as if it was a Maxim absolutely established in their Breasts, that nothing can be beautiful, unless it has fome Approach to the Gigantic." Such a "Man," fays Mrs. D ***, " is really a pretty Fellow, "though fo little ;" without confidering, that he could not be fo pretty, if he was larger. And then is the for ever crying up her chief Fa. vourite, Mr. E***, with that very bad Face, and those very bad Paffions which generally appear in it, only because his Shoulders fpread a good deal wider, than they ought to do.

But the greatest and most general Misleader of our Judgments, in relation to Beauty, is Custom, or the different national Taftes for Beauty; which turn chiefly on the Two lower Parts of it, Color and Form.

It was from the most common Shape of his Countrywomen that Reubens, in his Pictures, delights so much in Plumpnefs; not to give it a worse Name. Whenever he was to represent the most beautiful Women, he is fure to give them a good Share of Corpulence. It feems as if nobody could be a Beauty with him, under Two Hundred Weight. His very Graces are all fat.

But this may go much farther than mere Bulk; it will reach even to very great Deformities; which sometimes grow into Beauties, where they are habitual and general. One of our own Countrymen (who was a particularly handsome Man,) in his travelling over the Alps, was detained by a Fever in one of thofe Villages, where every grown VOL. I. Perfon

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Perfon has that Sort of Swellings in the Neck, which they call Goters; and of which I have feen fome, very near as big as their Heads. The first Sunday that he was able, he went to their Church (for he was a Roman Catholic) to return Thanks to Heaven for his Recovery. A Man of fo good a Figure, and fo well dreft, had probably never before been within the Walls of that Chapel. Every body's Eyes were fixed upon him; and as they went out, they cried out, loud enough for him to hear them; "O how "completely handsome would that Man be, if he "had but a Goter!"

In fome of the most military Nations of Africa, no Man is reckoned handsome that has not Five or Six Scars in his Face. This Custom might, poffibly, at firft, be introduced among them to make them less afraid of Wounds in that Part, in Battle; but, however that was, it grew at laft to have fo great a Share in their Idea of Beauty, that they now cut and flash the Faces of their poor tle Infants, in order to give them those Graces when they are grown up, which are fo neceffary to win the Hearts of their Mistresses; and which, with the Affistance of fome Jewels, or Ingots of Gold, in their Nofes, Ears, and Lips, must certainly be irresistible to the Ladies of that Country.

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The Covering each Cheek all over with a burning Sort of Red Color, has long been looked upon in a neighbouring Country to be as neceffary to render a Fine Lady's Face completely beautiful, as these Scars are for the Beaux in Africa.

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'Tis really furprifing, that there should be fo wide a Difference in the Taftes of Two Countries, as there is in this Particular between the French and us; when the bordering People of each live nearer together, than the Inhabitants do in the Extremes of one of our own moderate Counties; as, for Inftance, in this good County of Surrey, in particular.

The first Time I faw the Ladies all ranged in the Front of the Boxes, at the Opera at Paris, they seemed to me to look like a long Bed of highcoloured full-blown Pionies in a Garden.

The Two prettiest Women I have ever seen, are the Duchefs of B***, in France, and Mrs. A***, in England; and the very Reafon why I fhould give the Preference to the latter of the Two is, that the former is obliged, by the Fashion of the Country where the lives, to heighten the Color of the Rofes which Nature had scattered over her Cheeks, into one great Mass of Vermilion.

Were a Frenchman, on his first Coming over hither, to fee a Set of our greatest Beauties all in a Row, he might, probably, think them like a Bed of Lilies; or, at leaft, like a Border of lightcoloured Pinks.

In fact, when the Count de Grammont was in England in King Charles the Second's Time, when the Court was fo gay, and fo particularly well furnished with Beauties; he faid, "That the English Ladies were particularly handsome; but

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"that it was a great Pity that they were all fo 66 pale."

The natural Complexion of the Italian Ladies is of a higher Glow than ours ufually are; and yet Mr. Addison is very just, in making a Numidian call the Ladies of the fame Country, "[m] Pale, "unripened Beauties."

The Prince of Annamaboo, who had been fo long, and latterly fo much ufed to the European Complexion, yet faid, a little before he left Lon"That Mifs C*** would be the most "charming Woman in the World, if the was but 46 a Negro."

don;

I remember to have read, inan Account of fome of the fartheft Travels that any of our People have made up the River Gambia; that when they came to fome Villages, where, probably, no Europeans had ever been before, the Women ran frightened and screaming from them; on taking them to be Devils, merely on Account of the Whitenefs of their Complexion.

I cannot help obferving to you, that Heaven is very good and merciful to Mankind, even in making us capable of all this Variety of Mistakes. If every Perfon judged exactly right of Beauty, every Man that was in Love in fuch a Diftri&t, would be in

[m] The glowing Dames of Zama's royal Court Have Faces flutht with more exalted Charms : 'The Sun, that rolls his Chariot o'er their Heads, Works up more Fire and Colour in their Cheeks: Were you with thefe, my Prince, you'd foon forget The pale, unripen'd, Beauties of the North!

Syphax, to Juba; in Cato. Acti. Scene 4.

Love

Love with the fame Woman. Only confider of what fatal Confequence that muft be, in any City or Town that you are best acquainted with. The acknowledged Fair one, in the fame Manner, could choose out but one happy Man for her Fa-. vourite, in all her Town of Lovers; and all the reft must be left in a State of Despair. This (as bad as it would be) is only the best Side of the Cafe, and fuppofing every thing to be carried on with a Patience and Tranquillity, which would then be almost impoffible; for, in Truth, if the Affections of all centred on the fame Object, nothing but perpetual Quarrels ånd Mischiefs would be to be apprehended. The fuperior Beauty of each Hamlet would be the Object of the Hate and Malice of all the rest of her own Sex in it; and the Cause of Diffenfion and Murders among all of the other. If this would hold in one Town, it would hold, for the fame Reasons, in every other Town or Diftri&t; and of Courfe, there would be nothing more wanting than this univerfal right Judgment of Beauty, to render the whole World one continued Scene of Blood and Mifery.

But now that Fancy has, perhaps, more to do with Beauty than Judgment, there is an Infinity of Taftes, and confequently an Infinity of Beauty; for, to the Mind of the Lover, fuppofed Beauty is full as good as real. Every body may now choose out what happens to hit his own Turn and Caft. The honeft Ruftic can think himfelf happy in his Woman of a good strong Make, and Sunburnt frowfy Complexion; the fine Gentleman.