140 



A HISTORY OF 



\ve should find nothing more difficult to deter- 

 mine. Every country has its peculiar way of 

 thinking, in this respect; and even the same 

 country thinks differently at different times. 

 The ancients had a very different taste from 

 what prevails at present. The eye-brows 

 joining in the middle was considered as a very 

 peculiar grace by Tibullus, in the enumera- 

 tion of the charms of his mistress. Narrow 

 foreheads were approved of, and scarcely any 

 of the Roman ladies, that are celebrated for 

 their other perfections, but are also praised 

 for the redness of their hair. The nose also 

 of the Grecian Venus, was such as would ap- 

 pear at present an actual deformity ; as it fell 

 in a straight line from the forehead, without 

 the smallest sinking between the eyes; 

 without which we never see a face at 

 present. 



Among the moderns, every country seems 

 to have peculiar ideas of beauty." The Per- 

 sians admire large eye-brows, joining in the 

 middle; the edges and corners of the eyes 

 are tinctured with black, and the size of the 

 head is increased by a great variety of ban- 

 dages, formed into a turban. In some parts 

 of India, black teeth and white hair are desi- 

 red with ardour; and one of the principal 

 employments of the women of Thibet, is to 

 redden the teeth with herbs, and to make 

 their hair white by a certain preparation. 

 The passion for coloured teeth obtains also 

 in China and Japan ; where, to complete their 

 idea of beauty, the object of desire must have 

 little eyes, nearly closed, feet extremely small, 

 and a waist far from being shapely. There 



Buffon. 



are some nations of the American Indians that 

 flatten the heads of their children, by keeping 

 them, while young, squeezed between two 

 boards, so as to make the visage much larger 

 than it would naturally be. Others flatten 

 the head at top ; and others make it as round 

 as they possibly can. The inhabitants along 

 the western coasts of Africa have a very ex- 

 traordinary taste for beauty. A flat nose, 

 thick lips, and a jet black complexion, are 

 there the most indulgent gifts of Nature. Such, 

 indeed, they are all, in some degree, found to 

 possess. However, they take care, by art, to 

 increase the natural deformities, as they 

 should seem to us ; and they have many ad- 

 ditional methods of rendering their persons 

 stillmorefrightfully pleasing. Thewholebody 

 and visage is often scarred with a variety of 

 monstrous figures ; which is not done without 

 great pain, and repeated incision ; and even 

 sometimes parts of the body are cut away. 

 But it would be endless to remark the vari- 

 ous arts which caprice, or custom, has em- 

 ployed to distort and disfigure the body, in 

 order to render it more pleasing : in fact, 

 every nation, how barbarous soever, seems 

 unsatisfied with the human figure, as Nature 

 has left it, and has its peculiar arts of heigh- 

 tening beauty. Painting, powdering, cutting, 

 boring the nose and the ears, lengthening the 

 one and depressing the other, are arts prac- 

 tised in many countries ; and, in some degree, 

 admired in all. These arts might have been 

 at first introduced to hide epidemic deformi- 

 ties : custom, by degrees, reconciles them to 

 the view ; till, from looking upon them with 

 indifference, the eye at length begins to gaze 

 with pleasure. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



OF THE AGE OF MANHOOD." 



THE human body attains to its full height 

 during the age of puberty ; or, at least, a short 

 time after. Some young people are found to 

 cease growing at fourteen or fifteen ; others 

 continue their growth till two or three and 

 twenty. During this period they are all of 



b This chapter is translated from Mr. Buffon, whose de- 

 scription is very excellent. Whatever I have ndded. is 



a slender make ; their thighs and legs small, 

 and the muscular parts are yet unfilled. But, 

 by degrees, the fleshy fibres augment; the 

 muscles swell, and assume their figure ; the 

 limbs become proportioned, and rounder; 

 and before the age of thirty, the body in men 



marked by inverted commas, " thus." And in whatever 

 trifling points I have differed, the notpi will >-v* .t-~ 



