Btbltotfreca Cimoaa.
CEITO:
OR, A
^Dialogue on Beauty.
«
EDITED BY
EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.,
F.S.A. (Scot.)
PRIVATELY PRINTED, EDINBURGH.
1885.
515726
3 - I- Sf
St.
ns-
This edition is limited to 275 small-paper copies,
and 75 large-paper copies.
f tal0|jtt^ 011
IT was on one of the most pleasing Mornings
in the last Summer, that Crito stole from
the Noise and Bustle of the Town, to
enjoy an agreeable Day or Two, with his
Friend Timanthes in the Country. Timan-
thes received him with all that Joy and Pleasure,
which is usual between Frierjds, who love one
another entirely; and who have not met for a
considerable Time. He shewed him his new
Grove, and Gardens; and, as they were walking
in the latter, "Since the Weather begins to be so
warm (says he), if you like it, we will dine under
that open Tent. The Air there will be refreshing
to you ; and will bring us the Smell of Orange
and Lemon-Trees which surround it, without
breaking that View of Country, of which you used
to be so fond. When I placed them there, I had
you in my Thoughts ; and imagined it might be a
favourite Seat of yours, whenever you came hither;
6 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
which I wish your Affairs would suffer to be much
oftener." Indeed the Spot was so well chosen,
that it made not only their Dinner, but even their
Conversation together after it, the more agreeable;
and as they were still sitting and enjoying them
selves there, for some Time into the Afternoon ; a
Servant came to let Timanthes know, that
Milesius was just alighted ; and was coming
toward them. "Though in general I should not
have been chosen to be interrupted to-day (says
Timanthes), I am not sorry for Milesius's Visit at
present ; because his Gaiety may serve a little to
divertyou." " And I, "says Crito, " love everything
that you love; and shall therefore go with Pleasure
with you fO meet him." Milesius came up to them
with his usual Vivacity in his Face and Behaviour;
and, after a short Compliment or Two, they all
sat down together again under the Tent.
They soon fell into a Conversation, which,
though it might not be so solid, was at least more
lively and joyous than their former. Timanthes
could not help observing upon it. "You (says
he) Milesius give Life to the Company wherever
you come; but I am particularly glad of your
coming here To-day, because my Friend Crito, on
his Arrival this Morning, seemed to have the
Remains of something of a Melancholy on his
Face; but, since your joining us", the" "Cloud has
been gradually clearing up, and seems now quite
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 7
driven away. I would not then take any Notice
of it to him, for fear of oppressing the Mind of
my Friend whilst too much afflicted ; but as it now
appears to have been only a passing Cloud, I
could wish to ask the Cause of it ; that I might
endeavour to alleviate his Concern, if in my
Power ; and if not, that at least I might share it
with him." " I am very much obliged to you
(replied Crito, with a Cast of the same Concern
returning on his Face), for your Tenderness for me,
on this, and all other Occasions: but if you
observed any thing of Sorrow about me on my First
coming in, I can assure you, that it was not for
any Misfortune that has happened to myself; nor
any new Misfortune to any of our Friends ; What
ever you saw in me of that kind, must have been
occasioned by the Visit I made this Morning. You
both know the Beauty and_Merits of Mrs. B * * *,
as well as what a Brute of a Husband she~has the
Misfortune to be married to. I just called there,
before I set out ; and, on the Servant's telling me,
that his Lady had been up some time, and was
sitting in the Room next the Garden; as my near
Relation to her gave me the Liberty of going on
without sending in my Name, I walked toward
the Room; and found the Door only just open
enough to let me see her leaning on a Couch, with
her head rested negligently on one Hand, whilst,
with the other, she was wiping away a Tear, that
8 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
stole silently down her Cheek. The Distress in
her Countenance, and the little Confusion that
appeared about her Eyes, on her first discovering
me (just as I was doubting whether I should retire
or not), added so much to the other beauties of
her Face, that I think I never saw her look so
charming in my Life. "Stay, Sir, (says she);
for you, I am sure, can excuse this little Overflow
of Weakness in me. — My poor, dear, Jacky ! — If
Heaven had spared him to me, he would this very
day have been Seven Years old. What a pretty
little Companion should I have had in him, to
have diverted me in some of the many Hours that
I now pass alone ! " I dissembled my being but
too well acquainted with the real Occasion of her
Sorrows; joined with her in lamenting the Loss
she had mentioned ; and, as soon as I could, led
the Conversation into another Channel; and
said every thing I could think of, to divert
her Mind from the Object that I knew afflicted
her. By Degrees, she recovered her usual
Behaviour; but through all the Calmness and
Pleasingness of it, there was still a Cloud hanging
about her Eyes, which betrayed Part of the
Uneasiness that she daily suffers under in her
Heart. Good Heaven ! how is it possible that any
numan Creature should treat so much Goodness,
and so many Charms, with so much Barbarity of
Behaviour!" — "We all know the Vileness of the
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 9
Man," cried Milesius, " as well as the Beauty and
the Good Qualities of his Lady; but, pray, how
come you to think^that her Sufferings should add
to her Charms? or thalTa Distress, like her*s,
could ever~be~pTeasing to the Eye? Some People
have got such strange, unintelligible Notions of
Beauty ! " — "Was I to let you into all my Thoughts
about Beauty," replied Crito, " what I happened to
mention just now would, perhaps, appear far from
being unintelligible to you. To own the Truth, I
have thought on this Subject (which is usually
rather viewed with too much Pleasure, than
considered with any thing of Judgment) more
gravely at least, I dare say, than ever you have :
And if you was to provoke me a little farther, I
do not know whether I could not lay down to you
a sort of Scheme on it ; which might go a good
Way, not only toward clearing up this, but most
of the Difficulties that so often occur in talking of
it." — " I should as soon think of dissecting a Rain
bow," says Milesius, "as of forming grave and
punctual Notions of Beauty. Who, for Heaven's
Sake, can reduce to Rules, what is so quick, and
so variable, as to be shifting its Appearances every
moment, on the most delightful Faces?" — "And
why are those Faces the most delightful, in which
that happens?" says Crito. — " Nay, that is one of
the very things I could least pretend to account
for," replied Milesius. '' I am satisfied with seeing
OI A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
that they are so ; 'tis a subject that I never yet had
a single Desire to reason upon; and I can very
willingly leave it to you, to be a Philosopher in
Love." — "But seriously," interposed Timanthes,
turning toward Crito, " if you have ever found
Leisure and Calmness enough to think steadily on
so uncertain, and so engaging a Subject; why
should not you oblige us with the Result of your
Thoughts upon it ? Let me beg it of you, as a
Favour to both of us ; for I am sure it will be
agreeable to both : And if you refuse me, I am
resolved to join with Milesius in believing, that it
is incapable of having any thing said systematically,
or even regularly about it." — "You know," says
Crito, " how little I love to have all the Talk to
myself; and what you propose may take me up an
Hour, or Two : But if I must Launch out into
so wide a Subject, it will be very necessary, that
I should begin with telling you what I chiefly
propose to consider, and what not.
EVERY Object that is pleasing to the Eye,
when looked upon, or delightful to the
Mind, on Recollection, may be called
beautiful ; so that Beauty, in general, may stretch
\\ as wide as the visible Creation. Thus we speak
not only of the Beauties of an engaging Prospect,
of the rising or setting Sun, or of a fine starry
Heaven ; but of those of a Picture, Statue, or
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. II
Building ; and even of the Actions, Characters, or
Thoughts of Men. In the greater Part of these,
there may be almost as many false Beauties, as
there may be real ; according to the different Tastes
of Nations, and Men ; so that, if any one was to
consider Beauty in its fullest Extent, it could not
be done without the greatest Confusion. I shall
therefore confine my Subject to visible Beauty;
and of that, to such only as may be called personal,
or human Beauty; and that again, to such as is
natural or real, and not such as is only national or
customary; for I would not have you imagine,
that I would have any thing to do with the beauti
ful thick Lips of the good People of Bantam, or
the excessive small Feet of the Ladies of Quality
in China.
" I am apt to think, that every thing belonging
to Beauty (by which I need not repeat to you, at
every Turn, that I mean real personal Beauty),
would fall under one or other of these four Heads;
Qplgr, Form,_ Expression, and Grace. The Two/
former of which I should look upon as the Body, \
and the Two latter as the Soul, of Beauy.
" THO' Color be the lowest of all the constituent
Parts of Beauty, yet it is vulgarly the most
striking, and the most observed. For which there
is a very obvious Reason to be given ; that "every
body can see, and very few can judge;" the
12 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
Beauties of Color requiring much less of Judgment,
than either of the other Three. I shall therefore
have much less to say of it, than of each of the
others; and shall only give you Two or Three
observations, relating to it.
"As to the Color of the Body in general, the
most beautiful perhaps that ever was imagined, was
that which Apelles expressed in his famous Venus 5
and which, though the picture itself be lost,
Cicero has, in some Degree preserved to us, in his
excellent Description of it.* It was, as we learn
from him) a fine Red, beautifully intermixed and
incorporated with White; and diffused in its
due Proportions, through each Part of the Body ;
such are the descriptions of the most beautiful
Slun]rin several of the Roman Poets ;f and such
* Illud video pugnare te, species ut quaedam sit
Deorum ; quae nihil concreti habeat, nihil solidi, nihil
express!, nihil eminentis : sitque pura, levis, perlucida.
Dicemus ergo idem, quod in Venere Coa j corpus non
est, sed simile corpori : nee ille fusus et candore
mixtus rubor sanguis est, sed quaedam sanguinis
similitude. — Cicero de Natura Deor. lib i.
t Thus Virgil, in the Blush of his Lavinia}
Accepit vocem lacrymis Lavinia matris,
Flagrantes perfusa genas ; cui plurimus ignem
Subjecit rubor, et calefacta per ora cucurrit :
Jndum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 13
often is the colouring of Titian, and particularly,
in his sleeping Venus, or whatever other Beauty
that charming Piece was meant to represent.
" The Reason why these Colors please so much
is not only their natural Liveliness, nor the much
greater Charms they obtain from their being
properly blended together, but is also owing in
some Degree to the Idea they carry with them of
good Health;* without which, all Beauty grows
languid and less engaging; and with which it
always recovers an additional Life and Lustre.
"As to the Color of the Face in particular, a
great deal of its Beauty is owing (beside the
Si quis ebur, aut mixta rubent ubi lilia multa
Alba rosa } tales virgo dabat ore colores.
Mn. xii. 69.
Ovid, in his Narcissus ;
Impubesque genas, et eburnea colla, decusque
Oris } et in nivio mistum candore ruborem.
Met. iii. 423.
And Tibullus, in his Apollo ;
Candor erat, qualem praefert Latonia luna ;
Et color in niveo corpore purpureus.
Ut juveni primum virgo deducta marito
Inficitur teneras ore rubente genas:
Ut quum contexunt amaranthis alba puellae
Lilia ; et autumno Candida mala rubent.
Lib. ii. El. 3. n.
* Venustas et pulchritudo corporis secerni non
potest a valetudine. — Cicero de Officns, lib. i. § 95.
14 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
Causes I have already mentioned) tqJVajieiyj; that
being designed by Nature for the greatest
Concourse of different Colors, of any Part in the
human Body. Colors please by Opposition ; and
it is in the Face that they are the most diversified,
and the most opposed.
' ' You would laugh out perhaps, if I was to tell
you that the same Thing, which makes a fine
Evening, makes a fine Face (I mean as to the
particular Part of Beauty I am now speaking of) ;
and yet this, I believe, is very true.
" The Beauty of an Evening Sky, about the
Setting of the Sun, is owing to the Variety of
Colors that are scattered along the Face of the
Heavens. It is the fine red Clouds, intermixed
with white, and sometimes darker ones, with the
azure bottom appearing here and there between
them, which makes all that beautiful Composition,
that delights the Eye so much, and gives such a
serene Pleasure to the Heart. In the same
Manner, if you consider some beautiful Faces,
you may observe that it is much the same Variety
of Colors, which gives them that pleasing Look ;
which is so apt to attract the Eye, and but too
often to engage the Heart. For all this Sort of
Beauty is resolvable into a proper Variation of
Flesh Color and Red, with the clear Blueness of
the Veins pleasingly intermixed about the Temples
and the Going off of the Cheeks, and set off by
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 15
the Shades of full Eyebrows ; and of the Hair,
when it falls in a proper Manner round the Face.
" It is for much the same Reason, that the best
Landscape-painters have been generally observed
to chuse the autumnal Part of the Year for their
Pieces, rather than the Spring. They prefer the
Variety of Shades and Colors, though in their
Decline, to all their Freshness and Verdure in
their Infancy; and think all the Charms and
Liveliness even of the Spring more than compen
sated by the Choice, Opposition, and Richness of
Colors, that appear on almost every Tree in the
Autumn.
"Though one's Judgment is soapttobe guided by
some particular Attachments (and that more perhaps
in this Part of Beauty than any other), yet I am a
good deal persuaded, that a complete brown
Beauty is really preferable to a perfect fair one;
the bright Brown giving a lustre to all the other
Colors, a Vivacity to the Eyes, and a Richness to
the whole Look, which one seeks in vain in the
whitest and most transparent Skins. Raphael's
most charming Madonna is a brunette Beauty ;
and his earlier Madonnas (those I mean of his
middle Stile) are generally of a lighter and less
pleasing Complexion. All the best Artists in the
noblest Age of Painting, about Leo the Tenth's
Time, used this deeper and richer Kind of coloring;
and I fear one might add, that the glaring Lights
16 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
introduced by Guido, went a great Way toward
the Declension of that Art ; as the enfeebling of
the Colors by Carlo Marat (or, if you please, by
his Followers) hath since almost completed the
Fall of it in Italy.
" I have but one thing more to mention, before I
quit this Head ; that I should chuse to comprehend
some Things under this Article of Color, which
are not perhaps commonly meant by that Name.
As that appearing So£tness_pr_ Silkiness of some
Skins, that Magdalgn^look in some fine Faces,*
jJtSJL^eeping; that Brightness, as well as Tint, of
the HairpThat Lustre of Health, that shines
forth upon the Features ; that Luminousness that
appears in some Eyes, and that fluid Fire, or
Glistening, in others : Some of which are of a
Nature so much superior to the common Beauty
of Color, that they make it doubtful whether they
* The Look here meant is most frequently expressed
by the best Painters in their Magdalens ; in which, if
there were no Tears on the Face, you would see, by
the humid Redness of the Skin, that she had been
weeping extremely. There is a very strong instance
of this in a Magdalen by Le Brun, in one of the
Churches at Paris ,- and several by Titian, in Italy ;
the very best of which is at the Barberigo Palace at
Venice : in speaking of which, Rosalba hardly went
too far, wheh she said, " It wept all over 5" or (in the
very Words she used), " Elle pleure jusqu' aux bouts des
djigts."
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 17
should not have been ranked under a higher Class;
and reserved for the expression of the Passions ;
but I would willingly give every thing it's Due,
and therefore mention them here ; because I think
even the most doubtful of them belong partly to
this Head, as well as partly to the other.
"FORM takes in the Turn^qfeach Part, as well
as the Symmetry of the whole Boctyv~«cen to the
Turn orarTEyebrow, or the Falling of the Hair.
I should think too, that the Attitude, while fixed,
ought to be reckoned under this Article: By
which I do not only mean the Posture of the
Person, but the Position of each Part ; as the
Turning of the Neck, the extending of the Hand,
the placing of a foot; and so on to the most s
jrciinute particulars.
"The generaTCause of Beauty in the Form or
Shape in both Sexes is a Proportion, or an Union
and Harmony,* in all Parts of the Body.
" The distinguishing Character of Beauty in the
Female Form, is Delicacy and Softness; and in \
the Male, either apparent Strength or Agility.
"The finest Exemplars that can be seen for the
* Pulchritudo corporis apta compositione membro-
rum movet oculos ; et delectat hoc ipso, quod inter se
omnes partes quodam lepore consentiunt. — Cicero dt
Off. lib. i. § 91.
1 8 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
former, is the Venus of Medici ; and for the Two
latter, the Hercules Farnese and the Apollo
Belvedere.
"There is one Thing indeed in the last of these
Figures, which exceeds the Bounds of our present
Enquiry ; what I have heard an Italian Artist call
// sovra umano ; and what we may call the
V\ Transcendant or Celestial.* 'Tis something
distinct from all human Beauty, and of a Nature
greatly superior to it ; something that seems like
•j- This is mentioned, or hinted at, by several of the
Roman Writers :
Humanam supra formam. Phaedrus, lib. iv. f. 23.
Forma nisi in veras non cadit ilia Deas.
Ovid. Her. Epist. xviii. 68.
Hoc acre, Ceres ; hoc, lucida Gnossis :
Illo Maia tholo; Venus hoc, non improba, saxo :
Accipiunt vultus non indignata decoros
Numina Statitu. lib. v. Sylv. i. 235-
In quiete visa species viri majoris quam pro
humano habitu, augustiorisque. — Livy, lib. viii. § 6.
Os humerosque Deo similis j namque ipsa decoram
Caesariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventze
Purpureum, et laetos oculis afflarat honores :
Quale manus addunt ebori decus ; aut ubi flavo
Argentum, Pariusve lapis, circumdatur auro.
Virg. &n. \. 593.
Magnae mentis opus,
Currus, et equos, faciesque Deorum
Aspicere. Juvenal, Sat. vii. 68.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 19
an Air of Divinity; Which is expressed, or at
least is to be traced out, in but very few Works of
the Artists; and of which scarce any of the Poets
have caught any Ray in their Descriptions (or
perhaps even in their Imagination), except Homer
and Virgil, among the Ancients; and our Shakes-
pear and Milton among the Moderns.
" The Beauty of the mere human Form is much
superior to that of Color; and it may be partly
for this Reason, that when one is observing the
finest Works of the Artists at Rome (where there
is still the noblest Collection of any in the World),
one feels the Mind more struck and more charmed "
with the capital Statues, than with the Pictures of
the greatest Masters.
" One of the old Roman Poets, in speaking of a
very handsome Man, who was Candidate for the
Prize in some o,' the public Games, says, that he
was much expected and much admired by all the
Spectators, at his first Appearance; but that when
he flung off his Robes, and discovered the whole
Beauty of his Shape altogether, it was so superior,
that it quite extinguished the Beauties they had
before so much admired in his Face.*
• Arcada Parthenopaeum
Appellant, densique cient cava murmura Circi j
Tandem expectatus volucri supra agmina saltu
Emicat } et torto chlamyden diffibulat auro ;
Effulsere artus, membrorumque omnis aperta est
20 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
" I have often felt much the same effect in viewing
the Venus of Medici. If you observe the Face
only, it appears extremely beautiful ; but if
you consider all the other Elegancies of her
Make, the Beauty of her Face becomes less
striking, and is almost lost in such a JVluUiplicity
of Charms.
" Whoever would learn what makes the Beauty
of each Part of the human Body, may find it laid
down, pretty much at large, by Felibien;* or may
Lztitia ; insignesque humeri, nee pectora nudis
Deteriora genis : latuitque in corpore vultus.
Statius Theb. vi. 573.
*In his Entretiens, vol. ii. p. 14 — 45- Tne chief of
what he says there, on the Beauty of the different
Parts of the Female Form is as follows.
That the Head should be well rounded j and look
rather inclining to small than large.
The Forehead white, smooth, and open (not with
the Hair growing too deep upon it) ; neither flat nor
prominent, but like the Head, well-rounded} and
rather small in Proportion than large.
The Hair, either bright, black, or brown } not thin,
but full and waving ; and if it falls in moderate Curls,
the better. The Black is particularly useful for setting
off the Whiteness of the Neck and Skin.
The Eyes, black, chesnut, or blue ; clear, bright,
and lively ; and rather large in Proportion than small.
The Eyebrows, well divided, rather full than thin ;
semicircular, and broader in the Middle than at the
Ends j of a neat Turn, but not formal.
The Cheeks should not be wide : should have a
Degree of Plumpness with the Red and White finely
blended together ; and should look firm and soft.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 21
study with more Pleasure to himself, in the finest
Pictures and Statues; and I am forced to have
recourse to them so often, because in Life we
commonly see but a small Part of the human Body;
most of it being either disguised, or altered, by
what we call Dress.
The Ear should be rather small than large j well
folded, and with an agreeable Tinge of Red.
The Nose should be placed so as to divide the Face
into two equal Parts j should be of a moderate Size,
strait and well-squared j though sometimes a little Rising
in the Nose, which is but just perceivable, may give a
very graceful Look to it.
The Mouth should be small ; and the Lips not of
equal Thickness : They should be well-turned, small
rather than gross ; soft, even to the Eye j and with a
living Red in them. A truly pretty Mouth is like a
Rose-bud that is beginning to blow.
The Teeth should be middle-sized, white, well-
ranged, and even.
The CAin, of a moderate Size j white, soft, and
agreeably rounded.
The Neck should be white, strait, and of a soft,
easy, and flexible Make, rather long than short ; less
above, and increasing gently toward the Shoulders :
The Whiteness and Delicacy of its skin should be
continued, or rather go on improving, to the Bosom.
The Skin in general should be white, properly tinged
with Red ; with an apparent softness, and a Look of
thriving Health in it.
The Shoulders should be white, gently spread, and
with a much softer Appearance of Strength, than in
those of Men.
22 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
"I was acquainted, for some Years, with a Lady
who has as pretty a made Head and Neck as can
be conceived; and never knew any thing of the
Matter, till I happened one Morning to catch her
at her Toilet, before she had deformed herself by
putting on her Keadcloaths.
" If that beautiful round Oak, with so fine and
strait a Body, had a Tent or sloping Building,
coming down from the Top of its Trunk to the
The Arm should be white, round, firm, and soft j
and more particularly so from the Elbow to the
Hands.
The Hand should unite insensibly with the Arm ;
just as it does in the Statue of the Venus of Medici.
They should be long, and delicate ; and even the
Joints and nervous Parts of them should be without
either any Hardness or Dryness.
The Fingers should be fine, long, round, and softj
small, and lessening towards the Tips of them : And
the Nails long, rounded at the Ends, and pellucid.
The Bosom should be white, and charming ; and
the Breasts equal in Roundness, Whiteness, and Firm
ness ; neither too much elevated, nor too much
depressed ; rising gently, and very distinctly separated ;
in one Word, just like those of the Venus of Medici.
The Sides should be long, and the Hips wider than
the Shoulders ; and should turn off as they do in the
same Venus j and go down Rounding, and lessening
gradually to the Knee.
The Knee should be even, and well-rounded ; the
Legs strait, but varied by a proper Rounding of the
more fleshy part of them ; and the Feet finely turned,
white, and little.
A D1ALOGUF ON BEAUTY. 23
Ground, all round it, and Two or Three Sheets
flung over the greatest Part of its Head, we should
scarce be able to know, whether it was a beautiful
Tree or not : And such is the circling Hoop, that
the WTomen wear in some Countries; and the
vast Wad of Linen, that they carry upon their
Head in others.
"The old Heathens used to cover the finest
Statues of their Gods all over with long Robes on
their greatest Festivals : What a Figure would the
Venus of Medici, or the Abollo Belvedere, make,
in such a Dress?
" I do not, to this Day, know whether the famous
Lady of Loretto be well or ill shaped ; for, though
I have seen her several times, I have never seen
her without a sort of Hoop-petticoat, very much
stiffened with Pearls and Jewels, and reaching all
down her Body; quite from her Neck to her Feet.
Queen Eiizabeth might have been well shaped to
as little Purpose, or ill-shaped with as much
Security in the vast Fardingal and pufft Robes,
that we generally see her swelled out with, in her
Pictures.
"And we do not only thus, in a great Measure,
hide Beauty ; but even injure, and kill it, by some
Parts of our Dress. A Child is no sooner born
into the World, than it is bound up, almost as
firmly as an old Egyptian Mummy, in several
of Folds Linen. It is in vain to give all the Signs
\Mi
' \
24 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
of Distress that Nature has put in his Power, to
shew how much he suffers whilst they are thus
imprisoning his Limbs; or all the Signs of Joy,
every time they are set at Liberty. In a few
Minutes, the old Witch, who presides over his
infirmest Days, falls to tormenting him afresh,
and winds him up again in his destined Confine
ment. When he comes to be dressed like a Man,
he has Ligatures applied to his Arms, Legs, and
Middle, in short, all over him; to prevent the
natural Circulation of his Blood, and make him
less active and healthy ; and if it be a Child of
the tenderer Sex, she must be bound yet more
straightly about the Waist and Stomach ; to acquire
a Disproportion, that Nature never meant in her
Shape. I have heard a very nice Critic in Beauty
say, that he was never well acquainted with any
Woman in England, that was not, in some Degree,
crooked; and I have often heard another Gentle
man, that has been much in Africa, and in the
Indies, assert, that he never saw any black Woman
that was crooked. The Reason, no Doubt, is,
that they keep to Nature ; whereas our Ladies
choose to be shaped by the Staymaker.
"THE Two other constituent Parts of Beauty,
are, Expression and Grace : The former of which,
is common to all Persons and Faces ; and the
latter, is to be met with but in very few.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 25
" By Expression, I mean the Expression of the
Passions ; the Turns and Changes of the Mind,
so far as they are made visible to the Eye, by our
Looks or Gestures.
"Though the Mind appears principally in the
Face, and Attitudes of the Head ; yet every Part
almost of the human Body, on some Occasion or
other, may become expressive. Thus the languish
ing Hanging of the Arm, or the vehement
Exertion of it ; the Pain expressed by the Fingers
of one of the Sons in the famous group of Laocoon,
and in the Toes of the dying Gladiator. But this
again is often lost among us by our Dress ; and
indeed is of the less Concern, because the Expres
sion of the Passions passes chiefly in the Face,
which we (by good Luck) have not as yet concealed.
" The Parts of the Face in which the Passions
most frequently make their Appearance, are the
Eyes, and Mouth ; but from the Eyes, they diffuse
themselves (very strongly) about the Eyebrows;
as, in the other Case, they appear often in the
Parts all round the Mouth.
"Philosophers may dispute, as much as they
please, about the Seatof theSoul; but, wherever
it resides, I am sure that it speaks Jn the Eye_s.
"I do not know, whether I have not injured the
Eyebrows, in making them only Dependants on
the Eye ; for they, especially in lively Faces, have,
is it were, a Language of their own ; and are
26 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
extremely varied, according to the different
Sentiments and Passions of the Mind.
" I have sometimes observed a Degree of Dis
pleasure in a Lady's Eyebrow, when she had
Address enough not to let it appear in her Eyes;
and at other times have discovered so much of
her Thoughts, in the Line just above her Eye
brows; that she has been amazed how anybody
could tell what passed in her Mind, and as she
thought undiscovered by her Face, so particularly
and distinctly.
"Homer makes the Eyebrows the Seat of
Majesty,* Virgil of Dejection,f Horace of
Modesty,| and Juvenal of Pride ;§ and I question
Homer's Iliad, IA. a. 528.
It was from this Passage that Phidias borrowed all
the Ideas of that Majesty which he had expressed so
strongly in his famous Statue of the Jupiter Olympiusj
and Horace, probably, his Cuncta supercilio
moventis. — Lib. iii. Od. i. 8.
f Frons laeta parum, et dejecto lumina vultu.
Virgil, J£n. vi. 863.
| Deme supercilio nubem ; plerumque modestus
Occupat obscuri speciem.
Horat. lib. i. Epist. 1 8. 95.
§ Malo Venusinam, quam te, Cornelia, mater
Gracchorum ; si cum magnis virtutibus affers
Grande supercilium, et numeras in dote tnumphos.
Jwvenal. Sat. vi. 168.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 27
whether every one of the Passions is not assigned,
by one or other of the Poets, to the same Part.
"If you would rather have Authorities from the
Writers of honest Pros^teBrun^who published
a very pretty Treatise,Htr~s1rew'~n"ow the Passions
affect the Face and Features) says, that the
principal Seat of them is in the Eyebrows, and
old Pliny had said much the same thing,* so many
Hundred Years before him.
"Hitherto I have spoken only of the Passions in
general: We will now consider a little, if you
please, which of them add to Beauty ; and which
of them take from it.
" I believe we may say, in general, that all the
tende^Ai^J^^^P^on^add Jo^ Beauty ; and all
tji£cruel and unkind oj^s a^d^oJJSormity: And
it is on^tHTs^ccoimt that Good-nature may, very
justly, be said to be " the best feature even in the
finest Face."
It is hence that the Romans used the Word super-
ciliosus (as we do the Word supercilious) for proud and
arrogant Persons.
* Frons tristitiae, hilaritatis, clementiae, severitatis
index : in ascensu ejus supercilia, et pariter, et alterne
mobilia $ et in iis, pars animi. [His] negamus ;
annuimus. Haec maxime indicant fastum. Superbia
alicubi conceptaculum, sed hie sedem habet : in corde
nascitur ; hie subit, hie pendet. — P/in. Nat. Hist. lib.
xi. cap. 37.
28 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
included the principal Passions
of each Sort, in Two very pretty Lines :
Love Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure's smiling Train j
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the Family of Pain.
The former of which, naturally give an additional
Lustre and Enlivening to Beauty ; as the latter
are too apt to fling a Cloud and Gloom over it.
"Yet in these, and al^ thejTjJier Passions, I do
not know whethei^J^deralignjfriay not be, in a
great measure, the Rule of their Beauty ; almost
as far as Moderation in Action is the Rule of
Virtue.
"Thus an excessive Joy may be too boisterous in
the Face to be pleasing ; and a Degree of Grief,
in some Faces, and on some Occasions, may be
extremely beautiful.
"Some Degrees of Anger, Shame, Surprize,
Fear, and Concern, are beautiful ; but all Excess
is hurtful, and a^Exce^ugly.
" The finestunion of Passions, that I have ever
observed in any Face, consisted of a just Mixture
of Modesty, Sensibility, and Sweetness ; each of
which, when taken singly, is very pleasing ; but
when they are all blended together, in such a
Manner as either to enliven or correct each other,
they give almost as much Attraction, as the
Passions are capable of adding to a very pretty
Face.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 29
" The prevailing Passion in the Venus of Medici
teflToctesty^ It is expressed in each of her Hands,
in herCooks, and in the Turn of her Head. And
by the way, I question whether one of the chief
Reasons, why Side-faces please one more than
Full ones, may not be from the former having
more of the Air of Modesty than the latter. How
ever that be, this is certain, that the best Artists
usually chuse to give a Side-face, rather than a
Full one ; in which Attitude, the Turn of the
Neck too has more Beauty, and the Passions more
Activity and Force. Thus, as to Hatred and
Affection in particular, the Look that was formerly
supposed to carry an Infection with it from
malignant Eyes, was a slanting Regard ; like that
which! MiUon^ives to Satan,* when he is viewing
the Happmess of our first Parents in Paradise ;
and the Fascination, or Stroke of Love, is most
usually, I believe, conveyed, at first, in a Side-
glance.
"It is owing to a great Force of Pleasingness,
which attends all the kinder Passions "That
LgX£rs-4^-not only seem, but are really more
'Beautiful to each other, than they are to the rest
of the World ;" because, when they are together,
* Aside the Devil turn'd
For Envy ; yet, with jealous Leer malign,
Ey'd them askance. —
Paradise Lost, Book iv. 504.
3° A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
the most pleasing Passions are more frequently
exerted in each of their Faces, than they are
in either before the rest of the World. There
is then (as a certain French Writer very
well expresses it)
nances^ which does not appear when they are
'absent from each other; or even when they are
together, conversing with other Persons that are
indifferent to them, or rather lay a Restraint upon
their Features.
" I dare say you begin to see the Preference,
that the Beauty of the Passions has over the Two
Parts of Beauty first-mentioned ; and if any one
was not thoroughly convinced of it, I should beg
him to consider a little the following Particulars ;
of which every body must have met with several
Instances, in their Life-time.
f " That there is a great deal of Difference in the
I same Face, according as the Person is in a better
/ or worse Humour, or in a greater or less Degree
\ o: Liveliness.
" That the best Complexion, the finest Features,
and the exactest Shape, without any thing of the
Mind expressed on the Face, is as insipid and
unmoving, as the waxen Figure of the fine
Duchess of Richmond, in Westminster Abbey.
That a Face without any good Feature in it,
and with a very indifferent Complexion, shall
have a very taking Air ; from the Sensibility of
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 3!
the Eyes, the general good-humoured Turn of the
Look, and perhaps a little agreeable Smile about
the Mouth. And these Three Things I believe,
would go a great way toward accounting for the
fe ne sfai quoi, or that inejgglicaj3le_rieasingness
of the Face (as they choose to call it)Twhich !s~so
olteHlaiked of, and so littb understood ; as the
greater Part, and perhaps all the res^of it, would
fall under the last Article, that o£^race^
" I once knew v. very nne Woman, who was
admired by everybody that saw her, and scarce
loved by any body. Thi.-> Ineffectualness of all
her Beauties was occasioned by a Want of the
pleasing Passions in her Face, and an Appearance
of the displeasing ones; particularly those of
Pride and Ill-nature. Nero, of old, seems to have
had this unpleasing Sort of Handsomeness,*
and probably from much the same Cause ; the
Goodness of his Features being overlaid by the
Ugliness of the Passions that appeared on his
Face.
"The finest Eyes in the World, with an Excess
of Malice or Rage in them, will grow as shocking
* Suetonius, in his Life of that Emperor, says,
" That he had a Look which might rather be tailed
handsome than pleasing :" Vultu, pulchro magis quam
venusto. — Cap. li.
32 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
as they are in that fine Face of Medusa, on the
famous Seal in the Strozzi Family at Rome.
"Thus you see that the Passions can give Beauty,
without the Assistance of Color and Form ; and
take it away, where they have united the most
strongly to give it : And it was this that made me
assert, at first, that this Part of Beauty was so
extremely superior to the other Two.
" This, by the way, may help us to account for
the Justness of what Pliny asserts in speaking of
the famous Statue of Laocoon, and his Two Sons :
He says, It was the finest Piece of Art in Rome;
and to be preferred to all the other Statues and
Pictures,* of which they had so noble a Collection
in his time. It had no Beauties of Color, to vie
with the Paintings ; and other Statues there (as
the Apollo Belvedere, and the Venus of Medici, in
particular) were as finely proportioned as the
Laocoon : but this had a much greater Variety of
Expression, even than those fine ones ; anoTlt
must be on that Account alone, that it could have
been preferable to them, and all the rest.
"Before I quit this Head, I would just remind
you of Two Things that I have mentioned before :
That the chief Rule of the Beauty of the Passions,
* Sicut in Laocoonte, qui est in Titi Imperatoris
domo ; opus, omnibus et picturae et statuariae artis
praeferendum. — Pirn, Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvi. cap. 5.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 33
is^loderatiow; and that the Part in which they
appear most strongly, is the JEye^ It is there that
Love holds all its tenderest Language : It is there
that Virtue commands, Modesty charms, Joy
enlivens, Sorrow engages, and Inclination fires the
Hearts of the Beholders: It is there that even Fear,
and Anger, and Confusion, can be charming. But
all these, to be charming, must be kept within
their due Bounds and Limits ; for too sullen an
Appearance ot v7rTue7~Tr—dotent and prostitute
Swell of Passion, a rustic and overwhelming
Modesty, a deep Sadness, or too wild and impet
uous a Joy, become all either oppressive or dis
agreeable.
'^The last finishing and noblest Part of Beauty
is^Grace> which every body is accustomed to speak
of as a Thing inexplicable;* and, in a great
* Decorum quoddam arcanum, atque felicitas ; cujus
eftectum in multis videmus quotidie ; causam vero
reddere nemo potest. — Erasmus in his Philodoxus.
Horace thought it so far from being explicable, that
he does not even venture to give it any Name, in
some very pretty Lines of his on this Subject.
Quo fugit Venus, heu ! quove Color ? Decens
Quo motus ? Quid habes H/ius, il/ius,
£juce spirabat amores,
Quae Jme surpuerat mihi ?
Lib. iv. Od. 13, 20.
34 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
Measure, I believe, it is so. We know that the
Soul is, but we scarce know what it is ; every
Judge of Beauty can point out grace ; but no one
that I know of has ever yet fixed upon a Definition
for it.
" Grace often depends on some very little inci
dents in a fine Face ; and in Actions, it consists
more in the Manner of doing Things, than in the
Things themselvesr^TTis perpetually" vary ing its
Appearances, and is therefore much more difficult
to be considered, than any thing fixed and steady.
While you look upon one, it steals from under the
Eye of the Observer; and is succeeded perhaps
by another, that flits away as soon, and as imper
ceptibly.
" It is on this Account that Grace is better to be
studied in Corregio's, Guido's, and Raphael's
Pictures, than in real Life. Thus, for Instance, if
I wanted to discover what it is that makes Anger
graceful, in a Sett of Features full of the greatest
Sweetness; I should rather endeavour to find it
out in Guido's St. Michael, than in Mrs. P * * * t's
Face, if that eyer had any Anger in it ; because,
in the pictured Angel, one has full leisure to
consider it ; but, in the living one, it would be too
transient and changeable to be the Subject of any
steady Observation.
" But though one cannot punctually say what
Grace is, we may point out the Parts and Things
in which it is most apt to appear.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 35
"The chief Dwelling-place of Grace is about
the Mouth_; though, at Times, it may visit every
Limb or Part of the Body. But the Mouthjs the
chief Seat of Grace ; * as much as the chief Seat
for thTB^eauty^TKe^^ns"TslrrtTieTEyes.
" In a very graceful Face, by which I do not so
much mean a majestic, as a soft and pleasing one,
there is now-and-then (for no Part of Beauty is
either so engaging, or so uncommon) a certain
Deliciousness that almost always lives about the
Mouth, in something not quite enough to be called
a Smile, but rather an Approach toward one ;
which varies gently about the different Lines there,
like a little fluttering Cupid : and, perhaps, some
times discovers a little Dimple, that after just
lightening upon you disappears, and appears again
by Fits. This I take to be one of the most
pleasing Sorts of Grace of any; but you will
understand what I mean by your own Memory,
better than by any Expressions I could possibly
use to describe it.
"The Grace of Attitudes may belong to the*
Position of each Part, as well as to the Carriage!
or Disposition of the whole Body ; but how much 1
* Thus when the French use the Expression of une
bouchefort gracieuse, they mean it properly of Grace j
but when they say, des yeux tres gracieux, it then falls
to the share of the Passions j and means kind or
favourable.
36 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
more it belongs to the Head, than to any other
Part, may be seen in the Pieces of the most
celebrated Painters; and particularly, in those of
Guido ; who has been rather too lavish in bestow
ing this Beauty on almost all his fine Women,
whereas Nature has given it in so high a Degree
but to very few.
' ' The Turns of the Neck are extremely capable
of Grace ; and are very easy to be observed, and
very difficult to be accounted for.
" How much of this Grace may belong to the
Arms and Feet, as well as to the Neck and Head
may be seen in dancing ; but it is not only in
genteel Motions, that a very pretty Woman will be
graceful ; and Ovid (who was so great a Master
in all the parts of Beauty) had very good Reason
for saying,* That when Venus, to please her
Gallant, imitated the hobbling Gait of her
Husband, her very Lameness had a great deal of
Prettiness and Grace in it.
'"Every Motion of a graceful Woman' (says
* Nee Venus oranti (neque enim Dea mollior ulla est)
Rustica Gradivo difficilisve fuit ; _
Ah quoties lasciva pedes risisse mariti
Dicitur, et duras arte vel igne manus !
Marte palam, simulat Vulcanum : imitata decebat ;
Multaque cum forma gratia mista fuit.
Ovid, de Arti Amandi, ^. 570.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 37
another Writer of the same Age) ' is full of Grace. ' *
She designs nothing by it perhaps, and may even
not be sensible of it herself; and indeed she
should not be too much ; for the Moment that
any Gesture or Action appears to be affected, it
ceases to be graceful.
" Horace and Virgil f seem to extend the Grace
so far, as to the Flowing of the Hair ; and
Tibullus,J even to the Dress of his Mistress ; but
* Illam, quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia vertit,
Componit furtim subsequiturque decor.
Tibullus, lib. iv. El. 2. 8.
t Crine decorum. Horace, lib. i. Od. 32. 12.
Intonsosque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos.
Id. Epod. 15. 9.
Ipse jugis Cynthi graditur ; mollique fluentem
Fronde premit crinem fingens, atque implicat auro :
Tela sonant humeris. Haud illo segnior ibat
/Eneas } tantum egregio decus enitet ore.
Virgil. J£n. iv. 150.
And again of the same :
Os humerosque Deo similis : namque ipse decoram
Csesariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventae
Purpureum, et laetos oculis afflarat honores.
<&n. i. 591.
J Seu solvit crines, fusis decet esse capillis ;
Sen comsit, comtis est veneranda comis :
Urit, seu Tyria voluit procedere palla ;
Urit, seu nivea Candida veste venit :
Talis in asterno felix Vertumnus Olympo
Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet.
Ttbullus, lib. iv. El. 2. 14.
38 A DIALOGUE ON BKAUTV.
then he assigns it more to her Manner of putting
on, and appearing in whatever she wears, than to
the Dress itself. It is true, there is another
wicked Poet, who has said (with much less
Decency), 'that Dress is the better Half of
Woman.'*
"There are Two very distinct (and, as it were,
different) Sorts"~ol Grace; the Majestic and the
Familiar ; I should have called the latter by the
Name of Pleasing, had not I been afraid of a
Tautology ; for Grace is Pleasingness itself : The
former belongs chiefly to the very fine Women ;
and the latter to the very pretty ones ; That is the
more commanding, and This the more delightful
and engaging. The Grecian Painters and Sculp
tors used to express the former most strongly in
the Looks and Attitudes in their Minerva's ; and
the latter, in those of Venus.
"Xenophon, in his Choice of Hercules (or, at
least, the excellent Translator of that Piece) has
made just the same Distinction in the Personages
of Wisdom and Pleasure ; the former of which
he describes as moving on to that young Hero,
with the majestic Sort of Grace ; and the latter,
with the familiar.
Graceful, yet each with different Grace they move ;
This striking sacred Awe, that softer winning Love.-f-
* — — Pars minima est ipsa puella sui. — Ovid.
t Choice of Hercules, stan. iii.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 39
The strongest Examples of each kind that I ever
remember to have seen, was Lady S * * *, for
the majestic Sort of Grace ; Lady R * * *, for
the familiar ; and Mrs. B * * *, for each, at
different Times ; and sometimes for both of them
united and blended together.
"But not to have you imagine, that I am
inclined to confine this Part of Beauty only to
Persons of Quality and Distinction ; I shall just
add, that we meet it, not unfrequently, even on
the Stage ; and particularly, in that Sort of
Dances which are meant to express Characters and
PasstoTIS ; and in which you may easily recollect
how much Comargo excelled, for the nobler Sort
of Grace ; and Fossanime, for the more tender
and pathetic.
" There is no Poet I have ever read, who seems
to me to understand this Part of Beauty so well
as our own ^Miltgn. He speaks of these Two
Sorts of Grace very distinctly ; and gives the
Majestic to his Adam, and both the Familiar and
Majestic to Eve ; * but the latter in a less degree
than the former : In doing which he might either
* Two of far nobler Shape, erect and tall,
Godlike erect, with native Honour clad,
In naked Majesty, seem'd Lords of all j
And worthy seem'd. For in their Looks divine
The Image of their glorious Maker shone :
40 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUT V.
be led by his own excellent judgment, or possibly
might have an Eye to what is said by Cicero,* in
speaking on this Subject.
"Though Grace is so difficult to be accounted
Truth, Wisdom, Sanctitude severe and pure ;
Severe, but in true filial Freedom plac'd j
Whence true Authority in Men : Though both
Not equal, as their Sex not equal, seem'd.
For Contemplation he, and Valour, form'd ;
For Softness she, and sweet attractive Grace.
Milton's Parad. Lost, B. iv. 298.
I espy'd thee, fair indeed and tall
Under a Plantain ; yet methought less fair
Less winning soft, less amiably mild,
Than that smooth watry Image. —
(Eve, of Adam and herself.) Ib. ver. 480.
— Her heav'nly Form
Angelic, but more soft and feminine j
Her graceful Innocence ; her ev'ry Air
Of Gesture, or least Action. B. ix. 461.
Grace was in all her Steps : Heav'n in her Eye,
In ev'ry Gesture, Dignity and Love.— B. viii. 489.
Speaking, or mute, all Comeliness and Grace
Attends thee; and each Word, each Motion, forms.
Ib. 223.
It is observable, that in each of the Three last Passages,
Milton seems to have had those Lines of Tibullus in
his Thoughts :
Illam, quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia vertit
Componit furtim subsequiturque decor.
* Venustatem, muliebrem ducere debemus ; digni
tatem, virilem. — Cicero de Offic. lib. i. 130.
A DIALOGUE ON BKAUTV. 4!
lor in general; yet I have observed Two particular
Things, which (I think) hold universally in
relation to it.
"The First is: That there is no Grace, -without
Motion,; by which I mean, without some genteel
or pleasing Motion, either of the whole Body, or
of some Limb, or, at least, of some Feature. And
it may be hence, that Lord Bacon (and, perhaps,
Horace),* call Grace, by the Name of decent
Motion ; just as if they were equivalent Terms.
"Virgil in one Place points out the Majesty of
Juno, and in another the graceful Air of Apollo, f
by only saying, that they move ; and possibly he
means no more, when he makes the Motion of
Venus J the principal thing, by which /Eneas
* In Beauty, that of Favour is more than that of
Colour} and that of gracious and decent Motion, more
than that of Favour. — Lord j&zco«'iWorks,vol.iii.p. 362.
Quo fugit Venus, heu ! quove color ? Decens
Quo motus ? (For so, I think, this Passage
should be read; because the Epithet of graceful, cannot
belong to Colour) Horace, lib. iv. Od. 13. 18.
•j- Ast ego, quae divum incedo regina. &n. i. 46.
Ipse jugis Cynthi graditur, — JEn. iv. 147.
% Dixit j et avertens rosea cervice resulsit
Ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem
Spiravere : pedes vestis defluxit ad imos ;
Et vera incessu patuit Dea. Ille ubi matrem
Agnovit, &c. — — JEn. i. 406.
Thus, among the Greeks, the Words TlpCTrov and
KaAoy, and among the Romans, Pulchrum and Decens,
or Decorum, are used indifferently for one another.
42 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
discovers her under all her Disguise ; though the
Commentators, as usual, would fain find out a
more dark and mysterious Meaning for it.
" All the best Statues are represented as in some
Action, or Motion ; and the most graceful Statue
in the World (the Apollo Belvedere} is so much so,
that when one faces it at a little Distance, one is
always apt to imagine, that he is actually going to
move on toward you.
"All graceful Heads, even in the Portraits of
the best Painters, are in Motion ; and very
strongly in those of Guido in particular ; which,
as you may remember, are all either casting their
Looks up toward Heaven, or down toward the
Ground, or side -way, as regarding some Object.
A Head that is quite unactive, and flung flat upon
the Canvas (like the Faces on Medals after the
Fall of the Roman Empire, or the Gothic Heads
before the Revival of the Arts) will be so far from
having any Grace, that it will not even have any
Life in it.
"The Second Observation is : Thrt there can
be no Grace, with Impropriety ; or, in Bother
^WofcTsTthat nothing can be graceful, that is not
adapted to the Characters of the Person.
"The Graces of a little lively Beauty would
become ungraceful in a Character of Majesty ; as
the majestic Airs of an Empress would quite
destroy the prettiness of the former. The Vivacity
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 43
that adds a Grace to Beauty in Youth, would j
give an additional Deformity to old Age ; and the I
very same Airs, which would be charming on j
some Occasions, may be quite shocking when
extremely mis-timed, or expressly mis-placed.
"This inseperable Union of Propriety and ^
Grace seems to have been the general Sense of I
Mankind ; as we may guess from the Languages ]
of several Nations;* in which some Words that
answer to our Proper or ^coming, are used ij
indifferently for Beautiful or Graceful.
"And yet I cannot think (as some seem
inclined to do) that Grace consists entirely in
Propriety; because Propriety is a Thing easy
enough to be understood, and Grace (after all we
can say about it) very difficult. Propriety there
fore and Grace are no more one and the same
Thing, than Grace and Motion are : 'Tis true, it
cannot subsist without either ; but then there
seems to be something else, what I cannot explain,
and what I do not know that ever any body has
explained, that goes to the Composition ; and
which possibly may give it its greatest Force and
Pleasingness.
"Whatever are the Causes of it, this is certain
that Grace is the chief of all the constituent Parts
* Gratia^ from gratus, or pleasing ; and decor, from
decent, or becoming.
44 A DIALOGUE ON BEAU'lY.
of Beauty ; and so much so, that it seems to be
the only one which is absolutely and universally
admired : All the rest are Qnly^jrelative. One
likes a brunette Beauty better than a fair one ; I
may love a little Woman, and you a large one,
best ; a Person of a mild Temper, will be fond of
the gentler Passions in the Face, and one of a
bolder Cast may choose to have more Vivacity
and more vigorous Passions expressed there : But
Grace is found in few, and is pleasing to all.
"Grace, like Poetry, must be born with a
Person ; and is never, wholly, to be acquired by
Art.
" The most celebrated of all the ancient
Painters, was Apelles ; and the most celebrated
of the Modern, Raphael : And it is remarkable,
that the distinguishing Character of each of them
was Grace. Indeed, that alone could have given
them so high a Pre-eminence over all their other
Competitors.
"Grace has nothing to do with the lowest Part
of Beauty, or Color ; very little with Shape, and
very much with the Passions ; for it is she who
gives their highest Zest, and the most delicious
Part of their Pleasingness to the Expressions of
each of them.
" All the other Parts of Beauty are pleasing in
some Degree, but Grace is Pleasingness itsejfj
and the old Roman sln^generaTseern to have had
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 45
this Notion of it ; as may be inferred from the
original Import of the Names which they used for
this Part of Beauty.*
* Horn. Iliad £, 208-14, thus translated by Pope :
She said ; with Awe divine, the Queen of Love
Obey'd the Sister and the Wife of Jove :
And from her fragrant Breast the Zone unbrac'd,
With various Skill and high Embroid'ry grac'd.
In this was ev'ry Art, and ev'ry Charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm j
Fond Love, the gentle Vow, the gay Desire,
The kind Deceit, the still reviving Fire,
Persuasive Speech, and more persuasive Sighs,
Silence that spoke, and Eloquence of Eyes.
This on her Hand the Cyprian Goddess laid j
Take this, and with it all thy Wish, she said :
With Smiles she took the Charm ; and smiling prest
The pow'rful Cestus to her snowy Breast.
//. xiv. 256.
La Matte's Imitation of the same Passage is
extremely good too; though he adds a French Flourish
at the End of it.
Ce tissu, le simbole et la cause a la fois
Du pouvoir de 1'amour, du charme de ses loix.
Elle enflamme les yeux, de cet ardeur qui touche ;
D'un sourire enchanteur, elle anime la bouche :
Passionne la voix, en adoucit les sons :
Prete ces tours heureux, plus forts que les raisons :
Inspire, pour toucher, ces tendres stratagemes ;
Ces refus attirans, 1'ecueil des sages memes :
Et la nature enfin y voulut renfermer
Tout ce qui persuade, et ce qui fait aimer.
46 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
"The Greeks, as well as the Romans, must
have been of this opinion ; when, in settling their
Mythology, they made the Graces the constant
Attendants of Venus, or the Cause of Love ; and,
in Fact, there is nothing causes Love so generally,
and so irresistibly, as Grace. 'Tis like the Cestus
of the same Goddess, which was supposed to
comprehend everything that was winning and
engaging in it ; and beside all, to oblige the Heart
to Love, by a secret and inexplicable Force, like
that of some magic Charm."
A S Crito paused here, both Milesius and
-^A_ Timanthes thanked him for his Account of a
Thing, which they had never heard so far accounted
for before; and the latter added, "that in his
Division of the Parts which constitute Beauty, he,
at first, thought him guilty of an Omission, in not
adding a Fifth, jthat of Motion." Crito said,
" that he had not forgot that, but thought it was
comprehended under the other Heads. For all
genteel Motion" (says he), "as I have been so
lately mentioning, falls under the Article of Grace;
En prenant ce tissu, que Venus lui presente,
Junon n'etoit que belle, elle devient charmante,
Les graces, et les ris, les plaisirs et les jeux,
Surpris cherchent Venus ; doutent qui Test des deux :
L' Amour meme trompe, trouve Junon plus belle ;
Et, son arc a la main, deja vole apres elle.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 47
whence Horace calls it by it's true Name of grace
ful Motion ; and common Motions are only so
many Variations of the Attitude or Position of the
particular Parts of the Body, and Features of the
Face : The more significant of which, belong to
the Article of the Passions ; and the less significant,
may be comprehended under that of mere Form
or Figure. And now I mention Horace," added
he, "it is observable enough, that he, and the
other Roman Authors, have distinct Names for
each of my Four constituent Parts of Beauty,
which the Commentators and Dictionary-writers
have been sometimes too apt to mistake for Names
of Beauty in general. Thus for the First they use
the Word Color ; for the Second, Forma; for the
Third, they seem to have had several distinct
Names, according to the different Sorts of Passions
whose Delightfulness they spoke of; for the
Fourth, they used Gratia and Decor, when they
spoke of it in general ; and Venustas or Dignitas,
when they had a mind to be more particular.
Their Word Nitor too,* and some others of a
* — Liparzei nitor Hebri.
Horat. Lib. iii. Od. xii. 6.
Urit me Glycerae nitor
Splendentis Pario marmore purius.
Id. Lib. i. Od. xix. 6.
The Epithets marmoreus, eburneus and candidusy are
48 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
like Import, which seem sometimes to be used in
general for Beauty, belong more properly to that
superficial Sort of Beauty, which I mentioned in
part under the First Head, in speaking of the
silky Appearance of the Skin, and the Luminous-
ness in some Eyes. But to talk of Things rather
than Words ; I should be willing to add some
some general observations that I have made, at
Times, in thinking on this Subject.
"It has been observed by some Writers, that
there is naturally a greatdeal of Propriety^ in
Pleasure ; or^ jn^pther^JWordSjthat Pleasure is
annexed_by Nature to such Things asjire proper
for our Preservation, and Pain to such as would
be destructive to us. Thus Pleasure, for Example,
is annexed to Food and Exercise ; and Pain, to
such Degrees of Abstinence and Indolence as
would be hurtful. The same may be observed in
the different Sort of Pleasures, adapted to each
Stage of human Life. Thus in Infancy, when
Growth is as necessary as Support, we have more
frequent Returns of Appetite, and more Pleasure
in Feeding ; and as frequent Feeding requires the
more Exercise, -the__chie£_Eleasure of that Age
consists in the^Love of Motion^ and in a series of
all applied to Beauties by the Roman Poets ; sometimes
as to their Shape, and sometimes as to the Shiningness
here spoken of.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 49
little sportive Exercises. The same is carried on
in other Pleasures, equally adapted to the middle
and latter Stages of Life ; so far, that whenever
Nature has affixed a Pleasure, she seems to lead
and conduct us toward some Duty or other; either
for the Preservation of the Individual, or the
Continuance of the Species.
" There is a great deal of the same Propriety to
be observed, in the Dispensation of Beauty and
Deformity. The good Passions are all pleasing ;
and the bad, disagreeable. Virtue is naturally
the most beautiful and lovely Thing in the World ;
and Vice the most odious and deformed.
"There is also a Propriety in the Timing of
Beauty. Thus, for Instance, a Peach or a Pine
apple are in their highest Beauty, just at the Time
that they should be eat. They want a Ripeness
of Colors, as well as of Taste, till they come to
that State ; and gradually decay in Beauty, as
they go farther and farther from it.
"It might sound odd to you, if I should say,( i
that a Woman is_Jike a Pine -apple; yet the
similitude would hold much farther, and in more
Particulars, than any one would at first imagine.
She has her Season of growing to her greatest
State of Beauty, of Continuance in it, and of a
Decay from it, as well as that ; and the highest
Season of their Beauty is just as properly timed in
the one Case, as in the other.
50 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
"As to the Quantity of Beauty, in particular
Persons, I have sometimes had a Thought which
may serve (at least) to divert you. You know
that Mons. de Piles, in his Lives of the Painters,
has laid down a Scale by which one may judge of
their comparative Excellence. Now I should
think, that a Scale might be settled in the same
Manner, by which one might judge tolerably well
of the proportional Excellence in any of our most
\ celebrated Beauties. In this Scale, I would set
the highest Excellence in Color, at Ten ; in Shape,
at Twenty; in Expression, at Thirty; and in
Grace, at Forty. So that the greatest Excellence
of Beauty, at the highest Reckoning in each Part
of it, would amount in all to One Hundred.
" There is probably no Instance of the highest
Excellence in all these Particulars, in any one
Person. They who run very high in some
Articles, are often as deficient in others. If I was
to state the Account, as to some particular Ladies,
who have been generally allowed to be very great
Beauties I should assign to Lady R. B *
Eight for Color, Four for Shape, Twenty-five for
Expression, and Ten for Grace; in all, Forty-
seven ; not quite half-way in the complete Sum of
Excellence:— To Mrs. A * * *, Eight for Color,
Seventeen for Shape, Fifteen for Expression, and
Twenty for Grace ; in all, Sixty Degrees of
Excellence :— And to Mrs. B * * *, Eight for
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 5!
Color, Ten for Shape, Twenty-five for Expression,
and Thirty for Grace ; in all, Seventy-three. And
that is the highest Sum that I could in Conscience
allow to any Woman that I have ever yet seen.
" Extreme Deformity should be rated, under
each Article, at the same Numbers as the highest
Excellence; and, in mixt Beauties, Deductions
should be made for them, in the same Manner as
the Additions are for the former. Thus, for
Example, Mrs. M * * *, for Color Six, Shape
Fifteen ; Expression Twenty, to be deducted ;
Grace Five ; which will reduce her other Degrees
of Excellence only to Six.
"Others would have no Share at all, in our
present Subject ; as falling, under each Article, to
to the Balance of Deformity. Thus Mrs. P * *,
bad Color Six, Shape ditto Four, Expression of
bad Passions Twenty-five, Ungracefulness Ten,
which together make Forty-five, all on the wrong
Side of the Question.
" I do not pretend, in all this, to have made
my Calculations exactly ; but rather to point out
to you, what might be done by such as are more
exact Judges of Beauty than I can pretend to be.
The best may be liable to some little false Byas or
other ; but if their Calculations did not answer in
every Point precisely to the Truth, they might at
least come very near it.
"These exact Judges indeed may not be so
52 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
frequently to be met with ; for Judgment, as well
as Beauty, is dealt out in very unequal Propor
tions to Mankind ; and a very great Excellence in
1 « either falls to the Lot of but a few. However,
I' good Judgment is the more common of the Two ;
and, I believe, People in general are more capable
of judging right of Beauty (at least, in some Parts
of it) than they are of most other Things.
"Yet there are a great many Causes apt to
mislead the Generality in their Judgments of
Beauty ; and I shall beg leave to enumerate some
of them.
" If Affection is entirely engaged by any one
Object, a Man is apt to allow all Perfections to
that Person ; and very little, in comparison, to
any body else ; or, if they commend others highly,
1 it is for some Circumstance in which they bear
x some Resemblance to their favourite Object.
People are often misled in their Judgments, by
a Similitude either of their own Temper, or
Personage, in others. It is hence, that a Person
of a mild Temper is more apt to be pleased with
the gentler Passions in the Face of his Mistress ;
and one of a very lively Turn would choose more
of Spirit and Vivacity in his ; that little People
are inclined to prefer pretty Women, and larger
People majestic ones; and so on, in a great
Variety of Instances. This may be called falling
in Love with ourselves, at Second-hand ; and Self-
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 53
love (whatever other Love may be) is sometimes
so false-sighted, that it may make the most plain,
and even the most disagreeable Things seem
beautiful and pleasing.
" I remember, at the Tryal of the Scotch Lords
a few Years ago in Westminster-hall,* a Pair of
apish Lovers, that sat by each other ; and gave no
small Diversion to a good Part of that large
Company, before the Lords made their Appear
ance. They were perpetually turning their Heads
toward each other, a good deal in the same
Manner, and at the same Time ; smiled together,
grinned together, and laughed out together. All
their Actions were pleasing to each other, though
so very displeasing to every body else.
' ' Sometimes an Idea of Usefulness_may give a
Turn to our Ideas of Beauty ; as the very same
Things are reckoned Beauties in a Coach-horse,
which would be so many Blemishes in a Race
horse.
" I have often thought some Ladies a little too
unguarded, as to this Particular. They seem to
have the Polyphemus Idea of Beauty ;f and talk
* In 1745, after the Rebellion.
•f* When Ulysses, after having put out that Clyclops'
Eye, tells him his real Name and Character, the
Monster makes the following Exclamation :
Oh Heav'ns ! Oh Faith of ancient Prophecies '
Thi« Telemrts Eurymides foretold : —
54 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
as if it was a Maxim absolutely established in
their Breasts, that nothing can be beautiful, unless,
it has some ^^rQach_tojhe_Giganti[c. 'Such a
Mln7~says Mrs. D * * *, ' is really a pretty
Fellow, though so little;' without considering,
that he could not be so pretty, if he was larger.
And then is she for ever crying up her chief
Favourite, Mr. E * * *, with that very bad Face,
and those very bad Passions which generally
appear in it, only because his Shoulders spread a
good deal wider than they ought to do.
" But the greatest and most general Misleader
of our Judgments, in relation to Beauty, is
j^ustom^or the different national Tastes for Beauty;
which turn chiefly on the Two lower Parts of it,
Color and Form.
"It was from the most common Shape of his
Countreywomen that Rubens, in his Pictures,
delights so much in Plumpness ; not to give it a
worse Name. Whenever he has to represent the
most beautiful Women, he is sure to give them a
good Share of Corpulence. It seems as if nobody
Long since he menac'd, such was Heav'ns Command;
And nam'd Ulysses as the destin'd Hand.
I deem'd some godlike Giant to behold ;
Or lofty Hero ; haughty, brave, and bold :
Not this weak pygmy Wretch. —
Homer's OS. X. 508-16. — Pope's Translation,
B. ix. verse 603.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 55
could be a Beauty with him, under Two Hundred
Weight. His very Graces are all fat.
4 ' 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
Countreymen (who was a particularly handsome
Man), in his travelling over the Alps, was detained
by a Fever in one of those Villages, where every
grown Person has that Sort of Swellings in the
Neck, which they call Goitres ; and of which I
have seen some 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 so good a Figure, and so well drest, 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
Goitre T*
"In some 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, possibly, at first, be introduced
* In words now historic, we may style this, " a
thumping lie."
56 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
among them to make them less afraid of Wounds
in that Part in Battle ; but, however that was, it
grew at last to have so great a Share in their Idea
of Beauty, that they now cut and slash the Faces
of their poor little Infants, in order to give them
those Graces when they are grown up, which are
so necessary to win the Hearts of their Mistresses ;
and which, with the Assistance of some Jewels,
or Ingots of Gold, in their Noses, Ears, and Lips,
must certainly be irresistible to the Ladies of that
Country.
"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 necessary
to render a Fine Lady's Face completely beauti
ful, as these Scars are for the Beaux in Africa.
'"Tis really surprizing, that there should be so
wide a Difference in the Tastes 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 j
as, for Instance, in this good County of Surrey, in
particular.
" The first Time I saw 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
high-coloured full-blown Peonies in a Garden.
"The Two prettiest Women I have ever seen,
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 57
are the Duchess of B * * *, in France, and Mrs.
A * * *, in England ; and the very Reason why
I should give the Preference to the latter of the
Two is, that the former is obliged, by the Fashion
of the Country where she lives, to heighten the
Color of the Roses which Nature had scattered
over her Cheeks, into one great Mass of Vermilion.
" Were a Frenchman, on his first Coming over
hither, so see a Sett of our greatest Beauties all
in a Row, he might, probably, think them like a
Bed of Lilies ; or, at least, like a Border of light-
coloured Pinks.
" In fact, when the Count de Grammont was
in England in King Charles the Second's Time,
when the Court was so gay, and so particularly
well furnished with Beauties ; he said, ' That the
English Ladies were particularly handsome ; but
that it was a great Pity that they were all so pale.'"
"The natural Complexion of the Italian Ladies
is of a higherjGlow than ours usually are ; and
very just, in making a
Niim z3zancS[{ ~the Ladies of the same Country,
' Pale, unripened Beauties.'*
* The glowing Dames of Zama's royal Court
Have Faces flusht with more exalted Charms ;
The Sun, that rolls his Chariot o'er their Heads,
Works up more Fire and Color in their Cheeks :
Were you with these, my Prince, you'd soon forget
The pale, unripen'd, Beauties of the North!
Syphax, to Juba ; in Gate. Act i. Scene 4.
58 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
" The Prince of Annamaboo, who had been so
long, and latterly so much used to the European
Complexion, yet said, a little before he left
London ; « That Miss C * * * would be the most
charming Woman in the World, if she was but a
Negro. '
"I remember to have read, in an Account of
some of the farthest travels that any of our People
have made up the River Gambia ; that when they
came to some Villages, where, probably, no
Europeans had ever been before, the Women
ran frightened and screaming from them ; taking
them to be Devils, merely on Account of the
WThiteness of their Complexion.
" I cannot help observing to you, that Heaven
is very good and merciful to Mankind even in
making us capable of all this Variety of Mistakes.
If every Person judged exactly right of Beauty,
every Man that was in Love in such a District,
would be in Love with the same Woman. Only
consider of what fatal Consequence that must be,
in any City or Town that you are best acquainted
with. The acknowledged Fair one, in the same
Manner, could choose out but one happy Man for
her Favourite, in all her Town of Lovers ; and all
the rest must be left in a State of Despair. This
(as bad as it would be) is only the best Side of the
Case, and supposing every thing to be carried on
with a Patience and Tranquillity, which would
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 59
then be almost impossible; for, in Truth, if the
Affections of all centred on the same Object,
nothing but perpetual Quarrels and Mischiefs
would be to be apprehended. The superior
Beauty of each Hamlet would be the Object
the Hate and Malice of all the rest of her own
Sex in it; and the Cause of Dissension and
Murders among all of the other. If this would
hold in one Town, it would hold, for the same
Reasons, in every other Town or District ; and of
Course, there would be nothing more wanting
than this universal right Judgment of Beauty, to
render the whole World one continued Scene of
Blood and Misery.
" Butnowtha^Fancy has^erhaps, _ morejp do
with Beauty,, than Judgment, there is an Infinity
of Tastes, and consequently an Infinity of Beauty;
for, to the Mind of the Lover, supposed Beauty
is full as good as real. Every body may now
choose out what happens to hit his own Turn and
Cast. The honest Rustic can think himself happy
in his Woman of a good strong Make, and Sun
burnt frowsy Complexion; the fine Gentleman
may be blest in his Coquette ; the common soldier
can delight himself with his Gin-drinking Trull ;
and the Captain with his military Mistress.
"This increases the Extent of Beauty vastly,
and makes it in a Manner universal ; for there
are but few People, in comparison, that are truly
60 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
beautiful ; but_every body jr>ayj>e beautiful in the
Imagination of some one or othen 3£s~ I have"
said before, some may delight themselves in a
black Skin, and others in a white ; some in a
gentle natural Rosiness of Complexion, others in
a high, exalted, artificial Red ; some Nations, in
Waists disproportionably large ; and another in
Waists as disproportionably small. In short, the
most opposite Things imaginable may each be
looked upon as beautiful, in whole different Coun
tries ; or by different People, in the same Country.
" I should be apt to make a Distinction here
again, as to the Two former Parts of Beauty, and
the Two latter. Fancyjias much rnojrej:o^lp jin
the Articles_i£J^m^jad^XIoJoj^than in those of
Passions and Grace. The good Passions, as they
are visible on the Face, are apparent Goodness,
and that must be generally amiable ; and true
Grace, wherever it appears to any Degree, I
should think, must be pleasing to every human
Creature ; or, perhaps, this may never appear in
the Women of any Nation, where the Men are
grown so savage and brutal, as to have lost all
Taste for it.
"Yet, even as to Grace itself, under the Notion
of Pleasingness (as I was just now calling it), it
may become almost universal ; and be as subject
to the Dominion of Fancy, as any of the less
significant Parts of Beauty. A Parent can see
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 61
Genteelness, in the most aukward Child, perhaps,
that ever was born ; and a Person who is truly in
Love, will be pleased with every Motion and Air
of the Person beloved ; which is the most
distinguishing Character that belongs to Grace.
'Tis true, this is all a mistaken Grace ; but, as to j
that particular Person, it has all the Effects of the/
true. (
"Since I have spoken of this Extent and
Universality of supposed Beauty, it would be very
ungrateful not to say something of the real Beauty
of the other Works of Nature ; which seem to
reach everywhere, as far as we are acquainted with
them ; and to meet us, which-ever Way we turn
our Eyes.
4 ' If we look upon the Earth, we see it laid out
in a Thousand beautiful Inequalities, and a Pleas
ing Variety of Plains, Hills, and Mountains ;
generally cloathed by Nature in a living £reen>
the Color that is the most delightful and the most
refreshing to the Eye ;
different Lights and Shades : adorned with
various 15orts of " Trees, ^Fruits, and Flowers ;
interspersed often with winding Rivers, or limpid
Streams, or spreading Lakes ; or terminating,
perhaps, on a View of the Sea, which is for ever
changing its Form, and in every Form is pleasing.
" If we look up to the Heavens, how charming
are the Rising of the Sun, the gentle Azure of the
62 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
noble Arch expanded over our Heads, the various
Appearance and Colors of the Clouds, the fleeting
Shower, and the pointed Bow ! Even in the
Absence of its great Enlivener, the Sun, we see it
all studded with living Lights, or gilded by the
more solemn Beauties of the Moon ; most pleasin g
in her infant Shape, and most majestic when in
her full Orb. I know not how it may be with
others, but to me the very LjgJhtningSJire pleasing,
wjjen StruggUng__amidst the shaded,. £lo»4*J-
and those Fires that dart and ~waver upwards,
sometimes in various Colors, and sometimes with
Streams of gentle Light, not unlike the Break of
Day, on the first Appearance of the Morning,
from whence they have their Name.
"If we turn toward the different Sorts of
Animals, it is observable enough among them,
that the Beauty which is designed chiefly to please
one another in their own Species, is so contrived
as to diffuse Pleasure to those of other Species, or
at least to Man. How beautiful, even to us, are
the Colors that adorn the Necks of the Pigeon
and Pheasant ; the Train of the Mackaw and
Peacock ; and the whole Dress of several Sorts of
Birds, more particularly in the Eastern Parts of
the World ? How neat and pleasing is the Make
of the Deer, the Greyhound, and several Sorts of
Horses ? How beautiful is the Expression of the
Passions, in a faithful Dog? And they are not
A DIALOGUE ON HKAUTY. 6 1
even without someDegrees of Grace ; as may be seen,
in particular in th^jiahjxaHtfoirons of a~ Chinese
„ Pheasant ; or the acquired ones, of a managed
Horse. And I the rather take Part of the Beauty
of all these Creatures to be meant, by the Bounty
of Nature, for us ; because most of the different
Sorts of Sea Fish (which live chiefly out of our
Sight) are of Colors and Forms more hideous, or
(at least) less agreeable to us.
" And as the Beauty of one Species of Animals
may be so designed and adapted, as to give
Pleasure to many others, so the Beauty of different
Worlds may not be confined to each, but be
carried on from one World to another, and from
one System of Worlds to another ; and may end
in one great universal Beauty, of all created
Matter, taken in one View. How far this may
hold, we are, as yet, incapable even of forming
any Guess ; but some late Discoveries have shewn,
that there is a surprising Symmetry and Proportion i.
in the Sizes and Disposition of the several Worlds U
in our own System ; from whence one would be
apt to imagine, that the same Beauty of Proportion
is kept up between the Worlds of other Systems ;
and possibly, even between one System and
another : At least, all that we know of these
Worlds, are exactly proportioned ; and all that
we see of them, is beautiful. Thus all such of
them as come within our View, make what we call
64 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
a fine starry Heaven; and as they compose that
beautiful Object to us, so does our System make a
Part in several of their Prospects ; and may be, in
the great Composition of the Universe, a little
single Stud in a noble Piece of Mosaic Work.
"And yet all the Profusion of Beauty I have
been speaking of, and even that of the whole
Universe taken together, is but of a weaker ||i
Nature in comparison of the Beauty of Virtue. [I
It was extremely well said by Plato, That if
Virtue was to appear in a visible Shape, all Men
would be enamoured of her : And it seems as if
the Greeks and Romans in general had had this
Idea of her Beauty, because the Goddess of Virtue,
and the Goddess of Wisdom (which was often
taken for one and the same Thing among them,
as well as in our Sacred Writings), were always
represented with the greatest and most com
manding Beauty. The same appears yet stronger
from their using the Words Good* and Beautiful
indifferently for each other ; as if all Beauty was
contained in Goodness.
"Indeed the Beauty of Virtue or Goodness
exceeds all other Beauty, as much as the Soul
does the Body.
"The highest Object of Beauty that we can
, TIpeTTor, Pulchrum, Honestum.
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 65
see is the Goodness of God, as displayed in the
Works of the Creation. In him all Goodness and
Beauty dwells ; and whatever there is of moral
Beauty in the whole Universe beside, is only as so
many Emanations from the divine Author of all
that is Good and Beautiful.
' ' We sometimes see a few feeble Rays of this
Beauty reflected in human Actions, but much
discoloured by the Medium through which they
pass ; and yet how charming do they even thus
appear in some Persons, and on some Occasions ?
All the Grandeur in the World is as nothing in
Comparison of any one of these good becoming
Deeds. How many more Charms are there, for
Instance, in the Actions of such an humble Person
as the Man of Ross, than in all the Victories of our
Edwards and our Harries ? or (to go further back*\
in History) how much more amiable is the Death ]
of Socrates, than the whole Life of Alexander the i
Great ? '
"As Virtue is the supreme Beauty, so is Vice
the most odious of all Deformities. I do not know
how to make this more evident to you by any
Instance, than by that of the different Conduct of
Two very celebrated Poets, Milton and Tasso, in
describing the falling Angels : Tasso's Devils are
chiefly made hideous by their Shape ; their Horns
and Tails are the principal Ingredients of Deform
ity in his Descriptions of them ; whereas Milton
06 A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY.
generally omits those little Particulars, and points
out the Deformity of their Minds ; their Pride,
Impiety, Malignity, and Obstinacy ; by which
Means his Devils are tenfold more Devils, and
more odious and horrible to the Reader, than
those of the Italian Poet.
"There is a mighty easy Consequence to be
drawn from this, which well deserves to be more
generally observed. If Virtue be the chief Beauty,
People, to be beautiful, should endeavour to be
virtuous ; and should avoid Vice, and all the
worst Sort of Passions, as they would fly Deform
ity. I wish the more beautiful half of the human
Creation, in particular, were thoroughly sensible
of this great Truth; 'That the readiest Way to
be beautiful is to be good; ' and such of them as
are more solicitous about choosing and adjusting
what they wear, and how that will appear, than
about forming their Minds, and regulating their
disagreeable Passions, will really fall under the
Censure I mentioned before, from one of the
Latin Poets; and shew too plainly to all the
World, that they, in their own Hearts, consider
their Dress as the better Part of themselves."
' T~ Must have quite tired you, I believe," added
-L Crito, rising ; "and should" be glad if you
would take a little walk to refresh us all after this
long Harangue." " It has been far from seeming
A DIALOGUE ON BEAUTY. 67
long to us" (replied Milesius, as they were all
going together out of the Tent) : " 'Tis a Subject
that can scarce ever be tiresome ; and your Manner
of treating it has, in general, been very pleasing ;
only I must say that, toward the Conclusion, it
began to grow a little too like a Sermon." " I
wish," says Timanthes, " that some Ladies of your
Acquaintance had been present at the whole
Discourse, and particularly at that Part of it ;
for I don't know whether it might not have done
them more Good, than any Sermon that they ever
were at in their Lives. However, as there were
no Ladies here, I wish Crito would give us, who
were of his Audience, Leave to beg he would be
so good as print it, for the Benefit of the Fair Sex
in general ; for, I dare say, it would be of good
Use to some of them." " I know not whether it
would be of any Use to them," replied Crito; "but
if you really thought so, and could recollect
enough of it to write it down, it is entirely at your
Service ; and you have my full Leave to send it to
the Press, as soon as you please."
ff i n i 0.
Printed by E. & G. Golds mid, Edinburgh.
3H
181
S6
1885
Spence, Joseph
Crito
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11