On the Beautiful in the Grecian Statues, 423 
This attention’ to the useful, and a fitness for 
the part which each is intended to act in the plan 
of their Creator, is strikingly witnessed in the idea 
which every one entertains of what is beautiful 
in the form of each of the two sexes of the human 
race. No one conceives the beautiful in the 
man to be exactly transferable to the beautiful 
in the woman, and if the most perfect beauty of 
the female were found in a male, the eye would 
be disgusted ; that male would be the object of 
scorn or ridicule, not of approbation. 
Perhaps the mere abstract idea of beautiful 
form, independant of every other consideration, 
would pronounce the gentler undulations of the 
masculine outline to be more conformed to its 
standard, than the richer swell and deeper falls 
of the female figure. Yet in despite of this - 
abstract judgment, the most perfect masculine 
figure, if contemplated in a female, would not 
be considered as beautiful. 
The same submission to the useful, or to what 
we presume to be useful, because it is according 
to the order of nature, is observed in the estima- 
tion of beauty, as it is referred to the different 
periods of human life. There is a different 
beauty in infancy, in boy-hood, in youth; in 
manhood, and in age. The child in the arms 
of the Madonna, and John attracting the notice 
of his infant cousin by his playful admiration, 
VOLG*, fe) 
