Beauty: Illustrated Chiefly by an Analysis and Classificatin of Beauty in Woman

It has been remarked that the lower classes of females in cities, consume as much, and probably more intoxicating drinks, than men of the same class, and this is no doubt true. But to the honor of our countrywomen, a great change has been brought about within last few years, with respect to the use of alcoholic liquors, not only in this, but in other countries, with a corresponding improvement in health, happiness, and beauty. In advancing this blessed reform, the ladies have borne a conspicuous part—as they have in every other philanthropic work—and their combined influence is only needed, to banish such drinks entirely from civilized society.

THE FACIAL LINE OF CAMPER

In order to determine the cerebral mass, and, consequently, the intellectual faculties, Camper draws a base line from the roots of the upper incisors, to the external auditory passage; then another straight line, from the upper incisors to the most elevated point of the forehead: according to him, the intellectual faculties of the man or animal, are in direct proportion to the magnitude of the angle, made by those two lines. Lavater, with this idea for a basis, constructed a scale of perfection from the frog to the Apollo Belvidere. As nature really furnishes many proofs in support of this opinion, it has been generally received, even by anatomists and physiologists; and, notwithstanding the arguments by which it is victoriously opposed, the learned cannot resolve to abandon it. Cuvier himself furnishes a list of men and animals, in support of this doctrine; few naturalists oppose it, but almost all give it their support.61

Camper’s attempt necessarily failed; for his manner of drawing the lines and measuring the facial angle, enabled him to take into consideration the anterior parts only of the brain situated near the forehead: he entirely neglects the posterior, lateral, and inferior cerebral parts. This method, then, at most, could decide upon those faculties only, whose organs are placed near the forehead.

Cuvier estimates the facial angle of the new-born infant at ninety degrees; that of the adult, at eighty-five; that of decrepit old age, at fifty.

From this statement it appears, that, at different ages, changes take place in the form, either of the brain or the cranium; hereafter I shall prove that such changes really occur.

The forehead of the newborn infant is flattened; on the contrary, that of a child some months old, and until the age of eight or ten years, especially in the case of boys possessed of superior talents, it is projecting, and forms, notwithstanding the approximation to the age of puberty, a larger facial angle than in the adult; this angle, therefore, does not diminish in the inverse ratio of the age. In like manner we find decrepit old men, whose facial angle is as great as it was in the vigor of manhood; for, although in decrepitude the brain is subject to atrophy, there are old men, the exterior contour of whose crania undergoes no change. The angle, as stated by Cuvier, for different ages, were measured upon different individuals; if it were estimated upon the same persons at different epochs of his life, the result would be entirely different.

In general, the proportion between the forehead and the face, is different in different individuals. No conclusion can be drawn from the proportions, which exist in one person, relative to those of another; among a hundred individuals of the same sex and age, no two can be found, in whom the same proportion exists between the forehead and the face; it necessarily follows, then, that no two will have the same facial angle. Physiologists seem to admit, that the proportion between the brain and the bones of the face, is different in different species of animals: but they appear to think that, in all the individuals of the same species, all the young, all the adults, all the old, there exists a constant proportion between the cerebral mass and the face.

The researches of Blumenbach show that threefourths of the animals known, have nearly the same facial angle; and yet what a disparity between their instincts and faculties! What information, then, do we derive from Camper’s facial angle?

Moreover, as Cuvier himself observes, the cerebral mass is by no means placed in all animals, immediately behind or beneath what is called the forehead. In a great many species of animals, on the contrary, the external table of the frontal is at a considerable distance from the internal, and this distance increases with the age of the animal. The brain of the swine is placed an inch lower than the frontal bones seem to indicate; that of the ox, in some parts three inches; that of the elephant, from six to thirteen. In other animals, the measurement is generally commenced at the frontal sinus instead of the cerebrum. From these considerations, Cuvier was induced to draw a tangent to the internal instead of the external surface of the cranium. The cerebrum of the wolf and many species of dogs, especially when the individuals are very old, is placed directly behind the frontal sinuses. In the wolf, especially the large and most ferocious variety, it is depressed as in the hyena; in the dog it is situated higher or lower, according to the species; but, notwithstanding this difference in the situation of the brain, the facial angle, as it is commonly measured, must be the same; from this the inference would be, that the dog, the wolf, and the hyena, have the same qualities, and each in the same degree. In the greater part of the rodentia, the morse, &c., the brain is so depressed and so placed behind the frontal sinuses, that the facial line cannot be drawn. The facial line of the cetacea, on account of the singular conformation of the head, would lead to results absolutely false.

I know many negroes, who, with very prominent jaws, are quite distinguished for their intellectual faculties; yet the projection of the jaws renders the facial angle much more acute, than it would be with the usual conformation of Europeans. In order that the same angle should exist in a European, the forehead must be flattened and retreating. But the foreheads of the negroes in question, on the contrary, are very projecting. Who, under these circumstances, would expect to find the same amount of intellect corresponding to the same facial angle?

The facial line cannot be applied to birds, as many naturalists have already observed.

From what has been said, we should expect that naturalists would at length renounce the facial angle of Camper; but the most ignorant are generally the most conceited.

In spite of this complete refutation of Camper’s facial line, Delpit extols it in the following terms:—

“If ever a relation of this kind presented characters of generality and fixedness, adequate to excite a reasonable confidence in matters belonging to the domain of empiricism, rather than that of science, it is the relation or proportion of magnitude, which Camper first perceived and revealed, by comparing the brain of man with that of the different species of animals. We here see a successive decrease of intelligence, proportionate to the acuteness of the facial angle and the consequent diminution of the cerebral cavity. This affords a constant and fixed relation. It can be appreciated with a sufficient degree of exactness by the direct light of comparative anatomy, and by observation of the habits and intelligence of the different classes of animals; it can also be verified by the comparison of men very unequally endowed with intellectual faculties, in whom the contraction of the cerebral cavity and the magnitude of the facial angle exhibit the most remarkable diversities. Here the physiognomical sign has, if I may be allowed the expression, a wide extent of acceptation; it rests upon a broad basis, upon a definite division, and one of easy comprehension and verification; for, if there is some discrepancy of opinion, in regard to the number and nomenclature of the faculties of the mind, the sentiments of the soul, the modifications or shades of character which give birth to particular passions, moral dispositions, habits, whether virtuous or vicious; if these classifications are, in a great measure, arbitrary, and the language used somewhat vague; if, in short, the greater part of these nominal faculties are mere abstractions of the mind, purely imaginary existences, and therefore cannot be actually located in any part of the brain; the case is quite different, when we merely seek to establish a general relation between a constant sign manifested in the organization, and the degree of reason, mind, or intellect, attributed to different men, or the degrees of sagacity attributed to different species of animals. Here, no one is at a loss, because there is ample latitude for comparing and judging; in the system of Gall, on the contrary, the comparisons rest upon minute points, which are subject to discussion, exceptions, a thousand uncertainties in the signs and various applications.”62

If the reader will review what I have said against Camper’s facial line, he will find a refutation of all this reasoning of Delpit; a proof that he defends it merely because it is in vogue. It is this very generality and fixedness, which render it, in almost all cases, inapplicable; this is the inherent defect in the supposed importance of Camper’s facial angle. It is implicitly supposed, that no difference but that of degree, exists between the capacities of the different species and individuals of the human race, and the different species and individuals of the animal kingdom. Thus the intelligence of men and other animals would always be proportioned to the magnitude of the facial angle. This being premised, I ask, which, out of two, three, four, &c., has the most intelligence, the dog, ape, beaver, the ant, or the bee? Ants and bees live in an admirable republic, and form astonishing constructions, which they know how to modify according to circumstances. The beaver and penduline build with equally marvellous skill, and with a foresight which seldom errs; the dog and the ape have very little foresight, and are incapable of the most insignificant construction. Which has the greater intelligence, Voltaire or Descartes? Could the former have been a mathematician and the latter a poet? Which has the higher degree of intellect, Mozart or Lessing, who, with all his genius, detested music? In short, which has the most intelligence, my dog who retraces his steps through the most complicated routes, or myself, who am always going astray? Measure now the facial angle of the ant, bee, beaver, penduline, ape, my dog, and of myself, and estimate the result. Acknowledge, then, that your division, so definite, so easy to be apprehended, is absolutely useless, and that you are obliged to advert to divers instincts, propensities, faculties, and their different degrees of energy, to which your facial angle is wholly inapplicable. Your intelligence, instinct, address, are in reality mere abstractions, imaginary existences. Do you consider the propensity to procreation, the love of offspring, the carnivorous instinct, the talent for music, poetry, &c., as imaginary existences? You see, then, that it is more convenient to tread the beaten path, than to verify observations.—Gall on the Functions of the Brain, page 195.

1

Utopia, Book II., chap. viii.

2

I do not wish to be forced into any discussion of this last point. But, if necessary, I shall not decline it.

3

We fear that Mr. Walker’s analogical reasoning here is not very conclusive. To reason from a living to a dead subject may be very logical but it is not altogether satisfactory.

4

“The Magazine of The Fine Arts,” No. VI, for October 1833.

5

I am not here called upon to vindicate the errors and absurdities which poets and others introduced into mythology.

6

George IV., though the “first gentleman” in England, was guilty of cheating at a horserace.—Ed.

7

The above remark is true of the same class of females in this country.—Ed.

8

Appendix B.

9

Appendix C.

10

To the reader unaccustomed to inquiries of this kind, it may save trouble to peruse first the brief Summary of the contents of this important chapter, beginning in page 120.

11

Regularity expresses the similarity of parts considered as constituting a whole; and uniformity, the similarity of parts considered separately.

12

Regularity expresses the similarity of parts considered as constituting a whole; and uniformity, the similarity of parts considered separately.

13

Appendix D

14

The common character of these arts has been overlooked.

15

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.

16

“The Nervous System, Anatomical and Physiological: in which the Functions of the various Parts of the Brain are, for the first time, assigned.”

17

Communicated by the writer to the “Magazine of the Fine Arts,” No. 11, for June, 1833.

18

“Human Nature,” chap, ix., sec. 13.

19

“Reflexions Critiques sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture.”

20

“Reflexions sur la Poetique.”

21

“Adventurer,” No. 110.

22

Essay on Tragedy.

23

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 chymical theories. Similarly compound 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; respiration renovates it in the very middle of its course—between the two portions of the simple function of circulation; and generation, dependant 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 bloodvessels, 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.

24

Appendix E.

25

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.

26

The bones resemble these, in containing the greatest quantity of earthy mineral matter.

27

It is the possession of vessels which constitutes the vitality of vegetables.

28

In animals, alone, is nervous matter discoverable.

29

Plants have no real circulation, nor passage of their nutritive liquids through the same point.

30

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 Lectures,” Edinburgh.

31

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.

32

Appendix F.

33

Appendix G.

34

Memoire sur le Beau Physique.

35

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.

36

Statistical results in relation to the supply of hospitals and prisons, carry the expense of a man much beyond that of a woman.

37

Appendix H.

38

Appendix I.

39

See the causes of this explained in my work on “Physiognomy.”

40

Pallas—Voyages en Siberie.

41

Humboldt’s Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain.

42

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.

43

“Physiognomy founded on Physiology, and applied to various Countries, Professions, and Individuals: with an Appendix on the Bones at Hythe—the Sculls of the ancient Inhabitants of Britain, and its Invaders: illustrated by Engravings.”—Smith, Elder, & Co., Cornhill.

44

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.

45

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.

46

Lib. II. in Timæum Platonis.

47

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 III., 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!

48

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.

49

It was at the extremity of the modern 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.

50

The phrenologists have told us that the head of this Venus 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.

51

This is beautiful, but is evidently borrowed from the great philosophical poet’s

“Te, Dea, te fugiunt ventei, te nubila coeli,Adventumque tuum.”

52

That, in plants, these odors are even necessary to their reproduction, is proved by their uniform existence at that period. And if being affected by odors implies a sense of smell, or some modification of it, then must plants possess it.

53

In all grossly sensual nations and individuals, the lips are everted even at the angles.

54

See this explained in “Physiognomy.”

55

“Venere suol tenere alquanto aperte le labbra, come per indicare un languido desiderio ed amore.”—Storia delle Arti.

56

In the Cupid, the form of the head is godlike. The hair not only curls with all the vigor 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 observations 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.