B E A 
neck are extremely capable of "race, and are very eafy to 
be obferved, though very difficult to be accounted for. 
How much of this grace may belong to the arms and feet, 
as well as to the neck, and head, may be l'een in dancing. 
But it is not only in genteel motions that a very pretty 
woman will be graceful ; and Ovid (who.was lo great a 
mailer in all the parts of beauty) had very good reafon for 
faying, That when Venus, to pleafe her gallant, imitated 
the hobblfog gait of Iter hufband, her very lamenefs had 
a great deal of prettinefs and grace in it. “ Every motion 
of a graceful woman (fays another writer ot tire fame age) 
is full of grace.” She defigns nothing by it - perhaps, and 
may even not be fenfible of it herfelf : and indeed fhe 
fhould not be fo too much ; for the moment that any gel- 
ture or action appears to be affedted, it ceafes to be grace¬ 
ful. Horace and Virgil feem to extend grace fo far as to 
the flowing of the hair, and Tibullus even to the drels of 
his miftrefs ; but then he affigns it more to her manner of 
putting on and appearing in whatever ffie wears than to 
the drefs itfelf. It is true, there is another wicked poet, 
who has faid (with much lefs decency) “ that drefs is the 
better half of the woman 
■-Pars minima eft ipfa puella fui. Ovid. 
There are two very diftindl (and, as it were, oppofite) 
forts of grace ; the majeftic and the familiar. The former 
belongs chiefly to the very fine women, and the latter to 
the very pretty ones : that is more commanding, and this 
the more delightful and engaging. The Grecian painters 
and fculptcrs ufed to exprefs the former mod flrongly in 
the looks and attitudes of their Minervas, and the latter 
in thole of Venus. Xenophon, in his Choice of Hercules 
(or at lead the excellent tranflator of that piece), has made 
juft the fame diftinHion in the perfonages of Wildorn and 
Pleafure ; the former of w hich lie defcribes as moving on 
to that young hero with the majeftic fort of grace ; and 
the latter with the familiar : 
Graceful, yet each with different grace they move ; 
1 his linking facred awe, that fofter winning love. 
No poet feems to have underftood this part of beauty 
better than Milton. He fpeaks of thefe two forts of. grace 
very diftindlly ; and gives the majeftic to Adam, and the 
familiar to Eve : 
For contemplation he, and valour, form’d ; 
For foftnefs fhe, and l'weet attractive grace. B. iv. 298. 
Though grace is fo difficult to be accounted for in gene¬ 
ral, yet there are two particular things which feem to hold 
nniverfally in relation to it. The firft is, “ That there is 
no grace without motion that is, without fome eafy or 
pleafing movement, either of the whole body or of fome 
limb, or at leaft of fome feature. And it may be hence 
that lord Bacon calls grace by the name of decent motion ; 
juft as if they were equivalent terms : “ In beauty, that of 
favour is more than that of colour ; and that of gracious 
and decent motion, more than that of favour.” The fe- 
cond obfervation is, “ That there can be no grace with 
impropriety;” or, in other words, that nothing can be 
graceful that is not adapted to the character of the perfon. 
The graces of a little lively beauty would become ungrace¬ 
ful in a character of majefty ; as the majeftic airs of an 
emprefs would quite deftroy the prettinefs of the former. 
The vivacity that adds a grace to beauty in youth Would 
give an additional deformity to old age ; and the very 
fame airs which would be charming on fome occafions may 
be quite (hocking when extremely mifplaced. Whatever 
are the caufes of it, this is certain, that grace is the chief 
of all the conftituent parts of beauty ; and fo much fo, 
that it feems to be the only one which is abfolutely and 
nniverfally admired : all the reft being only relative. One 
may love a little woman, and another a large one, beft ; 
a perfon of a mild temper will be fond of the gentler paf¬ 
fions in the face, and one of a bolder call may choofe to 
have more vivacity and more vigorous paffions expreffed 
there ; but grace is found in few, and is pleafing to all. 
u T Y. 839 
Grace, like poetry, muft be born with a perfon, and is 
never wholly to be acquired by art. The mod celebrated 
of all the ancient painters was Apelles ; and the moll ce¬ 
lebrated of all the modern Raphael: and it is remarkable, 
that the diftinguifhing character of each of them was grace. 
Indeed, that alone gave them fo high a pre-eminence over 
all their competitors. 
Although people in general are more capable of judging 
right of beauty, than they are of mod other things ; yet 
there are a great many caufes apt to miflead the generality 
in their judgments of it. Thus, if the affeCfion is entirely 
engaged by any one objeCt, a man is apt to allow all per¬ 
fections to that perlon, and very little in comparifon to any 
body elfe ; or, if -they ever commend others highly, it is 
for fome circumftance in which they bear fome refemblance 
to their favourite objeCt. Again, people are very often 
milled in their judgments, by a fimilitude either of their 
own temper or perfonage in others. It is hence that a 1 
perfon of a mild temper is more apt to be pleafed with 
the gentler paffions in the face of his miftrefs ; and one of 
a very lively turn would choofe more of fpirit and vivacity 
in his; that little people are inclined to prefer pretty wo¬ 
men, and larger people majeftic ones; and fo on in a great 
variety of inftances. This may be called falling in love 
with ourfelves at fccond hand ; and felf-love (whatever 
other love may be) is fometimes fp falfe-fighted, that it may 
make the molt plain and even the nioft difagreeable things 
feem beautiful and pleafing. Sometimes an idea of ufeful- 
nefs may give a turn to our ideas of beauty ; as the very 
fame things are reckoned beauties in a coach-horfe which 
would be fo many blemiffies in a race-horfe. But the 
greateft and mod general mifleader of our judgments, in 
relation to beauty, is cuftom, or the different national takes 
for beauty, which turn chiefly on the two lower parts of 
it, colour and form. It was from the mod common fhape 
of his country-women, that Rubens, in his pictures, de¬ 
lights fo much in plumpnefs; not to give it a worfe name. 
Whenever he was to reprefent the mod beautiful women, 
he was fure to give them a good ftiare of corpulence. His 
very graces are all fat. But this may go much farther 
than mere bulk; it will reach even to very great deformities; 
which fometimes grow into beauties, where they are habi¬ 
tual and general. One of our own countrymen (who was 
a particular handfome man) in his travelling over the Alps, 
was detained by a fever, in one of thole villages where 
every grown perfon has that fort of fwelling in the neck 
which they call goitres ; and of which fome are very near 
as big as their heads. The firft Sunday that he was able, 
he went to their church to return thanks to heaven for his 
recovery. Every body’s eyes were fixed upon him : and,, 
as they went out, they exclaimed, loud enough for him to 
hear them, “ Ohow completely handfome would that man 
be, if he had but a goitre l 1 ’ 
In fome of the military nations of Africa, no man is 
reckoned handfome that has not five or fix (cars in his face. 
This cuftom might poffibly at firft be introduced to make- 
them lefs afraid of wounds in that part in battle : but it 
grew at laft to have fo great a ffiare in their idea of beauty, 
that they now cut and llaffi the faces of their little infants, 
in order to give them thole graces, when they are grown 
up, which are fo neceffary to win the hearts of their mif- 
trelfes ; and which, with the alliftance of fome jewels or 
ingots of gold in their nofes, ears, and lips, muft certainly 
be irreliftible to the ladies of that country. It may how¬ 
ever be remarked, that the covering each cheek all over 
with a burning fort of red colour, has long been looked 
upon in this country, to be neceffary to render a fine lady’s ■ 
face completely beautiful, as thefe fears are for the beaux 
in Africa. The prince of Anamaboo, who had been fo - 
long and fo much ufed to the European complexion, yet 
faid of a certain lady, a little before he left London, that 
“ file would be the mod charming woman in the world, 
if flie were but black.” And, in an account of fome of 
the fartheft travels that any of our people have made up 
the river Gambia) we are informed, that, when they came 
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