Beauty

e correspondence of that perfection with superiority of internal functions; on the more or less

quences of beauty, is equally applicable to the two sexes; but,

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

riety 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 reason

ell us that the analysis of female beauty, on which it can alone be founded, is indelicate.-I shall, on the contrary, s

g more to art than to nature, and may be di

ld countries, where clothing is necessary, and where a deviation from the degree or mode of clothin

cation of this, I make a single quotation: 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 t

corations, like all savage or half-civilized people, they seem to be divided between the tatooing and painting of ho

into great embarrassment a young woman who was obliged to pass several times before the German traveller. She at first concealed her face with her hands; but, soon embarrassed by that attitude, she removed the veil which covered her bosom, and threw it over her face. "T

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 intruded on at such a time, she shrieks with terror and flies to conceal herself. In the equal

rsons 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 indecent. We might thus create a real feeling of indec

re absence of thought about worthless things. Artificial crimes are thus made, which are not the less real because artificial; for if augh

of woman affords the zest for the sake of which many of these decencies

l and seductive power to momentary exposure. Coquetry eschews permanent exposure as the bane of sensuality and seduction; and where these are great, as among t

ll spread charms over even ugly forms; she seeks the concealment under which sensuality and lust are engendered; and, in m

, 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 profitable religion is connected in business with gov

forbid; and, in so doing, we can only regret that they are unfavorable to natural purit

dents, in entering the academy, seemed to hang up their passions with their hats." I can, from personal experience, give the same testimony in behalf of medical stu

laws as to offences against morals ought certainly to affect them the moment their language or actions can be deemed offensive." But it is not to those who are crit

ensively done in this respect in the best houses, is less owing to our own taste than to the poor wanderers from Lucca or Barga. Experiment on this subject is peculiarly easy in London: let any one spend an hou

sed, 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 ima

not the most religious, because religion is in some countries made the pander to aristocracy-be it known tha

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 moderate, are more pleasant than when they swell beyond proper bounds." Payne Knight says: "When, at the age of puberty, animal desire obtrudes itself on a mind already qualified to feel and enjoy the charms of intellectual merit, the imagination immediately begins to form pictures of perfection, by exaggerating and 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 th

d by these two philosophers than a critical judgment and a pure taste for beauty,

he best tests, as well as the best records, of civilization. Such encouragement they need in truth; for the monstrous monopoly

hey look not beyond the hand that doles out their pittance. But the rich are few; and their palaces are already filled. A diffusion of w

s to artists on the cause of the fine arts in Greece, from a

y granted; but I am not aware, that it has either been shown to be exclu

nsolation. 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

peculiarly distinguished th

iation-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 civilization which the world has witnessed-though to these chiefly Rome owed the little civilization of whi

t only could not have existed without it, but they probably co

in one being, is not more impossible than their union in one expression of homage and admiration. Delicacy, elegance, and grace, were as characteristic of the statue, the worship, and the temple, of the goddess of beauty, as attributes nearly opposite to these were of the statue, the worship, and the

nearly its form. It was the expression of love, of regret, and of veneration for departed virtue, which became divine adoration; and, as individual acts and even individual names were ultimately lost in one transcendent attribute, so were individual forms and features, in its purif

they worshipped the mere marble structure, or, in its forms and attributes, beheld and adored a personification of eternal truth and wisdom, and so prepared the mind for deeds which have rendered Greece for ever illustrious. Or, when returning from a Marathon, or a Salamis, the warriors of Athens, followe

aracteristics 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 be

he 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

y it;-that the religion of Greece exists, and must ever exist, the religion of nature, genius, and taste;-and that n

ible forms of

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