe, e stato in ogni tempo tenuto pel piu bello ; 
 e bionde chiome furon date ai piu avvenenti non solo fra gli dei, come ad 
 Apollo e a Bacco, ma agli eroi eziandio : Alessandro il Grande avea i 
 capelli biondi.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
FACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 261 
 
 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 variously 
 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, respectively, 
 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 understanding it. 
 
 Another curious fact, not hitherto observed, is 
 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 phy- 
 siognomists may observe, and which ever continues 
 to exaggerate, until it terminate in relative ugliness. 
 Thus we scarcely observe the long upper lip during 
 youth, in some women ; and yet it afterwards gives 
 to them the sober grimace of baboons. We admire 
 in youth the spirit of the piercing eye, and aquiline 
 nose in others, to whom these afterwards give the 
 look of so many old hawks. In others, still, we are 
 charmed with the round, rosy, and innocent cheeks, 
 
262 
 
 BEAUTY OE THE 
 
 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 dis- 
 position. I could easily trace these, and many more, 
 from youth to middle age, and illustrate them con- 
 vincingly, 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 volume; 
 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 organisation 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 
 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 universal conformation of 
 
FACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 263 
 
 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, Caracalla, 
 &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 degraded 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 further 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, preferred a 
 little forehead and united eyebrows. Ovid assures 
 us that the women of his time painted their 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 as the 
 breadth of their organs. No truth can be better 
 
264 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE 
 
 illustrated than this is, in the organisation 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 Romans, a perseverance, 
 equally obstinate and unfeeling, 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 burning coals, when 
 she heard of his defeat. Obstinacy and insensibility 
 were great sources of the crimes either perpetrated, or, 
 by their lying historians, pretended to be perpetrated, 
 under the name of Roman virtue. 
 
 It would be out of place, here, to enter further into 
 the character and expression of the face. Those 
 whom these remarks dispose to do so, may refer to 
 the physiognomical work, which I have been so often 
 compelled to allude to, and of which I therefore give 
 the title below . 1 To those who are satisfied neither 
 
 1 ‘Physiognomy founded on Physiology, and applied to various 
 

 
 XVI. 
 
 
FACE IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 265 
 
 with the vague, though tasteful, inspirations of Lavater, 
 nor with the empirical or unreasoned manifestations 
 of Gall and Spurzheim, but who desire the assignment 
 of a reason for every ascription of physiognomical 
 character or expression, that work may afford some 
 satisfaction. 
 
 The three species of beauty, as they affect the head 
 and face, are illustrated in Plate XVI. 
 
 That the Greeks, either intuitively or reasonedly, 
 distinguished the three species of beauty as to the 
 Figure, has been already seen. That they equally did 
 so as to the Face, is shown in Plate XVI in which 
 the heads of Diana, Venus, and Minerva, respectively, 
 present beauty of the Locomotive, Vital, and Mental 
 Systems. 
 
 Countries, Professions, and Individuals ; with an Appendix on the Bones 
 at Hjthe — the Sculls of the Ancient Inhabitants of Britain, and its 
 Invaders.’ Illustrated by Engravings. — Smith, Elder and Co., Cornhill. 
 
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 characterises the same individual during every 
 stage of life; and, to the experienced observer, it 
 never is difficult to say which of them predominates. 
 Attention to the preceding principles 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 slightest original or 
 accidental preponderance of strength in one system 
 above that of the rest, though unobserved at first, 
 leads to a more frequent employment 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 
 


COMBINATIONS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 267 
 
 described can exist in a great degree of degradation ; 
 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 per- 
 fection. 
 
 It often, however, occurs that two, or even the 
 whole of these species of beauty, are blended in 
 considerable perfection. Plate XVII presents the 
 three species of beauty in some degree combined, 
 from a living figure ; and even so much as this figure 
 presents of locomotive and vital beauty, is not of very 
 frequent occurrence. 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, 
 
268 
 
 COMBINATIONS AND 
 
 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 predominance of 
 the lymphatic system was not carried so far, but 
 that he joined to it a good deal of nervous sus- 
 ceptibility.” 
 
 Of women, more especially, it is observed, that they 
 rarely present examples of the lymphatic tempera- 
 ment, unmodified by nervous mobility; whence come 
 extreme vivacity in the sensations with great feeble- 
 ness, 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 eleva- 
 tion of thought and character, and can bring into 
 action the highest talents in every department : the 
 history of Henry IV, of Mirabeau, and others, proves 
 that.” 
 
 The ancients gave the name of bilious to a tempera- 
 
TRANSITIONS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 269 
 
 ment in which the sanguineous system is energetic, the 
 pulse strong, hard, and frequent, the subcutaneous 
 veins prominent, the development of the liver excessive, 
 the superabundance of bile remarkable, the sensibility 
 easily excited, yet capable of dwelling upon one 
 object, the passions violent, the movements abrupt 
 and impetuous, and the character inflexible. This 
 is evidently a very compound temperament, and should 
 never have been classed, any more than the two pre- 
 ceding, with the simple temperaments, the athletic or 
 muscular, the phlegmatic 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 marked, 
 the form harshly expressed. “ Bold in the conception 
 of a project,” says Richerand, “constant and inde- 
 fatigable 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 signalised 
 themselves by great virtues or great crimes, and have 
 been the terror or admiration of the universe. Such 
 were Alexander, Julius Caesar, Brutus, Mohamed, 
 Charles XII, the Czar Peter, Cromwell, Sixtus V, 
 Cardinal Richelieu, [and, he should have added, 
 Buonaparte.] ... To attain to results of such impor- 
 tance, the profoundest dissimulation and the most 
 
270 
 
 COMBINATIONS AND 
 
 obstinate constancy are equally necessary; and these 
 are the most eminent qualities of the bilious.” 
 
 A still more compound temperament is the melan- 
 cholic , in which disease is added to the bilious tempe- 
 rament, 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 dis- 
 position 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. 
 
 Of the transitions of beauty I have now to 
 observe, that, though one species of beauty always 
 characterises 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 
 
TRANSITIONS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 271 
 
 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 organisation, the more will this 
 seem to be the case;) but the accurate observer will 
 always see the predominance of the same system. 
 
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.” 1 
 
 The great variety of proportions presented by the 
 human body causes much difficulty in determining 
 with precision what are the best. The difficulty 
 becomes quite insurmountable if we attempt to assign 
 precise dimensions to the details of configuration or to 
 minute parts. 
 
 1 “Non pub immaginarsi bellezza senza la proporzione che n’ e sempre 
 il fondamento .” — “ II disegno del nudo fondasi sulla cognizione e sull’ 
 idea del bello ; e quest’ idea consiste in parte nelle misure e rapporti, e 
 in parte nelle forme, la bellezza delle quali era, al dir di Cicerone, 
 l’oggetto de’ primi artisti Greci : queste determinano la figura ; quelle ne 
 fissano le proporzione.” {Ibid.) 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 273 
 
 Many circumstances are opposed to the exactness 
 of these measures. Even in the same person, one 
 part is rarely in all respects similar to the correspond- 
 ing part; we are taller in the morning than in the 
 evening ; and the proportions change at different 
 periods of life. In different individuals, the differ- 
 ences are still more evident. Moreover, habits, 
 professions, trades, all unite to oppose regularity in 
 the proportions. 
 
 It has further 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 interest 
 in observing with severity. It is evident that, for 
 such an examination, they ought to be capable of 
 seizing, with great precision, the relation of length and 
 thickness, and of following the slight sinuosities, the 
 swellings, the depressions, almost insensible and con- 
 tinually 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 further, and 
 conceive many other necessary circumstances con- 
 cerning proportion. 
 
274 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 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 composes 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.” 
 
 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 explaining 
 exact proportion, may not be thought so sufficiently 
 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 quantities or dimensions. 
 
 But the Greek artists had not only done what 
 Hogarth thus vaguely speaks of, but advanced much 
 further; 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, 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 275 
 
 that we can acquire this knowledge [that of pro- 
 portion :] 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, that with one consent they are . 
 regarded as the most exact representation of the most 
 perfect human 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 
 
276 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 the same time, from want of enlarged anatomical and 
 physiological views, they have overlooked some funda- 
 mental 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 ; and, as their works are 
 rather scarce and expensive, I shall in general 
 quote the original language at the bottom of the 
 page . 1 
 
 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 constituting the 
 two parts the most useful and necessary 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 . 2 
 
 1 Of the best works on this subject, those of Mengs alone, I believe, 
 have been translated; but the translation is so inaccurate as to be 
 worthless. 
 
 2 “ Preferivano le cose piu necessarie a quelle, che lo erano meno ; e 
 quindi mettevano attenzione primieramente ne’ muscoli, e dopo nella 
 proporzione, consistendo in queste due parti il piu utile, e il piu necessario 
 della forma umana; e questo e il carattere di tutto illoro gusto primitivo. 
 Tutto cib si osserva nelle storie, e nelle figure divine e umane, ehe 
 hanno rappresentate.” (Opere di Antonio Raffaello Mengs.) 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 277 
 
 “ In these figures,” he further 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 .” 1 
 
 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 contrary, 
 a consequence of the strict and extensive examination 
 of nature, of rational inquiry into its most perfect 
 organisation 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 precepts laid 
 down in the work ; and ‘ The Rule of Polycletus,’ the 
 name given to this statue, became so famous for its 
 
 1 “ In quelle figure trovasi una proporzione impossibile a conoscersi e 
 a praticarsi seuza un’ arte, che dia regole sicure. Queste regole non 
 potevano fondarsi in altro che nella proporzione,” &c. {Ibid.) 
 
278 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 beauty, that it passed into a proverb 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 [except the few lines of 
 Vitruvius], nor is there, now, any hope that a vestige 
 will be found, unless something may remain for 
 posterity amongst the papyri of Herculaneum .” 1 
 
 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, 
 
 1 “Molto certamente di tale scienza fu scritto dai Greci, come ne 
 abbiamo ampie testimonialize in Plinio, in Vitruvio stesso, in Pilostrato 
 juniore ed in altri. 
 
 “ Policleto non si accontento di dare un commentario di questa facolta, 
 ma, per testimonio di Galeno, ad illustrazione dello scritto fece una 
 mirabile statua cbe confermava i precetti in esso scritto contenuti ; e il 
 Canone di Policleto, nome che a quella statua si diede, divenne si famoso 
 per la sua bellezza, cbe passo in proverbio per esprimere un corpo 
 perfetto, come possiamo vedere presso Luciano. 
 
 “ Ma di tanti scritti che dovevano per lo meno pareggiare in eccellenza 
 le opere che ci rimangono, e che probabilmente, perche e piu facile il dar 
 precetti che operare, le avranno superate, di tanti scritti, dico, non, ci 
 rimane frammento, ne e da sperare ormai che se ne trovi vestigio, se 
 pure qualche cosa non esistesse pei posteri fra e papiri Ercolanesi.” 
 {Belle Opinioni di Leonardo da Vinci intorno alia Simmetria de’ Corpi 
 Umani.) 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 279 
 
 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, endeavour to point out some of these 
 principles in the practice of art, as I have already 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 learnt by 
 young persons, from books that treated of symmetry .” 1 
 
 These rules, we know, were of three kinds, — 
 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 methods are, in 
 some measure, actually practised even at the present 
 day, and that the harmonic method (the loss of which 
 has caused the greatest confusion) is easily deducible 
 from anatomical and physiological principles, as I 
 shall endeavour to show. 
 
 1 “E’ probabile che e Greci artisti, ad imitazione degli Egizj, abbiano 
 su ben determinate regole fissate non solo le piu grandi, ma eziandio le 
 piu piccole proporzioni, e la misura della lunghezza e larghezza propria 
 ad ogni eta e ad ogni qualita, di contorni ; e tutte qneste leggi verosimil- 
 mente s’ imparavan dai giovani su i libri, che trattavano della simmetria.” 
 (Storia delle Arti.) 
 
280 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 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 per- 
 ceived it was necessary for the artist to use a general 
 measure, for the purpose of preparing historical 
 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 .” 1 * * * 
 
 “ It has been observed,” says Flaxman, “ that 
 Vitruvius, from the writings of the most eminent 
 Greek painters and sculptors, informs us that they 
 
 1 “ Siccome avviene al pittore d’ imitare i corpi umani a centinaja, e 
 
 siccome ne 5 corpi belli le differenze delle parti per lo piu sono piccole, e 
 diventano poi quasi impercettibili nelle piu comuni imitazioni miuori della 
 grandezza naturale, Leonardo riconosceva essere necessario al pittore 
 1’ adoprare una misura generale, specialmente per l’uso privato di pre- 
 parare con prontezza le composizioni delle istorie. Yolea pero che 
 1’ elezione della figura in che far abito, fosse fatta con grandi avvertenze 
 
 sopra la regola di un corpo naturale, il quale comunemente fosse di 
 proporzione laudabile. — Yoleva ancora che questa misura fosse unica- 
 
 mente usata per le lunghezze e non per le larghezze, nelle quali esige 
 
 piu sensibile varieta.” (Bossi, lib. cit.) 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 281 
 
 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 Michael 
 Angelo 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 sextse.” 
 
 “The foot,” says Winckelmann, “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 
 
282 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 in the Egyptian statues, but also in the Grecian ; and 
 it will be discovered in the greater part of the 
 ancient figures where the feet are preserved .” 1 
 
 “ We would not omit mentioning,” says Bossi, 
 “the erroneous opinion of those, who esteem the 
 feet of females beautiful in proportion to their small- 
 ness. The beauty of the feet consists in the hand- 
 someness 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 .” 2 
 
 ' “II piede, che presso tutti gli antichi prendeasi per norma nelle 
 misure d’ogni grandezza, cosicche con questo nome chiamavasi anche 
 una data misura de’ fluidi, era di molt’ uso agli statuarj per fissare le 
 proporzioni del corpo, e con ragione ; poiche il piede ha una misura piu 
 determinata che non ha la testa o ’1 volto, di cui si valgono generalmente 
 i moderni. Gli antichi artisti dalla lunghezza del piede determinavano 
 la grandezza delle loro statue, e davan loro, secondo il testimonio di 
 Vitruvio, sei lunghezze di piede. Su questo principio Pittagora deter- 
 mine) la grandezza d’ Ercole dalla misura de’ piedi coi quali avea misurato 
 lo stadio Olimpico in Elide. 
 
 “ Tale proporzione di sei ad uno tra T piede e T corpo, fondasi sulla 
 sperienza naturale, eziandio nelle figure svelte: si ravvisa esatta non 
 solamente nelle statue Egiziane, ma ben anche sulle Greche; e tro- 
 verebbesi nella maggior parte delle antiche figure, se loro si fossero 
 conservati i piedi.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
 2 “Non e da lasciarsi inavvertita 1’ erronea opinione di coloro che 
 estimano tanto piu belli i piedi femminili quanto piu sono piccioli. La 
 bellezza de’ piedi sta nella leggiadrfa econcinnita della forma, non nell’ 
 esser corti o estremamente piccioli ; che se fosse diversamente, sarebbero 
 bellissimi i piedi delle donne Cinesi e Giapponesi, e mostruosi quelli 
 della Venere de’ Medici.” {Lib. cit.) 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 283 
 
 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 
 measuring the relative size of the shoulders in the 
 male, and the pelvis in the female. 
 
 So, also, is the measure from the centre of one 
 mamma to that of the other, as equal to the distance 
 from each to the pit over the breast-bone. 
 
 We now approach the chief difficulty, which evi- 
 dently formed a stumbling block even to Leonardo 
 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 state- 
 ment 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 true 
 proportion admitted by him, and acknowledged to be 
 of difficult investigation, is solely the proportion of an 
 individual in regard to himself, which, according to 
 
284 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 true imitation, should be different in all the individuals 
 of a species, as is the case in nature. Thus, says he, 
 c 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 indi- 
 vidual, and not to the general rule of imitation in 
 reference to dimensions .” 1 How clearly (notwith- 
 standing the error as to all being short and thick,) 
 does this point to the harmonic method of proportion 
 forthwith 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 admirer and disciple. 
 
 1 “ Ei non faeea gran conto delle misure generali delle specie, come di 
 cosa di lieve discorso; e clie la vera proporzione da lui ammessa e 
 riconosciuta di difficile investigazione, e unicamente la proporzione di 
 un particolare riguardo a se stesso, la quale, secondo la retta imitazione, 
 debb’ essere diversa in tutti i particolari d’ una specie, siccome avviene 
 nelia natura. Cosi, die’ egli, tutte le parti di qualunque animale sieno 
 correspondenti al suo tutto : cioe che quel cbe e corto e grosso, deve 
 avere ogni membro in se corto e grosso; e quello cbe e lungo e sottile, 
 abbia le membra lunghe e sottili; e il mediocre abbia in se le membra 
 della medesima mediocrita. E con questo e con altri precetti fa scorgere 
 che, allorche ei parla di proporzioni, si debbe intendere ch’ ei ragioni 
 della commodulazione delle parti di un individuo anzi che di una norma 
 generale dell’ imitazione per cio che spetta alle misure.” (Ibid!) 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 285 
 
 “ 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 comprehending 
 them too late, he modestly laments that he did not 
 possess the ancient art of proportions. He then pro- 
 tests 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 Yincia (sic) Florentinus 
 Statuarius Pictor que nobilissimus 
 de se parce loquitur. 
 
 Non sum L’ysippus ; nec Apelles ; nec Policletus ; 
 
 Nec Zeuxis ; nec sum nobilis sere Myron. 
 
 Sum Plorentinus Leonardus Yincia proles ; 
 
 Mirator veterum discipulusque memor. 
 
 Defuit una mihi symmetric/, prisca : peregi 
 Quod potui : veniam da milii posteritas. 
 
 “It is evident that these sentiments are not to 
 be attributed to the imagination of the poet .” 1 
 
 1 " Sembra cbe dentro di se sentisse di non giungere alia eccellenza di 
 que’ meravigliosi anticbi, de’ quali si protestava ammiratore e discepolo. 
 
 “Era poi cura e studio speciale di Leonardo di avvicinarsi per quanto 
 poteva agli anticbi nella vera e bella imitazione della natura colla scorta 
 della filosofia. 
 
 “ Pero, o fosse la mancanza de’ grandi esemplari, o non ne penetrasse, 
 secondo ch’ egli credeva, abbastanza gli artifizj, o cbe troppo tardi 
 
286 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 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, whilst 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 , hut cannot 
 he explained , and which varies in every figure, accord- 
 ing to the age , circumstances, and particular character 
 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 
 determinate general measure for man, but that 
 harmony of parts which is suited to each individual, 
 according to the respective circumstances of sex, age, 
 character , and the like. ,n — Again, how clearly does 
 
 giungesse a comprenderli, egli lagnavasi modestamente di non aver 
 posseduto 1’ antico magistero delle proporzioni. Si protestava poi d’ 
 aver fatto il poco che aveva potato, e chiedeva perdono alia posterita, se 
 non aveva fatto di piu. Ecco i sentimenti clie il Platino espose nell’ 
 epitaffio che qui trascrivo, [as above.] 
 
 “ Ognun vede che sensi si fatti non si possono attribuire all’ invenzione 
 del poeta.” {Ibid.) 
 
 1 “Or dunque questo non contentarsi di si grand’ uomo nell’ ardua 
 materia delle misure, mentre uel resto non parea temere 1’ altrui censura, 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC- 287 
 
 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 diffi- 
 culty 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.” 1 — In despair, Bossi tries to show 
 its absolute impossibility! 
 
 ci debbe dare una grande idea della difficolta di determinare le leggi 
 della bella simmetria, e di conservarle nelle opere con quell’ armonia che 
 si sente, ma che non si spiega e cbe varia in ogni figura seeondo 1’ eta, 
 gli accidenti e i caratteri particolari di ciascbeduna. 
 
 “ E quando finalmente si riflettera che quantunque Leonardo con si 
 buon esito indagasse in Yitruvio le misure cbe Vitruvio stesso sembra 
 aver tratte dai Greci, lagnavasi nondimeno di non aver posseduto la vera 
 antica simmetria, si comprendera bene cbe per questa scienza egli non 
 intendeva, come gia accennai, una determinata misura generale dell’ 
 uomo, ma quella commodulazione di parti cbe a ciascbedun individuo 
 conviene seeondo le respettive circostanze di sesso, di eta, di carattere e 
 simili.” {Ibid.) 
 
 1 “ Ma quanto questa forma bella e leggiadra sia difficile a combinarsi 
 con misure facili ed armonicbe, si pub giudicare dai vani sforzi di tanti 
 uomini d’ altronde ingegnosi, cbe qui mi piacque a comodo degli artefici 
 raccogliere. Tale difficolta diventera poi piu evidente, allorche si 
 riflettera quanto e ardua cosa 1’ accordare fra loro le tre proporzioni cbe 
 
288 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 “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 equi- 
 librium' of the numerous constituent parts of the 
 human machine, every one of which eminently attains 
 the end for which it was destined, without inter- 
 rupting the course that every other part takes to its 
 respective end, in which true proportion seems to 
 consist, is more easily stated than understood. And 
 even if an artist could arrive at such a knowledge 
 of man as to be able, so to speak, to compose him, 
 he would have done but little, because he would have 
 made but one man. By the 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 in- 
 dividual would be the subject of a totally new study . 1 
 
 gli antichi distinguevano, la numerica, 1’ armonica e la geometrica, e 
 P applicare tale accordo a formar regole e misure di un oggetto visible si 
 vario nelle parti che lo compongono, qual e il corpo umano.” {Ibid.) 
 
 1 “ In secondo luogo, il penetrare compiutamente la ragion naturale 
 delle proporzioni umane esigerebbe nna conoscenza della fisica che all’ 
 uomo non e dato di ottenere. L’ equilibrio universale delle infinite parti 
 costituenti la macchina umana, ciascuna delle quali ottenga eminente- 
 mente il fine cui e destinata senza interrompere il corso che ogni altra 
 parte ha al suo fine respettivo, in che pare consistere la vera proporzione, 
 e cosa da dirsi piu che da intendersi. E quando anche si giungesse a 
 conoscere si fattamente P uomo, che si potesse, direi quasi, comporlo, 
 imitando, esattamente il composto naturale, si sarebbe ancor fatto poco, 
 perche si sarebbe fatto un uomo solo. Una sola delle infinite parti che il 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 289 
 
 “Every human habit, of whatever nature it may 
 be, has an influence over the human figure, and from 
 the indefinable variety and incalculable mixture 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.” 1 — If, by “general propor- 
 tions,” 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 com- 
 ments ; for he sought a rule for the harmony of parts 
 in each distinct individual. 
 
 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 that large proportions only can be 
 established, and that placing too much confidence in 
 measures, retards, rather than favours the arts. 
 
 “ It was written of Raphael, and is seen, that he 
 had as many proportions as he made figures. Michael 
 Angelo did the same, and it was his saying, that he 
 
 composto umano costituiscono, che si debba alterare, 1’ equiponderanza e 
 respettiva relazione delle altre rimangono necessariamente alterat.e ; in. 
 breve ogni uomo separatamente sarebbe subietto di tutta ana nuova 
 scienza.” {Ibid.) 
 
 1 “ Ogni umana abitudine, di qualunque genere ella sia, influisce sulla 
 forma umana, e dalla varieta indefinible e dalla incalcolabile mistura di 
 tali abitudini nasce la infmita varieta delle forme. Dunque e evidente 
 che non si possono determinare vere proporzioni generali senza offendere 
 la natura che 1’ arte vorrebbe pur imitare.” {Ibid.) 
 
 19 
 
290 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 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 work, that the pro- 
 portions do not fall under any measure of quantity. 
 We have seen the infinite exceptions of Leonardo, 
 respecting the measurement 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.” 1 — And this will be found conformable to 
 the harmonic rule. 
 
 “ And speaking generally of works in relievo, what 
 canons can determine the largeness or smallness of 
 some parts, so as to obtain a greater effect, according 
 to the circumstances of light, distance, material, visual 
 point, &c. ? Certainly none .” 2 This was not to be 
 expected from the rule sought for. 
 
 1 “ Dal fin qui detto, si debbe per ultimo dedurre che non si possono 
 stabilire che proporzioni grosse, e cbe il riporre troppo di confidenza 
 nelle misure inceppa 1’ arte anzi che favorirla.” {Ibid.) 
 
 “ Di Raffaello fu scritto, e si vede che tenne tante proporzioni quante 
 fece figure. Michelagnolo fece lo stesso ed e suo motto che chi non ha 
 le seste negli occhi, non trovera mai artifizio con che supplire a tal 
 difetto. Vincenzo Danti che fe’ tesoro della dottrina di Michelagnolo, 
 assert nel suo libro, che le proporzioni non cadono sotto alcuna misura 
 di quantita. Di Leonardo abbiamo veduto le infinite eccezioni circa il 
 misurar l’uomo, e le poche sue opere le confermano. Non parlo degli 
 altri minori fra i moderni; e volgendomi agli antichi, trovo che ogni 
 statue lodevole ha proporzioni diverse.” {Ibid.) 
 
 2 “E parlando poi in generale delle opere di rilievo, quali canoni 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 291 
 
 “ I shall deem that I have gained some recompense 
 for the toil of wading through so many tedious works, 
 if it shall induce any faith in the advice I now give, 
 namely, ‘ That every student of painting should 
 himself measure many bodies of acknowledged 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.’ 5,1 — 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 man’s 
 object, when, after saying, “as the ancients made 
 ideal beauty their principal study, they determined its 
 relations and proportions,” he adds “from which. 
 
 potranno determinare la diminuzione o 1’ ingrandimento di alcune parti, 
 onde ottenere un migliore effetto secondo le circostanze di luce, di 
 distanza, di materia, di punto visuale e simili ? nessuno di certo.” (Ibid.) 
 
 1 “ Mi parra intanto d’ aver buon frutto dalla fatica da me fatta in 
 cercare tanti nojosi libri, se cio dara qualche fede a quanto io sono per 
 consigliare, cioe : Che ogni studente di pittura misuri da se molti corpi 
 di lodata bellezza, facendone confronto colie piu lodate imitazioni di 
 pittura e di scultura, e che da queste misure ricavi un canone suo proprio, 
 diviso a quel modo che piu al suo ingegno ed alia sua memoria sia con- 
 forme. Se molti seguiranno questo metodo, 1’ arte guadagnera e nella 
 scienza e ne’ prodot ti.” (Ibid.) 
 
292 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 however, they allowed themselves to deviate, when 
 they had a good reason, and yielded themselves to the 
 guidance of their genius.” 1 — 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 measure 
 which Leonardo calls the “true proportion,” “the 
 proportion of an individual in regard to himself,” 
 “ which should be different in all the individuals 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 individual, — this method presenting 
 rules , perfectly precise, and yet infinitely variable, has, 
 in all its elements, been already clearly laid before the 
 reader, (though not enunciated as a rule,) — in the 
 relative proportions 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 philosophic 
 
 1 “Gli antichi, siccome faceano del hello ideale il loro principale 
 studio, cosi ne aveano determinati i rapporti e le proporzioni, dalle quali 
 peri), quando ne aveano una giusta ragione, s’ allontanavano, lasciandosi 
 guidare dal loro genio.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 293 
 
 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 great 
 features of the Greek method, — if that method con- 
 formed to truth and nature, as it undoubtedly did. 
 This will be rendered still clearer by a single example. 
 
 Thus, if any individual be characterised 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 rela- 
 tively small; that the calvarium shall be small and 
 round, and the intellectual powers restricted; that 
 the head shall, nevertheless, be broad, because the 
 vital cavities of the head are large, and because large 
 jaws and muscles of mastication are necessary for 
 the supply of such a system ; that the neck shall be 
 short, because the locomotive system is little deve- 
 loped; that it shall 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 ; l that the feet shall be little turned out, &c. &c. 
 
 1 Thus it is not correct, as stated by Leonardo, that when some parts 
 are broad or thick, all are broad ; though, in peculiar combinations, that 
 
 may occur. 
 
294 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 So, also, if any individual be characterised by the 
 development of the locomotive system, the harmonic 
 rule demands, not only that the limbs shall be large, 
 but, consequently, that the other two portions, the 
 head and the trunk, shall be relatively 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 ex- 
 tended, &c. &c. 
 
 So, likewise, if any individual be characterised by 
 the development of the thinking system, the harmonic 
 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 pyra- 
 midal 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 combina- 
 tions and modifications of these characteristics ; certain 
 greater ones, nevertheless, generally predominating. 
 
 Such, doubtless, was the harmonic method of the 
 Greeks; whether, by them, it was thus clearly founded 
 on anthropology, or not. 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 295 
 
 It is curious that several writers, and Winckelmann 
 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, and the principal 
 members are also divided into three. The parts of 
 the body are the trunk, the thighs, and the legs L” 1 
 — 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 idealisations 
 founded upon them. 
 
 “ If different proportions,” says Winckelmann, “are 
 sometimes met with in any figure, as for example, 
 in the beautiful trunk of a naked female figure in 
 the possession of Signior Cavaceppi, at Rome, in 
 which the body from the naval 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.” 2 — Nothing certainly would 
 
 1 “ H corpo intero dividesi in tre parti ; e in tre pur si dividono i 
 membri principali. Le parti del corpo sono il tronco, le cosce, e le 
 gambe.” ( Storia delle Jrti.) 
 
 2 “ Cbe se talora s’ incontrano differenti proporzioni in qualche figura, 
 come, a cagion d’ esempio, in un bel torso d’ una figurina muliebre ignuda 
 presso il Signor Cavaceppi in Roma, in cui dall’ umbilico alle parti 
 sessuali passa una distanza non comune, allora deggiam credere che 
 simili figure siano state copiate dal naturale, cioe da persone cosi 
 formate.” {Ibid.) 
 
296 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 be better founded in natural tendency than such 
 idealisation. 
 
 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 cha- 
 racter, or a permanent and invariable form, which 
 defines its capabilities, and expression, or tem- 
 porary 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. 
 1 may therefore observe, that as character is per- 
 manent and invariable, it depends fundamentally on 
 permanent and invariable parts — the bones ; and as 
 expression is temporary and variable, it depends on 
 shifting and variable parts — the muscles. 
 
 It is well observed by Mengs that, in relation to 
 character, “ the peculiar distinction of the ancients 
 is, that from one part of the face we may know 
 the character of the whole.” 1 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 
 
 1 “ II particolare degli antichi e, che da una parte del viso si pub 
 couoscere il carattere di tutto il restante.” ( Opere .) 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 297 
 
 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 com- 
 posed.” 
 
 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 uni- 
 versal, and without which nature is imperfectly 
 represented — minuter forms of the highest order, 
 because the means of expressing intellect, emotion, and 
 passion, if required. 
 
 These higher details we find, for instance, in the 
 turn of the inner end of the eyebrow, or constriction 
 and elevation of the under eyelid, or a hundred other 
 traits dependent on subjacent muscles. We find 
 them in slight risings of mere cutaneous parts, when 
 they lie over and are elevated by the attachment of 
 muscles, .as at the inner angles of the eyes, the 
 corners of the mouth, and elsewhere. We find them 
 in depressions or furrows, when they are drawn down 
 by contiguous muscles. These are of higher character, 
 because they belong to expression or its means ; and 
 
298 PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 
 
 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 details, 
 the great artists of Greece distinguished. Accidental 
 details have nothing to do with expression, or the 
 means of expression ; they depend upon an inferior 
 system, that merely of life, and constitute all the 
 depositions, excrescences, and growths which confuse 
 the vision of the unexperienced, 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 wrinkles 
 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 characterised inferior artists and inferior 
 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 contains many other minor parts, 
 
PROPORTION, CHARACTER, EXPRESSION, ETC. 299 
 
 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 
 introduce the last, his style will be insignificant and 
 ridiculous.” 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 On this important doctrine of art, of which 
 Winckelmann 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 advantageously, 
 the great writers on the 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 com- 
 bination of the beauties of an individual ; the latter, a 
 selection of beautiful parts from several . 1 
 
 “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 
 
 1 “ La bellezza e di due specie, individuata, e ideale ; la prima e un 
 complesso delle belle forme d ’ un iudividuo ; e la seconda un estratto di 
 essa preso da piu individui.” ( Monumenti Inediti). 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 301 
 
 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 scandalised 
 at it, for the opinion of the ancients on these matters 
 was very different from ours .” 1 
 
 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 endea- 
 voured to combine them together, as the celebrated 
 
 1 “La formazione della bellezza ha cominciato dal hello individuo, cioe 
 dall’ imitare una bella persona, anche nel rappresentare qualche divinita. 
 Ne’ tempi eziandio, in eui le arti fiorivano, effigiavansi le dee sul modello 
 di belle donne, e di quelle pure ehe a pubblico comodo vendevan piaceri: 
 tale fu Teodota, di cui parla Senofonte. Ne siavi chi di cio si scan- 
 dalezzi, poiche gli antichi sn questo proposito pensavano ben diver- 
 samente da noi.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
 But I much doubt his assertion when he says, “ La natura ha formato 
 sempre e va formando tutto giomo de’ visi comparabili a quante teste 
 della piu sublime bellezza veder si possono scolpite ne’ marmi, e nelle 
 gemme : anche a di nostri si veggon vive delle Niobi e degli Apollini 
 Vaticani. Certe teste di deita che a taluno sembrar ne possono 
 concepite con 1’ intelletto astratto dall’ osservazione della creatura, e 
 ritratte come per isvergognar cio di che la natura fa mostra, non saranno 
 per avventura che immagini di persone anticamente vissute; gia 
 sappiamo ehe aleune statue di Venere e di altre dee furon fatte a 
 similitudine sin delle femmine che faceano mercimonio della loro 
 bellezza.” (Monumenti Inediti.) 
 
302 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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 . 1 
 
 “From the selection of the most beautiful parts and 
 their harmonious union in one figure, arises ideal 
 beauty: nor is this a metaphysical idea, because all the 
 portions of the human figure taken separately are not 
 ideal; but merely the entire figure .” 2 And he 
 elsewhere says, “ it is called ideal not as regards its 
 parts but as a whole, in which nature can be sur- 
 passed by art .” 3 
 
 With deeper observations still, he adds that, 
 “ though nature tends to perfection in the formation 
 of individuals, yet she is so constantly thwarted by 
 
 1 “V’ ha di rado o non mai un corpo senza difetti, e di cui tutte le 
 parti siano tali che in altri corpi ritrovar non se ne possano o figurare 
 almeno delle piu perfette. Di cio persuasi i piu saggi artisti .... non 
 ristringcvansi ad un solo individuo per copiare le forme della bellezza 
 . . . . ma il hello su varj oggetti ricercando studiavansi di combinarlo 
 insieme, come diceva il celebre pittore Parrasio, ragionando con Socrate. 
 Cosi nel formare le loro figure non erano diretti da quella inclinazione 
 personale, per cui sovente il nostro spirito, seguendo una belta che piace, 
 abbandona la vera bellezza.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
 2 “ Dalla scelta delle piu belle parti e dalla loro armonica unione in 
 una figura nasce il bello ideale : ne e gia questa un’ idea metafisica, 
 poiche ideali non sono tutte le parti dell’ umana figura separatamente 
 prese ; ma solo deve ideale cbiamarsi la figura intera.” {Ibid.) 
 
 3 “Dicesi poi ideale non rispetto alle parti, ma al totale, in cui la 
 natura pub esser superata dall’ arte.” {Monumenti Inediti.) 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 303 
 
 the numerous accidents to which humanity is subject, 
 that she cannot attain the end proposed; so that it 
 is in a manner impossible to find an individual in 
 whom all parts of the body are perfectly beautiful.” 1 
 It was to the same purport that Proclus had in 
 ancient times said, “ He who takes for his model such 
 forms as nature produces, and confines himself to an 
 exact imitation of them, will never attain to what is 
 perfectly beautiful. For the works of 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 object ever presented to 
 his sight, but contemplated only that image which he 
 had conceived in his mind from Homer’s description.” 2 
 In short, while the Greek artists perpetually 
 studied nature, they discovered her best and highest 
 
 1 “ La natura, quantunque nella formazione de’ suoi individui tenda al 
 perfetto, trovasi poco meno che quasi sempre impedita dalla materia e da 
 tanti accidenti a’ quali e soggetta 1’ umanita, sicclie non possa arrivar al 
 fine ch’ ella si propone ; talmente clie sara quasi impossibile di trovar 
 uomo alcuno di bellezza finita in ogni sua parte.” (Ibid.) 
 
 In his ‘Storia delle Arti,’ Wmckelmann says, “II Bernini considero 
 come impossibile e sognata la scelta delle piu belle parti di cinque 
 avvenenti donne di Crotona, fatta da Seusi quando voile dipingere 
 Giunone, asserendo che le parti e le membra d’ un individuo non possono 
 ad altri ben convenire, fuorche a quello di cui sono proprie.” And he 
 properly replies, “ Ma in cio il Bernini s’ inganno, come s’ ingannaron 
 tutti coloro i quali negando, come lui, esservi altra bellezza fuorche 
 l’individua, cosi ragionarono.” Assuredly, however, the painters of 
 modern times, ignorant of the great principles of the Greeks, are 
 incapable of uniting such parts in one harmonic combination. 
 
 * Lib. ii, in Timseum Platonis. 
 
304 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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. 
 
 Barry 1 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 rests. The devia- 
 tions 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 corporeal, since they sometimes 
 result from habit and education, as well as from 
 original conformation. In these deviations, are to be 
 found those ingredients which, in their composition 
 and union, exhibit the abstract or ideal perfection in 
 the several classes or species of character. The second 
 
 1 This member of the Royal Academy was suspected of having written 
 that “ republics had done more for the advancement of the fine arts than 
 monarchies.” The late George the Third, 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. 
 
 305 
 
 kind of deviation is that which, having no reference to 
 anything useful or advantageous, but rather visibly 
 indicating the contrary, as being useless, cumbersome, 
 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 notwithstanding 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 sacrifice 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 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 mistaken nonsense upon the 
 subject, never distinguishing 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 
 
 20 
 
306 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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 
 attention 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 measure- 
 ment 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 proportion. The fact however is, as 
 everyone knows, that, in such productions, no such 
 rule is observed ; that there is no one proportion of 
 parts which belongs to the most beautiful productions 
 of these arts ; that the proportions of the Apollo, for 
 instance, are different from those of the Hercules, the 
 Antinous, the Gladiator, &c. ; and that there are not, 
 in the whole catalogue of ancient statues, two, 
 perhaps, 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 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 307 
 
 of peculiar , but of universal, beauty — the locomotive 
 system presenting as much strength as is compatible 
 with agility, and as much agility as is compatible 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 ancient artists, it is peculiar 
 beauty, I believe, that is represented. 
 
 He further 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 considered as this 
 central and sacred standard. Of such questions and 
 such disputes, it is not possible to speak with serious- 
 ness, 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 
 which, either by intuition or with due definition, 
 resulted from and guided the practice of the ancient 
 Greeks. 
 
308 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 First, in regard to the thinking system, when the 
 ancient artists, either from taste or from principle, 
 gave greater opening to the facial angle than 80°, 
 they believed that an increase of intelligence cor- 
 responded to that conformation. By increasing the 
 angle beyond 85°, they impressed upon their figures 
 the grandest character, as we see in the heads of the 
 Apollo, the Venus, and others whose facial angle 
 extends to or exceeds 90°. 
 
 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 in no way to raise 
 the forehead, but to throw it forward, and therefore to 
 lengthen the head. This conforms to the metaphor 
 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 compliment 
 to their own organisation. 
 
 With regard to the height of the forehead, it has 
 already been observed that it was, among the ancient 
 Greeks, more considerable than its breadth, as may be 
 seen by the busts of their most illustrious men. Still, 
 neither the natural nor the ideal forehead much ex- 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 309 
 
 ceeded the space from the forehead 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 expressions 
 elsewhere show, no higher than the other two spaces 
 just mentioned;] and its lowness was so fixed amongst 
 the ideas of beauty by the Grecian artists, that it 
 serves as a mark to distinguish modern heads from 
 ancient. The reason of this appears founded in the 
 very rules of proportion, which, as in the whole human 
 body, was amongst the ancients 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 our- 
 selves of it in any individual with a low forehead, by 
 covering with a finger the hair at the top of the fore- 
 head, 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 . 1 
 
 1 “La fronte per esser bella convien che sia bassa; e la bassezza sua 
 si era talmente fissata fra le idee della bellezza, dagli artefici Greci, eh’ 
 ella suol essere un distintivo per discemere le teste moderne dalle 
 antiche. La ragione di cio par fondata nelle massime stesse della pro- 
 porzione, la quale siccome in tutta la figura umana era stata presso gli 
 antichi tripartita : cosi tripartita er’ ancora stata nel viso ; di modo che 
 1’ altezza della fronte fosse uguale alia lunghezza del naso; e quindi 
 altrettanta altezza avesse il viso sino all’ estremita del mento. Questa 
 
310 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 These views of Winckelmann, the ideal rule which 
 they illustrate, and above all, the actual dimension 
 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 reason of the ideal 
 rule has not indeed been assigned : it appears to me 
 to be this, that the three parts of the face which, 
 as I have shown both here and in my work on 
 ‘Physiognomy,’ are respectively connected 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 proportion 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 commence- 
 ment of the forehead, and say this part is not to 
 be considered in the height of a man, quia pars ex- 
 crementosa 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. 
 
 proporzione fu stabilita dell’ osservazione, e noi pure possiamo con essa 
 cliiarircene a nostro talento in alcuna persona di fronte bassa ; coprendole 
 con la larghezza di un dito le radici de’ capelli sopra la fronte, per 
 figurarcela quel tanto piu alta ; e allora scopriremo, per dir cosi, la dis- 
 armonica dissonanza della proporzione, e quanto pregiudicbi alia bellezza 
 la fronte alta.” ( Monumenti AnticM.) 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 311 
 
 The foundation of this rule I have not seen pointed 
 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 associated are the nose 
 and the eyes, and the mouth and the ears respectively. 
 
 Now, as in these ideal representations, their object 
 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 passage of 
 the nose or of the olfactory nerves to the brain 
 strikingly dilated by this elevation of the intermediate 
 part, but the orbits of the eyes were enlarged. As, 
 then, we naturally associate the increase of organs 
 with the increase of their sensations, and with cor- 
 responding effects upon the brain, and as the ten- 
 dency 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. 
 
312 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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 emo- 
 tion 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 express 
 deep or powerful passion , and the most vulgar 
 spectator would be sensible of dissatisfaction, if not 
 disgust.” 
 
 In endeavouring to assign a reason for the con- 
 figuration which I have just explained, Winckelmann, 
 in ascribing it to the mere production of effect, is 
 driven into a ridiculous inconsistency. He thinks 
 that for large statues seen at a distance, it was neces- 
 sary, 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 remains 
 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 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 313 
 
 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 eyebrows which do 
 not project, would be dull and inexpressive. This 
 maxim, adopted for large statues, became in time 
 universal ; so that it may be observed even on 
 medals, not only in ideal heads but in portraits .” 1 2 
 And, elsewhere, he says, “Art subsequently esta- 
 blished 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 
 
 1 “ Gli occhj sono piu internati nelle teste delle statue, e particolar- 
 meute nelle teste ideali, nelle quali il bulbo rimane piu in dentro di 
 quel che soglia essere nella natura, in cui gli occlij ritirati e depressi non 
 rendono il sembiante sereno ed ilare, ma piuttosto austero e cupo. 
 Quanto a cio 1’ arte si e discostata non senza ragione dal naturale ; 
 imperocche nelle figure collocate in sito rimoto dalla vista, se il bulbo 
 dell’ oechio fosse stato a livello dell’ incassatura, non vi sarebbe pro- 
 dotto effetto alcuno di luce e d’ ombra ; e 1’ oechio stesso situato sotto le 
 ciglia, le quali non si sporgono, sarebbe poeo significante e quasi stupido. 
 Questa massima adottata per le statue grandi, col tempo divenne uni- 
 versale ; talehe vedesi osservata anche nelle medaglie, rispetto non solo 
 alle teste ideali, ma anche ai ritratti.” ( Monumenti Inediti.) 
 
 2 “ L’ arte stabili in seguito una regola di dare all’ oechio tal forma, 
 eziandio nelle piccole figure ; e diffatti cosi incassato vedesi anche sulle 
 teste delle monete.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
314 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 gross inconsistency of which Greek genius was in- 
 capable. 
 
 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 character- 
 istic 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. 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 profiles 
 exists one cause of beauty is proved by the character 
 of the opposite line ; for the greater the inflection of 
 the nose, the less beautiful is the face ; and if, when 
 seen sideways, it presents a bad profile, it is useless 
 to look for beauty in any other view .” 1 
 
 1 “Nella forma del volto il profilo greco e il principal carattere d’ una 
 bellezza sublime. Vien formato questo profilo da una linea retta, o 
 almeno dolcemente piegata, che descrivon la fronte e’l naso sulle figure 
 giovanili, e principalmente delle donne. La natura sembra compiacersi 
 meno a dare tal forma ai volti ne’ climi aspri, che sotto un cielo temperato 
 e dolee ; ma ovunque questa s’ incontra, suole il volto sempre esser bello. 
 La linea retta e compiuta esprime un non so che di grande, e la linea 
 dolcemente incurvata ci presenta un’ idea di piacevole delicatezza. Che 
 in tali profili siavi una delle ragioni della bellezza lo dimostra 1’ opposto ; 
 imperocche quanto maggiore e 1’ incavamento del naso, tanto piu il volto 
 dalla bella forma s’ allontana ; e ove questo lateralmente guardato pre- 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 315 
 
 A third 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,” says Winckelmann, “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 . 1 
 
 “ The handsomest men are generally the most mild 
 and the best disposed . 2 
 
 “ Besides, tranquillity and repose, both in men and 
 
 senta un cattivo profilo, non e sperabile di vederlo bello in niun aspetto.” 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 1 “ L’ espressione presa in amendue i sensi altera i tratti del volto, il 
 contegno del corpo, e con essi le forme che costituiscono la belta; e 
 quanto maggiore e questa alterazione, tanto piu di bellezza si perde. 
 Pereio lo stato di tranquillita e di riposo, veniva nelle arti eonsiderato 
 come un punto fondamentale. La tranquillita e lo stato proprio della 
 bellezza.” (Storm delle Arti.) 
 
 2 “ Gli uomini piu belli sono eziandio per 1’ ordinario i piu tranquilli e, 
 di miglior indole.” (Ibid.) 
 
316 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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 . 1 
 
 “ Therefore the Grecian artists, wishing to depict, 
 in their representations of their deities, the perfection 
 of human beauty, strove to produce, in their counten- 
 ances 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 . 2 
 
 “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 them 
 the most sublime idea of beauty. This is then 
 compensated for by expression. The ancient artists, 
 
 1 “ In oltre la tranquillita e’l riposo si degli uomini che degli animali 
 e quello stato, in cui meglio possiamo conoscerne e rappresentarne 
 1’ indole e le propriety come il fondo del mare e de’ fiumi allor solo 
 scopriamo che tranquille sono o placide scorron 1’ onde.” (Ibid.) 
 
 2 “ Percio gli artefici greci, volendo giugnere a ritrarre nelle immagini 
 ch’ ei chiamavano di questa e quella divinita, il compimento dell’ umana 
 bellezza, cercarono d’ accordare col volto e con gli atti di esse una 
 placidezza che non avesse il minimo che d’ alterazione e di perturbazione, 
 che secondo la filosofia, era anche impropria della natura e dello stato 
 delle stesse Divinita. Le figure fatte con una tal compostezza esprime- 
 vano un equilibrio perfetto di sensazione.” ( Monumenti Inediti.) 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 317 
 
 however, never lost sight of it : it was always their 
 principal object, to which expression was in some sort 
 made subservient . 1 
 
 “ Beauty without expression would be insignificant, 
 and expression without beauty would be unpleasing ; 
 but from their influence over each other, from com- 
 bining together their apparently discordant qualities, 
 results an eloquent, persuasive, and interesting 
 beauty .” 2 3 
 
 Some of these remarks are true and beautiful ; but 
 the great object of the Greeks in suppressing the 
 convulsions of impassioned expression, was the bestowal 
 of grace, the highest quality in all representation. 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 acquainted with the productions of 
 
 1 “ Ma poiche uelle azioni la piena tranquillita e F indifferenza non 
 hanno luogo, e le stesse figure divine vengono rappresentate sotto umane 
 forme e cogli nmani affetti ; quindi e clie non sempre dee cercarsi in loro 
 la piu sublime idea della belta. Questa allora vien compensata dalF 
 
 espressione. Gli anticbi artisti pero non la perdevano mai di mira: 
 anzi era sempre lo scopo loro principale a cui F espressione doveva in 
 qualche modo servire.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
 3 “ La belta, senza F espressione, insignificante sarebbe, e F espressione 
 senza la belta sarebbe spiacevole ; ma influendo F una suit altra, e com- 
 binandosi insieme le loro qualita che sembrano distruggersi a vicenda, ne 
 risulta una parlante, persuasiva, ed attraente bellezza.” {Ibid.) 
 
318 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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. 
 Amongst them, a hurried gait was regarded as 
 contrary to the idea of decent deportment, and 
 partaking somewhat of expressive boldness. . . . Whilst 
 on the other hand, slow and regulated motions of the 
 body were proofs amongst the ancients of a great 
 mind . 1 
 
 “ 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 
 
 1 “ II riposo e la tranquillita denno considerarsi come un effetto di 
 quella corapostezza che i Greci studiavansi di mostrare nell’ azione e ne’ 
 gesti. Presso di loro un passeggiar affrettato teneasi in certo modo 
 come contrario all’ idea d’ un modesto contegno, e vi trovavano un non 
 so che di arditezza soverchia. . . . Cos! per 1’ opposto i lenti gravi 
 movimenti del corpo indizio erano presso gli antichi d’ un’ anima grande.” 
 {Ibid.) 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 319 
 
 any affection. The greatest of the poets thus 
 describes Jupiter as making all Olympus tremble by 
 merely moving his eyebrow or shaking his locks. . . . 
 All the figures of Jupiter are not however made in the 
 same style . 1 
 
 “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 express a 
 certain contempt for a victory so easy to him. The 
 skilful artist, who wished to embody 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 : contempt is expressed by 
 the drawing up of the under lip, and anger by the 
 expansion of the nostrils . 2 
 
 “ The expression of the passions in the face should 
 
 1 “La pm alta idea della tranquillita e della compostezza si trova 
 espressa nelle figure delle divinita ; cosicche, cominciando dal padre de 3 
 numi sino agli dei subalterni, le figure loro non sembrano mosse da 
 nessun affetto. Percio il piu grande fra i poeti ci descrive il suo Giove 
 che, col solo mover le ciglia o scuotere il crine, tutto mette in moto 
 1’ Olimpo. . . . Non si creda pero cbe in simil guisa formate siano tutte 
 le figure di Giove.” {Ibid.) 
 
 2 “L 3 Apollo del Yaticano dovea rappresentare questo dio cheto e 
 tranquillo sopra il morto drago Pitone da lui ucciso con un dardo, e 
 
 dovea insieme esprimere certo disprezzo per una vittoria che era si 
 piccola cosa per lui. Il saggio artista, che voleva effigiare il piu bello 
 degli dei, gli colloco sdegno nel naso, che n 3 e la sede, secondo i piu 
 antichi poeti, e l 3 disprezzo sulle labbra : questo ha espresso col tirargli 
 alquanto in su il labbro inferiore, e quello coll 3 avergli dilatate le narici.” 
 {Ibid.) 
 
320 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY 
 
 accord with the attitude and gestures of the body; 
 and the latter should be suitable to the dignity of the 
 gods in their statues and figures : from this results 
 its propriety. 
 
 “ In representing the figures of heroes, the ancient 
 artist exercised equal care and judgment; and ex- 
 pressed 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 of 
 suffering exceeding anguish. 
 
 “ Niobe and her daughters, against whom Diana 
 shot her fatal arrows, are represented as seized with 
 terror and horror, in that state of indescribable 
 anguish, 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 iEschylus introduces her in his tragedy as 
 stunned and speechless. In such a moment, when 
 all thought and feeling cease, in a state bordering 
 upon insensibility, the appearance is not altered, nor 
 any feature of the face disturbed, and the mighty 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 321 
 
 artist could here depict the most sublime beauty, and 
 has indeed done so. Niobe and her daughters are, 
 and ever will be, the most perfect 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 represen- 
 tation, however, of this excessive torment, we can still 
 recognise the conduct of a brave man struggling 
 against his misfortunes, stifling the emotions of his 
 anguish, and striving to repress them . 1 
 
 “The ancient artists have preserved this air of 
 
 1 “ L s espressione delle passioni sul volto dev" accordarsi colla positura 
 e cogli atteggiamenti del corpo e questi denno convenire alia dignita 
 degli dei nelle loro statue e figure ; quindi ne risulta la compostezza. 
 
 “ Egual cura e avvedutezza usarono gli antichi artisti nel rappresentare 
 le figure degli eroi ; e que’ soli umani affetti espressero che convengono 
 an un uomo savio, il quale reprime il bollore delle passioni, fa appena 
 vedere qualche scintilla dell’ intemo suo fuoco, per lasciare a chi ne e 
 bramoso la cura di scoprire quel che in loro rimane ascosto, 
 
 “ Abbiamo di cio esempi in due de’ piu bei lavori dell’ antichita de’ 
 quali uno e 1’ immagine del terrore, che ne da la morte imminente, e 
 1’ altro del patimento de’ dolori piu atroci. 
 
 “ Niobe e le sue figlie, alle quali Diana vibra mortali saette, veggonsi 
 rappresentate, comprese da terrore e da raceapriccio, in quello stato 
 d’ inesprimibile angoscia, in cui 1’ aspetto della morte presente inevitable 
 toglie per sin all’ anima la facolta di pensare. Di tale stato di stupore e 
 d’ insensibilita ci da un’ idea la favola nella metamorfosi di Niobe in 
 
 21 
 
322 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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 there- 
 fore, in their later dances, the ancient figures served 
 as a model to the performers to prevent their over- 
 stepping 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 . 3 
 
 sasso ; e quindi Eschilo la introduce nella sua tragedia come interdetta e 
 muta. In tal momento, in cui cessa ogni riflessione, ogni sentimento, 
 e che si avvicina all’ insensibilita, non si alterano punto le sembianze, e 
 nessun tratto del volto si scompone ; onde il grande artista potea qui 
 effigiare la piu sublime bellezza, e ve 1’ ha scolpita diffatti. Niobe e le 
 sue figlie sono e sempre saranno i piu perfetti modelli di belta. 
 
 “ Laocoonte e 1’ immagine del piu vivo dolore, che tutti mette in 
 azione i muscoli, i nervi, e le vene. II sangue suo e nella piu forte 
 agitazione pel velenoso morso de’ serpenti : tutte le parti del suo corpo 
 esprimono tormento e violenza ; e 1’ artista ha messo in moto tutte, a 
 cosi dire, le suste della natura, facendo in tal modo conoscere 1’ arte sua 
 e le sue profonde cognizioni. Nella rappresentazione pero di questo 
 eccessivo tormento pur vi si riconosce il contegno d’ un uomo grande, 
 che contro i mali suoi combatte, affrena i moti della sensibilita, e vuole 
 comprimerli.” {Ibid.) 
 
 1 “Tal compostezza hanno portata gli antichi artefici per sin nelle 
 figure delle danzatrici, tranne perb le Baccanti; e siccome era una 
 massima ricevuta, che nelle figure T azione conformarsi dovesse alle 
 maniere usate ne’ piu antichi balli ; cosi ne’ balli seguenti le figure 
 antiche servirono di modello alle saltatrici, affinche non uscissero dai 
 limiti d’ un modesto contegno.” {Ibid.) 
 
 2 “ Nelle opere pubbliche degli antichi non veggonsi mai espresse 
 passioni smoderate e violente.” {Ibid.) 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 323 
 
 “ 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 7rapev0vp<rog ; 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 increase 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 Bran, and in 
 the annexed drawings, not only is the highest degree 
 of passion expressed on the face, but in some even to 
 madness.” 1 
 
 1 “ II saper degli anticki non si pub meglio conoscere eke nel con- 
 frontar i loro colla maggior parte de’ moderni lavori, ne’ quali non molto 
 con poco, ma bensi poco con molto vedesi espresso. Questo dai Greei 
 detto sarebbesi n aptvQipaog • voce atta ad esprimere il difetto eke v’ e 
 per lo pin nelT espressione de’ recenti artefici. Le figure loro sono per 
 P atteggiamento simili ai comici dell’ antico teatro, i quali per esser ben 
 visibili, eziandio al piu minuto popolo eke stava all’ estremita, doveano 
 oltrepassare i limiti della naturalezza a del vero ; e i volti delle figure 
 modeme sono simili alle anticke masekere, eke per la medesima ragione, 
 affin d’ essere molto espregsive, erano sformate. 
 
 “ Q,uesta espressione eccessiva vien insegnat in un libro che va per le 
 
324 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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 shows 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 .” 1 
 
 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 system, 
 the Greeks similarly idealised. “ Seeking for images 
 of worship, consequently of a nature superior to our 
 own, so that they might awaken in the mind vene- 
 ration and love, they thought that the representations 
 most worthy of the Divinity, and most likely to 
 
 mani di tutt’ i giovani artisti, cioe nel Trattato delle passioni di Carlo 
 Le-Brun ; e negli aggiuntivi disegni non solo vedesi espresso sul volto il 
 pili alto grado delle passioni, ma in alcuni vanno queste sino al furore.” 
 {Ibid.) 
 
 1 “I Greci possederono quest’ arte a tal segno, che nelle loro statue 
 appena si scorge, eh’ eglino abbiano pensato all’ espressione, e nondi- 
 meno cadauna dice quel, cbe deve dire. Stanno in un riposo, che 
 mostrano tutta la bellezza senza alcuna alterazione ; ed un soave, e dolce 
 movimento della bocca, degli occhi, o la sola azione esprime 1’ effetto, 
 incantando e 1’ anima, e i sensi.” 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY 
 
 325 
 
 attract the attention of man, would be those express- 
 ing the continuance of the gods in eternal youth, and 
 in the prime of life . 1 
 
 “ To the idea derived from the poets, of the 
 eternal youth of the deities, whether male or female, 
 was added another, by which they supposed the 
 female divinities should have all the appearance of 
 virgins . 2 
 
 “The form of the breast, in the figures of the 
 divinities, is like that of a virgin, which, to be beau- 
 tiful, must possess a moderate fulness . 3 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 .” 4 
 
 On their treatment of the limbs and locomotive 
 
 1 “ Costoro volendo proporei delle immagini da venerarsi, e percio di 
 
 natura superiore alia nostra, sicche n’ eccitassero nella mente la venera- 
 zione e 1’ amore, s’ idearono che i simulacri piu degni della divinita e 
 piu atti ad attrarsi la fantasia dell’ uomo, fossero quelli che n’ espri- 
 inessero la permanenza degli Dei in una eterna gioventu e primavera di 
 vita, allusiva all’ immutabilita dell’ Esser supremo.” ( Monumenti Inediti.) 
 
 3 “ All’ idea datane da’ poeti delle Divinita sempre giovani, o maschili o 
 femminili eh’ elle si fossero, fu aggiunta 1’ altra per cui un si supponesse 
 che le femminili avessero tntte 1’ apparenza di vergini.” ( Ibid .) 
 
 3 “ La forma del petto nelle figure divine e simile al verginale, che 
 per esser hello aver deve una moderata pienezza.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
 4 “ La quale si ravvisasse specialmente nelle mammelle, rappresentateci 
 percio dagli artefici senza capezzuoli, e simili a quelle delle fanciulle, alle 
 quali, secondo la frase de’ poeti, Lucina non ha sciolto ancor la cintura.” 
 ( Monumenti Inediti.) 
 
326 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 system, Hogarth throws light ; and, as I am not 
 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 preference 
 even to the Antinous : I mean a super-addition of 
 greatness, to at least as much beauty and grace as is 
 found in the latter. 
 
 “These two masterpieces of art are seen together 
 in the same apartment at Rome, where the Antinous 
 fills the spectator with admiration only, whilst 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 dispro- 
 portion 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 the legs and thighs being 
 too long, and too large 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 lengthened 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 327 
 
 on purpose, otherwise it might have been easily 
 avoided. 
 
 “ So that if we examine the beauties of this figure 
 thoroughly, we may reasonably conclude, that what 
 has been hitherto thought so unaccountably ex- 
 cellent in its general appearance, hath been owing 
 to what hath seemed a blemish in a part of it : 
 but let us endeavour 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 proportion. 
 
 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 swan-like 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’s 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, 
 
328 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 must then be, by the proper application of them to 
 the parts mentioned only. 
 
 “ I know not how further to prove this matter 
 than by appealing to the reader’s eye, and common 
 
 observation, as before The Antinous being 
 
 allowed to have the justest proportion possible, let 
 us see what addition, upon the principle of quantity, 
 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 dangling 
 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 admitted 
 without causing any disagreeable effect, but that 
 thereby greatness, the last perfection as to the pro- 
 portion, is given to the human form, as is evidently 
 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 further 
 detached from the trunk, shows the independence 
 of the higher intellectual system upon the lower one 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 329 
 
 of mere nutrition ; and the length of limbs shows 
 that the mind had already 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 have 
 hitherto neglected. 
 
 Alison says, “ The proportions of the form of the 
 infant are very different from those of youth ; these 
 again from those of manhood ; and these again 
 perhaps still more from those of old age and 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 beauty 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 beauty: 
 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 contrary, 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 
 
330 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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 measures that prevail 
 in many similar parts of the body, in the two sexes of 
 this single species only. If you assign any deter- 
 minate 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 imagi- 
 nation ; or in obedience to your imagination you must 
 renounce 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 difference of sex which 
 affects all the higher animals is a greater difference 
 than that which subsists between some of their 
 varieties or even of their species ; and the same laws 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 331 
 
 of ideal beauty are as inapplicable to different sexes as 
 to different species. 
 
 “We see, every day, around us,” says Alison, 
 “some forms of our species which affect us with 
 sentiments of beauty. In our own sex, we see the 
 forms of the legislator, the man of rank, the general, 
 the man of science, the private soldier, the sailor, the 
 labourer, 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 proportions 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, is 
 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 
 Reynolds, “ 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 central forms, 
 
332 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 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 representation 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 central 
 form, which is the abstract of the various individual 
 forms belonging to that class. Thus, though the 
 forms of childhood and age differ exceedingly, there is 
 a common form in childhood, and a common form in 
 age, which is the more perfect, as it is more remote 
 from all peculiarities. But I must add further, 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 
 
THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 333 
 
 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 characters 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 withdrawn 
 together. These are the mere attitudes of progression, 
 not those of expression ; and the academical rule is 
 only an academical blunder. To anything but walk- 
 ing — to the free and unembarrassed expressions of 
 the body, it is indeed quite inapplicable, and could 
 produce only contortion. 
 
 The rule of ideal attitude, which I long ago 
 deduced both from physiological principles and from 
 the practice of the Greek artists, is that all the parts 
 
334 
 
 THE GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 of one side of the body should be advanced or 
 withdrawn together ; that when one side is advanced, 
 the other should be withdrawn ; and that when the 
 right arm is elevated, extended, or bent forward, the 
 left leg should be elevated, extended, or bent back- 
 ward — in all respects the reverse of the academical 
 rule, so complacently mentioned by Dufresnoy, 
 Reynolds, &c. 
 
 The foundation of this rule in the necessary balance 
 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 action was constrained 
 and convulsive, the sculptor was yet at liberty to 
 employ the most beautiful attitude. It is abandoned 
 in these great works, when either action embarrassed 
 by purpose, or clownishness, as in the Dancing Faun, 
 are expressed . 1 
 
 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 removed 
 
 1 This rule is well explained, and variously illustrated by Donald 
 Walker, in his work, equally philosophical, instructive, and amusing, 
 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 GREEK IDEAL BEAUTY. 
 
 335 
 
 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 pettegrina, foreign, to 
 indicate that they have not frequently an opportunity 
 of seeing it: they speak of “bellezze pellegrine,” 
 “ leggiadria singolare e pellegrina.” 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 “Hominum divomque 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 considerable, 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 colours. It 
 is asserted by Athenseus, that both these productions 
 were, in some measure, taken from Pheryne of 
 Thespia, in Boeotia, then a courtezan 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, 
 
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 337 
 
 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 sea, 
 and sported long amidst 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 Anadyomene, was 
 placed by Caesar 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 further told, that, after having studied 
 several attitudes, Phryne fancied to have discovered 
 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 impossible to 
 
 22 
 
338 
 
 THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 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 ended by applying their lips to those of the 
 goddess . 1 
 
 .“Praxiteles,” says Plaxman, “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 statues 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 Cnido.s took the rejected statue, and 
 afterwards refused it to king Nicomedes, who would 
 
 1 It was at the extremity of the modem 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 admiration. No drapery veiled its charms; and so 
 uncommon was its beauty, that it inflamed with a violent passion another 
 Pygmalion. 
 
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 339 
 
 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 represented on a medal of Caracalla and 
 Plautilla, in the imperial cabinet of Prance. This 
 Venus was still in Cnidos during the reign of the 
 emperor Arcadius, about 400 years after Christ. 
 This statue seems to offer the first idea of the Venus 
 de Medicis, which is likely to be the repetition 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 antiquity, whose beauty 
 is as perfect as it is elevated, and as innocent as 
 perfect ; from which the Medicean Venus seems but a 
 deteriorated variety.” 
 
 Plaxman 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, con- 
 forming to the figure on the model of Caracalla, is to 
 be seen at the Royal Academy. 
 
 Of the Venus de Medici, Plaxman 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. 
 
340 
 
 THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 The style of sculpture seems to have been later than 
 Alexander the Great. 
 
 Let us now briefly examine this Model of Female 
 Beauty represented in our Frontispiece. 
 
 The Venus de Medici represents woman at that age 
 when every beauty has just been perfected. “ The 
 Venus de Medici at Florence,” says Winckelmann, 
 “is like a rose which, after a beautiful day-break, 
 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 develope 
 itself .” 1 
 
 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 characteristic of a very 
 different female personage. 2 3 * — In mentioning the head, 
 
 1 “La Yenere de 5 Medici a Firenze e simile alia rosa, che esce fuor 
 dalla buccia al primo apparir del sole dopo una bella aurora ; e par che 
 senta quell’ eta, in cui le membra prendon una piu compiuta forma, e 
 
 comincia il seno a sollevarsi.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
 3 The phrenologists have told us that the head of this Yenus 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 ignorant 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. 
 
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 341 
 
 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 Winckel- 
 mann, “are smaller, and the slight elevation of the 
 lower eyelid produces that languishing look called by 
 the Greeks u-ypdv.” 1 To give the expression of gladness 
 or of pleasure, the opening of the eyelids is diminished, 
 in order to diminish, or partially to exclude, the 
 excess of those impressions, which make even pleasure 
 painful. Other exquisite details about those eyes, 
 confer on them unparalleled beauty. Still, as observed 
 by the same writer, this look is far from those traits 
 indicative of lasciviousness, with which some modern 
 artists have thought to characterise their Venuses. 
 Love was considered by the ancient masters, as by the 
 wise philosophers of those times, to use the expression 
 of Euripides, as the counsellor of wisdom : rrj ao<pla 
 
 1 “NelleVeneri gli occlii sono piu. piceoli, e la palpebra inferiore 
 alquanto alzata forma in esse quel desio anelante detto da Grecie vypov.” 
 He adds, “Gli occhj cosi formati distinguono la Yenere celeste da 
 Giunoue; e questa Yenere della quale e proprio il diadema di quella 
 regina delle dee, viene percio presa per Giunone da coloro i quali non 
 lianno considerato piu addentro la bellezza delle statue antiche.” (Monu- 
 ment i Inediti.) 
 
342 
 
 THE IDEAL OE FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 irapeSpovc fpwra?. One tiling must be observed : there 
 is not here, as in some less happy representations of 
 Venus, any downcast look, but that aspect of which 
 Metastasio, in his Inno aVenere, says: 
 
 Tu colie lucide 
 Pupille chiare, 
 
 Fai lieta e fertile 
 La terra e’l mare. 
 
 And again : 
 
 Presso a tuoi placidi 
 Astri ridenti, 
 
 Le nubi fuggono, 
 
 Fuggono i venti. 1 
 
 Art still profounder was perhaps shown in the 
 configuration of the nose. The peculiar connection 
 of this sense with love was evidently well understood 
 by the great artist ; and it is only gross ignorance 
 that has made some persons question the appropriate- 
 ness of that development of the organ which is here 
 represented. Not only is smell peculiarly associated 
 with love, in all the higher animals, but it is associated 
 with reproduction in plants, the majority of which 
 evolve delicious odours only when their flowers or 
 organs of fructification are displayed. 2 — Connected, 
 
 1 This is beautiful, but is evidently borrowed from the great philo- 
 >phical poet’s — 
 
 Te, Dea, te fugiunt ventei, te nubila coeli, 
 Adventumque tuum. 
 
 2 That, in plants, these odours are even necessary to their reproduction 
 
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 343 
 
 indeed, with the capacity of the nose, and the cavities 
 which open into it, is the projection of the whole 
 middle part of the face. 
 
 In the month, also, is transcendent art displayed. 
 It is rendered sweet and delicate by the lips being 
 undeveloped at their angles , 1 and by the upper lip 
 continuing so, for a considerable portion of its length. 
 It expresses love of pleasure by the central develop- 
 ment of both lips, and active love by the especial 
 development of the lower lip . 3 By the slight opening 
 of the lips, it expresses desire . 3 
 
 These exquisite details, and the omission of nothing 
 intellectually expressive that nature presents, 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 nearly every feature thus em- 
 bodied. More strangely still, they forget the ideal 
 character of the whole : the notion of this ideal head 
 being too small is 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 
 
 is proved by their uniform existence at that period. And if being 
 affected by odours implies a sense of smell, or some modification of it, 
 then must plants possess it. 
 
 1 In all grossly sensual nations and individuals, the lips are everted 
 even at the angles. 
 
 5 See this explained in ‘ Physiognomy.’ 
 
 3 “ Yenere suol tenere alquanto aperte le labbra, come per indicare un 
 languido desiderio ed amore.” ( Sioria delle Arti.) 
 
344 
 
 THE IDEAL OP FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 of Praxiteles, the Faun, and the Cupid, present similar 
 fine details . 1 
 
 Withal, the look is amorous and languishing, 
 without being lascivious, and is as powerfully marked 
 by gay coquetry, as by charming innocence. 
 
 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 ex- 
 pression of still mysterious love. 
 
 In short, I know of 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 things, 
 may well smile at those who pretend to compare with 
 this any other head of Venus, now known to us. 
 
 1 In the Cupid, the form of the head is godlike. The hair not only 
 curls with all the vigour of early years, but, with perfect knowledge 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 observa- 
 tions back on thought and will. Its beginnings at the eyebrows display 
 exquisite knowledge : the bony ridge is admirably shown to be yet 
 unformed ; 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. 
 
 345 
 
 With regard to the rest of the figure, the admirable 
 form of the mammae, which, without being too large, 
 occupy the bosom, rise from it with various curves on 
 every side, and all terminate in their apices, leaving 
 the inferior part in each precisely as pendent as 
 gravity demands ; the flexile waist gently tapering 
 little further than the middle of the trunk ; the lower 
 portion of it beginning gradually to swell out higher 
 even than the umbilicus ; 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 termi- 
 nating in the still greater swell of the distinctly 
 separated hips ; the flat expanse between these, and 
 immediately over the fissure of the hips, relieved by a 
 considerable 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 umbilicus, 
 slopes gently to the mons veneris, but, narrow at its 
 upper part, expands more widely as it descends, 
 while, throughout, it is laterally distinguished by a 
 gentle depression from the more muscular parts on 
 the sides of the pelvis ; the beautiful elevation of the 
 
346 
 
 THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 mons veneris ; the contiguous elevation of the thighs 
 which, almost at their commencement, 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 characteristics 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 
 personification 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 : — 
 
 “ There, too, the Goddess loves in stone, and fills 
 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 flesh which such a soul could mould : 
 
THE IDEAL OE FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 347 
 
 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.” 
 
 PROPORTION S OP THE VENUS DE MEDICI. 
 
 Has seven heads, seven parts, and three minutes in height. 
 
 Prom the top of the head to the root of the hair, three parts. 
 
 Prom the root of the hair to the eyebrows, three parts. 
 
 From the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose, three parts. 
 
 Prom 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 beg innin g 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 knee-pan to the beginning of the flank, 
 twenty-seven parts, three minutes. 
 
 From the middle of the knee-pan 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 fore-arm, five parts. 
 
 The greatest breadth of the arm, four parts, five minutes. 
 
 From the depression between the clavicles to the beginning of the 
 deltoid, six parts, four minutes. 
 
348 
 
 THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 From the depression between the clavicles to the point of the nipple, 
 ten parts and half a minute. 
 
 Between the points of the nipples, eleven parts, two minutes. 
 
 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, seven- 
 teen 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 minutes. 
 
 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 minute. 
 
 The arms of the Venus de Medici, it should be 
 observed, are of modern construction, and unworthy 
 of the figure. 
 
 The Venus of Naples is of altogether a different 
 species of beauty. 
 
 That figure represents an ample and rather volup- 
 tuous matron, in an attitude of scarcely surpassable 
 grace. The character of the face is beautiful, in 
 profile especially, and its expression is grave. The 
 mouth has much of nature about it, resembling 
 greatly in character that feature as seen in Southern 
 Europe; but its expression, though tender, is some- 
 what serious or fretful. 
 

 xvm. 
 
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 349 
 
 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 mammae 
 are not true . 1 * * * 
 
 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. 
 
 In contrast with beauty unaltered by the natural 
 events of life, Plate XVIII exhibits the effects of 
 gestation, parturition, and lactation. 
 
 1 I know not if it is of this statue that Winckelmann speaks in the 
 following passage: “Venere celeste, quella cioe che di Giove e dell 5 
 
 Armonia e figlia, diversa dall 5 altra che da Dione nacque, distinguesi per 
 un diadema simile a quello, ch 5 e proprio a Giunone. Porta pure questo 
 
 diadema Venere Vittrice, di cui una statua, che posa un piede su un 
 
 elmo, fu disotterrata nel teatro dell 5 antica citta di Capua, e sta ora nel 
 
 real palazzo di Caserta ; essa e bellessima, se non che le mancano le 
 braccia.” ( Storia delle Arti.) 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DEFECTS OE 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. See Plate XIX. — Persons who are too 
 tall are generally 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, espe- 
 cially for women. If, however, on the one side, it 
 gives prettiness, on the other, it deprives of all im- 
 posing appearance. 
 
 2. If the bones, except those of the pelvis, be not 
 proportionally small; because, in woman, this portion 
 of tbe locomotive system ought to be completely 
 subordinate to the vital. 
 
 3. If the ligaments, and the articulations they form, 
 be not proportionally small; because, in woman, this 
 portion of the locomotive system ought also to be com- 
 pletely subordinate to the vital. 
 
XIX. 
 
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 351 
 
 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 is 
 necessary, for reasons which will be afterwards 
 assigned, as well as to permit the ease and suppleness 
 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 dependence of 
 the mental, are naturally connected with the shorter 
 vertebrae 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 system ; 
 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 pro- 
 
352 
 
 DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 minent than the mons veneris ; because, such con- 
 formation 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 unfitness 
 for gestation and parturition. 
 
 8. If, on the contrary, the shoulders be much 
 narrower than the pelvis; because this indicates ex- 
 treme weakness of the locomotive system. 
 
 9. If the shoulders do not slope from the lower 
 part of the neck; because this shows that the upper 
 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 relatively 
 short and wide, and if it owe not its width rather to 
 itself than to the size of the shoulders; 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, 
 including the muscles moving the shoulders, do not 
 form an inverted cone, whose apex is the waist ; 
 because, in that case, the lightness and beauty of the 
 locomotive system is destroyed by the unrestrained 
 expansion of the vital. 
 
 12. If the loins be not extended at the expense 
 of the chest above and of the limbs below; because, 
 
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 353 
 
 on this depends their capacity to receive organs en- 
 larged 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) ; because 
 the interior cavity of the pelvis is then insufficient for 
 gestation and parturition. 
 
 15. If, in consequence of the form of the pelvis, 
 and the arch of the pubis being larger, the mons 
 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 ; because, a disagreeable 
 vacuity is then left between the thighs, and it is 
 unfavorable to sexual purposes. 
 
 18. If the arms and the limbs be not relatively 
 short, if they do not taper greatly as they recede from 
 
 23 
 
354 
 
 DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 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 mentioned 
 here, as the intelligent reader can easily supply these 
 and similar omissions.) 
 
 1. If, in consequence of marriage taking place 
 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, secretion, 
 gestation, &c., excepted. 
 
 3. If the absorbing vessels, being inactive, are 
 insufficient for large secretions. 
 
 4. If the circulating vessels, being inactive and im- 
 perfectly 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 
 
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 355 
 
 ovarian, uterine, and mammary excretions on which 
 progeny is dependent. 
 
 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 mammae, 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 insufficiently developed. 
 
 8. If the waist, tapering little further than the 
 middle of the trunk, and being sufficiently marked, 
 especially in the back and loins, by the approximation 
 of the expanded pelvis, be not also slightly encroached 
 on by the plumpness of all the contiguous parts, 
 without however destroying its elegance, softness, and 
 flexibility; because this similarly shows feebleness in 
 a portion of that system, which is by far the most 
 important to woman. — See Plate XX. 
 
 9. If the waist be broader than the upper part 
 of the trunk, including the muscles moving the 
 shoulders; because, this indicates that expansion of the 
 stomach, liver, and other glands, which is generally 
 the result of their excessive use or excitement. It 
 
356 
 
 DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 is attended with a common look and an inelegant 
 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 ; because, this 
 shows a weakness of the vital system, and a dis- 
 proportion to the parts immediately above. 
 
 11. If the abdomen, which should be highest 
 immediately under the umbilicus, slope not gently 
 towards the mons veneris, and be more prominent 
 elsewhere ; because, this is the result of that excessive 
 expansion which takes place during parturition. 
 
 12. If the abdomen, which, as well as being 
 elevated, 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 
 upper part of the haunches, 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 flat expanse between 
 these and immediately over the fissure of the hips, 
 being relieved by a considerable dimple on each side, 
 caused by the elevation of all the surrounding parts ; 
 
358 
 
 DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 because that indicates decay of the vital system, and 
 characterises age. — See Plate IV. 
 
 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-coloured : because 
 these likewise show the feebleness of that system 
 which is most important to woman. 
 
 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 
 delicately outlined than in the male ; because sen- 
 sibility 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 
 
XJJi. 
 
 
DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 359 
 
 inale ; because voluntary power should also be subor- 
 dinate to sensibility in the female. 
 
 5. If the cerebel be not narrow and pointed pos- 
 teriorly, that is, long rather than broad (its general 
 form in woman) ; because the volitions of woman 
 should be intense, not permanent. 
 
 6. If the forehead be not large in prpportion 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 vermilion 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 insen- 
 sibility of character. 
 
360 
 
 DEFECTS OF BEAUTY. 
 
 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. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS; OR ART OF DETERMINING 
 THE PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY, 
 THE MIND, THE HABITS, AND THE AGE OF WOMEN, 
 NOTWITHSTANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISES OF 
 DRESS. 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS OF FIGURE. 
 
 External 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 
 is frequently observable in the women of the Saxon 
 population of England, as in the counties of Norfolk, 
 Suffolk, &c. 
 
 In women of this conformation, moreover, the 
 
362 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS 
 
 slightest indisposition or debility is indicated by 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 
 
 In considering the relative size of each portion of 
 the limbs, — if, 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-joint which remain proportionally 
 unemployed. 
 
 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 extended 
 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. 
 
AS TO FIGURE. 
 
 363 
 
 Even with regard to the parts of the figure which 
 are more exposed to observation by the closer adap- 
 tation of dress, much deception occurs. It is, 
 therefore, necessary to understand the arts employed 
 for this purpose, at least by skilful women. 
 
 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 shoulders 
 or epaulettes 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. 
 
364 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS 
 
 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, elevate it by the top of the skirt being 
 gathered behind, and by other less skilful adjustments, 
 which though hid, are easily detected. 
 
 Those who have the lower part of the body too 
 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 observ- 
 ing, that the conduct of those who may happen to 
 
AS TO BEAUTY. 
 
 365 
 
 meet the woman thus preceding, will differ according 
 to the sex of the persons who meet 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 afterwards 
 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 meeting her be beautiful 
 and the lady observed be ugly, then it is probable, 
 that the approaching person may pass by inattentively, 
 casting merely an indifferent glance ; if, on the con- 
 trary, 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 
 
366 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS. 
 
 more on the colours of dress in relation to the face. 
 For this reason, it is necessary to understand the 
 principles according to which colours are employed, at 
 least by skilful women . 1 
 
 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 remove it by 
 contrast, and to cause the yellow and blue to pre- 
 dominate. 
 
 When it is the fault of a face to contain too 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 colour on the face, and transparent 
 
 1 I speak not of paint here. It is now used only by meretricious 
 persons, and by those harridans of higher rank who resemble them in 
 every respect, except that the former are ashamed of their profession, 
 and the latter advertise it. 
 
AS TO BEAUTY. 
 
 367 
 
 bonnets transmit that colour, and equally tinge it. 
 In both these cases, the colour 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 con- 
 trast, so the pink lining of the bonnet aids it by 
 reflection. 
 
 Hence linings which reflect are generally of the 
 tint 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 colour which 
 by reflection they should heighten. The fronts of 
 bonnets so lined, therefore, do not widen greatly 
 forward, and bring their colour into contrast. 
 
 When bonnets do widen, the proper contrast is 
 used as a lining ; but then it has not a surface much 
 adapted for reflection, otherwise it may perform that 
 office, and injure the complexion. 
 
 Understanding, then, the application of these colours 
 in a general way, it may be noticed, that fair faces 
 are by contrast best acted on by fight colours, and 
 dark faces by darker colours. 
 
 Dark faces are best affected by darker colours, 
 evidently because they tend to render the complexion 
 fairer; and fair faces do not require dark colours, 
 because the opposition would be too strong. 
 
 Objects which constitute a background to the face, 
 
368 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS 
 
 or which, on the contrary, reflect their hues upon it, 
 always either improve or injure the complexion. For 
 this and some other reasons, many persons look better 
 at home in their apartments than in the streets. 
 Apartments may, indeed, be peculiarly calculated to 
 improve individual complexions. 
 
 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 hard- 
 ness of form (which belongs exclusively to the vital 
 system), — or a certain delicacy or coarseness of outline 
 (which belongs exclusively to the mental system) — 
 these reciprocally denote a locomotive symmetry or 
 disproportion, — or a vital softness or hardness, — or a 
 mental delicacy or coarseness, which will be found 
 also indicated by the 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 observation. 
 
 As to gait, that progression which advances, 
 unmodified by any lateral movement of the body, or 
 any perpendicular rising of the head, and which 
 belongs exclusively to the locomotive system, — or 
 
AS TO MIND. 
 
 369 
 
 that perpendicular rising or falling of the head at 
 every impulse to step, which belongs exclusively to 
 the mental system, — these reciprocally indicate a 
 corresponding locomotive, or vital, or mental cha- 
 racter, which will be found also indicated by the 
 features 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 symmetry of figure 
 is combined with direct and linear gait, a character of 
 mind and countenance not absolutely repulsive, but 
 cold and insipid, is indicated. — If vital softness of 
 figure is combined with a gentle lateral rolling of the 
 body in its gait, voluptuous character and expression 
 of countenance are indicated. — If delicacy of outline 
 in the figure be combined with perpendicular rising 
 of the head, levity, perhaps vanity, is indicated. — But 
 there are innumerable combinations and modifications 
 of the elements which we have just described. 
 Expressions 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 value. 
 The woman who possesses a cultivated taste, and a 
 
 24 
 
370 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS 
 
 corresponding expression of countenance, will generally 
 be tastefully dressed; and the vulgar woman, with 
 features correspondingly rude, will easily be seen 
 through the inappropriate mask in which her milliner 
 or dress-maker may 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 flatter 
 breast, a broader back, and thicker cartilages of the 
 bones of the pubis, necessarily 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 elevation 
 which is diffused between the neck and shoulders. 
 These all arise from temporary distensions of the 
 trunk in women whose secretions are powerful, from 
 the habit of throwing the shoulders backward during 
 pregnancy, and the head again forward, to balance 
 the abdominal weight ; and they bestow a character of 
 vitality peculiarly expressive. 
 
 The same habit is likewise indicated by an excess 
 of that lateral rolling of the body in walking, which 
 was already described as connected with voluptuous 
 character. This is a very certain indication, as it 
 arises from temporary distensions of the pelvis, which 
 
AS TO AGE. 
 
 371 
 
 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. 
 
 Other effects of child-bearing are indicated ad- 
 mirably in Plate XVIII. 
 
 The habit of nursing children is indicated, both in 
 mothers and nursery maids, by the right shoulder 
 being larger and more elevated than the left. 
 
 The habits of the sempstress 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 labour 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. 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS OF AGE. 
 
 External indications of age are required chiefly 
 where the face is veiled, or where the woman observed 
 
372 
 
 EXTERNAL INDICATIONS AS TO AGE. 
 
 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 assumed 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 indication, 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 incapable 
 of receiving the weight of the body by maintaining 
 the extension of the ankle-joint. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 C. AND J. ADLABD, PRINTERS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. 
 
 I