COMBINATIONS AND TRANSITIONS OF THE THREE SPECIES OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
As to the COMBINATIONS of beauty, it must now be observed, that some one
of these species of beauty always characterize the same individual during
every stage of life; and, to the experienced observer, it never is
difficult to say which of them predominates. Attention to the preceding
principles will render this easy.
It is right to mention here the cause of this general predominance of one
species of beauty over the rest. It depends on this, that the slightest
original or accidental preponderance of strength in one system above that
of the rest, though unobserved at first, leads to a more frequent
employment of its functions, and therefore to a more perfect development
of its organs, until at last the disproportion between these and those of
the other systems, becomes characteristic of the individual.
In a truly beautiful woman, none of the systems described can exist in a
great degree of degradation; but of the three, the nutritive or vital
system is to woman the most essential. In England, from thirty to forty is
generally the age of its highest perfection.
It often, however, occurs, that two, or even the whole of these species of
beauty, are blended in considerable perfection. In those females in which
it is found, the locomotive system is well developed in the length and
elegance of the limbs; the vital or nutritive system everywhere presents
soft forms, and rounds both body and limbs; and the mental or thinking
system displays a capability of grace in action, notwithstanding the
constrained attitude assumed to conceal the face.
Although there can indeed be no great degree of beauty in which this
combination is not more or less the case, yet a union of all the three
species of beauty, in the greatest compatible degree, is to be found only
in some of those immortal images of ideal beauty, which were created by
the genius and the chisel of the Greeks.
Having briefly spoken of these combinations, I may notice also those
_combinations which similarly occur among the temperaments_, which, as
already said, constitute partial views of the varieties I have been
describing.
In relation to a combination of the _phlegmatic_ and _nervous_
temperament, I may refer to Richerand, who says, that, "among the moderns,
the easy Michael Montaigne, all of whose passions were so moderate, who
reasoned on everything, even on feeling, was truly pituitous. But in him
the predominance of the lymphatic system was not carried so far, but that
he joined to it a good deal of nervous susceptibility."
Of women, more especially, it is observed, that they rarely present
examples of the lymphatic temperament, unmodified by nervous mobility;
whence come extreme vivacity in the sensations with great feebleness,
determinations equally precipitate and unsteady, excited imagination and
ephemeral tastes, absolute will, &c.
The _sanguine_ temperament is similarly combined with the _nervous_ one.
Hence, the physiologist above quoted says, that "to the extreme love of
pleasure, sanguine men join, when circumstances require it [he should have
said, in some cases], great elevation of thought and character, and can
bring into action the highest talents in every department: the history of
Henry IV., of Mirabeau, and others, proves that."
The ancients gave the name of _bilious_, to a temperament in which the
sanguineous system is energetic, the pulse strong, hard, and frequent, the
subcutaneous veins prominent, the development of the liver excessive, the
superabundance of bile remarkable, the sensibility easily excited, yet
capable of dwelling upon one object, the passions violent, the movements
abrupt and impetuous, and the character inflexible. This is evidently a
very compound temperament, and should never have been classed, any more
than the two preceding, with the simple temperaments, the athletic or
muscular, the phlegmatic or lymphatic, the sanguine, and the nervous,
which I have noticed under the heads to which they belong.
In persons of this temperament, the skin is of a yellowish brown, the hair
black, the muscles marked, the form harshly expressed. "Bold in the
conception of a project," says Richerand, "constant and indefatigable in
its execution, it is among men of this temperament, that we find those
who, in different ages, have governed the destinies of the world: full of
courage, boldness, and activity, they have signalized themselves by great
virtues or great crimes, and have been the terror or admiration of the
universe. Such were Alexander, Julius Cesar, Brutus, Mahomet, Charles
XII., the Czar Peter, Cromwell, Sixtus V., Cardinal Richelieu [and, he
should have added, Bonaparte].... To attain to results of such importance,
the profoundest dissimulation and the most obstinate constancy are equally
necessary; and these are the most eminent qualities of the bilious."
A still more compound temperament is the _melancholic_, in which disease
is added to the bilious temperament, a derangement of the functions of the
nervous system, and the diseased obstruction of some one of the organs of
the abdomen, so that the nutritive functions are feebly or irregularly
performed, the bowels sluggish, the pulse hard and contracted, the
excretions difficult, the imagination gloomy, the disposition suspicious.
In persons of this temperament, the skin is of a still deeper hue, and the
look uneasy and gloomy. Rousseau and Tiberius are excellent examples of
this temperament, as associated with genius and virtue in one, and with
truly royal vice in the other. In women, this temperament is rarely so
intense as in men.
Of the TRANSITIONS of beauty, I have now to observe, that, though one
species of beauty always characterizes the same individual during every
stage of life, yet it is remarkable, that the young woman (whatever
species of beauty predominates) has always a tendency to beauty of the
locomotive system;--that the middle-aged woman has always a tendency to
beauty of the nutritive system;--and that the woman of advanced age has
always a tendency to beauty of the thinking system.
Some women would seem, in the progress of life, to pass through all these
systems (and the more perfect the whole organization, the more will this
seem to be the case); but the accurate observer will always see the
predominance of the same system.