8 3 3 beauty. 
fed; rifing gently, and very diftin&ly feparated; in one 
word, juft like thole of Venus of Medicis. The Tides fliould 
be long, and the hips wider than the Ihoulders; and fliould 
turn off as they do in the fame Venus; and go down round¬ 
ing and leffening gradually to the knee. The knee fliould 
be even, and well rounded; the legs ftraight, but varied 
by a proper rounding of the more flefhy part, and the feet 
finely turned, white, and little. Thefe conftituent parts 
of beauty may be ftudied in the fined pidl ures and ftatues; 
for in life we commonly fee but a fmall part of the human 
body, moft of it being either difguifed or altered by what 
we call drefs. 
3. ExpreJ/ion. By this is meant the expreflion of the 
paffions ; the turns and changes of the mind, fo far as they 
are vifible to the eye by our looks .or geftures. Though 
the mind appears principally in the face and attitudes of 
the head ; yet almoft every part of the human body, on 
Tome occaflon or other, may become expreflive. Thus, 
the languifliing hanging of the arm, or the vehement ex¬ 
ertion of it; the pain expreffed by the fingers of one of 
the Tons in the famous group of Laocoon, and in the toes 
of the dying gladiator. But this again is often loft among 
11s by our drels; and indeed is of the lefs concern, beca'ufe 
the expreflion of the paffions paffes chiefly in the face, 
which we (by good luck) have not as yet concealed. 
The parts of the face in which the patlions are moft 
ftrongly expreffed, are the eyes and mouth ; but from the 
eyes they diffufe themfelves very forcibly about the eye¬ 
brows ; as, in the other cafe, they appear often in the parts 
all round the mouth. Philofophers may difpute as much 
as they pleafe about the feat of the foul; but, wherever 
it refides, we are fure that it fpeaks in the eyes. Perhaps 
it is injuring the eye-brows, to make them only dependents 
on the eye ; for they, efpecially in lively faces, have, as it 
were, a language of their own ; and are extremely varied, 
according to the different fentiments and paffions of the 
mind. Homer makes the eye-brows the feat of majefty, 
Virgil of dejection, Horace of-modefty, and Juvenal of 
pride ; and it is not certain whether every one of the paf¬ 
fions be not affigned, by one or other of the poets, to the 
fame part. 
We may fay, in general, that all the tender and kind 
paffions add to beauty; and all the cruel and unkind ones 
'add to deformity : and it is on this account that good na¬ 
ture may very juftly be faid to be “ the beft feature even 
in the fineft face.” Pope has included the principal palfion 
of each fort in two very pretty lines: 
Love, hope, and joy, fair pleafure’s finding train ; 
Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain. 
The former of which naturally give an additional luftre 
and enlivening to beauty ; as the latter are too apt to fling 
a gloom and cloud over it. Yet in thefe, and all the other 
paffions, moderation ought perhaps to be confidered in a 
great meafure the rule of their beauty, almoft as far as 
moderation in actions is the rule of virtue. Thus an ex- 
ceffive joy may be too boifterous in the face to be pleafing ; 
and a degree of grief in fome faces, and on fome occafions, 
may be extremely beautiful. Some degrees of anger, 
ftiame, furprife, fear, and concern, are beautiful; but all 
excefs is deformity. Dulnefs, aufterity, impudence, pride, 
affectation, malice, and envy, are always diigufting. 
The fineft union of paffions that can perhaps be obfer- 
ved in any face, confifts of a juft mixture of modefty, fen- 
fibility, and fweetnefs; each of which when taken fingly 
is very pleafing : but when they are all blended together, 
in fuch a manner as either to enliven or correCt each other, 
they give almoft as much attraction as the paffions are ca¬ 
pable of adding to a very pretty face. The prevailing 
palfion in the Venus of Medicis is modefty: it is expreffed 
by each of her hands, in her looks, and in the turn of her 
head. And it may bequeftioned, whether one of the chief 
reafons why fide-faces pleafe more than full ones, be not 
from the former having more of the air of modefty than 
the latter. This at leaft js certain, that the beft artifts 
ufually choofe to give a fide-face rather than a full one ; 
in which attitude, the turn of the neck too has more beau¬ 
ty, and the paffions more activity and force. Thus, as to 
hatred and affeCtion in particular, the look that was for¬ 
merly fuppofed to carry an infection with it from malig¬ 
nant eyes, was a flanting regard ; like that which Milton 
gives to Satan, when he is viewing the happinefs of our 
firft parents in Paradife ; and the fafcination, or ftroke of 
love, is moft ufually conveyed, at firft, in a fide-glance. 
It is owing to the great force of equanimity which attends 
all the kinder paffions, “ that lovers do not only feem, but 
are really, more beautiful to each other than they are to 
the reft of the world;” becaufe, when they are together, 
the moft pleafing paffions are more frequently exerted in 
each of their faces than they are in either before the reft 
of the world. There is then, as a certain French writer 
well expreffes it, “a foul upon their countenances,” which 
does not appear when they are abfent from each other; 
or even when they are together conceding with other per- 
fons, that are indifferent to them, or lay a reftraint upon 
their minds. Upon the whole, it may be laid down as an 
axiom, that the chief rule of the beauty of the paffions 
is moderation ; and that the part in which they appear moft 
ftrongly is the eyes. It is there that love holds ail his ten¬ 
dered language : it is there that virtue commands, modefty 
charms, joy enlivens, forrow engages, and inclination fires 
the hearts of the beholders : it is there that even fear, and 
anger, and confufion, can be charming. But all thefe, 
to be charming, mull be kept within their due bounds and 
limits; for, too fullen an appearance of virtue, a violent 
fwell of palfion, a ruftic and overwhelming modefty, a 
deep fadnefs, or too wild and impetuous a joy, become 
all either opprefiive or difagreeable. 
4. Grace, the finifhing and nobleft part of beauty, which 
every body is accuftomed to fpeak of as a thing inexpli¬ 
cable; and in a great meafure perhaps it is fo. We know 
that the foul is, but we fcarcely know what it is : every 
judge of beauty can point out grace; but no one feems 
even yet to have fixed upon its definition. Grace often 
depends on fome very little incidents in a fine face; and 
in aCtions it confifts more in the manner of doing things 
than in the things themfelves. It is perpetually varying 
its appearance, and is therefore much more difficult to be 
confidered than in any thing fixed and fteady. While we 
look upon the objeCt, it fteals from under the eye of the 
obferver; and is fucceeded perhaps by another that flits 
away as foon, and as imperceptibly. It is on this account 
that grace is better to be ftudied in Corregio’s, Guido's, 
and Raphael’s, pictures, than in real life. But, though we 
cannot precifely fay what grace is, we may neverthelefs 
point out the parts and things in which it is moft apt to ap¬ 
pear. The chief dwelling-place of grace is about the 
mouth ; though at times it may vifit every limb or part of 
the body. But the mouth is the chief feat of grace, as 
much as the chief feat for the beauty of the paffions is in 
the eyes. Thus, when the French ufe the expreflion of 
ane Louche fort gracicufe, they mean it properly of grace: 
but, when they fay desyeux tresgracieux, it then falls to the 
fhare of the paffions; and it means kind or favourable. In 
a very graceful countenance, by which we do not fo much 
mean a majeftic as a foft and pleafing one, there is now and 
then a certain deliciotifnefs that almoft always lives about 
the mouth, in fomething not enough to be called a fmile, 
though an approach towards one, which varies gently about 
the different lines, and perhaps fometimes difcovers a lit¬ 
tle dimple, that, after juft forming, difappears and appears 
again by fits. 
The grace of attitudes may belong to the polition of 
each part, as well as to the carriage or difpofition of the 
whole body: but how much more it belongs to the head 
than to any other part may be feen in the pieces of the 
moft celebrated painters; and particularly in tliofe of Gui¬ 
do, who has been rather too luviih in bellowing this beau¬ 
ty on almoft all his fine women ; whereas nature has given 
it in fo high a degree but to very few. The turns of the 
neck 
