Mr. Walker claims, in his advertisement, numerous points of originality, some of which, on examination, may perhaps prove to have been proposed previously by other writers. Enough, however, will remain to entitle him to the credit of great ingenuity and acuteness. As treated by him, the subject assumes an aspect very different from that exhibited in any other publication. To trace the connexion of beauty with, and its dependance on, anatomical structure and physiological laws-to show how it may be modified by causes within our control — to describe its different forms and modifications, and defects, as indicated by certain physical signs to analyze its ele ments, with a view to its influence on individuals and society, in connexion with its perpetration in posterity all these were novel topics of vast and exciting interest, and well adapted to the genius, taste, and research of our author. In preparing the present edition, it has been thought expedient to make some verbal alterations, and omit a few paragraphs, to which a refined taste might perhaps object, and to bring together in the Appendix such collateral matter, as might serve to correct, extend, or illustrate the views presented in the text. With these explanations, the work is confidently commended to the popular as well as philosophical reader, as worthy of studious examination. CHAPTER II.-Urgency of the Discussion of this Subject CHAPTER III.- Cautions to Youth CHAPTER IV.-Nature of Beauty CHAPTER V.-Standard of Taste in Beauty SECTION I.-Elements of Beauty in Inanimate Beings jects of Art Beauty of Useful Objects Beauty of Ornamental Objects APPENDIX to the Preceding Chapters SECTION II. Cause of Laughter 74 93 Beauty of Intellectual Objects Summary of this Chapter SECTION I.-Nature of the Picturesque SECTION III.-Cause of the Pleasure received from Rep- resentations exciting Pity CHAPTER VII.— Anatomical and Physiological Principles 139 Beauty CHAPTER IX.-Of the Causes of Beauty in Woman CHAPTER XII.-First Species of Beauty: Beauty of the Page. 197 198 203 208 210 Second Variety or Modification of this Species of Third Variety or Modification of this Species of CHAPTER XIII.-Second Species of Beauty: Beauty of the First Variety or Modification of this Species of Second Variety or Modification of this Species of Third Variety or Modification of this Species of CHAPTER XIV.-Third Species of Beauty Beauty of the Thinking System First Variety or Modification of this Species of 212 225 CHAPTER XV.- Beauty of the Face in particular CHAPTER XVI.-Combinations and Transitions of the 229 238 CHAPTER XVII.-Proportion, Character, Expression, &c. 259 CHAPTER XVIII.-The Greek Ideal Beauty 280 CHAPTER XIX.-The Ideal of Female Beauty CHAPTER XX.-Defects of Beauty Defects of the Locomotive System Defects of the Vital System Defects of the Mental System CHAPTER XXI.-External Indications, or Art of Deter- mining the precise Figure, the degree of Beauty, the Mind, the Habits, and the Age of Women, notwithstanding External Indications of Figure External Indications of Mind PRELIMINARY ESSAY, BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night * Death hath no power yet upon thy beauty Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson on thy lips, and in thy cheeks.-SHAKSPEARE. It may be set down, we suppose, as a matter sufficiently settled to become a principle, that men are moved by nothing more generally and certainly than by the power of Beauty-particularly Beauty in Woman. That it has an influence upon all of one sex, like that which Master Shakspeare has given picture of in the lines we have set upon our front, we would not pretend to say: but that the wild bard was no freshman in his knowledge of humanity so far as heart and mind matters were concerned, we feel safe to assert and feel confident that the passionate language of Romeo trespasses no bounds, and is but a faithful declaration of a power that rules with a milder or a mightier sway in the bosoms of all who answer to the distinctive name of Man. This may seem a wide assertion. But it is no less true. The reason of the slow belief in this universality is, that men are not always subject to the influence, while the principle of it is always a tenant within them. There is a time and with the time comes the development. The mind, as it unfolds, becomes acquainted with nothing so calculated to excite its wonder, as its own properties and capabilities its new perceptions—its new affections. Till progress brings with it this knowledge of ourselves, we remain ignorant of half that is within us to affect us like a spell, and within whose reach we have been unconsciously passing onward and upward, by a Providential ordering, from our childhood at least, if not from our cradles. Keeping this in view, let us consider for a moment something of the elements of Beauty, and their influence, as a principle, upon the principles of our nature. And first it must be admitted that they are good of a good origin— and tend to a good result. They are good elements, we believe, for we find them almost ever associated with what is pleasing, improving, and satisfactory to us. Indeed, in this connexion, we find them a source of consolation and delight, where all else has failed to minister or even suggest them. They are of a good origin-for, if they were not, no such effect would be wrought upon a system so sadly prone to evil and villanous principles, and so little open to pure, and elevating, and comforting ones, that they may be said to come about it, most emphatically, like "angel-visits." They are elements, again, that tend to a good result, in their operation, for their consequences. are almost ever, to make men better satisfied with their condition where they come in, as an influence upon it, at all better satisfied with almost everything about them, so long as they are conscious they are creatures of proportions and proprieties, and affected intrinsically by them. If what we here set down respecting the elements of Beauty be true, it is certainly of an interesting importance in view of the influence of that quality upon the principles of our nature. We call it quality. Perhaps this is not name enough for something so peculiar and powerful in its connexion with the total of our spirits. We will |