All countries, in proportion as they are civilized or barbarous, improve or degrade the nuptial satisfaction. In those miserable regions, where strength makes the only law, the stronger sex exerts its power, and becomes the tyrant over the weaker while the inhabitant of Negroland is indolent taking his pleasure in the fields, his wife is obliged to till the ground that serves for their mutual support. It is thus in all barbarous countries, where the men throw all the laborious duties of life upon the women; and, regardless of beauty, put the softer sex to those employments that must effectually destroy it.

But, in countries that are half barbarous, particularly wherever Mahometanism prevails, the men run into the very opposite extreme. Equally brutal with the former, they exert their tyranny over the weaker sex, and consider that half of 'the human creation as merely made to be subservient to the depraved desires of the other. The chief, and, indeed, the only aim of an Asiatic, is to be possessed of many women; and to be able to furnish a seraglio is the only tendency of his ambition. As the savage was totally regardless of beauty, he on the contrary prizes it too highly; he excludes the person who is possessed of such personal attractions from any share in the duties or employments of life; and, as if willing to engross all beauty to himself, increases the number of his captives in proportion to the progress of his fortune. In this manner he vainly expects to augment his satisfactions, by seeking from many that happiness which he ought to look for in the society of one alone. He lives a gloomy tyrant amidst wretches of his own making; he feels none of those endearments which spring from affection, none of those delicacies which arise from knowledge. His mistresses, being shut out from the world, and totally ignorant of all that passes there, have no arts to entertain his mind, or calm his anxieties; the day passes with them in sullen silence, or languid repose: appetite can furnish but few opportunities of varying the scene; and all that falls beyond it must be irksome expectation.

From this avarice of women, if I may be allowed to express it so, has proceeded that jealousy and suspicion which ever attends the miser: hence those low and barbarous methods of keeping the women of those countries guarded, and of making and procuring eunuchs to attend them. These unhappy creatures are of two kinds, the white and the black. The white are generally made in the country where they reside, being but partly deprived of the marks of virility; the black are generally brought from the interior parts of Africa, and are made entirely bare. These are chiefly chosen for their deformity; the thicker the lips, the flatter the nose, and the more black the teeth, the more valuable the eunuch; so that

order of nature, and the poor wretch finds himself valued in proportion to his deficiencies. In Italy, where this barbarous custom is still retained, and eunuchs are made in order to improve the voice, the laws are severely aimed against such practice; so that being entirely prohibited, none but the poorest and most abandoned of the people still secretly practise it upon their children. Of those served in this manner, not one in ten is found to become a singer; but such is the luxurious folly of the times, that the success of one amply compensates for the failure of the rest. It is very difficult to account for the alterations which castration makes in the voice, and the other parts of the body. The eunuch is shaped differently from others. His legs are of an equal thickness above and below; his knees weak; his shoulders narrow, and his beard thin and downy. In this manner his person is rendered more deformed; but his desires, as I am told, still continue the same; and actually, in Asia, some of them are found to have their seraglios, as well as their masters. Even in our country, we have an instance of a very fine woman being married to one of them whose appearance was the most unpromising; and what is more extraordinary still, I am told, that this couple continue perfectly happy in each other's society.

The mere necessities of life seem the only aim of the savage; the sensual pleasures are the only study of the semi-barbarian; but the refinement of sensuality by reason, is the boast of real politeness. Among the merely barbarous nations, such as the natives of Madagascar, or the inhabitants of Congo, nothing is desired so ardently as to prostitute their wives or daughters to strangers, for the most trifling advantages; they will account it a dishonour not to be among the foremost who are thus received into favour: on the other hand, the Mahometan keeps his wife faithful, by confining her person; and would instantly put her to death, if he but suspected her chastity. With the politer inhabitants of Europe both these barbarous extremes are avoided; the woman's person is left free, and no constraint is imposed but upon her affections. The passion of love, which may be considered as the nice conduct of ruder desire, is only known and practised in this part of the world; so that what other nations guard as their right, the more delicate European is contented to ask as a favour. In this manner the concurrence of mutual appetite contributes to increase mutual satisfaction; and the power on the one side of refusing makes every blessing more grateful when obtained by the other. In barbarous countries woman is considered merely as a useful slave; in such as are somewhat more refined she is regarded as a desirable toy; in countries entirely polished she enjoys juster privileges, the wife being considered as a useful friend and an agreeable mistress. Her mind is still more prized than her person; and without

the improvement of both, she can never expect to become truly agreeable; for her good sense alone can preserve what she has gained by her beauty. Female beauty, as was said, is always seen to improve about the age of puberty: but if we should attempt to define in what this beauty consists, or what constitutes its perfection, we should find nothing more difficult to determine. Every country has its peculiar way of thinking, in this respect; and even the same country thinks differently at different times. The ancients had a very different taste from what prevails at present. The eyebrows joining in the middle was considered as a very peculiar grace by Tibullus, in the enumeration of the charms of his mistress. Narrow foreheads were approved of, and scarce any of the Roman ladies, that are celebrated for their other perfections, but are also praised for the redness of their hair. The nose also of the Grecian Venus was such as would appear at present an actual deformity; as it fell in a straight line from the forehead without the smallest sinking between the eyes, without which we never see a face at present.

Among the moderns, every country seems to have peculiar ideas of beauty. The Persians admire large eyebrows, joining in the middle; the edges and corners of the eyes are tinctured with black, and the size of the head is increased by a great variety of bandages, formed into a turban. In some parts of India black teeth and white hair are desired with ardour; and one of the principal employments of the women of Thibet, is to redden the teeth with herbs, and to make their hair white by a certain preparation. The passion for coloured teeth obtains also in China and Japan; where, to complete their idea of beauty, the object of desire must have little eyes, nearly closed, feet extremely small, and a waist far from being shapely. There are nations of the American Indians that flatten the head of their children, by keeping them while young squeezed between two boards, so as to make the visage much larger than it would naturally be. Others flatten the head at top; and others make it as round as they possibly can. The inhabitants along the western coasts of Africa have a very extraordinary taste for beauty. A flat nose, thick lips, and a jet black complexion, are there the most indulgent gifts of Nature. Such, indeed, they are all, in some degree, found to possess. However, they take care by art to increase their natural deformities, as they should seem to us; and they have many additional methods of rendering their persons still more frightfully pleasing. The whole body and visage is often scarred with a variety of monstrous figures; which is not done without a great pain, and repeated incision: and even sometimes parts of the body are cut away. But it would be endless to remark the various arts which caprice or custom

+ Buffon.

has employed to distort and disfigure the body in order to render it more pleasing; in fact, every nation, how barbarous soever, seems unsatisfied with the human figure as Nature has left it, and has its peculiar arts of heightening beauty. Painting, powdering, cutting, boring the nose and the ears, lengthening the one and depressing the other, are arts practised in many countries; and, in some degree, admired in all. These arts might have been at first introduced to hide epidemic deformities; custom, by degrees, reconciles them to the view; till, from looking upon them with indifference, the eye at length begins to gaze with pleasure.

CHAP. V.

OF THE AGE OF MANHOOD.1

THE human body attains to its full height during the age of puberty; or, at least, a short time after. Some young people are found to cease growing at fourteen or fifteen; others continue their growth till two or three and twenty. During this period they are all of a slender make; their thighs and legs small, and the muscular parts are yet unfilled. But by degrees the fleshy fibres augment; the muscles swell, and assume their figure; the limbs become proportioned, and rounder; and before the age of thirty, the body in men has acquired the most perfect symmetry. In women, the body arrives at perfection much sooner, as they arrive at the age of maturity more early; the muscles, and all the other parts, being weaker, less compact and solid than those of man, they require less time in coming to perfection: and as they are less in size, that size is sooner completed. Hence the persons of women are found to be as complete at twenty, as those of men are found to be at thirty.

The body of a well-shaped man ought to be square; the muscles should be expressed with boldness, and the lines of the face strongly marked. In the woman, all the muscles should be rounder, the lines softer, and the features more delicate. Strength and majesty belong to the man; grace and softness are the peculiar embel|lishments of the other sex. In both every part of their form declares their sovereignty over other creatures. Man supports his body erect; his attitude is that of command; and his face, which is turned towards the heavens, displays the dignity of his station. The image of his soul is painted in his visage; and the excellence of his nature penetrates through the material form in which it is enclosed. His majestic port, his se

1 This chapter is translated from Mr. Buffon, Whatever I whose description is very excellent. have added is marked by inverted commas, "thus." And in whatever trifling points I have differed, the notes will serve to show.

date and resolute step, announce the nobleness of his rank. He touches the earth only with his extremity; and beholds it as if at a disdainful distance. His arms are not given him, as to other creatures, for pillars of support; nor does he lose, by rendering them callous against the ground, that delicacy of touch which furnishes him with so many of his enjoyments. His hands are made for very different purposes; to second every intention of his will, and to perfect the gifts of Nature.

When the soul is at rest, all the features of the visage seem settled in a state of profound tranquillity. Their proportion, their union, and their harmony, seem to mark the sweet serenity | of the mind, and give a true information of what passes within. But when the soul is excited, the human visage becomes a living picture; where the passions are expressed with as much delicacy as energy, where every motion is designed by some correspondent feature, where every impression anticipates the will, and betrays those hidden agitations that he would often wish to conceal.

It is particularly in the eyes that the passions are painted; and in which we may most readily discover their beginning. The eye seems to belong to the soul more than any other organ; it seems to participate of all its emotions; as well the most soft and tender as the most tumultuous and forceful. It not only receives, but transmits them by sympathy; the observing eye of one catches the secret fire from another; and the passion thus often becomes general.

Such persons as are short-sighted, labour under a particular disadvantage in this respect. They are, in a manner, entirely cut off from the language of the eyes; and this gives an air of stupidity to the face, which often produces very unfavourable prepossessions. However intelligent we find such persons to be, we can scarcely be brought back from our first prejudice, and often continue in the first erroneous opinion. In this manner we are too much induced to judge of men by their physiognomy; and having perhaps, at first, caught up our judgments prematurely, they mechanically influence us all our lives after. This extends even to the very colour or the cut of people's clothes; and we should for this reason be careful, even in such trifling particulars, since they go to make up a part of the total judgment which those we converse with may form to our advantage.

The vivacity, or the languid motion of the eyes, give the strongest marks to physiognomy; and their colour contributes still more to enforce the expression. The different colours of the eye are the dark hazel, the light hazel, the green, the blue and gray, the whitish gray, "and also the red." These different colours arise from the different colours of the little muscles that serve to contract the pupil; "and they are very often

found to change colour with disorder, and with age."

The most ordinary colours are the hazel and the blue, and very often both these colours are found in the eyes of the same person. Those eyes which are called black, are only of the dark hazel, which may be easily seen upon closer inspection ; however, those eyes are reckoned the most beautiful where the shade is the deepest; and either in these, or the blue eyes, the fire which gives its finest impression to the eye is more distinguishable in proportion to the darkness of the tint. For this reason, the black eyes, as they are called, have the greatest vivacity; but probably the blue have the most powerful effect in beauty, as they reflect a greater variety of lights, being composed of more various colours.

This variety, which is found in the colour of the eyes, is peculiar to man, and one or two other kinds of animals; but, in general, the colour in any one individual is the same in all the rest. The eyes of oxen are brown; those of sneep of a water colour; those of goats are gray: "and it may also be, in general, remarked, that the eyes of most white animals are red; thus the rabbit, the ferret, and, even in the human race, the white Moor, all have their eyes of a red colour."

Although the eye, when put into motion, seems to be drawn on one side, yet it only moves round the centre; by which its coloured part moves nearer or farther from the angle of the eye-lids, or is elevated or depressed. The distance between the eye is less in man than in any other animal; and in some of them it is so great, that it is impossible that they should ever view the same object with both eyes at once, unless it be very far off. "This, however, in them is rather an advantage than an inconvenience, as they are thus able to watch round them, and guard against the dangers of their precarious situation."

Next to the eyes, the features, which most give a character to the face, are the eye-brows; which being, in some measure, more apparent than the other features, are most readily distinguished at a distance. "Le Brun, in giving a painter directions, with regard to the passions, places the principal expression of the face in the eye-brows." From their elevation or depression, most of the furious passions are characterized; and such as have this feature extremely moveable, are usually known to have an expressive face. By means of these we can imitate all the other passions, as they are raised or depressed at command; the rest of the features are generally fixed; or, when put into motion, they do not obey the will: the mouth and eyes, in an actor, for instance, may, by being violently distorted, give a very different expression from what he would intend: but the eye-brows can scarcely be exerted improperly; their being raised denotes

all those passions which pride or pleasure inspire; and their depression marks those which are the effects of contemplation and pain; and such who have this feature, therefore, most at command, are often found to excel as actors."

The eye-lashes have an effect, in giving expression to the eye, particularly when long and close: they soften its glances, and improve its sweetness. Man and apes are the only animals that have eye-lashes both upon the upper and lower lids; all other animals want them on the lid below.

The eyelids serve to guard the ball of the eye, and to furnish it with a proper moisture. The upper lid rises and falls; the lower has scarcely any motion; and although their being moved depends on the will, yet it often happens that the will is unable to keep them open, when sleep or fatigue oppresses the mind. In birds and amphibious quadrupeds, the lower lid alone has motion; fishes and insects have no eyelids whatso

ever.

The forehead makes a large part of the face, and a part which chiefly contributes to its beauty. It ought to be justly proportioned; neither too round nor too flat; neither too narrow nor too low; and the hair should come thick upon its extremities. It is known to everybody how much the hair tends to improve the face; and how much the being bald serves to take away from beauty. The highest part of the head is that which becomes bald the soonest, as well as that part which lies immediately above the temples. The hair under the temples, and at the back of the head, is very seldom known to fail, "and women are much less apt to become bald than men: Mr. Buffon seems to think that they never become bald at all; but we have too many instances of the contrary among us, not to contradict very easily the assertion. Of all parts or appendages of the body, the hair is that which is found most different, in different climates; and often not only contributes to mark the country, but also the disposition of the man. It is in general thickest where the constitution is strongest; and more glossy and beautiful where the health is most permanent. The ancients held the hair to be a sort of excrement, produced like the nails; the part next the root pushing out that immediately contiguous. But the moderns have found that every hair may be truly said to live, to receive nutriment, to fill and distend itself, like the other parts of the body. The roots, they observe, do not turn gray sooner than the extremities, but the whole hair changes colour at once; and we have many instances of persons who have grown gray in one night's time." Each hair, if viewed with a microscope, is found to consist of five or six lesser ones, all wrapped up in one common covering; it appears knotted, like some

sorts of grass, and sends forth branches at the joints. It is bulbous at the root, by which it imbibes its moisture from the body: and it is split at the points; so that a single hair, at its end, resembles a brush. Whatever be the size or the shape of the pore, through which the hair issues, it accommodates itself to the same; being either thick, as they are large; small, as they are less; round, triangular, and variously formed, as the pores happen to be various. The hair takes its colour from the juices flowing through it, and it is found that this colour differs in different tribes and races of people. The Americans, and the Asiatics, have their hair black, thick, straight, and shining. The inhabitants of the torrid climates of Africa have it black, short, and woolly. The people of Scandinavia have it red, long, and curled; and those of our own and the neighbouring countries, are found with hair of various colours. However, it is supposed by many, that every man resembles in his disposition the inhabitants of those countries whom he resembles in the colour and the nature of his hair; so that the black are said, like the Asiatics, to be grave and acute; the red, like the Gothic nations, to be choleric and bold. However this may be, the length and the strength of the hair is a general mark of a good constitution; and as that hair which is strongest is most commonly curled, so curled hair is generally regarded among us as a beauty. The Greeks, however, had a very different idea of beauty in this respect; and seem to have taken one of their peculiar national distinctions from the length and the straightness of the hair."

The nose is the most prominent feature in the face; but, as it has scarcely any motion, and that only in the strongest passions, it rather adds to the beauty than to the expression of the countenance. "However, I am told, by the skilful in this branch of knowledge, that wide nostrils add a great deal to the bold and resolute air of the countenance; and where they are narrow, though it may constitute beauty, it seldom improves expression." The form of the nose, and its advanced position, are peculiar to the human visage alone. Other animals, for the most part, have nostrils, with a partition between them; but none of them have an elevated nose. Apes themselves have scarcely any thing else of this feature but the nostrils; the rest of the feature lying flat upon the visage, and scarcely higher than the cheekbones. 'Among all the tribes of savage men, also, the nose is very flat; and I have seen a Tartar who had scarcely any thing else but two holes through which to breathe."

The mouth and lips, next to the eyes, are found to have the greatest expression. The passions have great power over this part of the face; and the mouth marks its different degrees by its different forms. The organ of speech still more

any other feature in the countenance. The ruby