The Arts of Beauty/Chapter 1

It is a most difficult task to fix upon any general and satisfactory standard of female beauty, since forms and qualities the most opposite and contradictory are looked upon by different nations, and by different individuals, as the perfection of beauty. Some will have it that a beautiful woman must be fair, while others conceive nothing but brunettes to be handsome. A Chinese belle must be fat, have small eyes, short nose, high cheeks, and feet which are not longer than a man's finger. In the Labrador Islands no woman is beautiful who has not black teeth and white hair. ​In Greenland and some other northern countries, the women paint their faces blue, and some yellow. Some nations squeeze the heads of children between boards to make them square, while others prefer the shape of a sugar-loaf as the highest type of beauty for that important top-piece to the "human form divine." So that there is nothing truer than the old proverb, that "there is no accounting for tastes." This difference of opinion with respect to beauty in various countries is, however, principally confined to color and form, and may, undoubtedly, be traced to national habits and customs. Nor is it fair, perhaps, to oppose the tastes of uncivilized people to the opinions of civilized nations. But then it must not be overlooked that the standard of beauty in civilized countries is by no means agreed upon. Neither the buona roba of the Italians, nor the linda of the Spaniards, nor the embonpoint of the French, can fully reach the mystical standard of beauty to the eye of American taste. And if I were to say that it consists of an indescribable combination of all these, still you would go beyond even that, before you would be content with the definition. Perhaps the best definition of beauty ever given, was by a French poet, who called it a certain je ne sais quoi, or, I don't know what!

The following classical synopsis of female beauty, which has been attributed to Felibien, is the best I remember to have seen:

"The head should be well rounded and look rather inclining to small than large.

"The forehead white, smooth, and open (not with ​the hair growing down too deep upon it), neither flat nor prominent, but, like the head, well rounded, and rather small in proportion than large.

"The hair either black, bright brown, or auburn, not thin, but full and waving, and if it falls in moderate curls, the better—the black is particularly useful in setting off the whiteness of the neck and skin.

"The eyes black, chestnut, or blue; clear, bright, and lively, and rather large in proportion than small.

"The eyebrows well divided, full, semicircular, and broader in the middle than at the ends, of a neat turn, but not formal.

"The cheeks should not be wide, should have a degree of plumpness, with the red and white finely blended together, and should look firm and soft.

"The ear should be rather small, well folded, and have an agreeable tinge of red.

"The nose should be placed so as to divide the face into equal parts; should be of a moderate size, straight, and well squared, though sometimes a little rising in the middle, which is just perceivable, may give a very graceful look to it.

"The mouth should be small, and the lips not of equal thickness; they should be well turned, small, rather than gross, soft even to the eye, and with a living red in them; a truly pretty mouth is like a rosebud that is beginning to blow. The teeth should be middle-sized, white, well ranged and even.

"The chin of a moderate size, white, soft, and agreeably rounded.

"The neck should be white, straight, and of a soft, ​easy, flexible make; rather long than short, less above, and increasing gently towards the shoulders; the whiteness and delicacy of its skin should be continued, or rather go on improving to the bosom; the skin in general should be white, properly tinged with red, and a look of thriving health in it.

"The shoulders should be white, gently spread, and with a much softer appearance of strength than in those of men.

"The arm should be white, round, firm and soft, and more particularly so from the elbow to the hands.

"The hand should unite insensibly with the arm; it should be long and delicate, and even the joints and nervous parts of it should be without either any hardness or dryness.

"The fingers should be fine, long, round and soft; small and lessening to the tips, and the nails rather long, round at the ends, and pellucid.

"The bosom should be white and charming, neither too large nor too small; the breasts equal in roundness and firmness, rising gently, and very distinctly separated.

"The sides should be rather long and the hips wider than the shoulders, and go down rounding and lessening gradually to the knee.

"The knee should be even and well rounded.

"The legs straight but varied by proper rounding of the more fleshy parts of them, and finely turned, white, and small at the ankle."

It is very fortunate, however, for the human race that all men do not have exactly a correct taste in the ​matter of female beauty, for if they had, a fatal degree of strife would be likely to ensue as to who should possess the few types of perfect beauty. The old man who rejoiced that all did not see alike, as, if they did, all would be after his wife, was not far out of the way.