Beauty

site to attach us to them; that it greatly promotes industry, by promoting a desire to possess things that are b

solid and most permanent foundations of such connexions; but as external beauty lies more in view, and is more obvious to the bulk of mankind, than the qualities now mentioned, the sense of beauty possesses the more universal infl

ception of beauty is the chief principle in eve

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 flower

ertheless, in these remarks, consider mere physical beauty independe

l enjoyment, the sentiment of beauty would be far from having all its extent and value. Happily, ideas of goodness, of suitableness, of sympathy, of progr

chard, in his observation that "the idea of beauty of person

ht, 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 t

o bear a strict relation to each other; and the latter w

y and of goodness, which are confounded by vulgar observers; or rather there are beauty and goodness belongi

markable degree, others may be found; and, as the vulgar do not distinguish, it is this wh

cates want of goodness only in that system; but it is not less a truth, and scarcel

may exist coarseness of skin, or paleness of complexion; and either of these will as certainly indicate want of goodness in the vital system, or that of nutrition.

even the preferences which, in beauty, appear to depend most on fancy, depend in reality on that cause; and the impression which every degree and modification of beauty makes on mankind, has as a

transcendent importance to individuals and to families. Such judgment can be attained by analysis and classification alone. Nothi

ary importance of this subject, as regards advantages real to the specie

end upon the more perfect development of the muscles of the pelvis, and its easily adapting itself to great and remark

ture relatively to the maintenance of the species-or, if the capacity of the pelvis, and the consequent breadth of the haunches, are necessary to all those functions which are most essenti

his affection, and by the irresistible 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 she desires-if it is by these

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

m the sight of the other. It is evidently nothing else than the more or less delicate and just perception

that it must act as a constant principle of improvement, supplying the place in our own kind of the beneficial control [in the crossing of races] which we exercise ov

all other advantages, should have placed it immediately after virtue in

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 w

ing remodelled a hundred times that of horses and dogs-after having transplanted, grafted, cultivated, in all manners, fruits and flowers-how shameful is it to have totally neglected the race of man! A

of his life is devoted to the improvement of a race of bantam fowls and curious pigeons, and wh

t direction of physical living forces, in relation both to the vital faculties and to those of the mind

t peculiar laws regulating the resemblance of progeny to parents-laws which regard the mode in which the org

ws is indescribable-whether we regard intermarriages, and that immunity from mental or bodily disease which, when well directed, they may ensure, o

e done so successfully for several of our companions in existence, to review and correct this work of nature-a noble enterprise, which truly mer