AMM.M.S. 320 



neio imicli longer than tlu; extremities of tbfi fingers, they would 

 rutlier be prejudieial tbaii serviceable, and obstruct the manage- 

 ment of the hand. Such savages as let them grow long mak.t= 

 u>(i of tliem in llajdng animals, in tearing their flesh, and such 

 like purposes ; however, though their nails are considerably 

 larger than ours, they are by no means to be compared to the 

 hoofs or the claws of other animals. " They may sometimes be 

 seen longer, indeed, than the claws of any animal whatsoever ; 

 as we learn that the nails of some of the learned men in China 

 are longer than their fingers. But these want that solidity which 

 might give force to their exertions, and could never, in a state 

 ot nature, have served them for annoyance or defence." 



There is little known exactly with regard to the proportion of 

 tiie human figure; and the beauty of the best statues is better 

 conceived by observing than by measuring them. The statiics 

 of antiquity, which were at first copied after tlie human form, 

 are now become the models of it ; nor is there one man found 

 whose person approaches to those inimitab'e performances tliat 

 liave thus, in one figure, united the perfections of many. It is 

 sufficient to say, that from being at first models, tliey are now 

 become originals ; and are used to correct the deviations in that 

 form from whence they were taken. I will not, ho^vever, pre- 

 tend to give the proportions of the human body as taken f)om 

 lliese, there being nothing more arbitrary, and which good paint- 

 ers 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 different parts of the 

 biidy. Thus, that the hand is the Icigth of the face ; the thumb 

 the length of the nose ; the space between the eyes is the breadtl 

 i;f an eye ; that the breadth of the thigh, at thickest, is double 

 that of tlie 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 figure. i\ll tiii.s, 

 however, is extremely arbitrary ; and the excellence of a shajjc, 

 or tlie beauty of a statue, results from the attitude and jjositioi; 

 ()(' the whole, rather than any established mefisurements, begun 

 w ilhout experience, and adopted by caprice. In general, it may 

 be reinark'jd, that the pr()))ortions alter in every age, and am 

 o!iv)uu;.ly ■ 'jfiercnt in the two sexes. In wonieii, the shoulder-* 



2 K 3 



