ANIMALS. 32V 



" Tlie graceful fall of the shoulders, both in man and woman, 

 constitute no small part of beauty. In apes, tiiougli otherwise 

 made like us, the shoulders are high, and drawn up on each 

 side towards the ears. In man they fall by a gentle declivity ; 

 and the more so, in proportion to the beauty of his form. In 

 fact, being high -shouldered, is not without reason considered as 

 a deformity, for we find very sickly persons are always so, and 

 people when dying are ever seen with their shoulders drawn up 

 in a surprising manner. The muscles that serve to raise the ribsj 

 mostly rise near the shoulders ; and the higher we raise the 



is gratified by the flavour of it ; afterwards the appetites of hunger and ov 

 thirst aflbrd pleasure by the possession of their objects, and by the subse. 

 quent digestion of the aliment; and lastly, the sense of touch is delighted by 

 the softness and smoothness of the milky fountain, the source of such variety 

 of happiness. All those various kinds of pleasure at length become associated 

 with the form of the mother's breast ; which the infant embraces with its 

 liands, presses with its lips, and watches with its eyes ; and thus acquires 

 mure accurate ideas of the form of its mother's bosom, than of the odour and 

 flavour, or warmth, which it perceives by other senses. And hence at our 

 maturer years, when any object of vision is represented to us, which by its 

 \vaving or spiral lines bears any similitude to the form of the female bosom, 

 whether it be found in a landscape, with soft gradations of rising and de- 

 scending surface, or in the form of some antique vases, or in other works of 

 the pencil or the chisel, we feel a general glow of delight, which seems to 

 influence all our senses ; and if the object be not too large, we experience au 

 attraction to embrace it with our arms, and salute it with our lips, as we did 

 in our early infancy the bosom of our mothers. And thus we find, accord- 

 ing to the ingenious idea of Hogarth, that the waving lines of beauty wcro 

 originally taken from the Temple of Venus. 



" If the wide eye the wavy lawns explores. 



The bending woodlands, or the winding shores, 



Hills, whose green sides with soft protuberance rise, 



Or the blue concave of the vaulted skies ; — 



Or scans with nicer gaze the pearly swell 



Of spiral volutes round the twisted shell : 



Or undulating sweep, whose graceful turns 



Bound the smooth surface of Etrurian urns. 



When on fine forms the waving lines impress 'd 



Give the nii^e curves, which swell the ftnialc breast ; 



The countless joys tjje tender mother prfcirs. 



Hound the soft cradle of our infant hours, 



In lively trains of une.xtinct delight 



Rise in our bosoms, recognized bt/ sight ; 



Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine, 



And Tasti; sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine."* • 



• 'J'eiiiple of Mature, pag:' iOI 



2e2 



