“The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower”
is not, as Bryant implies, the transitoriness of the rose, but the fact
that the marble flower, like the wax-flower, is dead and unchangeable,
while the short-lived rose beams with the expression of happy vitality
after a shower, or sadly droops and hangs its head in a drouth. It has
life and expression, subtle gradations of colour, and light and shade,
which are the signs of its vitality and moods, varying every day, every
hour. And so with all the higher forms of life, those always being most
beautiful and highly prized which are most capable of expressing subtle
variations of health, happiness, and mental refinement.
There is no part of the human body which does not serve as a mark of
expression—
“In many’s looks the false heart’s history
Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange.”
“There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,
_Nay, her foot speaks_.”—SHAKSPERE.
It will not do, therefore, to neglect any part of the body. As it is the
last straw which breaks the camel’s back, so Cupid’s capricious choice
is often determined by some minor point of perfection, when the balance
is otherwise equal. Suppose there are two sisters whose faces, figures,
and mental attractions are about equal; then it is possible that one of
them will die an old maid simply because the other had a smaller foot, a
more graceful gait, or longer eyelashes.
But though every organ has its own beauty, there is an æsthetic scale of
lower and higher which corresponds pretty accurately with the physical
scale from down upwards—from the foot to the eye and forehead. It is in
this order, accordingly, that we shall now proceed to consider the
various parts of the human form, and those peculiarities in them which
are considered most beautiful and most liable to inspire Romantic Love.