ANIMALS. 433 



human body as taken from these, there being 

 nothing more arbitrary, and which good pain- 

 ters themselves so much contemn. Some, for 

 instance, who have studied after these, divide 

 the body into ten times the length of the face, 

 and others into eight. Some pretend to tell us, 

 that there is a similitude of proportion in diffe- 

 rent parts of the body. Thus, that the hand is 

 the length of the face ; the thumb the length 

 of the nose ; the space between the eyes is the 

 breadth of an eye ; that the breadth of the thigh, 

 at thickest, is double that of the thickest part of 

 the leg, and treble the smallest ; that the arms 

 extended, are as long as the figure is high ; that 

 the legs and thighs are half the length of the fi- 

 gure. All this, however, is extremely arbitrary ; 

 and the excellence of a shape, or the beauty of a 

 statue, results from the attitude and position of 

 the whole, rather than any established measure- 

 ments, begun without experience, and adopted 

 by caprice. In general, it may be remarked, 

 that the proportions alter in every age, and are 

 obviously different in the two sexes. In women, 

 the shoulders are narrower, and the neck propor- 

 tionably longer than in men. The hips also are 

 considerably larger, and the thighs much shorter 

 than in men. These proportions, however, vary 

 greatly at different ages. In infancy, the upper 

 parts of the body are much larger than the lower ; 

 the legs and thighs do not constitute any thing 

 like half the height of the whole figure : in pro- 

 portion as the child increases in age, the inferior 

 parts are found to lengthen ; so that the body is 



VOL. I. EC 



