THE THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY GENERALLY VIEWED.
These have been already briefly mentioned. They are repeated and
illustrated here.
The view which is given of them will throw light on the celebrated
temperaments of the ancients. It will appear that all the disputes which
have occurred respecting these, have arisen from their being founded, not
on precise data, but on empirical observation, at a time when the great
truths of anatomy and physiology were unknown; that, to the rectification
of the doctrine of temperaments, the arrangement of these sciences, laid
down in a preceding chapter, is indispensable; that some of these
temperaments are comparatively simple, and consist in an excessive or a
defective action of locomotive, nutritive, or thinking organs; that
others, which have been confounded with these, are, on the contrary,
compound; and that, from this want of classification, their nature has
been imperfectly understood.
To make this clear, it is necessary to lay before the reader a succinct
view of the doctrine of temperaments.
The ancients classed individuals in one or other of four temperaments,
founded on the hypothesis of four humors, of which the blood was supposed
to be composed--the red part, phlegm, yellow and black bile. These were
regarded as the elements of the body, and their respective predominance
passed for the cause of the differences which it presented. Hence were
derived the names of the sanguine, the phlegmatic, the choleric, and the
melancholic temperament.
Although the hypothesis on which this doctrine was founded is universally
discarded, the phenomena which observation had taught the ancients, and
which they had hypothetically connected with these elements, were so true,
that that classification has been more or less employed in all the
hypotheses which have since been invented to explain their cause; and
their nomenclature has continued in use to the present day.
A temperament may be defined a peculiar state of the system, depending on
the relative proportion of its different masses, and the relative energy
of its different functions, by which it acquires a tendency to certain
actions.
The predominance of any particular organ or system of organs, its excess
of force, extends its sphere of activity to all the other functions, and
modifies them in a peculiar manner. Thus, conforming in the illustration
to the preceding arrangement, in one person, the muscles are more
frequently employed than the brain; in another, the stomach or the organs
of reproduction are more employed than the muscles; and in a third, the
brain and nerves are more employed than either. This predominance or
excess establishes the temperament.
The relative feebleness of any organ or system of organs, similarly forms
modifications not less important. Thus in one person, the organs of the
abdomen are less employed; in another, those of the chest; in a third, the
brain.
Disease, it is observed, "commonly enters into the organization by these
feeble points: death even attacks them first; extends afterward from one
to another; and makes progress more or less rapid, according to the
importance of the organ primitively affected."
Temperaments, however, vary infinitely. It may be said that every
individual has a peculiar one, to which he owes his mode of existence and
his degree of health, ability, and happiness.
The temperament, moreover, of each individual is not always characterized
by well-marked symptoms; and even where it has been strongly marked by
nature, education, age, the influence of climate, the exercise of
professions and trades, and various habits, produce in it infinite
changes.
Temperaments also combine together, so that all men are, in some degree,
at once sanguine and bilious, or otherwise compound. Thus all intermediate
shades of temperament are produced; and it is often difficult, or, under
particular circumstances, impossible, to determine under which temperament
individuals may be classed.
The simple temperaments are therefore abstractions, which it is difficult
to realize; and the influence of any temperament is sometimes
undiscoverable except in some extraordinary circumstances of disorder or
disease, during which it may be observed.
Cullen admits the four temperaments of Hippocrates, and remarks concerning
them, that it is probable they were first founded upon observation, and
afterward adapted to the theory of the ancients, since we find they "have
a real existence."
Dr. Prichard remarks, that "this division of temperaments is by no means a
fanciful distinction."
To the four temperaments of Hippocrates, Gregory adds a fifth, the nervous
temperament.
Thus are formed five temperaments generally admitted, namely, 1st, the
phlegmatic or relaxed; 2d, the sanguine arterial; 3d, the sanguine venous
or bilious; 4th, the nervous; and, 5th, the muscular or athletic.
Some writers join to these the partial temperaments which determine the
ascendency of the functions exercised by particular organs; whence
principally come the temperaments which they call the cerebral,
epigastric, abdominal, hepatic, genital, &c.
As already said, it will in the sequel appear that some of these
temperaments are comparatively simple, that others are compound, and that
from this want of classification, their nature has been imperfectly
understood.[32]