226 



chosen to imitate the Ethiopian character of 

 hair ; though according to the French term 

 for such a head-dress, the immediate object 

 of imitation was the head of a sheep : but 

 the Ethiopian ladies could not take their re- 

 venge ; they have no tresses which they can 

 either spread loosely on their shoulders, or 

 tye up and arrange in numberless graceful 

 and becoming forms. 



I flatter myself, that from what has been 

 said of the characteristic differences between 

 the Ethiopians and the Europeans, it will- 

 appear, that the preference which we give 

 to the form and colour of the latter, is not 

 merely the effect of habit and prejudice; but 

 that it is founded on the best grounds that 

 can be had in such cases, — on the manifest 

 analogy which subsists between those forms 

 and colours, and such as are acknowledged 

 to be beautiful in every other part of nature ; 

 and, likewise, on that very just principle, 

 that the most beautiful forms are those 

 which lie between the extremes, whether of 

 thickness and thinness, flatness and' sharp- 

 ness, or whatever those extremes may be. 



