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loveliness that is not deemed defective. Anamaboo, the African prince, received so many attentions from a celebrated belle of London, that, in a moment of tenderness, he could not refrain from laying his hand on his heart, and exclaiming, "Ah! madam, if heaven had only made you a negress, you would have been irresistible." And the same beauty, when travelling among the Swiss Cretins, heard several of the men ejaculating, "How handsome she is! what a pity that she wants a Goitre.”* Plain women were formerly so common, that they were termed ordinary to signify the frequency of their occurrence: in these happier days the phrase extraordinary would be more applicable. However parsimonious, or even cruel, nature may have been in other respects, they all cling to admiration by some solitary tenure that redeems them from the unqualified imputation of unattractiveness. One has an eye that, like charity, covers a multitude of sins; another is a female Sampson, whose strength consists in her hair; a third holds your affections by her teeth; a fourth is a Cinderella, who wins hearts by her pretty little foot; a fifth makes an irresistible appeal from her face to her figure," and so on to the end of the catalogue. An expressive countenance may always be claimed in the absence of any definite charm; and, if even this be questionable, the party generally contrives to get a reputation for great cleverness; and, if that be too inhumanly disputed, envy itself must allow that she is " excessively amiable.'

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Still, it must be acknowledged, that however men may differ as to details, they agree as to results, and crowd about an acknowledged beauty, influenced by some secret attraction of which they are themselves unconscious, and of which the source has never been duly explained. It would seem impossible that it should originate in any sexual sympathies, since we feel the impulsion without carrying ourselves, even in idea, beyond the pleasure of gazing, and are even sensibly affected by the sight of beautiful children: yet it cannot be an abstract admiration, for it is incontestable that neither men nor women are so vehemently impressed by the contemplation of beauty in their own, as in the opposite, sex.

This injustice towards our own half of humanity, might be assigned to a latent envy, but that the same remark applies to the pleasure we derive from statues, of the proportions of which we could hardly be jealous. Ugly statues may be left to their fate without any compunctious visitings of nature; but our Eks-tror'de 'nâ-re. Fig'ùre-not, fig'år. Vè'hè 'mênt-lễ. Nå'tshůre.

* Goitrc-gwatr, a large swelling upon the throat, like a wen.

To'ůrdz.

a

conduct towards women, whom we conceive to be in a similar predicament, is by no means entitled to the same indulgence. We shuffle away from them at parties, and sneak to the other end of the dinner-table, as if their features were catching; and as to their falling in love, and possessing the common feelings of their sex, we laugh at the very idea. And yet these Parias of the drawing-room, generally atone, by interiour talent, for what they want in exteriour charms; as if the Medusa's head were still destined to be carried by Minerva.

Nature seldom lavishes her gifts upon one subject: the pea cock has no voice; the beautiful Camellia Japonica has no odour; and belles, generally speaking, have no great share of intellect. Some visionaries amuse themselves by imagining that the complacency occasioned by the possession of physical charms, conduces to moral perfection.

SECTION VIII.

Ugly Women.-Continued.

WHAT a blessing for these unhandsome damsels, whom we treat still more unhandsomely by our fastidious neglect, that some of us are less squeamish in our tastes and more impartial in our attentions. Solomon proves the antiquity of the adage"De gustibus nil disputandum," ("The taste is not to be disputed,") for he compares the hair of his beloved, to a flock of goats appearing from Mount Gilead; and in a strain of enamoured flattery, exclaims: "Thy eyes are like the fish-pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim; thy nose like the tower of Lebanon, looking towards Damascus."

Now I deem it as becoming to see a woman standing behind a good, roomy nose, as to contemplate a fair temple with a majestick portico; but it may be questioned whether a nose like the tower of Lebanon, is not somewhat too elephantine, and bordering on the proboscis. The nez retroussé* (na re-troo'-sa) is smart and piquant; the button-nose, like all other diminu tives, is endearing; and even the snub absolutely has its admi. rers. Cupid can get over it, though it have no bridge; and he jumps through a wall-eye like a harlequin. As to the latter feature, my taste may be singular, perhaps bad, but I confess that I have a penchant for that captivating cast, sometimes in, aPré-dik'á'ment—not, munt.

* Un nez retrousse'—ůn nå rẻ-tròò'să, a nose that turns up.

+ Liking.

vidiously termed a squint. Its advantages are neither few nor unimportant. Like a bowl, its very bias makes it sure of hitting the jack, while it seems to be running out of the course; and it has, moreover, the invaluable property of doing execu tion without exciting suspicion, like the Irish guns with crooked barrels, made for shooting round a corner.

Common observers admire the sun in his common state, but philosophers find it a thousand times more interesting when suffering a partial eclipse; while the lovers of the picturesque, are more smitten with its rising and setting, than with its meridian splendour. Such men must be enchanted with a strabismus or squint, where they may behold the ball of sight, gracefully emerging from the nasal east, or setting in its occidental depths, presenting every variety of obscuration. With regard to teeth, also, a very erroneous taste prevails. Nothing can be more stiff and barrack-like, than that uniformity of shape and hue which is so highly vaunted," for the merest tyro in landscape will tell us, that castellated and jagged outlines, with a pleasing variety of tints, are infinitely more pictorial and pleasing.

Patches of bile in the face are by no means to be deprecated. They impart to it a rich mellow tone of autumnal colouring which we should in vain seek in less gifted complexions; and I am most happy to vindicate the claims of a moderate beard upon the upper lip, which is as necessary to the perfect beauty of the mouth, as are the thorns and moss to a rose, or the leaves to a cherry. If there are any old maids still extant, while mysogonists are so rare, the fault must be attributable to themselves, and they must incur all the responsibility of their single blessedness.

In the connubial lottery, ugly women possess an advantage to which sufficient importance has not been attached. It is a common observation, that husband and wife frequently resemble each other; and many ingenious theorists, attempting to solve the problem by attributing it to sympathy, contemplation of one another's features, congeniality of habits, modes of life, and so forth, have fallen into the very common errour of substi tuting the cause for the effect. This mutual likeness is the occasion, not the result, of marriage. Every man, like Narcissus, becomes enamoured of the reflection of himself, only choosing a substance instead of a shadow. His love for any particular woman, is self-love at second-hand, vanity reflected, compound egotism. When he sees himself in the mirror of a female face,

"In'tèr'est-Ing. Vàwnt'èd. Běĕrd. 'the'ò'rists.

he exclaims: "How intelligent, how amiable, how interestinghow admirably adapted for a wife!" and forthwith makes his proposals to the personage so expressly and literally calculated to keep him in countenance. The uglier he is, the more need he has of this consolation. He forms a romantick attachment to the "fascinating creature with the snub nose," or the "bewitching girl with the roguish leer," (Anglice, squint,) without once suspecting that he is paying his addresses to himself, and playing the inamorato before a looking-glass. Take self-love from love, and very little remains: it is taking the flame from Hymen's torch, and leaving the smoke.

The same feeling extends to his progeny. He would rather see them resemble himself, particularly in his defects, than be modelled after the chubbiest cherubs or cupids that ever emanated from the studio of Canova. One sometimes encounters a man of a most unqualified hideousness, who obviously considers himself an Adonis; and when such a one has to seek a congenial Venus, it is evident that her value will be in the inverse ratio of her charms. Upon this principle, ugly women will be converted into belles; perfect frights will become irresistible; and none need despair of conquests, if they have but the happiness to be sufficiently plain.

"The best part of beauty," says Lord Bacon, "is that which a statue or painting cannot express." As to symmetry of form, and superficial grace, sculpture is exquisitively perfect; but the countenance is of too subtle and intangible a character to be arrested by any modification of marble. Busts, especially where the pupil of the eye is unmarked, have the appearance of mere masks, and are representations of little more than blindness and death. Painting supplies, by colouring and shade, much that sculpture wants; but, on the other hand, it is deficient in what its rival possesses-fidelity of superficial form. Nothing can compensated for our inability to walk round a picture, and choose various points of view. Facility of production, meanness of material, and vulgarity of association, have induced us to look down with unmerited contempt upon those waxen busts in the perfumers' shops, which, as simple representations of female nature, have attained a perfection that positively amounts to the kissable. That delicacy of tint and material, which so admirably adapts itself to female beauty, forms, however, but a milk-maidish representation of virility; and the men have, consequently, as epicene and androgynous an aspect as if they had just been bathing in the Salmacian fountain.

Ra'she'd. Dě'spåre-not, dis'påre. Pôz-zès'êz. Kôm-pên'såte.

Countenance, however, is not within the reach of any of these substances or combinations. It is a species of moral beauty, as superiour to mere charms of surface, as mind is to matter. It is, in fact, visible spirit-legible intellect, diffusing itself over the features, and enabling minds to commune with each other by some secret sympathy unconnected with the senses. The heart has a silent echo in the face, which frequently carries to us a conviction diametrically opposite to the audible expression of the mouth; and we see, through the eyes, into the understanding of the man, long before it can communicate with us by utterance.

This emanation of character is the light of a soul destined to the skies, shining through its tegument of clay, and irradiating the countenance, as the sun illuminates the face of nature before it rises above the earth to commence its heavenly career. Of this indefinable charm, all women are alike susceptible. It is to them what gunpowder is to warriours; it levels all distinctions, and gives to the plain and the pretty, to the timid and the brave, an equal chance of making conquests. It is, in fine, one among a thousand proofs of that system of compensation, both physical and moral, by which a superiour Power is perpetually evincing his benignity; affording to every human being a commensurate chance of happiness, and inculcating upon all, that when they turn their faces towards heaven, they should reflect the light from above, and be animated by one uniform expression of love, resignation, and gratitude.

SECTION IX.

Philosophy of Apparitions.-QUARterly Review.

Extract.

NOTWITHSTANDING the eagerness with which almost all educated persons disclaim a belief in the supernatural, and denounce, as a vulgar absurdity, the very notion of apparitions, yet there are few, even of the boldest and least credulous, who are not occasionally the victims of the very apprehensions which they deride; and many such have been ingenuous enough to confess, that their skepticism receives more support from their pride than from their reason.

Occupied with professional toil, or engaged with the objects

Tèg'u'ment. Ir-rå'de 'å-ting.

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