Beauty Part 21

This is well ill.u.s.trated in the Minerva of the Giustiniani gallery, which, in this respect, is scarcely the less valuable because it is draped, for it is the head that ever bears the greatest impress of intellectuality.

This union is by no means perfect in the English female head, although, from the considerable development 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 under the name of Count Stendhal, scruples not to say: "The form of the head in Paris is ugly; the cranium approaches to that of the ape; and this occasions the women to have the appearance of age very early in life." The women of Paris differ not, in this respect, from those of France generally. Nearly all have the character here described.

It is under this species that the _nervous temperament_ falls, which is const.i.tuted by great sensibility and corresponding mobility, and therefore belongs to the _first and the last of those varieties_; a temperament 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 characterized by the smallness and the 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 imagination, and on habits of sensual indulgence. In confirmation of this, we are told that the Roman ladies became subject to nervous affections only in consequence of those depraved manners which marked the decline of the empire; and that these affections were extremely common in France in the licentious times preceding the fall of the corrupt and corrupting monarchy.

Another partial view falling under this species, and properly under the _second variety_, is the _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 characterized by a predominance of imagination, which is evidently dependant on the organization which has already been described.

It has been truly observed, that to contribute to the perfection of reason as well as to the preservation 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 disposes 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 may add 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 princ.i.p.al ingredients of beauty; and we are informed by Pallas that the Kalmucs[40] 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,[41] which forms the strongest contrast 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 G.o.ds and heroes a still more unnatural elevation."

Knowing, as the reader now does, what const.i.tutes the worth, the dignity, and the beauty, of the various organs, this statement tends to show the value of that standard of beauty which we owe to the Greeks. I proceed to ill.u.s.trate 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 color, in the shades of the complexion; the beauty of character, in some distinctive and permanent relations; and the beauty of expression, in some immediate and temporary feeling.

In regard to the form of the face, considered as a whole, the opening of the facial angle of Camper, in measuring geometrically the extent of the upper part of the head, marks the development of the brain or organ of thought, and shows the 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 described, 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 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 a.s.sumes 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 FOREHEAD [an excess, in this respect] was regarded by the ancients as a deformity."--And "Arn.o.bius says, that those women who had a high forehead, covered a part of it with a fillet." The reason of this will afterward be pointed out.

The sense of TOUCH resides in all parts of the 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 pa.s.sing through it receive a charm altogether peculiar.

The mouth ought to be small, and not to extend much beyond the nostrils: a large mouth and thick lips are contrary to beauty. The curve of the upper lip is said to have served as a model to the ancient artists for the bow of Love. The lower lip should be most developed, rounded and turned outward; so as to produce, between it and the chin, that beautiful hollow which a.s.sists so much in giving the latter a more perfect rotundity. Both, but especially the upper, should become thin toward the angle 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 vermillion hue, teeth which are small, equal, slightly rounded, white, clean, and well arranged, and a pure breath, are the circ.u.mstances which const.i.tute a beautiful mouth.

The sense of TASTE is more delicate and more exquisite in woman than in man. She accordingly seeks for savors which are less rough and irritating than those which are agreeable to him.

The NOSE is the most prominent and 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 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 const.i.tutes the Greek profile; and the various degrees of deviation from it const.i.tute, as to this organ, the various degenerations from beauty the most consummate to ugliness the most disgusting.

Nature says Winckelmann, is sparing of this beauty both in burning climates and in frozen regions.[42]

The same writer says: "The flat compressed nose of the Kalmucs, Chinese, and other distant nations, is also a defect, because it destroys the harmony of forms, according to which all the other parts are constructed: nor is there any reason why nature should compress and hollow it, instead of continuing the straight line begun in the forehead." The fact is true; the reasoning false, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, to which this point properly belongs.

Under the influence of pa.s.sion, 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 color: if its form be bad, no color will render it beautiful. In woman, however, the most beautiful eyes, in relation to color, are those which appear to be blue, hazel, or black. But no color 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 pa.s.s through their centre. And this indeed is doubtless the reason why it displeases us to see a mouth which goes awry, because it generally offends the eye to see two lines diverging from each other without any reason. Thus eyes placed obliquely, as may be seen sometimes among ourselves, and commonly among the Chinese, j.a.panese, and in Egyptian heads, are an irregularity and a deformity."

Here, again, Winckelmann's fact is true, and his reasoning false, or rather, perhaps, superficial. The real cause of the deformity of obliquely-placed eyes is, that the vital parts of the head preponderate.

The cavities of the upper jaw, which open into the internal nose, are, in the Mongelic races, so large, that they raise the cheek-bones, throw the orbit upward at its lateral part, and encroach apparently upon the s.p.a.ce which should contain a n.o.bler organ, the brain. The causes a.s.signed by Winckelmann are but consequences of this.

The eyelids in woman, when well formed, present the gentlest inflexions.

The eyelashes, when long and silky, form a sign of gentleness, and sometimes of softness. The eyebrows 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 colors 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 characterize 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 coa.r.s.e strength common to inferior animals than the delicacy to be found in man.

In woman, the ear is also more delicate, more sensible, but more feeble, than in man. Strong sounds, loud noises, which may be agreeable to the ear of man, are offensive to her. She prefers soft 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.