The most peculiar circumstance in what 

 we call Grecian beauty, is the strait line of 

 the nose and forehead ; which is thought to 

 be almost as characteristic of the Grecian 

 face, as the flat nose is of the Ethiopian. 

 This certainly is very unfavourable to the 

 doctrine of waving lines, and gradual varia- 

 tion ; for although it might plausibly be 

 said, that one such strait line has a pleasing, 

 as well as a striking effect, when contrasted 

 with the number of flowing lines of which 

 the human face is composed, still, however, 

 in so very principal a feature as the nose, it 

 must be owned that the contrast is of too 

 sudden and marked a kind, to accord with 

 Mr. Burke's system. But, on the other 

 hand, how very strong an argument will it 

 be in favour of that system, if it should ap- 

 pear, that in some of the most exquisite 

 pieces of Grecian art, in which beauty, in 

 its strictest sense, has been the chief object 

 of the artist, the line of the nose and fore- 

 head has just that degree of gradual varia- 

 tion, which seems in perfect harmony with 



