PHYSIOGNOMIC CURIOSITIES. 825 



good table. But the difference in national standards of beauty is still 

 more astounding. We know that Dr. Fowler's lectures made high 

 foreheads so fashionable that New England exquisites spared no pains 

 to promote their rapid development not even those involved in the 

 removal of a handful of hair ; but the perfumed dandies of ancient 

 Rome and Syracuse were just as anxious to cultivate a frons parva et 

 angusta, which Ovid enumerates among the emblems of perfect beauty. 

 Propertius, too, speaks of the frons brevis, the short forehead of a 

 comely individual, and we are informed by Aristophanes that the la- 

 dies of Athens encircled their heads with a black ribbon, so as to make 

 the forehead appear more narrow. " Monstrum in fronte, monstrum 

 in animo" was a Latin proverb which certain political adversaries 

 applied to the enormous forehead of the Dean of St. Patrick. 



Galen informs us that "a great belly betrays a vulgar mind," 

 while among the Turks beauty is chiefly a question of avoirdupois ; 

 and the Esquimaux, according to the Rev. Hansen, value abdominal 

 prominence as the acme of manly dignity. Torngac, the old man of 

 the sea, the hyperborean Jupiter, they think, will be distinguished 

 among all the heroes and minor deities of his suite by his conspicuous 

 belly and his prominent cheeks. Yankee Doodle seems rather to in- 

 cline to Galen's opinion, though we have fat men's associations, and 

 German communities where a jolly paunch is a potent element of popu- 

 larity. The Gaelic mountaineers of the last century thought corpu- 

 lence disgraceful ; and Byron, according to his best biographer, was 

 ultra-Scotch in this respect. "He resolved to keep down to eleven 

 stone or shoot himself," says Captain Trelawney. " I remember one 

 of his old acquaintances saying, ' Byron, how well you are looking ! ' 

 If he had stopped there it had been well, but, when he added, ' You 

 are getting fat,' Byron's brow reddened and his eyes flashed. * Do 

 you call getting fat looking well, as if I were a hog ? ' and turning 

 to me, he muttered : * The beast ! I can hardly keep my hands off 

 him ! ' " 



The Esquimaux, as well as the Chinese and Calmucks, are shocked 

 at the appearance of our noses ; the latter speak of a proboscis or peli- 

 can's bill, if they wish to refer to the nasal organ of an Englishman, 

 and admire the delicacy of their own stumps. But in mediaeval France 

 more than one gifted plebeian found a nez retrousse an obstacle to offi- 

 cial advancement, and the preux chevalier valued a vigorous hook as 

 one of his primary insignia nobilitatis. Montaigne, however, ridicules 

 this taste, and suggests that a receipt for elongating noses by artificial 

 means would make the fortune of the inventor : " Quel bonlieur de 

 naitre avec un pied de nez ! " 



We may realize the feelings of a Calmuck mother, who, shocked 

 at the abnormal prominence of her offspring's nose, endeavors to im- 

 prove his looks by flattening the offensive feature ; but it is rather 

 difficult to understand the taste of a lady who commences her toilet by 



