Beauty. bout the waift and ftomach, to acquire a difproportion that nature never meant in her shape. The two other conftituent parts of beauty, are expreffion and grace; the former of which is common to all perfons and faces; and the latter is to be met with very few. in 3. Expreffion. By this is meant the expreffion of the paffions; the turns and changes of the mind, fo far as they are made vifible to the eye by our looks or gestures. Though the mind appears principally in the face and attitudes of the head; yet every part almost of the human body, on fome occafion or other, may become expreffive. Thus the languishing hanging of the arm, or the vehement exertion of it; the pain expreffed by the fingers of one of the fons in the famous group of Laocoon, and in the toes of the dying gladiator. But this again is often loft among us by our drefs; and indeed is of the lefs concern, because the expreffion 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 paffions moft frequently make their appearance, are the eyes and mouth; but from the eyes, they diffuse themfelves very strongly 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 please about the feat of the foul; but, where-ever 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, especially in lively faces, bave, as it were, a language of their own; and are extremely varied, according to the different fentiments and paffions of the mind. Degree of difpleafure may be often difcerned in a lady's eye-brow, though fhe have address enough not to let it appear in her eyes; and at other times may be discovered fo much of her thoughts, in the line juft above her eye-brows, that she would probably be amazed how any body could tell what paffed in her mind, and (as fhe thought) undiscovered by her face, fo par ticularly and diftinctly. Homer makes the eye-brows the feat of (D) majefty, Virgil of (E) dejection, Horace of (E) modefty, and Juvenal of (G) pride; and it is not certain whether every one of the paffions be not affigned, by one or other of the poets, to the same part. Having hitherto fpoken only of the paffions in ge- Beauty neral, we will now confider a little which of them add to beauty, and which of them take from it. 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 nature may very juftly be faid to be "the beft feature even in the finest face." Mr Pope has included the principal paffion of each fort in two very pretty lines: Love, hope, and joy, fair pleafure's fmiling 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 these, and all the other paffions, moderation. ought perhaps to be confidered in a great measure the rule of their beauty, almost as far as moderation in actions is the rule of virtue. Thus an exceffive joy may be too boisterous in the face to be pleasing; and a degree of grief, in fome faces, and on fome occafions, may be extremely beautiful. Some degrees of anger, fhame, furprise, fear, and concern, are beautiful; but all excefs is hurtful, and all excefs ugly. Dulness, aufterity, impudence, pride, affectation, malice, and envy, are always ugly. The fineft union of paffions that can perhaps be obferved in any face, confifts of a juft mixture of modefty, fenfibility, and fweetnefs; each of which when taken fingly is very pleasing: 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 capable of adding to a very pretty face. The prevailing paffion in the Venus of Medici is modefty: It is expreft by each of her hands, in her looks, and in the turn of her head. And by the way, it may be questioned, whether one of the chief reasons why fide-faces please one more than full ones, be not from the former having more of the air of modefty than the latter. This at leaft is certain, that the best artifts ufually choose to give a fide-face rather than a full one; in which attitude, the turn of the neck too has more beauty, and the paffions more activity and force. Thus, as to hatred and affection in particular, the look that was formerly fuppofed to carry an infection with it from malignant eyes, was a flanting regard; like that which (2) Η, 3 κυαντησιν επ' οφρύσινευσε Κρονίων Αμβροσίαι δ' άρα χαίται επερρώσαντο άνακτος Κρατος απ' αθανατοιο· μεγαν δ' ελελιξεν Ολυμπον. Ιλ. α. 528. It was from this paffage that Phidias borrowed all the ideas of that majefty which he had expreffed fo ftrong-ly in his famous ftatues of the Jupiter Olympus; and Horace, probably, his-Cunéta fupercilio moventis. Lib. iii. Od. 1. 8. (E) Frons læta parum, et dejecto lumina vultu. Virgil, Æn. vi. 863. (F) Deme fupercilio nubem; plerumque modeftus Occupat obfcuri fpeciem. Horat. lib. i. Epist. 18. 95. (G) Malo Venufinam, quam te, Cornelia, mater Gracchorum; fi cum magnis virtutibus affers Grande fupercilium, et numeras in dote triumphos. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 168. It is here that the Romans used the word fuperciliofus (as we do from it the word fupercilious) for proud and arrogant perfons. Beauty which Milton gives to Satan, when he is viewing the happiness of our firft parents in paradife; and the fafcination, or ftroke of love, is most usually conveyed, at firft, in a fide-glance. It is owing to the great force of pleafingnefs 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 rest of the world;" because when they are together, the moit pleafing paffions are more frequently exerted in each of their faces than they are in either before the rest of the world. There is then (as a certain French writer very 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 converfing with other perfons, that are indifferent to them, or rather lay a restraint upon their features. The fuperiority which the beauty of the paffions has over the two parts of beauty firft mentioned, will probably be now pretty evident: or if this fhould appear ftill problematical to any one, let him confider a little the following particulars, of which every body must have met with feveral inftances in their lifetime. That there is a great deal of difference in the fame face, according as the perfon is in a better or worse humour, or in a greater or lefs degree of livelinefs: That the best complexion, the finest features, and the exactest shape, without any thing of the mind expreffed on the face, are as infipid and unmoving as the waxen figure of the fine Duchefs of Richmond in Westminster Abbey: That the fineft eyes in the world, with an excefs of malice or rage in them, will grow as fhocking as they are in that fine face of Medula on the famous feal in the Strozzi family at Rome: That a face without any good features in it, and with a very indifferent complexion, fhall have a very taking air; from the fenfibility of the eyes, the general good-humoured turn of the look, and perhaps a little agreeable smile about the mouth. And thefe three things perhaps would go a great way toward accounting for the Je ne fai quoi, or that inexplicable pleafingness of the face (as they choose to call it), which is fo often talked of and fo little understood; as the greater part, and perhaps all the rest of it, would fall under the laft article, that of grace. Thus it appears that the paffions can give beauty without the affistance of colour or form; and take it away where they have united the most ftrongly to give it. And hence the fuperiority of this part of beauty to the other two. This, by the way, may help us to account for the juftness of what Pliny afferts in speaking of the famous ftatue of Laocoon and his two fons: He fays, it was the finest piece of art in Rome; and to be preferred to all the other ftatues and pictures, of which they had fo noble a collection in his time. It had no beauties of colour to vie with the paintings and other ftatues there; as the Apollo Belvedere and the Venus of Me. dici, in particular, were as finely proportioned as the Laocoon: But this had much greater variety of expreffion even than thofe fine ones; and it must be on that account alone that it could have been preferable to them and all the reft. Before quitting this head, two things before men tioned deferve to be repeated: That the chief rale of Beauty. 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 all his tendereft 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, must be kept within their due bounds and limits; for too fullen an appearance of virtue, a violent and proftitute fwell of paffion, a ruftic and overwhelming modetty, a deep fadnefs, or too wild and impetuous a joy, become all either oppreffive or difagreeable. 4. The laft finishing and nobleft part of beauty is Grace; which every body is accustomed to speak of as a thing inexplicable; and in a great measure perhaps it is fo. We know that the foul is, but we fcarce know what it is: every judge of beauty can point out grace; but no one feems even yet to have fixed upon a definition for it. 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 themselves. It is perpetually varying its appearance, and is therefore much more difficult to be confidered than in any thing fixed and fteady. While you look upon one, 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 one cannot punctually fay what grace is, we may point out the parts and things in which it is moft apt to appear. 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 expreffion of une bouche fort gacieufe, they mean it properly of grace: but when they lay des yeux tres gracieux, it then falls to the fhare of the paffions; and it means kind or favourable. In a very graceful face, by which we do not fo much mean a majestic as a foft and pleafing one, there is now and then (for no part of beauty is either fo engaging or fo uncommon) a certain deliciousness that almost always lives about the mouth, in fomething not quite enough to be called a fmile, but rather an approach toward one, which varies gently about the different lines there like a little fluttering Cupid, and perhaps fometimes discovers a little dimple, that after just lightening upon you disappears and appears again by fits. The grace of attitudes may belong to the pofition 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 seen in the pieces of the moft celebrated painters; and particularly in thofe of Guido, who has been rather too lavish in bettowing this beauty on almost all his fine women; whereas nature has given it in so high a degree but to very few. The Beauty. mandi, ii. 108 ] How much of this grace may belong to the arms and feet, as well as to the neck and head, may be feen in dancing. But it is not only in genteel motions that De arte A- a very pretty woman will be graceful; and Ovid (who was fo great a mafter in all the parts of beauty) had very good reafon for faying, That when Venus, to please her gallant, imitated the hobbling gait of her hufband, her very lamenefs had a great deal of prettinefs and grace in it. 570. Tibullus, Jib. iv. cl. 2. 8. "Every motion of a graceful woman (fays another writer of the fame age) is full of grace." She defigns nothing by it perhaps, and may even not be fenfible of it herfelf: and indeed the fhould not be so too much; for the moment that any gefture or action appears to be affected, it ceafes to be graceful. Horace and Virgil feem to extend grace fo far as to the flowing of the hair, and Tibullus even to the dress of his mistress; but then he affigns it more to her manner of putting on and appearing in whatever she wears than to the drefs itfelf. It is true, there is another wicked poet (Ovid) who has faid (with much lfs decency) "that drefs is the better half of the woman :" Pars minima eft ipfa puella fui. Ovid. There are two very diftin&t (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 fculptors used to expreis the former moft ftrongly in the looks and attitudes of their Minervas, and the latter in those of Venus. Xenophon, in his Choice of Hercules (or at leaft the excellent tranflator of that piece) has made juft the fame distinction in the perfonages of wifdom and pleasure; the former of which he 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; This ftriking facred awe, that fofter winning love. No poet feems to have understood this part of beauty fo well as our own Milton. He speaks of these two forts of grace very diftinctly; and gives the majestic to his Adam, and both the familiar and majestic to Eve; but the latter in a lefs degree than the for mer: Two of far nobler fhape, erect and tall, I efpy'd thee, fair indeed and tall, (Eve, of Adam and herself) Ib. ver. 480. Angelic, but more soft and feminine; B. ix. 461. Grace was in all her fteps: Heav'n in her eye; Though grace is fo difficult to be accounted for in Beauty. The firft is, "That there is no grace without motion;" that is, without fome genteel or pleafing motion, 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; just Works. as if they were equivalent terms: "In beauty, that vol. iii. of favour is more than that of colour; and that ofP. 362. gracious and decent motion, more than that of favour." n. i. 406. Virgil in one place points out the majefty of Juno, Æn. i. 46. and in another the graceful air of Apollo, by only iv. 147. faying that they move; and poibly he means no more when he makes the motion of Venus the principal thing by which Eneas difcovers her under all her difguife; though the commentators, as ufual, would fain find out a more dark and myfterious meaning for it. All the beft ftatues are reprefented as in fome action All graceful heads, even in the portraits of the beft The fecond obfervation is, "That there can be no The graces of a little lively beauty would become ungraceful in a character of majefty; as the majestic airs of an emprefs would quite deftroy the prettiness 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 fhocking when extremely mistimed or extremely mifplaced. The infeparable union of propriety and grace feems to have been the general fenfe of mankind, as we may Milton's Par. Left, B. iv. 298. guefs from the languages of feveral nations; in which fome Beauty. fome words that answer to our proper or becoming, are afed indifferently for beautiful or graceful. Thus, among the Greeks, the words Iptv and Kaxov, and among the Romans pulchrum and decens, or decorum, are used indifferently for one another. It appears wrong, however, to think (as fome have done) that grace confifts entirely in propriety; because propriety is a thing eafy enough to be underftood, and grace (after all we can fay about it) very difficult. Propriety, therefore, and grace are no more one and the fame thing than grace and motion are. it cannot fubfift without either; but then there feems to be something else, which cannot be explained, that goes to the compofition, and which poffibly may give its greatest force and pleafingnefs. It is true, Perfuafive fpeech, and more perfuafive fighs, Pope, Il. xiv. 256. Although people in general are more capable of judging right of beauty, at least in fome parts of it, than they are of most other things; yet there are a great many caufes apt to mislead the generality in their judgments of beauty. Thus, if the affection is entirely engaged by any one object, a man is apt to allow all perfections to that perion, and very little in comparison 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. Whatever are the caufes of it, this is certain, that is the chief of all the conftituent parts of beaugrace ty; and fo much so, that it seems to be the only one Again, people are very often milled in their judgments, which is abfolutely and univerfally admired: All the by a fimilitude either of their own temper or perfonage reft are only relative. One likes a brunette beauty in others. It is hence that a perfon of a mild temper better than a fair one; I may love a little woman, and is more apt to be pleafed with the gentler paffions in you a large one, beft; a person of a mild temper will the face of his miftrefs; and one of a very lively turn be fond of the gentler paffions in the face, and one would choofe more of fpirit and vivacity in his; that of a bolder caft may choose to have more vivacity and little people are inclined to prefer pretty women, and more vigorous paffions expreffed there: But grace is larger people majestic ones; and fo on in a great variefound in few, and is pleafing to all. Grace, like poety of inftances. This may be called falling in love try, must be born with a perfon, and is never wholly with ourfelves at fecond hand; and felf-love (whatever to be acquired by art. The most celebrated of all the other love may be) is fometimes fo falfe-lighted, that ancient painters was Apelles; and the most celebrated it may make the moft plain, and even the most disaof all the modern Raphael: And it is remarkable, that the diftinguishing character of each of them greeable things, feem beautiful and pleafing. was grace. Indeed, that alone could have given them fo high a pre-eminence over all their other competi tors. Grace has nothing to do with the loweft part of beauty or colour; very little with fhape, and very much with the paffions; for it is the who gives their higheft zest, and the most delicious part of their pleafingness to the expreflions of each of them. All the other parts of beauty are pleafing in fome degree, but grace is pleatingnefs itfelf. And the old Romans in general feem to have had this notion of it, as may be inferred from the original import of the names which they used for this part of beauty: Gratia from gratus, or "pleafing;" and decor from decens, or "becoming." The Greeks as well as the Romans must have been of this opinion; when in fettling their mythology, they made the graces the conftant attendants of Venus or the caufe of love. In fact, there is nothing caufes love fo generally and fo irrefistibly as grace. It is like the Ceftus of the fame goddess, which was fuppofed to comprehend every thing that was winning and engaging in it; and befide all, to oblige the heart to love by a fecret and inexplicable force like that of fome magic charm.... She faid, with awe divine, the queen of love Sometimes an idea of usefulness 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 blemishes in a race-horse. But the greatest and most general mifleader of our It was from the most common shape of his country- it But this may go much farther than mere bulk; In fome of the most military nations of Africa, no in Beauty. in his face. This custom might poffibly at firft be fome in a gentle natural rosiness of complexion, others Beaney The covering each cheek all over with a burning fort of red colour, has long been looked upon in a neighbouring country to be as neceffary to render a fine lady's face completely beautiful, as these scars are for the beaux in Africa. The natural complexion of the Italian ladies is of a The glowing dames of Zama's royal court Syphax to Juba; in Cato, Acti. Scene 4. In an account of some of the fartheft travels that any of our people have made up the river Gambia, we are informed, that when they came to fome villages where probably no Europeans had ever been before, the women ran frightened and screaming from them, on taking them to be devils, merely on account of the whitenefs of their complexion. We cannot avoid obferving, however, that heaven is very good and merciful to mankind, even in making us capable of all this variety of mistakes. If every perfon judged exactly right of beauty, every man that was in love in fuch a diftrict, would be in love with the fame woman. The fuperior beauty of each hamlet would be the object of the hate and malice of all the reft of her own fex in it, and the caufe of diffenfion and murders among all of the other. If this would hold in one town, it would hold for the fame reafons in every other town or diftri&t; and of courfe there would be nothing more wanting than this univerfal right judgement of beauty, to render the whole world one continued scene of blood and mifery. But now that fancy has perhaps more to do with beauty than judgment, there is an infinity of taftes, and confequently an infinity of beauty; for to the mind of the lover, fuppofed beauty is full as good as real. Every body may now choose out what happens to hit his own turn and caft. This increases the extent of beauty vaftly, and makes it in a manner univerfal for there are but few people in comparison that are truly beautiful; but every body may be beautiful in the imagination of fome one or other. Some may delight themfelves in a black fkin, and others in a white; We should perhaps make a diftinction here again, as to the two former parts of beauty and the two latter. Fancy has much more to do in the articles of form and colour than in thofe of the paffions and grace. The good paffions, as they are vifible on the face, are ap parent goodness; and that must be generally amiable: and true grace, wherever it appears to any degree, one should think must be pleating to every human creature; or perhaps this may never appear in the women of any nation, where the men are grown so savage and brutal as to have loft all taste for it. Yet even as to grace itself, under the notion of pleafingness, it may become almost universal, and be as fubject to the dominion of fancy as any of the lefs fignificant parts of beauty. A parent can fee genteelness in the most aukward child perhaps that ever was born; and a person who is truly in love, will be pleafed with every motion and air of the person beloved; which is the most diftinguishing character that belongs to grace. particular perfon, it has all the effects of the true. It is true, this is all a mistaken grace; but as to that BEAUTY, in architecture, painting, and other arts, is the harmony and juftnefs of the whole compofition taken together. BEAUVAIS, an epifcopal city in the Isle of France, and capital of the Beauvoifis. The cathedral church is dedicated to St Peter, and is much admired for its fine architecture. It contains a great number of relics, and a library of curious books. There are feveral other churches, among which is one dedicated to St Stephen, remarkable for its curious windows. The town was in effectually befieged by the English in 1443, and by the Duke of Burgundy with an army of 80,000 men. In this laft fiege the women fignalized themselves under the conduct of Jeane Hachette, who set up a standard yet preferved in the church of the Jacobins. The Duke was obliged to raise the fiege; and in memory of the womens exploits, they walk first in a proceffion on the 10th of July, the anniversary of their deliverance. The inhabitants carry on a good trade in beautiful tapestry. Beauvais is fituated on the river Therin, in E. Long. 2. 15. N. Lat. 49. 26. BEAUVAIS, a town of France in Upper Languedoc, BEAUVIN, a city of Burgundy in France, in E. BEAUVOIR fur Mer, a maritime town of Poitou, BEAUVOISIS, a territory of France, formerly part of Picardy, but now of the Isle of France. Beauvais is the capital. BEBELINGUEN, a town of Germany, in the duchy of Wirtemberg, feated on a lake from which proceeds the river Worm. E. Long. 9. 8. N. Lat. 48. 45. BEBRYCIA, (anc. geog.), an ancient name of Bi |