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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07bfdcf --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60054 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60054) diff --git a/old/60054-0.txt b/old/60054-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2e38de7..0000000 --- a/old/60054-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,26865 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Love and Personal Beauty, by -Henry Theophilus Finck - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Romantic Love and Personal Beauty - Their development, causal relations, historic and national - peculiarities - -Author: Henry Theophilus Finck - -Release Date: August 4, 2019 [EBook #60054] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC LOVE AND PERSONAL BEAUTY *** - - - - -Produced by KD Weeks, Turgut Dincer and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note: - -This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. -Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. - -Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are -referenced. - -Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding -the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. - - ROMANTIC LOVE - AND - PERSONAL BEAUTY - - THEIR - - DEVELOPMENT, CAUSAL RELATIONS, - HISTORIC AND NATIONAL PECULIARITIES - - BY - - HENRY T. FINCK - - - - - - - - - =New York= - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. - 1902 - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1887 - BY HENRY T. FINCK - - --- - - SET UP AND ELECTROTYPED, 1887 - NEW EDITION, FEBRUARY, 1903 - - - - - - - - - Press of J. J. Little & Co. - Astor Place, New York - - - - - CONTENTS - - PAGE - EVOLUTION OF ROMANTIC LOVE 1 - COSMIC ATTRACTION AND CHEMICAL AFFINITIES 3 - FLOWER LOVE AND BEAUTY 7 - IMPERSONAL AFFECTION 11 - PERSONAL AFFECTIONS 16 - I. Love for Animals 16 - II. Maternal Love 19 - III. Paternal Love 20 - IV. Filial Love 22 - V. Brotherly and Sisterly Love 23 - VI. Friendship 24 - VII. Romantic Love 26 - OVERTONES OF LOVE 29 - I. Individual Preference 30 - II. Monopoly or Exclusiveness 30 - III. Jealousy 30 - IV. Coyness 30 - V. Gallantry 31 - VI. Self-Sacrifice 31 - VII. Sympathy 31 - VIII. Pride of Conquest and Possession 31 - IX. Emotional Hyperbole 32 - X. Mixed Moods 32 - XI. Admiration of Personal Beauty 32 - Herbert Spencer on Love 33 - LOVE AMONG ANIMALS 33 - Courtship 37 - (_a_) Jealousy 39 - (_b_) Coyness 40 - (_c_) Individual Preference 42 - (_d_) Personal Beauty and Sexual Selection 43 - (1) Protective Colours 48 - (2) Warning Colours 48 - (3) Typical Colours 48 - (4) Sexual Colours 49 - Love Charms and Love Calls 50 - Love Dances and Display 52 - LOVE AMONG SAVAGES 54 - Strangers to Love 54 - Primitive Courtship 56 - (1) Capture 56 - (2) Purchase 58 - (3) Service 58 - Individual Preference 59 - Personal Beauty and Sexual Selection 60 - Jealousy and Polygamy 62 - Monopoly and Monogamy 63 - Primitive Coyness 64 - Can American Negroes Love? 66 - HISTORY OF LOVE 67 - LOVE IN EGYPT 67 - ANCIENT HEBREW LOVE 69 - ANCIENT ARYAN LOVE 72 - Hindoo Love Maxims 73 - GREEK LOVE 75 - Family Affection 75 - No Love Stories 76 - Woman’s Position 77 - Chaperonage _versus_ Courtship 77 - Plato on Courtship 78 - Parental _versus_ Lovers’ Choice 78 - The Hetæræ 79 - Platonic Love 80 - Sappho and Female Friendship 81 - Greek Beauty 83 - Cupid’s Arrows 84 - Origin of Love 85 - ROMAN LOVE 86 - Woman’s Position 86 - No Wooing and Choice 87 - Virgil, Dryden, and Scott 89 - Ovid’s Art of Making Love 90 - Birth of Gallantry 91 - MEDIÆVAL LOVE 92 - Celibacy _versus_ Marriage 92 - Woman’s Lowest Degradation 93 - Negation of Feminine Choice 95 - Christianity and Love 97 - Chivalry—Militant and Comic 98 - Chivalry—Poetic 101 - (_a_) French Troubadours 102 - (_b_) German Minnesingers 103 - Female Culture 105 - Personal Beauty 107 - Spenser on Love 108 - Dante and Shakspere 109 - MODERN LOVE 111 - A Biologic Test 111 - Venus, Plutus, and Minerva 112 - Leading Motives 114 - Modern Coyness 114 - (1) An Echo of Capture 114 - (2) Maiden _versus_ Wife 115 - (3) Modesty 115 - (4) Cunning to be Strange 115 - (5) Procrastination 116 - Goldsmith on Love 116 - Disadvantages of Coyness 118 - Coyness lessens Woman’s Love 120 - Masculine _versus_ Feminine Love 120 - Flirtation and Coquetry 122 - Flirtation _versus_ Coyness 123 - Modern Courtship 125 - Modern Jealousy 127 - Lover’s Jealousy 129 - Retrospective and Prospective Jealousy 131 - Jealousy and Beauty 133 - Monopoly or Exclusiveness 133 - True Love is Transient 135 - Is First Love Best? 136 - Heine on First Love 137 - First Love is not Best 137 - Pride and Vanity 141 - Coquetry 142 - Love and Rank 143 - Special Sympathy 145 - How Love Intensifies Emotions 146 - Development of Sympathy 147 - Pity and Love 150 - Love at First Sight 152 - Intellect and Love 154 - Gallantry and Self-Sacrifice 157 - Active and Passive Desire to Please 159 - Feminine Devotion 160 - Emotional Hyperbole 162 - Mixed Moods and Paradoxes 166 - Lunatic, Lover, and Poet 172 - Individual Preference 173 - Sexual Divergence 174 - Making Woman Masculine 175 - Love and Culture 176 - Personal Beauty 177 - Feminine Beauty in Masculine Eyes 177 - Masculine Beauty in Feminine Eyes 178 - CONJUGAL AFFECTION AND ROMANTIC LOVE 180 - Romance in Conjugal Love 184 - Marriages of Reason or Love Matches? 187 - Marriage Hints 189 - OLD MAIDS 190 - BACHELORS 194 - GENIUS AND MARRIAGE 197 - GENIUS AND LOVE 201 - GENIUS IN LOVE 204 - (1) Precocity 204 - (2) Ardour 207 - (3) Fickleness 210 - (4) Multiplicity 213 - (5) Fictitiousness 215 - INSANITY AND LOVE 218 - Analogies 218 - Erotomania, or Real Love-Sickness 222 - THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE 223 - I. Words 223 - II. Facial Expression 224 - III. Caresses 225 - KISSING—PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 227 - Among Animals 227 - Among Savages 228 - Origin of Kissing 229 - Ancient Kisses 232 - Mediæval Kisses 233 - Modern Kisses 234 - Love Kisses 235 - How to Kiss 237 - HOW TO WIN LOVE 238 - Brass Buttons 238 - Confidence and Boldness 239 - Pleasant Associations 240 - Perseverance 241 - Feigned Indifference 241 - Compliments 244 - Love Letters 246 - Love Charms for Women 250 - Proposing 253 - Diagnosis, or Signs of Love 254 - HOW TO CURE LOVE 255 - Absence 256 - Travel 257 - Employment 257 - Married Misery 257 - Feminine Inferiority 260 - Focussing Her Faults 262 - Reason _versus_ Passion 263 - Love _versus_ Love 264 - Prognosis, or Chances of Recovery 265 - NATIONALITY AND LOVE 265 - French Love 266 - Italian Love 274 - Spanish Love 277 - German Love 280 - English Love 288 - American Love 294 - SCHOPENHAUER’S THEORY OF LOVE 301 - Love is an Illusion 302 - Individuals Sacrificed to the Species 302 - Sources of Love 303 - (1) Physical Beauty 303 - (2) Psychic Traits 304 - (3) Complementary Qualities 305 - FOUR SOURCES OF BEAUTY 310 - I. Health 310 - Greek Beauty 313 - Mediæval Ugliness 314 - Modern Hygiene 316 - II. Crossing 318 - III. Romantic Love 322 - IV. Mental Refinement 324 - EVOLUTION OF TASTE 327 - Savage Notions of Beauty 327 - Non-Æsthetic "Ornamentation" 328 - Personal Beauty as a Fine Art 329 - Negative Tests of Beauty 331 - (_a_) Animals 331 - (_b_) Savages 333 - (_c_) Degraded Classes 333 - (_d_) Age and Decrepitude 334 - (_e_) Disease 334 - Positive Tests of Beauty 338 - (_a_) Symmetry 338 - (_b_) Gradation 339 - (_c_) Curvature 341 - Masculine and Feminine Beauty 342 - (_d_) Delicacy 343 - (_e_) Smoothness 344 - (_f_) Lustre and Colour 345 - (_g_) Expression, Variety, Individuality 348 - THE FEET 351 - Size 351 - Fashionable Ugliness 352 - Tests of Beauty 354 - A Graceful Gait 357 - Evolution of the Great Toe 359 - National Peculiarities 361 - Beautifying Hygiene 362 - Dancing and Grace 364 - Dancing and Courtship 365 - Evolution of Dance Music 367 - The Dance of Love 369 - Ballet-Dancing 370 - THE LOWER LIMBS 371 - Muscular Development 371 - Beautifying Exercise 372 - Fashionable Ugliness 375 - The Crinoline Craze 376 - THE WAIST 378 - The Beauty-Curve 378 - The Wasp-Waist Mania 379 - Hygienic Disadvantages 380 - Æsthetic Disadvantages 381 - Corpulence and Leanness 382 - The Fashion Fetish Analysed 386 - Individualism _versus_ Fashion 389 - Masculine Fashions 391 - CHEST AND BOSOM 394 - Feminine Beauty 394 - Masculine Beauty 397 - Magic Effect of Deep Breathing 397 - A Moral Question 399 - NECK AND SHOULDER 400 - ARM AND HAND 402 - Evolution and Sexual Differences 402 - Calisthenics and Massage 403 - The Second Face 405 - Finger Nails 406 - Manicure Secrets 407 - JAW, CHIN, AND MOUTH 408 - Hands _versus_ Jaws 408 - Dimples in the Chin 412 - Refined Lips 413 - Cosmetic Hints 421 - THE CHEEKS 423 - High Cheek Bones 423 - Colour and Blushes 425 - THE EARS 429 - A Useless Ornament 429 - Cosmetics and Fashion 431 - Physiognomic Vagaries 433 - Noise and Civilisation 434 - A Musical Voice 435 - THE NOSE 436 - Size and Shape 436 - Evolution of the Nose 438 - Greek and Hebrew Noses 440 - Fashion and Cosmetic Surgery 443 - Nose-Breathing and Health 445 - Cosmetic Value of Odours 446 - THE FOREHEAD 448 - Beauty and Brain 448 - Fashionable Deformity 450 - Wrinkles 451 - THE COMPLEXION 453 - White _versus_ Black 453 - Cosmetic Hints 460 - Freckles and Sunshine 462 - THE EYES 464 - Colour 465 - Lustre 469 - Form 472 - Expression 475 - (_a_) Lustre 476 - (_b_) Colour of Iris 478 - (_c_) Movements of the Iris 479 - (_d_) ” ” Eyeball 480 - (_e_) ” ” Eyelids 482 - (_f_) ” ” Eyebrows 485 - Cosmetic Hints 485 - THE HAIR 486 - Cause of Man’s Nudity 486 - Beards and Moustaches 489 - Baldness and Depilatories 492 - Æsthetic Value of Hair 494 - BRUNETTE AND BLONDE 496 - Blonde _versus_ Brunette 496 - Brunette _versus_ Blonde 498 - Why Cupid Favours Brunettes 499 - NATIONALITY AND BEAUTY 505 - FRENCH BEAUTY 506 - ITALIAN BEAUTY 511 - SPANISH BEAUTY 515 - GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN BEAUTY 522 - ENGLISH BEAUTY 528 - AMERICAN BEAUTY 535 - - - - - ROMANTIC LOVE & PERSONAL BEAUTY - - - - - EVOLUTION OF ROMANTIC LOVE - - -Of all the rhetorical commonplaces in literature and conversation, none -is more frequently repeated than the assertion that Love, as depicted in -a thousand novels and poems every year, has existed at all times, and in -every country, immutable as the mountains and the stars. - -Only a few months ago one of the leading German writers of the period, -Ernst Eckstein, wrote an essay in which he endeavoured to prove that not -only was Love as felt by the ancient Romans the same as modern Love, but -that it was identical with the modern sentiment even in its minutest -details and manifestations. He based this bold inference on the fact -that in Ovid’s _Ars Amoris_ directions are given to the men regarding -certain tricks of gallantry—such as dusting the adored one’s seat at the -circus, fanning her, applauding her favourites, and drinking from the -cup where it was touched by her lips. - -Curious and interesting these hints are, no doubt. But a closer -examination of Roman literature and manners shows that Dr. Eckstein has -been guilty of the common blunder of generalising from a single -instance. Gallantry is one of the essential traits of modern Love; and -far from having been a common practice in ancient Rome, the interest of -Ovid’s remarks lies in the fact that they give us the _first_ instance -on record of an attempt at gallant behaviour on the part of the men; as -will be shown in detail in the chapter on Roman Love. - -And as with Gallantry, so with the other traits which make up the group -of emotions known to us as Love. We look for them in vain among modern -savages, in vain among the ancient civilised nations. Romantic Love is a -modern sentiment, less than a thousand years old. - -Conjugal Love is, indeed, often celebrated by Greek, Hebrew, and other -ancient writers, but regarding Romantic—or pre-matrimonial—Love (which -alone forms the theme of our novelists), they are silent. The Bible -takes no account of it, and although Greek literature and mythology seem -at first sight to abound in allusions to it, critical analysis shows -that the reference never is to Love as we understand it. Greek Love, as -will be shown hereafter, was a peculiar mixture of friendship and -passion, differing widely from the modern sentiment of Love. - -It is because among the Romans the position of woman was somewhat more -elevated and modern than among the Greeks, that we find in Roman -literature a vague foreshadowing of _some_ of the elements of modern -Love. - -In the Dark Ages there is a relapse. The germs of Love could not -flourish in a period when women were kept in brutal subjection by the -men, and their minds refused all nourishment and refinement. The -Troubadours of Italy and France proved useful champions of woman, as did -the German Minnesingers, by teaching the mediæval military man to look -upon her with sentiments of respect and adoration. Yet their conduct -rarely harmonised with their preaching; and the cause of Romantic Love -gained little by their poetic effusions, which were almost invariably -addressed to married women. - -Not till Dante’s _Vita Nuova_ appeared was the gospel of modern Love—the -romantic adoration of a maiden by a youth—revealed for the first time in -definite language. Genius, however, is always in advance of its age, _in -emotions as well as in thoughts_; and the feelings experienced by Dante -were obviously not shared by his contemporaries, who found them too -subtle and sublimated for their comprehension. And, in fact, they _were_ -too ethereal to quite correspond with reality. The strings of Dante’s -lyre were strung too high, and touched by his magic hand, gave forth -harmonic overtones too celestial for mundane ears to hear. - -It remained for Shakspere to combine the idealism with the realism of -Love in proper proportions. The colours with which he painted the -passion and sentiment of modern Love are as fresh and as true to life as -on the day when they were first put on his canvas. Like Dante, however, -he was emotionally ahead of his time, as an examination of contemporary -literature in England and elsewhere shows. But within the last two -centuries Love has gradually, if slowly, assumed among all educated -people characteristics which formerly it possessed only in the minds of -a few isolated men of genius. - -Before we proceed to prove all these assertions in detail, it will be -well to cast a brief glance at the analogies to human Love presented by -cosmic, chemical, and vegetal phenomena; as well as to distinguish -Romantic Love from other forms of human and animal affection. This will -enable us to comprehend more clearly what modern Love is, by making -apparent what it is not. - - - - - COSMIC ATTRACTION AND CHEMICAL AFFINITIES - - -It is a favourite device of poets to invest plants and even inanimate -objects with human thoughts and feelings. The parched, withering flower, -tormented by the pangs of thirst, implores the passing cloud for a few -drops of the vital fluid; and the cloud, moved to pity at sight of the -suffering beauty, sheds its welcome, soothing tears. - - “And ’tis my faith, that every flower - Enjoys the air it breathes.”—WORDSWORTH. - - “The moon shines bright: in such a night as this, - When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, - And they did make no noise.” - . . . . . . . . - “Purple the sails, and so perfumed that - The winds were love-sick with them.”—SHAKSPERE. - -One of the first authors who thus endowed non-human objects with human -feelings was the Greek philosopher Empedokles, who flourished about -twenty-three centuries ago. Just as the last of the great German -metaphysicians, Schopenhauer, believed that all the forces of -Nature—astronomic, chemical, biological, etc.—are identical with the -human Will, of which they represent different stages of development or -“objectivation,” so Empedokles insisted that the two ruling passions of -the human soul, Love and Hate, are the two principles which pervade and -rule the whole universe. In the primitive condition of things, he -taught, the four elements, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire are mingled -harmoniously, and Love rules supreme. Then Hate intervenes and produces -individual, separate forms. Plants are developed, and after them -animals, or rather, at first, only single organs—detached eyes, arms, -hands, etc. Then Love reasserts its force and unites these separate -organs into complete animals. Strange monstrosities are the result of -some of these unions—animals of double sex, human heads on the bodies of -oxen, or horned heads on the bodies of men. These, however, perish, -while others, which are congruous and adapted to their surroundings, -survive and multiply. - -Thus Empedokles, “the Greek Darwin,” was the originator of a theory of -evolution based on the alternate predominance of cosmic Love and Hate; -Love being the attractive, Hate the repulsive force. - -In the preface to the first volume of _Don Quixote_, Cervantes refers -those who wish to acquire some information concerning Love to an Italian -treatise by Judah Leo. The full title of the book, which appeared in -Rome in the sixteenth century, is _Dialoghi di amore, Composti da Leone -Medico, di nazione Ebreo, e di poi fatto cristiano_. There are said to -be three French translations of it, but it was only after long searching -that I succeeded in finding a copy, at the Bibliothèque Nationale in -Paris. It proved to be a strange medley of astrology, metaphysics, -theology, classical erudition, mythology, and mediæval science. Burton, -in the chapter on Love, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, quotes freely -from this work of Leo, whom he names as one of about twenty-five authors -who wrote treatises on Love in ancient and mediæval times. - -Like Empedokles, Leo identifies cosmic attraction with Love. But he -points out three degrees of Love—Natural, Sensible, and Rational. - -By Natural Love he means those “sympathies” which attract a stone to the -earth, make rivers flow to the sea, keep the sun, moon, and stars in -their courses, etc. Burton (1652) agrees with Leo, and asks quaintly, -“How comes a loadstone to draw iron to it ... the ground to covet -showers, but for love? ... no stock, no stone, that has not some feeling -of love. ’Tis more eminent in Plants, Hearbs, and is especially observed -in vegetals; as betwixt the Vine and Elm a great sympathy,” etc. - -“Sensible” Love is that which prevails among animals. In it Leo -recognises the higher elements of delight in one another’s company, and -of attachment to a master. - -“Rational” Love, the third and highest class, is peculiar to God, -angels, and men. - -But the inclination to confound gravitation and other natural forces -with Love is not to be found among ancient and mediæval authors alone. -Paradoxical as it may seem, it is the “gross materialist,” Dr. Ludwig -Büchner, who exclaims rapturously: “For it is love, in the form of -_attraction_, which chains stone to stone, earth to earth, star to star, -and which holds together the mighty edifice on which we stand, and on -the surface of which, like parasites, we carry on our existence, barely -noticeable in the infinite universe; and on which we shall continue to -exist till that distant period when its component parts will again be -resolved into that primal chaos from which it laboriously severed itself -millions of years ago, and became a separate planet.” - -Büchner carries on this anthropopathic process a step farther, by -including all the chemical affinities of atoms and molecules as -manifestations of love: “Just as man and woman attract one another, so -oxygen attracts hydrogen, and, in loving union with it, forms water, -that mighty omnipresent element, without which no life nor thought would -be possible.” And again: “Potassium and phosphorus entertain such a -violent passion for oxygen that even under water they burn—_i.e._ unite -themselves with the beloved object.” - -Goethe’s novel, _Elective Affinities_, which was inspired by a late and -hopeless passion of its author, is based on this chemical notion that no -physical obstacle can separate two souls that are united by an amorous -affinity. But the practical outcome of his theory—that the psychic -affinity of two persons suffices to impress the characteristics of both -on the offspring of one of them—has nothing to support it in medical -experience; while the chemical analogy, with all due deference to -Goethe’s reputation as a man of science, is against his view. His notion -was that the children of two souls loving one another will inherit their -characteristics. But what distinguishes a chemical compound (based on -“affinity”) from a mere physical mixture, is precisely the contrary fact -that the compound does not in any respect resemble the parental -elements! Read what a specialist says in Watts’s _Dictionary of -Chemistry_:— - -“Definite chemical compounds generally differ altogether in physical -properties from their components. Thus, with regard to _colour_, yellow -sulphur and gray mercury produce red cinnabar; purple iodine and gray -potassium yield colourless iodide of potassium.... The _density_ of a -compound is very rarely an exact mean between that of its constituents, -being generally higher, and in a few cases lower; and the _taste_, -_smell_, _refracting power_, _fusibility_, _volatility_, _conducting -power for heat and electricity_, and other physical properties, are not -for the most part such as would result from mere mixture of their -constituents.” - -Chemical affinities, accordingly, cannot be used as analogies of Love. -Not even on account of the violent _individual preference_ shown by two -elements for one another, for this apparently _individual_ preference is -really only _generic_. A piece of phosphorus will as readily unite with -one cubic foot of oxygen as with another; whereas it is the very essence -of Love that it demands a union with one particular _individual_, and no -other. - -Equally unsatisfactory are all similar attempts to identify Love with -gravitation or other forms of cosmic attraction. Here is what a great -expert in Love has to say on this subject: “The attraction of love, I -find,” writes Burns, “is in inverse proportion to the attraction of the -Newtonian philosophy. In the system of Sir Isaac, the nearer objects are -to one another, the stronger is the attractive force. In my system, -every milestone that marked my progress from Clarinda awakened a keener -pang of attachment to her.” - -How beautifully, in other respects, does the law of gravitation simulate -the methods of Love! Does not the meteor which passionately falls on -this planet and digs a deep hole into it, show its love in this manner, -even as that affectionate bear who smashed his master’s forehead in -order to kill the fly on it? Does not the avalanche which thunders down -the mountain-side and buries a whole forest and several villages, afford -another touching illustration of the love of attraction, or cosmic -Love?—a crushing argument in its favour? Or the frigid glacier, in its -slower course, does it not lacerate the sides of the valley, and strew -about its precious boulders, merely by way of illustrating the amorous -effect of gravitation? And millions of years hence, will not this same -law of attraction enable the sun to prove his ecstatic love for our -earth by swallowing her up and reducing her to her primitive chaotic -state? Imagine a man and a woman whose love consists in this, that they -must be kept widely separated by a hostile force to prevent them from -dashing together, and reducing each other to atoms and molecules! _That_ -is the “love” of the stars and planets. - -But it is needless to continue this _reductio ad absurdum_ of -pantheistic or panerotic vagaries. The method of the writers on Love -here quoted—Empedokles, Leo, Burton, Büchner—has been to identify Love -with cosmic force simply because they possess in common the one quality -of attraction, by virtue of which the large earth hugs a small stone, -and a large man a small maiden. Modern scientific psychology objects to -this (_i.e._ not the hugging, but the method), because it does not in -the least aid us in understanding the nature of Love; and because it is -as irrational to call attraction Love as it would be to call a brick a -house, a leaf a tree, or a green daub a rainbow. For Love embraces every -colour in the spectrum of human emotion. - -Having failed to find a satisfactory solution of the mystery of Love in -the inorganic world, let us now see if the vegetable kingdom offers no -better analogies in its sexual phenomena. - - - - - FLOWER LOVE AND BEAUTY - - -Until a few decades ago, it was the universal belief that flowers had -been specially created for man’s exclusive delight. This was such an -easy way, you know, to overcome the difficulty of explaining the immense -variety of forms and colours in the floral world; and it was, above all, -so flattering to man’s egregious vanity. But one fine morning in May a -German naturalist, Conrad Sprengel, published a remarkable book in which -he pointed out that flowers owe their peculiar shape, colour, and -fragrance to the visits of insects. Not that the insects visit the -flowers in order to shape and paint and perfume them. On the contrary, -they visit them for the unæsthetic purpose of eating their pollen and -their honey; while the flowers’ scent and colour exist solely for the -purpose of indicating to winged insects at a distance where they can -find a savoury lunch. - -But why should flowers take such pains to attract insects by serving -them with a breakfast of honey, and by hanging out big petals to serve -as coloured and perfumed signal-flags? Nature is economical in the -expenditure of energy; and as the production of honey and large flowers -costs the plant some of its vital energies, we may be sure that this -expenditure secures the plant some superior advantage. Sprengel noticed -that the insects, while pillaging flowers of their honey, unwittingly -brushed off with their wings and feet some of the fertilising dust or -pollen, and carried it to the pistil or female part of a flower. But it -remained for Darwin to point out what advantage this transference of the -pollen secured to the flower. Darwin, says Sir John Lubbock, “was the -first clearly to perceive that the essential service which insects -perform to flowers consists not only in transferring the pollen from the -stamens to the pistil, but in transferring it from the stamens of one -flower to the pistil of another. Sprengel had indeed observed in more -than one instance that this was the case, but he did not altogether -appreciate the importance of the fact. Mr. Darwin however, has not only -made it clear from theoretical considerations, but has also proved it, -in a variety of cases, by actual experiment. More recently Fritz Müller -has even shown that in some cases pollen, if placed on the stigma of the -same flower, has no more effect than so much inorganic dust; while, and -this is perhaps even more extraordinary, in others, the pollen placed on -the stigma of the same flower acted on it like poison”—a curious analogy -to the current belief that close intermarriage is injurious to mankind. - -What Darwin and others have proved by their experiments is that -cross-fertilised flowers are more vigorous than those fertilised with -their own pollen, and have a more healthy and numerous offspring. With -this fact before us we need only apply the usual evolutionary formula to -account for the beauty of flowers. It is well known that Nature rarely, -if ever, produces two leaves or plants that are exactly alike. There is -also a natural tendency in all parts of a plant except the leaves to -develop other colours besides green. Now any plant which, owing to -chemical causes, favourable position, etc., developed an unusually -brilliant colour, would be likely to attract the attention of a winged -insect in search of pollen-food. The insect, by alighting on a second -flower soon after, would fertilise it with the pollen of the first -flower that adhered to its limbs, thus securing to the plant the -advantages of cross-fertilisation. Thanks to the laws of heredity, this -advantage would be transmitted to the young plants, among which again -those most favoured would gain an advantage and a more numerous -offspring. And thus the gradual development not only of coloured petals, -but of scents and honey, can be accounted for. - -What makes this argument irresistible is the additional fact, first -pointed out by Darwin, that plants which are not visited by insects, but -are fertilised by the agency of the wind, are neither adorned with -beautifully-coloured flowers, nor provided with honey or fragrance. And -another most important fact: Darwin found that flowers which depend on -the wind for their fertilisation follow the natural tendency of objects -to a symmetrical form; whereas the irregular flowers are always those -fertilised by insects or birds. This points to the conclusion that -insects and birds are responsible not only for the colours and fragrance -of flowers, but also for the shape of those that are most unique and -fantastic. And this _a priori_ inference is borne out by thousands of -curious and most fascinating observations described in the works of -Darwin, Lubbock, Müller, and many others. The briefest and clearest -presentation of the subject is in Lubbock’s _Flowers, Fruits, and -Leaves_, which no one interested in natural æsthetics should fail to -read. There is indeed no more interesting study in biology than the -mutual adaptation of flowers, bees, butterflies, humming-birds, etc.; -for just as these animals have modified the forms of flowers, so the -flowers have altered the shape of these animals. - -Many of the changes in the shapes of flowers are made not only with a -view to facilitate the visits of winged insects, but also for keeping -out creeping intruders, such as ants, which are very fond of honey, -but which, as they do not fly, would not aid the cause of -cross-fertilisation. Of these contrivances, “the most frequent are the -interposition of _chevaux de frise_, which ants cannot penetrate, -glutinous surfaces which they cannot traverse, slippery slopes which -they cannot climb, or barriers which close the way.” - -How obtuse are those who, with Ruskin and Emerson, accuse science of -destroying the poetry of nature! What poetry is there in the thought -that flowers were made for unæsthetic man, when not one man in a -thousand ever takes the trouble to examine one, while for every single -flower on which a human eye ever rests, a million are born to blush -unseen? - -But if we abandon the narrow anthropocentric point of view, and admit -that insects too have a right to live, how the scope of Nature’s poetry -widens! How easy it then becomes to share not only Wordsworth’s belief -that “every flower enjoys the air it breathes,” but to endow it with a -thousand thoughts and emotions like our own—delight in a gaily-coloured -floral envelope; hope that yonder gaudy butterfly will be attracted by -it; anxiety lest that “horrid” ant may steal some of its honey; -determination to breathe the sweetest perfume on this darling honey bee, -so as to induce it to speedily call again. - -Love dramas, too, tragic and comic, are enacted in this world of flowers -and insects. Thus the Arum plant resorts to the following stratagem to -secure a messenger of love for carrying its pollen to a distant female -flower:— - -“The stigmas come to maturity first, and have lost the possibility of -fertilisation before the pollen is ripe. The pollen must therefore be -brought by insects, and this is effected by small flies, which enter the -leaf, either for the sake of honey or of shelter, and which, moreover, -when they have once entered the tube, are imprisoned by the fringe of -hairs. When the anthers ripen, the pollen falls on to the flies, which, -in their efforts to escape, get thoroughly dusted with it. Then the -fringe of hairs withers, and the flies, thus set free, soon come out, -and ere long carry the pollen to another plant” (Lubbock). - -Then there are male flowers which go a-courting like any amorous swain -of a Sunday night. One of these belongs to the Valisneria plant, -concerning which the same writer observes that “the female flowers are -borne on long stalks, which reach to the surface of the water, on which -the flowers float. The male flowers, on the contrary, have short, -straight stalks, from which, when mature, the pollen detaches itself, -rises to the surface, and, floating freely on it, is wafted about, so -that it comes in contact with the female flowers.” - -But alas for the poor flowers! Few of them are thus privileged to roam -about and seek their own bride. Most flowers have no more free choice in -the selection of their spouse than an Oriental or a French girl. There -is no previous acquaintance, no courtship before marriage, hence no -Romantic Love, even if the undifferentiated germs of nervous protoplasm -in the plant were capable of feeling such an emotion. - -Poor flowers! Their honeymoon is without pleasure, unconscious. The wind -may woo, the butterfly caress them—but the wind has no thought of the -flower, and the insect’s attachment is mere “cupboard love.” The beauty -of one flower cannot exist for another which has no eyes to see it; its -honey and its fragrance are not for a floral lover’s delight, but for a -gastronomic insect’s epicurean use. No modest coyness, no harmless -flirtation, no gallant devotion and self-sacrifice, enter into the -flower’s sexual life; not even the bitter-sweet pangs of jealousy, for, -as Heine has ascertained, “the butterfly stops not to ask the flower, -‘Has any one kissed thee before?’ nor does the flower ask, ‘Hast thou -already flitted about another?’” - -Thus “flower-love,” with all its poetic analogies, has none of the -elements of Romantic Love. Even attraction fails, for plants are -commonly sessile, and cannot go forth to seek a mate. - - “I prayed the flowers, - Oh, tell me, what is love? - Only _a fragrant sigh_ was wafted - Thro’ the night.”—_German Song._ - -Two important lessons of this chapter should, however, be carefully -borne in mind; for though our search for Love has so far yielded only -negative results, some light has been thrown on the general laws of -Beauty in Nature. The lessons are:— - -(1) That there is in flowers a natural tendency towards Symmetry of -Form, all normal irregularities being due to the agency of insects and -birds. - -(2) That the superior Beauty of one flower over another is due to its -superior vitality or Health, which, again, is promoted by -cross-fertilisation or intermarriage—the choosing of a mate not in the -same but in another flower-bed. - -Regarding the beauty of flowers a further detail may be added. Some of -the coloured lines on flowers are so placed as to guide the visiting -bees to the nectar or honey. More complicated colour-patterns probably -owe their existence to the advantage of having an easy means of -recognition at a distance. It is well known that bees on any single -expedition visit the flowers of one species only. Now it has been -experimentally proved by Lubbock that bees can distinguish different -colours; and, if we may judge by analogy with the human eye, they can -distinguish colours at a greater distance than forms. Hence the -advantage to each flower of having its own colours in its flag. - - - - - IMPERSONAL AFFECTION - - -From the sexual life of plants we ought to pass on to that of animals; -but before doing so, it will be advisable to ascertain clearly what is -meant by Romantic Love, and how it differs from other forms of -affection, impersonal and personal; from the love for inanimate objects -and for plants and animals; from the family affections—maternal, -paternal, filial, brotherly, and sisterly love; from friendship; and -from conjugal love. - -Love is the most attractive word in the language, as Heine and Oliver -Wendell Holmes have remarked. Out of every half-dozen novels one is -likely to have the word Love in its title, as a bait sure to catch -readers. But whereas novelists always use this word in the sense of -Romantic or pre-matrimonial Love, in common language it is vaguely used -as a synonym for any kind of attachment, from that of Romeo to the -schoolgirl who “just _loves_ caramels.” For the verb _to love_ there is -perhaps no satisfactory and equally comprehensive substitute; but in -place of the noun _love_ it is advisable, at least in a scientific work, -to use the word Affection, which comprehends every form of love -mentioned above. In the present work Love, with a capital L, always -means Romantic Love. - -Professor Calderwood, in his _Handbook of Moral Philosophy_, says that -“Affection is inclination towards others, disposing us to give from our -own resources what may influence them either for good or ill. In -practical tendency, the Affections are the reverse of the Desires. -Desires absorb, Affections give out. Affections presuppose a recognition -of certain qualities in persons, and, in a modified degree, in lower -_sentient_ beings, but _not in things_, for the exercise of Affection -presupposes in the object of it the possibility either of harmony or -antagonism of feeling.” - -In other words, the eminent Scotch moralist thinks we can entertain -affections only towards human beings, and, to some degree, towards -animals; but not towards plants or inanimate objects. Careful analysis -of our emotions, however, does not sustain this distinction, which is as -unpoetic as it is anthropocentric and unscientific. Dr. Calderwood -obviously confounds affection with sympathy. Sympathy means literally to -suffer with another, or to share his feelings; and this, indeed, -“presupposes in the object of it the possibility either of harmony or -antagonism of feeling.” But affection, in his own words, “gives out,” -and hence can be bestowed, and _is_ bestowed, by all emotional and -refined persons on a variety of “things,” that are neither sentient nor -even animate; and a poetic soul will even feel _sympathy_ with such a -non-sentient thing as a crushed flower, for his imagination -unconsciously endows it with the requisite feeling. - -“Things” are of two kinds—those fashioned by man, and those produced by -Nature. A poem, a symphony, a violin, a novel come under the first head; -a tree, a precious metal, a mountain under the second. An author who has -passed through the whole gamut of emotion in writing his book, follows -its fate with a paternal pride and an affectionate anxiety as great as -if his bodily child had been sent into the world to seek its fortune. -Perhaps the story of the German soldier who was carried off his feet by -a cannon-ball, and who grasped first his pipe and then his severed leg, -is not a legend. For was not his pipe, like a good, friend, associated -with all the pleasant hours of his life? An artist certainly can -entertain for his favourite instrument an affection almost, if not -quite, human in quality. When Ole Bull suffered shipwreck on the -Mississippi, he swam ashore, holding his violin high above water, at the -risk of his life. And to an amateur who has often called upon his -pianoforte to feed his momentary mood with a nocturne or a scherzo, the -instrument soon assumes the functions of “a true friend, to whom,” as -Bacon would say, “you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, -counsels, and whatever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of -civil shrift or confession.” - -As for “things” not produced by man, who that has ever spent a summer in -Switzerland is not quite willing to believe the legend of the Swiss -Heimweh—the exiled mountaineer’s reminiscent longing and affection for -his native haunts, which causes him to die of a broken heart, even if -wife and children accompany him in his exile? His feelings are not -identical with the æsthetic admiration of a tourist; for these imply a -certain degree of novelty and artistic perception foreign to his mind. -They are true _impersonal affection_, for the snowy summits, sluggish -glaciers, azure lakes, chasing clouds coyly playing hide-and-seek with -the scenery below; the balmy breezes, and boisterous storm-winds; the -green slopes studded with cows, whose welcome chimes alone interrupt the -sublime silence of the Alpine summits. For these sounds and scenes are -so interwoven with all his experiences, thoughts, and associations, that -he cannot live and be happy without them in a foreign land. - -The attitude of an æsthetically-refined visitor is thus expressed by -Byron: “I live not in myself, but I become portion of that around me; -and to me high mountains are a feeling”—a poetic anticipation of -Schopenhauer’s doctrine, that for true æsthetic enjoyment it is -necessary that the percipient subject be completely merged in the -perceived object,—the personal man and the impersonal mountain becoming -one and indistinguishable. - -Like Romantic Love, the affection for the grander aspects of Nature -appears to be essentially a modern sentiment. The Greeks, as has often -been pointed out, had little regard for the impersonal beauties of -Nature; and to make the forests, brooks, and mountains attractive to the -popular mind the poets had to people them with personal beauties; with -nymphs and dryads and goddesses. - -The latest phase of the modern passion for impersonal nature includes -even its most dismal and awe-inspiring aspects, with an ecstatic -predilection that would have seemed incomprehensible to an ancient -Greek. This phase has been thus beautifully described by Ruskin: “There -is a sense of the material beauty, both of inanimate nature, the lower -animals, and human beings, which in the iridescence, colour-depth, and -morbid (I use the word deliberately) mystery and softness of it—with -other qualities indescribable by any single words, and only to be -analysed by extreme care—is found to the full only in five men that I -know of in modern times; namely, Rousseau, Shelley, Byron, Turner, and -myself, differing totally and in the entire group of us from the delight -in clear-struck beauty of Angelico and the Trecentisti, and separated, -much more singularly, from the cheerful joys of Chaucer, Shakspere, and -Scott, by its unaccountable _affection_ for ‘Rokkes blok’ and other -forms of terror and power, such as those of the ice-oceans, which to -Shakspere were only Alpine rheum; and the Via Malas and Diabolic Bridges -which Dante would have condemned none but lost souls to climb or -cross,—all this love of impending mountains, coiled thunderclouds, and -dangerous sea, being joined in us with a sulky, almost ferine, love of -retreat in valleys of Charmettes, gulphs of Spezzia, ravines of Olympus, -low lodgings in Chelsea, and close brushwood at Coniston.” - -Ruskin flatters himself if he still imagines he is the sole living -possessor of this feeling. Though there is much hypocrisy and -guide-book-star-admiration among tourists, there are yet unquestionably -hundreds who enjoy the Via Malas, the ice-oceans and solitary Swiss -valleys they visit; and though their dismal delight may not be so -intense as Ruskin’s, it is yet sufficient to indicate the growth of a -general affection for impersonal nature in all her moods, whether -smiling or frowning. - -To a mind that can thus rise above human associations and utilities, the -sublimest thing in the world is the absolute solitude of an Alpine -summit. To the ignorant peasant the harsh cow-bell which interrupts this -silence is sweet music, because it suggests the abodes of mankind; and -on this primitive stage of æsthetic culture Jeffrey placed himself when -he wrote that, “It is man, and man alone, that we see in the beauties of -the earth which he inhabits.” - -Inasmuch as mountain solitudes are accessible to only a very small -proportion of mankind, the existence of true impersonal affection on a -large scale can be more easily demonstrated by recurring for a moment to -the floral world. A city belle is apt to look upon flowers merely from a -social or military point of view; the more bouquets, the more evidence -of admiration and conquest. of male hearts. And the city belle can -hardly be blamed for this callousness of feeling; for bunched flowers -have lost as much of their natural charm and grace as butterflies stuck -up on rows of pins in a museum. But watch that fair gardener in a -suburban cottage or a country seat; how she recognises every individual -plant, every single flower, as a friend for whose comfort she provides -with all the affectionate care which as a child she lavished on her -doll. If, after a refreshing shower, the flowers hold up their heads and -look bright and happy, her face reflects the same feeling; if a drouth -has parched them and dimmed their lustre, she will neglect her own -pleasures to bring them water, and derive from this charitable action -the same sympathetic pleasure as if they had been so many suffering -human beings. And if an early frost kills all her floral friends, her -sorrow and despair will find vent in a flood of tears. What is all this -but affection—true affection—though flowers be but “things,” and not -“sentient beings.” - -Obviously Professor Calderwood erred in his definition of affection; -for, as the above analysis shows, when the regard for an impersonal -object rises to the fervour of adoring interest, it does not -specifically differ from personal affections any more than, for example, -maternal love differs from friendship. Unemotional persons, who have had -no opportunities to cultivate their love of Nature, may feel inclined to -doubt this; but they should remember that just as there is an -intellectual eminence (Shakspere, Kant, Wagner) which the ignorant are -too lazy or too weak to climb, so there is an emotional horizon, beyond -which those only can see who have taken the trouble to ascend the summit -whence a wider scene is unfolded to the view. - -From one point of view, impersonal affections are even higher and nobler -than personal attachments. The evolution of emotions has been but little -studied, but so much is apparent—that there has been a gradual -development from utilitarian attachments to those that are less -utilitarian, or less obviously so. Personal affections are too often -exclusively selfish and based on material interests, as the loss of -“friends,” which commonly follows the loss of wealth or position, shows. -Whereas impersonal attachments are less apt to be interested, selfish, -and fickle, since they presuppose more intellectual power, more -imagination, more refinement. - -Again, although it must be admitted that man is the crown and compendium -of Nature, uniting in himself most of the excellences of the lower -kingdoms with others exclusively his own; yet it cannot be denied, -either, that the vast majority of these “crowns” of Nature are so full -of flaws in workmanship, and have lost so many of their jewels, that the -sight of them is anything but exhilarating. Indeed, it is obvious that -the average plant and the average animal are, _in their way_, far -superior to the average man, in beauty, health, vitality; natural -selection, which has been arrested in man, having made them so. No -wonder, then, that some of the greatest minds have turned away from -mankind, and devoted all their thoughts and energies to the world of -“things” and ideas. - -Goethe and other men of genius have often been accused of being cold and -unsympathetic, because they refused to shape their conduct so as to -please the people with whom they chanced to come into contact. Had they -wasted their affections and sympathies on their commonplace admirers and -acquaintances, instead of bestowing them on art and science, on the -great ideas that teemed in their brains, we should now be without many -of those glorious works which could never have been created had not -their authors ignored personal relations for the time being, and -bestowed all their warmest impersonal affections on their ideas. - -As compared with men of genius, women have achieved but little that can -lay claim to immortal fame; and the principal reason of this is that -their affections are apt to be too exclusively personal. A girl will -assiduously practice on the piano as long as that will assist her in -fascinating her suitors. But how many women, outside the ranks of -teachers, continue their practice after marriage, from the _impersonal_ -love of music itself? Needless to say they have no time; for every hour -devoted to emotional refreshment strengthens the nerves for two hours of -extra labour. - -As regards the love of Nature, woman is, indeed, artificially hampered. -She may botanise to some extent, but she cannot, as a rule, indulge in -those solitary walks in a virgin forest which alone can establish a deep -communion with Nature. If accompanied by friend, brother, husband, or -lover, her thought will inevitably retain a human tinge. No doubt there -is something comic in the ardent affection with which a German professor -hugs his pet theory regarding the Greek dative, or the origin of honey -in flowers, and in the ferocity with which he will defend it against his -best friends, if they happen to oppose it. But such complete devotion to -abstract crotchets is absolutely necessary to the discovery of original -ideas: and as women are rarely able or willing to emerge from the haunts -of personal emotion, this explains why they have achieved greatness in -hardly anything but novel-writing, which is chiefly concerned with -personal emotions. - - - - - PERSONAL AFFECTIONS - - I.—LOVE FOR ANIMALS - -Over inanimate objects and plants we have this great emotional advantage -that we can love them, whereas they cannot love us, nor even one -another, though related by marriage, like flowers. - -Animals, however, can love both us and one another and be loved; and -this establishes a distinction between them and lower beings, and a -relationship with us, that warrants us in placing their attachments -under the head of Personal Affections. - -Calderwood is sufficiently liberal to admit that, to a degree animals -may be included in our affections. But Adolf Horwicz who has written the -most complete, and, on the whole, most satisfactory analysis of the -human feelings in existence, denies this. “Love is and remains a -personal feeling,” he asserts; it “can only be referred to persons, not -to things. The tenderness of American ladies towards dogs and cats is -simply a gross emotional caricature.” - -So it is, very often, especially in the case of ladies who neglect their -children and make fashionable pets of animals, changing and exchanging -them with the fashion. But it is simply absurd to mention this case as a -fair instance of human love towards animals. How many of the greatest -geniuses the world has produced have become famous for their -affectionate devotion to their dogs! “A dog!” says an old English -writer, “is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he -loves himself.” And should we be morally inferior to the dog—unable to -love him in return? especially when we remember that “histories,” as -Pope remarks, “are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of -friends.” - -Vischer, the well-known German writer on æsthetics, goes so far as to -admit that whenever he is in society his only wish is, “Oh, if there was -only a dog here!” - -There is something much nobler and deeper than sarcasm on humanity in -Byron’s famous epitaph on his dog:— - - “Near this spot - Are deposited the remains of one - Who possessed Beauty without Vanity, - Strength without Insolence, - Courage without Ferocity, - And all the Virtues of man without his Vices.” - -I wonder if Horwicz could read the following exquisite prose poem of -Turgenieff without feeling ashamed of himself:— - -"We two are sitting in the room: my dog and I. A violent storm is raging -without. - -"The dog sits close before me—he gazes straight into my eyes. - -"And I too gaze straight into his eyes. - -"It seems as if he wished to say something to me. He is dumb, has no -words, does not understand himself; but I understand him. - -"I understand that he and I are at this moment governed by the same -feeling, that there is not the slightest difference between us. We are -beings of the same kind. In each of us shines and glows the same flame. - -"Death approaches, flapping his broad, cold, moist wings.... - -"And all is ended. - -"Who then will establish the difference between the flames which glowed -within us two? - -"No! We who exchange those glances are not animal and man. - -"Created alike are the two pairs of eyes that are fixed on each other. - -“And each of these eye-pairs, that of the man as well as that of the -animal, expresses clearly and distinctly _an anxious craving for mutual -caresses_.” - -It is a vicious trait of the human character that it soon grows callous -to caresses, and that the unmasked expression of tender emotion is -regarded as undignified and in “bad form.” It is the absence in the -dog’s mind of this ugly human trait that makes him such a delightful -friend and companion. However much you caress and fondle him, he will -always be anxious and grateful for the next gentle pat on the head, the -next kind look, and will never despise you for any excess of fond -emotion lavished on him. - -The greatest flaw in Christian ethics is, that it takes so little -account of this capacity of animals for affection, and our duties -towards them. The duty of kindness towards animals is indeed, as Mr. -Lecky remarks, “the one form of humanity which appears more prominently -in the Old Testament than in the New.” “Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth -of the ox that treadeth out the corn,” is a precept which deprecates -even a very modified form of cruelty to animals. Had this precept been -given in a more generalised and comprehensive form, what an incalculable -amount of suffering might have been saved the animals that had the -misfortune to be born in Christian countries, as compared with those in -the Oriental countries. - -According to Mr. Lecky, Plutarch was the first writer who placed the -duty of kindness to animals on purely moral grounds; “and he urges that -duty with an emphasis and detail to which no adequate parallel can, I -believe, be found in the Christian writings for at least 1700 years.” -Some of the earlier Greek philosophers had based this duty on the -doctrine of the transmigration of human souls into animal bodies; and it -is related that Pythagoras used to buy of fishermen the whole contents -of their nets, for the pleasure of letting the fish go again. Leonardo -da Vinci, from less superstitious motives, used to buy caged birds for -the same purpose; and similar traits are told of other men of genius who -were sufficiently refined to recognise the evidences of emotion in -animals. In our times, finally, we have a man, Mr. Bergh, who devotes -his whole life to the object of establishing the personal rights of -animals to kind treatment on legal grounds. - -But, after all, the most influential friend animals have ever possessed -was Darwin, who, by establishing their relationship to man on grounds -which no one who understands the evidence can question, for ever -vindicated for them the privilege of personal affection. The very -grammar of our language has been affected by Darwinism. Formerly, it was -customary to write “the dog _which_ jumped into the water to save a -child.” Now we say, “the dog _who_ jumped into the water.” In other -words, animals are no longer regarded as “things,” or animated machines, -but as persons. - - - II.—MATERNAL LOVE - -Within the range of impersonal emotions and affections, as we have seen, -women are vastly inferior to men; but in personal affections—partly -owing to their almost exclusive devotion to them—women are commonly -superior to men. Not always, however; for, as we shall see later on, the -prevalent dogma that woman’s Romantic Love is deeper and more ardent -than man’s is an absurd myth. But in conjugal affection—which differs -widely from Romantic Love—woman is generally more sincere, devoted, and -self-sacrificing than man. In friendship, too, women are more sincere -and ardent than men; for friendship is an ancient, rather than a modern -sentiment; and as women are more conservative than men, they have -preserved this sentiment (at least in early life), while among men it -has become nearly extinct:— - - “All friendship is feigning, all loving mere folly.”—SHAKSPERE. - -But the one affection in which woman stands infinitely above man is the -maternal, compared with which paternal love is ordinarily a mere shadow. -Romantic Love in man and child-love in woman are the two strongest -passions which the human mind entertains. - -In depth and strength these two passions are perhaps alike. In point of -antiquity, the maternal feeling has an advantage over the Love-passion; -for, of all personal affections, the maternal was developed first, and -the sentiment of Romantic Love last. - -Personal affections are of two kinds: (1) Those based on -blood-relationship—maternal, paternal, filial, brotherly, and sisterly -love; (2) Those not based on blood-relationship—friendship and Romantic -Love. Conjugal affection belongs psychologically to the first class. - -That of all relationships the one between mother and child is the most -intimate is obvious. The child is part and parcel of the mother: her own -flesh and blood and soul; and in loving it the mother practically loves -a detached portion of herself—thus uniting the force of selfish with -that of altruistic emotion. This is the primitive fountain of maternal -affection. A second source of it lies in the resemblance of the child to -the father, reviving in the mother’s memory the romantic days of -pre-matrimonial Love. It must be an unending source of interest in a -mother’s mind to note which of the child’s traits are derived from her, -which from the father. If she loves herself, and loves her husband, the -child that unites the traits of both must be doubly dear to her. The -fact that the child is inseparably associated with all the mother’s joys -and sorrows, from the wedding-day to death, constitutes a third source -of her attachment; and a fourth is the social regard and honour which an -energetic and gifted son, or a beautiful and accomplished daughter, may -reflect on her. - -The mother herself is of course unconscious of the complex nature of her -feeling and its origin; especially in the first days, when the new -feeling dawns upon her like a revelation. As in the case of budding -Love, the feeling is at first less individual than generic—less the -affection of this particular mother for this particular child than the -bursting out of the general feeling of motherhood, inherited by her in -common with all women. - -Natural selection helps us to explain how this general feeling of -motherhood was developed. As among animals, so among our savage and -semi-civilised ancestors, those mothers who fondly cared for their -infants naturally succeeded in rearing a larger and more vigorous -progeny than those mothers who neglected their children. And through -hereditary transmission this instinct gradually acquired, that -marvellous intensity and power which we now admire. - -The sublime and almost terrible height to which this emotion can rise is -most realistically depicted in Rubens’s famous picture in Munich, -representing the murder of the children at Bethlehem; in which mothers -grasp the naked daggers, and frantically expose their breasts to receive -the blows intended for their little ones. Throughout the animal kingdom, -including mankind, the female is less pugnacious than the male, less -provided with means of defence, and hence more gentle and timid; yet in -the moment of peril the mother’s affection absolutely annihilates fear, -and makes her face danger and death with a courage, supernatural -strength, and endurance, rarely equalled by man, with all his weapons -and natural consciousness of superior muscle. - -It is in this blind, impetuous, passionate willingness of self-sacrifice -that maternal affection most closely resembles the passion of Romantic -Love. - - III.—PATERNAL LOVE - -For paternal affection Natural Selection has done much less than for -maternal; and it is easy to understand why. For, useful as the father’s -assistance is in securing various advantages to the growing child, yet -even if he should cruelly abandon it altogether, the maternal love would -still remain interposed to save and rear it. - -Nor is it in the human race alone that paternal is weaker than maternal -love. Among mammals, as Horwicz remarks, we even come across a Herr Papa -occasionally who shows a great inclination to dine on his progeny. And -how irregularly the paternal—sometimes even the maternal—instinct is -displayed among savages is graphically shown by this group of cases -collected by Herbert Spencer:— - -“As among brutes the philoprogenitive instinct is occasionally -suppressed by the desire to kill, and even devour, their young ones; so -among primitive men this instinct is now and again overridden by -impulses temporarily excited. Thus, though attached to their offspring, -Australian mothers, when in danger, will sometimes desert them; and if -we may believe Angas, men have been known to bait their hooks with the -flesh of boys they have killed. Thus, notwithstanding their marked -parental affection, Fuegians sell their children for slaves; thus, among -the Chonos Indians, a father, though doting on his boy, will kill him in -a fit of anger for an accidental offence. Everywhere among the lower -races we meet with like incongruities. Falkner, while describing the -paternal feelings of Patagonians as very strong, says they often pawn -and sell their wives and little ones to the Spaniards for brandy. -Speaking of the children of the Sound Indians, Bancroft says they ‘sell -or gamble them away.’ According to Simpson, the Pi-Edes ‘barter their -children to the Utes proper for a few trinkets or bits of clothing.’ And -of the Macusi, Schomburgk writes, ‘the price of a child is the same as -an Indian asks for his dog.’ This seemingly heartless conduct to -children often arises from the difficulty experienced in rearing them.” - -Some light is thrown on the genesis and composition of parental -affection by the three reasons named by Spencer, why among savages and -semi-civilised peoples in general sons were much more appreciated than -daughters. While daughters were little more than an encumbrance to the -parents, useless before puberty, and lost to them after marriage, the -sons could make themselves useful in warding off the enemy, in avenging -personal injuries, and in performing the funeral rites for the benefit -of departed ancestors. - -In a higher stage of civilisation it is probable that utilitarian -considerations of a somewhat different kind still formed a principal -ingredient in parental love. A son was valued as an assistant in -workshop or field, a daughter as a domestic drudge. Feelings of a -tenderer nature were of course sometimes present, but that they were not -general is shown by the fact, attested by numerous historic examples, -that the aim of our paternal ancestors in centuries past was to make -their children fear rather than love them. - -A slight element of fear is indeed necessary for the maintenance of -filial respect and discipline; but our forefathers were too prone to -sacrifice their tender feelings of sympathy with their offspring to the -gratification of parental authority, for the obvious reason that the -latter feeling was stronger than the former. The frequency with which -daughters especially were forced to sacrifice their personal preferences -in marriage to the ambitions and whims of their father, affords the most -striking instance of the former embryonic state of parental affection. - -In modern parental love Pride is perhaps the most conspicuous trait. -This Pride has two aspects—one comic, one serious. Nothing is more -amusing than the suddenness with which the “pride of authorship” -converts a bachelor’s well-known horror of babies into the young -father’s fantastic worship. Yet though he feels “like a little tin god -on wheels,” he recognises the superior rank of the young prince, spoils -his best trousers in kneeling before him, allows him to pull his -moustache and whiskers, and, indeed, shows a disposition towards -self-sacrifice almost worthy of a lover. - -The serious side of the matter reveals one of the greatest differences -between paternal and maternal love. A mother’s love is largely -influenced by pity; hence she is very apt to lavish her fondest caresses -on that child which happens to be imperfect in some way—say a -cripple—and therefore unhappy. The father on the other hand, will show -most favour to his handsomest daughter, his most talented son; and -nothing will so swell a father’s heart and cause it to overflow with -affection as the news of some great distinction acquired by this son. - - - IV.—FILIAL LOVE - -Mr. Spencer is doubtless right in asserting that of all family -affections filial love is the least developed; and in tracing this -weakness especially to the parental harshness and disposition to inspire -excessive fear just referred to. In Germany the example of the Prussian -king who so unmercifully treated his children was extensively imitated. -The condition in France is indicated by the words of Chateaubriand: “My -mother, my sister, and myself, transformed into statues by my father’s -presence, only recover ourselves after he leaves the room;” and in -England, in the fifteenth century, says Wright, “Young ladies, even of -great families, were brought up not only strictly, but even -tyrannically.” And even two centuries later “children stood or knelt in -trembling silence in the presence of their fathers and mothers, and -might not sit without permission.” - -Among animals filial affection can scarcely be said to exist, except as -a very utilitarian craving for protection and sustenance. Among -primitive men it is a common practice to abandon aged parents to their -fate. The parents do not resent this treatment; and of the Nascopies -Heriot even says that the aged father “usually employed as his -executioner the son who is most dear to him.” Nor are cases of heartless -neglect at all uncommon even among modern civilised communities. But the -gradual change of fathers “from masters into friends” has tended to -multiply and intensify filial love at the same rate as paternal; and the -advance of moral refinement will tend to make the lot of aged parents -more and more pleasant, not only because the duty of gratitude for -favours received will be more vividly realised and enforced by example, -but because the cultivation of the imagination intensifies sympathy, -thus making it impossible for a son or daughter to be happy while they -know their parents to be unhappy. - -Our feelings are curiously complicated and subtly interwoven. Parents -feel a natural pride in their children. The best way therefore to repay -them for all their troubles is to act in such a way as to justify and -intensify that pride. On the other hand, the thought that the parental -pride is gratified also gratifies filial vanity, and proves an -additional incentive to ambitious effort. - - V.—BROTHERLY AND SISTERLY LOVE - -Young people of both sexes more frequently make confidants and “bosom -friends” of their playmates and classmates than of their brothers and -sisters. Why is this so? Novelty perhaps has something to do with it. -The domestic experiences and emotions of two brothers or sisters are apt -to be so much alike as to become monotonous; whereas a member of another -family may initiate them into a fresh and fascinating sphere of emotion -and a novel way of looking at things. Moreover, friendship is very -capricious in its choice; and as the number of brothers and sisters is -limited, the selection is apt to be made in the wider field outside the -domestic circle. Again, it is a peculiarity of human nature to appear in -great _négligé_ at home, and to regard the nearest relatives as the best -lightning-rods for disagreeable moods; and this does not tend to deepen -the love of brothers and sisters. - -It may be doubted whether this form of affection exists among animals or -among primitive men; and even among civilised peoples the bond is but a -weak one, except in the most refined families. Though brothers feel -bound to protect their sisters, they reserve most of their gallantry for -some one else’s sister; and though a sister will feel proud if her -brother is one of a victorious crew, her heart will beat twice as fast -if it is her lover instead of her brother. The English language has not -even a collective word for the love of brothers and sisters; and even -the partial terms, “sisterly love” and “brotherly love,” have more of an -ecclesiastic than a domestic flavour. The German language has a -collective word—and a big one too,—_Geschwisterliebe_; but it would -perhaps be misleading to infer from its existence and size that this -species of family love is more developed in Germany than in England. The -German’s advantage appears to be philological merely, and not -sociological. He is less of a traveller and colonist than the -Englishman, who is very often separated from his brothers and sisters -for years. Yet this sometimes is rather a gain than a loss; for it -destroys that excessive familiarity which, as just noted, makes -friendship rarer among members of the same hearth than between -individuals of different families. - -To the wider circles of blood-relationship—up to “forty-second -cousins”—the Germans pay much more regard than the English; and the -French perhaps go a step beyond the Germans. For in France each family, -with its ramifications, forms a sort of clique into which an outsider -can rarely enter. Needless to say that this forms a great impediment to -Love’s free choice. - - VI.—FRIENDSHIP - -If we now turn to the two remaining species of personal -affection—Friendship and Love—the emotional scenery undergoes a great -change. In all the cases so far considered, blood-relationship was _a -source of affection_; whereas in friendship it is commonly a -disadvantage, and in Romantic Love it is positively abhorred, except in -the more remote degrees. Some savage tribes, it is true, allow, or even -prescribe, marriages between brother and sister—especially a younger -sister; and cases occur of marriages between father and daughter, mother -and son. But civilised society—guided by religious precepts, and -possibly also by a vague instinctive recognition of the advantages of -cross-fertilisation—condemns such unions as hideous crimes; and the -mediæval theologians, in their extreme zeal, forbade all marriages -within the seventh degree of relationship. - -In the case of friendship the objection to blood-relationship is not -founded on a social or religious precept; but it exists all the same, as -already noted. Perhaps Jean Paul’s maxim that friends may have -everything in common except their room accounts for its existence. -Brothers and sisters are commonly too much alike in their thoughts and -tastes to become friends, in the special sense of the word. Hence it is -that there is apt to be a deeper attachment between those brothers and -sisters who have frequently been separated by school-terms than among -those who are always together. For in friendship, as in love, a short -absence is advantageous. - -Friendship is partly an outgrowth of the social instinct and partly a -result of special associations, habit, community of interests and -tastes. As a boy I had an opportunity to make some interesting -observations on friendship among animals, showing that it differed in -degree only, and not in kind or origin, from that of man. Among the -animals we kept at our country-house were a dog, a pet sheep, and some -pigs. The dog showed his confidence in the sheep’s amiable forbearance -by abandoning his cold kennel on winter nights and seeking warmer -quarters by the side of his woolly neighbour. For the pigs his friendly -regards were shown in a less utilitarian manner, by driving away, -unbidden and untaught, any swinish tramps that appeared, uninvited, to -share their meals. But the most peculiar relations existed between the -sheep and the pigs. In the absence of any other means of satisfying its -gregarious or social instincts, the sheep joined the pigs every morning -in their foraging expeditions in the woods, returning with them in the -evening. And, what was still more remarkable, when after a time a dozen -sheep were added to our stock of animals, the old pet remained faithful -to the pigs, and paid no attention whatever to the newcomers. Here the -friendly attachment, based on habitual association and the memory of -mutual pleasures of grazing, was strong enough to overcome the inherited -fellow-feeling for members of its own species. - -Between this instance and those ordinary cases of companionship among -men which are called friendship, there is hardly any difference. In the -more intimate cases of special friendship the craving for companionship -is strengthened by a community of thoughts and emotions. Bacon gives us -in a nut-shell three of the ingredients of friendship which are not to -be found in the primitive form just considered. The first is this, that -each friend becomes a sort of secular confessor, to whom the other may -confide all his hopes and fears, joys and sorrows; the second is this, -that “a friend’s wits and understanding do clarify and break up in the -communicating and discoursing with another;” so that “he waxeth wiser -than himself; and that more by an hour’s discourse than by a day’s -meditation;” the third is the “aid and bearing a part in all actions and -occasions” to be expected of a friend. - -Friendship is not a modern sentiment. Cases of it such as existed among -the ancient Greeks and Romans, characterised by an ardour that made -Friendship resemble the Love passion, are no longer to be met with, -although a somewhat less intense form frequently occurs among young men -at college or young ladies in high schools: thus illustrating the law -that the individual passes through the same stages of development as the -race. - -“The enthusiasm of friendship,” says Voltaire in his _Philosophic -Dictionary_, “was greater among the Greeks and Arabians than it is among -ourselves. The tales which these peoples have imagined on friendship are -delightful; we have nothing to match them. We are somewhat dry in -everything. I do not see a single grand trait of friendship in our -novels, in our histories, on our stage.” - -Why is this so? Let another Frenchman, La Rochefoucauld, answer: “The -reason why the majority of women are but little touched by friendship, -is because it seems insipid after one has experienced love.” - -Precisely. The reason why the ancients, in their histories and dramas, -made so much of friendship, while modern poets almost ignore it, is that -the latter have a subject a thousand times more fascinating than -friendship, a subject unknown to the ancients—the inexhaustible subject -of Romantic Love. - - VII.—ROMANTIC LOVE - -That Love is superior to friendship is apparent from the one -consideration that it includes _all_ the features of friendship, and -adds to them a thousand ecstasies of which friendship never dreams. The -lover, no less than the friend, gratifies his social instinct, his -desire for companionship, his need of confessing his own and sharing -another’s hopes and fears, his craving for stimulating conversation, his -sympathetic disposition to give and receive aid in the trials of life. -But if modern friendship ever had any moments to compare with the -romantic episodes, the tragic agonies and wild delights of love, would -it be conceivable that our realistic novelists and poets could neglect -it altogether and devote all their attention to Love? - -The other personal affections fare no better in comparison with Love. -How prosaic even Conjugal Love seems to us as compared with Romantic -Love, of which it is the metamorphosis and continuation, is shown by the -fact that novelists always end their stories with the marriage of the -hero and heroine. - -Maternal Love, however, has four traits which occasionally make it -resemble Romantic Love in intensity. They are: (1) a disposition toward -self-sacrifice; (2) jealousy; (3) an exaggerated adoration; and (4) -pride of ownership. But of these the first is the only one that ever -quite rises to the giddy heights of rapturous Love. Jealousy is often -aroused in mothers if their children display excessive fondness or -partiality for their father or a family friend; and they know well in -such a case how to make the latter understand that his presence is an -impertinence. But this momentary ebullition of feeling is but a storm in -a tea-kettle compared to the ferocity of a jealous lover seeking to -devour his rival. Nor does a mother’s excessive worship of the -self-evident beauty and accomplishments of her offspring ever quite -equal the hyperbolic illusion and folly of a lover. - -Again, Romantic Love is a monopolist who never shares his treasures of -affection with another, whereas a mother, if she has more than one -child, is obliged to divide her heart like an apple, so that each may -get a slice. Would you infer from this that the mother has a deeper fund -of affection than the lover, because she can love several at a time? -Impossible. The amount of emotion human nerves can bear is limited. The -more you widen it, the shallower does it become. The general love for -all mankind is the weakest and shallowest of all, the lover’s -concentrated affection for one person the deepest and strongest. See -what a terrible strain on his nerves this deep passion is: how he loses -flesh, grows pale and feverish, and prone to self-destruction. Could a -mother survive if she loved each one of five or ten children with the -depth and intensity of a lover? No, we must take back what we said a few -pages back. Maternal affection is after all a mere phantom compared with -Romantic Love. - -And the ace of hearts is yet to be played—in favour of Romantic Love. -The mother’s affection is bestowed on what after all is merely a severed -portion of her own individuality; whereas the two lovers are individuals -utterly unrelated. And herein lies the Miracle of Love: that it can in a -few days, ay, a few minutes, ignite between two young persons who have -perhaps never before seen each other, a passion more intense than that -which in the mother is the growth of months and years. - -It follows as a corollary from this that Romantic Love is not only more -intense, more concentrated, more immediate and irresistible than -parental affection, but also more just, more in accordance with the -highest precepts of morality, because more altruistic. For the mother -loves only her own flesh and blood, while the lover adores a stranger; -like Romeo, he may even adore the daughter of an enemy. - -Thousands of fathers and mothers, moreover, love their own ugly, -vicious, and stupid children more than the beautiful, well-behaved, and -clever children of their neighbours. Who, on the other hand, ever heard -of a young man loving his ugly sister more than the beautiful and -accomplished daughter of his neighbour? - -In consideration of the great importance of the family feelings as a -social cement, the parental injustice in question is pardoned and even -commended. But from the standpoint of progressive culture, under -guidance of the law of Natural Selection, it must be condemned; for it -favours demerit in preference to merit, and retards the advent of the -time when family and national prejudices will be forgotten and replaced -by a loverlike, cosmopolitan admiration of personal excellence wherever -and in whomsoever found. - -This matter, though it has a semi-humorous aspect, is of the deepest -philosophic import. If family affection, so important as the first step -in the development of society, were the only form of personal love, -close intermarriage between blood-relations would be unduly encouraged. -Fortunately the all-powerful instinct of Romantic Love comes in as a -corrective of family affection, basing its preferences not on -relationship and resemblance, but on differences and complementary -qualities, thus securing for the human race the advantages of -“cross-fertilisation.” We have already seen that flowers owe their -beauty to the cross-fertilisation brought about through the agency of -bees and butterflies. In the same way the human race owes its supreme -beauty to the cross-fertilisation—the union of complementary -qualities—brought about through the agency of Love. Is it perhaps for -this reason that Love is so much like a butterfly, and that Cupid has -wings? - -Instead of being merely a transient malady of youth, as cynics aver, or -only an epicurean episode in our emotional life, Love is thus seen to be -one of the greatest (if not _the_ greatest) moral, æsthetic, and -hygienic forces that control human life. And in face of this fact the -few pages, or lines, commonly devoted to this passion in psychologic -text-books, seem wofully inadequate. No apology is therefore needed for -our attempt to subject Romantic Love to a thorough chemical analysis, -and to discover its ingredients. We shall first enumerate and briefly -characterise these ingredients; then proceed to examine how many of them -are to be found in the love of animals and savages, of the ancient -nations and of our mediæval ancestors; and finally, we shall attempt to -describe these various component parts of the passion, as fully -developed in Modern Love. - - - - - OVERTONES OF ROMANTIC LOVE - - -First of all it is necessary to get rid of the prevalent illusion that -Love is a single emotion. It is, on the contrary, a most complex and -ever-varying _group_ of emotions. Love is not a diamond which drops from -a celestial body, cut and polished, and ready to be set into the human -soul. Rather is it the crown of life, composed of various jewels, some -of which, mixed with much coarse ore, may be found in the animal -kingdom, among primitive men and ancient civilised nations; but of which -no complete specimens are to be found till we come to comparatively -modern times. Each lover has his own crown, but no two of them are -exactly alike. The component jewels vary in size and brilliancy. Some—as -Coyness, Adoration, Gallantry, Jealousy—are occasionally missing or -lacking in lustre; and in Ancient Love those are habitually absent which -in Modern Love are most prominent and cherished. - -Perhaps the composite nature of Love can be still better illustrated by -a comparison with colours, and with “overtones” in music, between which -and the elements of Love there exists a wonderfully close analogy. - -Professor Helmholtz has proved that just as white is not a simple -colour, but a combination of all the hues of the rainbow, so any single -tone produced by the voice or a musical instrument is not simple, as it -seems, but contains, besides the _fundamental_ tone which the ordinary -listener alone hears, several partial or “overtones,” which blend so -closely with the fundamental tone, that it takes a very delicate ear and -close attention to distinguish them. Were it not for these overtones, -all instruments would sound alike, and music would lose all its charms -of “colour.” For the fundamental tones of instruments and voices are -identical, and the only thing that enables a musician to tell at a -distance whether a given note proceeds from a piano, voice, or violin, -is the presence of these overtones, which vary in their number, relative -loudness and pitch (or height), thus giving rise to the differences of -quality or _timbre_ in instruments. - -In Love the fundamental tone is the sexual relation—the fact that one of -the lovers is male, the other female. This fundamental tone does not -vary throughout Nature. It is the same among animals and savages as -among civilised men; and what distinguishes the passion of one of these -groups from that of the other is alone the overtones of love, which vary -in number, relative prominence, and refinement (“high-toned”). - -What are these overtones? - - - I.—INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE - -What first ennobles Love and raises it above mere passion, is the -stubborn preference for a particular individual. A savage chief ignorant -of Love would not hesitate a moment to exchange his bride for two or -three other women equally young and tempting; whereas a man under the -influence of Love would not give his beloved for the choice among all -the beauties of the Caucasus and Andalusia. “If we pass in review the -different degrees of love,” says Schopenhauer, “from the most transient -attachment to the most violent passion, we shall find that the -difference between them springs from their different degrees of -_individualisation_.” - - - II.—MONOPOLY OR EXCLUSIVENESS - -Closely connected with the first overtone is that of exclusiveness. True -Love is a monopolist. As in a sun-glass all the solar rays are -concentrated into one burning focus, so are the lover’s emotions on his -beloved. Not only does he care for _her_ alone of all women, but he -voluntarily offers her a monopoly of _his_ thoughts and feelings. In -return for this, however, he expects and exacts of her a like monopoly -of her affection and favours; and this leads to the next overtone. - - - III.—JEALOUSY - -This is the salt and pepper of Love. A little of it is piquant, too much -of it spoils the soup. The moral mission of Jealousy is, by means of -watchfulness and the inspiring of fear, to ensure fidelity and chastity, -and thus help to develop the romantic features of Love. - - - IV.—COYNESS - -This is a specially feminine trait of Love, which, by retarding the -eager lover’s conquest, augments and idealises his passion. In Modern -Love, Coyness varies in two directions—towards prudery on one side, -coquetry on the other. - - - V.—GALLANTRY - -If Coyness is a peculiarly feminine ingredient of Love, Gallantry, on -the other hand, is a specially masculine attribute. The eager desire to -please, it is true, is also present in a woman’s Love; but it shows -itself less as an active impulse to do something for the lover, than as -a desire to please him by making herself as attractive as possible. - - - VI.—SELF-SACRIFICE - -In the most violent cases of Love this overtone may reveal itself in two -ways: either as a mere exaggeration of Gallantry—a desire to please even -at the risk of life; or as a suicidal impulse in cases of hopeless -passion—when the one object which seemed to make life worth living has -been placed beyond reach. - - - VII.—SYMPATHY - -“In order to feel with another’s pain it is enough to be a man; to feel -with another’s pleasure it is needful to be an angel.” If this be true, -then lovers are angels. For not only do they share one another’s -pleasures, but it is impossible for the one to be really happy unless -the other enjoys the same emotion. “Does that other see the same star, -the same melting cloud; read the same book, feel the same emotion that -now delights me?”—these are, in Emerson’s words, the questions which the -lovers, when separated, ask incessantly. - - - VIII.—PRIDE OF CONQUEST AND POSSESSION - -In his suggestive but incomplete analysis of Love, in his _Principles of -Psychology_, Mr. Herbert Spencer names as two of the emotions which -enter into it, the Love of Approbation and Self-Esteem, which he thus -defines: “To be preferred above all the world, and that by one admired -beyond all others, is to have the love of approbation gratified in a -degree passing every previous experience: especially as, to this direct -gratification of it, there must be added that reflex gratification of -it, which results from the preference being witnessed by unconcerned -persons. Further, there is the allied emotion of self-esteem. To have -succeeded in gaining such attachment from, and sway over, another, is a -practical proof of power, of superiority, which cannot fail agreeably to -excite the _amour propre_.” - -This is well expressed, but the names are obviously not well chosen. It -is hardly correct to intimate that the “love of approbation” and -“self-esteem” constitute two of the group of emotions which we call -Love. What the lover _feels_ is not a “love of approbation,” etc., but -the emotion of _Pride_ at having conquered and gained possession of so -desirable a prize. - - - IX.—EMOTIONAL HYPERBOLE - -The lover sees, thinks, and feels only in superlatives. His eyes are no -longer mere “_windows_ of the soul,” but _microscopes_ which magnify all -the beloved’s merits on the scale of seven square miles to the inch. And -the hyberbolic imagery which constitutes the essence of love-poetry is -his everyday food—with a special _menu_ on Sundays. - - - X.—MIXED MOODS—MAJOR AND MINOR - -It is in Love that “confusion makes his masterpiece.” The lover is so -incessantly tossed on the ocean of turbulent emotion that he soon ceases -to know or care which is up and which down, and all that remains is an -all-engrossing sense of love-sickness. - - “Angels call it heavenly joy, - Infernal torture the devils say; - And men? They call it—Love.”—HEINE. - - - XI.—ADMIRATION OF PERSONAL BEAUTY - -This is the æsthetic overtone of Love; and so prominent is it that it is -commonly heard before and above all the others. “Beauty provoketh -thieves sooner than gold,” says Shakspere; and if you tell twenty of -your male acquaintances that you have been introduced to a young lady, -nineteen of them will ask immediately, “Is she pretty?” No reporter ever -writes about a girl murdered by a tramp or burnt in a house, without -describing her as a model of beauty, in order to double the reader’s -interest and quintuple his pity. Madame de Staël confessed that she -would have gladly exchanged her literary genius for beauty. With the -Greeks already the words Love and Beauty were inseparably associated; -and even the Chinese, who are not embarrassed by an excess of beauty, -have a proverb, “With one smile she overthrew a city, with another a -kingdom.” - -This completes the preliminary analysis of Love. I regret exceedingly -that I have been able to discover only eleven “overtones” in Modern -Love: but inasmuch as at least six of these—Nos. V. to X.—are only about -a thousand years old, there is reason to hope that some fine morning in -May a new one will be born to make up the round dozen. If so, it is to -be hoped it will assume in men the form of an absolute insistance on -feminine health, and an instinctive detestation of the hideous and -love-killing fashions with which women still persist in ruining their -beauty. - - - HERBERT SPENCER ON LOVE - -For the sake of comparison I may cite Mr. Spencer’s summary of the -elements which he thinks compose Love: “Round the physical feeling -forming the nucleus of the whole there are gathered the feelings -produced by personal beauty, that constituting simple attachment, those -of reverence, of love of approbation, of self-esteem, of property, of -love of freedom, of sympathy. All these, each excited in the highest -degree, and severally tending to reflect their excitement on each other, -form the composite psychical state which we call Love. And as each of -these feelings is in itself highly complicated, uniting a wide range of -states of consciousness, we may say that this passion fuses into an -immense aggregation, nearly all the elementary excitations of which we -are capable; and that from this results its irresistible power.” - -Let us now see how many of the characters of true Romantic Love are to -be found in the courtship of animals and savages. - - - - - LOVE AMONG ANIMALS - - -As comparative psychology is the youngest branch of philosophy, there -are still among us thousands of excellent but ignorant folks who cling -to the old mythologic notion that animals are animated machines or -things “which” are devoid of intellect and feeling, and guided by a -metaphysical fetish called “instinct.” To such the undertaking of a -search for Love—real Romantic Love—among animals, will seem not only -absurd, but a sort of high treason against human conceit. To mitigate -any possible indignation on the reader’s part, it may be advisable, -therefore, to begin by giving a few illustrations demonstrating the -existence of various family affections and friendship in the animal -world; after which, the possibility of finding traces of Love proper -will appear less remote. - -_Paternal, filial, brotherly, and sisterly_ love, comparatively weak and -undeveloped in man, are indeed almost absent in the lower animals. Birds -of the same brood do not recognise each other after they have left their -nest; and a dog will not hesitate to attack his own brother as a -stranger after a year’s separation. The part which a male bird takes in -feeding and protecting the young is, as Horwicz suggests, an element of -his conjugal rather than his paternal feeling; and a young animal that -would risk its own life in defence of its mother or father is yet to be -heard from. - -_Friendship_, however, does exist between animals, as we have already -seen; and not only among animals of the same species, but of different -species. “Happy families” of animals commonly hostile to each other have -been known outside of the showman’s cage. Büchner cites instances of -friendship between a robin and a cat; a fox and duck; dog and deer; cat -and mouse; and even such absurdly incongruous cases of attachment as -between a crow and a bull; a dog and an elephant; a cat and a -rattlesnake. But the deepest feeling of friendship which any animal is -capable of feeling is undoubtedly the dog’s love of his master. -“Professor Braubach,” says Darwin, “goes so far as to maintain that a -dog looks on his master as on a god.” “It is said,” he adds in a -footnote, “that Bacon long ago, and the poet Burns, held the same -notion.” - -_Maternal and conjugal_ affection, however, are, as in man, so in -animals, the two strongest forms of family attachment. A French author, -M. Menault, has written a special treatise on _L’Amour Maternel chez les -Animaux_, and Dr. Büchner exclaims, _à propos_: “If a human mother, with -certain destruction staring in her face, dashes into a burning house to -save her imperilled child, and thus finds her own death, this sacrifice -is no greater, no more heroic, than that of a stork-mother who, after -vain efforts to save her brood, is voluntarily burnt up with them in her -nest; or of those elephant-mothers who, as Schweinfurth narrates, in the -African hunting expeditions, when the bushes along the shore are ignited -in order to drive out the elephants, seek to save their young ones by -filling their trunks with water and sprinkling it over them, while they -themselves are roasting.” - -How low down in the scale of animal life traces of _conjugal_ attachment -are to be found is shown by the following case cited by Darwin: “An -accurate observer, Mr. Lonsdale, informs me that he placed a pair of -landsnails, one of which was weakly, into a small and ill-provided -garden. After a short time the strong and healthy individual -disappeared, and was traced by its track of slime over a wall into an -adjoining well-stocked garden. Mr. Lonsdale concluded that it had -deserted its sickly mate, but after an absence of twenty-four hours it -returned, and apparently communicated the result of its successful -exploration, for both then started along the same track and disappeared -over the wall.” Again, the naturalist, Mr. Bate, experimented on the -conjugal feelings of _Gammarus marinus_, or the sandskipper common on -English shores, by separating a male from its female, and imprisoning -both in the same vessel with many individuals of the same species. “The -female, when thus divorced, soon joined the others. After a time the -male was put again into the same vessel; and he then, after swimming -about for a time, dashed into the crowd, and without any fighting at -once took away his wife. This fact shows that in the Amphipoda, an order -low in the scale, the males and females recognise each other, and are -mutually attached.” - -Concerning birds, Darwin remarks: “It has often been said that parrots -become so deeply attached to each other that when one dies the other -pines for a long time; but Mr. Jenner Weir thinks that with most birds -the strength of their affection has been much exaggerated. Nevertheless, -when one of a pair in a state of nature has been shot, the survivor has -been heard for days afterwards uttering a plaintive call; and Mr. St. -John gives various facts proving the attachment of mated birds. Mr. -Bennett relates that in China after a drake of the beautiful mandarin -Teal had been stolen, the duck remained disconsolate, though sedulously -courted by another mandarin drake, who displayed before her all his -charms. After an interval of three weeks the stolen drake was recovered, -and instantly the pair recognised each other with extreme joy.” “Dr. -Buller says (_Birds of New Zealand_) that a male king lory was killed, -and the female ‘fretted and moped, refused her food, and died of a -broken heart.’” - -But there are exceptions to this rule of conjugal attachment and -fidelity, as is shown in the following quotation, which completes the -curious analogy between human and bird love connubial: “Mr. Harrison -Weir has himself observed, and has heard from several breeders, that a -female pigeon will occasionally take a strong fancy for a particular -male, and will desert her own mate for him. Some females, according to -another experienced observer, Riedel, are of a profligate disposition, -and prefer almost any stranger to their own mate. Some amorous males, -called by our English fanciers ‘gay birds,’ are so successful in their -gallantries that, as Mr. H. Weir informs me, they must be shut up on -account of the mischief which they cause.” - -So there are Don Juans even among pigeons! - -_Intermarriages_ or mixed unions also occur among birds. Says Darwin: -“It is certain that distinct species of birds occasionally pair in a -state of nature and produce hybrids. Many instances could be given: thus -Macgillivray relates how a male blackbird and female thrush ‘fell in -love with each other,’ and produced offspring. Several years ago -eighteen cases had been recorded of the occurrence in Great Britain of -hybrids between the black grouse and pheasant.... A male widgeon, living -with females of the same species, has been known to pair with a pintail -duck. Lloyd describes the remarkable attachment between a shield-drake -and a common duck. Many additional instances could be given; and the -Rev. E. S. Dixon remarks that ‘those who have kept many different -species of geese together, well know what unaccountable attachments they -are frequently forming, and that they are quite as likely to pair and -rear young with individuals of a race (species) apparently the most -alien to themselves, as with their own stock.’” - -In their _marriages_ animals have anticipated man in every possible -arrangement—promiscuity, polygamy, monogamy, polyandry. According to -Darwin, “Many mammals and some few birds are polygamous, but with other -animals belonging to the lower classes I have found no evidence of this -habit.” He has not “heard of any species in the Orders of Cheiroptera, -Edentata, Insectivora, and Rodents being polygamous, excepting that -among the Rodents the common rat, according to some rat-catchers, lives -with several females.” Among the terrestrial carnivora the lion seems to -be the only polygamist, while the marine carnivora are “eminently -polygamous.” - -Domestication sometimes has the bad effect of converting wild birds to -Mormonism. Thus “the wild duck is strictly monogamous, the domestic duck -highly polygamous.” - -It is among wild birds in general that the most remarkable cases of -conjugal attachment in the animal world are found. And since most birds -are monogamous, pairing sometimes even for life, we may hence draw the -important conclusion that among animals, as among men, monogamy seems to -favour the development of conjugal love. Polygamy, on the other hand, -everywhere introduces jealousies, rivalries, discords. Among Oriental -nations where polygamy prevails, each wife must have her own apartments, -and no one would dare to taste food prepared by another, for fear of -poison. On some animals polygamy seems to have a similar effect, for we -read that “Mr. Bartlett believes that the Lophophorus, like many other -gallinaceous birds, is naturally polygamous, but two females cannot be -placed in the same cage with a male, as they fight so much together.” - - - COURTSHIP - -The foregoing illustrations, many of which show the gross injustice -lurking in our expression “animal passion,” will have prepared the -reader’s mind for the search after the elements of _romantic_ or -pre-nuptial Love in animals. - -The development of romantic, as distinguished from conjugal love, -depends on the existence of _a more or less prolonged period of -courtship_. Where this is absent Love is absent, as among the ancient -nations and those of the moderns who lock up their women until they are -ready to be sold to a husband, at sight. - -Among animals the young females are not locked up or chaperoned. They -are free to meet the young males and fall in love with the one that -pleases them most. - -As a rule the preliminaries to animal marriages are doubtless brief. If -a healthy, vigorous male comes across a mature, healthy female, it is -usually a case of mutual _veni, vidi, vici_. - -In other cases, however, courtship is a more prolonged affair, owing -partly to the coyness of the female, partly to the rivalries among the -male suitors. - -Animal courtship is carried on either by single pairs in the romantic -shades of the forests, or else at special _nuptial mass meetings_, -resembling those held by some primitive tribes whose unmarried young -people assemble on certain days in the year to select partners. Of the -common magpie, for instance, Darwin relates that “Some years ago these -birds abounded in extraordinary numbers, so that a gamekeeper killed in -one morning nineteen males, and another killed by a single shot seven -birds roosting together. They then had the habit of assembling very -early in the spring at particular spots, where they could be seen in -flocks, chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling, and flying about the -trees. The whole affair was evidently considered by the birds as one of -the highest importance. Shortly after the meeting they all separated, -and were then observed by Mr. Fox and others to be paired for the -season.” - -This was known as the “great magpie marriage.” In Germany and -Scandinavia similar assemblages of black game are so common that special -names have been given to them. “The bowers of the bower-birds are the -resort of both sexes during the breeding season; and here the males meet -and contend with each other for the favours of the females, and here the -latter assemble and coquet with the males.” - -Two more cases may be cited: “With one of the vultures (_Cathartes -aura_) of the United States parties of eight, ten, or more males and -females assemble on fallen logs, ‘exhibiting the strongest _desire to -please_ mutually,’ and after many caresses each male leads off his -partner on the wing. Audubon likewise carefully observed the wild flocks -of Canada geese, and gives a graphic description of their love-antics; -he says that the birds which had been previously mated ‘renewed their -courtship as early as the month of January, while the others would be -contending or coquetting for hours every day, until all seemed satisfied -with the choice they had made, after which, although they remained -together, any person could easily perceive that they were careful to -keep in pairs. I have observed also that the older the birds the shorter -were the preliminaries of their courtship. The bachelors and old maids, -whether in regret or not caring to be disturbed by the bustle, quietly -moved aside and lay down at some distance from the rest.’” - -_Separate courtship_ may be illustrated by the following cases, the -first of which is also interesting as showing that it is not among men -alone that the female occasionally becomes the wooer; and the second as -showing how early in the scale of animal life a primitive sort of -courtship may be found. Concerning a wild duck brought up in captivity -Mr. Hewitt says that “After breeding a couple of seasons with her own -mallard, it at once shook him off on my placing a male pintail on the -water. It was evidently a case of _love at first sight_, for she swam -about the newcomer caressingly, though he appeared evidently alarmed and -averse to her overtures of affection. From that hour she forgot her old -partner. Winter passed by, and the next spring the pintail seemed to -have become a convert to her blandishments, for they nested and produced -seven or eight young ones.” - -The second case relates to the landsnail, concerning which Agassiz says: -“Quiconque a eu l’occasion d’observer les amours des limaçons ne saurait -mettre en doute la séduction déployée dans les mouvements et les allures -qui préparent et accomplissent le double embrassement de ces -hermaphrodites.” - -The opportunities for prolonged Courtship being thus given, the question -arises, “Do animals, while a-wooing, experience the same feelings as a -human lover?” In other words, Are any of the overtones of Romantic Love -present in the amorous passion of animals? - -Several of them no doubt are habitually absent. Animals have not -sufficient imagination to meditate consciously on their probable success -or failure in Courtship; and this lack of imaginative power excludes -those “overtones” which are chiefly dependent on that faculty; notably -Sympathy with the beloved’s feelings, Pride of Conquest and Possession, -Hyperbolic Adoration, Voluntary Self-Sacrifice for the other, and the -Woful Ecstasy of Mixed Moods. That Gallantry, or the Desire to Please, -_may_ be present is shown by the words I have italicised in the -quotation just made regarding the courtship of vultures, and is further -shown by the display of their ornamental plumage by male birds to excite -the attention of the female. Exclusiveness of affection is indicated by -the occasional indifference of the wooer to every rival; and when we -read of the German blackcock’s love-dances, during which, “the more -ardent he grows the more lively he becomes, until at last the bird -appears like a frantic creature”; and that “at such times the blackcocks -are so absorbed that they become almost _blind and deaf_, but less so -than the capercailzie,” so that “bird after bird may be shot on the -spot, or even caught by the hand”—when we read this, we feel tempted to -credit these birds even with those highest and most specialised forms of -lover’s madness which lead to oblivion—Self-Sacrifice and Ecstatic -Adoration. - -The four traits of Romantic Love which are doubtless present in the -passion of animals are Jealousy, Coyness, Individual Preference, and -Admiration of Personal Beauty. - -(_a_) _Jealousy._—Volumes might be filled with accounts of the tragedies -brought about through animal rivalry and jealousy during the season of -love. “The courage and the desperate conflicts of stags have often been -described,” says Darwin; “their skeletons have been found in various -parts of the world, with the horns inextricably locked together, showing -how miserably the victor and vanquished had perished.” “Male -sperm-whales are very jealous” at the season of love; “and in their -battles ‘they often lock their jaws together, and turn on their sides -and twist about’; so that their lower jaws often become distorted.” - -When birds gaze at themselves in a looking-glass, as they often do, the -same authority inclines to the belief that they do it from jealousy of a -supposed rival; and Mr. Jenner Weir, he states, “is convinced that birds -pay particular attention to the colours of other birds, sometimes out of -jealousy, and sometimes as a sign of kinship;” while “many naturalists -believe that the singing of birds is almost exclusively ‘the effect of -rivalry and emulation,’ and not for the sake of charming their mates.” - -Animal Jealousy is apparently dependent on the immediate presence of the -rival and the female; while the Jealousy of a human lover is also a -matter of the imagination, and smarts even more intensely during Her -absence; for his morbid fancy then loves to picture Her in the arms of -his victorious rival. He does not, however, except in some southern -countries, emulate the jealous lion by seeking to devour his rival, but -is contented if he can ward him off by stratagem, or make him appear in -a disadvantageous light in Her eyes. - -(_b_) _Coyness._—Just as the Jealousy displayed by two animals fighting -for a female is a gross, primitive emotion, so the Coyness of female -animals is crude and clumsy compared with the delicious subtlety with -which a human maiden veils a Yes under an apparent No. Yet it plays a -prominent _rôle_ in the courtship of animals. - -A human lover would often consider it a special privilege to be eaten -up, skin, bones, and all, by his mistress; but it is doubtful whether -spiders are ever madly enough in love to relish the conduct of their -females, as described by Darwin: “The male is generally much smaller -than the female, sometimes to an extraordinary degree, and he is forced -to be extremely cautious in making his advances, as the female often -carries her coyness to a dangerous pitch. De Geer saw a male that ‘in -the midst of his preparatory caresses was seized by the object of his -attentions, enveloped by her in a web, and then devoured’; a sight -which, as he adds, filled him with indignation and horror. Female fishes -also are apt to give a cannibal tinge to their coyness by eating up the -smaller males—actions to which remote human analogies may be found in -the coyness of mediæval dames, who sent their lovers to wars and into -lions’ dens as conditions of enjoying their favours; or, conversely, in -the habits of those Australians who eat their wives after they have -ceased to be either ornamental or useful.” - -Indubitable evidences of Coyness are found as low down as among insects; -as, for example, in the species called _Smynthurnus luteus_, “wingless, -dull-coloured, minute insects, with ugly, almost misshapen heads and -bodies,” concerning which Sir John Lubbock remarks: “It is very amusing -to see these little creatures coquetting together. The male, which is -much smaller than the female, runs round her, and they butt one another -standing face to face and moving backward and forward like two playful -lambs. Then the female pretends to run away, and the male runs after her -with a queer appearance of anger, gets in front and stands facing her -again; then she turns coyly round, but he, quicker and more active, -scuttles round too, and seems to whip her with his antennæ; then for a -bit they stand face to face, play with their antennæ, and seem to be all -in all to one another.” - -The Coyness of birds is illustrated by the following cases cited by -Büchner from Brehm and A. and K. Müller: “A genuine coquette is the -female cuckoo, who answers the call of the male with a peculiar -resonant, tittering or laughing love-call. ‘The call is seducing, -promising in advance, and its effect on the male simply enchanting.’ But -how long the lovers pursuing the siren have to wait before she accepts -one of them! A wild flight begins, among bushes and tree-tops, while the -female encourages the pursuers with repeated calls, and finally gets -them into a state of erotic excitement bordering on madness. At the same -time the female is no less excited than her frantic suitors. Her -favourite, no doubt, is the most eager of the lovers, and her apparent -resistance simply the desire to excite him still more!... The female of -the icebird (_Alcedo ispida_) often teases her lover half a day at a -time, by repeatedly approaching him, screaming at him, and flying away -again. At the same time she never loses sight of him, but in her flight -casts glances at him backwards and sidewise, moderates the rapidity of -her flight, and returns in a wide curve if the male suddenly ceases from -his pursuit.” - -Could anything be more naïvely, more humanly, more exquisitely feminine? -If a lover, says a French philosopher, fails in his suit, let him desist -for a moment, and she will presently call him back. - -No inquiry has ever been made by naturalists, so far as I am aware, as -to the origin of Coyness among animals. Two probable sources of this -feeling may therefore be here suggested. The first is a vague -instinctive presentiment (based on inherited cerebral impressions) that -with mating the labours of life will begin: the painful laying of eggs; -the loss of liberty during incubation—an incalculable loss to these most -active of all animals; and the care of the young, which, again, is not a -trifling matter, inasmuch as a family of starlings, for example, needs -for its daily food more than eight hundred snails, caterpillars, etc.; -and birds sometimes perish from exhaustion in the attempt to feed their -offspring. - -The second source of Coyness is probably another instinctive feeling -(based on inherited experience) which induces the female to defer her -choice until the combats and manœuvres of the males have shown which -one is the most energetic, courageous, and persistent: for he will -obviously be best able to support her brood, and protect it as well as -herself against enemies. Hence, during the combats of rival males, the -female is commonly a passive spectator, and at the end quietly marches -or flies off with the victor. All of which, by the way, shows that among -animals already masculine love is deeper than feminine. Indirectly, it -is true, feminine Coyness is the cause of Love—but only of _masculine_ -Love; for if the female animal always accepted the first male who asked -her— - - “My pretty maiden, may I venture - To offer you my arm and escort?” - -there would be no opportunity for the growth of pre-matrimonial passion. - -(_c_) _Individual Preference._—Owing to our scant information concerning -the courtship of animals in a state of nature, Darwin did not succeed in -discovering any cases among mammals of decided preference shown by a -male for any particular female; and regarding domesticated quadrupeds, -“The general impression amongst breeders seems to be that the male -accepts any female; and this, owing to his eagerness, is, in most cases, -probably the truth.” A few cases of special preference or antipathy in -dogs, horses, bulls, and boars, were, however, communicated to him. -Concerning birds Darwin remarks that “In all ordinary cases the male is -so eager that he will accept any female, and does not, as far as we can -judge, prefer one to the other, but ... exceptions to this rule -apparently occur in some few groups. With domesticated birds, I have -heard of only one case of males showing any preference for certain -females, namely, that of the domestic cock, who, according to the high -authority of Mr. Hewitt, prefers the younger to the older hens.” - -This, however, is at best only a polygamous sort of Preference, which, -after all, lacks the essential traits of Individualisation and -Exclusiveness. With the long-tailed duck (_Harelda glacialis_), M. -Ekström says, “It has been remarked that certain females are much more -courted than the rest. Frequently, indeed, one sees an individual -surrounded by six or eight amorous males.” Whether this statement is -credible Darwin does not know; but the Swedish sportsmen, he adds, shoot -these females and stuff them as decoys. - -In female animals, on the other hand, the “overtone” of Individual -Preference appears to be more frequently present. Darwin even asserts -that “the exertion of some choice on the part of the female seems a law -almost as general as the eagerness of the male;” but this is not borne -out by the numerous illustrations given by himself, showing that when -two or more males are engaged in jealous combat, “the female looks on as -a passive spectator,” and finally goes off with the victor, whichever of -the rivals he may prove to be, without showing the slightest concern for -the vanquished. An Australian forest-maiden might behave similarly under -these circumstances, but a civilised maiden would cling to the one who -had made the deepest impression on her previous to the combat; and if -wounded, would adore him all the more; for in her Love pity is a -stronger ingredient than even the love of prowess. - -That female birds, however, _sometimes_ exert a choice is admitted even -by Mr. A. R. Wallace (_Tropical Nature_, p. 199); and a few of the cases -referred to by Darwin may here be cited: “Audubon—and we must remember -that he spent a long life in prowling about the forests of the United -States and observing the birds—does not doubt that the female -deliberately chooses her mate; thus, speaking of a woodpecker, he says -the hen is followed by half a dozen gay suitors, who continue performing -strange antics ‘until a marked preference is shown for one.’ The female -of the red-winged starling (_Agelæus phœniceus_) is likewise pursued -by several males, ‘until, becoming fatigued, she alights, receives their -addresses, and soon makes a choice.’ He describes also how several male -nightjars repeatedly plunge through the air with astonishing rapidity, -suddenly turning, and thus making a singular noise; ‘but no sooner has -the female made her choice than the other males are driven away.’” - -Concerning domesticated birds we have seen that that gallinaceous -sultan, the domestic cock, shows a decided preference for the younger -hens in his harem. But the female is not a bit less frivolous and -capricious; for, according to Mr. Hewitt, she almost invariably prefers -the most vigorous, defiant, and mettlesome male; hence it is almost -useless, he adds, “to attempt true breeding if a game-cock in good -health and condition runs the locality, for almost every hen on leaving -the roosting-place will resort to the game-cock, even though that bird -may not actually drive away the male of her own variety.” - -(_d_) _Personal Beauty and Sexual Selection._—Mr. Wallace, who -discovered the law of Natural Selection independently of Darwin, admits, -as just stated, that “in birds the females do sometimes exert a choice”; -but he adds that “amid the copious mass of facts and opinions collected -by Mr. Darwin as to the display of colour and ornaments by the male -birds, there is _a total absence of any evidence that the females admire -or even notice this display_. The hen, the turkey, and the pea-fowl go -on feeding while the male is displaying his finery; and there is reason -to believe that it is his persistency and energy rather than his beauty -which wins the day.” - -Briefly stated, the difference between the views of these two eminent -naturalists is this: Darwin believes that in those cases where the sexes -are not alike, the differences are due to the _males_, originally plain, -having become modified through _Sexual_ Selection for _ornamental_ -purposes; while Mr. Wallace believes that colour is a normal product in -animal integuments, proportionate to their vitality, and that the sexual -differences in ornamentation are due to the _females_ having been -modified through _Natural_ Selection for the sake of _protection_. - -Perhaps the best brief _résumé_ Darwin has made of his views on this -subject is given on page 421 of the _Descent of Man_ (London edition, -1885), which may therefore be here cited in full: "If an inhabitant of -another planet were to behold a number of young rustics at a fair -courting a pretty girl, and quarrelling about her like birds at one of -their places of assemblage, he would, by the eagerness of the wooers to -please her and to display their finery, infer that she had the power of -choice. Now with birds the evidence stands thus: they have acute powers -of observation, and they seem to have some taste for the beautiful both -in colour and sound. It is certain that the females occasionally -exhibit, from unknown causes, the strongest antipathies and preferences -for particular males. When the sexes differ in colour or in other -ornaments, the males with rare exceptions are the more decorated, either -permanently or during the breeding season. They sedulously display their -various ornaments, exert their voices, and perform strange antics in the -presence of the females. Even well-armed males who, it might be thought, -would altogether depend for success on the law of battle, are in most -cases highly ornamented; and their ornaments have been acquired at the -expense of some loss of power. In other cases ornaments have been -acquired at the cost of increased risk from birds and beasts of prey. -With various species many individuals of both sexes congregate at the -same spot, and their courtship is a prolonged affair. There is even -reason to suspect that the males and females within the same district do -not always succeed in pleasing each other and pairing. - -“What then are we to conclude from these facts and considerations? Does -the male parade his charms with so much pomp and rivalry for no purpose? -Are we not justified in believing that the female exerts a choice, and -that she receives the addresses of the male who pleases her most? It is -not probable that she consciously deliberates; but she is most excited -or attracted by the most beautiful, or melodious, or gallant males. Nor -need it be supposed that the female studies each stripe or spot of -colour; that the peahen, for instance, admires each detail in the -gorgeous train of the peacock—she is probably struck only by the general -effect. Nevertheless, after hearing how carefully the male Argus -pheasant displays his elegant primary wing-feathers, and erects his -ocellated plumes in the right position for their full effect; or again, -how the male goldfinch alternately displays his gold-bespangled wings, -we ought not to feel too sure that the female does not attend to each -detail of beauty.” - -Now it was this very case of the Argus pheasant that first shook Mr. -Wallace’s “belief in ‘sexual,’ or, more properly, ‘female’ selection. -The long series of gradations by which the beautifully-shaped ocelli on -the secondary wing-feathers of this bird have been produced are clearly -traced out; the result being a set of markings so exquisitely shaded as -to represent ‘balls lying loose within sockets’—purely artificial -objects of which these birds could have no possible experience. That -this result should have been attained through thousands and tens of -thousands of female birds all preferring those males whose markings -varied slightly in this one direction, this uniformity of choice -continuing through thousands and tens of thousands of generations, is to -me absolutely incredible. And when, further, we remember that those who -did not so vary would also, according to all evidence, find mates and -have offspring, the actual result seems quite impossible of attainment -by such means.” - -According to Darwin’s own admission (_Descent of Man_, p. 211), he -advanced the theory of Sexual Selection because, in his opinion, Natural -Selection did not account for the various ornaments and attractions of -the males in question. Mr. Wallace, on the other hand, believes that -Sexual Selection does _not_, while Natural Selection _does_ account for -these ornaments; so, in place of Darwin’s view that the beauty of -certain male animals leads the females to prefer them to their less -ornamented rivals, he substitutes the theory that it is the superior -vitality, persistence, and vivacity of the favoured males that fascinate -the females, and that masculine beauty is simply a natural result of -superior vigour and superabundant health. - -Darwin doubtless errs in claiming an æsthetic sense for animals so low -in the scale of life as butterflies and other insects, and in -attributing to it such extraordinary effects in the development of -personal beauty. What Mr. Wallace has done in _Tropical Nature_ is to -show simply that it is quite unnecessary to invoke the aid of so -questionable an agency as Sexual Selection in order to account for the -ornaments of animals; and that the fundamental principle of Darwinism, -_Natural_ Selection, accounts for everything. - -He maintains that colour is a normal product of organisation, and that -not so much its presence as its absence needs accounting for. White and -black are comparatively rare and exceptional in nature, while the -various tints of red, blue, green, etc., are continually appearing -spontaneously and irregularly in the integuments of animals. These -irregular colours, if injurious to the species, will be at once -eliminated by Natural Selection; but if useful for purposes of -identification or protection, they will be preserved and intensified. - -Now colour, Mr. Wallace continues, is proportionate to integumentary -development, and is most conspicuous in the wings of butterflies and the -feathers of birds, for the reason that, just as “the spots and rings on -a soap-bubble increase with increasing tenuity,” similarly the -delicately-organised surface of feathers and scales is highly favourable -to the production of varied colour-effects. - -Colour being thus proportionate to integumentary development, we find -next that integumentary development is, in turn, proportionate to vigour -and vitality; the strongest animals having the largest feathers, scales, -horns, etc. Hence the most vigorous and healthy animals are also the -most beautiful, the most brilliantly coloured. And this correlation -between healthful vigour and beauty is still more strikingly shown in -this, that “The colours of an animal usually fade during disease or -weakness, while robust health and vigour adds to their intensity.... In -all quadrupeds a ‘dull coat’ is indicative of ill-health or low -condition; while a glossy coat and sparkling eye are the invariable -accompaniments of health and energy. The same rule applies to the -feathers of birds, whose colours are only seen in their purity during -perfect health; and a similar phenomenon occurs even among insects, for -the bright hues of caterpillars begin to fade as soon as they become -inactive preparatory to their undergoing transformation. Even in the -vegetable kingdom we see the same thing: for the tints of foliage are -deepest, and the colours of flowers and fruits richest, on those plants -which are in the most healthy and vigorous condition.” - -Add to all these considerations that “this intensity of coloration -becomes most developed during the breeding season, when the vitality is -at a maximum,” and we shall be prepared for Mr. Wallace’s summing up of -his case:— - -“If now we accept the evidence of Mr. Darwin’s most trustworthy -correspondents, that the choice of the female, so far as she exerts any, -falls upon ‘the most vigorous, defiant, and mettlesome male’; and if we -further believe, what is certainly the case, that these are as a rule -the most highly-coloured and adorned with the finest developments of -plumage, we have a real and not a hypothetical cause at work. For these -most healthy, vigorous, and beautiful males will have the choice of the -finest and most healthy females; and will be able best to protect and -rear those families. Natural Selection, and what may be termed Male -Selection, will tend to give them the advantage in the struggle for -existence; and thus the fullest and the finest colours will be -transmitted, and tend to advance in each succeeding generation.” - -By this strong chain of reasoning (to which my brief _>résumé_ of course -cannot do justice) Mr. Wallace shows that Darwin needlessly introduced -the principle of Sexual Selection into animal courtship; and at the same -time furnishes a new confirmation of Darwin’s compliment that he has “an -innate genius for solving difficulties.” - -What makes Mr. Wallace’s argument the more cogent is the fact that -Darwin himself, in speaking of the lowest classes of animals, explains -their beauty on the same principles as those which Mr. Wallace applies -to the higher animals. Thus he says: “We can, in our ignorance of most -of the lowest animals, only say that their bright tints result either -from the chemical nature or the minute structure of their tissues, -independently of any benefit thus derived.” “It is almost certain that -these animals have too imperfect senses, and much too low mental powers, -to appreciate each other’s beauty or other attractions, or to feel -rivalry.” “Nor is it at all obvious how the offspring from the more -beautiful pairs of hermaphrodites would have any advantage over the -offspring of the less beautiful, so as to increase in number, _unless -indeed vigour and beauty generally coincided_.” And once more, “The -sedentary annelids become duller-coloured, according to M. Quatrefages, -after the period of reproduction; and this I presume may be attributed -to their less vigorous condition at that time.” - -So far we have only considered the origin of animal colours in general. -Mr. Wallace, however, has not only made clear the general connection -between beautiful and vivid colours and health, but, by utilising his -own researches and those of Mr. Bates and other naturalists, he has been -able to show to what a great extent we can explain even the _particular_ -colours of the various classes of animals. He distinguishes four classes -of animal colours—Protective, Warning, Sexual, and Typical. - -(1) _Protective Colours._—These “are exceedingly prevalent in nature, -comprising those of all the white arctic animals, the sandy-coloured -desert forms, and the green birds and insects of tropical forests. It -also comprises thousands of cases of special resemblance—of birds to the -surroundings of their nests, and especially of insects to the bark, -leaves, flowers, or soil on or amid which they dwell. Mammalia, fishes, -and reptiles, as well as mollusca, present similar phenomena; and the -more the habits of animals are investigated, the more numerous are found -to be the cases in which their colours tend to conceal them, either from -their enemies or from the creatures they prey upon.” - -(2) _Warning Colours._—In this class, on the other hand, the object is -not to conceal the animal, but to make it conspicuous. Certain species -of gorgeously-coloured butterflies, _e.g._ are never eaten by birds, -spiders, lizards, or monkeys, who eagerly feed on other butterflies. -“The reason simply is that they are not fit to eat, their juices having -a powerful odour and taste that is absolutely disgusting to all these -animals. Now we see the reason of their showy colours and slow flight. -It is good for them to be seen and recognised, for then they are never -molested; but if they did not differ in form and colouring from other -butterflies, or if they flew so quickly that their peculiarities could -not be easily noticed, they would be captured, and though not eaten, -would be maimed or killed.” - -Mimicry is the name given to a second and still more marvellous class of -Warning Colours. They belong to defenceless creatures which so closely -resemble other brightly-coloured but nauseous or dangerous animals that -they are mistaken for the latter, and therefore left alone. _E.G._ -“Wasps are imitated by moths, and ants by beetles; and even poisonous -snakes are mimicked by harmless snakes, and dangerous hawks by -defenceless cuckoos.” - -(3) _Typically_-coloured animals are those species which are brilliantly -coloured in both sexes, “and for whose particular colours we can assign -no function or use.” This group “comprises an immense number of showy -birds, such as Kingfishers, Barbets, Toucans, Lories, Tits, and -Starlings; among insects most of the largest and handsomest -butterflies,” etc. “It is a suggestive fact that all the -brightly-coloured birds mentioned above build in holes or form covered -nests, so that the females do not need that protection during the -breeding season which I believe to be one of the chief causes of the -dull colour of female birds when their partners are gaily coloured.” - -(4) _Sexual Colours_, comprising those cases in which the sexes differ, -and with which Darwin’s theory of Sexual Selection is directly -concerned. Through no _direct_ fault of his own, Darwin leaves on his -readers the impression—which has become almost a commonplace of -conversation—that it is the general rule among animals for the males of -each species to be more ornamented than the females. The truth is, -however, that “with the exception of butterflies, the sexes are almost -alike in the great majority of insects. The same is the case in mammals -and reptiles; while the chief departure from the rule occurs in birds, -though even here in very many cases the law of sexual likeness -prevails.” - -The reason why I have devoted so much space to Mr. Wallace’s colour -theories is to emphasise the truth contained in this last sentence; the -fact, namely, that even if Sexual Selection were accepted as an active -principle, it would account in only a very limited number of cases for -the personal beauty of animals, and the reader of Mr. Wallace’s -_Tropical Nature_ and his _Contributions to the Theory of Natural -Selection_ cannot fail to be convinced that Sexual Selection does not -even hold good in this limited number of cases, but that “the primary -cause of sexual diversity of colour is the need of protection, -repressing in the female those bright colours which are normally -produced in both sexes by general laws.” - -Incidentally Mr. Wallace mentions as an additional function of colour -the fact that it may serve as a _means of recognition_ to the sexes. -“This view affords us an explanation of the curious fact that among -butterflies the females of closely-allied species in the same locality -sometimes differ considerably, while the males are much alike; for, as -the males are the swiftest, and by far the highest flyers, and seek out -the females, it would evidently be advantageous for them to be able to -recognise their true partners at some distance off.” - -To me it seems that this function of colour is, next to Protection, its -most important object, and that Mr. Wallace does not give it sufficient -prominence. He says, in speaking of _Typical Colours_, that we can -assign “no function or use for them.” But why should they not serve the -sexes as a means of recognition at at a distance? especially as colours -can be recognised at a greater distance than forms. Many years before -Darwin and Mr. Wallace wrote on this subject, Schopenhauer’s genius -anticipated this view of the matter. “The extremely varied and vivid -colours of the feathers of tropical birds,” he wrote, “have been -explained in a very general way, with reference to their efficient -cause, as due to the strong effect of the tropical light. As their final -cause I would suggest that these brilliant plumes are the gala uniforms -by means of which the species, which are so numerous there and often -belonging to the same genus, recognise each other; so that every male -finds his female. The same is true of the butterflies of different zones -and latitudes” (_Welt als Wille u. V._, ii. 381). - -Schopenhauer of course errs in attributing, in his ignorance of -Protective, Warning, and other colours, all the hues of birds and -butterflies to this agency. But it is probable that whenever colours and -other ornaments do not serve for purposes of protection (as _e.g._ the -lion’s mane and the horns of beetles, _vide_ _Tropical Nature_, p. 202), -they serve the purpose of sexual recognition of species. A case cited by -Darwin to prove that quadrupeds take notice of colour, is very -suggestive in this connection: “A female zebra would not admit the -addresses of a male ass until he was painted so as to resemble a zebra, -and then, as John Hunter remarks, she received him very readily.” - -It is probable, therefore, that in many cases the unique spots and -stripes and colours of animals subserve the special use of facilitating -the finding of a partner; and in this way they relate directly to the -courtship and Romantic Love of animals. Thus we see how the Love affairs -of animals may indirectly affect their Personal Beauty in a way quite -different from that suggested by Darwin. - - - LOVE-CHARMS AND LOVE-CALLS - -The same reasoning applies to the music of animals, vocal and -instrumental, on which Darwin lays great stress. In his opinion, the -music of some male animals serves to charm the females æsthetically, and -thus gives to the best musicians special advantages through Sexual -Selection. But the instances cited by him hardly warrant this -conclusion, and seem rather to point to the inference that the function -of animal music is chiefly to facilitate courtship, by making it easy -for the females to discover the whereabouts of a male of the same -species. The evidence tends to show that it is not the male whose voice -is most mellow and melodious that catches the female, but rather the one -who is most vigorous and persistent and has the loudest organ. As Jaques -says in _As You Like It_: “Sing it: ’tis no matter how it be in tune, so -it make noise enough!” - -Darwin himself quotes a naturalist’s statement, that “the stridulation -produced by some of the _Locustidæ_ is so loud that it can be heard -during the night at the distance of a mile;” and such cases as “the -drumming of the snipe’s tail, the tapping of the woodpecker’s beak, the -harsh, trumpetlike cry of certain water-fowl,” though Darwin tries to -dispose of them on the ground of a difference in æsthetic taste, -nevertheless incline one to the belief that the music of the forest -troubadours is not so much intended to gratify the æsthetic taste of the -female as to guide her to the spot where the male awaits her; for, -contrary to common opinion, it is the female in these cases that -searches for a male and not _vice versâ_. Montagu, for instance, asserts -that “males of song-birds and of many others do not in general search -for the female, but, on the contrary, their business in spring is to -perch on some conspicuous spot, breathing out their full and amorous -notes, which, by instinct, _the female knows, and repairs to the spot_ -to choose her mate.” And Dr. Hartman, speaking of the American _Cicada -septemdecim_, says: “The drums are now heard in all directions. This I -believe to be the marital summons from the males. Standing in thick -chestnut sprouts about as high as my head, where hundreds were around -me, I observed the females coming around the drumming males.” And, says -Darwin, “the _spel_ of the blackcock certainly serves as a call to the -female, for it has been known to bring four or five females from a -distance to a male under confinement; but as the blackcock continues his -_spel_ for hours during successive days, and in the case of the -capercailzie ‘with an agony of passion,’ we are led to suppose that the -females which are present are thus charmed.” - -There appears to be no _direct_ evidence, however, that female birds are -more _charmed_ by one male than another, and prefer him on account of -his superior song, as the theory of Sexual Selection postulates. And -when we remember that likewise there is no evidence that birds, etc., -are ever influenced in their choice by the superior colours of certain -males, and that in fact it is the rule for the female to follow -passively the most vigorous and victorious male, we are brought back to -the conclusion with which we set out—that it is not the superior -songster who wins the female by charming her, but the loudest and most -persistent songster, by guiding her to the courting-place. - -Darwin himself evidently felt the weakness of his position, for he -constantly speaks of “love-charms _or_ love-calls” in the same sentence. -Thus, “the true song of most birds and various strange cries are uttered -chiefly during the breeding-season, and serve as a charm, _or merely as -a call-note_, to the other sex.” Again: “It is often difficult to -conjecture whether the many strange cries and notes uttered by male -birds during the breeding-season serve as a charm or merely as a call to -the female.” The distinction between love “charms” and mere “calls” is -of course of the utmost importance. For if male song charms the females -and influences them in their choice, we have Sexual-æsthetic-female -Selection. But if the male song merely serves as a call to the female -and as a sign of species-recognition, then Natural Selection accounts -for everything, because the most vigorous, loudest, and most persistent -male will have the choice of the most numerous females brought to his -side by his musical efforts. - - - LOVE-DANCES AND DISPLAY - -There is one more important link in the chain of Darwin’s reasoning, -which must be broken before his theory of Sexual Selection can be -regarded as demolished. The mad antics of the blackcock and other birds -have been already referred to; and some of the lower animals seem to -endeavour to surpass them, as, for example, the male alligator, who -strives to attract the attention of the female by splashing and roaring -in the water; “swollen to an extent ready to burst, with its head and -tail lifted up, he spins or twirls round on the surface of the water, -like an Indian chief rehearsing his feats of war.” “To suppose,” says -Darwin, “that the females do not appreciate the beauty of the males, is -to admit that their splendid decorations, all their pomp and display, -are useless; and this is incredible.” - -But are there no other ways of accounting for all this “pomp and -display”? Certainly, several of them. We have seen that the most -vigorous males are those which are most highly ornamented, and that it -is the vigour and vivacity of the males that seems to decide the choice -of the females where there is any. Now instinct, _i.e._ inherited -experience, teaches the female the connection between vigour and display -of ornament, and influences her choice accordingly. Again, the males -indulge in their display for the purpose of arousing the attention of -the passive female. This supposition is rendered the more probable by -Darwin’s admission that “we must be cautious in concluding that the -wings are spread out solely for display, as some birds do so whose wings -are not beautiful.” - -A third motive of display is the need of finding an outlet for -overflowing nervous energy and excitement. To this Mr. Wallace refers as -follows: “At pairing time the male is in a state of excitement and full -of exuberant energy. Even unornamented birds flutter their wings or -spread them out, erect their tails or crests, and thus give vent to the -nervous excitability with which they are overcharged.” “It is not -improbable,” he continues,—and this suggests a fourth use of -display—"that crests and other erectile feathers may be primarily of use -in _frightening away enemies_, since they are generally erected when -angry or during combat." - -A fifth motive of display is suggested by an analogy furnished by human -butterflies and birds of Paradise. Among animals where the sexes differ, -it is commonly the male who is adorned the most. With us it is the -women. But woman’s fineries are not intended to charm the eyes of men, -but to excite one another’s rivalry and envy. Now it seems that male -birds, with whose plumes our heartless women are so fond of decking -themselves, are guilty of an analogous weakness. They will sometimes -display their ornaments, says Darwin, “when not in the presence of the -females, as occasionally occurs with grouse at their holy places, and as -may be noticed with the peacock; this latter bird, however, evidently -wishes for a spectator of some kind, and, as I have often seen, will -show off his finery before poultry or even pigs. All naturalists who -have closely attended to the habits of birds, whether in a state of -nature or under confinement, are unanimously of opinion that the males -take delight in displaying their beauty.” And, once more, “with birds of -Paradise a dozen or more full-plumaged males congregate in a tree to -hold a _dancing-party_, as it is called by the natives; and here they -fly about, raise their wings, elevate their exquisite plumes, and make -them vibrate; and the whole tree seems, as Mr. Wallace remarks, to be -filled with waving plumes.” - -But if it be the unanimous opinion of naturalists who have closely -studied the habits of birds, “that the males take delight in displaying -their beauty,” why should not the females also take pleasure in -witnessing this display? Perhaps they do, sometimes; for even Mr. -Wallace admits that “the display of the various ornamental appendages of -the male during courtship may be attractive” to the female. But there is -a world-wide difference between this assertion and the doctrine that the -females are so greatly and so constantly influenced by their æsthetic -taste that they always prefer among males those that are slightly more -beautiful than the others, thus increasing their personal beauty by -transmission. This is an assumption unsupported by facts, and rendered -unnecessary because Natural Selection accounts for all the phenomena in -question. - -Admiration of Personal Beauty does not appear, therefore, to enter -noticeably into animal love, except in so far as a slight amount of -æsthetic taste may be admitted in birds. This taste may be strengthened -by the sight of the brilliant masculine ornaments during the season of -love being associated with the remembered pleasures of courtship. - -Indirectly, however, female animals promote the cause of beauty by -preferring the more healthy and vigorous individuals, who are commonly -also the most beautiful ones. And is not the same true of females of the -human persuasion, who likewise are much less influenced in their choice -by the beauty than by the boldness, energy, vivacity, and “manliness” of -their suitors? It seems to hold true throughout nature that the female’s -Love is weak in the æsthetic element, her taste being little developed -and too often neutralised by unconscious utilitarian considerations. - - - - - LOVE AMONG SAVAGES - - - STRANGERS TO LOVE - -In passing from animals to human beings we find at first not only no -advance in the sexual relations, but a decided retrogression. Among some -species of birds, courtship and marriage are infinitely more refined and -noble than among the lowest savages; and it is especially in their -treatment of females, both before and after mating, that not only birds -but all animals show an immense superiority over primitive man; for male -animals only fight among themselves, and never maltreat the females. - -This anomaly is easily explained. The intellectual power and emotional -horizon of animals are limited; but in those directions in which Natural -Selection has made them _specialists_, they reach a high degree of -development, because inherited experience tends to give to their actions -an instinctive or quasi-instinctive precision and certainty. Among -primitive men, on the other hand, reason begins to encroach more on -instinct, but yet in such a feeble way as to make constant blunders -inevitable: thus proving that strong instincts, combined with a limited -intellectual plasticity, are a safer guide in life than a more plastic -but weak intellect minus the assistance of stereotyped instincts. - -If neither intellect nor instinct guide the primitive man to -well-regulated marital relations, such as we find among many animals, so -again his emotional life is too crude and limited to allow any scope for -the domestic affections. Inasmuch as, according to Sir John Lubbock, -gratitude, mercy, pity, chastity, forgiveness, humility, are ideas or -feelings unknown to many or most savage tribes, we should naturally -expect that such a highly-compounded and ethereal feeling as Romantic -Love could not exist among them. How could Love dwell in the heart of a -savage who baits a fish-hook with the flesh of a child; who eats his -wife when she has lost her beauty and the muscular power which enabled -her to do all his hard work; who abandons his aged parents, or kills -them, and whose greatest delight in life is to kill an enemy slowly amid -the most diabolic tortures? - -Or how could a primitive girl love a man whose courtship consists in -knocking her on the head and carrying her forcibly from her own to his -tribe? A man who, after a very brief period of caresses, neglects her, -takes perhaps another and younger wife, and reduces the first one to the -condition of a slave, refusing to let her eat at his table, throwing her -bones and remains, as to a dog, or even driving her away and killing -her, if she displeases him? These are extreme cases, but they are not -rare; and in a slightly modified form they are found throughout -savagedom. - -That Love is a sentiment unknown to savages has been frequently noted in -the works of anthropologists and tourists. When Ploss remarks that the -lowest savages “know as little of marriage relations as animals; still -less do they know the feeling we call Love,” he does a great injustice -to animals, as those who have read the preceding chapter must admit. -Letourneau, in his _Sociologie_, remarks: “Among the Cafres Cousas, -according to Lichtenstein, the sentiment of love does not constitute a -part of marriage. ‘The idea of love, as we understand it,’ says Du -Chaillu, in speaking of a tribe of the Gabon, ‘appears to be unknown to -this tribe.’” Monteiro, speaking of the polygamous tribes of Africa, -says: “The negro knows not love, affection, or jealousy.... In all the -long years I have been in Africa I have never seen a negro manifest the -least tenderness for or to a negress.... I have never seen a negro put -his arm round a woman’s waist, or give or receive any caress whatever -that would indicate the slightest loving regard or affection on either -side. They have no words or expressions in their language indicative of -affection or love.” - -Mr. Spencer, in commenting on this passage, remarks that “This testimony -harmonises with testimonies cited by Sir John Lubbock, to the effect -that the Hottentots ‘are so cold and indifferent to one another that you -would think there was no such thing as love between them’; that among -the Koussa Kaffirs there is ‘no feeling of love in marriage’; and that -in Yariba, ‘a man thinks as little of taking a wife as of cutting an ear -of corn—affection is altogether out of the question.’” - -Mr. Winwood Reade, on the other hand, informed Darwin that the West -Africans “are quite capable of falling in love, and of forming tender, -passionate, and faithful attachments.” And the anthropologist Waitz, -speaking of Polynesia, says that “examples of real passionate love are -not rare, and on the Fiji Islands it has happened that individuals -married against their will have committed suicide; although this has -only happened in the higher classes.” Unfortunately in these cases we -are left in doubt as to whether the reference is to Conjugal or to -Romantic Love; conjugal attachment, being of earlier growth than -Romantic Love, because the development of the latter was retarded by the -limited opportunities for prolonged Courtship and free Choice. - - - PRIMITIVE COURTSHIP - -In his anxiety to find cases of Romantic Love among North American and -other primitive peoples, Waitz is obliged to fall back on legends of -Lovers’ Leaps and Maiden Rocks, and on a poem about a South American -maiden who committed suicide on her lover’s grave to avoid falling into -the hands of the Spaniards. Legends and poems, unfortunately, do not -count for much as scientific evidence. At the same time, it would -doubtless be incorrect to assert on the strength of some of the -authorities just quoted that Love does not exist at all among savages, -and therefore to make the chapter on Love among Savages as brief as that -chapter on Snakes in Ireland. We shall find, on the contrary, that -several of Love’s “overtones” are occasionally present; and that though -full-fledged cupids may never appear with their poisoned arrows, -mischievous _amourettes_ sometimes do flit across the field of vision. -For the goddess of Love is ever watchful of an opportunity for one of -her emissaries to bag some game. - -Romantic Love is dependent on opportunities for Courtship. Among savages -and semi-civilised nations we find three grades of Courtship—Capture, -Purchase, and Service. These must be briefly examined in turn. - -(1) _Capture._—One of the most curious features of savage life is the -widely-prevalent custom called by M‘Lennan Exogamy, or marrying out. -This custom compels a man who wishes a wife of his own to steal or -purchase her of another tribe, private marriage within his own tribe -being considered criminal and even punishable with death. To this rule -of Exogamy Sir John Lubbock traces the origin of Monogamy. In his view -women were at first, like other kinds of property, held in common by the -tribe, any man being any woman’s husband _ad libitum_. No man could -therefore claim a woman for himself without infringing on the rights of -others. But if he stole a woman from another tribe, she became his -exclusive property, which he had a right to guard jealously, and to look -upon with the Pride of Conquest—a pride, however, quite distinct from -that which intoxicates a civilised lover when he finds, or fondly -imagines, that his goddess _has chosen him_ among all his rivals. The -primitive man’s pride is more like that of the warrior who wears a large -number of scalps in his belt; and as in his case marriage immediately -follows Capture, this feeling, moreover, belongs more properly to the -sphere of conjugal sentiment than to that of Love. - -This primitive form of courtship, it is obvious, is very much ruder than -that which prevails in the animal kingdom, where the males alone -maltreat one another, while in this early human courtship the woman, if -she resists, is simply knocked on the head, and her senseless body -carried off to the captor’s tent. Diefenbach relates concerning the -Polynesians that “if a girl was courted by two suitors, each of them -grasped one arm of the beloved and pulled her toward him; the stronger -one got her, but in some cases not before her limbs had been pulled out -of joint.” And Waitz says that “the girls were commonly abducted by -force, which led frequently to most violent fights, in which the girl -herself was occasionally wounded, or even killed, to prevent her from -falling into the hands of the enemy.” - -Mr. E. B. Tylor, after stating that marriage by Capture may be seen at -the present day among the fierce forest tribes of Brazil, continues: -“Ancient tradition knows this practice well, as where the men of -Benjamin carry off the daughters of Shiloh dancing at the feast, and in -the famous Roman tale of the rape of the Sabines, a legend putting in -historical form the wife-capture which in Roman custom remained as a -ceremony. What most clearly shows what a recognised old-world custom it -was, is its being thus kept up as a formality where milder manners -really prevailed. It had passed into this state among the Spartans, when -Plutarch says that though the marriage was really by friendly settlement -between the families, the bridegroom’s friends went through the pretence -of carrying off the bride by violence. Within a few generations the same -old habit was kept up in Wales, where the bridegroom and his friends, -mounted and armed as for war, carried off the bride; and in Ireland they -used even to hurl spears at the bride’s people, though at such a -distance that no one was hurt, except now and then by accident, as -happened when one Lord Howth lost an eye, which mischance seems to have -put an end to this curious relic of antiquity.” - -Moreover, we are told that “in our own marriages the ‘best man’ seems -originally to have been the chief abettor of the bridegroom in the act -of capture.” - -In a modified form “wife-capture” cannot be said to be extinct even in -this advanced age. Elopement is the modern name for it When the parents -dissent and the couple are very young, this climax of courtship -doubtless is often reprehensible. But in those cases where the consent -of all parties has been obtained, it ought to be universally adopted. -Sudden flight and an impromptu marriage would add much to the romance of -the honeymoon, and would enable the bridal couple to avoid the terrors -and stupid formalities of the wedding-day, the anticipation of which is -doubtless responsible for the ever-increasing number of cowardly -bachelors in the world. - -(2) _Purchase_ represents a somewhat higher stage of Courtship than -Capture. Like Capture this custom has existed among the peoples of the -five continents, and is still retained in some parts of Africa and -elsewhere. In Holstein, Germany, it prevailed in all its purity, -according to Ploss, till the end of the fifteenth century. Nor would it -be doing facts great violence to class our frequent money-marriages -under this head. - -There are two grades of the custom of Purchase. In the first the girl -has no choice whatever, but is sold by her father for so many cows or -camels, in some cases to the highest bidder. Among the Turcomans a wife -may be purchased for five camels if she be a girl, or for fifty if a -widow; whereas among the Tunguse a girl costs one to twenty reindeer, -while widows are considerably cheaper. In the second class of cases the -purchased girl is allowed a certain degree of liberty of choice, as we -shall see directly, under the head of Individual Preference. - -(3) _Service._—On the custom of securing a wife by means of services -rendered her parents, Mr. Spencer remarks: “The practice which Hebrew -tradition acquaints us with in the case of Jacob, proves to be a -widely-diffused practice. It is general with the Bhils, Ghonds, and Hill -tribes of Nepaul; it obtained in Java before Mahometanism was -introduced; it was common in ancient Peru and Central America; and among -sundry existing American races it still occurs. Obviously, a wife long -laboured for is likely to be more valued than one stolen or bought. -Obviously, too, the period of service, during which the betrothed girl -is looked upon as a future spouse, affords room for the growth of some -feeling higher than the merely instinctive—initiates something -approaching to the courtship and engagement of civilised peoples.” - - - INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE - -All the cases thus far referred to relate to what might be called -indirect or mediate courtship. When a girl is captured and knocked on -the head she can hardly be said to be courted and consulted as to her -wishes; and the man too, in such cases, owing to the dangers of the -sport, is apt to pay no great attention to a woman’s looks and -accomplishments, but to bag the first one that comes along. In courtship -by Purchase, again, the girl is rarely consulted as to her own -preferences, the addresses being paid to the father, who invariably -selects the wealthiest of the suitors, and only in rare cases allows the -daughter a choice, as among the Kaffirs if the suitors happen to be -equally well off. And thirdly, in courtship by Service, the suitor’s -work is not done to please the daughter, but to recompense the parents -for losing her. - -Yet there appear to be some instances of real courtship, in the modern -sense of the word, among the lower races, where the lovers pay their -addresses directly to the girl and she chooses or rejects at will. Thus, -among the Orang-Sakai, on the Malayan peninsula, the following custom -prevails, as described by Ploss: “On the wedding-day, the bride, in -presence of her relatives, and those of her lover, and many other -witnesses, is obliged to run into the forest. After a fixed interval the -bridegroom follows and seeks to catch her. If he succeeds in capturing -the bride she becomes his wife, otherwise he is compelled to renounce -her for ever. If therefore a girl dislikes her suitor, she can easily -escape from him and hide in the forest until the time allowed for his -pursuit has expired.” - -Darwin remarks, in trying to prove the existence of Sexual Selection -among the lower races, that “in utterly barbarous tribes the women have -more power in choosing, rejecting, and tempting their lovers, or of -afterwards changing their husbands, than might have been expected;” and -he cites the following cases, among others: “Amongst the Abipones, a man -on choosing a wife, bargains with the parents about the price. But ‘it -frequently happens that the girl rescinds what has been agreed upon -between the parents and the bridegroom, obstinately rejecting the very -mention of marriage.’ She often runs away, hides herself, and thus -eludes the bridegroom. Captain Musters, who lived with the Patagonians, -says that their marriages are always settled by inclination; ‘if the -parents make a match contrary to the daughter’s will, she refuses, and -is never compelled to comply.’ In Tierra del Fuego a young man first -obtains the consent of the parents by doing them some service, and then -he attempts to carry off the girl; ‘but if she is unwilling, she hides -herself in the woods until her admirer is heartily tired of looking for -her, and gives up the pursuit; but this seldom happens.’” - - - PERSONAL BEAUTY AND SEXUAL SELECTION - -Evidence proving that primitive women are influenced in their choice of -a mate by æsthetic considerations appears to be almost as scant as among -animals. Darwin, however, tries to prove that men owe their beards to -sexual or female selection; and the following more general instances may -be cited for what they are worth: Azara “describes how carefully a Guana -woman bargains for all sorts of privileges before accepting some one or -more husbands; and the men in consequence take unusual care of their -personal appearance.” Among the Kaffirs “very ugly, though rich men, -have been known to fail in getting wives. The girls, before consenting -to be betrothed, compel the men to show themselves off first in front -and then behind, and ‘exhibit their paces.’” - -In general, however, it seems that the women choose, not the handsomest -men, but those whose boldness, pugnacity, and virility promise them the -surest protection against enemies, and general domestic delights. Thus, -we read that “before he is allowed to marry, a young Dyack must prove -his bravery by bringing back the head of an enemy;” and that when the -Apaches warriors return unsuccessful, “the women turn away from them -with assured indifference and contempt. They are upbraided as cowards, -or for want of skill and tact, and are told that such men should not -have wives.” - -It must be remembered, however, that (as we have seen in the case of -plants and animals) the greatest amount of health, vigour, and courage -generally coincide with the greatest physical beauty; hence the -continued preference of the most energetic and lusty men by the superior -women who have a choice, has naturally tended to evolve a superior type -of manly beauty. - -In the case of men it seems much more probable that they frequently -select their wives in accordance with an æsthetic standard. The chiefs -of almost every tribe throughout the world have more than one wife; and -Mr. Mantell informed Darwin that until recently almost every girl in New -Zealand who was pretty, or promised to be pretty, was _tapu_ to some -chief; while among the Kaffirs, according to Mr. C. Hamilton, “the -chiefs generally have the pick of the women for many miles round, and -are most persevering in establishing or confirming their privilege.” In -the lower tribes, where “communal marriage” and marriage by Capture -alone prevail, æsthetic choice is of course out of the question, and -cannot make its appearance till we come to less pugnacious tribes, such -as the Dyacks, whose children “have the freedom implied by regular -courtship,” or the Samoans, whose children “have the degree of -independence implied by elopements when they cannot obtain parental -assent to their marriage” (Spencer). - -In general, however, among the lower races, Sexual or æsthetic Selection -leads to sorry results, owing to the bad taste of the selectors. The -standard of primitive taste is not harmonious proportion and capacity -for expression, but Exaggeration. The negro woman has naturally thicker -lips, more prominent cheek-bones, and a flatter nose than a white woman; -and in selecting a mate, preference is commonly given to the one whose -lips are thickest, nose most flattened, and cheek-bones most prominent: -thus producing gradually that monster of ugliness—the average negro -woman. What right we have to set ourselves up as judges, and claim that -our taste is superior to the negro’s, is a question which will be -discussed in a subsequent section of this treatise. - -One other point, however, may be referred to here, namely, that although -the æsthetic overtone of Love—the Admiration of Personal Beauty—may -enter into a savage’s amorous feelings, it is only the sensuous aspect -of it that affects him, the intellectual and moral sides being unknown -to him. His admiration is purely physical. He marries his chosen bride -when she is a mere child, and before the slightest spark of mental charm -can illumine her features and impart to them a superior beauty; and -subsequently, when experience has somewhat sharpened her intellectual -powers, hard labour has already destroyed all traces of her physical -beauty so that the combination of physical and mental charms which alone -can inspire the highest form of Love is never to be found in primitive -woman. - - - JEALOUSY AND POLYGAMY - -The moral mission of Jealousy, as stated on a preceding page, is, by -means of watchfulness and the inspiring of fear, to ensure fidelity and -chastity. Darwin says that from the strength of the feeling of jealousy -all through the animal kingdom, as well as from the analogy of the lower -animals, especially those which come nearest to man, he “cannot believe -that absolutely promiscuous intercourse prevailed in times past, shortly -before man attained to his present rank in the zoological scale.” This -may be true, yet it is astonishing to find how many of the lower tribes -are utterly unconcerned regarding the morals both of married and -unmarried women. A vast number of cases illustrating this absence of -jealousy are collected in Waitz’s _Anthropology_, Spencer’s _Sociology_, -the works of Lubbock, and especially in Ploss’s _Das Weib_, i. 205-214. -In some cases girls are allowed to do as they please until after -marriage, when they are jealously guarded; in other cases the reverse is -true. In some parts of Africa a breach of faith on the wife’s part is -regarded as an attack not on the husband’s honour but on his property; -hence a pecuniary compensation is all that is required. Lubbock -enumerates a large number of races among whom the lending of a wife or -daughter is a common and obligatory form of hospitality. And the -Chibchas of South America went so far in their indifference to virginity -that they considered a virgin bride to be unfortunate, “as she had not -inspired affection in men.” - -Jealousy for the possession of a woman, however, was much sooner -developed than jealous regard for her conduct. The statement of Sir John -Lubbock about the men of an Indian tribe, that they “fight for the -possession of the women, just like stags,” and similar statements -regarding other savages, imply that, just like stags, these men feel the -pangs of primitive Jealousy. - -Among polygamous nations the women, too, often fight for the men, -whose favourites in their absence are apt to suffer much at the hands -of jealous rivals. It is among the polygamous semi-civilised nations -in general that Jealousy asserts itself in the most shrill and -dissonant manner. It is not that bitter-sweet romantic Jealousy which -by its constant fluctuations between hope and doubt fans a modern -lover’s passion into brighter flames; it is a more vicious kind of -conjugal Jealousy which destroys domestic peace and plots the ruin of -rivals. In Madagascar, Mr. Spencer tells us, “the name for -Polygyny—‘fampovafesana’—signifies ‘the means of causing enmity’”; and -that kindred names are commonly applicable to it we are shown by their -use among the Hebrews: in the Mishna a man’s several wives are called -‘tzârot,’ that is, troubles, adversaries, or rivals. In modern Persia, -where polygamy prevails, the same state of affairs is encountered. -Says Ploss: “If there are several women in the house, each one -inhabits a separate division; in the houses of the wealthy each wife, -moreover, has her own servants. Constantly apprehending evil -intentions, no woman touches the dishes of a rival.” - -It is among the polygamous nations of the East, too, that history -records such a profusion of bloody wars of succession waged by -half-brothers; for how could fraternal or any other kind of domestic -affection flourish in families where the mothers are constantly goaded -by Jealousy into deadly hatred of one another? - - - MONOPOLY AND MONOGAMY - -The United States being a “free country,” its government has sometimes -been blamed by “freethinkers” for attempting to repress Mormon Polygamy. -But a free country is not one in which social experiments injurious to -public welfare are to be necessarily allowed. Readers of history and -anthropology know that polygamy is an experiment which has been tried so -often with disastrous social results, that it may be looked upon safely -as criminal and treated accordingly. Even the forcible argument of that -spiteful old pessimist, Schopenhauer, that polygamy should be introduced -because it would rid the world of old maids, does not save the -institution; since it is well—for the prospects of Beauty, at any -rate—that some women should be “eliminated” in the form of old maids. - -Among the causes which tended to make polygamy the commonest form of -marriage among savages, four may be briefly enumerated: (1) The constant -wars among the tribes decimated the men, leaving a larger proportion of -women than men, although this was to some extent neutralised by the -habit of female infanticide, which the women indulged in to make -themselves more cherished through scarcity and, possibly, to preserve -their beauty; (2) The women being commonly secured as booty in war, it -was naturally looked on as an honour and a sign of valour to have more -than one wife; (3) Women being regarded and treated as slaves, the more -a man had of them the more they could, by their combined labour, -increase his wealth and influence in the tribe; (4) The rapid decay of -the youthful beauty of primitive woman, naturally inclined her husband, -whose affection was solely based on those physical charms, to add a -second or third, younger woman to his harem. - -As woman’s position improved with advancing civilisation, these -influences favouring polygamy were gradually weakened; and as in -treating of Love among Animals, we found the most remarkable instances -of affection—conjugal and romantic—among birds, who are mostly -monogamous; so, among the lower races of man, monogamy is commonly a -sign of superior culture and higher development of the affections. And -this might have been foreseen _a priori_, inasmuch as monogamy is the -only marital relation compatible with that Monopoly of affection which -is one of the conditions of Romantic Love. How could a man feel an -exclusive amorous interest in his bride, knowing that in a few months or -years another would come to claim half his interest? or how could the -bride concentrate all her Love on a man of whom she knew that he could -give her only half or a smaller fraction of his affection? - -A similar view is taken by Mr. Spencer. Monogamic unions, he says, “tend -in no small degree indirectly to raise the quality of adult life, by -giving a permanent and deep source of æsthetic interest. On recalling -the many and keen pleasures derived from music, poetry, fiction, the -drama, etc.; and on remembering that their predominant theme is the -passion of love, we shall see that to monogamy, which has developed this -passion, we owe a large part of the gratifications which fill our -leisure hours.” - - - PRIMITIVE COYNESS - -Among the Samoiedes, says Klemm, “a man purchases a wife for a number of -reindeer, varying from five to twenty; the bride, as is the case also in -Greenland, struggles violently against leaving the paternal house, and -commonly she has to be caught forcibly and bound on the bridegroom’s -sledge.” In some of the Bedouin tribes the destined bride runs from tent -to tent to escape being brought to the bridegroom. When an Esquimaux -girl is asked in marriage, says Kranz (quoted by Mr. Spencer), she -“directly falls into the greatest apparent consternation and runs out of -doors, tearing her bunch of hair; for single women always affect the -utmost bashfulness and aversion to any proposal of marriage, lest they -should lose their reputation for modesty.” So among the Bushmen a -lover’s attentions “are received with an affectation of great alarm and -disinclination on her part”; while an Arab bride “defends herself with -stones, and often inflicts wounds on the young men, even though she does -not dislike the lover; for according to custom, the more she struggles, -bites, kicks, cries, and strikes, the more she is applauded ever after -by her own companions.” - -Obviously these glacier, forest, and desert belles have a somewhat -cruder way than our city belles of hiding their feelings. - -Mr. Spencer refers to the Coyness of these maidens as one motive or -cause of wife-capture, but he does not inquire into the origin of -Coyness itself, which is a much more interesting point in the psychology -of Love. The fear “lest they should lose their reputation for modesty,” -mentioned above, is the most obvious cause of this exaggerated -resistance, as it is of the excessive prudishness often encountered in -some European civilised countries of to-day. Again, the sight of the -harsh treatment to which her married sisters or friends are subjected, -would make the primitive bride naturally averse to exchange her maiden -freedom for conjugal slavery. - -It seems, however, that in most cases, the Coyness is less real than -simulated; and for this form of Coyness—reversing Mr. Spencer’s -reasoning—we may say that Exogamy, or Capture, is responsible. For since -Capture implies courage and valour on the part of the husband, it may -have been to secure the “prestige of a foreign marriage”—as fashionable -novelists would say—that the form of Capture was imitated in cases where -there was no opposition, either on the part of the girl or her parents. - -Another explanation of sham Coyness is afforded by the following case: -Among the inhabitants of the Volga region, in Russia, the bride is -occasionally captured and carried off, though here too there is no -opposition on her part or from her parents. The cause of this procedure -is the desire to avoid the expenses of the marriage ceremony, which in -that region are out of all proportion to the means of the lower classes. - -Finally it may be suggested that Coyness, so far as it really exists in -the primitive maiden, owes its origin to the instinctive perception that -the men value them more if they do not throw themselves into their arms -on the first impulse. And more than anything else, this attitude of -reserve feeds the flames of Romantic Love by transferring its delights -and pangs to the imagination. - -Yet, after all, manifestations of Coyness must be the exception and not -the rule in the lower races, inasmuch as in the vast majority of cases, -where no choice is allowed the bride, there is little or no opportunity -for the exercise of such a trait. - -Of GALLANTRY I have not succeeded in discovering any traces in the -records of savage life, except possibly in the case of the natives of -Kamtchatka, where the wooer has to go into service for his bride, and -during this time endeavours constantly to lighten her labours and make -himself agreeable to her. So far as Gallantry occurs, it is more likely -to be a feminine trait—as among one of the North American Indian tribes, -where the maiden cooks her suitor’s game, and sends him back the best -morsels with presents; or as with another tribe, the Osages, where the -maidens pay court to the warriors by offering them ears of corn. - -As for the remaining characters of Romantic Love, which require a vivid -imagination and persistent emotions for their realisation, it would be -useless to look for them in Savagedom—except perhaps in those -infinitesimal proportions in which various chemical substances are found -by analysts in mineral waters. The following may be offered as an -approximate list of the ingredients in the Love of savage and -semi-civilised peoples:— - - Selfishness 25·7684 - Inconstancy 20·3701 - Jealousy 0 to 20·7904 - Coyness ” 10·5523 - Individual Preference ” 5·0073 - Personal Beauty ” 5·7002 - Monopoly ” 7·3024 - Pride of Possession 4·5082 - Sympathy 0·0000 - Gallantry 0·0006 - Self-Sacrifice Traces - Ecstatic Adoration ” - Mixed Emotions ” - - - CAN AMERICAN NEGROES LOVE? - -It is a very interesting question how far the negroes transplanted to -America, who have adopted so many of the habits and ways of thinking of -their white neighbours, are capable of forming a true romantic -attachment, characterised by the various traits described in this work. -I have not been able to find any conclusive evidence on this head; and -should any readers of this book positively know any cases, I should be -greatly obliged if they would forward a detailed account of them to me, -in care of the publisher. - -As regards a negro’s capacity for falling in Love with a white woman, -the following interesting communication[1] appeared in the _New York -Nation_, 12th February 1885: “In corroboration of ‘Bill Arp’s’ view, -referred to in No. 1020 of the _Nation_, that negroes, as a race, do not -desire to ‘mix’ with the white race, I may cite a remark recently made -by a negro carpenter to a friend of mine. The latter said to him, as a -village belle passed them on the street, ‘Charles, don’t you think -that’s a very handsome young lady?’ ‘I reckon so,’ he answered -doubtfully, and immediately added, ‘Fact is, boss, us coloured folks -don’t think white ladies handsome; we like ’em coloured the best.’ - -“Had it been otherwise there would, doubtless, have been innumerable -instances, in the North as well as at the South, of love-longings on the -part of negro men toward girls of the dominant race. Yet during all the -years I have spent in the Southern States, I never knew or heard of any -instances of this kind, and their exceptional character in the North -must be known to all your readers. The hopelessness of such attachments -would, of course, diminish their number; but fancy is always free, and -‘hopeless attachments’ among members of the same race are as common now -as when Petrarch sighed for Laura, and Tasso wrote ‘The throne of Cupid -has an easy stair,’ himself having climbed it uninspired by hope. The -existence of many persons of mixed blood throughout the country affords -no proof that the two races feel toward each other the attraction of -love; for the fathers, in these cases, are almost invariably white, and -the offspring cannot be called ‘love-children,’ but the fruit of mere -passion linked with opportunity.” - -Footnote 1: - - Signed Sue Harry Clagett. - - - - - HISTORY OF LOVE - - -It would be a profitless task to hunt for the first traces of the -various elements of Love in the records of all the nations of antiquity; -for we meet almost everywhere with the same old story of Romantic Love -impeded in its growth or its very existence by the degraded position of -women, and by the absence of opportunities for courtship, and for free -matrimonial choice. A few remarks, however, must be made concerning Love -among the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and our Aryan -kinsfolk in India, before passing on to Mediæval and Modern Love. - - - - - LOVE IN EGYPT - - -Dr. Georg Ebers, the Leipzig professor, and author of the popular series -of historic Egyptian novels, remarks that “if it is true that a nation’s -degree of culture can be estimated by the more or less favourable -position accorded its women, then Egyptian culture ranks above that of -all other ancient peoples.” - -The women of ancient Egypt were not kept in seclusion like those of -Greece. They did their own marketing, and had other domestic and public -liberties and privileges which astonished the Greek historian Herodotus, -who also mentions that although polygamy was tolerated among them, -monogamy was the rule. Inasmuch as the Egyptians had an advanced -culture, invented many arts, promoted the sciences, and were industrial -rather than militant in their occupations, it is possible that several -of the more refined elements of Romantic Love may have existed among -them; for just as we have seen that some animals have higher notions of -love, conjugal and romantic, than some savages, although the latter -represent a later stage of evolution, so it seems probable that among -the nations of antiquity Love did not progress steadily, year by year; -but that some nations had more and some less of it; while the -acquisitions of one period may have been lost in evil and corrupt times -following, as was certainly the case in India. - -Since we have no such extensive literature of Egypt as we have of the -Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews, it is not easy to arrive at definite -conclusions. But the Egyptian custom of forming “trial marriages” for -one year, and the ease with which a husband could divorce and expel his -wife by simply pronouncing three words in her presence do not harmonise -with our modern notions of Love. How scornfully a modern Romeo would -reject the very notion of such a trial-marriage! for does he not feel -_absolutely_ certain that his Love is eternal and unalterable? - -The institution of trial-marriages seems to point to the conclusion that -the Egyptians, like the Greeks, looked upon marriage primarily as a -means of augmenting the family and the state, and not as a union of -loving souls—children or no children—which is the modern ideal. - -Professor Ebers of course has a right to make use of a poetic license in -painting the Love affairs of his Egyptian heroes and heroines in modern -colours, as Shakspere does in _Antony and Cleopatra_. At the same time -it would give an added flavour to historic romances if their pictures of -domestic and public life were characterised by _emotional realism_ as -well as by general antiquarian accuracy. The elaborate analysis of Love, -for the first time attempted in the present monograph, should facilitate -this task for novelists. - - - - - ANCIENT HEBREW LOVE - - -It is almost startling to find, on consulting a Concordance of the Old -and New Testaments, that in the whole of the Bible there is not a single -reference to Romantic Love. Had this sentiment existed among the ancient -Hebrews as it does among their descendants to-day, it is obvious that it -could not possibly have been ignored in the Book of Books, which so -eloquently and poetically discourses of everything else that is of vital -interest to man. Conjugal Love (which apparently antedates Romantic Love -in every nation) is indeed repeatedly referred to and enjoined, as well -as the other family affections; but in the remaining cases the word Love -is always used in the sense of religious veneration, or of regard for a -neighbour or an enemy. - -This absence of any reference to Romantic Love is all the more -surprising in view of the fact that among the ancient Hebrews woman was -held more in honour than with any other Oriental nation, ancient or -modern. Thus we are told in M‘Clintock and Strong’s _Cyclopædia of -Biblical etc. Literature_, that “the seclusion of the harem and the -habits consequent upon it were utterly unknown in early times, and the -condition of the Oriental woman, as pictured to us in the Bible, -contrasts most favourably with that of her modern representative. There -is abundant evidence that women, whether married or unmarried, went -about with their faces unveiled. An unmarried woman might meet and -converse with men, even strangers, in a public place; she might be found -alone in the country without any reflection on her character; or she -might appear in a court of justice.” The wife “entertained guests at her -own desire in the absence of her husband, and sometimes even in defiance -of his wishes.” - -Since, therefore, the Hebrew woman was not “the husband’s slave but his -companion,” how are we to account for the absence of Love? - -Some light is thrown on the matter by the prevalence of polygamy, which, -as we have seen, is inimical to the growth of Love. Polygamy, though not -universal, was sanctioned by the Mosaic law, except in the case of -priests. “The secondary wife was regarded by the Hebrews as a wife, and -her rights were secured by law.” In the cases of Abraham and Jacob, -polygamy was resorted to at the request of their own wives, “under the -idea that children born to a slave were in the eye of the law the -children of the mistress.” Now if a woman advises her own husband to -take another wife, there must be a total absence of Jealousy and -Monopoly—the two elements of Romantic Love which pass into conjugal -affection without diminution of force. - -Again, although Hebrew women are said to have had considerable liberty -of going about alone in town and country, this probably refers in most -cases to the privilege of tending sheep and of fetching water at the -well. “From all education in general,” says Ploss, “as well as _from -social intercourse with men, woman was excluded_; her destination being -simply to increase the number of children, and take care of household -matters. She lived a quiet life, merely for her husband, who, indeed, -treated her with respect and consideration, but without feeling any -special tenderness toward her.” - -It is the line which I have italicised in the above quotation that -suggests the principal reason of the non-existence of Love in Biblical -times: There were no meetings of the young, no opportunities for -Courtship, the indispensable condition of Love, which requires time and -opportunity for its growth. And not only were there no regular -opportunities for Courtship, but if they offered themselves casually, -the young folks could not derive much benefit, from them; for not only -the daughter’s choice, but even the son’s was neutralised by the -parental command. “Fathers from the beginning considered it both their -duty and prerogative to find or select wives _for their sons_ (Gen. -xxiv. 3; xxxviii. 6). In the absence of the father, the selection -devolved upon the mother (Gen. xxi. 21). Even in cases where the wishes -of the son were consulted, the proposals were made by the father (Gen. -xxxiv. 4, 8); and the violation of this parental prerogative on the part -of the son was ‘a grief of mind’ to the father (Gen. xxvi. 35). The -proposals were generally made by the parents of the young man, except -when there was a difference of rank, in which case the negotiations -proceeded from the father of the maiden (Exod. ii. 21), and when -accepted by the parents on both sides, sometimes also consulting the -opinion of the adult brothers of the maiden (Gen. xxiv. 51; xxxiv. 11), -the matter was considered as settled, _without requiring the consent of -the bride_” (M‘Clintock and Strong). - -But how about the Song of Solomon—the Song of Songs? Is not that a song -of Love, and an exception to our general statement? It appears so at -first sight; and the German writer Herder, in his detailed and glowing -analysis of it, declares that it depicts love “from its first origin, -from its tenderest bud, through all stages and conditions of its growth, -its flowering, its maturing, to the ripe fruit and new offshoot.” -Herder, however, is a very unsafe and shallow guide in this matter. An -attempt has lately been made to rehabilitate him in Germany, where his -fame has become almost extinct; but in vain, for his pompous, stilted -rhetoric and imagery cannot conceal from modern readers his lack of -ideas and limited knowledge of facts. He asserts that, as there is only -one Goodness, one Truth, so there is but one Love (or Affection). If you -do not love your wife, he says, you will not love your friend, parents, -or child. A writer whose notions of the psychology of love are so -excessively crude cannot be considered a trustworthy judge in the matter -in question. So far as love is referred to in the Song of Solomon, it is -probable that conjugal affection is meant. - -It is a curious fact that of the famous German, English, and French -theologians who have written commentaries on the Song of Songs, no two -seem to agree in their interpretation of its plot and significance. It -is now generally agreed, too, that the Song was not written by Solomon, -but some time after him. It seems, indeed, incredible that a monarch who -had a thousand wives, and whose affections must have been torn into a -thousand shreds, and cannot have been very lasting, should have written -these marvellous lines: “For love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel -as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most -vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods -drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, -it would utterly be contemned.” - -This passage has a remarkably modern and romantic sound—so modern and -romantic that it would not seem out of place in Shakspere. But it needs -no knowledge of Hebrew to see that the responsibility for this modern -sound rests with the English translators. Luther’s more literal version -appears much less modern. Indeed, throughout the Song of Solomon the -English translators have idealised the language of passion, in harmony -with modern notions on the subject; so that it is only on reading -Luther’s version that one begins to understand why the Talmudists did -not allow the Jews to read this book before their thirtieth year. - -Perhaps the most ingenious and consistent of the numerous -interpretations of the Song of Solomon is that given by M. Chas. Bruston -in the _Encyclopædie des Sciences Religieuses_ (ii. 610-612). The -repetition of the flatteries occurring in the poem he explains by -showing that the second time they refer, not to the Sulamite, but to a -princess of Lebanon whom Solomon married. Hence, he insists, the -repetition is not so much a literary blemish as an indication “combien -est vil et méprisable l’amour sensuel et polygame, qui prodigue -indifférement les mêmes flatteries a des femmes différentes.” - -The imaginative and poetic terms in which feminine charms are depicted -in the Song of Songs show that, nevertheless, at least the sensuous -phase of the overtone of Personal Admiration was strongly developed -among the ancient Hebrews; not strongly enough, however, to lead them, -as it led other ancient nations, to embody their ideals of feminine and -masculine beauty in marble monuments of sculpture. - - - - - ANCIENT ARYAN LOVE - - -As it is among the Aryan or “Indo-Germanic” races of Europe and America -that Modern Love has produced its most beautiful blossoms, it is, even -more than in the case of the non-Aryan Jews and Egyptians, of interest -to know something concerning its prevalence among the Asiatic peoples -who appear as the nearest modern representatives of our remote Aryan -ancestors. - -In no country, perhaps, has the position of woman differed so greatly at -various epochs as in India. Previous to the introduction of Brahminism, -women were held in esteem, enjoyed diverse privileges, and were allowed -free social intercourse with the men, while monogamy was the recognised -form of marriage. The Brahmins, however, introduced polygamy, setting a -good example by sometimes marrying a whole family, “old and young, -daughters, aunts, sisters, and cousins”; and one case is known of a -Brahmin who had 120 wives, according to Schweiger Lerchenfeld. Family -feeling was subordinated to considerations of caste, and by a -sophistical interpretation of ancient laws the Brahmins introduced the -custom of Suttee, or the burning alive of widows on the deceased -husband’s funeral pyre. This habit is sometimes regarded as the very -apotheosis of conjugal affection, but it was simply what is known in -modern psychology as an epidemic delusion; the poor women being rendered -willing to sacrifice themselves by the doctrine that to die in this way -was something specially voluptuous and meritorious; while those who -refused to be immolated were treated as social outcasts who were not -allowed to marry again or to adorn their persons in any way. - -The references to women in the laws of Manu show in what low esteem they -came to be held in India. A few of the maxims contained in this work may -be cited: “Of dishonour woman is the cause; of enmity woman is the -cause; of mundane existence woman is the cause; hence woman is to be -avoided.” “A girl, a maiden, a wife shall never do anything in -accordance with her own will, not even in her own house.” “A woman shall -serve her husband all life long, and remain true to him even after -death; even though he should deceive her, love another, and be devoid of -good qualities, a good wife should nevertheless revere him as if he were -a god; she must not displease him in anything, neither in life nor after -his death.” So wretched, indeed, became woman’s lot that Indian mothers, -it is said, “often drown their female children in the sacred streams of -India, to preserve them from the fate awaiting them in life.” Letourneau -states that “up to modern times Hindoo laws and manners have been -modelled after the sacred precepts. When Somerat made his voyage, it was -considered improper for a respectable woman to know how to read or -dance. These futile accomplishments were left to the courtesan, the -Bayadere.” - - - HINDOO LOVE MAXIMS - -That such a state of affairs was not favourable to Romantic Love is -obvious. Nevertheless there appears to have been a period—about 1200 or -1500 years ago—when some of the inhabitants of India were familiar with -most of the emotions which enter into Modern Love. This evidence is -contained in the _Seven Hundred Maxims of Hâla_, a collection of poetic -utterances dating back not further than the third century of our era, -and comprising productions by various authors, including as many as -sixteen of the female persuasion. They are written in a sister-language -of Sanscrit, the Prâkrit; and their form indicates that they were -intended to be sung. Herr Albrecht Weber remarks in the _Deutsche -Rundschau_ with reference to this collection: “At the very beginning of -our acquaintance with Sanscrit literature, towards the end of the last -century, it was noticed, and was claimed forthwith as an eloquent proof -of antique relationship, that Indian poetry, especially of the amatory -kind, is in character remarkably allied to our own modern poetry. The -sentimental qualities of modern verse, in one word, were traced in -Indian poetry in a much higher degree than they had been found in Greek -and Roman literature; and this discovery awakened at once, notably in -Germany, a sympathetic interest in a country whose poets spoke a -language so well known to our hearts, as though they had been born among -ourselves.” - -Some of these maxims apparently depict the family life of the lower -classes; others appear rather as if they had been intended to be sung by -the Bayaderes, or singing and dancing girls of the Buddhist temples, who -emancipated themselves from the domestic and educational restrictions -placed on other women, and sought to fascinate men with their wit, love, -and æsthetic accomplishments. This suggestion is borne out by the fact -that most of the maxims are feminine utterances, and often of -questionable moral character. Although, therefore, some of these -revelations of early Aryan Love have an unpleasant by-flavour, they are -yet extremely interesting as showing how dependent Romantic Love is on -the freedom and the intellectual and æsthetic culture of woman. - -We find in the maxims of Halâ evidences of that important overtone of -Love, Ecstatic Adoration or Poetic Hyperbole, which we have not -encountered elsewhere, so far. What could be more modern than this:— - -“Although all my possessions were burnt in the village fire, yet is my -heart delighted, since _he_ took the buckets from me when they were -passed from hand to hand.” - -Or this:— - -“O thou who art skilled in cookery, restrain thy anger! The reason why -the fire refuses to burn, and only smokes, is that it may the longer -drink in the breath of your mouth, fragrant as the red potato-blossoms.” - -The following two show how Personal Beauty was appreciated:— - -“He sees nothing but her face, and she too is quite intoxicated by his -looks. Both, satisfied with each other, act as if in the whole world -there were no other women or men.” - -“Other beauties likewise have in their faces beautiful, wide black eyes, -with long lashes,—but no one else understands as she does how to use -them.” - -How Love establishes his Monopoly in heart and mind, tolerating no other -thought, is thus shown:— - -“She stares without a (visible) object, draws a deep sigh, laughs into -empty space, mutters unintelligible words—forsooth, there must be -something on her heart.” - -Ovid himself might have written the following, showing Love’s -inconstancy:— - -“Love departs when lovers are separated; it departs when they see too -much of each other; it departs in consequence of malicious gossip; aye, -it departs also without these causes.” - -The nature of Coyness is evidently understood, for the lover is thus -admonished:— - -“My son, such is the nature of love, suddenly to get angry, to make up -again in a moment, to dissemble its language, to tease immoderately.” - -And yet the poet deems it necessary to tell a sweetheart that— - -“By forgiving him at first sight, you foolish girl, you deprived -yourself of many pleasures,—of his prostration at your feet [a trace of -Gallantry], of a kiss passionately stolen.” - -The sadness of separation thus finds utterance:— - -“As is sickness without a physician; as living with relatives when one -is poor,—as the sight of an enemy’s prosperity,—so is it difficult to -endure separation from you.” - -Thus we find in Ancient Aryan Love some of the leading features of -modern romantic passion. - - - - - GREEK LOVE - - -The Greeks, too, were Aryans, and they were the most refined and -æsthetic nation of antiquity; yet we look in vain in their literature -for delineations of that Romantic Love which, according to our notions, -ought to accompany so high a degree of culture. - - - FAMILY AFFECTIONS - -Conjugal tenderness and the other family affections appear; indeed, to -have been known and cherished by the Greeks at all times, in the days of -Athenian supremacy, when women were kept in entire seclusion, no less -than in Homeric times, when they seem to have enjoyed more liberty of -action. Plutarch tells us in his _Conjugal Precepts_ that “With women -tenderness of heart is indicated by a pleasing countenance, by sweetness -of speech, by an affectionate grace, and by a high degree of -sensitiveness;” and Mr. Lecky thus eloquently sums up the evidence that -the Greeks appreciated the various forms of domestic affection:— - -“The types of female excellence which are contained in the Greek poems, -while they are among the earliest, are also among the most perfect in -the literature of mankind. The conjugal tenderness of Hector and -Andromache; the unwearied fidelity of Penelope, awaiting through the -long revolving years the return of her storm-tossed husband, who looked -forward to her as the crown of all his labours; the heroic love of -Alcestis, voluntarily dying that her husband might live; the filial -piety of Antigone; the majestic grandeur of the death of Polyxena; the -more subdued and saintly resignation of Iphigenia, excusing with her -last breath the father who had condemned her; the joyous, modest, and -loving Nausicaa, whose figure shines like a perfect idyll among the -tragedies of the _Odyssey_—all these are pictures of perennial beauty, -which Rome and Christendom, chivalry and modern civilisation, have -neither eclipsed nor transcended. Virgin modesty and conjugal fidelity, -the graces as well as the virtues of the most perfect womanhood, have -never been more exquisitely portrayed.” - - - NO LOVE-STORIES - -But Mr. Lecky, ignoring, like most writers, the enormous difference -between conjugal and romantic love, forgets to notice the absolute -silence of Greek literature on the subject of pre-matrimonial -infatuation. Not one of the Greek tragedies is a “love-drama”; romantic -love does not appear even in the writings of Euripides, who has so much -to say about women, and who named most of his plays after his heroines. -Had Love been known to Sophokles and Euripides, as it was known to -Shakspere and Goethe, we should no doubt have a Greek _Romeo and Juliet_ -and a Greek _Faust_. For although there were certain limitations as to -the scope and the _dramatis personæ_ of a Greek play, there was nothing -whatever to exclude a love-story. And when we consider how the sentiment -of Love colours all modern literature; how almost impossible it is for a -play or a novel to succeed unless it embodies a love-story: the absolute -ignoring of this passion in Greek literature forces on us the inevitable -conclusion that Romantic Love was unknown to them, or only so faintly -developed as to excite no interest whatever. - -And this conclusion harmonises with the dictum of the best Greek -scholars. It is true that Becker, in his _Charikles_, referring to the -frequency with which the comedians introduce a youth desperately -enamoured of a girl, faintly objects to the statement that “There is no -instance of an Athenian falling in love with a free-born woman, and -marrying her from violent passion,”—made by Müller in his famous work on -the Dorians. But he makes the fatal admission that “Sensuality was the -soil from which such passion sprang, and none other than a sensual love -was acknowledged between man and wife.” No one, of course, would deny -that sensual passion prevailed in Athens; but sensuality is the very -antipode of Romantic Love. - - - WOMAN’S POSITION - -How are we to account for this anomaly—the absence of sexual romance in -a nation which was so passionately enamoured of Beauty in its various -forms? - -The answer is to be found in the non-existence of opportunities for -courtship, and the degraded position of woman. The following sentences, -culled at random from Becker’s classical work, show how the Greek men -regarded their women, whom they considered inferior to themselves in -heart as well as in intellect. Iphigenia herself is made to admit by -Euripides that one man is worth more than a myriad of women:— - - εἶς γ’ ανὴρ κρείσσων γυναικῶν μυρίων. - -“The ἀρετή (virtue) of which a woman was thought capable in that age -differed but little from that of a faithful slave.” “Except in her own -immediate circle, a woman’s existence was scarcely recognised.” “It was -quite a Grecian view of the case to consider a wife as a necessary -evil.” "Athenians, in speaking of their wives and children, generally -said τέκνα καὶ γυναῖκας, putting their wives last: a phrase which -indicates very clearly what was the tone of feeling on this subject" -(Smith). - -Women “were not allowed to conclude any bargain or transaction of -consequence on their own account,” though Plato urged that this -concession should be made to them; and it was even “enacted that -everything a man did by the counsel or request of a woman should be -null.” “There were no educational institutions for girls, nor any -private teachers at home.” “Hence there were no scientifically-learned -ladies, with the exception of the Hetæræ.” - - - CHAPERONAGE _VERSUS_ COURTSHIP - -In such an arid, rocky soil Love of course could not grow or even -germinate. Still more fatal to the romantic passion, however, was the -absolute seclusion of the sexes, precluding all possibility of courtship -and free choice among the young. Greek women were not allowed to enjoy -the society of men, nor to attend “those public spectacles which were -the chief means of Athenian culture,” and which would have afforded the -young folks an opportunity of seeing and falling in love with one -another. The wife was not even permitted to eat with her husband if male -visitors were present, but had to retire to her private apartments, so -absurd was the jealousy of the men. “The maidens lived in the greatest -seclusion till their marriage, and, so to speak, regularly under lock -and key,” which had the “effect of rendering the girls excessively -bashful, and even prudish,” and so stupid, in all probability, that no -wonder the men considered marriage a punishment, and sought -entertainment with the educated Hetæræ—as to-day in France. Even young -married women were obliged to have a chaperon. “No respectable lady -thought of going out without a female slave.” “Even the married woman -shrank back and blushed if she chanced to be seen at the window by a -man.” - - - PLATO ON COURTSHIP - -It is one of the most remarkable facts in the history of Love and of -social philosophy that Plato, the most modern of all ancient thinkers, -_foresaw the importance of pre-matrimonial acquaintance_ as the basis of -a rational and happy marriage choice long before any other writer. -Making allowance for the fact that Greek notions as to what is within -“the rules of modesty” differed from our own, the following passage -cannot be too deeply pondered: “People,” Plato tells us in the sixth -book of the _Laws_ (p. 771), “must be acquainted with those into whose -families and to whom they marry and are given in marriage; in such -matters as far as possible to avoid mistakes is all-important, and with -this serious purpose let games be instituted, in which youths and -maidens shall dance together, seeing and being seen naked, at a proper -age and on a suitable occasion, not transgressing the rules of modesty.” - - - PARENTAL _VERSUS_ LOVERS’ CHOICE - -Marriages in Greece were often arranged for girls while they were mere -children, of course without any reference to their choice, since they -were looked upon as the _property_ of the father, who could dispose of -them at his pleasure. Besides these early betrothals there was an -obstacle to free choice in the Athenian law which forbade a citizen -under very severe penalties to marry a foreigner. And again, “In the -case of a father dying intestate, and without male children, his heiress -had no choice in marriage; she was compelled by law to marry her nearest -kinsman, not in the ascending line.... Where there were several -co-heiresses, they were respectively married to their kinsmen, the -nearest having the first choice”—a law resembling one in the Jewish -code, and exemplified by Ruth, as pointed out in Smith’s _Dictionary_. - -How Sexual Selection was rendered impracticable in Greece is further -shown in the following citations from Becker: “The choice of the bride -seldom depended on previous, or at least on intimate acquaintance. More -attention was generally paid to the position of a damsel’s family, and -the amount of her dowry, than to her _personal qualities_.” "It was -usual for a father to choose for his son a wife, and one perhaps whom -the bridegroom had never seen." “Widows frequently married again; this -was often in compliance with the testamentary dispositions of their -husbands, as little regard being paid to their wishes as in the case of -girls.” - -Thus we see that three causes combined to prevent the growth of Romantic -Love in Greece—the degraded position of women, the absence of direct -Courtship, and the impossibility of exercising Individual Preference. - - - THE HETÆRÆ - -That the absolute seclusion and chaperonage of the young women, and -their consequent ignorance and insipidity, were the reasons why they -could neither feel nor inspire Romantic Love, is shown by the fact that -there existed in Greece in the time of Perikles a mentally superior -class of women who appear to have aroused Love, or something very like -it, by means of the artistic and intellectual charms which they united -with their physical beauty. These women were called Ἡταίραι, or -_companions_, evidently to distinguish them from the domestic women who -were no “companions” after the first charm of novelty had worn away: a -state of affairs for which of course the men themselves, who gave them -no education and locked them up, were to blame. - -What seems paradoxical is that these women, who were morally inferior to -the others, should have been the first to inspire in men a more -_refined_ sort of Love; but the paradox is rendered the more probable by -the circumstance that in India, likewise, we found the first traces of -Romantic Love among the Bayaderes, a class corresponding to the Hetæræ. - -There is reason to believe that Aspasia, who aided the greatest -statesman of antiquity in writing his stirring speeches, inspired not -only him but other great contemporaries with true Romantic passion—which -they were enabled to feel because men of genius are not only -intellectually but also emotionally ahead of their time. - -Diotima was another of these women. She was also revered as a -prophetess, and is credited by Plato with having given Sokrates, and -through him Greece, the first adequate discourse on Love—a discourse, we -may add, in which some flashes of true modern insight are mingled with -the curiously confused notions of the Greeks on the subject of Love and -Friendship. What these notions were is best seen by briefly considering -the peculiarities of - - - PLATONIC LOVE - -On this subject the most incorrect and absurd notions universally -pervade modern literature and conversation. As commonly understood, -“Platonic Love” means a friendship between a man and a woman from which -all traces of passion are excluded. Such a notion is utterly foreign to -Plato’s way of thinking, and is nowhere referred to in his writings. -Platonic love has nothing to do with women whatever. It is an attachment -between a man and a youth, which may be defined as friendship united -with the ecstatic ardour which in modern life is associated only with -Romantic Love. - -Mr. George Grote thus describes what he calls the “truly Platonic -conception of love”. It is “a vehement impulse towards mental communion -with some favoured youth, in view of producing mental improvement, good, -and happiness to both persons concerned: the same impulse afterwards -expanding, so as to grasp the good and beautiful in a larger sense, and -ultimately to fasten on goodness and beauty in the pure Ideal.” - -Once more, Platonic love might be defined as _creative friendship_, -which has for its object the conception of great ideas,—of works of art, -literature, philosophy. Such a friendship, Plato tells us, should be -formed between a man and a youth, not too young, but when his beard -begins to grow and his intellect to develop; and such a friendship is -apt to last throughout life. - -Perhaps the most striking instance in Greek literature of Platonic love -is that given in Plato’s _Symposium_ as existing between the pure-minded -Sokrates, who kept aloof from all Greek vices, and the beautiful young -Alkibiades. This youth thus describes the effect which the discourse of -Sokrates has on him: “When I hear him, my heart leaps in my breast, more -than it does among the Korybantes, and tears roll down my cheeks at his -words, and I notice that many others have the same experience. When I -heard Perikles and other excellent orators, I came to the conclusion -that they spoke well; but this experience was different from the other, -and my soul did not lose its control or gnash its teeth like a prostrate -slave, but by this Marsyas (= Sokrates) I was put into such a mood that -the condition in which I found myself did not seem praiseworthy.” - -He further describes Sokrates as being always “in love with beautiful -youths, and talking with them, and being quite beside himself”; hence -when he (Alkibiades) appears at the Symposium, and finds Sokrates -sitting next to the most beautiful man in the company, he chides him in -words which have exactly the sound of Jealousy inspired by _Romantic_ -Love: “And why did you recline here and not next to Aristophanes, or -some other wit, or would-be wit, but, instead, crowded forward in order -to be next to the handsomest?” - -To which Sokrates replies: “Agathon, come to my assistance; for my love -for this person has cost me dearly. Ever since I have loved him, I have -not been allowed to look at anybody, or to talk with any one who is -beautiful, or else this youth, in his jealousy and envy, does -unheard-of-things, and chides me, and hardly refrains from violence. Be -on your guard, therefore, that he may not resort to violence now, and -reconcile us, or if he dares to become unruly, assist me; for I very -much fear his madness and infatuation.” - -Although this was probably said in the playful tone common to Sokrates, -it yet is noticeable how closely the language used resembles the -language of modern Romantic Love. - - - SAPPHO AND FEMALE FRIENDSHIP - - -To this form of Platonic or mono-sexual love there existed a female -counterpart, as shown in some of the lyric effusions of Greek poets. -Some of these poets, it is true, especially Anakreon, knew naught of the -imaginative side of Love—of its protracted tortures and intermittent -joys. Like a butterfly that kisses every flower on its way, he “cared -only for the enjoyment of the passing moment.” But Sappho apparently -wrote of Love in terms worthy of Heine or Byron, as shown even in this -crude translation of one of her poems:— - - “While gazing on thy charms I hung, - My voice died faltering on my tongue, - With subtle flames my bosom glows, - Quick through each vein the poison flows; - Dark dimming mists my eyes surround, - My ears with hollow murmurs sound. - My limbs with dewy chillness freeze, - On my whole frame pale tremblings seize, - And losing colour, sense, and breath, - I seem quite languishing in death.” - -Longinus calls this the most perfect expression in all ancient -literature of the effects of Love. It happens, however, to have nothing -to do with Love. For, as Plato’s “love” is merely ecstatic friendship -between man and youth, so Sappho’s love is friendship between two women. -This is the opinion of Bode and Müller, and it is entirely borne out by -the language of the original text. - -It has been suggested that Sappho, being a woman, and a Greek woman, -could not have addressed such glowing words to a man without violating -the current notions of decorum; and hence wrote as if she were a man -addressing a woman. But Sappho was one of the Æolian women who had -greater liberty than the Athenians; and she was, moreover, a -blue-stocking who would not have stuck at such a trifle as shocking -Greek notions regarding woman’s privileges. And in some of her poems she -_does_ mention a youth “to whom she gave her whole heart, while he -requited her passion with cold indifference” (Müller). - -One of the Platonists, Maximus Tyrius (_dis._ 24, p. 297), takes the -same view regarding Sappho. “The love of the Lesbian poet,” he says, -“what can it be, if we may compare remote with more recent things than -the Sokratic art of love? For both appear to promote the same -_Friendship_, she among women, he among men. They both confess they love -many, and are captivated by all beauties. For what Alkibiades and -Charmides are to Sokrates, Gyrinna and Atthis and Anaktoria are to -Sappho.” “Even Sokrates confesses that it was from Sappho that he partly -derived his noble views of the enthusiastic _love of mental beauty_” -(_Phædon_, c. 225). - -To one of the girls just referred to, Sappho addresses these words: -“Again does the strength-dissolving Eros, that bittersweet, resistless -monster, agitate me; but to thee, O Atthis, the thought of me is -importunate; thou fliest to Andromeda.” “It is obvious,” says Müller, -“that this attachment bears less the character of maternal interest than -of passionate love; as amongst Dorians in Sparta and Crete analogous -connections between men and youths, in which the latter were trained to -noble and manly deeds, were carried on in a language of high-wrought and -passionate feeling, which had all the character of an attachment between -persons of different sexes. This mixture of feelings, which among -nations of a calmer temperament have always been perfectly distinct, is -an essential feature of the Greek character.” - -Greek Love, _i.e._ Friendship, being thus tinged and strengthened, as we -see in the cases of Sokrates and Alkibiades, Sappho and Atthis, by -jealousy, ecstatic adoration, exclusiveness, admiration of personal -beauty, and other qualities which modern civilisation has transferred to -Romantic Love, we are enabled to understand why Friendship was so much -more potent and prevalent in antiquity than it is now, when, having lost -these traits _through the differentiation of emotions_, it seems -“insipid to those who have tasted Love.” - -The lesson to be learned from this whole discussion on Greek Friendship -is of extreme importance to the psychology of Love. It is this: The -Greeks were too intellectual and refined not to have at least a vague -presentiment of the higher possibilities and charms of imaginative Love. -But Greek women—with the rare exceptions referred to—were too stupid to -enable the men to realise their vague ideal. Hence they sought it in -ardent attachments to youths, who _were_ quick-minded and able to -_sympathise_ with their intellectual aspirations. And thus Greek Love -became identical with male friendship—the female friendship referred to -being a sort of compensating echo. - -Greek Love is symbolised in the mythic youth Narcissus, who scorns all -the beautiful nymphs that are eager for his caresses, and falls in love -with his own image reflected in the water. - - - GREEK BEAUTY - -It even seems as if, apart from Love, the Greeks admired youthful -masculine beauty more than feminine charms; and many of them would -probably have agreed with Schopenhauer that men are more beautiful than -women. Certain it is that, as the most eminent critic of Greek art, -Winckelmann, points out “the supreme beauty of Greek art is male rather -than female.” - -The following citation from Grote’s famous work on Plato suggests some -reasons for this fact, besides reflecting further light on points -discussed in the preceding pages:— - -“In the Hellenic point of view, upon which Plato builds, the attachment -of man to woman was regarded as a natural impulse and as a domestic, -social sentiment; yet as belonging to _a commonplace rather than to an -exalted mind_, and seldom or never rising to that pitch of enthusiasm -which overpowers all other emotions, absorbs the whole man, and aims -either at the joint performance of great exploits, or the joint -prosecution of intellectual improvement by continued colloquy. We must -remember that the wives and daughters of citizens were seldom seen -abroad; that she had learned nothing except spinning and weaving; that -the fact of her having seen so little and heard as little as possible, -was considered as rendering her more acceptable to her husband; that her -sphere of duty and exertion was confined to the interior of the family. -The beauty of women yielded satisfaction to the senses, but little -beyond. It was the masculine beauty of youth that fired the Hellenic -imagination with glowing and impassioned sentiment. The finest youths, -and those, too, of the best families and education, were seen habitually -uncovered in the Palæstra and at the public festival-matches; engaged in -active contention and graceful exercise, under the direction of -professional trainers. The sight of the living form in such perfection, -movement, and variety, awakened a powerful emotional sympathy, blended -with æsthetic sentiment, which in the more susceptible natures was -exalted into intense and passionate devotion. The terms in which this -feeling is described, both by Plato and Xenophon, are among the -strongest which the language affords—and are predicated even of Sokrates -himself. Far from being ashamed of this feeling, they consider it -admirable and beneficial, though very liable to abuse, which they -emphatically denounce and forbid. In their view it was an idealising -passion, which tended to raise a man above the vulgar and selfish -pursuits of life, and even above the fear of death. The devoted -attachments which it inspired were dreaded by the despots, who forbade -the assemblage of youths for exercise in the Palæstra.” - -Another reason for the Greek preference of masculine beauty is suggested -by Mr. Lecky, who attributes it to the fact that the principal art of -the Greeks, sculpture, is “especially suited to represent male beauty, -or the beauty of strength”; whereas “female beauty, or the beauty of -softness,” became the principal object of the painters, after -Christianity had won attention for the feminine virtues of gentleness -and delicacy. (For further remarks on Greek Beauty, see the chapters on -“Four Sources of Beauty,” and “The Nose.”) - - - CUPID’S ARROWS - -Possibly some of my readers have not yet quieted all their doubts -regarding the existence of real Love among the Greeks; for did they not -have special deities of love—Aphrodite and Eros, Venus and Cupid? Quite -so; but those familiar with Greek history know that the cult of Venus -had but a remote connection with imaginative or Romantic Love, which -alone is here under consideration. Yet our modern poets owe a vast debt -of gratitude to the ancient bards for these mythic deities, whom they -have simply taken and idealised, like Love itself. There is, especially, -the mischievous Dan Cupid, who, in his modern metamorphosis, is still -“the anointed sovereign of sighs and groans.” This little fellow seems -to have been taken very seriously indeed by the earliest Greeks. He has -one attribute—wings—which we readily understand, as Love is inconstant -ever; but another of his attributes would excite the greatest surprise -in our minds were we not so accustomed to it as to accept it as a matter -of course, namely, his arrows. It would seem more in accordance with -modern notions that he should produce his magic effects by means of -Love-potions or other Love-charms, rather than with such a warlike -weapon as an arrow. - -A German feuilletonist, Dr. Michael Haberlandt, has lately advanced an -ingenious theory to account for this weapon. The ancient Greeks had the -peculiar belief that all diseases were caused by the invisible poisoned -arrows of evil or angry deities; as in the well-known case of the -offended Apollo sending his pest-laden arrows among the Hellenes. Now -love, in the irresistible and maddening, though primitive form known to -the early Greeks, was doubtless looked on as a real, mysterious -affliction, and not merely as love sickness in the figurative modern -sense: what more natural therefore than to attribute it to the arrows of -a mischievous deity? - -In course of time poetic fancy added to the image of Cupid other -attributes that naturally suggested themselves: the wings to symbolise -fickleness; a bandage to indicate blindness; while the arrows were -represented as dipped in poison, gall, or honey. The curious fact may be -added that the ancient East Indians, whose deities numbered 330,000,000 -(in round numbers), likewise had a god of love armed with bow and -arrows: a conception which they seem to have originated independently of -the Greeks. - - - ORIGIN OF LOVE - -Plato’s _Symposium_ contains two curious theories of the cause and -origin of love, which, in conclusion, may be briefly summarised, as they -help to characterise Greek notions on this subject. The first is placed -in the mouth of Sokrates, who says he heard it of the Hetaira Diotima. -What, she asks, is the cause of this love-sickness, this anxiety of men -and animals, first to get a mate, and then to take care of the -offspring? It is, she replies, the desire to perpetuate themselves. For -just as the famous heroes and heroines—Alkestis, Achilles, Kadros—would -not have so nobly sacrificed their lives had they not been sustained by -the thought that their fame and glory would survive among future -generations; so the fact that parents in the affection for their young -will even go so far as to sacrifice their own lives to protect them, is -due to their craving for immortality in their offspring. - -This theory may be regarded as a vague foreshadowing of Schopenhauer’s, -which will be considered in another place. - -The second theory of the origin of love is attributed by Plato to -Aristophanes, who relates it in the form of a myth. Human nature, he -begins, was not always as it is now. At the beginning there were three -sexes: one, the male, descended of the sun-god; the second, female, -descended of the earth; and the third, which united the attributes of -both sexes, descended of the moon. Each of these beings, moreover, had -two pairs of hands and legs, and two faces, and the figure was round, -and in rapid motion revolved like a wheel, the pairs of legs alternately -touching the ground and describing an arc in the air. - -These beings were fierce, powerful, and vain, so they attempted to storm -heaven and attack the gods. As Zeus did not wish to destroy them—since -that would have deprived him of sacrifices and other forms of human -devotion—he resolved to punish them by diminishing their strength. So he -directed Apollo to cut each of them into two, which was done; and thus -the number of human beings was doubled. Each of these half-beings now -continually wandered about, seeking its other half. And when they found -each other, their only desire was to be reunited by Vulcan and never be -parted again. “And this longing and striving after union—this is what is -meant by the name of Love.” - -The waggish Aristophanes appends a caution to human beings not to offend -Zeus again, because it was that god’s intention, on a repetition of the -offence, to split human beings once more, so that they would have to hop -about on one leg! - -One of the metaphors used by the comic poet is very pretty, even if -translated into terms of Modern Love. He compares the two divided halves -of one human being to the dice which among the ancients were used as -marks of hospitality, being broken into two pieces, of which each person -received one, and which were afterwards fitted together in token of -recognition. A pair of lovers, then, are like these halved dice, -naturally belonging to each other, and craving to be reunited. - - - - - ROMAN LOVE - - - WOMAN’S POSITION - -Among the Romans the domestic position of women was on the whole much -more favourable to the growth of feminine culture than in Greece. They -were not jealously guarded in special apartments, but were allowed to -retain their seat at the table and join in the conversation when guests -arrived, as Cornelius Nepos points out with a pardonable sense of -superiority. Becker, in his _Gallus_, thus states the difference between -Greek and Roman treatment of women: “Whilst we see that in most of the -Grecian states, and especially in Athens, the women (_i.e._ the whole -female sex) were little esteemed and treated as children all their -lives, confined to the gynaikoreitis, shut out from social life and all -intercourse with men and their amusements, we find that in Rome exactly -the reverse was the case. Although the wife is naturally subordinate to -the husband, yet she is always treated with open attention and regard. -The Roman housewife always appears as the mistress of the whole -household economy, instructress of the children, and guardian of the -honour of the house, equally esteemed with the paterfamilias both in and -out of the house.” - -“Walking abroad was only limited by scruple and custom, not by a law or -the jealous will of the husband. The women frequented public theatres as -well as the men, and took their places with them at festive banquets.” -"Even the vestals participated in the banquets of the men." Although -“learned women were dreaded,” a knowledge of Greek and the fine arts was -in later times counted an essential part of feminine culture. “Certain -advantages accrued to those who had many children, _jus trium -liberorum_.” Masculine “voluntary celibacy was considered, in very early -times, as censurable and even guilty;” and from Festus “we learn that -there was a celibate fine.” The statement apparently credited by Mr. -Lecky that for 520 years there was no case of divorce in Rome, has been -shown to rest on a misconception of a passage in Gellius. Yet “manners -were so severe, that a senator was censured for indecency because he had -kissed his wife in the presence of their daughter.” It was also -considered “in a high degree disgraceful for a Roman mother to delegate -to a nurse the duty of suckling her child.” - - - NO WOOING AND CHOICE - -Yet amid all these domestic virtues and family affections we search in -vain for the prevalence of Romantic Love. We have already seen that for -the growth of this sentiment something more is needed than domestic -affection, and that something is comprised in the word WOOING. There was -no wooing at Rome. In most cases, the father took his daughter’s heart -in his hand, and, treating it as a piece of personal property, bestowed -it on the suitor who best “suited” him. “From the earliest times,” says -Ploss, “it was customary in Rome to marry girls when they had barely -reached their twelfth or thirteenth year; engagements were probably made -at a still earlier age. Although legally the daughter’s consent was -required, in actual practice _she exercised no choice_; her extreme -youth in itself preventing this. Often a marriage contract was a mere -matter of agreement between two families in which love and personal -favour were disregarded; nor did even the betrothal bring the future -couple into closer intimacy.” With reference to the laws of the Twelve -Tablets, M. Legouvé remarks, in his _Histoire Morale des Femmes_, that -“Rome was worthy of Athens. Not only did a Roman father dispose of his -daughter against her inclination, but he even had the right to dissolve -a marriage into which she had entered, and to take away from his -daughter the husband he had given her, whom she loved, and by whom she -had children.” In justice, however, it must be added that this latter -right was rarely exercised; but the fact that the Romans could tolerate -the very notion of such a law shows what little account was made of -love. - -Another absurd impediment to personal choice was raised by the -Theodosian Code, which compelled a girl to marry a man who had the same -calling as her father—a custom which, indeed, seems to prevail in parts -of Europe to the present day, and which is as incompatible with Love as -the ancient Hebrew rule that the oldest daughter must be married first—a -rule which compelled Jacob to marry Leah before he could get his beloved -Rachel, for whom he had laboured seven years. “First come first served” -is a rule which Cupid rarely heeds in the case of several sisters. - -In the case of the men it is possible that Sexual Selection occasionally -came into play, when early betrothals did not prevent it; for the old -Romans were too rational to anticipate the silly and criminal French -custom of bargaining for a bride before they had even seen her. In such -a case, if the bride was attractive, the suitor’s imagination, dwelling -on the fact that this vision of loveliness was to be his own, -exclusively, for ever, may have been warmed for a moment with something -very like romantic sentiment. But beauty in Rome, Ovid informs us, was -very rare—"How few are able to boast it!"—so that even with the men who -had a choice, Individual Preference based on Personal Beauty could have -been rarely exercised. And as for the women who had no choice, they may -have felt a temporary elation on first meeting their destined husbands; -but this feeling was merely the manifestation of a vague instinct, -comparable to the “love” which a bevy of modern boarding-school “buds” -show for the only man they are allowed to see regularly,—their ugly -teacher,—and the unreality and silliness of which they laugh at -themselves when they are at last allowed to meet the man of their own, -individual, free choice, who teaches them the feeling of real Romantic -Love. - - - VIRGIL, DRYDEN, AND SCOTT - -Nevertheless, compared with Greek literature, the works of the Roman -poets show an advance in their conception of Love; for they avoid at -least the Hellenic confusion of love with friendship. Compared with the -best modern poets, however, who labour with the pure gold of Love alone, -the Roman poet’s productions still show much of the base ore from which -the modern gold has been extracted. It is interesting, in this -connection, to read what Dryden has to say concerning Virgil’s -conception of Love, and Scott’s comments on Dryden. - -In his dedication of the _Æneid_, Dryden speaks of Book IV. as "This -noble episode, wherein the whole passion of love is more exactly -described than in any other poet. Love was the theme of his fourth book; -and though it is the shortest of the whole Æneis, yet there he has given -its beginning, its progress, its traverses, and its conclusion; and had -exhausted so entirely his subject, that he could resume it but very -slightly in the eight ensuing books. - -“She was warmed with the graceful appearance of the hero; she smothered -those sparkles out of decency; but conversation blew them up into a -flame. Then she was forced to make a confidante of her whom she might -best trust, her own sister, who approves the passion, and thereby -augments it: then succeeds her public owning it; and after that the -consummation. Of Venus and Juno, Jupiter and Mercury, I say nothing; for -they were all machining work; but, possession having cooled his love, as -it increased hers, she soon perceived the change, or at least grew -suspicious of a change; this suspicion soon turned to jealousy, and -jealousy to rage; then she disdains and threatens, and again is humble -and entreats, and nothing availing, despairs, curses, and at last -becomes her own executioner. See here the whole process of that passion, -to which nothing can be added.” - -Sir Walter Scott, however, does add, in a foot-note to his edition of -Dryden: “I am afraid this passage, given as a just description of love, -serves to confirm what is elsewhere stated, that Dryden’s ideas of the -female sex and of the passion were very gross and malicious.” - - - OVID’S ART OF MAKING LOVE - -Gross and malicious also are the ideas of the female sex and the passion -frequently encountered in the poems of Ovid; not so coarse and cynical, -indeed, as in Martial and Catullus, but sufficiently so to have -confounded the æsthetic judgment of the present generation, and spread -the notion that Virgil and Horace are greater poets than Ovid, whereas, -from the point of view of originality and imaginativeness, by far the -greatest of the three is Ovid, who also had much more influence on the -great writers of the best period of English literature than his rivals, -as Professor W. Y. Sellar has pointed out. - -Both these circumstances are to be regretted—the undervaluation of -Ovid’s genius as well as his frequent frivolity on which it is based. -For Ovid was unquestionably the first poet who had a conception of the -higher possibilities of Love; in fact he was the greatest, and the only -great, Love-poet before Dante. His rare genius enabled him to anticipate -and depict the modern imaginative side of Love, even while he seemed -wholly devoted to the ancient sensual side. And, in reading his poems, -great caution is necessary, lest these _emotional anticipations_ of his -quasi-modern genius be supposed to have been common and prevalent among -less gifted Romans of his time. - -Ovid was a profound observer and psychologist, and had a most subtle -knowledge of contemporary feminine nature; Although the principal object -of his _Ars Amoris_ is to teach men how to out-trump the natural cunning -of women, yet he does not forget his feminine readers, but gives them -numerous hints regarding the best way of fascinating fickle men. In the -_Remedia Amoris_ he describes various remedies for healing Cupid’s -wounds, most of which are approved to the present day; and the _Elegies_ -and _Heroides_, too, are full of pretty modern touches and flashes of -insight. A few of these points may be briefly alluded to. - -Coyness, although often manifested by the Roman women in almost as crude -a manner as among savages, does not appear to have been appreciated by -all of them at its full value; so the poet frequently counsels them as -to the more subtle ways of exercising it; one of his rules for women -being, that if they have offended an admirer, the best way to make him -forget it is to pretend to be offended themselves, which will restore -the equilibrium. How the consciousness of being beautiful makes a woman -courageous, coy, and cruel is shown in another place. That eyes have a -language plainer than speech is not a modern discovery; and that a short -absence favours, long absence kills, passion was also known to Ovid. He -warns men against the danger of feigning love, because this may end in -arousing genuine passion. Men are informed that courage and confidence -in one’s ability to win a woman are half the battle. And disappointed -lovers are assured that failure sometimes turns into an advantage, for -it may arouse pity, and love enter in the guise of friendship. - -The emotional hyperbole and mixed feelings of Love are not strangers to -Ovid. He compares the tortures of Love to the berries on the trees in -number, to the shells on the sea-beach; for true Love, he says, always -creates anguish and pain; and “the sweetest torment on earth is woman.” -Among the companions of Cupid are “flattery and illusion.” But “even if -the beloved deceives me with false words, hope itself will yield me -great enjoyment,” could only have been written by one who realised the -imaginative side of love. And in another passage the poet directly -enjoins the necessity of intellectual culture to take the place of the -faded charms of youth. - -Hero’s Letter to Leander in the _Heroides_ contains some pretty touches. -Leander has informed his love that when the storm prevents him from -swimming over to her, his mind yet hastens to meet her. But Hero is in -great trouble at his prolonged absence, and her deepest anguish is -Jealousy of a possible rival: in the absence of real grounds of -apprehension, her imagination invents them, as in a modern lover’s mind. -She suspects that his passion has lost the ardour which sustained him in -his difficult feat; and, too weak to quite swim over to him and back -again, and anxious to save him the double journey, she suggests that -they should meet in the middle of the sea, exchange a kiss, and each -return to the shore whence they came. - -Is there anything more exquisitely romantic or pathetic in all modern -Love-poetry—in Shakspere, Heine, Burns, or Byron? - - - BIRTH OF GALLANTRY - -Becker says of the Greeks that “The men were very careful as to their -behaviour in the presence of women, but they were _quite strangers to -those minute attentions which constitute the gallantry of the moderns_.” -This holds true apparently of all other nations of antiquity; and to a -student of the history of Love it is therefore of exceeding interest to -find in Ovid’s poetry the first evidences of the existence of -Gallantry—a disposition on the part of the men to sacrifice their own -comfort to the pleasures and whims of women. - -Mr. G. A. Simcox was the first writer, so far as I know, who pointed out -Ovid’s priority in this matter (in his _History of Latin Literature_). -In Ovid, he says, “The whole description of gallantry implies that the -idea was a novelty, and that the lover would require a great deal of -encouragement to enable him to make the sacrifice of paying such -attentions as could be commanded from a servant. This throws a new light -on the habit the Augustan poets have of calling their mistress _domina_, -which is more noteworthy, for they call no man _dominus_. One does not -trace the idea at all in Latin comedy, where the heroines are for the -most part _only too thankful to be caressed and protected_. One finds -the word in Lucilius, but even in Catullus it is hardly established.” - -Instances of gallant behaviour are not rare in Ovid’s poetry; but the -didactic tone in which they are detailed makes it almost appear as if -the poet were recommending to his countrymen the value of a nice little -discovery of his own which would convert crude love-making into a fine -art. Never be so ungallant—he says in effect, though he does not use the -word—as to refer to a woman’s faults or shortcomings. Compliment her, on -the contrary, on her good points—her face, her hair, her tapering -fingers, her pretty foot. At the circus applaud whatever she applauds. -Adjust her cushion, put the footstool where it ought to be, and keep her -comfortable by fanning her. And at dinner, when she has tasted the wine, -quickly seize the cup and put your lips to the place where she has -sipped. - -Unfortunately this morning dawn of Romantic Love, as depicted in the -pages of Ovid, was soon hidden beneath the dark clouds of mediæval -barbarism, not to emerge again till a thousand years later. - - - - - MEDIÆVAL LOVE - - - CELIBACY _VERSUS_ MARRIAGE - -Were I asked to name the four most refining influences in modern -civilisation I would answer: Women, Beauty, Love, and Marriage. Were I -asked to name the essence of the early mediæval spirit I would say: -Deadly Enmity toward Women, Beauty, Love, and Marriage. - -This pathologic attitude of the mediæval mind was at first a natural -reaction against the incredible depravity and licentiousness that -prevailed under the Roman Empire. But the reaction went to such -preposterous extremes that the resulting state of affairs was even more -degrading and deplorable than the original evil. It was like inoculating -a man with leprosy to cure him of smallpox. It was bad enough to treat -marriage as a _farce_, as did the later Romans, among whom there were -women who had their eighth and tenth husband, while one case is related -of a woman “who was married to her twenty-third husband, she herself -being his twenty-first wife”; while the public looked upon this case as -a “match” in a double sense, the survivor being publicly crowned and -feted as champion. But a thousand times worse was the mediæval notion -that marriage is a _crime_. And this preposterous notion—that a relation -on which all civilisation is based, which is sanctioned even by many -animals and ignored by only the very lowest of the savages—this criminal -notion was foisted on the world by the fanatical priesthood in whose -hands unfortunately Christianity was placed for centuries, to be -distorted, vitiated, and utilised for political, criminal, and selfish -purposes. - -“The services rendered,” says Mr. Lecky, “by the ascetics in imprinting -on the minds of men a profound and enduring conviction of the importance -of chastity, though extremely great, were seriously counterbalanced by -their noxious influence upon marriage. Two or three beautiful -descriptions of this institution have been culled out of the immense -mass of patristic writings; but in general it would be difficult to -conceive anything more coarse and more repulsive than the manner in -which they regarded it.... The tender love which it elicits, the holy -and beautiful domestic qualities that follow in its train, were almost -absolutely omitted from consideration. The object of the ascetic was to -attract men to a life of virginity, and, as a necessary consequence, -marriage was treated as an inferior state.” - -“The days of Chivalry were not yet,” we read in Smith’s _Dictionary of -Christian Antiquities_, “and we cannot but notice even in the greatest -of the Christian fathers a lamentably low estimate of woman, and, -consequently, of the marriage relationship.” - -What an inexhaustible source of mediæval immorality this contemptuous -treatment of marriage by the most influential class of society proved, -has been so often depicted in glaring colours that these pages need not -be tainted with illustrations. - - - WOMAN’S LOWEST DEGRADATION - -Woman was represented by the Fathers “as the door of hell, as the mother -of all human ills. She should be ashamed at the very thought that she is -a woman; she should live in continual penance on account of the curses -she has brought upon the world. Women were even forbidden by a -provincial council in the sixth century, on account of their impurity, -to receive the Eucharist into their naked hands. Their essentially -subordinate position was continually maintained” (Lecky). - -Not even the Koran took such a degrading view of woman as these early -“Christian Fathers.” For the current notion that the existence of a soul -in woman is denied by the Mahometan faith is contradicted by several -passages in the Koran. - -The lowest depths of feminine degradation and the sublimest heights of -fanatical folly and crime, however, were not reached in this early -period, but some centuries later, when the incredible brutalities of the -witchcraft trials began. The vast majority of the victims were women; -and Professor Scherr, in his _Geschichte der Deutschen Frauenwelt_, -estimates that _in Germany alone_ at least one hundred thousand -“witches” were burnt at the stake. No one on reading the accounts of -these trials can help feeling that Shakspere made a mistake when he -wrote that - - “All the world’s a stage, - And all the men and women merely players.” - -He should have said, - - “All the world’s a madhouse, - And all the men are fools and demons.” - -More demons than fools, however. Superstition was, indeed, epidemic -during the Middle Ages; but those who superintended the witches’ -trials—the rulers and the clergy—were not the persons affected by it. If -they did execute 100,000 victims in Germany; if they did murder girls of -twelve, ten, eight, and even seven years, on the accusation of having -borne children whose father was Satan, or of having murdered persons who -in some cases were actually present at the trial—the reason of this was -not because the authorities believed this cruel nonsense. The real -reason is given by Scherr: “The circumstance that the property of those -who were burnt at the stake was confiscated, two-thirds of it getting -into the hands of the landowner (Grundherr), the other third into those -of the _judges, clergy, accusers, and executioners_, has beyond doubt -kindled countless witch-fires.... During the Thirty Years’ War, -especially, the trials for witchcraft became a greedily-utilised source -of profit to many a country nobleman in reduced circumstances, and no -less to bishops, abbots, and councillors, who were in financial straits. -Indeed, as early as the sixteenth century, one of the opponents of -witches’ trials, Cornelius Loos, justly observed that the whole -proceeding was simply ‘a newly-invented alchemy for converting human -blood into gold.’” - -What difference is there between these civilised savages and the -Australian who eats his wife when he gets tired of her? Let those who -are fond of seeking needles in haystacks search for traces of Romantic -Love under such circumstances. - - - NEGATION OF FEMININE CHOICE - -Feudal legislation combined with clerical contempt and criminal -persecution in lowering woman’s position. There were numerous and -stringent enactments which “rendered it impossible for women to succeed -to any considerable amount of property, and which almost reduced them to -the alternative of marriage or a nunnery. The complete inferiority of -the sex was continually maintained by the law; and that generous public -opinion which in Rome had frequently revolted against the injustice done -to girls, in depriving them of the greater part of the inheritance of -their fathers, totally disappeared.” Beaumanoir says that “Every husband -may beat his wife if she refuses to obey his orders, or if she speaks -ill of him or tells an untruth, provided he does so with moderation.” -Early German law permitted the father, and subsequently the husband, to -sell, punish, or even kill the wife; and in England wife-beating has not -yet died out. - -“If, in the times of St. Louis,” says Legouvé, “a young vassal of some -royal fief was sought in marriage, it was necessary for her father to -get his seigneur’s permission for her marriage; the seigneur asked the -king’s consent to his permission, and not till after all these -agreements (father, seigneur, king) was _she_ consulted regarding this -contract which affected her whole life.” How beautifully such a law must -have fostered the sentiment of Love which depends on Individual -Preference and Special Sympathy! - -Such laws no doubt were simply echoes of clerical teachings. “The girl,” -says St. Ambrose of Rebecca, whom he holds up herein as an example, “is -not consulted about her espousals, for she awaits the judgment of her -parents; inasmuch as a girl’s modesty will not allow her to choose a -husband” (!). Irish “bulls” appear to have crept even into ecclesiastic -enactments, for we read in Smith’s _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_ -that “An Irish council in the time of St. Patrick, about the year 450 -lays it down that the will of the girl is to be inquired of the father, -and that the girl is to do what her father chooses, inasmuch as man is -the head of the woman.” “Even widows,” we read further, “under the age -of twenty-five were forbidden by a law of Valentinian and Gratian to -marry without their parents’ consent; and St. Ambrose desires young -widows to leave the choice of their second husbands to their parents.” - -Compayré states in his _History of Pedagogy_ that in the seventeenth -century “woman was still regarded as the inferior of man, in the lower -classes as a drudge, in the higher as an ornament. In her case -intellectual culture was regarded as either useless or dangerous; and -the education that was given her was to fit her for a life of devotion -or a life of seclusion from society.” - -Still more, of course, was this the case in the times of St. Jerome, who -in his letter to Læta on the education of her daughter Paula, tells her -that the girl must never eat in public, or eat meat. “Never let Paula -listen to musical instruments.” Even her affections must be -suppressed—all except the devotional sentiments. She must not be “in the -gatherings and in the company of her kindred; let her be found only in -retirement.” “Do not allow Paula to feel more affection for one of her -companions than for others.” And this ascetic moralist even recommends -uncleanliness as a virtue: “I entirely forbid a young girl to bathe;” -which may be matched with the following, also cited from Compayré: “The -first preceptors of Gargantua said that it sufficed to comb one’s hair -with the four fingers and the thumb; and that whoever combed, washed, -and cleansed himself otherwise was losing his time in this world.” - -In such a rough atmosphere of masculine ignorance, fanaticism, and -cruelty the feminine virtues of sympathy, tenderness, grace, and -sweetness could not have flourished very luxuriantly. Consequently there -is doubtless more than a grain of truth in mediæval proverbs about -women, cynical and brutal as some of them are. Here are a few -specimens:— - -“Women and horses must be beaten.” - -“Women and money are the cause of all evil in the world.” - -“Women only keep those secrets which they don’t know.” - -“Trust no woman, and were she dead.” - -“Between a woman’s yes and no there isn’t room for the point of a -needle.” - -“If you are too happy, take a wife.” - -When we read that “Montaigne is of that number, who, through false -gallantry, would keep woman in a state of ignorance, on the pretext that -instruction would mar her natural charms;” and that the same author -recommends poetry to women, because it is “a wanton, crafty art, -disguised, all for pleasure, all for show, just as they are”; we recall -with a smile John Stuart Mill’s sarcastic reference to the time, “Some -generations ago, when satires on women were in vogue, and men thought it -a clever thing to insult women for being what men made them.” - - - CHRISTIANITY AND LOVE - -Christianity claims to be pre-eminently the religion of love, in the -widest sense of that term, including, especially, religious veneration -of a personal Deity and love of one’s enemy. It has been asserted by -Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others that Christianity has done little -or nothing in aid of woman’s elevation; and it cannot be denied that -much good would have resulted if more emphasis had been placed by the -Apostles on certain phases of the domestic relations. That Romantic Love -is not alluded to in the New Testament need not cause any surprise, for -that sentiment cannot have existed in those days when Courtship and -Individual Choice were unknown. But there are passages in St. Paul’s -writings which were probably the seeds from which grew the mediæval -contempt for marriage and women. And although marriage is now zealously -guarded by the Church, Love of the romantic sort is no doubt looked upon -even to-day by many an austere clergyman as a harmless youthful -epidemic—a sort of emotional measles—rather than as a new -æsthetico-moral sentiment destined to become the strongest of all -agencies working for the improvement of the personal appearance, social -condition, and happiness of mankind. - -On the other hand, even agnostics must admit on reflection that -Christianity contained elements which, despite the vicious fanaticism of -many of its early teachers, slowly helped to ameliorate woman’s lot. In -the first place, Protestantism, as embodied in Luther, performed an -invaluable service by restoring and enforcing universal respect for the -marriage-tie. He set a good example by not only defying the degrading -custom of obligatory celibacy, but by marrying a most sensible woman—a -nun who had escaped with eight others from a convent at Nimtsch. - -Mariolatry, or the cult of the Virgin Mary, is the second avenue through -which Christianity influenced the development of the tender emotions. -The halo of sanctity which it spread at the same time over virginity and -motherhood has been of incalculable value in raising woman in the -estimation of the masses. - -A third way in which Christianity influenced woman’s position is -suggested by the following remarks of Mr. Lecky, who has done valuable -service to philosophy, in showing how emotions as well as ideas change -with time: “In antiquity,” he says, “the virtues that were most admired -were almost exclusively those which were distinctively masculine. -Courage, self-assertion, magnanimity, and, above all, patriotism, were -the leading features of the ideal type; and chastity, modesty, and -charity, the gentler and the domestic virtues, which are especially -feminine, were greatly undervalued. With the single exception of -conjugal fidelity, none of the virtues that were highly prized were -virtues distinctively or pre-eminently feminine.” Now the “religion of -love,” by especially insisting on these “feminine virtues,” became a -powerful agent in undermining the coarse mediæval spirit with its -masculine, military “virtues,” _alias_ barbarisms. - - - - CHIVALRY—MILITANT AND COMIC - -In the howling wilderness of mediæval masculine brutality and feminine -degradation there was one sunny oasis in which the flowers of Love were -allowed to grow undisturbed for a few generations,—until military -ambition trod them again underfoot. This brief episode of gentler -manners is known as the period of Chivalry. - -Ever since the fifth century the worship of the Virgin Mary had -increased in ardour, and it was to be expected that at some favourable -moment this adoration would be extended to the whole female sex, or at -least its nobler representatives. This was the mission taken upon -themselves by the knights and poets of chivalrous times. - -Chivalry, it is true, was so often a mixture of clownishness and -licentiousness, its practice was so much less refined than its theory, -that in opposition to those historians who have sung its praises others -have doubted whether its influence was on the whole for good or for -evil. For, although the knights vowed especially to protect widows and -orphans, and respect and honour ladies, yet it was precisely under their -_régime_ that, when cities were taken and castles stormed, women were -subjected to the most brutal treatment. - -The difficulty is best solved by distinguishing between two kinds of -Chivalry—the Militant and the Poetic. The militant type of -knight-errantry was less inspired by the desire to benefit womankind -than by ambition to gratify silly masculine vanity. So thoroughly was -the mediæval mind imbued with ideas of war that these knights could not -conceive even of love except in a military guise. So they rode about the -country in quest of adventure, ostensibly in the service of an adored -mistress, but really to find an outlet, in times of peace, for pent-up -military energy and ambition. - -Spain and Southern France were the principal home of Chivalry Militant, -because there a warm climate and smiling nature offered most favourable -conditions to wandering knights in quest of adventure. Fortunately the -world possesses, in _Don Quixote_, a lifelike picture of -knight-errantry; for although the aim of Cervantes was to make fun, not -so much of Chivalry as of trashy contemporaneous romances of Chivalry, -yet in doing this he could not avoid depicting the comic side of the -institution itself, concerning which it is indeed _difficile satiram non -scribere_. - -It appears to have been the custom of these knights to wander about the -country interfering in every quarrel, and, in default of a disturbance, -creating one. - -Each knight had a Dulcinea, whom he had perhaps never seen, but in whose -honour and for whose love he engages in all these combats. And whenever -he meets another knight he forthwith challenges him to admit that this -Dulcinea, whom the other has of course never seen, is the most beautiful -lady in the world. The other knight echoes the challenge in behalf of -_his_ Dulcinea; and the result is a combat in which the victor, by the -inexorable logic of superior strength, proves the superior beauty of his -chosen lady-love. - -The vanquished knight is then sent as prisoner to the victor’s mistress -with a message of love. - -The Germans do not often originate anything; but if they take up an idea -or institution they work it more thoroughly than any other nation. So -with the fantastic side of Chivalry, which was introduced after the -second crusade, during which German knights had come into close contact -with French knights. - -“Spain,” says Professor Scherr, “has imagined a Don Quixote, but Germany -has really produced one.” - -His name was Ulrich von Lichtenstein, and he was born in the year 1200. -“From his boyhood, Herr Ulrich’s thoughts were directed towards -woman-worship, and as a youth he chose a high-born and, be it well -understood, a married lady as his patroness, in whose service he infused -method into his knightly madness. The circumstance that meanwhile he -himself gets married does not abate his folly. He greedily drinks water -in which his patroness has washed herself; he has an operation performed -on his thick double underlip, because she informs him that it is not -inviting for kisses; he amputates one of his fingers which had become -stiff in an encounter, and sends it to his mistress as a proof of his -capacity of endurance for her sake. Masked as Frau Venus, he wanders -about the country and engages in encounters, in this costume, in honour -of his mistress; at her command he goes among the lepers and eats with -them from one bowl.... The most remarkable circumstance, however, is -that Ulrich’s own spouse, while her husband and master masquerades about -the land as a knight in his beloved’s service, remains aside in his -castle, and is only mentioned (in his poetic autobiography) whenever he -returns home, tired and dilapidated, to be restored by her nursing.” - -When a German knight had chosen a Dulcinea, he adopted and wore her -colour, for he was now her _love-servant_, and stood to his mistress in -the same relation as a vassal to his master. “The beloved,” Scherr -continues, “gave her lover a love-token—a girdle or veil, a ribbon, or -even a sleeve of her dress; this token he fastened to his helmet or -shield, and great was the lady’s pride if he brought it back to her from -battle thoroughly cut and hewn to pieces. Thus (in _Parzival_) Gawan had -fastened on his shield a sleeve of the beautiful Olibet, and when he -returned it to her, torn and speared, ‘Da ward des Mägdlein’s Freude -gross; ihr blanker Arm war noch bloss, darüber schob sie ihn zuhand.’” - -The attitude of the knight-errants may be briefly described as -_Gallantry gone mad_. We have seen that a few traces of Gallantry are -found in the pages of Ovid; but it was during the age of Chivalry that -this overtone of Love made itself heard for the first time distinctly -and loudly. And as, when a new popular melody appears, everybody takes -it up and sings and whistles it _ad nauseam_; so these knights, -intoxicated with the novel idea of gallant behaviour toward women, took -it up and carried it to the most ridiculous extremes. - -The women, naturally enough, unused to such devotion, became as -extravagantly coy as the men were gallant. They subjected this Gallantry -to the most absurd and even cruel tests. The knights were sent to war, -to the crusades, into the dens of wild animals, to test their devotion; -and few were so manly as the knight in Schiller’s ballad, who, after -fetching his lady’s glove from the lion’s den, threw it in her face, -instead of accepting her willing favours. - -It is with reference to these coy and cruel tests of Gallantry that -Wolfram von Eschenbach bitterly accuses Love of having caused the death -of many a noble knight. - -Yet, despite these absurdities, the trials and procrastinations to which -the knights were subjected had one good result: they helped to give Love -a supersensual, imaginative basis. This fact is brought out clearly in -the following statement made by Dr. Bötticher in his learned work on -_Parzival_. When, he says, after the middle of the twelfth century, the -Troubadour love-poetry became known in Austria, “it was especially the -idea of Minnedienst (love-service) that was seized upon with avidity: -the knight wooes and labours for a woman’s love, but she holds back and -grants no favours until after a long trial-service. The final object of -this service, the possession of the beloved, is regarded as _quite -subordinate to the pangs and pleasures of wooing and waiting_.” - -Here was a novelty in Love, indeed! And, as good luck would have it, -fashion lent its powerful aid to the innovation. The sentiment was that -“Whoever is not in the service of love is unworthy to be a courtier”; -and thus many a boor who would have very much preferred to continue -treating women as servants, had to put his head into the yoke of -Gallantry, in order to be “fashionable.” - - - CHIVALRY—POETIC - -If these knights of Chivalry bestrode their warlike Rosinantes to show -an astonished world for the first time what could be done in the way of -Gallantry, the peaceful poets of Chivalry—the Troubadours and -Minnesingers—in turn mounted their winged Pegasus, and soared for the -first time to the dizzy heights of Ecstatic Adoration or Emotional -Hyperbole. - -“Woman was regarded,” says Mr. Symonds, “as an ideal being, to be -approached with worship bordering on adoration. The lover derived -personal force, virtue, elevation, energy from his enthusiastic passion. -Honour, justice, courage, _self-sacrifice_, contempt of worldly goods -flowed from that one sentiment, and love united two wills in a single -ecstasy. Love was the consummation of spiritual felicity, which -surpassed all other modes of happiness in its beatitude. Thus, Bernard -de Ventadour and Jacopo da Lentino were ready to forego Paradise, unless -they might behold their lady’s face before the throne of God. For a -certain period in modern history this mysticism of the amorous emotion -was no affectation. It formulated a genuine impulse of manly hearts, -influenced by beauty, and touched with the sense of moral superiority in -woman, perfected through weakness, and demanding physical protection. By -bringing the tender passions into accord with gentle manners and -unselfish aspirations, it served to temper the rudeness of primitive -society; and no little of its attraction was due to the conviction that -_only refined natures could experience it_. This new aspect of love was -due to chivalry, to Christianity, to the Teutonic reverence for woman, -in which religious awe seems to have blended with the service of the -weaker by the stronger.” - -These remarks, though applicable to Chivalrous poetry in general, refer -especially to the Italian species. The most important varieties of -Chivalrous poetry, however, are those of the Provençal, or French, -Troubadours, and the German Minnesingers. These must be briefly -considered in turn, as they present national differences of importance -to the history and psychology of Love. - -(_a_) _French Troubadours._—As we live in a period in which the -newspaper has become the greatest of moral forces, we can most easily -realise the social influence of the Troubadours on reading, in Thierry, -that “In the twelfth century the songs of the troubadours, circulating -rapidly from castle to castle, and from town to town, supplied the place -of periodical gazettes in all the country between the rivers Isère and -Vienne, the mountains of Auvergne and the two seas.” - -The wandering minstrels who wielded this poetic power were recruited -from all classes—nobility, artisans, and clergy. But, as Dr. F. Hueffer -remarks in his entertaining work on Provençal life and poetry, “By far -the largest number of the Troubadours known to us—fifty-seven in -number—belong to the nobility, not to the highest nobility in most -cases, it is true. In several instances, poverty is distinctly mentioned -as the cause for adopting the profession of a troubadour. It almost -appears, indeed, as if this profession, like that of the churchman, and -sometimes in connection with it, had been regarded by Provençal families -as a convenient mode of providing for their younger sons.” - -In a time when distinctions of rank were so closely observed, it was -perhaps of special importance that these singers should be chiefly -persons of noble blood. Women, it is true, have at all times shown a -disposition to ignore rank in favour of bards and tenors; but the -mediæval nobles might have hesitated, frequently, to extend to commoners -the unlimited hospitality of their castles, and the privilege of adoring -their wives in verse and action. These husbands, in fact, appear to have -shown remarkable forbearance towards their poetic guests. No doubt it -flattered their vanity (overtone of _Pride_) to have the charms of their -spouse sung by a famous poet in person; and on account of the social -influence wielded by the Troubadours, owing to their successive -appearance at all the castles in the land, it was, moreover, wise not to -forfeit their goodwill. Sometimes, however, Jealousy held high carnival, -as, in the case of Guillem, the hero of Hueffer and Mackenzie’s opera, -_The Troubadour_, who was murdered by the injured husband, and the -faithless wife compelled to drink of the wine called “the poet’s blood,” -adulterated in a horribly realistic manner. The women, likewise, were -frequently moved by Jealousy—not in behalf of their husbands but of the -Troubadours, of whose art and adoration they desired a Monopoly, whereas -these bards were very apt to transfer their fickle affections to other -women. - -Fickleness, however, was not the greatest fault of these Troubadours. -Their great moral shortcoming was that they paid no attention to the -borderline between conjugal and romantic love. Dr. Hueffer does not -recollect a single instance amongst the numerous love-stories told in -connection with the Troubadours, in which the object of passion was not -a married lady—a strange point of affinity with the modern French novel -to which he calls the attention of those interested in national -psychology. A case in point is that of Guirant (1260), one of whose -pastorals is analysed by Hueffer: “The idea is simple enough: an amorous -knight, whose importunate offers to an unprotected girl are kept in -check by mere dint of graceful, witty, sometimes tart reply.” These -offers of love are repeated at intervals of two, three, seven, and six -years, and finally transferred to the woman’s daughter, always with the -same bad luck. His own wife, meanwhile, is never considered a proper -object for his poetic effusions. Concerning the German imitator of -foreign customs—Ulrich von Lichtenstein, mentioned a few pages back—we -have likewise seen that his wife never entered his mind except when he -came home “tired and dilapidated, to be restored by her nursing.” - -Besides pastorals of the kind just referred to, the Troubadours had -several other classes of songs, among them the tensons, or contentions -which were “metrical dialogues of lively repartee on some disputed -points of gallantry.” These may have given ground for the myth that -aristocratic ladies of this period “instituted Courts of Love, in which -questions of gallantry were gravely discussed and determined by their -suffrages,” as, _e.g._ whether a husband could really love his wife. The -question whether any such debating clubs for considering the ethics and -etiquette of love existed is still debated by scholars; but the best -evidence appears to be negative. - -(_b_) _German Minnesingers._—The German wandering minstrels also -belonged mainly to the aristocracy, and imitated their French colleagues -in paying their addresses chiefly to married women—a fact for which, in -both cases, the rigid chaperonage of the young must be held responsible; -for man _will_ make love, and if not allowed to do so properly he will -do it improperly. Yet on the whole the Minnesingers, at least in their -verse, were less amorous than the Troubadours. As Mr. L. C. Elson -remarks in his _History of German Song_: “The Troubadour praised the -eyes, the hair, the lips, the form of his chosen one; the Minnesinger -praised the sweetness, the grace, the modesty, the tenderness of the -entire sex. The one was concrete, the other abstract.” - -Abstractness, however, is not a desirable quality in poetry, the very -essence of which is concrete imagery. Accordingly we find that with few -exceptions the German Minnesingers are not as poets equal to their -French prototypes. It was Schiller himself who passed the severest -judgment on these early colleagues of his. “If the sparrows on the -roof,” he once remarked to a friend, “should ever undertake to write, or -to issue an almanac of love and friendship, I would wager ten to one it -would be just like these songs of love. What a poverty of ideas in these -songs! A garden, a tree, a hedge, a forest, and a sweetheart—these are -about all the objects that are to be found in a sparrow’s head. Then we -have flowers which are fragrant, fruits which grow mellow, twigs on -which a bird sits in the sunshine and sings, and spring which comes, and -winter which goes, and nothing that remains except—_ennui_.” - -Schiller’s criticism, however, is too sweeping, for there were notable -exceptions to these sparrow-poets, concerning one of whom, Hadlaub, the -late Professor Scherer gives the following fascinating information in -his _History of German Literature_: "He introduces human figures into -his descriptions of scenery, and shows us, for instance, in the summer a -group of beautiful ladies walking in an orchard, and blushing with -womanly modesty when gazed at by young men. He compares the troubles of -love with the troubles of hard-working men, like charcoal-burners and -carters. - -“Hadlaub tells us more of his personal experiences than any other -Minnesinger. Even as a child, we learn, he had loved a little girl, who, -however, would have nothing to say to him, but continually flouted him, -to his great distress. Once she bit his hand, but her bite, he says, was -so tender, womanly, and gentle, that he was _sorry the feeling of it -passed away so soon_. Another time, being urged to give him a keepsake, -she threw her needle-case at him, and he seized it with sweet eagerness, -but it was taken from him and returned to her, and she was made to give -it him in a friendly manner. In later years his pains still remained -unrewarded; when his lady perceived him, she would get up and go away. -Once, he tells us, he saw her fondling and kissing a child, and when she -had gone he drew the child towards him and embraced it as she had -embraced it, and kissed it in the place where she had kissed it.” - -The gradual change in woman’s position, social and amorous, is indicated -by the differences between the earlier and the later Minnesongs. In the -early poems Professor Scherer remarks, "The social supremacy of noble -woman is not yet recognised, and the man wooes with proud -self-respect.... Another refuses himself to a woman who desired his -love.... A fourth boasts of his triumphs. ‘_Women_,’ says he, ‘_are as -easily tamed as falcons_.’ In another song a woman tells how she tamed a -falcon, but he flew away from her, and now wears other chains.... - -“In the later Minnesongs it is _the women who are proud, and the men who -must languish_.” - -A still more remarkable change is noticed in the German Folk-songs which -followed the periods of Minnesong proper. “The women of these popular -love-songs are not mostly married women; _they are, as a rule, young -maidens_” [at last, pure Romantic Love!] “who are not only praised but -also turned to ridicule and blamed. The woes of love do not here arise -from the capricious coyness of the fair one, but are called forth by -parting, jealousy, or faithlessness. Feeling is stronger than in the -Minnesong, and seeks accordingly for stronger modes of expression.” - -It is not a mere accident that true Romantic Love should have first -appeared in these Folk-songs. For these were the products of gifted -individuals in the lower classes, where chaperonage—arch enemy of -Love—was less strict than among the higher classes. - - - FEMALE CULTURE - -That the women were not ungrateful to the mediæval bards who first -discovered in them the possibilities of higher charms and virtues, is -shown by their treatment of Heinrich von Meissen, Minnesinger, who was -called Frauenlob, because he constantly sang the “praise of woman.” When -he died at Mainz in 1317 they carried his bier to church with their own -hands, and then, in accordance with the custom of the time, poured -libations of wine on his bier so freely that the whole floor of the -church was covered. - -And there is every reason to believe that the women of Frauenlob’s -period deserved his praises, because they were in æsthetic, moral, and -intellectual culture far superior to the women before or directly after -their time. We read in Gottfried von Strassburg’s poem how Tristan, -while Isolde healed his wound, instructed her in the arts and manners of -court life. Isolde knew French and Latin besides her own language. She -played the violin and the harp, and sang; she wrote letters and poems, -and would indeed have been a model of culture even at the present day. -The twelfth century even had a genuine blue-stocking, the nun Herrad von -Landsberg, who wrote a cyclopædia of all human knowledge, in the Latin -tongue, called the _Hortus Deliciarum_. Learning throughout the mediæval -ages was all concentrated in the monasteries; but at the period in -question the monks did not retain everything for themselves, but aided -the knights and the poets in instructing the women of the court and -nobility. - -Nor did these women neglect their domestic affairs or physical exercise. -They accompanied the men on their falcon-hunting parties, and at home -learned to spin, weave, sew, and make clothing for themselves and their -husbands and children. At the tournaments and other games they appeared -as Queens of Beauty to distribute prizes and inspire their admirers to -heroic deeds; and at banquets and other social gatherings they seem to -have supplied more of the wit and entertainment than the men, whose -military occupations left them less time for the cultivation of the -arts. - -At the same time one cannot help smiling at the elementary rules of -conduct which had to be given even to women of the nobility. You must -not stare at a man long, or refuse to return his salutation, young -ladies were told; nor must you in walking take too long or too short -steps. A poet of the middle of the thirteenth century (quoted by Mr. -Hueffer) gives this advice to a girl: “If a gentleman takes you aside -and wishes to talk of courtship to you, do not show a strange or sullen -behaviour, but defend yourself with pleasant and pretty repartees. And -if his talk annoys you and makes you uneasy, I advise you to ask him -questions,” and contradict his statements, in order “to give a harmless -turn to the conversation.” - -Like Greek and Roman civilisation, like the palmy days of Persian and -Arabian culture, this mediæval period of feminine ascendancy and -refinement unfortunately did not last many generations. Although, -undoubtedly, chivalry accomplished real good for the time being, most of -what went by that name was, after all, too much of a sham—less a matter -of actuality than of poetic fancy. “Sincere and beautiful as the -chivalrous ideal may have been,” says Mr. Symonds, “it speedily -degenerated. Chivalry, though a vital element of feudalism, existed, -even among the nations of its origin, more as an aspiration than a -reality. In Italy it never penetrated the life or subdued the -imagination of the people. For the Italo-Provençal poets that code of -love was almost wholly formal.” Petrarch, like Alberti and Boccaccio, -indulges again in abuse of women as coarse and brutal as that of the -early “Christian Fathers”; and when we come to the sixteenth century, -the scholar Cornelius Agrippa complains of the old state of -affairs—woman’s complete subjection: “Unjust laws,” he says, “do their -worst to repress women; custom and education combine to make them -nonentities. From her childhood a girl is brought up in idleness at -home, and confined to needle and thread for sole employment. When she -reaches marriageable years, she has this alternative: the jealousy of a -husband, or the custody of a convent. All public duties, all legal -functions, all active ministrations of religion are closed against her.” - -The manner in which a great English poet, much later still, treated the -women of his household was quite in consonance with the customs of -preceding times. As an English author wrote, forty years ago, “Milton -taught his daughters to pronounce Greek and Latin, so that they might -read the classics aloud for his pleasure, but forbade their -understanding the meaning of a word for their own—for which he deserved -to be blind.” - -Regarding France we read in Compayré that “Even in the higher classes, -woman held herself aloof from instruction, and from things intellectual. -Madame Racine had never seen played, and had probably never read, the -tragedies of her husband.” Mme. de Lambert “reproaches Molière for -having excluded women from recreation, pastime, and pleasure.” Fénelon -advised girls to learn to read and write correctly and to learn grammar, -which “surpassed in the time of Fénelon the received custom.” “No one -knew better than Fénelon the faults that come to woman through -ignorance—unrest, unemployed time, inability to apply herself to solid -and serious duties, frivolity, indolence, lawless imagination, -indiscreet curiosity concerning trifles, levity, and talkativeness, -sentimentalism, and ... a mania for theology: women are too much -inclined to speak decisively on religious questions.” - - - PERSONAL BEAUTY - -Rarer even than feminine culture, Personal Beauty appears to have been -throughout the Middle Ages. Most of the portraits of women and men, as -well as the ideal heads and figures in paintings and sculpture, are -repulsively ugly and inexpressive of higher traits. The general causes -of mediæval ugliness—neglect of personal hygiene and sanitary measures, -hard manual labour, prevention of love-matches, etc.—will be considered -elsewhere. In this place only one cause need be alluded to. The old -Church Fathers, it is well known, were not only unæsthetic but -positively anti-æsthetic. Everything pleasing to the senses was -denounced by them, especially the physical beauty of women, which they -looked upon as a special gift of the devil. Such an attitude on the part -of the leading social class could hardly tend to encourage the -cultivation of personal charms; and during the trials for witchcraft -special efforts appear to have even been made to eliminate beauty -forcibly; for the mere possession of unusual beauty sometimes sufficed -to bring a poor girl to trial, outrage, torture, and death. - -It may have been due partly to a natural reaction against asceticism, -partly to the rarity of spiritual beauty, that the mediæval poets in -enumerating the charms of their mistresses, confine themselves almost -exclusively to their physical features. Professor Scherr, after quoting -Ariosto’s description of his heroine Alcina in _Orlando Furioso_ (vii. -11, _seq._), for comparison with similar efforts of German poets, -observes: “It is very remarkable that, as in this female portrait -sketched by Ariosto, so with mediæval poets in general, including those -of Germany, the principal accent is placed on the bodily charms of the -women. Almost all sketches of this kind are purely material. -Intellectual beauty, as expressed in the features, is barely mentioned. -These old romanticists were much more sensual than modern writers would -have us believe.” - - - SPENSER ON LOVE - -That Love, too, continued to be looked at from a material point of view, -long after the chivalric efforts to idealise it, is shown strikingly by -the way in which Spenser compares love with friendship and family -affection. In the fifth book of the _Faery Queene_ he asks— - - “Whither shall weigh the balance down; to wit, - The dear affection unto kindred sweet, - Or raging fire of love to womankind, - Or zeal of friends, combined by virtues meet?” - -Like an ancient Greek he decides in favour of friendship— - - “For natural affection soon doth cease, - And quenched is with Cupid’s greater flame, - But faithful friendship doth them both suppress,” - (for) - “_Love of soul doth love of body pass._” - -Could anything attest better than this the general mediæval ignorance of -the psychic traits or “overtones” which constitute Romantic Love? - - - DANTE AND SHAKSPERE - -Long before the day of Spenser there lived, however, in Florence, a poet -whose transcendent genius enabled him to feel and describe for the first -time the real romantic sentiment of Love. It is true that some of the -poets of Chivalry had before him attempted to depict the supersensual, -æthereal side of the passion. But their portraits lacked the touch of -realism: they described what they imagined; Dante what he felt. - -Dante was born in 1265: Modern Love was born nine years later—613 years -ago. “Nine times already since my birth,” says Dante, “had the heaven of -light returned to the self-same point almost, as concerns its own -revolution, when first the glorious lady of my mind was made manifest to -mine eyes; even she who was called Beatrice (she who confers blessing) -by many who knew not wherefore.... From that time onward, Love quite -governed my soul.... But seeing that were I to dwell overmuch on the -passions and doings of such early youth, my words might be counted -something fabulous, I will therefore put them aside,” etc. - -These are the opening lines of the _Vita Nuova_, in which Modern Love is -for the first time portrayed with an air of sincerity, and concerning -which Professor C. E. Norton justly remarks that “so long as there are -lovers in the world, and so long as lovers are poets, will this first -and tenderest love-story of modern literature be read with appreciation -and responsive sympathy.” - -What a privilege to describe First Love not only in an individual but a -_historic_ sense, as Dante did in this poem, which Rossetti calls “the -auto-biography or auto-psychology of Dante’s youth, till his -twenty-seventh year.” - -After that first sight of Beatrice one of her sweet smiles was the -highest goal of his desires; but so powerful was the spell of her -presence that he was obliged to avoid her. “From that night forth the -natural functions of my body began to be vexed and impeded, for I was -given up wholly to thinking of this most gracious creature; whereby in -short space I became so weak and so reduced that it was irksome to many -of my friends to look upon me ... the thing was so plainly to be -discerned in my countenance that there was no longer any means of -concealing it.” Such words as “trembling,” “confusion,” “weeping,” -constantly occur as the narrative proceeds. Love, he says, “bred in me -such overpowering sweetness that my body, being all subjected thereto, -remained many times helpless and passive.” When for the first time -Beatrice denied him her smile, “I became possessed with such grief that, -parting myself from others, _I went into a lonely place_ to bathe the -ground with most bitter tears.” And in one of the sonnets interspersed -he says— - - “My face shows my heart’s colour, - No sooner do I lift mine eyes to look - Than the blood seems as shaken from my heart, - And all my pulses beat at once and stop.” - -But by far the most remarkable thing in the _Vita Nuova_, is Dante’s own -indirect testimony that such Love as he felt, such supersensual, -æsthetic Love, _was a novelty and a puzzle to his contemporaries_. For -he tells how he met some ladies who gazed at him and laughed till one of -them asked: “To what end lovest thou this lady, seeing that thou canst -not support her presence? Now tell us this thing that we may know it: -for certainly the end of such a love must be worthy of knowledge.” - -No doubt it was worth knowing; for, as the author of the admirable -article on “Poetry,” in the eighth edition of the _Encyclopædia -Britannica_ (1859), remarks: “When in modern times the attempt was made -to revive tragedy, it proved totally unsuccessful until this principle -(of romantic love) was admitted into the drama to give it warmth and -life. Of that species of composition which in its proper sense is -peculiar to the moderns, viz. the novel and romance, it forms, as we all -know, the moving power. In short, it influences, more or less, every -department in which the imagination has exerted itself with success -since the revival of literature.” - -Once more it is well to state that there are geniuses in the emotional -as in the intellectual world. Dante was both; and the realistic -descriptions he has given of the effects of Romantic Love have helped to -sustain the notion that Love is immutable, and has existed at all times. -But the indirect testimony to the contrary just quoted, and the whole -argument of this chapter on Mediæval Love, make it apparent that Dante’s -Love was the exception which proves that among the others Love did not -exist. And even Dante was not entirely modern in his Love. A modern -lover would not have attempted to conceal the object of his Love, but -would have made it apparent to all by his foolish actions that he was in -Love with this particular girl and no other; he would perhaps have wooed -more persistently, and his feelings would not have remained unchanged -after her marriage to another. Like Petrarch, moreover, Dante cannot be -quite acquitted of the suspicion that, after the first flush of -excitement, the excessive and persistent purification and idealisation -of his passion was based not so much on real amorous feelings and -motives, as on an author’s craving for an object on which to lavish his -literary art of embellishment. - -Dante, in a word, hyper-idealised his passion. He became quite deaf to -the fundamental tone of Love, and heard only its overtones. And herein -lies his inferiority to Shakspere. It is in the works of Shakspere that -the various motives and emotions which constitute Love—sensuous, -æsthetic, intellectual—are for the first time mingled in proper -proportions. Shakspere’s Love is Modern Love, full-fledged, and -therefore calls for no separate analysis. It is a primitive passion, -purified and refined by intellectual, moral, and æsthetic culture. And -though by no means universal, or even common, at the present day, it is -yet of frequent occurrence, and will become more and more prevalent as -time rolls on. To facilitate its progress by pointing out its -characteristics, its evolution, and the measures that must be taken to -foster it, is one of the principal objects of this monograph. - - - - - MODERN LOVE - - - A BIOLOGIC TEST - -Writers on evolution have a very simple and convenient way of verifying -their inferences, by applying the rule—which seems to hold true -universally—that the different stages through which an individual passes -in his development—physical and mental—correspond to the periods of -development through which the whole race has passed. - -This principle, applied to our present problem, fits exactly, and proves -that the account given in the preceding pages of the development of Love -is correct. - -Historically we have seen that of all affections Maternal Love is the -earliest and (until after Romantic Love appears) the strongest. Then -paternal, filial, and fraternal love are gradually developed, followed -by friendship (Greek), and finally by Love proper. - -Just so with the individual. The baby’s first love is for its mother, -whose tender expression and beaming eyes throw the first reflected smile -on its face, and touch the first cord of sympathetic attachment. Then -the father comes in for his share of attention, followed by sisters and -brothers. At school begins the era of friendship, representing -“classical” love, and often as ardent and Love-like as among the ancient -Greeks. Finally Romantic Love appears on the scene, eclipsing every -other emotion. And, like historic Love, it generally passes through a -blind, silly, chivalric stage, known as “calf-love,” which at last is -succeeded by real, intense romantic passion, that leads to monogamous -marriage, the central pillar of modern civilisation. - -Not only have we seen that Romantic Love is the latest and the strongest -of all affections, but the causes which retarded its development have -been indicated. Chief among these were the negation of Individual -Preference, and the absence of opportunities for Courtship, already -deplored by Plato. As long as women were captured, or bought, or -disposed of by father or mother without any reference to their own will, -Sexual Selection on the female’s part was of course out of the question; -and on the man’s part it was rendered impossible by the absence of -Courtship. Wooing a woman was not winning _her_ favour, but impressing -her father with a display of wealth or social power. Thus there were no -opportunities on her part for the display of personal charms or the -cunning art of Coyness, or for inflaming and feeding his passion through -Jealousy by bestowing an occasional mischief-making smile on his rivals; -there were no lover’s quarrels followed by sweet reconciliations and an -increase of Love; no short absences fanning Love with sighs; no -alternate feelings of hope and despair, inspired by his or her fickle or -uncertain actions; no chance for displays of Gallantry and mutual -Self-sacrifice and assistance; no sympathetic exchange and consequent -doubling of pleasures, real or anticipated; none, in fact, of the more -subtle traits and emotions which make Romantic Love what it is. - - - VENUS, PLUTUS, AND MINERVA - -It cannot be said that these obstacles to Love have been as radically -removed as they ought to be. Oriental chaperonage is still rampant in -France, to the extinction of all true romantic sentiment. In other -countries Parental Tyranny has considerably abated, but the Goddess of -Love still has formidable rivals in Plutus, the god of wealth, and -Minerva, the goddess of “wisdom” or expediency. Thus it happens that -even in the case of persons who are refined enough to experience Love, -it is too often absent when they marry; and, as a German pessimist -sneeringly points out, no one has yet dared to tempt bride and -bridegroom to perjury, by asking when the knot is tied, “Do you _love_ -this woman?” “Do you _love_ this man?” - -Nevertheless public sentiment is continually making war on Plutus and -Minerva, and siding with Venus. Probably the mercantile element in -marriage will not die out till a few weeks before the millennium, -although Herbert Spencer is optimistic enough to believe it will sooner. -“After wife-stealing,” he says, “came wife-purchase; and then followed -the usages which made, and continue to make, considerations of property -predominate over considerations of personal preference. Clearly, -wife-purchase and husband-purchase (which exists in some semi-civilised -societies), though they have lost their original gross form, persist in -disguised forms. Already some disapproval of those who marry for money -or position is expressed; and this growing stronger may be expected to -purify the monogamic union, by making it in all cases real instead of -being in some cases nominal.” - -It is indeed a most hopeful sign of progress, this strong and growing -modern sentiment in favour of Romantic Love as against rival motives -matrimonial. Novelists, when the wills of the lovers and the parents -clash, invariably and unconsciously side with the lovers; and should a -novelist make an exception, many of his readers would close the book, -and the others would finish it under protest and disappointedly. Even -when we read a newspaper reporter’s thrilling and dramatic narrative of -the elopement of a foolish young couple, fresh from the high-school, our -hearts throb with sympathetic anxiety lest the irate parent should -succeed in capturing the runaway couple. - -No doubt this instinctive modern prejudice in favour of Romantic Love -will ultimately throw a halo of sacredness around it, which will raise -Cupid’s will to the dignity of an Eleventh Commandment—a consummation -devoutedly to be wished; for although the conjugal affection which grows -out of Romantic Love is not always deeper than that which results from -unions not based on Love, the physical and mental qualities of the -children commonly show at a glance whether or not the parents were -brought together by Sexual Selection. - - - LEADING MOTIVES - -The psychic elements of Love which thus far have been compared to -overtones, might also be regarded from a Wagnerian point of view as -_Leitmotive_ or leading motives in the Drama of Historic Love. In the -first scenes, where the actors are animals and savages, followed by -Egyptians, Hebrews, Hindoos, Greeks, and Romans, and mediæval clowns and -fanatics, these leading motives are heard only as short melodic phrases, -and at long intervals, pregnant, indeed, with future possibilities, but -isolated and never combined into a symphony of Love. In the last act, -however, which we have now reached, all these motives appear in various -combinations, in the gorgeous and glowing instrumentation of modern -poets, with all possible figurative, harmonic, and dynamic nuances; and -at the same time so intertwined and interwoven that no one apparently -has ever succeeded in unravelling the poetic woof and distinguishing the -separate threads. For us, however, who have followed these motives from -the moment when they first appeared in a primitive form, it will be easy -to distinguish them and subject each one to a separate analysis. We -shall first consider those which, like Coyness and Jealousy, are already -familiar and need only be considered in their modern forms, and then -pass on to those which are more and more exclusively modern. - - - MODERN COYNESS - -At least five sources or causes of modern female Coyness may be -suggested:— - -(1) _An Echo of Capture._—Why are modern city-folks so fond of picnics? -It was Mr. Spencer, I believe, who suggested somewhere that it is -because picnics awaken in civilised men and women a vague and agreeable -reminiscence of the time when their ancestors habitually took their -meals on meadows in the shade of a tree. If it is possible for such -experiences to re-echo, as it were, in our nervous system through so -many generations, thanks to the conservatism of oft-repeated cerebral -impressions, then it does not seem so very fantastic to suggest that one -cause of female Coyness may be a similar echo, or reminiscence, of the -time when the primitive ancestresses of modern women were “courted” by -Capture or Purchase, and so badly treated as wives that in course of -time an instinctive impulse was formed in their minds to shrink back and -say No to man’s proposals. - -(2) _Maiden_ versus _Wife_.—It is hardly necessary, however, to rely -upon such a remote sociological echo, so to speak, for an explanation of -a girl’s hesitation to become a wife even if her suitor pleases her. The -thought of exchanging her maiden freedom for conjugal restrictions and -duties; of giving up the homage and admiration of all men for the -possible neglect of one; of probably soon losing her youthful beauty, -etc.—such thoughts would make many girls even more coy than they now -are, did not the fear of becoming an old maid act as a counterbalancing -motive in favour of marriage. - -(3) _Modesty._—Esquimaux girls, as we have seen, “affect the utmost -bashfulness and aversion to any proposal of marriage, lest they should -lose their reputation for modesty.” And the greatest analyst of the -human heart puts the same philosophy into the mouth of Juliet in a -passage which, although everybody knows it by heart, must yet be quoted -here— - - “O gentle Romeo, - If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully: - Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won, - I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay, - So thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world. - In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond, - And therefore thou may’st think my ’haviour light: - But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true - Than those that have more _cunning to be strange_. - I should have been more strange, I must confess, - But that thou overheard’st, ere I was ware, - My true love’s passion: therefore pardon me, - And _not impute this yielding to light love_, - Which the dark night hath so discovered.” - -(4) _Cunning to be Strange._—No huntsman (except a monarch) would care -to go to an enclosure and shoot the deer confined therein, nor a -fisherman to catch trout conveniently placed in a pond. But to wade up a -mountain brook all day long, climbing over slippery rocks, and enduring -the discomforts of a hot sun and wet clothes, with nothing to eat, and -only a few speckled trifles to reward him—that is what he considers -“glorious sport.” - -The instinctive perception that a thing is valued in proportion to the -difficulty of its attainment is what taught women the “cunning to be -strange.” Seeing that they could not compete with man in brute force, -they acquired the arts of Beauty and of Coyness, as their best weapons -against his superior strength—the Beauty to fascinate him, the Coyness -to teach him that in Love, as in fishing, the _pleasure of pursuit_ is -the main thing. - -At first this Coyness was manifested in a very crude manner, as among -the primitive maidens who hid in the forest; or among the Roman women -celebrated by Ovid, who locked their door and compelled the lover to beg -and whine for admission by the hour; or among the mediæval women who, to -gratify their caprices and enjoy the sense of a newly-acquired power, -sent their admirers to participate in bloody wars before recognising -their addresses. And so coarse-grained were the men that as soon as the -women ceased to tease they ceased to woo; as, for instance, in mediæval -France, about the time of the _Chansons de Geste_, “the man who desires -a woman yet does not appear as a wooer; for he knows he is certain of -her favour,” as we read in Ploss. Hence Cleopatra’s brief and pointed -rejoinder to Charmian when he advises her, in order to win Antony’s -love, to give him way in everything, cross him in nothing: “Thou -teachest like a fool; the way to lose him.” - -(5) _Procrastination._—Love at first sight is frequent at the present -day, but in ancient Greece and Rome marriage at first sight appears to -have been more common. The classical suitor’s wooing was generally -comprised in three words: _Veni, Vidi, Vici_; _i.e._ I Came, Saw the -girl’s father, Conquered his scruples by proving my wealth or social -position. Sufficient brevity in this, no doubt: but _brevity is not the -soul of Love_. - -“Tant plus le chemin est long dans l’amour, tant plus un esprit délicat -sent de plaisir,” says Pascal, announcing a truth of which ancient and -mediæval nations had no conception until female Coyness taught it them. -Goethe evidently had the same truth in mind when he mentioned as a phase -of ancient love (Roman _Elegies_)— - - “In der heroischen zeit, da Götter und Göttinen liebten - Folgte Begierde dem Blick folgte Genuss der Begier.” - -That is, in prose, there were no preliminaries in the love-drama, which -had only one act, the fifth, in which the marriage is celebrated. - -_Goldsmith on Love._—In Goldsmith’s _Citizen of the World_ there is a -chapter on “Whether Love be a Natural or Fictitious Passion,” in which -reference is likewise made to the value of procrastination. As this -passage shows Goldsmith to have been the first author who had an -approximate conception of the development and psychology of Love, I will -quote it almost entire. It is in the form of a dialogue, and one of the -speakers remarks: "Whether love be natural or no ... it contributes to -the happiness of every society in which it is introduced. All our -pleasures are short and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of -protracting our greatest pleasure; and surely that gamester who plays -the greatest stake to the best advantage will, at the end of life, rise -victorious. This was the opinion of Vanini, who affirmed that ‘every -hour was lost which was not spent in love.’ His accusers were unable to -comprehend his meaning; and the poor advocate for love was burned in -flames; alas! no way metaphorical. But whatever advantages the -individual may reap from this passion, society will certainly be refined -and improved by its introduction; all laws calculated to discourage it -tend to embrute the species, and weaken the state. Though it cannot -plant morals in the human breast, it cultivates them when there: pity, -generosity, and honour receive a brighter polish from its assistance; -and a single _amour_ is sufficient entirely to brush off the clown. - -“But it is an exotic of the most delicate constitution: it requires the -greatest art to introduce it into a state, and the smallest -discouragement is sufficient to repress it again. Let us only consider -with what ease it was formerly _extinguished in Rome_, and with what -difficulty it was _lately revived in Europe_: it seemed to sleep for -ages, and at last fought its way among us through tilts, tournaments, -dragons, and all the dreams of chivalry. The rest of the world, _China -only excepted_, are, and have ever been, utter strangers to its delights -and advantages. In other countries, as men find themselves stronger than -women, they lay a claim to rigorous superiority: this is natural, and -love, which gives up this natural advantage, must certainly be the -effect of art—an art calculated to lengthen out our happier moments, and -add new graces to society.” - -To this conclusion the lady interlocutor in the dialogue objects on the -ground that “the effects of love are too violent to be the result of an -artificial passion”; and suggests, by way of accounting for the absence -of love, that “the same efforts that are used in some places to suppress -pity, and other natural passions, may have been employed to extinguish -love”; and that “those nations where it is cultivated only make nearer -advances to nature.” - -Goldsmith thus leaves it in doubt whether he considers Love a natural or -an artificial passion. In the three passages which I have italicised, he -errs: first, in saying that Love was “extinguished” in Rome, when in -fact it never existed there, except incompletely in the poetic intuition -of Ovid and possibly one or two other poets; secondly, he errs in -remarking that it was lately “revived” in Europe, when in fact it was -newly-born; and his excepting China, in speaking of the absence of Love, -can only be looked on in the light of a joke in view of the absolute -subjection of women to parental dictation, and the fact that, as one -writer remarks, “a union prompted solely by love would be a monstrous -infraction of the duty of filial obedience, and a predilection on the -part of the female as heinous a crime as infidelity.” But his definition -of Love as “the effect of art—an art calculated to lengthen out our -happier moments and add new graces to society” is exceedingly good. The -art in question is known as Courtship: and it is the latest of the fine -arts, which even now exists in its perfection in two countries -only—England and America. The Italian language has no equivalent for -Courtship, as Professor Mantegazza tells us in his _Fisiologia dell’ -Amore_; and a German commentator on this passage in Mantegazza comments -dubiously: “Das Eutsprechende deutsche Wort _dürfte wohl_ Werbung sein;” -“the corresponding German word is presumably _Werbung_.” “Presumably” is -very suggestive. Yet the Germans have another expression of mediæval -origin apparently, namely, “Einem Mädchen den Hof machen”—"to pay court -to a girl," which, though somewhat conversational, has evidently the -same historic origin as our word Court-ship; implying that formerly it -was the custom at court alone to prolong the agony of Love by gallant -attentions to women, which enabled them to exercise the “cunning to be -strange.” - -_Disadvantages of Coyness._—Beneficial as are no doubt the effects which -have been brought about by female Coyness in developing the art of -Courtship, there are corresponding evils inherent in that mental -attitude which make it probable that Coyness will gradually disappear -and be succeeded by something more modern, more natural, more refined. - -There are four serious objections to Coyness, one from a masculine, -three from a feminine point of view. - -Men, in the first place, can hardly approve of Coyness; for it certainly -indicates a coarse mediæval fibre in a man if he is obliged to confess -that he can love a girl not for her beauty and amiability, but only -because she tantalises and maltreats him: - - “Spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love, - The more it grows and fawneth on her still.” - -Or, in Heine’s delightful persiflage of this attitude— - - “Ueberall wo du auch wandelst, - Schaust du mich zu allen Stunden, - Und jemehr du mich misshandelst, - Treuer bleib ich dir verbunden. - - “Denn mich fesselt holde Bosheit - Wie mich Güte stets vertrieben; - Willst du sicher meiner los sein - Musst du dich in mich verlieben.” - -In one English sentence: Your amiability repels, your malice attracts -me; if you wish to get rid of my attentions, you must fall in love with -me. - -If a refined man can feel ardent affection for an animal, a friend, a -relative, without being “spurned” and consequently “fawning,” why should -not the same be true of his love for a beautiful girl? It is true; and -hence the cleverest women of the period, feeling this change in the -masculine heart, have adopted a different method of fascinating men and -bringing them to their feet, as we shall presently see. - -Women, in turn, are injured by Coyness; first, because it makes them act -foolishly. French and German girls are systematically taught to take -immediate alarm at sight of a horrid man (whom they secretly consider a -darling creature, with _such_ a moustache) and conceal themselves behind -their mamma or chaperon, like spring chickens creeping under the old hen -at sight of a hawk. This sort of _spring-chicken coyness_ does -infinitely more harm than good; it makes the girls weak and frivolous, -and as for the men, if they are systematically treated as birds of prey, -how can they avoid falling in with their _rôle_? If men are to behave -like gentlemen they must be treated as gentlemen, as they are in England -and America. - -Coyness, again, makes women deceitful and insincere. “Amongst her other -feminine qualities,” says Thackeray of one of his characters, “she had -that of being a perfect dissembler.” And in another place, “I think -women have an instinct of dissimulation; they know by nature how to -disguise their emotions far better than the most consummate courtiers -can do.” It cannot be said that dissimulation is a virtue, though it may -be a useful weapon against coarse and selfish men. If not the same thing -as hypocrisy, it is next door to it; and it cannot have a beneficial -effect on a woman’s general moral instincts if she is compelled -constantly to act a part contrary to her convictions and feelings. -Though as deeply in love as her suitor, she is commanded to treat him -with indifference, coldness, even cruelty,—in a word, to do constant -violence to her and his feelings, and to lacerate her own heart perhaps -even more than the unhappy lover’s. Thus instead of mutually enjoying -the period of Courtship, and indulging in harmless banter, “they gaze at -each other fiercely, though ready to die for love”; or, as Heine puts -it— - - “Sie sahen sich an so feindlich, - Und wollten vor Liebe vergehen.” - -And why all this perverseness, this unnaturalness, this emotional -torture? Simply because—once more be it said—the men of former days, the -men who lived on pork and port, who delighted in bear-baiting, -cock-fights, and similar æsthetic amusements, had nerves so coarse and -callous that to make any impression on them the women had to play with -them as a cat does with a mouse to make it tender and sweet. - -_Coyness lessens Woman’s Love._—One more charge, the gravest of all, -remains to be piled on top, as a last crushing argument against crude -Coyness. An emotion, like a plant, requires for its growth sunshine, -light, and open air; if kept in a dark cellar and stifled, it soon -becomes weak and pale and languishes. Man’s superior strength and -selfish exercise of it have compelled women to cultivate Coyness as an -art of dissembling, hiding, and repressing their real feelings. But to -repress the manifestations of anger, of pity, of Love, is to suppress -them; hence Coyness has necessarily had the effect of weakening woman’s -Love. It weakens it in the same proportion as it strengthens man’s. And -hence, as I have said before, the current notion that women love more -ardently, more deeply, than men is an absurd myth. The poets have always -shown a predilection for this, as for all other myths; and as it is -still served up as a self-evident truth in a thousand books every year, -it is worth while to clear away the underbrush and let in some daylight -on the subject. - -_Masculine_ versus _Feminine Love_.—One thing may be conceded at the -outset: that woman’s Love, when once kindled, is apt to endure longer -than man’s. Shakspere’s “’Tis brief, my Lord, as woman’s love” is -therefore a libel on the sex. The difficulty is to get it under way. It -takes so much of the small kindling wood of courtship (“sparking” it is -called) to set a female heart aflame, that many men give it up in -despair and remain bachelors; or else, like the young man in _Fidelio_, -they finally tell their girl, “If you will not love me, at least marry -me.” - -It may also be conceded that Rousseau exaggerates when he says that -“Women are a hundred times sooner reasonable than passionate: they are -as unable to describe love as to feel it.” This may have been true in -his day; but that there have since been some female authors who have -correctly described Love, and thousands of women who have been deeply in -Love, it would be absurd to deny. All that is here maintained is that -Love is of less frequent occurrence in women than in men; and when it -does occur in women it is not usually so deep, so passionate, so -maddening. The average woman knows little of Romantic Love. She has read -about it in novels, in poems, and thinks how delightful it must be. The -faintest symptom is taken for an attack, just as in perusing a medical -book people commonly fancy they have symptoms of the disease they chance -to be reading about. Thus it happens that young girls so easily “fall in -love,” as they imagine, and are ready to elope with the first music -teacher or circus rider that comes along— - - “A blockhead with melodious voice - In boarding-school may have his choice, - And oft the dancing-master’s art - Climbs from the toe to touch the heart.”—SWIFT. - -It is quite probable that Coleridge was right when he wrote— - - “For maids as well as youths have perished - From fruitless love too fondly cherished;” - -although this does not seem to agree with the opinion of Shakspere and -Thackeray regarding the rarity of broken lovers’ hearts. Morselli’s work -on Suicide does not contain any definite statistics _à propos_; but I -have seen the statement in a newspaper that in Italy, during 1883, -thirty-six men and nine women committed suicide—four to one; and the -proportion will appear larger still if it is remembered that girls often -commit suicide from an anguish deeper than a refusal. - -The myth that woman’s passion is deeper than man’s is commonly expressed -in the form given to it by Byron: that in man’s life love is only an -episode, whereas to a woman it is all in all. Allowing for poetic -exaggeration, it does not at all follow that because a man does not -brood all his life over Love, he therefore loves less. The fact that -Goethe, the poet, also wrote treatises on botany and physics, and made -landscape sketches, did not decrease the depth of his poetic feeling but -added to it. For it is a fundamental law of psychology—except in -pathologic cases—that continuous brooding over an emotion weakens and -exhausts it; but after intervals of rest it emerges more fresh than -ever. The various objects and ambitions that occupy man only serve to -strengthen his feelings, his capacity for Love. That women are more -easily swamped and carried away by emotions does not prove their -feelings to be deeper, but themselves to be weaker. One lake may be -entirely full, and yet not contain half as much water as a larger lake -which is only half-full. - -It was evidently with a vague desire to justify or excuse woman’s -comparative weakness in Love that Ninon de L’Enclos wrote “Women and -flowers are made to be loved for their beauty and sweetness, rather than -themselves to love.” And that intelligent observer Mrs. Childs adds the -weight of her feminine testimony by confessing her belief “That men more -frequently marry for love than women.” - -To remove all lingering doubt, consider the “overtones” of Love -separately. Is woman ordinarily as absurdly or ferociously Jealous as -man, or quite so Proud of her conquest? Is she so deeply absorbed in -Admiration of his Personal Beauty? Is she as Gallant, and as ready for -Sacrifices? or does she not rather take his devoted services for -granted, and consider them rewarded by a smile or some other trifle? -Indeed, the only element of Love which in woman is stronger than in man -is Coyness; and Coyness, as has been shown, weakens woman’s Love in the -same degree as it increases man’s. - -Of course it would be unjust to attribute to the effects of Coyness all -the difference between man’s and woman’s Love. Much is due to the -physiologic law that emotional capacity—amorous included—depends on -brain capacity (_not_ on the “heart”); and man’s brain is more powerful -than woman’s. But crude mediæval Coyness must bear a large share of the -blame; and it is probable that now, having played its _rôle_ of bringing -men to terms and making them gallant and polite towards women, it will -disappear gradually. - -“Der Mohr hat seine Schuldigkeit gethan, Der Mohr kann gehen.” - -Already, however, there is, especially in America and England, a -superior class of women who, despising Coyness as crude, artificial, and -silly, have adopted in its place a much more refined method of making -men fall in love with them. In one word, they have substituted -Flirtation for Coyness. As this statement will to many appear -paradoxical, if not absurd, it is necessary first to distinguish between -Flirtation and Coquetry before trying to justify it. - -_Flirtation and Coquetry._—These two words are so constantly confused by -careless or ignorant writers that some girls are almost as much offended -if accused of Flirtation as of Coquetry. It was bad enough for Winthrop -to say that “A woman without coquetry is as insipid as a rose without -scent, champagne without sparkle, or corned beef without mustard” (!), -but there is no excuse whatever for “Ik Marvel’s” saying that “Coquetry -whets the appetite; flirtation depraves it. Coquetry is the thorn that -guards the rose (!), easily trimmed off when once plucked. Flirtation is -like the slime on water-plants, making them hard to handle, and when -caught only to be cherished in slimy waters.” No excuse, I say, because -the dictionaries on our table tell us the very reverse. Flirtation, in -Webster, is simply “playing at courtship,” without any cruel intentions; -while Coquetry is an attempt “to attract admiration, and gain -matrimonial offers, from a desire to gratify vanity, and with the -intention to reject the suitor.” - -That this is the correct definition is shown beyond question by the -adjectives which are commonly coupled with those nouns: a “harmless -Flirtation,” a “heartless Coquette.” - -A Coquette seeks to fascinate for the sake of fascinating. Like a miser, -she mistakes the means for the end, and feeds on one-sided passion and -admiration, until one morning she wakes up and finds her beauty gone, -and herself the most disappointed and unamiable of old maids. Or again, -she might be compared to a bank clerk who refused his salary because he -was satisfied with the tinkling of the money which he heard all day -long. The Flirt, on the other hand, displays her accomplishments, her -wit, and personal charms, for the sake of enlarging the facilities of -Courtship, the possibilities of rational Choice. - -One reason why Flirtation and Coquetry are so apt to be confounded is -because the English peoples alone have the word Flirtation—naturally -enough, as they alone allow their young people the blessings of -Courtship and rational choice promoted by it. Foreigners, not -appreciating exactly what is meant by the word, are apt to translate it -as Coquetry. One Frenchman, who has lived long in England, has tried to -define Flirtation for his countrymen by saying it consisted of -“attentions without intentions.” This definition was widely welcomed as -very clever. Clever it may be, but it is a definition of Coquetry not of -Flirtation. For Flirtation never excludes _possible_ intentions. - -_Flirtation_ versus _Coyness_.—Flirtation, from the feminine point of -view, may be defined as _the art of fascinating a man and leaving him in -doubt whether he is loved or not_. There is no reason why a beautiful -and bright girl should not charm, _i.e._ flirt with, every man who -interests her, and to whom she has been properly introduced. No reason -why she should not dispense her sweet smiles with complete impartiality, -until she has made up her mind whom she wishes to marry. In so far as -Coyness simply means reserve and dignity, she will of course still be -coy; but she will not run away to conceal herself in the forest, or lock -the front door, or hide behind a chaperon’s back, or affect to be -cynically indifferent to men, or treat the one she likes best with -affected cruelty. With refined men of the period Flirting, _i.e._ -fascinating and leaving in doubt, is quite as effective in kindling -adoration to ecstasy as crude Coyness was with the coarse-fibred men of -the past. Flirtation, indeed, is much more tantalising than Coyness, and -therefore a complete modern substitute for it. - -There is a passage in Hume’s _Dissertation on the Passions_ which, -though occurring in a different connection, strikes home the truth of -the last sentence most forcibly. “Uncertainty,” he says, “has the same -effect as opposition. The agitation of the thought, the quick turns -which it makes from one view to another, the variety of passions which -succeed each other, according to the different views: all these produce -an agitation in the mind; and this agitation transfuses itself into the -predominant passion. Security, on the other hand, diminishes the -passions. The mind, when left to itself, immediately languishes; and in -order to preserve its ardour, must be supported every moment by a new -flow of passion.” - -Of course to those of a girl’s admirers who are for a while left in -doubt and finally “get left” altogether, female flirtation may seem a -cruel pastime. But there is a sort of _historic justice_ in this torture -which, indeed, almost amounts to an excuse for _Coquetry_; it is a -species of feminine revenge for the long centuries of slavery in which -muscular man held weak woman. Besides, no man has ever died of a broken -heart, except in novels. And, again, who is to blame a pretty girl for -having fascinated an unsuccessful lover? A rose yields its fragrance and -beauty to all who wish to admire it. If a conceited young man comes -along, imagines that all its beauty is for him alone, and tries to pluck -it, he has only himself to blame if he feels the thorn of -disappointment. - -When Lord Chesterfield wrote, “I assisted at the birth of that most -significant word ‘flirtation,’ which dropped from the most beautiful -mouth in the world,” he perhaps hardly realised how very significant a -factor of social life Flirtation was destined to become. Mr. Galton -wrote, not long ago, that without female Coyness “there would be no more -call for competition among the males for the favour of the females; no -more fighting for love in which the strongest male conquers; no more -rival display of personal charms in which the best-looking or -best-mannered prevails. The drama of courtship, with its prolonged -strivings and doubtful success, would be cut quite short, and the race -would degenerate through the absence of that sexual selection for which -the protracted preliminaries for love-making give opportunity.” When Mr. -Galton wrote this, he did not apparently realise the social revolution -that is going on, or understand that frank and natural Flirtation, which -recognises every man as a gentleman until he has proved the contrary, -affords much better opportunity for Sexual Selection and “protracted -preliminaries of love-making” than crude, hypocritical, unnatural -Coyness, which regards every gentleman as a beast of prey and a -libertine. - -Flirtation being the modern art of widening the field of amorous -competition and prolonging the duration of Courtship, it follows that -there cannot be too much of it—quantitatively speaking. Qualitatively it -easily degenerates into frivolity, as in the case of those girls who get -engaged repeatedly before marriage, which shows a lack of judgment, of -tact, and especially of delicacy, because a peach should never be -touched on the tree but allowed to retain its first blush for the man -who is to eat it. - -Refined flirtation, in truth, requires much more wit, more tact and -culture, than Coyness, or than Prudery, which is the north-pole of -Coyness. Prudery bears much resemblance to the artificial dignity of a -certain class of young men who, by means of persistent reticence, gain a -reputation for aristocratic and cynical superiority. Coquetry even is -preferable to Prudery, for it is at any rate entertaining. - -To sum up this matter in one sentence: The coy Prude says No, even when -she means Yes; the cold Coquette says Yes and always means No; the -modest and refined Flirt says neither Yes nor No, but looks and smiles a -sweet “Perhaps—if you can win my Love.” - -_Modern Courtship._—What a grotesque and topsy-turvy parody of history -it is, this modern comedy of Courtship, in which the man is the slave -and walks on his knees! And how gracefully the newly-crowned girl-queen -plays her _rôle_, little suspecting that in the next act the husband -will probably throw away his self-assumed mask, and insist again on his -historic rights as lord and master of the household! - -The shock which follows this transition from the romance of Courtship to -the realism of conjugal life is much the greatest in the case of the -Prude. The Coquette need not be considered; she was born without a -heart, and marriage will not give her one. But the Prude often owes her -unnaturalness solely to an absurd educational system, and may be at -heart the best of women. Previous to marriage she is taught to rely on -passive Coyness to arouse the desires of man. After marriage, when she -yields herself up, body and soul, she loses this weapon, the lover -recovers his courage and lowers the pitch of his devotional ecstasy. -This alarms the girl, who eagerly endeavours to recover the romantic -Adoration by trying to please and coax and caress. But pleasing—or -_active_ fascination—being an art which she never has practised, she -does it in a bungling way—overdoes it, in fact—thus increasing the -husband’s indifference. Had she learned the art of refined Flirtation, -_i.e._ active fascination with wit and accomplishments, this domestic -tragedy would never have been enacted. Her skill and tact would then -have enabled her to preserve her husband’s Gallantry, by supplying a -constant variety and novelty in those feminine charms and graces in -which a superior woman is as fertile as a man of genius in ideas. - -By her extremely reserved and passive attitude during Courtship the -Prude not only mars the probabilities of conjugal happiness, she also -weakens her own Love directly, through Coyness, and indirectly, by -making the man too servile and over-anxious to worship. For if a man -immediately yields up his sword and proclaims himself fatally stabbed by -a white wench’s black eye, there can be in her mind none of those small -obstacles and doubts which, like short absences, increase Love. -Love-making should be a duel of wit and mutual fascination. The Flirt -does her part of the fencing; the Prude simply hides behind her shield -and waits to see if the man can break it, or coax her to throw it away. -With a Flirt a man need not be a servile worshipper, but he may be a -Flirt likewise: which is a much more desirable attitude, not only -because male flirtation will fan the woman’s Love into a brighter flame -through the stimulus of uncertainty, but also because it enables the man -to preserve his dignity. Hence Beatrix’s pointed advice to Henry Esmond: -“Shall I be frank with you, Harry, and say that if you had not been down -on your knees, and so humble, you might have fared better with me? A -woman of my spirit, cousin, is to be won by gallantry and not by sighs -and rueful faces. All the time you are worshipping I know very well I am -no goddess, and grow weary of the incense.” - -The girl of the period is the girl who flirts, and who expects every -eligible man to take up her challenge for a tournament of wit and -playing at Courtship. The reason why there is much more Romantic Love in -America and England than in other countries is because there is more -Flirtation, more opportunity for Courtship. On the Continent young folks -are too constantly regarded from the marriage point of view. In Italy -and France, when a young lady comes back from boarding-school, she is -married as quickly as possible before she has had a chance to fall in -love with a man of her choice. Consequence: she falls in love _after_ -marriage, and not always with her husband. In Germany a young lady is -allowed to see young men and even to walk with them in the street, in -the daytime or in the evening, if properly chaperoned; but under no -circumstances will she take a young man’s arm, for that would imply an -engagement. In America it is otherwise; but even there, in the South, it -is taken for granted that if a young man calls on a young lady three or -four times he can have no other object than to marry her. His object may -be to marry, but not necessarily _her_. What he wants is to become -acquainted, and if acquaintance “by summer’s ripening breath” blossoms -into Love, so much the better; if not, it is a thousand times better he -should be allowed to depart in peace than that two beings should be -mated who do not feel really sympathetic and companionable. How is a -young man to find his Juliet if he is not allowed to see a number of -women, without being called fickle? And how is Juliet to find her Romeo, -if mothers frighten young men into bachelorhood by such absurd customs? - -The word Courtship, in fact, should have a wider meaning than it has -now. It should be almost synonymous with Flirtation, which provides the -means of bringing together, from a wide circle of acquaintances, two -beings who are really suited to each other, instead of two whom blind -chance, a few “calls,” or the advantages of intimacy resulting from -cousinship, have fortuitously mated for a life of probable conjugal -misery. - -Plato’s advice that opportunity should be given to the sexes to become -acquainted before marriage is much more followed to-day than at any -previous time in the world’s history; but there is still vast room for -improvement. - - - MODERN JEALOUSY - -Jealousy may be defined as a painful emotion on noticing, or imagining, -that some one dear to us loves another more than us. Unlike affection in -general, and like sympathy, it therefore necessarily refers to a -sentient being and a possible reciprocation of affection. It is a form -of rivalry, of which there are two kinds: rivalry for the possession of -an object or a position; and rivalry for the first place in a person’s -affections. The first is not incompatible with friendship, for two rival -candidates for a political office or a college fellowship are not -necessarily personal enemies. But the second kind, which, when allied -with doubt is called Jealousy, is a deadly enemy of good-will; and there -is probably no cause that has broken so many friendships as the -“green-eyed monster,” among women no less than among men. - -Modern psychology agrees with St. Augustine that “he that is -not jealous, is not in love.” There can be no love without -Jealousy—potential at any rate, for in the absence of provocation it may -perhaps never manifest itself. But there can be Jealousy without love, -_i.e_ without sexual love; for that passion is often aroused in -connection with other kinds of affection—parental, filial, etc. Stories -are told of dogs practically committing suicide by disappearing or -pining away if displaced by a younger pet in the affection of a family; -and those who have seen specimens of canine jealousy find nothing -improbable in these stories. Yet as a rule all these general forms of -jealousy—as when a husband is jealous of his wife if the children show -her special favour, or as when a mother is jealous of a visitor loved by -her children—are mere trifles compared with sexual Jealousy, romantic -and conjugal. It is in painting this form of Jealousy that poets have -exhausted the strength of language. “Of all the passions in the mind -thou vilest art,” says Spenser of this “king of torments,” “the injured -lover’s hell.” With this, when once the lover’s mind is affected— - - “’Tis then delightful misery no more, - But agony unmixt, incessant gall.” - - “But, O, what damnéd minutes tells he o’er - Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves.” - -In the animal kingdom sexual Jealousy and rivalry play so important a -part that Darwin attributes to their agency the superior size and -strength (in most classes) of the male over the female. Among savages, -as has been pointed out, we see sometimes a curious absence of Jealousy, -both as regards brides and wives; whereas in other cases, the passion -manifests itself with brutal ferocity. Thus among the American Indians -infidelity is sometimes punished by cutting off the nose, sometimes by -the shearing of the hair, which is considered a great disgrace. On the -Fiji Islands, Waitz tells us, the wives of a polygamist “lead a life of -bitter strife and commit ... the most atrocious cruelties against one -another from hate and Jealousy; biting or cutting off the nose is quite -a common occurrence.” Stanley, in his work on the Congo, remarks that -the Langa-Langa women scar their faces and busts in a hideous manner, -probably because compelled to do so by the Jealousy of the men. In -Hebrew literature the case of Jacob’s two wives urging him of their own -accord to become still further polygamous, presents a strange example of -this passion being neutralised by other motives. What prompted the -ancient Greeks, and what prompts Oriental nations to this day, to keep -their women under lock and key, was, and is, of course, simply a -perverse and ignorant feeling of Jealousy. In this feeling also, no -doubt, originated the Chinese custom compelling women to mutilate their -feet to prevent them from going about; as well as the custom indulged in -until recently by Japanese ladies of shaving off their eyebrows and -blackening their teeth after marriage—a custom which shows how much -stronger Jealousy must be than Admiration of Personal Beauty in the -affection of these nations. No doubt, however, all these excesses and -cruelties of Jealousy are counter-balanced by the good it has done in -enforcing the laws of morality. - -Civilisation does not weaken sexual Jealousy, but only gives it a less -brutal form of manifesting itself. Conjugal Jealousy still produces the -greatest number of domestic tragedies, of which _Othello_ is the -immortal type. It is already typified in Hera, for, as Zeus says in -Homer, “She is always meddling, whatever I may be about.” But then she -had good cause to meddle in the affairs of this Olympian Don Juan. - -_Lovers’ Jealousy._—As for Lovers’ Jealousy proper, there is reason to -believe that it will grow stronger and more common as general culture -advances. For the men who are most ahead of our century emotionally, the -men of genius, are usually very jealous. Heine’s Jealousy went so far -that he even poisoned a poor parrot of whom his Mathilde was -extravagantly fond; and it is probable that Byron’s savage attack on the -Waltz was dictated by a sort of wholesale Jealousy in regard to all -pretty girls. For in Love Byron was omnivorous. - -The lover’s and the husband’s Jealousy are alike in their extreme -sensitiveness— - - “Trifles light as air - Are to the jealous confirmations strong - As proofs of holy writ;” - -nor is there probably any difference in the intenseness of their agony. - -To the lover Jealousy is not only his greatest torture, but also his -deadliest enemy. With this fever in his blood even the man of the world -who knows his “Ars Amoris” by heart, is apt to ruin his cause by excess -of blind rivalry and clumsy passion: which perhaps explains why so many -great men have been refused by their best loves. To endure and ignore a -rival is, as Ovid already declared, the highest and most difficult -achievement in the Art of Love; as for himself, he frankly admits, he -was unequal to it. - -There are several ways in which lovers ruin their chances by awkward -excess of passion. It makes them appear selfish and unamiable; and the -pallor which Jealousy inspires is not that which makes a girl consider a -man “interesting,” and leads her through pity to Love. If the lover is -not yet accepted, his Jealousy arouses her opposition, because he seems -to take it for granted that he has a right to be jealous, and that she -will necessarily accept him. Again, his attitude repels her by -suggesting that he would indulge in impertinent supervision and -tyrannical dictation after marriage. Even if he has successfully -proposed, she does not like to have him make his victory and prospective -ownership so conspicuous by his jealous glances and manœuvres. -Besides, a fascinating girl likes to preserve her apparent freedom as -long as possible, and let others admire her beauty while it lasts. - -Most fatal is it for a man to assume a jealous attitude towards a woman -before he has been able to inspire her with interest in him. Her -indifference will thus be inevitably changed into positive dislike. For, -as Madame de Coulanges says, “L’on ne veut de la jalousie que de ceux -dont on pourrait être jalouse”—We do not desire any jealousy except from -those for whom we could ourselves feel jealousy. Stendhal, who quotes -this aphorism, adds a reason why women may be gratified by a display of -Jealousy: “Jealousy may please proud women, as a new way of showing them -their power.” And to a woman in love and in doubt, the man’s Jealousy, -which is so easily detected, is of course a most welcome symptom of -conquest. - -For Jealousy is the first sign of Love, as it is also the last. If a man -is in doubt whether he is really in Love with a girl or only admires her -beauty, let him observe her when talking or dancing with another man: if -he then feels “queer”—from a mere uneasiness to a desire to pulverise -the other fellow—he may be assured that his emotion has passed the -borderline which separates disinterested æsthetic admiration from the -desire for exclusive possession which is popularly known as Love. - -Conversely, if a man who has been repeatedly refused, or who for some -other reason endeavours to suppress his passion, feels in doubt whether -the cure is complete, he need only imagine his former love in the arms -of another man, or before the altar with him: if that does not make him -turn pale and frown and bite his lips, he is cured. This test, however, -is not so certain as the other, for sometimes Jealousy outlives Love; -and Longfellow believed that every true passion leaves an eternal scar. - -Like Coyness, Jealousy is a discord in the harmony of Love. A little of -it is piquant and rouses desire. “Jealousy,” says Hume, “is a painful -passion, yet without some share of it the agreeable affection of love -has difficulty to subsist in all its force and violence.... Jealousy and -absence in love compose the _dolce piccante_ of the Italians, which they -suppose so essential to all pleasure.” - -Unfortunately, Jealousy is rarely content to remain “agreeably piquant,” -but is apt to grow into a tornado of passion which devastates body and -soul, and makes it the keenest agony known to mankind. It is often said -that the agony inspired by a refusal is the only thing that excuses -tears in a man. This agony is a mixed emotion, including wounded Pride -and the sense of having lost all that makes life worth living. But its -keenest sting comes from the green-eyed monster, who hisses into the -lover’s ears that now a rival will enjoy her sweetness and beauty. Dante -did not correctly describe the lowest depth of hell: it is this thought -in the lover’s mind that “now another will marry her.” It is _that_ -thought which drives lovers to lunatic asylums and suicide. - -“Some lines I read the other day,” Keats wrote to Fanny Brawne, "are -continually ringing a peal in my ears— - - “To see those eyes I prize above mine own - Dart Favours on another— - And those sweet lips (yielding immortal nectar) - Be gently press’d by any but myself— - Think, think, Francesca, what a cursed thing - It were beyond expression.” - -“Get thee to a nunnery,” would be every lover’s advice to the girl who -rejected him. If she obeyed, his agony would be diminished one-half. - -But why, if he cannot have her, should she not make some one else happy? -Because Jealousy is the one absolutely selfish trait of Love. The lover -who in other respects is the very model of altruism and Self-Sacrifice -is in point of jealous rivalry for possession an absolute egotist to -whom even _her_ happiness is torture if he cannot share it. Is this an -aberration of Lovers’ Sympathy, or does it mark its climax? The answer -will be found in the chapter on Sympathy. - -_Retrospective and Prospective Jealousy._—There are three kinds of -modern Jealousy—Retrospective, Present, and Prospective. The rejected -lover’s Jealousy is of the third kind; it refers not to what is, but to -what will or may be. Another variety of Prospective Jealousy is -illustrated by a story told in a Moscow journal of an old peasant who -married a young girl of whom he was very jealous. On his deathbed he -expressed a desire to give her a last kiss. But hardly had she touched -him, when he seized her under lip and fastened his teeth so tightly in -it that a knife had to be used to pry them open. With his dying breath -he confessed that his object had been to mutilate her, so that no one -else might marry her. - -Is it not possible that the custom of burning widows in India was at -first an outcome of the Jealousy of some influential ruler who set the -fashion? - -Present Jealousy does not call for any special remarks, but -Retrospective Jealousy has some curious features. It is entirely -non-existent not only among those savage tribes who scorn virgin brides, -but among some semi-civilised peoples in Africa and Asia where the men -prefer to marry women with a dowry, no matter how they may have earned -it. - -In modern love Retrospective Jealousy is often very strong, especially -in men who, though they do not hesitate to marry a girl who has been -engaged before, would not care to dwell on the details of the previous -engagement. Women, too, have been known to indulge in this futile form -of Jealousy. Thus Heine relates in one of his letters that at the -special request of his Mathilde, he got her a copy of the French edition -of his _Pictures of Travel_. “But hardly had she read a few pages, when -she turned deadly pale, trembled in all her limbs, and begged me for -heaven’s sake to close the book. She had come upon a love-scene in it, -and jealous as she is, she does not even want me to have adored another -_before_ her _régime_; indeed, I had to promise her that in future I -would not address any language of love even to the imaginary ideal -personages in my books.” - -The trouble with Heine is that one never knows exactly when he is -relating facts and when indulging in fun and fiction. As a rule, -certainly women are not much troubled by Jealousy regarding the past. If -the lover promises to be a good boy in future and give them a monopoly -of his adoration, they are rarely disquieted by the question, “Has he -been in love before?” Indeed, there is a current notion that women -admire a man all the more for being a Don Juan or professional -lady-killer. Perhaps, however, this is putting the cart before the -horse: for, instead of admiring him because he is a lady-killer, is it -not possible that he is a lady-killer because they all admire him? - -Yet some truth there seems to be in that old notion regarding gay -Lotharios; for the average woman’s ideal man still wears a certain -mediæval military cast: he is conceived as a muscular dare-devil, -reckless, irresistible, a universal conqueror of female hearts as well -as of other fortresses. - -_Jealousy and Beauty._—As Love becomes more and more idealised, _i.e._ -transferred to the imagination, its overtones combine and produce -various new emotional clang-tints—sometimes agreeable, sometimes harsh -and dissonant. Among the Japanese and Chinese, as just stated, Jealousy -neutralises the Admiration of Personal Beauty to such an extent as to -breed indifference to shaved eyebrows, black teeth, deformed feet, and a -consequent utter absence of grace in gait. But there is a more subtle -way in which Jealousy may cast a cloud on Personal Admiration, even in a -refined Western imagination. Once in a while it happens to a sensitive -man, a worshipper of Beauty, that he beholds a vision of grace and -loveliness—perhaps in a ballroom, perhaps in a theatre or the street. -But this sight instead of delighting him, gives him a painful sting in -the heart. Partly, this paradoxical sadness of a discoverer may be due -to the sudden fancy that this fairylike being perhaps will never again -cross his field of vision. Yet it seems more likely that the tinge of -pain which o’ercasts the rosy feelings of Admiration is due to Jealousy, -especially if she is seen in company with a man. For a moment the -Beauty-worshipper fancies himself in that man’s place; the next moment -the consciousness of isolation flashes on his mind, and the reaction -brings out the painful contrast between what is and what might be. For -man, as Mr. Howells has remarked, is still imperfectly monogamous. He -has occasional visions of a Mahometan heaven peopled with black-eyed -Houris; or envies the knight in Heine’s poem, who lies on the beach and -enjoys the caresses of the mermaids, who come and kiss him because they -know not that he only pretends to be asleep. - -That the Beauty-worshipper’s sadness is due to a vague Jealousy seems -the more probable from the fact that the same feeling never tinges his -admiration of a living Apollo of masculine perfection. Whether women -ever have the same emotions remains for them to tell. - - - MONOPOLY OR EXCLUSIVENESS - -In the case of this trait of Love, Priority of discovery obviously -belongs to the author of these lines— - - “Love, well thou knowest, no partnership allows, - Cupid averse rejects divided vows.” - -Monopoly, the imperious desire for exclusive devotion and possession, is -the mother of Jealousy. Though less grim and melancholy than her son, -she is equally presumptuous and meddlesome, and woe to the man who will -so much as breathe or smile upon what she claims as hers. Monopoly, like -Jealousy, is one of the selfish elements of Love. All lovers join hands -and declaim in unison the words of Jean Paul: “What pleases us is to see -her shrink from everybody else, growing hard and frozen to them on our -account, handing _them_ nothing but ices and cold pudding, but serving -_us_ with the glowing goblet of love.” - -Historically, Monopoly is of the utmost significance, since in it is -rooted monogamy, which, as previously explained, probably originated in -exogamous Capture giving a man the right to exclusive possession of one -woman in communities where, as one writer puts it, every man might claim -“a thousand miles of wives.” - -The desire for exclusiveness, for undivided worship, sometimes enters -into non-sexual affections; and an anonymous writer has suggested that -the main reason why Byron was so devoted to his dog was because the dog -was “a creature exclusively devoted to himself, and hostile to every one -else.” - -Yet all this is child’s play compared with the imperious form Monopoly -assumes in Modern Romantic Love. In the fever-heat of his passion the -lover’s chief desire is to be cast on a desert island, and remain there -all alone with her. “On ne se soucie plus de ce que dit le monde,” says -Pascal; public opinion is scorned; all social feelings annihilated. -Relatives and friends exist no longer—what are they to him? his pet -occupations bore him; and there is only one thought which fascinates—the -picture of a small and cosy house, all his own, a small parlour with one -sofa, barely large enough for two, a book of poems in very fine print, -compelling two heads to touch in reading from it, and a breakfast-table -with only two chairs; all visitors excluded from the unsocial -atmosphere, because “three are a crowd.” ’Tis a “double selfishness,” -doubly as strong as single selfishness. - -Surely Emerson—as the German professor did with the camel—evolved his -idea of a lover from his inner consciousness. “All mankind love a -lover,” he exclaims. Obviously he had never seen a lover. The fact is -that all the world thinks a lover a tremendous and ridiculous bore—a man -whose whole mind is monopolised by one unvarying topic—_her_ perfections -and _his_ chances of winning her; and who stubbornly insists on -monopolising _your_ attention, too, with that everlasting exclusive -topic. Like every other lunatic he has one fixed idea; and it’s no -wonder the poets always paint him blind, like Cupid; for on the wide, -wide ocean of humanity, he sees nothing with his two big eyes but one -little solitary transient bubble. - -In this matter, it must be admitted, woman’s Love is superior to man’s. -“Oh, Arthur,” says Ella, in the _Fliegende Blätter_, “how happy I would -be alone with you on a quiet island in the distant ocean!” “Have you any -other desire, dearest Ella?” “Oh yes, do get me a season ticket for the -opera.” - -_True Love is transient._—Boswell tells us that Johnson “laughed at the -notion that a man can never be really in love but once, and considered -it a mere romantic fancy.” And though this romantic fancy is as current -as ever in society and literature, Johnson was right in his verdict, as -usual. - -True Love, indeed, is absolutely exclusive of every other Love _while it -lasts_; but it rarely lasts more than two or three years; and then the -heart, freed from one monopoly, is ready for another, perhaps even more -tyrannical, _while it lasts_. - -That Love is transient is most fortunate, for it is, in its truest and -most ardent form, such a consuming fever, that the strongest man would -not be able to endure its mingled ecstasies and anguish more than a few -years. The lover’s fancies are his only food; coarser nourishment he -scorns; he loses his appetite, and becomes “pale and interesting”—to -women, who like to see a powerful man thus wincing under their superior -might, and melting away before their radiant beauty. - -Yet its transitoriness detracts not in the least from the magic and the -charm of Love. It is in the life of man what the flowering period is in -the life of a plant. As, for the sake of its fragrant blossoms, a plant -is tenderly nursed and watered weeks and months though it flowers but a -week; so, even if brief Love were the only flower of life, yet would -life be worth living for its sake alone. - -How long Love may last depends on individuals and circumstances. -Sainte-Beuve, I believe, has said that it never can outlive five years. -Favouring circumstances are slight obstacles, rivalries and jealousies, -short absences, etc.; while long absences, the distractions of travel, -professional occupations, etc., tend to shorten it. In uninterrupted -absence, without epistolary encouragement, the most ardent Love would -hardly survive a year, unless the lover lived on a desert island, with -no other woman to engross his attention. Return, however, is apt to -bring on a relapse, as with Henry Esmond, who “went away from his -mistress, and was cured a half-dozen times; he came back to her side, -and instantly fell ill again of the fever.” - -Thus it is the fate of all unrequited Love to die for want of food; or, -if successful, to leave the stormy ocean of passion and sail into the -more tranquil haven of conjugal affection. - -Woman’s Love is less transient than man’s, because there are fewer -ambitions to neutralise it. - -_Is First Love best?_—If Love’s Monopoly lasted for life, if passion -were not transient, it would follow that most men would marry, or -endeavour to marry, the schoolgirls who were the first object of their -amorous attentions. But is there one man in a hundred, is there one in -three hundred, who marries his first Love? Cases are known of men of -genius who fell in love at an age varying from six to nine years; and -there are few lads, in America at any rate, and if they have an artistic -temperament, who do not have their cases of “calf-love,” beginning with -their tenth or twelfth year. - -A boy’s first Love is a girl of about his own age, towards whom he shyly -makes his way by offering her an apple, a bunch of wild strawberries, or -a large hailstone picked up during a storm before her eyes, to impress -her with his reckless Gallantry and courage. The second and third -loves—for schoolboys are fickle, and schoolgirls more so—are probably -not different in character from the first. At fifteen and sixteen, boys -scorn girls of their own age, and fall in love with young married women, -Troubadour-like. Perhaps the Dulcinea is a Spanish beauty, with large -thrilling black eyes, who, seeing the poor cub’s infatuation, teases and -tortures him to distraction with her unfathomable wealth of fascination. - -And let no one imagine that these cases of early passion are anything -short of true Romantic Love. For follow that poor boy enamoured of the -Spanish brunette; see him hiding himself in a lonely forest, gazing with -rapture on her photograph—perhaps only with his mind’s eye—throwing -himself on the ground in an anguish of tears, wishing that either _he_ -was dead ... or her husband ... and behaving altogether like a premature -Werther. - -Such is calf—beg pardon—first Love. And is this first Love best of all? -Perhaps, in one respect, and in one only: it believes in its own -unchangeableness. Goethe remarks in his autobiography that nothing is so -calculated to make us disgusted with life “as a return of Love.... The -notion of the eternal and infinite, which forms its basis and support, -is destroyed; it appears to us transitory, like everything that recurs.” - -_Heine on First Love._—Heinrich Heine, whose poetry is next to -Shakspere’s the most valuable depository of Modern Love, enlarges on -this question in his fragmentary but admirable Analysis of Shakspere’s -Female Characters: "Love is a flickering flame between two darknesses -... [the dots are in the original]. Whence comes it?... From sparks -incredibly small.... How does it end?... In nothingness equally -incredible.... The more raging the flame, the sooner it is burnt out.... -Yet that does not prevent it from abandoning itself entirely to its -fiery impulses, as if this flame were to burn eternally.... - -"Alas, when we are seized a second time in life by the grand passion, we -lack this faith in its immortality, and painful memories tell us that in -the end it will consume itself. Hence the melancholy by which second -differs from first love.... In first love we fancy our passion can only -end with death; and indeed, if the threatening difficulties in our way -cannot be removed in any other manner, we readily make up our mind to -accompany our beloved to the grave.... But in second love the thought -occurs to us that time will change our wildest and most ecstatic -feelings to a tame, apathetic state; that these eyes, these lips, these -contours, which now throw us into transports of rapture, will some day -be regarded with indifference. This thought, alas! is more melancholy -than a presentiment of death.... It is a disconsolate feeling, in the -midst of intoxication, to think of the sober, frigid moments that will -follow, and to know from experience that these ultra-poetic, heroic -passions will have such a lamentably prosaic ending.... - -“I do not, in the least, presume to find fault with Shakspere, yet -cannot but express my surprise that he makes Romeo enamoured of Rosaline -before he brings him face to face with Juliet. Though absolutely devoted -to his second love, there yet dwells in his soul a certain scepticism, -which finds utterance in ironic expressions, and not rarely reminds one -of Hamlet. Or is second love the stronger in a man for the very reason -that it is paired with lucid self-consciousness? A woman cannot love -twice, her nature is too tender to endure a second time the terrific -emotional earthquake. Look at Juliet! Would she be able a second time to -endure those ecstatic delights and horrors, a second time suppress her -fear and empty the dreadful cup? In my opinion once is enough for this -poor, blessed creature, this pure martyr to a great passion.” - -_First Love is not best._—Thus even Heine, while lamenting the -transitoriness of Love, cannot help suggesting that in man, at any rate, -second Love may be stronger than first. On this point it is curious to -note the difference of opinion among thoughtful writers. La Bruyère -declares that “we can love well once only—the first time; the loves -which follow are less involuntary.” Another French author, Letourneau, -on the contrary, thinks that one love-affair only whets the appetite for -more: “on a besoin de vivre fort;” and hence “an expiring passion -ordinarily leaves the ground admirably prepared for the germination of -another passion.” Stendhal held that a young girl of eighteen, “owing to -her inadequate experience of life, is not comprehensive enough in her -desires to be able to love with as much passion as a woman of -twenty-eight;” and a lady-friend having objected to this on the ground -that in her first love a girl must love more ardently because her -feelings are not distracted by doubt and distrust, as they are -subsequently, he replied that this very _méfiance_, in its struggle with -love, will make it come out a thousand times more brilliant and -substantial than the gay and thoughtless first love.” Mr. P. G. Hamerton -seems to cast his vote in the same urn, for he thinks, “it is, indeed, -one of the signs of a healthy nature to retain for many years the -freshness of the heart which makes one liable to fall in love, as a -healthy palate retains the natural early taste for delicious fruits.” -And, finally, George Eliot asks: “How is it that the poets have said so -many fine things about our first love, so few about our later love? Are -their first poems their best? or are not those the best which come from -their fuller thought, their larger experience, their deeper-rooted -affections? The boy’s flute-like voice has its own spring charm; but the -man should yield a richer, deeper music.” - -So doctors evidently disagree. But the facts that Heine is in doubt, -that the greatest authority makes Romeo’s unparalleled passion his -second love, and that even Werther’s famous love, notwithstanding -Goethe’s theory, is not his first, certainly make the scale incline in -favour of a second or later passion. - - “Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie, - And young affection gapes to be his heir; - That fair for which love groaned for, and would die, - With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.” - -These last two lines suggest the whole psychology of First Love. Romeo’s -first Love was not his best Love. When his soul had reached manly -maturity, and looked about for a proper object of affection, he did not -at once have the good luck to encounter his Juliet. Rosaline was the -_nearest approach_ to his ideal; so he worked himself into a -semi-fictitious passion and groaned for her, and would die, until -suddenly he saw his real ideal, and found that his first passion was a -fragile soap-bubble in comparison to his true Love for Juliet, which no -rival could have altered one speck. - -In his first Love, in a word, he had _fallen in love with the species_, -rather than with an individual. Sexual Selection, or Individual -Preference, had come in more as a matter of chance than of decisive, -final choice. And so it is with most cases of first love. Man falls in -Love with woman, woman with man, not with a particular man or woman. -Thus it is that at an early age thousands of impatient youths marry -their Rosalines before they have had time or opportunity to meet their -Juliets. Doubtless there is a Juliet for every man in the world; but it -generally happens that she does not attend the same school, work in the -same manufactory, or live in the same village, or belong to the same -city-clique as he does; so, being less adventurous than Romeo, who went -outside of his clique for a sort of exogamous marriage by Capture, he -weds his first Love, _i.e._ his Rosaline; and this is one of the reasons -why so few cases of true Romantic Love are encountered even to-day, -outside of novels. - -Most marriages, in truth, are brought about through accidental -acquaintance or companionship, not through Love. Suppose that a score of -young men who have never loved were cast on a desert island with one -pretty girl. Though she were as unamiable as Juno, cold and coy as -Diana, in less than a month nineteen of the twenty youths would be in -love with her and bitter personal enemies. Here the man would fall in -love with the woman; the fundamental tone of passion would prevail; -whereas if there had been a choice, eighteen of those men perhaps would -never have dreamed of proposing to that girl. Now second Love is much -more apt to be thus influenced by Individual Preference than first; and -the more Love is individualised the deeper it is. Failure to find -lasting satisfaction in the first choice makes a man more slow and -cautious in his second choice. - -At the same time the mind expands and grows, and age strengthens not -only the intellect but the emotions as well. _For his size_, a boy may -love as ardently as a man; but the man is bigger. - -The history of the race agrees with that of the individual in showing -that Love at first is a general passion, only slightly discriminative, -but becomes more and more so as time goes on. - -Even the objection urged against second Love by Goethe and Heine appears -of no special significance when brought face to face with facts. Very -few men, if any, who are in Love a second or third time, sit in a corner -to muse over the transitoriness of passion till they become “disgusted -with life.” On the contrary, they feel convinced that the preceding -infatuation was, after all, not real indomitable Love, such as they now -experience towards Daisy No. 2; which second infatuation they absolutely -_know_ is the genuine article; just as they _know_ that no one ever -before loved so deeply and devotedly. This naïve self-confidence of the -lover in the unprecedented ardour and uniqueness of his passion is one -of the most sublime _and_ ridiculous aspects of Love. - -And here it may be said, for the benefit of timid souls who may possibly -fear that harm may result to the cause of Love from exposing its -perishableness, that the only persons who could be injured by the -destruction of this illusion—those who happen to be in Love—will -positively and absolutely refuse to believe that _their_ particular -passion is fugitive. They will simply laugh in the face of any one who -questions the immortality of their Love; and a year or two later, -perhaps, they will laugh again—for a different reason. - -Indeed, the notion that true Love never dies and will for ever -monopolise the soul, may actually do harm, and sometimes does so. The -disappointed lover commits suicide not because his torments seem -intolerable for the moment, but because he is convinced they will last -for ever, and thus make life not worth living. - -A review of the situation brings out the truth that the only apparent -advantage which First Love has over later passions is Novelty. Yet even -this advantage proves to be illusory; for though the Second Love may not -be a novelty, the Girl is; and does not Moore, the modern Anakreon, -sing— - - “Enough for me that she’s a new one”? - -One more consideration. There is an adage, not entirely unknown, that -practice makes perfect; and psychology teaches that feelings tend to -become deeper by repetition. Why should Love be an exception? The -channels worn in the brain by the first emotions will be reopened and -widened by the new flood of passion; and thus _remembered emotion_ will -add its force to that of the present moment. - -Has the reader ever heard Wagner’s _Nibelung Tetralogy_? If so, he will -remember with what a thrill of delight he recognised in the later dramas -some of the motives and melodies he had heard in the preceding ones. In -the later dramas these melodies are appreciated not only for their own -intrinsic beauty, but because they come laden with the sad and joyous -associations and memories of the preceding scenes which they -illustrated. - -Wagner was not only a great musician and dramatist, he was also a most -subtle psychologist. He _doubled_ the power of music by adding to the -enjoyment of the moment the strong current of _remembered emotion_. And -this is precisely what a later passion of manhood adds to the naïve -delights of First Love. - -It is remarkable how many analogies there are between Music and Love—the -youngest art and the youngest sentiment; and how the love of the divine -art enables one to understand and feel more deeply the music of the -divine passion. - - - PRIDE AND VANITY - -Jealousy and Monopoly are the two selfish features of Love which urge an -enamoured couple to flee society and friends, and take refuge on a -desert island. Fortunately there is in the chemistry of Love a third -selfish element—the Pride of successful wooing, which commonly is strong -enough to neutralise the antisocial tendencies of the other two. If a -lover’s passion has not yet risen to fever-heat, nothing (except -Jealousy) will so suddenly raise it as the Pride and conceit inspired by -noticing that people in general admire his chosen girl; the more of the -admirers, the greater his Pride. And if, in addition, sympathising -friends directly approve his choice and laud her merits in detail, then -his transports of ecstasy become celestial. - -Inasmuch as in moments of elation over success of any kind a man feels -as if nothing were beyond his power, an accepted lover is as proud (I -suppose) as if he had conquered not only one girl, but the whole -feminine kingdom—or queendom: for surely the one chosen by him is the -cleverest and most beautiful of all; whence it follows that all the -inferior ones would of course have been only too proud if he had -condescended to pay his addresses to them. - -Why do great men so often marry women who are not especially attractive -as to personal appearance, when often they might have had their choice -among a group of beauties? Because the spoiled beauties did not -understand the art of flattery, sincere or otherwise. Every man wishes -to be considered either a creative genius or a hero. The woman who knows -how to touch the sympathetic chord, to make each one’s particular kind -of Pride vibrate, has him at her feet in an instant. - -In conjugal life the most ludicrous of all sights is the royal -self-complacency with which a man accepts the eager worship of his wife. - -Conversely, a rejected lover’s heart bleeds from so many wounds that it -is difficult to count them; but of all these wounds the one inflicted by -the jealous thought that she will now marry another is alone deep as -that of his offended Pride. The sense of superiority which every man -feels over every other man is crushed, and cannot be laid as a -flattering unction to the soul. Hence a girl who refuses a proposal and -does not at least keep it a secret, is not only quite as mean, but a -thousand times more cruel than a man who will “kiss and tell.” - -_Coquetry._—Yet of all secrets the compliment of an offer is the hardest -for a woman to keep; so, in strictest confidence, she tells it to only -one solitary person, who ditto, who ditto, who ditto, etc. etc. etc. -etc. and so on. - -There is a class of women whose sole pleasure in life appears to be -derived from vanity gratified by offers of Love and Marriage. Of all the -elements of Love—and there are at least eleven—her soul is affected by -one alone—the overtone of Pride. The Coquette has already been -superficially examined, and distinguished from the Flirt. But this is -the place where she must be placed under the microscope and more closely -examined. A great many distinguished observers have dissected her, and -here are a few of their discoveries. - -Congreve lets her off easily— - - “’Tis not to wound a wanton boy, - Or amorous youth, that gives the joy; - But ’tis the glory to have pierced the swain - For whom inferior beauties sighed in vain.” - -Fielding is less lenient: “The life of a coquette is one constant lie.” -“The coquette,” says Mr. T. B. Aldrich—"all’s one to her; above her fan -she’d make sweet eyes at Caliban." According to Victor Hugo, “God -created the coquette as soon as He had made the fool;” and Byron asks, -“What careth she for hearts when once possessed?” When Moore wrote— - - “More joy it gives to woman’s breast - To make ten frigid coxcombs vain, - Than one true manly lover blest;” - -he had evidently just left the chill atmosphere of a coquette. “A -coquette,” says A. Duprey, “is more occupied with the homage we withhold -than with that which we bestow upon her.” “Coquettes are the quacks of -love,” says Rochefoucauld. “Heartlessness and fascination, in about -equal proportions, constitute,” according to Mme. Deluzy, “the receipt -for forming the character of a coquette.” And Poincelot caps the climax: -“An asp would render its sting more venomous by dipping it into the -heart of a coquette.” - -There are masculine as well as feminine Coquettes; but there is one -striking difference between them. To the female Coquette all is game -that gets into her net; she will turn away from a man of genius, an -Apollo, already at her feet, to fascinate a rough and freckled country -lad at first sight; whereas a male Coquette rarely wastes his powder on -a girl who isn’t pretty. And even herein is seen the superiority of -man’s Love to woman’s. The male Coquette is actuated by Admiration of -Beauty as well as by Pride; the female Coquette by Pride alone. - -Cannibals have a quaint old custom of eating certain parts of a -formidable enemy’s body, in the belief that they will thus inherit his -qualities,—as by eating his tongue, his eloquence; his heart, his -courage. What a delicious gastronomic morsel a Coquette’s heart would be -to these savages, whose principal amusement is cruelty! - -Perhaps the best description ever given of a Coquette is Thackeray’s -portraiture of Beatrix—"A woman who has listened to" her admirers, “and -played with them and laughed with them,—who, beckoning them with lures -and caresses, and with Yes smiling from her eyes, has tricked them on to -their knees, and turned her back and left them.” - -_Love and Rank._—Not so many years ago the newspapers of a certain -European country made a great deal of ado about a forthcoming marriage -between a blue-blooded youth and a ditto maiden, for the reason that it -was “a real Love-match.” Poor princes! so rarely are they allowed to -choose their own Juliet, they who are supposed to be the rulers of the -land. Until quite recently, it is true, public opinion on the Continent -sanctioned a Love-marriage between an aristocrat and a non-aristocrat -_provided it was unlawful_, _i.e._ morganatic, a special royal euphemy -for bigamy; but now even this privilege is abolished, and princes can -marry one of equal rank only, in pursuance of a custom more tyrannical, -more restrictive than the parental command on which marriage-unions -depended in ancient and mediæval times. - -German novelists have made considerable progress in their art in recent -years, but in one respect it seems to be very difficult for them to -substitute realism for romance. In every love story, almost, one of the -leading characters must be either a prince or a princess. As if it were -not the very essence of a prince and a princess that they shall not be -allowed to love and marry for Love—unless they are clever enough to fall -in Love with the partner singled out for them, which happens once in a -hundred times, perhaps. - -But it is not only in the highest circles that aristocratic Pride is -opposed to free Sexual Selection. It extends through a hundred scales of -the social ladder. Germany presents a remarkable example. The -metaphysician Eduard von Hartmann credits the government of that country -with great astuteness. Not having much money to pay its officials, it -has established a legion of distinctions of rank and titles, for the -sake of which the officials are quite willing to forego a larger salary. -Of the ludicrous conceit inspired by this distinction of having even the -slightest kind of a “handle” to their name, I can give an amusing -instance from my own experience. Some years ago, desiring to see the -Intendant, or Manager, of the Munich Opera-house, I entered a little -room, marked Portier, and found that gentleman comfortably seated, _with -his cap on_. He took my card, on which there was no “handle” of any -sort, and replied sternly, “The Intendant is in; I will send up your -card;” adding, more severely still, “And, young man, let me tell you, -that when you come into the presence of _a royal official_, it behoves -you to remove your hat!” - -Harmless as such childish vanity may seem, it is yet one of the reasons -why there are fewer good-looking women in Germany than in most European -countries—France always excepted. For a girl, whose father wears on his -coat the order of the black eagle, to marry a young man whose father -only has the order of the green eagle, would be considered an -unpardonable _mésalliance_, and would scandalise the whole -neighbourhood. Of course it does not make much difference in a woman’s -own looks whether she marries a man she loves or one whom she can barely -tolerate, and who is forced on her by parental desire and public -opinion, but it does make a difference with her children; and even in -her own case, is it not self-evident that the smile of pleasure at being -happily married is a better preservative of youthful beauty than the -constant frown of disappointment, perhaps of disgust? - -The highest treason against Cupid, however, is committed by those -American women, who, without the excuse of inherited custom, come to -Europe with their money to marry a baron. Fortunately such marriages -have almost always ended so wretchedly that the fashion has somewhat -lost its popularity. What is a baron? Perhaps a man whose -great-great-great-grandfather “lent” some duke or king a few thousand -gold pieces, in return for which he was allowed to place “von” or “de” -before his name. And on the strength of this little word the family -Pride has gone on steadily increasing through various generations—or -rather, degenerations. - -Physiology is not usually considered an ironic science, but it cannot -help writing a satire when it teaches that “blue” blood is venous blood, -charged with the waste products of the bodily tissues. How much better -than this irony would iron be, _i.e._ some fresh, _red_, arterial blood -infused in the bodies of the Continental aristocracy. The English -aristocracy, on the other hand, presents one of the finest types of -manhood and womanhood; and the reason is suggested by Darwin: “Many -persons are convinced, as appears to me with justice, that our -aristocracy, including under this term all wealthy families in which -primogeniture has long prevailed, from having chosen during many -generations _from all classes_ the more beautiful women as their wives, -have become handsomer, according to the European standard, than the -middle classes.” - -Vivid as the feeling of pride must be in a man of humble origin who has -succeeded in winning the Love of a woman of a higher social grade; and -greatly as a Coquette must be tickled in counting off the number of -hearts offered to her, on her fingers if she has enough to go round: yet -the climax of Lover’s Pride, it seems to me, must be reached by a man of -noble birth who, scorning mediæval puerilities, marries the girl who has -won his heart, and were she but a plump, rosy-cheeked peasant girl. This -vivid feeling was doubtless realised by the Grand Duke of Austria when -he married Philippine Welser, by the Duke of Bavaria when he married -Maria Pettenbeck. - - - SPECIAL SYMPATHY - -Thanks to the social instinct, our pains are halved, our pleasures -doubled, if we can share them with others. The proverb that misery loves -company expresses only half the truth; happiness, too, loves company. -The late King of Bavaria used to enjoy an opera most if he was the sole -spectator in the house; but most persons would lose half their pleasure -in this way. Nor is this a purely imaginary feeling; for in a successful -performance there are moments when the intensely-silent and universal -absorption seems to raise a magnetic wave, which crosses the house and -makes all nerves vibrate and thrill in unison. Again, if a man whom -constant attendance at places of amusement has rendered _blasé_, happens -to sit next to a young girl who visits the theatre for the first time, -the emotional play of her features, by reviving the memory of his first -experiences, enables him to share her feelings sympathetically, and thus -to enjoy the performance doubly. And is it not a universal experience -that if we witness sublime or beautiful scenes—if we approach the -Niagara Falls in a small boat from below, or if, standing on the top of -the Breithorn near Zermatt, we see almost the whole of Switzerland and -the Tyrol, parts of France and Italy, down to Lago Maggiore, at the same -moment—almost our first thought is, “Oh, if So-and-so could only see me -now and share this wondrous sight with me!” - -Nor is this instinctive craving for Sympathy absent in the mind of the -poet who _prefers_ to be alone with Nature; on the contrary, it is even -deeper in his case. For to him Nature is personal; he - - “Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, - Sermons in stones;” - -nor does Nature refuse her sympathy; for does she not harmonise with all -his moods, looking gloomy if he is sad, bright if he is cheerful? - -From these general manifestations of emotional partnership Lover’s -Sympathy differs in being omnipresent and more exclusively concentrated -on one person. There is an association of emotions as well as of ideas: -and as every idea of excellence recalls _her_ Perfection, so every -emotion inspired by a beautiful object calls up the image of _the_ -Beauty _par excellence_. Thus Love gets the benefit of all these -associated emotions—waggon-loads of kindling wood. - -_How Love intensifies Emotions._—But is it literally true that in Love, -as Mr. Spencer puts it, “purely personal pleasures are doubled by being -shared with another?” It is true; though the way in which this is done -is difficult to explain. No psychologist, so far as I am aware, has -cracked the nut. I have given considerable thought to the subject, and -venture to offer the following three suggestions as to the method by -which Love doubles our pleasures:— - -(1) The lover’s pleasures are increased by the simple process of -_emotional addition_. That is, supposing him to be reading a poem or -story to his beloved, he will experience at one and the same moment not -only the emotions inspired by the poem or novel he is reading, but those -due to the sense of her presence. As the mind does not stop to analyse -its feelings at such moments, all these various pleasurable emotions -will coalesce into one seemingly homogeneous feeling of happiness; just -as two complementary colours, or all the colours of the rainbow, if -mixed, will produce the simple sensation called white. - -(2) The second way in which sympathetic companionship intensifies a -lover’s feelings is through what may be called _emotional resonance_. If -you take a violin-string in your hands, stretch it tightly, and then get -some one to pluck it, a very faint sound only will be heard. But put it -in its proper place, over the resonant surface of the instrument, and it -will produce a full, loud, mellow tone. A human countenance is such an -instrument—a sort of emotional sounding-board. Every man feels more or -less pleased with himself if he gets off at table what he considers a -wise or witty remark. If the sounding-boards of his neighbours vibrate -responsively to his jokes, he feels proud and is doubly pleased; but if -they only grin politely, the tone of his self-satisfaction is -immediately lowered an octave and dies away pianissimo. Now between -lovers such a fiasco is absolutely impossible. _They_ never grin at one -another’s sayings for the sake of politeness merely. His most -platitudinous remarks are sure to start a symphony of smiles on her -countenance, where another man’s wittiest epigrams would be barely -rewarded with a slight curl of the lips; and as for him, she may say -anything she pleases, he never knows what she says but hears only the -music of her voice—as if her words were the text, the rising and falling -of her voice the melody, of an Italian opera. No wonder lovers are so -exclusively interesting to each other, and such unmitigated bores to -other people. - -Unfortunately lovers’ sympathy is rarely complete or durable. Sooner or -later some difference of taste or opinion is discovered which has the -same effect as a crack in the sounding-board—the resonance is destroyed. -Yet it can be restored by using glue; and violin-builders will tell you -that a glued instrument is often better than one which has never had a -crack. - -(3) Thirdly, Love intensifies human feelings by producing a state of -_emotional hyperæsthesia_, or supersensitiveness, which has the effect -of a microphone in multiplying the loudness of every impression. Music -teachers whose acoustic nerves are rendered excessively irritable by -overwork; students whose eyes, from reading late at night, are in the -same condition, are annoyed by sights and sounds which ordinary mortals -barely notice. But Love with its sleepless night daily fevers, and -prolonged fastings is more potent than any other cause in producing such -a state of extreme sensitiveness to every impression. Lovers’ souls may -therefore be aptly compared to Æolian harps. If you leave the strings of -such an instrument in a state of very loose tension, they resemble the -souls of ordinary mortals not in Love: for it takes a very strong breeze -to elicit any sound from them. But raise them to a higher state of -tension, like the souls of lovers, and the faintest breath of air will -cause them to sound in sympathetic unison all their harmonics—which is -another name for _overtones_. - -_Development of Sympathy._—Not only does Love thus owe much of its -unique intenseness to Sympathy, but there are weighty reasons for -believing that Love has already played an important _rôle_, and is -destined to play a still more important one, in modifying the meaning of -Sympathy and in extending its influence to society in general. - -When the absence of true Romantic Love among savages was being pointed -out more emphasis should have been placed on the fact that they seem to -be utter strangers to sympathy. Far from sharing another’s delights and -sorrows, a savage takes an intense delight in witnessing a man enduring -the agonies of deliberate torture. Cruelty seems to give him the same -thrill of joy that sympathetic assistance gives to a refined person. - -How are we to account for this strange delight in another’s sufferings? -By noting the extreme coarseness and callousness of the primitive man’s -nerves. Just as some savages are known to have such hardened hides and -lungs that they can sleep naked in a snowstorm with impunity, where a -white man would be sure to perish of cold or subsequent pneumonia; so -the savage requires the coarsest of stimulants to make any impression on -his sluggish emotions. The sight of an enemy tied to a tree and being -flayed alive tickles his nerves by suggesting his own comfortable -freedom in comparison, and by showing him an enemy absolutely in his -power; while his imagination is not sufficiently vivid to enable him to -put himself in the other’s place to feel his contortions and suppressed -moans re-echoing in his own soul. - -And have we not in our very midst thousands of so-called civilised -beings who require stimulants almost as coarse as the savage to amuse -their dull imaginations?—people who would hesitate to pay silver for a -book, a concert, or an art exhibition, but gladly give gold to witness -the execution of a criminal or an exhibition of animals torturing one -another to death. To suppose that such people can ever fall in -Love—Romantic Love—is more than absurd. - -Children represent this savage stage of the evolution of sympathy; as -their imagination, like all their mental powers, is still in embryo. -Nothing delights the average boy so much as a chance to torture a -beetle, a cat, or a dog. And Mr. Galton somewhere refers to the sense of -blood-curdling produced on him and other sensitive persons in the London -Zoological Gardens at the sight of snakes devouring living animals. -“Yet,” he adds, “I have often seen people—nurses, for instance, and -children of all ages—looking unconcernedly and amusedly at the scene.” - -To substitute Sympathy for this delight in torture—to arouse the -sluggish imagination from its thousand years’ sleep, and quicken its -sense of suffering in man and animals—is one of the greatest problems of -moral culture, and—so far as man is concerned—forms one of the keynotes -of Christianity. St. Paul bids us both to bear one another’s burdens and -to rejoice with one another. The second part of his injunction, however, -has been comparatively neglected, as is best shown by the circumstance -that we have several terms to express the sharing of sorrow (compassion, -pity, sympathy), whereas for the sharing of joy there is no special noun -in the English language. The Germans have a word for it—_Mitfreude_—yet -it rarely occurs out of philosophical treatises. The word Sympathy, -which literally means “suffering with,” has also been most commonly used -in that sense. But it is now frequently being used in the sense of -sharing joy too, and perhaps, despite its etymology, it will, for lack -of another word, be chiefly used in this sense in future. Even at -present, when persons are spoken of as sympathetic or antipathetic, much -less regard is paid to their willingness to bear our burdens or share -our sorrows than to the chances of their sharing in our pleasures by -having similar tastes and opinions. - -For this change in the meaning of Sympathy, Romantic Love must, I -believe, be held chiefly responsible. To some extent, no doubt, friends -and relatives shared one another’s joys before the advent of Love. Yet -even the mother—taking the most favourable case—cannot enter into all -her child’s feelings, while to the child most of her mature emotions are -utterly incomprehensible; so that we miss here that reciprocation which -is the very essence of Sympathy; whereas a lover cannot even conceive a -pleasure unless the other shares it—another point in the psychology of -Modern Love to which Shakspere has given the most poetic expression— - - “Except I be by Sylvia in the night, - There is no music in the nightingale.” - -Thus we see that there are three stages in the evolution of Sympathy: -the first, in which cruelty neutralises it; the second, in which this -universal enjoyment of cruelty, with its attendant lack of imagination -and altruistic feeling, compelled moralists to lay more stress on the -virtue of compassion than on the refining pleasures of mutual enjoyment; -the third, the epoch of Romantic Love, in which the positive side of the -emotional partnership is specially emphasised, so that a lover cannot -pour forth a song of happiness except in the form of a duo. - -And this brings us back again to a question left unanswered in the -section on Jealousy. A rejected lover’s deepest anguish is the thought -that “She will now be happy in another’s arms.” To hear that she has -entered a convent and will never enjoy the pleasures of Love denied him -would be his only consolation. Is this an aberration of Sympathy, or -does it mark its climax—its remorseless logical consistency? The answer -lies in the second suggestion. Were Love an altruistic passion, it would -be otherwise. _He_ would delight in _her_ happiness under all -circumstances. But Love is selfish—a double selfishness; and its sense -of justice demands that each side be considered. “If I cannot be happy -without her, how can she without me?” The lover does not consider that -the passion is one-sided—he cannot fathom that mystery—cannot understand -why his flame, which reduces him to ashes, is not strong enough to set -her on fire, and were she a stone image. - -_Pity and Love._—According to Darwin, one of the chief mental -differences between man and woman is woman’s greater tenderness. Of this -feminine tenderness the world has been able to judge on a vast scale -during the last two or three years. - -According to a statement in _Nature_, 30,000 ruby and topaz -humming-birds were sold in London some years ago in the course of one -afternoon, “and the number of West Indian and Brazilian birds sold by -one auction-room in London during the four months ending April 1885, was -404,464, besides 356,389 Indian birds, without counting thousands of -Impeyan pheasants, birds of paradise,” etc. A writer in _Forest and -Stream_ mentioned a dealer in South Carolina who handled 30,000 -bird-skins per annum. “During four months 70,000 birds were supplied to -New York dealers from a single village on Long Island, and an -enterprising woman from New York contracted with a Paris millinery firm -to deliver during this summer 40,000 or more skins of birds at 40 cents -a piece. From Cape Cod, one of the haunts of terns and gulls, 40,000 of -the former birds were killed in a single season, so that at points where -a few years since these beautiful birds filled the air with their -graceful forms and snowy plumage, only a few pairs now remain.” “It is -estimated that not less than 5,000,000 birds of all sorts were killed -last year for purposes of ornamentation,” wrote Mr. E. P. Powell in the -New York _Independent_. A correspondent of the New York _Evening Post_ -saw at an art exhibition a young lady, with “nothing in her face to -denote excessive cruelty,” who wore a hat trimmed with “the heads of -_over twenty little birds_”; and the same paper remarked editorially: -“No one can tell how large a bird can be worn on a woman’s head, by -walking in Fifth Avenue. It is necessary to take a ride in a Second -Avenue car to get the full effect of the prevailing fashion. There one -may see on the head-gear of poorer classes, and especially of coloured -women, every species of the feathered kingdom smaller than a prairie -chicken or a canvas-back duck and every colour of the rainbow.” - -“Think of women!” exclaims Diderot; “they are miles beyond us in -sensibility.” - -It was _Science_, edited by men, that started the agitation against -woman’s cruel and tasteless fashion—a fashion which not one woman in a -hundred apparently refused to conform to. It was Messrs. J. A. Allen, W. -Dutcher, G. B. Sennett, and other ornithologists, who raised their -voices in behalf of the murdered birds, for whom no woman seemed to have -a thought except Mrs. Celia Thaxter—all honour to her—and a small circle -of ladies in England. It was Oliver Wendell Holmes who wrote how he felt -“the shame of the wanton destruction of our singing-birds to feed the -demands of a barbaric vanity;” another man, Charles Dudley Warner, who -pertinently suggested that “a dead bird does not help the appearance of -an ugly woman, and a pretty woman needs no such adornment.” - -That the average woman’s imagination is not sufficiently refined and -quick to feel for these winged poems of the air is historically proven -by this fashion, which, characteristically enough, was first introduced -by a member of the Paris _demi-monde_. - -It has disappeared for the moment, but is almost absolutely certain to -reappear within five years. - -But who, after all, is responsible for this sluggish condition of the -feminine imagination, this lack of sympathy for the fate of harmless -happy birds, who in their domestic affections and love-affairs so -closely resemble man? Is it not the men who, till within a few years, -have refused to give their daughters a rational education? It must be -so, for in that sphere where woman has been able to educate herself, and -where she is queen—in the domestic circle, she _does_ possess that -tender sympathy which she withholds from lower beings. - -Within the range of human affections woman manifests more pity, is -stirred to nobler needs of self-sacrifice, than man. Is Love included in -this category? Dryden tells us that “pity melts the heart to love,” and -novelists delight to make their heroines first refuse their suitors and -subsequently accept them from real Love born of pity. For my part, I -doubt this assumed relationship between Pity and Love; and I do not -believe that a girl who has refused a lover ordinarily feels any more -pity for him than a cat does for a mouse, or a person who is all right -on a steamer does for another who is sea-sick—though he be his best -friend. There is an instinctive belief in the human mind that -love-sickness and sea-sickness are never fatal. - -It does, indeed, very often happen—perhaps in half the cases; it would -be interesting to have approximate statistics on the subject—that a girl -first refuses the man whose second or third offer she accepts; for, as -an anonymous writer remarks, “women are so made (happily for men) that -gratitude, pity, the exquisite pleasure of pleasing, the sweet surprise -at finding themselves necessary to another’s happiness ... altogether -obscure and confuse the judgment.” But in such cases there are other -factors which probably influence the girl much more than Pity does. She -is, in the first place, largely influenced by this “exquisite pleasure -of pleasing”—another name for Pride. Then there is a certain advantage -to a man in having proposed, even unsuccessfully; for whenever -subsequently the girl reads about Love she will involuntarily think of -him; and thus his image will become associated with all the pleasure she -derives from Love stories—which may prove the first step for her—and a -long one—into the romantic passion. Besides, to propose to a girl is the -greatest compliment a man can pay a girl; and this cannot be without -influence. - -Thus it is possible that Pity, allied with Pride, association, and -flattery, may work a change of feeling in a feminine mind; but Pity -alone will rarely lead her into the realms of Cupid. A man certainly -would never dream of marrying from Pity, on seeing that she loves him -deeply, a woman for whom he does not otherwise care. Nor should either -man or woman ever marry from Pity, any more than for money or rank. Love -should ever be the sole guide to matrimony. - -_Love at First Sight._—La Bruyère gives his opinion that “the love which -arises suddenly takes longest to cure;” and that “love which grows -slowly and by degrees resembles friendship too much to be an ardent -passion.” Schopenhauer, too, asserts that “great passions, as a rule, -arise at first sight.” He refers to Shakspere’s - - “Who ever lov’d that lov’d not at first sight?” - -and then cites Mateo Aleman’s old Spanish romance, _Guzman de -Alfarache_, in which, three centuries ago, the following observation was -made: “To fall in love one does not require much time or reflection and -choice; all that is needed is that in that first and only sight there -should be a mutual suitability and harmony, or what in common life we -call a sympathy of the blood, and which is due to a special influence of -the stars.” - -As it is not permissible, in these degenerate days of positive science, -to explain a thing by a vague reference to poetic astrology, an attempt -must be made to account for the possibility of Love at first sight on -more prosaic grounds. - -Physiognomy furnishes a simple solution of the problem. In every man’s -face is painted his personal history, as well as his favourite and -customary sphere of thoughts and feelings. As Sir Charles Bell remarks, -“Expression is to passion what language is to thought.” The gift of -reading correctly this facial language of passion is given to different -persons in different degrees, though all have some share of it: and on -their more or less accurate and subtle interpretation of the “lines and -frowns and wrinkles strange” in another’s features depends the art of -reading character and being sympathetically attracted or repulsed, as -the case may be. A young man who has unconsciously associated certain -peculiarities of facial expression in his sisters or female friends with -habitual cheerfulness, amiability, and brightness will, on recognising -similar features in a new acquaintance, take for granted similar charms -of character: this, which is the work of a second, may result in -sympathy at first sight, which very often is the beginning of Romantic -Love. - -Love at First Sight may be inspired by this instinctive perception of -beauty of character, _i.e._ amiability; or by the sight of mere physical -beauty; or, thirdly, by Personal Beauty in the highest sense of the -word, uniting intellectual fascination with bodily charms. - -Inasmuch as there are not a few men whose æsthetic taste is so weak that -they would rather marry a useful, companionable girl and imagine her -beautiful, than take a beauty and imagine her useful; and inasmuch as -there are a great many more amiable and vivacious girls in the world -than pretty ones, it happens that in a large number of cases Love is -inspired by the physiognomic interpretation of sympathetic traits of -character just referred to. Hence plain girls need never despair of -finding husbands. There is even a current notion that the deepest -passions are commonly inspired by plain women who are otherwise -attractive. But what inspires the Love in these cases is not so much the -woman’s amiability—and certainly not her plainness—as the fact that the -style of her homeliness is of an opposite kind from the faults of the -lover, and promises to neutralise them in the offspring. - -Plain and homely, moreover, are terms often applied to women whose faces -only are so, while their figures are sometimes superb. But a fine figure -is quite as essential a part of Personal Beauty as a fine face, and is, -in the opinion of Schopenhauer, even more potent as a love-inspirer. If -the figure is disregarded in favour of the face, Romantic Love is apt to -become hyper-romantic, as in the days of Dante. - -Perhaps the largest number of cases of Love at First Sight, so called, -are inspired by mere _beauté du diable_—a female “bud” whose sole charm -apparent is sparkling health and fragrant, dew-bejewelled freshness. -That this kind of Love at sight, which consists in being dazzled for the -moment by a set of regular features and a pair of bright eyes, is often -of brief duration, does not militate against the statement that the -deepest Love is also born of such a flash of æsthetic admiration. An -incipient passion may be crushed by the discovery of some disagreeable -trait in the person who inspired it; but when, owing to want of early -opportunity to discover unsympathetic traits, Love has been allowed to -make some progress, the subsequent discovery of a flaw is not nearly so -serious a matter, for then Master Cupid simply puts a daub of whitewash -on it and calls it a beauty-spot. - -_Intellect and Love._—But, after all, the deepest Love at Sight, and -that which gives promise of greatest permanence, is that inspired by a -handsome woman in whose face Intellect has written its autograph. -Goethe, indeed, has remarked that “intellect cannot warm us, or inspire -us with passion;” but the view he takes here of the relations between -intellect and passion is obviously very crude and superficial. No man, -of course, would ever fall in Love with a woman who showed her -intellectuality—as not a few do—by a parrotlike repetition of -encyclopædic reading or magazine epitomes of knowledge. This gives -evidence of only one form of intellect, the lowest, namely, Memory. It -is the higher forms—imagination, wit, clever reasoning, that constitute -the essence of intellectual culture; and though woman may never quite -equal man in this sphere, such cases as Mme. de Staël, George Sand, and -George Eliot show how much she _can_ accomplish by means of application. - -Now this higher kind of intellectual culture is able to influence the -amorous feelings in two ways: first, by refining and vivifying the -features; secondly, by enabling a woman to appreciate her lover’s -ambitions and afford him sympathetic assistance, thereby awakening a -responsive echo in his grateful mind. - -Look at Miss Marbleface in yonder corner, surrounded by a group of -admirers. Everybody wonders why she, whose features might inspire a -sculptor, remains unmarried at twenty-six. Her friends, indeed, whisper -that she never even got an offer. Yet all the men to whom she is -introduced admire her immensely—the first evening; but strange to say, -after they have seen her a few times, they are not a bit jealous to -leave her to a new group of admirers; who, in turn, cede her to another. -Her beauty, in truth, is but skin-deep, _literally_; the muscles under -the skin are never vivified by an electric flash of wit from the brain; -there is nothing but marble features and a stereotyped smile; no -animation, no change of expression, no Intellect. Were her intellect as -carefully cultivated as her features are chiselled, she would inspire -_Love_, not mere momentary admiration; and she would have been married -six years ago to a man chosen at will from the whole circle of her -acquaintances. - -It is easy to explain how the absurd and fatal notion that intellectual -application mars women’s peculiar beauty and lessens the feminine graces -in general must have arisen. The inference seems to follow logically -from the two undeniable premises that pretty girls very often _are_ -insipid, and intellectual women commonly _are_ plain. But this is only -another case of putting the cart before the horse. Pretty girls, on the -one hand, are so rare that they are almost sure to be spoiled by -flattery. They receive so much attention that they have no time for -study; and ambitious mothers take them into society prematurely, where -they get married before their intellectual capacities—which sometimes -are excellent—have had time to unfold. Ugly girls, on the other hand, -being neglected by the men, have to while away their time with books, -music, art, etc., and thus they become bright and entertaining. -Therefore it is not the intellect that makes them ugly, but the ugliness -that makes them intellectual. - -The culture that can be compressed into a single lifetime unfortunately -does not suffice to modify the bony and cartilaginous parts of the human -face sufficiently to change homeliness into beauty; but the muscles can -be mobilised, the expression quickened and beautified by an individual’s -efforts at culture; hence some of these reputed plain intellectual -women, in moments when they are excited, become more truly fascinating, -with all their badly-chiselled features, than any number of cold marble -faces. If men only knew it!—but they are afraid of them—the average men -are—because they do not constantly wish to be reminded of their own -mental shortcomings in a tournament of wit, pleasantry, or erudition. - -Even Schopenhauer, who was convinced that women are too stupid to -appreciate a man’s intellect, if abnormal, held that women, on the -contrary, gain an advantage in Love by cultivating their minds; adding -that it is owing to the appreciation of this fact that mothers teach -their daughters music, languages, etc.; thus artificially padding out -their minds, as on occasion they do parts of the body. - -No doubt, as a rule, women are more influenced in love-affairs by a man -who excels in athletic qualities of manly energy than by one of -intellectual supereminence. But the adoration of women for a Liszt, a -Rubinstein, and other men of genius, whose eminence lies in a department -that has been made accessible to women for centuries, shows what might -be if women were trained in other spheres of human activity and -knowledge. - -Regarding the mental padding, however, we might continue in the old -pessimist’s vein by saying that it is a trick which has had its day. Men -do not marry girls quite so blindly as in the days when Romantic Love -was a novelty. They keep their eyes open; and when they find that their -girl’s musical “culture” consists in the mechanical drumming of three -pieces, and that her other “accomplishments” are similar shams, they are -apt to take their throbbing hearts and put them into a refrigerator -until the young lady has become a faded, harmless old maid, still -drumming her three pieces on the piano. The fact that so many mothers -persist in thus “padding” their daughters’ minds, instead of educating -them properly, is largely responsible for the ever-increasing number of -self-conscious and disgusted bachelors in the world. - -The example of Aspasia illustrates both the physical advantages beauty -derives from intellectual culture—through the refinement of -expression—and the emotional advantages a woman secures by being able to -sympathise intelligently with her lover’s or husband’s enterprises. -Nothing more irresistibly fascinates a man than genuine questioning -interest shown by a woman in his life-work. Or, as Mr. Hamerton puts it, -“the most exquisite pleasure the masculine mind can ever know, is that -of being looked upon by a feminine intelligence with clear sight and -affection at the same time.” But on this topic Mr. Mill has discoursed -so enthusiastically in his _Subjection of Women_ that anything that -might be added here could be little more than a faint echo of his -persuasive eloquence, tinged though it be with true lovers’ -exaggeration. - -Goethe illustrated his maxim that “intellect cannot warm us or inspire -us with passion” by marrying a pretty, brainless doll of whom he soon -got heartily tired. Heine followed his example by marrying a Parisian -labouring girl who, like Madame Racine, probably never read her -husband’s writings. And in his _Unterwelt_ he laments his “verfehlte -Liebe, verfehltes Leben”—his mistaken love and wasted life. - -Why did the ancient Greeks neglect their women? Why did they remain -strangers to Love and seek refuge in Friendship? Their women were -modest, domestic, good mothers and wives; but they lacked one thing, and -that was Intellect. - - - GALLANTRY AND SELF-SACRIFICE - -Primitive tribes have a delightfully simple way of arranging their -division of labour. The men do the hunting and carry on wars, the women -do everything else. If a warrior on “moving day” should say to his wife -and daughters: “See here, this will never do for me to have nothing but -my weapons and my pipe, while you carry the babies, the cooking -utensils, the remnants of the game, and the tent: let me help you!”—if -he should say this, his comrades would consider him crazy, or rather, -possessed of a demon, and would burn two or three persons at the stake -for having bewitched him. - -Gallantry, in other words, is unknown to savages either between lovers, -or, in a general sense, towards all women. Nor is it known to -semi-civilised peoples. Among the nomadic Arab tribes of the Sahara the -wife has to do all the work unless her husband is rich enough to own a -slave; and among the poorer Bedouins the husband traverses the desert -comfortably seated on his camel, while his wife plods along behind on -foot, loaded with her bed, her kitchen utensils, and her child on top. - -The ancient Greeks were not so ungallant as these peoples towards their -women, as they had slaves to do their hard work; but the constant -devoted attention and desire to please which constitute modern Gallantry -did not, as we have seen, exist among them. Among the Romans we find -traces—but traces only—of this virtue. Mediæval Gallantry reached its -extremes in the witches’ fires on the one side, and the grotesque -performances of the knight-errants on the other. The intermediate ground -apparently remained uncultivated, except during the brief period of -chivalrous poetry, and then only in the highest classes. Wherever, in -short, Romantic Love was absent, Gallantry, as one of its ingredients, -was unknown. - -Coming to modern times, we see the same parallelism between general -Gallantry and the freedom granted to the young to form Love-matches. - -In France, Germany, Italy, the women still have to do the hardest field -work, though the men assist. The French, indeed, who systematically -suppress Romantic Love, are apparently the most gallant nation in the -world. But there is a general agreement among tourists that in _real_ -Gallantry, which calls for self-sacrificing actions and not mere polite -words and bows, the French are inferior to all other European nations. -It is in England and America that true general Gallantry, like true -Romantic Love, flourishes most. In America, indeed, owing to the former -scarcity of women, Gallantry was for a time carried to a ludicrous -excess, almost reminding one of the days of Don Quixote; as in that -story of the Western miners who surrounded an emigrant’s waggon and -insisted on his “trotting out” his wife; which being done by the -trembling man, who feared the worst, the “roughs” passed round the hat -and collected a large sum of gold for the woman. Perhaps American women -still are, as we read in _Daisy Miller_, “the most exacting in the world -and the least endowed with a sense of indebtedness.” But the constant -sight in New York and elsewhere of street-cars in which every man has a -seat while every woman is standing, seems to indicate that there is a -reaction which may go to the opposite extreme. But after a while the -pendulum will doubtless swing back to the middle and remain stationary; -and this will be in the new golden age when men will always give up -their seats to old and infirm women, to pretty girls, and to all the -others who display truly refined instincts and good taste by abjuring -crinolines, bustles, high heels, stuffed birds on their hats, and other -“ornaments” fatal to Personal Beauty. - -From the facts thus hastily sketched we may safely infer that, as we saw -in the case of Sympathy with another’s joys, so again with Gallantry, -what was born as a trait of Romantic Love was subsequently transferred -to the social and domestic relations of men and women in general. Had -Romantic Love done nothing more than this, it would deserve to rank -among the most refining influences in modern civilisation. - -Perhaps the most remarkable existing illustration of the way in which -Lovers’ Gallantry may assume a general form, is to be found in Mr. -Ruskin’s recent confession regarding girls: “My primary thought is how -to serve _them_ and make them happy; or if they could use me for a -plank-bridge over a stream, or set me up for a post to tie a swing to, -or anything of the sort not requiring me to talk, I should be always -quite happy in such a promotion.” - -This reads precisely like Heine’s poem in which the lover wishes he were -his mistress’s footstool, or again her needle-cushion, that he might -experience the delights of pain inflicted by her foot or hand. - -Such excess of amorous Gallantry is a favourite theme for poetic -hyperbole, and it hardly can be exaggerated; for the lover really _does_ -entertain such wishes. With him, _romance is realism_. - -No slave could be so meek and humble, no well-trained dog so obedient as -the amorous swain. Again and again will he, without a moment’s -hesitation, plunge into a wintry stream and triumphantly snap up and -bring back to her the chip she has thrown in to amuse herself. - -_Active and Passive Desire to Please._—"Love, studious how to please" -(Dryden), has two ways of accomplishing its purpose—one passive, one -active. Women, owing to their prescribed Coyness, are not allowed to -indulge in actions that would imply a desire to please a suitor, except -in the later stages of Courtship, when all is settled or understood. -Hence their desire to please can only show itself passively in their -efforts to make their personal appearance attractive to the lover. Nor -are men indifferent to this passive phase of Gallantry. As nothing so -fills a man with Pride as the thought that She, a paragon of beauty, -adorns herself so carefully all for his delight; so in turn he feels it -incumbent on him to follow her example. Even the habitually slovenly -become dandies for the moment, brush their hair, buy a new hat and -clothes; the lazy become industrious, the cowards assume heroic airs and -strut about like tragedians— - - “I was the laziest creature, - The most unprofitable sign of nothing, - The veriest drone, and slept away my life - Beyond the dormouse, till I was in love! - And now I can outwake the nightingale, - Outwatch an usurer, and out-walk him too, - Stalk like a ghost that haunted ’bout a treasure, - And all that fancied treasure, it is love.”—BEN JONSON. - -Active Gallantry has been sufficiently characterised in the foregoing -pages. It is that form of the Desire to Please which readily merges into -Self-Sacrifice. A man who would never dream of exposing himself to the -slightest danger in his own behalf will, if his sweetheart expresses -admiration of a flower growing near a dangerous precipice, rush to pluck -it with an audacity which may cost him his life. A fatal case of this -sort occurred not long ago on the Hudson River near New York. A man’s -life thrown away for the slight æsthetic gratification to be derived by -his love from the sight and fragrance of a flower! - -How frequently, again, do lovers sacrifice their family bonds, the love -of parents and relatives, as well as rank and fortune, for the sake of -the romantic passion! - -A mother willingly dies in defence of her offspring’s life. But will -she, like Romeo, drink the apothecary’s poisonous draught over the -corpse of her dead darling? No, herein again Romantic Love is the -deepest of the passions. - -_Feminine Devotion._—Self-Sacrifice is one of the traits of Romantic -Love which may remain unaltered and unweakened in conjugal affection. -“Those who have traced the course of the wives of the poor,” says Mr. -Lecky, “and of many who, though in narrowed circumstances, can hardly be -called poor, will probably admit that in no other class do we so often -find entire lives spent in daily persistent self-denial, in the patient -endurance of countless trials, in the ceaseless and deliberate sacrifice -of their own enjoyments to the wellbeing or the prospects of others.” - -It is in Wagner’s music-dramas that the modern ideal of feminine -devotion unto death has found its most stirring embodiment. Elizabeth, -having lost her Tannhäuser, thanks to the allurements of Venus, dies of -a broken heart; Senta, realising that only by her self-sacrifice can the -unhappy Dutchman be released from his terrible doom of eternally sailing -the stormy seas until he should find a woman faithful to him unto death, -tears herself away from her family and plunges into the ocean. Isolde -sings her death-song over the body of Tristan; and Brünnhilde immolates -herself on Siegfried’s funeral pyre. Wagner’s theory of the music-drama -was a theory of Love in which each lover sacrifices selfish -idiosyncrasies in order to produce a happy union in marriage. - -Mr. Mill, forgetting the difference between masculine maltreatment of -women, and voluntary female self-denial, thought it expedient to sneer -at the exaggerated self-abnegation which is the present artificial ideal -of feminine character; and those unsexed viragoes who wish to “reform” -women by robbing them of all womanly attributes and converting them into -caricatures of masculinity, re-echo Mill’s sneer in shrill chorus. -Women, they shout, must no longer waste their best years in staying at -home, educating their children and taking care of their husbands. These -brutes have been caressed and fondled long enough; the time has come for -women to be manly and independent. Let them take away from men the -employments, of which even now there are not enough for three-fourths of -the men; let them thus drive another 20 per cent of men and women into -celibacy because the men cannot afford any longer to marry. Let the -women strip off their artificial air of domestic refinement by mingling -with the foul-mouthed, tobacco-reeking crowds and making political stump -speeches; or by visiting the loathsome criminals in prisons, treating -them to cakes and flowers and other methods of feminine reform, so that -when set free they may be eager to do something which will bring them -back to their cakes and flowers! The children meanwhile being left at -home in charge of coarse, ignorant, careless servants, copying their -manners, and the husband compelled to seek companionship at the club, or -much worse. - -How the selfish husband will wince under this cold neglect and -retaliation—he who never does anything but amuse himself while his wife -toils at home; who never risks his life in war for his wife and -children; who never toils at his desk from morn to night, to earn the -daily bread of all by the sweat of his brow; who never goes to lunatic -asylums from overwork and worry! How sly in man to set up his -“artificial ideal of woman’s self-abnegation,” while he is having such a -good time! But why try to paint in weak prose the hideousness of man’s -selfish conduct, when Shakspere has done it in immortal verse? - - “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, - Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee, - And for thy maintenance commits his body - To painful labour both by sea and land, - To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, - Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe; - And craves no other tribute at thy hands - But love, fair looks and true obedience; - Too little payment for so great a debt.” - -There is another very curious aspect of Self-Sacrifice which will be -fully discussed in the chapter on Schopenhauer’s Theory of Love, but -which may be stated here, without comment, that the reader may reflect -on the pessimist’s paradox. Schopenhauer held that Love is based on the -possession by the lovers of traits which mutually complement each other. -In the children these incongruous traits will so neutralise each other -as to produce a harmonious result; but in the life of the parents they -will produce only discords. True love, therefore, as he claims, rarely -results in a happy conjugal life: Love causes the parents to sacrifice -their mutual happiness to the welfare of their offspring. - -Meanwhile it may be stated that France offers a curious confirmation of -Schopenhauer’s theory, not noted by himself. Romantic Love, it is well -known, hardly exists in France _as a motive to marriage_, being -systematically suppressed and craftily annihilated. Nevertheless, as -many observers attest, the French commonly lead a happy family life. But -look at the offspring, at the birth-rate, the lowest in Europe; look at -the puny men, at the women, among whom there is hardly a single beauty -in all the land. In a word, whereas Love sacrifices, according to -Schopenhauer, the parents to the children, the French sacrifice the -offspring, and Love itself, to the happiness of the individuals, married -according to motives of personal expediency. - - - EMOTIONAL HYPERBOLE - - “I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers - Could not, with all their quantity of love, - Make up my sum.” - -“It is a strange thing,” says Bacon, “to note the excess of this -passion, and how it braves the nature and value of things by this, that -the _speaking in a perpetual hyperbole_ is comely in nothing but in -love.” - -It is the nature of all passions to exaggerate: and Love, being of all -passions the most violent, exaggerates the most—more even than Hate, -which alone competes with Love in the power to tinge every object with -the colour of its own spectacles. The lover’s constant sigh is for -something stronger than a superlative; and to the limit between the -sublime and the ridiculous he is absolutely blind. Like Schumann, every -lover calls his Clara “Clarissima,” and of two superlative facts he is -quite certain: That _she_ is the most wonderful being ever created; and -that _his_ passion is the deepest ever felt by mortal. - - “Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars! - One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun - Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.” - SHAKSPERE. - -If you try to convince him that others have loved as ardently—and ceased -to love, he will smile a cynical smile and then close his eyes and -declaim melodramatically— - - “And I will luve thee still, my dear, - Till a’ the seas gang dry— - Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, - And the rocks melt wi’ the sun.”—BURNS. - -In such hyperbolic effusions a lover sees no exaggeration, for they -describe his feelings and convictions precisely as they are. - - “What we mortals call romantic, - And always envy though we deem it frantic” (BYRON) - -is to him bare reality, nothing more. Romeo expresses his real wish for -the moment when he says— - - “O that I were a glove upon that hand - That I might touch that cheek;” - -Byron really feels that - - “O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes - Her feet were much too dainty for such tread.” - -And every lover would agree with Coleridge that - - “Her very frowns are fairer far - Than smiles of other maidens are.” - -“The air I breathe in a room empty of you is unhealthy,” wrote Keats to -his sweetheart; and Burns, in the sketch of his first love, thus -describes the emotional hyperæsthesia produced by Love: “I didn’t know -myself why the tones of her voice made my heart-strings thrill like an -Æolian harp, and particularly why my pulse beat such a furious rattan -when I looked and fingered over her little hand to pick out the cruel -nettle-stings and thistles.” - -This is the true ecstasy of Love—the most delicious and thrilling -emotion of which the human soul is capable. Nor is it necessary to be a -poet to feel it. While in Love even a coarser-grained man “feels the -blood of the violet, the clover, and the lily in his veins” (Emerson). -But if Jealousy rouses him, it is flower-blood no longer that courses in -his veins, nor human blood, but vengeful Spanish wine. It is then that -Love’s intoxication reaches its climax: delirious ecstasy followed by -angry waves of dire despair, rocking and tossing the unhappy victim till -he is pale and sick as death. - -Like other drunkards, the Love-intoxicated youth sees and feels -everything double. His darling seems doubly beautiful, and all his joys -and sorrows are doubled in intensity. And, like other drunkards, he -imagines that all the world is drunk and reeling; whereas the rapid -oscillation of surrounding objects between the rosy hue of hope and the -gray cloud of doubt, is all in his own mind. - -How this erotic intoxication multiplies the lover’s courage and -confidence in his success! The most insignificant smile raises him over -all obstacles to the summit of his hopes, as easily as a cloud-shadow -climbs a mountain side o’er treetops, rocks, and snowy walls. - -How, on her part, it magnifies his heroism, his genius, converting the -most insipid commonplace into an immortal epigram, full of wit and -wisdom! - -That Lovers’ Hyperbole is nothing but Love-intoxication shows itself -also in the ludicrous tasks they undertake when under the spell. Who but -a lover would ever attempt to gild refined gold, to paint the lily -white, the sky blue? Who mix up physiology, astronomy, gastronomy, in -such an absurd way as in “sweet-heart,” “honey-moon,” etc.? - -And when, during the “honey-moon,” the lover recovers from his -intoxication, how surprised he looks, how he rubs his eyes and wonders -where the deuce he has been! He remembers Ovid’s caution that after wine -every woman seems beautiful; he remembers something about seeing -“Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.” And the girl by his side—he thought -she _was_ Helen; but now, “really—this is most extraordinary: just look -at that large mouth, and that snub-nose—well, I knew she had it, and -thought I loved her all the more for this imperfection, which proved her -human and not a goddess: yet, by Jove, I almost wish ... in fact, I -_quite_ wish, her mouth was smaller and her nose larger.” - -Poor deluded youth! He was taken in by Cupid’s favourite trick of -dazzling a lover with a pair of brown or blue orbs, till he can see -nothing else. For this girl, beyond question, has a pair of eyes which -Venus might envy—mid-ocean-blue, with a dewdrop sparkle, and a -mischievous expression that is more commonly found in brown eyes; and -these deep-blue eyes are framed in with black brows and long black -lashes, without which no eyes are ever perfect, whatever their colour. -It was these expressive orbs, this visible music of the spheres, that -ravished all his senses and made him blind to every other feature of her -countenance. - -Thus we see how Love comes to be blind. One feature—most commonly the -eyes—dazes the victim so completely that all the other features are seen -but vaguely as in a dream; while the imagination is ever busy in -chiselling them into harmony with the fine eyes. And it is only after -marriage, or assured possession, that the other features emerge from -their blurred vagueness, and are found less perfect than the fond -imagination had painted them. - -In this eagerness of Love to see only superlative excellence, and its -disposition to imagine a thing perfect if it is not, we get a deep -insight into the mission and _raison d’être_ of this passion. If women -and men would only try to live up to Love’s exalted ideal of personal -perfection—and most persons _could_ be 50 per cent more beautiful, if -they attended to the laws of hygiene and cultivated their minds—what a -lovely planet this would be! - -Why have so many of the greatest men of genius been unhappy in their -Love and Marriage? Because they had in their minds the loveliest visions -of possible feminine perfection, but did not find them realised in life. -For a while their pre-eminently strong imaginations helped them to keep -up the illusion; but the truth would out at last; and in the pangs of -disappointment they threw themselves upon the poetic device of -Hyperbole, and tried to console themselves by painting the images of -perfection which did not exist in life. - -Love, it is true, is not the only theme which they have embellished with -the ornaments of Hyperbole. A wonderful example of non-erotic Hyperbole -occurs in Macbeth— - - “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood - Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather - The multitudinous seas incarnadine, - Making the green one red.” - -But as a rule the finest specimens of poetic imagery are to be found in -erotic Hyperbole; and it seems most strange that Goldsmith, who had so -deep an insight into Love, does not mention this variety at all in his -essay on Hyperbole. - -Love, says Emerson, is “the deification of persons”; and though the -poet, like every other lover, “beholding his maiden, half-knows that she -is not verily that which he worships,” this does not prevent him from -idealising her portrait, and sketching her as he would like to have her. -A few additional specimens of such poetic Hyperbole may fitly close this -chapter— - -SHAKSPERE— - - “She is mine own, - And I as rich in having such a jewel - As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, - The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.” - -SOUTHWELL— - - “A honey shower rains from her lips.” - -MARLOWE— - - “O, thou art fairer than the evening air - Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.” - -And again— - - “Many would praise the sweet smell as she past, - When ’twas the odour which her breath forth cast; - And there for honey bees have sought in vain, - And, beat from thence, have lighted there again.” - -Or, as Lamb puts it, lovers sometimes - - “borrow language of dislike; - And instead of ‘dearest Miss,’ - Jewel, honey, sweetheart, bliss, - And those forms of old admiring. - Call her cockatrice and siren, - Basilisk and all that’s evil, - Witch, hyena, mermaid, devil, - Ethiop, wench, and blackamoor, - Monkey, ape, and twenty more; - Friendly traitress, loving foe,— - Not that she is truly so, - But no other way they know - A contentment to express, - _Borders so upon excess_, - That they do not rightly wot, - _Whether it be pain or not_.” - - - MIXED MOODS AND PARADOXES - -“That they do not rightly wot, whether it be pain or not.” That is the -keynote of Modern Love. - -To a superficial Anakreon, who knows but its rapturous phase, Love is -all honey and moonshine. The celibate Spinoza, too, ignorant of the -agonies of Love, defined it as _lætitia concomitante idea causæ -externæ_—a pleasure accompanied by the idea of its external cause. -Burton, on the other hand, claims Love as “a species of melancholy”; and -Cowley sings— - - “A mighty pain to love it is, - And ’tis a pain that pain to miss; - But of all pains the greatest pain - It is to love, but love in vain.” - -The poets generally have taken a less one-sided view of the matter by -depicting Love under a thousand images, as a mysterious _mixture_ of joy -and sadness, of agony and delight. - -So Bailey— - - “The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love.” - -DRYDEN— - - “Pains of love be sweeter far - Than all other pleasures are.” - -FLETCHER— - - “Thou bitter sweet, easing disease - How dost thou by displeasing please?” - -MIDDLETON— - - “Love is ever sick, and yet is never dying; - Love is ever true, and yet is ever lying; - Love does doat in liking, and is mad in loathing, - Love, indeed, is anything, yet indeed is nothing.” - -DRAYTON— - - “Amidst an ocean of delight - For pleasure to be starved.” - - “’Tis nothing to be plagued in hell - But thus in heaven tormented.” - -CONSTABLE— - - “To live in hell, and heaven to behold, - To welcome life, and die a living death, - To sweat with heat, and yet be freezing cold, - To grasp at stars, and lie the earth beneath.” - -SOUTHWELL— - - “She offereth joy, but bringeth grief; - A kiss——where she doth kill.” - - “Tears kindle sparks.” - - “Her loving looks are murdering darts.” - - “Like winter rose and summer ice.” - - “May never was the month of love, - For May is full of flowers; - But rather April, wet by kind, - For love is full of showers.” - -SHAKSPERE— - - “Good-night, good-night, parting is such sweet sorrow, - That I shall say good-night till it be morrow.” - - “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; - Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; - Being vex’d, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears; - What is it else? a madness most discreet, - A choking gall and a preserving sweet.” - -Petrarch’s poems, says Shelley, “are as spells which unseal the inmost -enchanted fountains of the delight which is the grief of love.” In that -part of the _Romance of the Rose_ which was written by Jean de Meung, -and translated by Chaucer, occur many similar phrases depicting Love as -an _emotional paradox_: “Also a sweet hell it is, and a sorrowful -paradise;” “delight right full of heaviness, and drearihood full of -gladness;” “a heavy burden light to bear;” “wise madness,” “despairing -hope,” etc. Mr. Ruskin, who quotes the whole passage in his _Fors -Clavigera_, declares: “I know of no such lovely love-poem as his since -Dante.” - -As for Dante, he fully realised the “sweet pain” of Love, as he called -it. As far back as Plato’s _Timæus_ we find that love, as then -understood, was regarded as “a mixture of pleasure and pain.” - -“’Tis the pest of love,” sings Keats, “that fairest joys bring most -unrest.” Thackeray speaks of “the delights and tortures, the jealousy -and wakefulness, the longing and raptures, the frantic despair and -elation, attendant upon the passion of love.” But it is superfluous to -cite modern authors, for volumes might be filled with quotations -attesting that Love is neither a simple “lætitia,” as Spinoza defined -it, nor “a species of melancholy,” but a mixture of joy and sadness, of -rapture and woe. - -Shakspere’s “_violent sorrow seems a modern ecstasy_” might be adopted -as a general motto for a book on the psychology and history of Love. - -Love, it is true, is not the only passion characterised by such a -paradoxical mixture of moods. Thus in _Macbeth_ the sentence, “on the -torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy,” does not refer to Love; -and John Fletcher, too, sings in a general way— - - “There’s naught in this life sweet - If man were wise to see’t, - But only melancholy, - O sweetest Melancholy!” - -A German author, Oswald Zimmermann, has even written a volume of almost -two hundred pages, wherein he endeavours to analyse various emotions and -historic phenomena, in which pleasure and pain are intimately -associated. He has chapters on the Beautiful in Art and in Nature, on -Death, on Mysticism, on the ancient festivals of Dionysus and Aphrodite, -on the mediæval flagellants, on lust and cruelty, on various epochs of -modern literature, etc. His book bears the curious title _Die Wonne des -Leids_, because he holds that there is in these phenomena an “Ecstasy of -Woe,” distinct from pleasure and pain, pure and simple, and superior to -them. - -Hartmann, the pessimist philosopher, goes a step farther, and claims -that “there is _no_ pleasure which does not contain an element of grief; -and no pain without a tinge of pleasure.” This is obviously an -exaggeration; for what is the element of anguish that enters into the -feelings of a successful lover when he imprints the first kiss on the -lips of the girl who has just promised to be his wife? or what the -element of pleasure in the feelings of a jealous lover the moment he -hears that his rival has won the prize? - -Yet, if we except a pleasurable or painful climax, like these, -Hartmann’s maxim may be accepted as approximating the truth, especially -in the case of Love, which, more than any other passion, constantly -changes its moods, so that, from their close proximity, each one cannot -fail to rub off some of its colour on the others. Who but a lover can -experience in one brief second both the thrill of heavenly delight and -the sting of deadly anguish—“Himmelhoch jauchzend zum Tode betrübt,” as -Schiller puts it? A whole lifetime of emotion is crowded into the one -night preceding a lover’s proposal: hope and fear chasing one another -across his weary brain like a Witches’ Sabbath on the Brocken. - -One would imagine that the moment when an admirer calls on his girl, to -be fascinated by her smiles and graceful manners, and to be thrilled by -her melodious voice, must be one of unmixed delight and ecstasy. But if -the slightest doubt as to her feelings lurks in his mind, he is much -more apt to be harassed by a peculiar bitter-sweet feeling. Will he make -a good impression on her this time? he will ask himself; has she perhaps -changed, or found another more acceptable admirer, and is she going to -hint as much by her altered manner? These and a hundred other -apprehensions will torture and depress him; so that he will more than -probably lose that “easy manner and gay address” which are such mighty -weapons in winning a woman’s heart. - -Nor is the girl, on her part, free from the anguish of doubt. Though her -admirer seems to be truly devoted to her, she has read in the song that -“all men are not gay deceivers,” which somehow seems to imply logically -that most men _are_ gay deceivers. Perhaps, she will muse, he will only -worship me as long as I leave him in absolute doubt as to my feelings; -and subsequently, having gratified his vanity and secured my photograph, -he will place it in his album to show to all his friends as his latest -conquest, and then flit to another flower. - -After all, Schopenhauer was right in saying that when we have no great -sorrows the imagination invents small ones which torment us quite as -much as the others. When one sees the peculiar delight lovers take in -teasing and torturing each other, one feels tempted to believe with -Zimmermann that there _is_ “eine Lust am Schmerze”—that pain in itself -contains a gratification, an “ecstasy of woe,” distinct from positive -pleasure itself. - -Yet it is hardly necessary to take refuge in such an emotional paradox -in order to account for the value and luxury of Lovers’ Quarrels and all -the various mixed moods of Love. A sufficient explanation is afforded by -the principles of _Contrast_ and emotional _Persistence_. - -Owing to the fact that feeling seems to have a regular pulsation or -rhythm, our hours of anguish are always interrupted by intervals of hope -and happy retrospection—as in Chopin’s funeral march, where the gloomy -dirge is interrupted for a time by a delicious melody of happy -reminiscence, like a heavenly voice of consolation. When the nervous -tension has become too great the string breaks and the bow resumes its -straightness and elasticity. Hence it is that an uncertain lover -actually gloats over the anguish of doubt and jealousy: for he has an -instinctive fore-feeling that when the reaction of hope and confidence -will come, he will enjoy an ecstasy of the imagination of which an -always confident love has no conception. - -Uninterrupted enjoyment of lovers’ bliss would soon dull the edge of -pleasure, as an unbroken succession of sweet concords in music would -cloy the æsthetic sense. The introduction of discords raises a longing -for their resolution which, if gratified, restores to the concords their -original charm and freshness, and thus prolongs the pleasures of music. -A tourist after spending a month on the top of a Swiss mountain becomes -comparatively indifferent to the scene of which he knows every detail by -heart; but let his peak be hidden in dense clouds for a few days, and he -cannot fail, on emerging again into sunlight, to greet the view with the -same thrill of delight as on the day of his arrival. - -It is their constant and unexpected changes from joy to sadness, from -tears to smiles, that constitute the greatest charm of Heine and Chopin -and make them the lyric poet and musician _par excellence_ for lovers. -Either a gladsome rainbow suddenly appears to illumine their lurid -landscape; or, again, “their plenteous joys, wanton in fulness, seek to -hide themselves in drops of sorrow.” - -Even the famous - - “For ought that I could ever read, - Could ever hear by tale or history, - The course of true love never did run smooth”— - -what is it but another way of stating that that Love which has met with -no impediments, in which anguish and delight have not warmed one another -by mutual friction, has never broken out into a conflagration -sufficiently brilliant to be recorded “by tale or history” as a -remarkable specimen of “true love.” It is the plot-interest that -fascinates the reader as well as the lover himself; it is the -impediments and emotional conflicts, the _coyness of fate_, that -constitute the principal charm in a tale of love; and it would take a -very clever novelist to attract readers by an account of a courtship of -which the happy result was a foregone conclusion at every stage. - -Thus the magic effect of contrasted emotions suggests why pleasure -alternating with woe in Love is more intense than pleasure -uninterrupted. A mountaineer who has been wading through snowfields all -day up to his knees enjoys the comforts of his slippers, a bright fire, -and a cup of tea in the evening, twice as much as a man who has been all -day at home. - -On reflection, however, it seems as if Contrast, far from reducing -things to their first principles, itself needed an explanation. _Why_ is -it that by contrasting two emotions we heighten their colour? A partial -explanation was, indeed, suggested in speaking of discords: anguish -begets desire, and the more intense desire has been, the more lively is -its gratification. A more profound solution of the problem, however, is -found in the fact that feelings have their _echoes_, which continue -sometimes long after the original tone has ceased; and if meantime a new -tone is sounded, it blends with the echo and produces a mixed feeling. - -The sense of Temperature affords a simple illustration of this “echo.” -Place two basins before you, one filled with tepid, the other with -ice-cold, water. Put your right hand in the ice-water one minute, -leaving the left in your pocket. Then put both hands into the tepid -water. It will seem still tepid to the left, but quite warm to the right -hand. - -Some psychologists, however, deny that pleasures and pains ever coalesce -into one feeling—that there is such a thing as a mixed feeling. They -contend that the attention can be fixed on only one feeling at a time, -that the stronger crowds out the weaker, and that it is only their rapid -succession that makes two feelings appear simultaneous, just as a -firebrand swung around rapidly _seems_ to form a fiery circle. - -Now it is quite true that the _attention_ can be fixed on only one -feeling at any given moment, and that the stronger crowds out the weaker -so far as the attention is concerned: yet this does not prevent the -prevailing feeling from being affected by the echo of the one which -preceded it. If a man, buried in the labyrinths of a big hotel, is waked -up in the night by cries of fire; though it may prove a false alarm, yet -the effect of the fright will remain with him and cast a gloom over his -whole day’s doings, however pleasant in themselves. And a doubtful -lover’s enjoyment of his sweetheart’s sweetest smiles is often galled by -the remembrance that on the preceding day she smiled just as sweetly on -his odious rival. “For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done,” says -Shakspere. - -In his admirable _Dissertation on the Passions_, Hume cleverly makes use -of a musical analogy to explain how different emotions may be mixed: “If -we consider the human mind, we shall observe that, with regard to the -passions, it is not like a wind-instrument of music, which, in running -over all the notes, immediately loses the sound when the breath ceases; -but rather resembles a string-instrument, where, after each stroke, the -vibrations still retain some sound which gradually and insensibly -decays. The imagination is extremely quick and agile, but the passions -in comparison are slow and restive; for which reason, when any object is -presented which affords a variety of views to the one and emotions to -the other, though the fancy may change its views with great celerity, -each stroke will not produce a clear and distinct note of passion, but -the one passion will always be mixt and confounded with the other.” - -_Lunatic, Lover, and Poet._—A still better analogy of the manner in -which one feeling may be modified by another is furnished by the optical -phenomenon of after-images. If we gaze very steadily for half a minute -at a green wafer and then at a sheet of white paper, we see on it a -_purple_ image of the wafer; purple being the complementary colour of -green, _i.e._ the colour which, if mixed with green, produces white. The -reason of this phenomenon is that, after looking at the green wafer, the -nervous fibres in the eye which perceive that colour have become so -fatigued that the fainter green waves in the white paper fail to make -any perceptible impression on them; so that purple alone prevails for -the moment. So to the infatuated swain who has been tortured by the -green-eyed monster, Jealousy, the moment of remission, which would else -be one of neutral indifference, assumes the hue of rosy hope and -positive delight. Hours which to sober mortals would seem perfect blanks -are thus to him full of intense feeling, simply because they are -rebounds from a state of extreme tension in the opposite direction. He -might be likened to a schoolboy whose sleigh is carried across the -frozen river by its downward impetus and even ascends the hill on the -other side some distance before it stops. Hence, like the madman and the -man of genius, the amorous swain is always either down in a fit of -melancholy, or in an exalted ecstasy of joy, rapidly alternating and -weirdly intermingled— - - “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, - Are of imagination all compact.” - -Now poets are proverbially melancholy; and madmen, as Professor -Krafft-Ebing tells us, are also more commonly tortured by depressing -delusions than elated by pleasant ones. Hence, if the poet’s maxim, just -quoted, be true, we should expect the lover’s prevailing cast of mind to -be melancholy too; and so it is. Though he enjoys moments of delirious -rapture, to which sober mortals are utter strangers, yet his misgivings -are incessant, even when he is almost certain of success: and it takes -but little to poison his cup; for, as Professor Volkmann remarks, “one -drop of anguish suffices to gall a whole ocean of joy.” So the lover -becomes “pale and interesting,” loses weight and appetite, and sighs -away his soul. Were this emotional fermenting process allowed to last -too long, his health would suffer seriously: but fortunately it -ordinarily ceases in a year or so, yielding a wine which, though less -sparkling and ebullient, is more mellow and less intoxicating. Romantic -Love, in other words, is metamorphosed into conjugal affection which, -among other attributes of Love, strips off its characteristic trait of -melancholy, whereby it is easily distinguished from all other forms of -affection. Before, however, we can pass on to consider in detail the -differences between Romantic and Conjugal Love, the two remaining -ingredients of Romantic Love—Individual Preference and Personal -Beauty—must be briefly considered. - - - INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE - -It happens occasionally, in the Western regions of the United States, -that an Indian brave casts his eyes on a buxom pale-face girl and -desires her in marriage. He offers her parents two ponies for her; he -offers three, five, and even seven ponies; and when still refused he is -the most mystified man in the world: cannot understand how any man can -be so egregiously stupid or avaricious as to refuse his daughter for -_seven_ ponies! Ugh!! - -It is needless to recapitulate the numerous instances cited in preceding -pages, showing that throughout the world, until within a few centuries, -Romantic Love could not exist because the girl’s choice, on the one -hand, was utterly ignored, while the man, on the other, was equally -prevented, by the lack of opportunities for courtship, from basing his -choice on a real knowledge of the selected bride. The parents who did -the selecting, always for the bride, and sometimes even for the -bridegroom, were guided in their choice by money and rank and not by -Health and Beauty, which inspire Love and follow as its fruits. The -history of Love, till within three or four centuries ago, might, in -short, be summed up in six words: No Choice, no Love, no Beauty—except -in those rare cases where special hygienic advantages prevailed, or -where lucky chance brought together a youth and a maiden who in the -ordinary course of events would have fallen in Love with one another. - -There is reason to believe, however, that even if in the early ages of -the world the young had been allowed greater freedom in choosing a -lover, Romantic Love, in its more ardent phases, would not have -flourished to any great extent among primitive, ancient, and mediæval -nations: for the reason that Love depends on Individualisation, and our -remote ancestors were not so diversely individualised as we are. - -_Sexual Divergence._—Comparative ethnology, psychology, and biology show -that specialisation is a product of higher evolution, _i.e._ that -individual traits are developed in proportion as we proceed higher in -the scale of life, physical and intellectual. It is true there are no -two flowers in the fields, no two leaves in a forest, exactly alike in -every detail: but the differences are infinitesimal, and almost require -a microscope to see them. It is also true that the sheep in a flock, -which appear almost alike to a casual observer, are individually known -to the shepherd. _Possibly_ a sharp-sighted and patient naturalist might -live to distinguish himself by distinguishing the individuals in a swarm -of bees, or a caravan of ants: but this would be counted little short of -a miracle. - -Furthermore, ordinary observers find it almost as difficult to -distinguish individuals in a crowd of Chinese, Negroes, or Indians, as -in a bee-hive. Closer acquaintance does reveal differences: but they are -rarely so great as those between individuals in civilised communities. -And in these civilised communities themselves we find greater -differences, sexual differences pre-eminently, the higher we ascend. -Between a peasant and his wife the difference, both physical and mental, -is surely not half so great as that between a lawyer and his wife, a -physician or professor and his wife. “The lower the state of culture,” -says Professor Carl Vogt, “the more similar are the occupations of the -two sexes;” and similarity of occupation entails similarity of attitude, -expression, and mental habits. Mr. Higginson’s notion that civilisation -tends to make the sexes more and more alike is true only as regards -legal rights and social privileges; regarding their mental traits and -physical appearance exactly the reverse is true. The peasant’s wife may -have a tender heart for him and her children, but her domestic drudgery -and hard labour in the fields make her features, her voice, and manners -harsh and masculine. And who has not read a hundred times that the -Indian squaws look quite as stern, stolid, unemotional, and masculine as -their husbands? - -That the ancient Greeks, though they may have possessed it, had but -little regard for Individuality is shown especially in their sculpture, -and in the fact that with them even marriage was considered less a -private than a social matter. Lycurgus, Solon, and Plato agreed in -viewing marriage as “a matter in which the state had a right to -interfere;” and for the purpose of providing the state with legitimate -citizens, it was therefore regarded as obligatory. The absence of -emotional expression in Greek statues equally shows their indifference -to Individualisation and their ignorance of Love: for Love is inspired -not so much by regularity of features as by fascinating variety of -emotional expression. - -Thus the absence or disregard of individual traits among ancient nations -helps, like the absence of individual Choice, to account for the absence -of Romantic Love, the very essence of which—as distinguished from mere -sexual passion—is the insistance on individual traits and the mutual -adaptation of the lovers. - -What sublime—or ridiculous—extremes, this absorption in individual -traits reaches in Modern Love, no one need be told. Not only does the -lover consider his maiden’s frowns more beautiful than other maidens’ -smiles, but he longs to kiss the floor on which she has walked; and -every ribbon that has clasped her waist, every jewel that has touched -her ear or neck, becomes charged with a subtle and mysterious electric -current that would shock him with a thrill of recognition should his -fingers come in contact with them on a table, even in a dark room. - -_Making Women Masculine._—Nothing proves so irrefutably the hopelessness -of the task undertaken by a few “strong-minded” women—namely, to -equalise the sexes by making women more masculine—than the fact thus -revealed by anthropology and history: that the tendency of civilisation -has been to make men and women more and more unlike, physically and -emotionally. Whatever approximation there may have been has been -entirely on the part of the men, who have become less coarse or “manly,” -in the old acceptation of that term, and more femininely refined; while -women have endeavoured to maintain the old distance by a corresponding -increase of refinement on their part. Should the Woman’s Rights viragoes -ever succeed in establishing their social ideal, when women will share -all the men’s privileges, make stump speeches, and—of course—go back to -the harvest fields and to war with them—then good-bye, Romantic Love! -But there is no danger that these Amazons will ever carry their point. -They might as well try to convince women to wear beards; or men, -crinolines. - -Were any further proof needed that the sexes have been continually -diverging instead of converging, it would be found in the fact that the -young of both sexes are more alike than adults: in accordance with the -law that the individual goes through the same stages of development as -the race. And there are embryological facts which indicate even that -there is some truth in the Platonic myth that the sexes at first were -not separated; but that such separation took place probably for three -reasons: to secure a division of labour; to prevent the full hereditary -transmission of injurious qualities; and, thirdly, to secure the -benefits of cross-fertilisation,—a result which in the higher spheres of -human life is attained through Love, which is based on opposite or -complementary qualities, and scorns near relationship. - -_Love and Culture._—The dependence of Love on Individualisation, and the -dependence of Individualisation, in turn, on Culture, help us also to -explain an apparent difficulty regarding the non-existence of Love among -the lower classes in ancient Greece and elsewhere. For these classes -were not subjected to the same chaperonage as the higher circles: and it -might be inferred therefore that the possibility of free Choice must -have led to real love-matches. Perhaps it did in those rare cases where -culture had sent a rootlet down into a lower social stratum. But as a -rule one would have looked in vain among the lower classes—as one does -to-day, despite poetic fiction—for minds sufficiently refined to -comprehend and feel the highly-complex and idealised group of emotions -which constitute Romantic Love. Of course it would be absurd to include -in this statement people of refinement who through misfortune have been -plunged into abject poverty. They do not belong to the “Great -Unwashed”—ὁἱ πολλοί. - -When Stendhal asserts that in France Love exists only in the lower -classes, while Max Nordau states that in Germany it is to be found in -the higher classes only, they are probably both right—allowance being -made for rare exceptions. What Love _does_ exist in France—and it is -preciously scarce—cannot possibly prevail except among the working -people; and in Germany among the corresponding class it must be equally -scarce, whereas in the middle and higher classes, where chaperonage is -not nearly so strict and idiotic as in France, Cupid does contrive to -find an occasional target for his arrows. - - - PERSONAL BEAUTY - -Fanny Brawne having complained to Keats that he seemed to ignore all her -other qualities and have eyes for her beauty alone, Keats thus justified -himself: “Why may I not speak of your beauty, since without that I could -never have loved you? I cannot conceive any beginning of such love as I -have for you but beauty. There may be a sort of love for which, without -the least sneer at it, I have the highest respect, and can admire it in -others: but it has not the richness, the bloom, the full form, the -enchantment of love after my own heart.” - -Fanny Brawne is not the only girl who has thus complained to her lover -about his exclusive emphasising of her Personal Beauty. But all such -complaints are useless. In Modern Love the Admiration of Personal Beauty -is by far the strongest of all ingredients, and is becoming more so -every year: fortunately, for thereby Romantic Love is becoming more and -more idealised and converted into a pure æsthetic sentiment. Goldsmith, -indeed, laid stress on the virtue of choosing a wife on the same -principle that guided her in choosing a wedding-ring—for qualities that -will wear. But Personal Beauty _does_ wear, with proper hygienic care. - -_Feminine Beauty in Masculine Eyes._—In masculine Love, regard for -youthful feminine Beauty has always played a _rôle_ more or less -important. But the effects of this kind of sexual selection in the lower -races in increasing the amount of physical beauty in the world, have -been commonly neutralised by the crude æsthetic notions prevailing among -men as to what constituted feminine beauty. The weakness of the æsthetic -overtone in Love, moreover, has hitherto prevented it from competing -successfully with other marriage-motives. On the continent of Europe, to -this day, the ugliest girl with a dowry of a few thousands is sure to -find a husband and transmit her bodily and his mental ugliness to her -offspring; while girls who could transmit a considerable amount of -beauty, physical and mental, to their children, are left to fade away as -old maids, because they have no money. - -In this respect America sets a noble example to most parts of Europe. -Thousands of young Americans marry penniless beauties every year, -although they might have rich ugly girls for the asking. This is one of -the things Frenchmen and Germans cannot understand, and class as -“Americanisms.” And then they wonder why it is that there are so many -pretty girls in Canada and the United States. Another “Americanism,” -gentlemen. These pretty girls are the issue of Love-matches. Their -mothers were selected for their Beauty, not for money or rank. - -Not but that there are numerous exceptions to this golden rule of Love. -Were there not, ugly women would be scarcer than they are, even in -America. - -_Masculine Beauty in Feminine Eyes._—In woman’s Love the admiration of -Personal Beauty has played a much less significant _rôle_ than in man’s -Love. If, nevertheless, the average man in most countries is perhaps a -better specimen of masculine Beauty than the average woman of feminine -Beauty, this is owing to the facts that sons as well as daughters may -inherit their mother’s beauty, and that men, leading a more active and -athletic life, are more beautiful than women in proportion as they are -more healthy. - -In the past barbarous times the constant wars and the unsettled state of -social affairs made it important for women to select men not for their -beauty, but for their energy, courage, and manly prowess. Desdemona -falls in Love with the Moor despite his colour and ugliness; and why? -Othello himself tells us— - - “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, - And I loved her that she did pity them.” - -And it is on beholding Orlando vanquishing the Duke’s wrestler that -Rosalind falls in Love with him. As Celia remarks: “Young Orlando, that -tripped up the wrestler’s heels and your heart, both in an instant.” - -Women are conservative; and in the ludicrous feminine eagerness to make -immortal heroes of the ephemeral victors in a boat-race or baseball -match, we see an echo, in these peaceful days, of a feminine trait -imprinted on them in warlike times. - -Intellectual supereminence, in the meantime, was ignored by women. -Petrarch’s verses made no impression on Laura, and Dante could not even -win Beatrice with such poetic beauties as these lines— - - “Whatever her sweet eyes are turned upon, - Spirits of Love do issue thence in flame, - Which through their eyes who then may look on them - Pierce to the heart’s deep chamber every one. - And in her smile Love’s image you may see - Whence none can gaze upon her steadfastly.” - -There is, however, already a large class of superior women who have -discovered that brains have displaced muscle in the successful struggle -for existence, and that strong nerves are the true storage-batteries of -courage and vigour in modern life. Hence the homage paid to men of -genius. - -In regard to masculine Beauty a change likewise has come over the -feminine mind. Fashionable young ladies appear, indeed, to be as -exacting in the matter of what they consider Personal Beauty as their -beaux are. A barber’s pet is their pet, even as the fashionable man’s -ideal of femininity is a milliner’s model. There can be hardly any doubt -that this is an improvement on the taste of those savages who prefer -their women black, with thick lips, flat noses, and tattooed, or smeared -with a half-inch coat of paint. - -Says a writer in the _London Magazine_ (1823): “The pale poet, whose -works enchant us all, is nobody in the park: with his shrunk cheeks and -spindle legs, he sneaks along as little noticed as a fly; while a -thousand fond eyes are fixed on the gay and handsome apprentice there, -with just enough intellect to make the clothes which make him.” - -Serves the pale poet quite right. His genius does not give him any right -to neglect his health, or to allow the tailor’s apprentice to surpass -him in attention to his personal appearance. _Génie oblige._ And whether -geniuses or not, men should pay just as much attention to their dress -and personal attractiveness as women. - -A convincing illustration of my thesis that Personal Beauty is to-day a -more important factor in woman’s Love than formerly, is afforded by the -circumstance that formerly Love had the effect of making a man neglect -his beard, and hands, and clothes, and indulge in general slovenliness, -as we see in Rosalind’s summary of the symptoms of masculine Love, as -well as in various passages in Cervantes and other authors; whereas -to-day it is just the reverse, as noted under the head of Gallantry. It -is most amusing to watch a man smitten with sudden passion: how -carefully he adjusts his cravat, curls his moustache, brushes his hat -and boots, polishes his finger-nails, removes spots from his coat, -regards himself in the mirror, and—wishes he were a millionaire. - -So much for the general relations between Love and Beauty. It now -remains to consider in detail what peculiarities of personal appearance -are and have been specially favoured by Love. This involves an -æsthetico-anatomical analysis of every part of the human body from toe -to top. To this analysis almost one half of this work will be -devoted—showing the preponderating importance of Personal Beauty over -the other factors in Modern Love. But before proceeding to this pleasant -task it will be well, for the sake of continuity, to discuss the -remaining aspects of Modern Love: how it differs from conjugal -affection; how men of genius behave when in Love; what are the -peculiarities of the physical expression of Love in features and -actions; how Love maybe won and cured; and how the leading modern -nations differ in their amorous peculiarities. A consideration of -Schopenhauer’s theory of Love will then naturally lead us to the second -part of this treatise, in which Personal Beauty alone will form our -theme. - - - - - CONJUGAL AFFECTION AND ROMANTIC LOVE - - -Perhaps the main reason why no one has anticipated me in writing a book -showing that Love is an exclusively modern sentiment, and tracing its -gradual development, is because no distinction has been commonly made -between Romantic Love and Conjugal Affection, though they differ as -widely as maternal love and friendship. The occurrence of noble examples -of conjugal attachment as far back as Homer has obscured the fact that -pre-nuptial or Romantic Love is almost as modern as the telegraph, the -railway, and the electric light. - -Two thousand and four hundred years ago the Greek philosopher Empedokles -taught that there are four elements—fire, air, water, earth—which remain -unchanged amid all combinations. Chemistry has long since shown that -these supposed elements are compounds, and that the number of real -elements is much larger. - -In a similar way the tender or family emotions have been gradually -distinguished from one another. Among the ancient Greeks φιλότης meant -both friendship and sexual love, which, as we have seen, they strangely -confounded, both in theory and in practice. To-day we distinguish not -only between friendship and sexual love, but between the two phases of -sexual love—Romantic and Conjugal Affection—the former of which was -unknown to the Greeks. We do this not only because, as in the case of -the chemical elements, our knowledge has become more precise and subtle, -but because these emotions have been gradually developed, and have -assumed different characteristics, so that it would be difficult at -present to mistake one for the other. - -As regards the difference between Conjugal and Romantic Love, however, -the current conceptions are not yet so clear and definite; many good -folks being, in fact, inclined to frown upon the suggestion that there -is any such difference. Yet it is useless for them to endeavour, with -well-meant hypocrisy, to impress upon the young the notion that Love is -unchangeable, since no one who keeps his eyes open can help noticing how -differently married couples behave from lovers. In marriage the dazzling -blue flame of Romantic Love gradually grows smaller and dies away. But -the coals may retain their glow and perchance keep the heart warmer than -the former flickering flames of Love. - -There is, indeed, a great moral advantage to be gained by frankly -acknowledging that Love undergoes a metamorphosis in wedlock. It _breaks -the sting of cynicism_. For if we are told that “marriage is the sunset -of love,” or that “the only sure cure for love is marriage,” we may -calmly retort, “What of it?” When the romantic passion subsides, its -place is taken by another group of emotions, equally noble and conducive -to the welfare of society. It is not an annihilation of anything, but -simply a change: losing some pleasures, but gaining others in their -place; getting rid of some pains to be burdened with others. Love’s -metamorphosis into conjugal affection is like that of a wild rose into -its red berry. Though less fragrant and lovely than the rose, the berry -is almost as warm in colour, endures longer, and brings forth fresh -plants to adorn future seasons. - -Similes, however, are not arguments; and it behoves us therefore, for -the benefit of bachelors and old maids, and of married folks who never -were in love, to point out definitely wherein conjugal differs from -Romantic Love; which at the same time will explain why conjugal -affection was able to exist so many centuries before Romantic Love. - -In preceding pages a fragmentary attempt has been made to characterise -Love, and to show how its growth was impeded through the inferior social -and intellectual status of women and the absolute chaperonage of the -young. Maidens and youths had no opportunity to meet and become -acquainted. Barter, and considerations of rank and expediency, took the -place of affection, and parental authority that of individual choice. -There was no prolonged courtship, hence no jealousy of rivals, no female -coyness and coquetry, no alternating hopes and doubts, no monopoly of -mutual admiration, no ecstatic adoration, sympathetic sharing of lovers’ -joys and griefs, or pride of conquest and possession. - -Conjugal affection, on the other hand, was much less retarded in its -growth by such artificial arrangements, the outcome of strong man’s -brutal selfishness. Polygamy was the chief impediment; but as soon as -woman became sufficiently “emancipated” to claim a husband of her own, -the soil was ready for the growth of conjugal affection. In its early -stages this form of affection must have been much more crude and simple -than it is in modern society. In most instances it was probably little -more than a mere superficial attachment, growing out of the habit of -living together for some time; the husband being attached to his wife on -account of the domestic comforts and ease she provided for him, and the -wife to the husband very much as a dog is to his master, who, though -cruel, yet takes care of and feeds him. - -How crudely utilitarian the conjugal bond is among primitive men may be -inferred from Mr. Wallace’s remarks already quoted as to the motives -which guide the maidens of certain Amazon-valley tribes in choosing -their husbands. There is, he says, “a trial of skill at shooting with -the bow and arrow, and if the young man does not show himself a good -marksman, the girl refuses him, on the ground that he will not be able -to shoot fish and game enough for the family.” - -With the ancient “classical” nations there were, unless the poets have -strongly idealised their characters, examples of conjugal affection -hardly differing from the most refined modern instances. Owing to the -then prevalent contempt for the female mind, however, such cases cannot -be accepted as fair samples of the “general article”; and they only -allow us to infer that, as with Love and with genius, so with conjugal -affection, there were some early perfect instances anticipating by many -centuries the general course of emotional evolution. - -In the dark and warlike mediæval ages Conjugal Love, on the woman’s -side, was apparently little more, as a rule, than a sense of devotion to -her husband based on her need of protection against barbarous enemies; -and what it was on the husband’s side may be inferred from his stern and -often tyrannic rule in his own house, which was calculated to breed in -his wife and children fear but neither conjugal nor filial affection. - -In modern Conjugal Affection the elements are as diverse and as -variously intermingled as in Love, if not more so; and it would be as -difficult to find two cases of conjugal love exactly alike as two human -faces, or two leaves in a forest. One man cherishes his wife chiefly on -account of the home comfort she provides—the neat and tasteful domestic -interior, the well-cooked dinners, the economic attention to household -affairs, etc. Another man’s pride in his spouse is based on her -conversational skill, her diplomatic art of asserting her place among -the upper ten in society, and of adorning her drawing-rooms with the -presence of prominent people of the day. A third husband loves his wife -for her artistic accomplishments or her personal charms. Still another, -an author, is devoted to his spouse because she cleverly assists his -labours by criticism and suggestion, and still more because she takes -such a sympathetic interest in his creations, and _really_ thinks that -no one since Shakspere has written like her own dear Adolphus. - -These and a thousand like circumstances, with their attendant feelings, -enter into the highly complex group of emotions subsumed under the name -of Conjugal Love. Yet, since any one of these feelings may be absent -without extinguishing Conjugal Affection, they cannot be regarded as its -essentials or framework, but only as colouring material. - -Nor is that which is commonly regarded as the strongest of all cements -between husband and wife—the common love of their children—to be -accepted as the essence of conjugal love. For childless couples present -many of the most remarkable cases of devotion, while in many other cases -the children not only fail to rekindle the torch of love, but even -arouse jealousies and ill-feeling between their parents by showing a -special preference for one or the other. Nevertheless, though not -absolutely essential to conjugal love, the common parental feeling is -one of its most important and constant ingredients; and there is none of -its tributaries which adds more to the deep current of connubial bliss. -It enables the parents to enjoy once more the simple pleasures of life, -to which they had grown callous; it brings back the peculiarly delicious -memories of their own childhood and youth; enables the father to -discover his former sweetheart renewed in his daughter, and the mother -her former lover in her son; while their common pride in the beauty or -accomplishments of the children supplies them with a never-failing topic -of conversation and source of sympathy. - -And this suggests what must be regarded as the real kernel of conjugal -attachment—a perennial mutual sympathy regarding not only the affairs of -their children but every other domestic affair—in other words, a -complete and _necessary_ harmony of feelings and interests. The accent -rests on the word _necessary_; for it is this feeling of necessary -communion of interests that distinguishes conjugal affection from Love -and from friendship, in both of which there is a mutual sympathy, but -not so far-reaching and inevitable. A lover’s fame or disgrace may be -keenly felt by his sweetheart or his friend, yet society does not -associate them with the other’s reputation or disgrace; and if the -infamy is too great, they can easily sever their bond, without leaving a -spot on their own good name. Not so with husband and wife. His promotion -is her honour, and his fall her humiliation; for they are inseparably -associated in the public mind, and cannot be parted except through -divorce, which is equivalent to social suicide. Therefore theirs is “one -glory an’ one shame,” and their destiny to “share each other’s gladness -and weep each other’s tears.” - -To make this matrimonial harmony complete, it is necessary that there -should be a real sense of companionship, _i.e._ common tastes and topics -of conversation. “Unlikeness may attract,” says Mill, “but it is -likeness which retains; and in proportion to the likeness is the -suitability of the individuals to give each other a happy life.” The -opposite qualities by which lovers are often attracted are chiefly of a -physical nature. Where the mental differences are great—where he, for -instance, is fond of books and music, while she wishes his books and his -piano in Siberia; or she fond of parties, pictures, and theatres, and he -bored to death by them: in such cases genuine Romantic Love cannot -survive a few weeks of constant companionship, and hopes of nuptial -bliss must end in disappointment. - - - ROMANCE IN CONJUGAL LOVE - -Horwicz places the essence of Conjugal Love in the feeling of being -indissolubly united; and this agrees substantially with our conclusion -that it lies in a necessary mutual Sympathy concerning every affair of -vital interest. Now if this _obligato_ Sympathy is facilitated by a -communion of tastes, as just suggested, there is no reason why conjugal -life should not retain some of the other elements which constitute the -charm of Romantic Love. Novelists and dramatists will perhaps continue -to avoid wedded life as a theme because it lacks the plot-interest, the -uncertainty, and the consequent Mixed Moods of pre-nuptial Love. -Emotional Hyperbole, too, will rarely survive the honeymoon, for, as -Addison remarks, “When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she -quickly sinks into a woman.” Yet a woman, too, is not such a bad thing -after all, if you know how to manage her. Jealousy is a trait of -Romantic Love that is only too apt to survive in marriage. By a -judicious use of its sting a neglected wife can bring her husband back -to her feet. But it is a double-edged tool, dangerous to toy with. The -Pride of Conquest becomes changed into Pride of Possession or a vain -feeling of Proprietorship, which will continue so long as the husband or -the wife retains those self-sacrificing qualities which distinguished -them during Courtship—which, however, rarely happens. Where possession -is assured and sanctioned by law, Coyness is of course out of the -question; yet a clever woman can by a judicious adaptation of the arts -of Flirtation do much to keep alive the glowing coals of former romantic -passion. All she has to do is to devise some novel methods of -fascinating the husband, and then keep him at a distance till he resumes -the tricks of devoted Gallantry which had once made him such an -acceptable lover. - -It is the growing indifference to Gallantry, to the Desire to Please, -active and passive, that is responsible for the usual absence of romance -in conjugal life. And there seems to be a general ungallant consensus -among writers, masculine and feminine, that women are more responsible -for this state of affairs than men. “The reason,” says Swift, “why so -few marriages are happy, is because young ladies spend their time in -making nets, not in making cages.” Young ladies have, no doubt, greatly -improved since the days of Swift; but in the vast majority of cases -their device still is to learn a few superficial tricks of “culture,” -and to practise the art of personal adornment, until they have caught a -husband, and then to bid good-bye to all music, and art, and study, and -improvement of the mind, as well as to the “bother” of attending to -Personal Beauty while the husband _only_ is about. As if it were not a -thousand times more important to retain the husband’s romantic adoration -and Gallantry, originally based on that beauty, than to enjoy the -momentary admiration of a third person! - -On this topic the German poet Bodenstedt has some remarks which show -that, after all, the excessive Oriental Jealousy which forbids women to -appear unveiled in public rests on a basis of common sense:— - -“Just as it is possible to trace most absurdities to an originally quite -reasonable idea, so not a few things may be said in favour of the -Oriental custom which allows women to adorn themselves only for their -husband, and to unveil their face only before him, while outside of the -house it is their duty to appear veiled and in as unattractive a costume -as possible. With us, it is well known, the opposite is true: at home -the women devote little attention to their toilet, and only adorn -themselves when they have company or go out visiting; in one word, they -display their charms and their finery more to please others than their -own husband,” etc. - -Surely no one wishes our women to reserve their charms exclusively for -their husbands. On the contrary, such a proceeding would be considered -quite as unreasonable and selfish as to lock up a Titian or a Murillo in -a room accessible to a single person only; but certainly the husband -should not be entirely overlooked in his wife’s Desire to Please by her -Personal Beauty. His Pride on seeing others admire her does not alone -suffice to prolong his romantic adoration. Don’t be too sure, Amanda, -that your husband is yours because you are married. He is yours in Law, -but not in Love, unless you preserve your personal charms in his -presence. - -The fact that, whereas in Romantic Love men are superior to women; in -conjugal life, on the other hand, woman’s love is commonly much deeper -and more lasting than man’s, indicates in itself that marriages are made -or marred by women. (For the sake of the lovely alliteration some -writers would have said—against their conscience—that “marriages are -made or marred by men;” but alliteration will have to be ignored in this -place in favour of facts.) Before marriage, women are more beautiful and -fascinating than men, wherefore men love them more ardently than _they_ -love the men. After marriage, it is the men who grow more beautiful, -more manly, in body as well as in mind; hence it is but natural that -their wives should love them more and more. So would wives be loved more -and more if they did not so soon after thirty lose their physical -charms, without trying, by reading books or at least the newspapers, to -make themselves intellectual companions of their husbands, able to -converse interestingly on various topics. - -The old excuse that motherhood inevitably lessens woman’s charms is all -nonsense. Married women at thirty are almost always handsomer than old -maids of thirty. Women grow stout and clumsy, or thin and faded so soon, -not because they are mothers, but because they are indifferent to the -laws of health; because they refuse to go out to get fresh air and -exercise, which would preserve the freshness of their complexion, the -graceful contours of their bodies, and the elasticity of their gait. The -morbid fondness for a hot-house atmosphere, and the horror of fresh air, -draughts, and vigorous exercise, have done more to shorten man’s Love -and woman’s Beauty than all other causes combined. _The road to lasting -Love is paved with lasting Beauty._ - -Inasmuch as Conjugal Affection was not—as might be naturally -supposed—historically developed from Romantic Love, since it existed -long before Romantic Love, the peculiarities of this later passion are -not normally present in Conjugal Love. To what extent, however, they can -be smuggled in, has just been shown; and it is one of the great social -tasks of the future to make Conjugal and Romantic Love as much alike as -possible: not by making the poetry of romance more prosaic, but by -making the prose of conjugal life more poetic. But so long as Romantic -Love is discouraged, Conjugal Affection, too, will of course be unable -to borrow its unique charms. Hence an additional reason for facilitating -the opportunities for Courtship and prolonging its duration. - - - MARRIAGES OF REASON OR LOVE-MATCHES? - -The number of parents who believe that their infallible wisdom is a -better guide matrimonial than their daughters’ choice inspired by Love, -is still so large that it is worth while to add a few words in the hope -of removing this obstacle to the universal rule of Cupid. Let Mrs. -Lynn-Linton be their spokeswoman. “If it seems a horrible thing,” she -says, in _The Girl of the Period_, “to marry a young girl without her -consent, or without any more knowledge of the man with whom she is to -pass her life than can be got by seeing him once or twice in formal -family conclave, it seems quite as bad to let our women roam about the -world at the age when their instincts are strongest and their reason -weakest—open to the flatteries of fools and fops—the prey of professed -lady-killers—objects of loverlike attentions by men who mean absolutely -nothing but the amusement of making love—the subjects for erotic -anatomists to study at their pleasure. Who among our girls after twenty -carries an absolutely untouched heart to the man she marries?” - -No doubt there is force in these remarks: but they do not apply to the -Girl of the Period. They apply only to the girl brought up on the old -system of being left in complete ignorance regarding man and his wicked -ways of heartless and meaningless flattery. But modern girls are not -such fools as some people would think them. _Tell them_ that men are -only amusing themselves; a hint will suffice: and the man who imagines -himself a “lady-killer” will suddenly find himself a victim of -counter-flirtation and a butt of feminine sarcasm. - -Tell girls, furthermore, not that every man loves his wife, but that -many hate and maltreat their unfortunate spouse. This will make them -cautious. Tell them that Love is not an absolute but a _tentative_ -passion, and that they must not yield to the first apparent symptoms and -throw their hearts away frivolously. Tell them, above all, that men who -are extremely gallant and complimentary, _without being in the least -embarrassed_, are always insincere and sometimes dangerous: because a -man who is truly in Love is always embarrassed. Tell them a few more -such pessimistic truths about men, instead of allowing them to perish -through optimistic ignorance, and the objections against free choice -urged by Mrs. Lynn-Linton will vanish like vapour in sunlight. English -and American girls are quite able to take care of themselves, because -they are allowed to read all sorts of books, and therefore to know the -world as it is. And if any one says that such knowledge has rendered -English and American girls less delicate, less sweet and pure, than -French and German hothouse buds, he utters an unmitigated falsehood. - -Advocates of so-called “wisdom” marriages are fond of pointing out cases -of unhappy married life, based originally on free Choice. But free -Choice by no means always implies Love. Its motives are often pecuniary, -or social; and in these cases the marriage actually comes under the head -of “wisdom marriages,” whose champions are thus boxing their own ears. -Besides, we must remember Byron’s words, that “many a man thinks he -marries by choice who only marries by accident.” If a man marries his -Rosaline before he has met his Juliet, he has only himself or his bad -luck to blame, not Love. - -The frequency with which runaway “love-matches” end unhappily, is -adduced as another argument in favour of wisdom marriages. Two things -are here forgotten: that in nineteen runaway matches out of twenty, the -predominant passion is frivolity, not Love; and that quite a -considerable proportion of unions not preceded by an elopement end -unhappily; but being less romantic they are not so much talked about. - -“Wisdom” marriages based on parental choice are those which have -prevailed in the past: and we have seen how beautifully they coincided -with woman’s degradation, ignorance, and social debasement. - -Wisdom marriages are incompatible with Courtship, which becomes a -superfluous preliminary to marriage. Modern methods of Courtship and -engagement ordinarily prolong this period to about a year or two. This -is the honeymoon, not of marriage, but of life itself, the time when -earth is a paradise. During these two years the soul makes more progress -in refinement, maturity, and insight than during any other _decade_ of -life. Shall all this happiness, all this refining influence, be thrown -away with Love? - -Compatibility of temper is the most important of all prerequisites to a -happy marriage. Should Love be allowed to find out during Courtship if -there is such a compatibility, before it is too late, or shall the -inadequate judgment of parents unite two souls with as much mutual -affinity as oil and water? - -Self-sacrifice for their children is considered the noblest of parental -traits. Were Schopenhauer right in claiming that in Love-matches the -parents sacrifice their individual happiness to the wellbeing of their -children—would not this be an additional motive for abhorring wisdom -marriages, in which the interests of the parents alone are consulted? - - - MARRIAGE HINTS - -It would be foolish to deny, on the other hand, that Reason should be -consulted as much as possible as long as Love allows it to have the -floor for a moment. Thus men might, before it is too late, have an eye -to Benjamin Franklin’s advice in regard to large families and the age of -marriage. - -Mr. F. W. Holland of Boston has collected some statistics concerning -which Mr. Galton says, “One of his conclusions was that morality is more -often found among members of large families than among those of small -ones. It is reasonable to expect this would be the case, owing to the -internal discipline among members of large families, and to the -wholesome sustaining and restraining effects of family pride and family -criticism. Members of small families are apt to be selfish, and when the -smallness of the family is due to the deaths of many of its members at -early ages, it is some evidence either of weakness of the family -constitution, or of deficiency of common sense or of affection on the -part of the parents in not taking better care of them. Mr. Holland -quotes in his letter to me a piece of advice by Franklin to a young man -in search of a wife, ‘to take one out of a bunch of sisters,’ and a -popular saying that kittens brought up with others make the best pets, -because they have learned to play without scratching. Sir W. Gull has -remarked that those candidates for the Indian Civil Service who are -members of large families are on the whole the strongest.” - -A second bit of advice given by Franklin is perhaps less unquestionable: -“From the marriages that have fallen under my observation,” he says, "I -am rather inclined to think that early ones stand the best chances of -happiness. The temper and habits of the young are not become so stiff -and uncomplying as when more advanced in life: they form more easily to -each other, and hence many occasions of disgust are removed.... ‘Late -children,’ says the Spanish proverb, ‘are early orphans.’ With us in -America (1768) marriages are generally in the morning of life; our -children are therefore educated and settled in the world by noon; and -thus, our business being done, we have an afternoon and evening of -cheerful leisure to ourselves.... By these early marriages we are -blessed with more children; and from the mode among us founded by -nature, every mother suckling and nursing her own child [1768], more of -them are raised. Thence the swift progress of population among us, -unparalleled in Europe." - -“Marriages,” says Theodore Parker, “are best of dissimilar materials;” -and Coleridge remarks, similarly: “You may depend upon it that a slight -contrast of character is very material to happiness in marriage.” But -would it be possible to find two individuals who did not present “a -slight contrast of character”? Coleridge apparently did not think much -of the average conjugal union of his day: “To the many of both sexes I -am well aware,” he says, “this Eden of matrimony is but a -kitchen-garden, a thing of profit and convenience, in an even -temperature between indifference and liking.” What a married person -wants is “a soul-mate as well as a house or yoke-mate.” - -Young men are often warned not to marry for beauty, because it is but -skin-deep. But surely a millimetre of beauty is worth more than a yard -of ugliness, though whitewashed with rank, money, or general utility. “A -thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” - - - - - OLD MAIDS - - -One way in which Romantic Love fulfils its mission of increasing the -amount of Personal Beauty in the world, is by _eliminating ugly and -masculine women as Old Maids_, and thus preventing them from -transmitting their characteristics to the next generation. Were it not -for the fact that the average man is quite devoid of æsthetic taste and -incapable of ardent Romantic Love, and that therefore considerations of -wealth and social advantages guide him in his choice of a wife, _ugly_ -women would rarely be found outside the ranks of Old Maids. As it is, it -happens only too often that dowerless beautiful women are condemned to -live and die in single blessedness, while the ugly people fill the world -with photographic copies of themselves. - -Why is it that every refined man feels an instinctive aversion to -_masculine_ women? Because a masculine woman is an exception to the laws -of nature, a _lusus naturæ_, a monstrosity. We find even among the lower -animals that the females differ widely, as a rule, in traits and -appearance from the males—sometimes so much so that there are instances -on record of females and males having been for a time supposed to belong -to different species; and the differences grow greater the more the -sexual functions are developed and specialised. Yet Amazons occur even -among animals. “Characters common to the male,” says Darwin, “are -occasionally developed in the female _when she grows old or becomes -diseased_, as, for instance, when the common hen assumes the flowing -tail-feathers, hackles, combs, spurs, voice, and even _pugnacity_ of the -cock.” - -Among the warlike Greeks, who knew only masculine or mono-sexual love, -Amazons were naturally esteemed, as they did not clash with their -feminine ideal. “How popular a subject the Amazons were for sculptors,” -says Grote, “we learn from the statement of Pliny that the most -distinguished sculptors executed Amazons, and that this subject was the -only one upon which a direct comparison could be made between them.” But -the progress of time, as we have seen, has more and more differentiated -men and women, in appearance and traits of character; and the modern -ideal of woman is exclusively feminine, _i.e._ devoid of hackles, spurs, -cock-a-doodle-doo, and pugnacity. Hence the political Virago movement is -an evil which will never make any progress, thanks to the constant -elimination of masculine women through that adorable process of Sexual -Selection known as Modern Love. - -Masculine women are always condemned to bury their unwomanly -proclivities with their spinster-selves, unless they are very rich, or -unless they can find a correspondingly effeminate man who wishes to -neutralise his abnormalities in his children by marrying a spouse whose -faults are an excess in the opposite direction. In such a case a virago -may possibly even inspire Romantic Love, _mirabile dictu!_ - -An ugly woman, on the other hand, need never despair of finding a -husband; she has at least eight chances of getting married. In the first -place, she may, like a masculine woman, inspire true Love in a man whose -faults are the opposite of hers; secondly, she may fall in love with a -man of faultless proportions, and while in Love her features will be so -transfigured and beautified that he cannot help returning her Love; -thirdly, she may meet a man who, from want of æsthetic taste, prefers a -chromo to a Titian; or a fourth, who would rather marry an amiable and -useful ugly girl than a spoiled beauty. Wealth and social position -supply two more resources. Accident may favour her, through the absence -of prettier rivals, giving no opportunities for odious comparisons; and, -finally, she may meet an elderly bachelor who has wearied of his single -blessedness and longs for double strife. - -As for those Old Maids who are neither ugly nor masculine, some of them -are quondam coquettes who practised their arts just one season too long -and “got left” in consequence; others are girls whom silly methods of -chaperonage or ill-luck have prevented from making the acquaintance of -men whom they could have respected and loved; so that it is often the -most refined and intelligent women who are thus doomed to remain single -because they are unwilling to marry beneath their station, socially or -intellectually. They form that class of whom De Quincey says, that they -“combine more intelligence, cultivation, and thoughtfulness than any -other in Europe—the class of unmarried women above twenty-five—an -increasing class, women who, from mere dignity of character, have -renounced all prospects of conjugal and parental life rather than -descend into habits unsuitable to their birth.” - -Women who are too ugly to inspire Love may nevertheless feel proud of -being a class of Vestal Virgins who serve the cause of Love by -abstaining from adding to the number of unattractive people in the world -by hereditary transmission. On the other hand, Old Maids who are blessed -with beauty, owe it to the cause of Love to make every effort, -consistent with feminine modesty, to get married. Not only because their -children will be beautiful, but because a woman who never marries can -never experience the two emotions which do more than any others to -ennoble and mature the feminine mind—conjugal and maternal love. - -Those Old Maids, however, who have not yet passed their thirtieth year, -may even claim that they represent the most perfect and advanced type of -maidenhood, and look down on girls who marry before twenty-five as -little better than savages. For it is well known that the age of -marriage advances with civilisation. Among Australians and other savages -girls marry at eleven, ten, or even nine years; among semi-civilised -Egyptians, Hindoos, etc., the age is from twelve to fourteen; southern -European peoples marry their girls between the ages of fifteen and -eighteen; while with those nations who lead modern civilisation, the -average age of marriage for a woman is now twenty-one, with a tendency -to rise. Does it not follow from this, by inexorable logic, that girls -who remain single at twenty-five or twenty-nine are forerunners of a -still higher type of civilisation? and that the only trouble with them -is that they are so far in advance of their age and civilisation? True, -ungrateful man does not look upon them in that light; but herein they -share the fate of all true greatness. There is one difference, however, -between undervalued men of genius and Old Maids: the men of genius admit -they are in advance of their age, and are proud of it; the Old Maids -never, at least, hardly ever. - -In one of his most fascinating essays on _The Main Currents of Modern -Literature_, the Danish critic, Dr. Georg Brandes, discusses the proper -age of feminine Love in a manner which Old Maids will especially -appreciate. He points out that Eleonore, the heroine of Benjamin -Constant’s novel _Adolphe_, is the first specimen of a modern type -subsequently made fashionable by Balzac and George Sand, namely, _the -woman of thirty in Love_. Formerly, as Jules Janin remarks, the woman -between thirty and forty years of age was lost for passion, for romance, -and the drama; now she rules alone. The girl of sixteen, as adored by -Racine, Shakspere, Molière, Voltaire, Ariosto, Byron, Lesage, Scott, is -no more to be found. And Mme. Emile de Girardin thus attempts to defend -Balzac: “Is it Balzac’s fault that the age of thirty to-day is the age -of love? Balzac is compelled to depict passion where he finds it, and at -this day it is not to be found in the heart of a girl of sixteen.” - -So far as these remarks are true they afford a new confirmation of my -assertions that true Romantic Love is dependent on a certain amount of -intellectual power and maturity, and that in consequence man loves more -deeply than woman at the age preceding marriage. In England and America -novelists still persist in making women love at any age from eighteen, -and they have a right to do so, because in these two countries women are -well enough educated and experienced in life at eighteen to be able to -love. In France girls receive such a superficial education that they are -ordinarily quite impervious to any deep emotions before they are either -Old Maids or married. But in most cases they are married before twenty -without regard to their own wishes. And then happens what is indicated -in Fuller’s aphorism: “It is to be feared that they who marry where they -do not love, will love where they do not marry.” And hence it is that -the only love depicted by French novelists and playwrights is the -adulterous love of a faithless wife. Could anything more vividly -illustrate the criminal absurdities of French education and the French -system of chaperonage? - -In France a girl is not even allowed to cross the street alone until she -is willing to assume the name and with it the comparative freedom of an -Old Maid. In Spain, the author of _Cosas de España_ tells us, Old Maids -are rare because a girl generally accepts her first offer; and there are -probably not many girls who do not receive at least one offer in their -life—masculine women always excepted. In Russia, where women, according -to Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, enjoy almost as much liberty as in America, a -curious custom prevails by which a girl of uncertain age may escape the -appellation of Old Maid. She may leave home and become lost for two or -three years in Paris, London, or some other howling wilderness of -humanity. Then she may return to her friends neither as maid nor wife, -but as a widow. And it is “good form” in Russian society to accept this -myth without asking for details. - -Finally the important question remains: “What is an Old Maid?” That -depends very much on individuals and the care they take of their Health -and Beauty. Some women are Old Maids at twenty, the majority at thirty, -and some not before forty; while those girls who will read the chapters -on Personal Beauty in the last part of this treatise, and follow all the -advice there given, will never become Old Maids at all, but will be -gobbled up before twenty-three by eager bachelors previously considered -hopeless cases of celibacy. - -Even if it were possible to name a definite age as that when a girl -begins to be an Old Maid, it would be a bit of useless information, -because nobody ever knows how old a woman is. Often it is easier to tell -a woman’s age by her conversation than by her looks: some incipient Old -Maids constantly hint at their former numerous flirtations, which they -never did while they really had them. - - - - - BACHELORS - - - “Pirates of Love who know no duty.” - -Of all the brutes enumerated in the human branch of zoology the -deliberate bachelor is the most unreasonable and selfish. Unreasonable, -because he voluntarily deprives himself of connubial bliss, domestic -comforts, and the prospect of being cheered and cared for in his old age -by a family of loving children. Selfish, because at present the -bread-winning arrangements are almost entirely framed for man’s -convenience alone, wherefore it is his duty to support a wife. - -Masculine selfishness, however, is not exclusively responsible for the -rapid increase of bachelordom. The women themselves are largely at -fault—in two ways. The modern tendency of concentrating population in -large cities makes domestic life a much more expensive affair than it is -in smaller towns or in rural districts; and at the same time women are -gradually invading every sphere of masculine employment, thus reducing -wages by competition and making it more and more difficult for a man to -earn an income which allows him to marry. This aspect of the question, -once before alluded to, is one which the advocates of Woman’s Rights are -too apt to ignore. For the benefit of poor young girls, and widows, and -old maids, it is, indeed, but just that various employments adapted to -female hands should be thrown open to them and properly remunerated; but -if the effect of this is simply and constantly to _increase_ the number -of single poor women, by making marriage impossible, what is gained by -the change? A certain amount of misery is inevitable in the world; and -it seems better that it should be distributed where it will not imperil -the popularity and possibility of marriage. - -After all, self-supporting women must always be the exception, not the -rule; for it is the destiny of the vast majority of women to be wives; -and regarding these even Mr. Mill admits “it is not ... a desirable -custom that the wife should contribute by her labour to the income of -the family.” Now surely it would be most absurd, as some “strong-minded” -women are trying to do, to arrange the educational scheme of all women -so as to benefit the exceptional women who are excluded from matrimony. -A thousand times more important is it to change woman’s education so as -to enable her to look after her household affairs. It is by neglecting -to do this that women supply the second cause for the increasing -prevalence of Bachelors. Every man is expected to learn his trade -properly before marriage; but woman’s proper occupation—the art of -taking care of home and making it a paradise, is commonly supposed to be -a thing that can be learned easily enough after marriage. Even when a -woman is so wealthy that she is not obliged to do any housework at all, -she should, like a ship’s captain, learn all about the duties of -subordinates, else she will be unable to command them properly. A -captain who displayed ignorance on any point before his sailors would -lose their respect and attitude of prompt obedience; and it has been -suggested that one reason why American women, especially, have so much -trouble with their servants, is because they know so little about -domestic economy that the servants, ignorant as they are, become -arrogant because of their superior knowledge. - -On the subject of woman’s sphere, Herbert Spencer has written words -which should be hung in golden letters in every schoolroom: “When we -remember that up from the lowest savagery civilisation has, among other -results, brought about an increasing exemption of women from -bread-winning labour, and in the highest societies they have become most -restricted to domestic duties and the rearing of children; we may be -struck by the anomaly that at the present time restriction to indoor -occupations has come to be regarded as a grievance, and a claim is made -to free competition with men in all outdoor occupations.... Any -extensive change in the education of women, made with the view of -fitting them for business and professions, would be mischievous. _If -women comprehended all that is contained in the domestic sphere, they -would ask no other._ If they could see all that is implied in the right -education of children, to a full conception of which no man has yet -risen, much less any woman, they would seek no higher function” -(_Principles of Sociology_, vol. i. § 340). - -When every woman has learned how to cultivate flowers and vegetables in -her domestic garden at the same time, the millennium will have arrived, -and the word Bachelor be found only in Dictionaries of Antiquities. - -Women are sometimes held responsible in still another way for the -continuance of Bachelors in single boredom, viz. by refusing their Love -and breaking their hearts. But surely, as the shepherdess in _Don -Quixote_ has so eloquently shown, it does not at all follow that if a -man falls in Love with a woman, she must necessarily fall in Love with -him; and if she does _not_ love him, it is her _duty_ not to marry him. - -Besides, a broken heart is a very rare article in this world, and every -nation has discovered a peculiar local remedy for it: the Spaniards by -stabbing the girl who broke it; the Italians by annihilating the rival; -the Germans by soaking the fragments in Rhine wine; the Englishmen by a -change of air; and ultimately they all follow the example of the -Frenchman who, on the day following the catastrophe, casts his eyes -about for a new charmer; or, if they do not, but like a snail withdraw -into their shell for the rest of their life, abusing all women as -heartless, they are bigger fools than they look. What would you say of a -fisherman who went out for a day’s sport and returned after an hour -because the first trout that nibbled at the bait escaped? - -It is the happy privilege of every Bachelor to have loved fully and -deeply once in his life; but if his passion is not appreciated, it is -his duty to try again; for, even as a stolen kiss is not a real kiss -because it lacks the thrill of mutuality, so Love is not Love - - “Till heart with heart in concord beats, - And the lover is beloved.”—WORDSWORTH. - -True, La Rochefoucauld says that “The pleasure of love is in loving;” -and Shelley echoes the same sentiment in his _Prometheus_— - - “All love is sweet, - Given or returned.... - They who inspire it most are fortunate - As I am now; but those who feel it most, are happier still.” - -Yet neither the English poet nor the French essayist appears to have -fathomed the full depth of the problem. It is as incorrect to say, “the -pleasure of love is in loving,” as to say, the pleasure of Love is in -being loved. To be loved by one I do not love is a matter of complete -indifference, except so far as my Pride or Pity may be involved. To love -where I am not loved, or am left in uncertainty, is more of anguish than -of delight. To attain the highest ecstacy of Love I must both be in Love -and able to say at the same time, “she loves me.” Reciprocity is not -only “that which alone gives stability to love,” as Coleridge remarks, -but that without which consummate Love is impossible. - -Apparent exceptions occur only when the illusion of being loved is so -vividly kept up by the imagination as to counterfeit reality; as in the -case of Eleonore, who “became so intoxicated with her Love that she saw -it double and mistook her own feeling for that of both” (Dr. Brandes). - -Therefore a Bachelor who has been unsuccessful in his first or second -Love has never enjoyed the highest bliss a human soul can attain, and is -bound to try again. Nor need he ever despair. There are a thousand -Juliets in the world for every man, and all he needs is the good luck to -_meet_ the one adapted to him: for she is his as soon as found; though -she may at first have the “cunning to be strange.” - - - - - GENIUS AND MARRIAGE - - -Though it is man’s duty and destiny to get married, yet the concurrent -testimony of several famous authors appears to indicate that there is -one thing which excuses celibacy, and may even make it a virtue—and that -thing is the possession of Genius. Bacon claims that “certainly the best -works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the -unmarried or childless men.” A more modern philosopher, Schopenhauer, -expresses himself to the same effect: “For men of higher intellectual -avocation, for poets, philosophers, for all those, in general, who -devote themselves to science and art, celibacy is preferable to married -life, because the conjugal yoke prevents them from creating great -works.” - -The same counsel is indirectly given in Moore’s _Life of Byron_, where -he argues that “In looking back through the lives of the most -illustrious poets—the class of intellect in which the characteristic -features of genius are, perhaps, most strongly marked—we shall find that -with scarcely one exception, from Homer down to Lord Byron, they have -been, in their several degrees, restless and solitary spirits, with -minds wrapped up, like silkworms, in their own tasks, either strangers -or rebels to domestic ties, and bearing about with them a deposit for -posterity in their souls, to the jealous watching and enriching of which -almost all other thoughts and considerations have been sacrificed.” - -“Either strangers or rebels to domestic ties.” Among the strangers, -Moore names Newton, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, Bayle, Locke, -Leibnitz, and Hume, to whom may be added Kant, Schopenhauer, Handel, -Beethoven, Schubert, Plato, and many others. - -Quite as large is the list of “rebels to domestic ties” among men of -poetic genius. Says Moore: “The coincidence is no less striking than -saddening that, on the list of married poets who have been unhappy in -their homes, there should already be found four such illustrious names -as Dante, Milton, Shakspere, and Dryden.” “The poet Dante, a wanderer -away from wife and children, passed the whole of a restless life in -nursing his immortal dream of Beatrice.” “The dates of the birth of his -[Shakspere’s] children, compared with that of his removal from -Stratford, the total omission of his wife’s name in the first draft of -his will, and the bitter sarcasm of the bequest by which he remembers -her afterwards—all prove beyond a doubt his separation from the lady -early in life, and his unfriendly feeling towards her at the close.” -“Milton’s first wife, it is well known, ran away from him within a month -after their marriage, ‘disgusted,’ says Phillips, ‘with his spare diet -and hard study,’ and his later domestic misery is universally known.” -“The poet Young, with all his parade of domestic sorrows, was, it -appears, a neglectful husband and a harsh father.” - -Sir Walter Scott remarks, in his _Life of Dryden_: “The wife of one who -is to gain his livelihood by poetry, or by any labour (if any there be) -equally exhausting, must either have taste enough to relish her -husband’s performances, or good-nature sufficiently to pardon his -infirmities. It was Dryden’s misfortune that Lady Elizabeth had neither -the one nor the other; and I dismiss the disagreeable subject by -observing, that on no one occasion when a sarcasm against matrimony -could be introduced, has our author failed to season it with such -bitterness, as spoke of an inward consciousness of domestic misery.” - -Richard Wagner when a young man married an actress, “pretty as a -picture”; but she appears to have had little sympathy with his -ambitions, so he lived apart from her. Subsequently he was very happy -with Cosima, the daughter of Liszt, who _did_ appreciate his genius. -Liszt himself, after living some years with the Countess D’Agoult in -Italy, separated from her. The girl whom Haydn married soon turned out a -shrew, who had no sympathy whatever with his musical genius. Berlioz was -one of the most passionate of lovers: “Oh, that I could find her, the -Juliet, the Ophelia that my heart calls to. That I could drink in the -intoxication of that mingled joy and sadness that only true love knows! -Could I but rest in her arms one autumn evening, rocked by the north -wind on some wild heath, and sleeping my last, sad sleep.” A few years -after these rapturous effusions he arranged a _séparation à l’aimable_ -from his wife, his former flame, and left her to die in solitude and -misery. - -Handel, after all, was the wisest of the composers. He was never in -Love, and had an aversion to marriage. In 1707 he went to Lübeck to -compete for the place of successor to the famous organist Buxtehude; but -when he found that one of the conditions of obtaining the place was the -compulsory privilege of marrying the daughter of his predecessor, he got -alarmed and fled precipitately. - -Besides the disposition to wrap up their minds, like silkworms, in their -own tasks, Poverty and the extreme difficulty of finding congenial -companions appear to be the principal causes that have tended to make -men of genius strangers or rebels to domestic ties. - -There is an old saying that if Poverty comes in by one window, Love goes -out by another. But Poverty, unfortunately, seems to be an almost -necessary companion of Genius, at least in the early stages of its -career, till the inertia natural to the human brain has been overcome. -It is so much easier for the richest soils to grow a luxuriant crop of -weeds than a useful crop which needs constant care, that there can be no -doubt that wealth is responsible for the loss of much Genius to the -world. There have been men of genius in whom the creative impulse was so -strong, and the pleasure of creating so sweet—Goethe, Schopenhauer, -Byron, etc.—that they needed not the goad of hunger; but as a rule a -well-filled pocketbook does not encourage the habit of “infinite -painstaking,” which is essential to Genius. But if a genius marries -while he is poor, he will have to waste his time on rapid, ephemeral -work to support his family; which will leave him neither leisure nor -energy for work of enduring value. Hence he should either not marry at -all or wait till he has an assured income. If money-marriages are ever -justifiable, they are in such cases; and rich girls should make it the -one object of life to capture a man of Genius, so as to give him leisure -for immortal work. It appears, indeed, as if a sort of Conjugal Pride of -this description were becoming fashionable; for one hears every month of -some author or artist marrying an heiress. This is certainly the easiest -way for a woman to become immortal; and what is a coquette’s gratified -ephemeral vanity, compared with the proud consciousness of passing down -to posterity linked with an immortal name, and of having helped to make -that name immortal by removing the necessity for bread-winning drudgery! - -Furthermore, there can be no doubt that the number of persons able to -read a work of genius _at sight_, as it were, is growing larger every -year. Great men do not have to wait for recognition so long as formerly, -and this enables them to neglect ephemeral drudgery in favour of -creative work. - -As there has been an unparalleled unfolding and increase in feminine -charms, both of body and mind, within the last half-century, it is not -too optimistic to hope that the other source of domestic difficulties -among men of genius—the extreme difficulty of finding a congenial -companion—will also be removed, in course of time. Men of genius, as -Moore remarks, have such rich resources of thinking within themselves, -that “the society of those less gifted than themselves becomes often a -restraint and burden to which not all the charms of friendship or even -love can reconcile them.” To be completely happy a Genius should -accordingly have a wife as remarkable among women for the womanly -qualities of receptivity, grace, and sympathy, as he is among men for -the manly quality of creative energy. Yet if it is so difficult for an -ordinary man to meet his ordinary Juliet, how much more so will it ever -be for an extraordinary man to find an extraordinary Juliet! - -Thanks to their passion for Beauty, men of Genius are too prone to -follow the impulse of the moment and marry a pretty doll, in the hope of -being able to educate her into an attractive companion. Unluckily it -rarely happens that the minds of these beauties are “wax to receive and -marble to retain.” Pretty girls are commonly lazy—spoiled by the thought -that their beauty atones for everything, and regardless of the future -when this apology for indolence will have lost its persuasiveness. - -Among the objections to the celibacy of Genius, the strongest is -supplied by the laws of heredity—the desirability of having their -superior mental qualities—often associated with corresponding physical -beauty—transmitted to the next generation. Genius, it is true, depends -on so many fortuitous circumstances that cases of direct transmission -from father to son are rare enough; and Mr. Galton’s researches show -that “the ablest child of one gifted pair is not likely to be as gifted -as the ablest of all the children of very many mediocre pairs;” and that -“the more exceptional the gift, the more exceptional will be the good -fortune of a parent who has a son who equals, and still more if he has a -son who overpasses him.” Nevertheless, it remains true that “the -children of a gifted pair are much more likely to be gifted than the -children of a mediocre pair.” Just as a professor’s son is born with a -brain naturally more plastic and receptive than that of a young savage -or peasant, so the children of a Genius who has not shattered his health -by overwork or dissipation are likely to be of a mental calibre superior -to that of an ordinary professor’s son. So that it is the duty of a man -of genius to get married even at a sacrifice of personal -happiness—provided that sacrifice is not so great as to interfere with -his intellectual duties. - - - - - GENIUS AND LOVE - - -If we take the word Genius in the Kantian, imaginative, or æsthetic -sense, it may be said that _all Geniuses are amorous_; and that the -degree of their greatness may as a rule be measured by their -susceptibility to feminine charms. The most poetic part of the -Scriptures is the Song of Solomon with its glowing pictures of feminine -charms. Homer, though he lived long before the age of Romantic Love, -spent his life in describing the mischief caused by Helen’s beauty. -Among the Roman poets the most original was also the most amorous. As -Professor Sellar remarks of Ovid, “In the most creative periods of -English literature he seems to have been more read than any other -ancient poet, not even excepting Virgil; and it was on the most creative -minds, such as those of Marlowe, Spenser, Shakspere, Milton, and Dryden, -that be acted most powerfully ... and although the spirit of antiquity -is better understood now than it was in the sixteenth and seventeenth -centuries, yet in the capacity of appreciating works of brilliant fancy -we can claim no superiority over the centuries which produced Spenser, -Shakspere, and Milton, nor over those which produced the great Italian, -French, and Flemish painters,” to whom Ovid supplied such abundant -material. - -Coming to more recent times, we have seen that Dante, the first modern -poet, was also the first modern lover, rarely if ever surpassed in -rapturous adoration. How the greatest of the Spanish bards was -influenced by feminine beauty may be inferred from the glowing -descriptions of it and its influence in _Don Quixote_; and as for -Shakspere, even had he not written _Romeo and Juliet_, his early poems -alone would prove him to have been in his youth every inch a lover; for -no one, not even with Shakspere’s imagination, could have painted such -unique feelings with his realistic and infallible touch, unless he had -felt them more than once and had them indelibly branded on his heart’s -memory. - -In the galaxy of German poets Goethe ranks first, owing to his -manysidedness. Yet he lacked the very highest of literary gifts—wit; and -in this respect as well as through his deeper insight into Modern Love, -Heine must be rated higher than Goethe. Heine’s personal loves are but -thinly covered over by the clear amber of his lyrics, in which they are -imbedded. Goethe’s loves have become proverbial for their -number—Kätchen, Friederike, Lili, Charlotte, Christiane, etc. Schiller, -Wieland, Bürger, Bodenstedt, and the lesser lights might all have -appended a D.L., or Doctor of Love, to their names. - -Shelley, Mr. Hamilton tells us, “had an irresistible natural tendency to -fall in love”; and Byron, speaking of one of his loves, says, “I had and -have been attached fifty times since, yet I recollect all we said to -each other, all our caresses, her features, my restlessness, -sleeplessness,” etc. And in the next chapter on “Genius in Love,” we -shall meet with numerous similar cases of English, German, and French -men of genius constantly in Love. - -To account for this amorous propensity of Genius is easy enough. Genius -means creative power allied with a taste for the Beautiful. This taste -may be gratified by the contemplation of the beauties of Nature—the -creative power by reproducing them on canvas or manuscript. But Nature’s -masterpiece is lovely woman, who not only yields the highest -gratification of artistic taste, but inspires Love: and what is Love but -a creative impulse—a desire to link one’s name and personality, in -future generations, with this embodiment of consummate human beauty? - -Shakspere’s - - “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind, - And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind,” - -suggests another reason why men of Genius are eternally involved in -Love-affairs. The lover becomes infatuated not with the girl he sees but -with the girl he imagines, using her features as a mere sketch to be -filled up _ad libitum_— - - “Such tricks hath strong imagination, - That if it would but apprehend some joy, - It comprehends some bringer of that joy; - Or in the night, imagining some fear, - How easy is a bush supposed a bear!” - -To imagine a feeling is to entertain it; for an imagined impression -revives the same cerebral processes that were aroused by the original -sense impression. In ordinary minds the remembered image of a girl’s -lovely features, the echo of her sweet voice, are much fainter than the -original sight and sound; whereas the imagination of genius paints a -face and recalls a voice as vividly as if they were present: so that -here _to think of Love is to be in Love_—_pro tempore_. - -Besides his refined taste and vivid imagination—which retouches every -defective negative—it is the natural depth of his emotions that urges a -Genius to fall in Love with every lovely woman. Passions are like dogs: -the big ones need more food than the little ones. A peasant cannot -experience the subtle and multitudinous emotions that fill the heart of -an artist, a statesman, a scientific discoverer; much less the complex -group of ethereal emotions that make up Romantic Love. The higher we -rise in the intellectual scale, the more varied, complex, and deep are -the emotional groups which delight and torment the soul. As Genius -represents the climax of intellectual power, Love the climax of -emotional intensity, is it wonderful that there should be an affinity -between the two? The higher a mountain peak the more does it attract -every passing cloud and clasp it to its breast—hoping—vainly hoping—to -warm a heart chilled by its isolation above the rest of the world. - -As men of genius are more prone to love than common sluggish minds, it -is a lucky fact, for the future growth of Romantic Love, that Genius -grows more and more abundant—_pace_ the _laudatores temporis acti_ who -ignorantly compare the number of living geniuses with all those that -have ever been—as if they had all lived at one epoch. It may even be -granted that there have been epochs that had more geniuses than we have -at present; but of genius there is more to-day than ever in the world’s -history. We see almost daily in ephemeral periodicals lines and epigrams -worthy of the highest genius, written by men whose names perhaps will -never be known. Shaksperes, indeed, will always tower Mont Blanc-like -over all other peaks; but if summits of the second magnitude seem less -imposing to-day than formerly, it is because the general level of -creativeness has been raised a few thousand feet. The mountains that -enclose the Engadine valley, though 10,000 to 12,000 feet in height, -seem only half as high, because the valley from which you see them lies -at an altitude of 6000 feet. - - - - - GENIUS IN LOVE - - -Were there not a natural affinity between Genius and Love, authors and -artists would cultivate Love as the source of their deepest inspiration. -For if it makes a temporary poet of every peasant, what must be its -effect in exalting the poet’s inborn power! - - “When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind;” - -Love - - “Which awakes the sleepy vigour of the soul;” - -and first - - “Softened the fierce, and made the coward bold.”—DRYDEN. - - “For indeed I knew - Of no more subtle master under heaven - Than is the maiden passion for a maid - Not only to keep down the base in man, - But teach high thought and amiable words, - And courtliness, and the desire of fame, - And love of truth, and all that makes a man.”—TENNYSON. - -The Love of men of Genius, as distinguished from that of ordinary -mortals, is characterised by five traits—Precocity, Extravagant Ardour, -Fickleness, Multiplicity, and Fictitiousness—which must be briefly -considered in succession. - - - I.—PRECOCITY - -Turgenieff makes the narrator of one of his novelettes speak of his -first Love as having been experienced at the age of six. That this is -not a poetic license is abundantly proved by historic facts. “Dante, we -know, was but nine years old,” says Moore, “when, at a May-day festival, -he saw and fell in love with Beatrice; and Alfieri, who was himself a -precocious lover, considers such early sensibility to be an unerring -sign of a soul formed for the fine arts.... Canova used to say that he -perfectly well remembered having been in love when but five years old.” - -Byron’s first Love was at the age of eight. Concerning this he wrote at -twenty-five: “How the deuce did all this occur so early? Where could it -originate? I certainly had no sexual ideas for years afterwards; and yet -my misery, my love for that girl [Mary Duff] were so violent that I -sometimes wonder if I have ever been really attached since.’” Of his -second Love-affair Byron says: “My first dash into poetry was as early -as 1800. It was the ebullition of a passion for my first cousin, -Margaret Parker, one of the most beautiful of evanescent beings. I have -long forgotten the verses, but it would be difficult for me to forget -her—her dark eyes [Byron had a passion for black eyes]—her long -eyelashes—her completely Greek cast of face and figure. I was then about -twelve—she rather older, perhaps a year. She died about a year or two -afterwards.” - -Burns was somewhat older when Love and poetry were born in his soul -simultaneously: “You know our country custom,” he writes, “of coupling a -man and woman together as partners in the labours of the harvest. In my -fifteenth summer my partner was a bewitching creature, a year younger -than myself. My scarcity of English denies me the power of doing her -justice in that language, but you know the Scottish idiom. She was a -bonnie, sweet, sonsie lass. In short, she, altogether unwittingly to -herself, initiated me in that delicious passion, which, in spite of acid -disappointment, gin-horse prudence, and bookworm philosophy, I hold to -be the first of human joys here below.” - -Heine’s first boyish love appears to have been a girl who died as a -child, and is alluded to in his _Pictures of Travel_ as the “little -Veronica.” His second love was a most extraordinary case of Love at -Sight. It was at a school examination, Robert Proelsz relates, “and -Harry was just declaiming Schiller’s _Taucher_, when the lovely girl -entered the room by the side of her father, who was one of the -inspectors. The boy stuttered, gazed with large eyes on the beautiful -figure, mechanically repeated the verse he had just recited—‘And the -King his lovely daughter beckoned’—and was unable to proceed. In vain -the teacher prompted him, the poor fellow’s senses failed him, and he -fell on the floor in a swoon.” - -Of another early visitation of sudden Love he gives an account in his -posthumous memoirs. The girl on this occasion was the red-haired -Sefchen, the sheriff’s daughter, who, when she was only eight years old, -had witnessed the mysterious burial of her grandfather’s sword, which -had done its duty a hundred times, and which some years later her aunt -had dug out and secreted in the garret. “One day, when we were alone, I -begged Sefchen to show me that curiosity. She willingly complied, went -into the room, and soon came out with an enormous sword, which she swung -vigorously despite her weak arms, while with a roguish, threatening tone -she sang— - - “‘Will you kiss the naked sword - Which the Lord has given us?’ - -I replied in the same tone, ‘I will not kiss the naked sword, I will -kiss the red-haired Sefchen;’ and as she could not defend herself, for -fear of hurting me with the fatal steel, she had to let me boldly put my -arms round her slender waist and kiss her defiant lips.” - -Berlioz had his first passion at twelve, Rousseau at eleven. “When I saw -Mlle. Goton,” writes Rousseau, “I could see nothing else, all my senses -were in confusion.... In her presence I was agitated, and trembled.... -If Mlle. Goton had ordered me to throw myself into the fire, I believe I -would have obeyed her instantly.” - -As old age is in many respects a second childhood, it seems natural that -men of genius should appear “precocious” in this belated sense too. The -case of Berlioz is one of the most extraordinary on record. The girl who -was his first love at twelve he saw again at sixty-one: “I recognised -the divine stateliness of her step; but, oh heavens! how changed she -was! her complexion faded, her hair gray. And yet at the sight of her my -heart did not feel one moment’s indecision; my whole soul went out to -its idol, as though she were still in her dazzling loveliness.... -Balzac, nay, Shakspere himself, the great painter of the passions, never -dreamt of such a thing.” And in a letter to her he writes, “I have loved -you, I still love you, I shall always love you. And yet I am sixty-one -years of age.... Oh, madame, madame, I have but one aim left in the -world—that of obtaining your affection.” - -Another composer who had a passion at sixty was “Papa” Haydn—poor Haydn, -whose wife led him such a terrible life, and used his manuscripts for -curl-papers. Concerning her he wrote, “She is always in a bad temper, -and does not care whether I am a shoemaker or an artist.” Indeed, she -had never been his true Love, but was only taken in lieu of her younger -sister, whom Haydn adored, but who refused him and became a nun. At -sixty, however, in London, he had the fortune, or misfortune, to fall in -Love again, with a widow named Schrolter, concerning whom he wrote, “She -was a very attractive woman, and still handsome, though over sixty; and -had I been free I should certainly have married her.” - -Goethe, in his old days, fell in Love with Minna Herzlieb, a -bookseller’s daughter. “In the sonnets addressed to her,” says Lewes, -“and in the novel of _Elective Affinities_, may be read the fervour of -his passion, and the strength with which he resisted.” - -Rousseau’s last Love forms one of the most romantic episodes in his -life, concerning which nothing was known until a few years ago when the -French historian, R. Chantslauze, discovered in a bookstall the MS. of a -letter by Rousseau to Lady Cecile Hobart, dated 1770, when Rousseau was -almost sixty years of age. He appears to have met this lady in England -at the time when he was writing his _Confessions_. She had first won his -affection by her admiration of his works; and in course of his long and -hyper-sentimental letter he remarks, “Why is it that I have never felt -any other true love but that for the products of my own fancy? Wherein -lies the reason, Cecile? In these fancied beings themselves; they made -me dissatisfied with everything else. For forty years I have carried in -my mind the image of her I adore. I love her with a constancy, an -ecstasy inexpressible.... I had no hope of ever meeting her, had given -up the eager search for her, when you appeared before me. It was folly, -infatuation, if you like, that made me surrender myself for a moment to -the magic of your sight; but I could not but say to myself: There she -is! No other woman ever inspired that thought in me. And stranger still -is it that I could hear you speak without changing my opinion. What the -ideal of my heart thought, you spoke it to my ears.” - - - II.—ARDOUR - -If Bacon did not write the plays of Shakspere, it was the biggest -mistake of his life. Second among his mistakes must rank the opinion -expressed in the following sentence: “You may observe that amongst all -the great and worthy persons (whereof the memory remaineth, either -ancient or modern), there is not one that hath been transported to the -mad degree of love.” - -If the advocates of the Baconian theory had as much sense of humour as -they stimulate in other people, they would see that such a sentence—and -there are others like it in Bacon—could not by any possibility have been -penned by the author of _As You Like It_, _Venus and Adonis_, or _Romeo -and Juliet_. - -Dante was by no means the only “great and worthy person” before Bacon’s -day who had been “transported to the mad degree of love”; and since -Bacon’s day the word Genius has become almost synonymous with the -capacity for lovers’ madness. - -Yet there is a grain of truth in Bacon’s sentence as it stands. He -evidently had in mind chiefly the _ancient_ “great and worthy persons”; -and of these, as we have seen, but one or two had even a vague -presentiment of what was to be some day the moral lever of the universe. -Bacon probably had a dim perception of the fact that the ancients knew -nothing of passionate Love, of the imaginative type; but he did not -quite succeed in grasping the idea. - -As regards Modern Genius, Bacon’s assertion is so far from the truth, -that it is quite safe to reverse it and say that it is doubtful whether -any one but a man of genius is capable of that intense ardour of feeling -which marks the climax of Love; doubtful whether even Romeo at his age -could have felt a passion such as Shakspere’s glowing imagination -painted. Love is based, not on what a man sees with his eyes, but on the -mental image retouched by the imagination; and a man of genius, being a -_virtuoso of the imagination_, can adorn his ideal of love with -ornaments unknown to ordinary mortals; whence it follows that the -passion inspired by his more vivid and beautiful image must be more -intense than the passion inspired by less perfect visions in common, -sluggish brains. And since artistic thought can no more crystallise into -verse or epigram without the warm glow of emotion than a flower can grow -into a thing of beauty without its daily bath of warm sunshine, it is -fortunate that Genius implies a natural susceptibility to the æsthetic -passion of Love. - -Fortunate also for the prospects of Romantic Love is the fact that -Genius is king in its realms. Had not the sacred mysteries of Love been -revealed to the world in the glowing language of poetry, it would -probably have remained a thing unknown to ordinary mortals for centuries -to come; even as the beauties of Nature, for which common minds have no -eyes, would have remained undetected, had not the poets and artists -disclosed the bonds that connect them with human sympathies. - -As all the quotations from poets given in this chapter (and in that on -Hyperbole) practically bear witness to the exceptional ardour of Love in -men of genius, only two cases need be cited as specimens—those of Burns -and Heine. Gilbert Burns, the brother of the poet, writes that the -latter “was constantly the victim of some fair enslaver. The symptoms of -his passion were often such as nearly to equal those of the celebrated -Sappho. I never, indeed, knew that he ‘fainted, sunk, and died away’; -but the agitations of his mind and body exceeded anything of the kind I -ever knew in real life.” - -Heine has given evidence in his letters as well as his poems that few -even of his equals have ever felt the power of love so profoundly. It is -well to emphasise this fact; for there are not a few who fancy that, -like Petrarch, Heine embodied in his songs not the real feelings of his -heart but fictitious emotions depicted to gratify poetic ambition. He -did no such thing. His Love-poetry is the echo of real passion, of his -first and only true Love, which cast a shadow over his whole life, and -goaded him into bitter reflections more than a decade after its sad -ending. He loved his cousin Molly, and writes to a friend, after an -absence from home: “Rejoice with me! rejoice with me! in four weeks I -shall see Molly. With her my muse will also return.” The muse did -return, but in a different way from that which he had anticipated; with -a smile in her face of cynicism, mockery, melancholy, which never again -left her. “She loves me _not_!” he writes, in 1816. “Softly, dear -Christian, pronounce that last word softly. In the first words lies the -eternal living heaven, but in the last lies eternal living hell. If you -could only see your friend’s countenance, how pale he looks, how -bewildered, how insane, your righteous indignation at my long silence -would vanish soon; better still were it if you could have one glance at -my soul—then would you really learn to love me.” “I have seen her again— - - “‘The devil take my soul, - My body be the sheriff’s, - Yet I for me alone - Select the loveliest woman.’ - -Hui! do you not shudder, Christian! Well may you shudder even as I do. -Burn the letter, the Lord have mercy on my soul. I did not write these -words. There on my chair sits a pale man; he wrote them. And this -because it is midnight. Oh heavens! Madness cannot sin!” - -“There, there, do not breathe so heavily, there I have just built a -lovely card-house, and on the top of it I stand and hold her in my -arms!... But indeed you can hardly fancy, dear Christian, how -delightful, how lovely my ruin appears. Far from her, to carry burning -desires in my heart for years, is torture infernal; but to be near her -and yet oft sigh in vain, whole endless weeks, for my only delight, the -sight of her and—and—O! O! O! Christian! that is enough to make the -purest, most pious soul flare up in wild, delirious ungodliness!” - -And the object of this passion, who might have saved a poet’s soul and -changed him from a negative ferment into a positive agent of culture? -She was the daughter of a millionaire, who, of course, in German -fashion, had to marry into another rich family. To marry a poor poet -would have been deemed a terrible _mésalliance_. Yet was he not a -millionaire too—of ideas, as she was in beauty, her father in money? But -that is reasoning _à la_ Millennium. - -What a comedy it will be to future generations, entirely emancipated -from mediæval puerilities, to read that two such _Kings_ in the realm of -Genius as Schubert and Beethoven, could not marry their true loves on -account of differences in social position—rank and money! - -We are accustomed to look down on China and Chinese culture. But China -anticipated Europe by several centuries in the discovery of gunpowder; -and there is another thing in which that country is centuries ahead of -Europe. “In China there is no aristocracy of birth or money. The -aristocracy which here ranks socially above the other classes is solely -and only that of the _Intellect_.” - - - III.—FICKLENESS - -Love is a tissue of paradoxes. The very ardour of their passion inclines -men of genius to fickleness. “Love me little love me long” is a short -way of saying that whereas a blazing, roaring fire consumes itself in an -hour, the quiet, glowing coals covered with ashes will outlast the -night. - -Lamartine’s “heureuse la beauté que le poète adore”—happy the beauty -whom the poet adores—may be endorsed by a maiden who is willing to -become the secondary wife of a poetic polygamist already wedded to a -muse, for the sake of having it said in his biography that she inspired -him with some of his prettiest conceits— - - “Cynthia, facundi carmen juvenile Properti, - Accepit famam nec minus ilia dedit,” - -as Martial says of a Roman beauty. Others will hesitate on reading the -following, from _London Society_:— - -“Lord Byron has said that nothing can inflict greater torture upon a -woman than the mere fact of loving a poet; and though Lamartine calls it -a glory to be the object of immortal songs, we half-suspect that the -English bard is right, and that it would be impossible to describe the -moral sufferings of those frail beings who seem to be the mere toys of -an hour. The world may be indebted to them for some great poem which -their love has had the power to inspire, but they themselves were -probably no more thought of by the poet than the daisy he might tread on -as he passed by.” - -Here is a case in point: “Swift,” says Byron, “when neither young nor -handsome, nor rich nor even amiable, inspired two of the most -extraordinary passions on record—Vanessa’s and Stella’s.... He requited -them bitterly, for he seems to have broken the heart of the one and worn -out that of the other; and he had his reward, for he died a solitary -idiot in the hands of servants.” - -It would be unjust, however, in all cases to trace poetic fickleness to -heartless or deliberate cruelty. May not the poet and the artist be -regarded as martyrs to art and science—students of beauty, obliged to -take a purely æsthetic, _disinterested interest_ in feminine charms—as -they do in a picture or a landscape—without any desire of exclusive -possession? They flirt, apparently, not to break hearts, but merely to -educate their sense of beauty. For is not a woman’s face the compendium -of all beauty in the world? and a woman’s eyes, expressing incipient -Love, are they not so exquisitely beautiful that an epicure of Love -could for ever be contented with that expression alone, feeling that -marriage, which might alter it, if ever so little, would be a _bétise_? -Perhaps some similar thought was in Heine’s mind when he wrote his -famous - - "Du bist wie eine Blume - So hold und schön und rein; - Ich schau’ dich an, und Wehmuth - Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein. - - “Mir ist, als ob ich die Hände - Aufs Haupt dir legen sollt‘, - Betend, dass Gott dich erhalte - So rein und schön und hold.” - -In quite a different kind of a poem Heine bluntly announces to his -“Queen Mary IV.” his declaration of independence, and informs her that -not a few who ruled before her have been unceremoniously deposed— - - “Manche die vor dir regierte - Wurde schmählich abgesetzt.” - -And in his narrative of the sheriff’s daughter he says, “I shall not -describe my love for Josepha in detail. This, however, I will confess, -that it was after all only a prelude to the great tragedies of my riper -years. Thus does Romeo become infatuated with Rosaline before he finds -his Juliet.” - -Byron’s confession, in speaking of an early love, that he had been -“attached fifty times since” has been referred to already; and although -Byron loved to exaggerate his foibles, his record in this case does not -belie his words. Of Burns, Principal Shairp writes that “There was not a -comely girl in Tarbolton on whom he did not compose a song, and then he -made one which included them all.” Burns himself confesses, “In my -conscience, I believe that my heart has been so often on fire that it -has been vitrified.” And Washington Irving remarks on Goldsmith’s first -love as “a passion of that transient kind which grows up in idleness and -exhales itself in poetry.” - -Of this kind were two passions of Lamb, concerning which a biographer -says, “A youthful passion, which lasted only a few months, and which he -afterwards attempted to regard lightly as a folly past, inspired a few -sonnets of very delicate feeling and exquisite music.” And of his second -flame, “His stay at Pentonville is remarkable for the fugitive passion -conceived by Lamb for a young Quakeress named Hester Savory, which he -has enshrined and immortalised in the little poem of _Hester_.” - -Goethe has the reputation of having been of all famous lovers the most -fickle. Like Byron, Goethe appears to have endeavoured to make himself -appear more frivolous than he was. His amorous Roman _Elegies_, which -have given so much offence, were in reality written in Thuringia, after -his return from Italy; and their heroine was no one but the girl who -subsequently became his wife. - -It remained for a Scotchman to write the best apology for Goethe’s -love-affairs. “To Goethe,” says Professor Blackie, “the sight of any -beautiful object was like delicate music to the ear of a cunning -musician; he was carried away by it, and floated in its element -joyously, as a swallow in the summer air, or a sea-mew on the buoyant -wave. Hence the rich story of Goethe’s loves, with which scandal, of -course, and prudery have made their market, but which, when looked into -carefully, were just as much part of his genius as _Faust_ or -_Iphigenia_—a part, indeed, without which neither _Faust_ nor -_Iphigenia_ could have been written.... Let no one, therefore, take -offence when I say that Goethe was always falling in love, and that I -consider this a great virtue in his character.” - -One more case: “Beethoven constantly had his love-affairs,” says -Wegeler. His first love was a Cologne beauty, who coquetted with him and -another man till both discovered she was engaged to a _third_! Several -times Beethoven made up his mind to marry; he made two definite -proposals, both of which were refused. One fatal objection was his habit -of falling in love with women above him in “rank.” “It is a frightful -thing,” he once wrote, “to make the acquaintance of such a sweet -creature and to lose her immediately; and nothing is more insupportable -than thus to have to confess one’s own foolishness.” One of his flames, -an opera singer, gave as a reason why she refused him that he was “so -ugly and half-cracked!” - - - IV.—MULTIPLICITY - -Perhaps the most unique trait in the love of men of genius is the -apparent occasional absence of the element of Monopoly. It was Ovid who -first discussed the question whether a man could love two women at once. -His friend Græcinus denied the possibility of such a thing; but in one -of his _Elegies_ Ovid refutes him by citing his own case of a double -simultaneous infatuation. He hesitates which of the two to choose, -chides Venus for torturing him with double love—for adding leaves to the -trees, stars to the heavens, water to the ocean. - -Of modern authors not a few appear to have followed in Ovid’s footsteps. -We have seen how madly Heine was in love for a long time with his cousin -Amalie. Yet, as one of his biographers, Robert Proelsz, remarks, this -ardent though hopeless infatuation saved him neither at Hamburg nor at -Bonn, nor at Hanover or Berlin, from a number of love-affairs, some of -which are vaguely commemorated in his writings. Another German poet, -Wieland, after various romantic adventures, fell in love with Julia -Bondeli, a pupil of Rousseau’s, and asked for her heart and hand; but -she mistrusted him, and asked the pertinent question, “Tell me, will you -never be able to love another besides me?” “Never!” he replied, “that is -impossible.... Yet it might be possible for a moment, if I should chance -to see a more beautiful woman than you who is at the same time very -unhappy and very virtuous.” “Poor Wieland,” Scherr continues, “who -subsequently understood the anatomy of the female heart so well, appears -not to have known then that _no_ woman pardons in her lover the thought -that he might find another more beautiful than her. Julia knew what she -had to do, and with deeply-wounded heart allowed the poet to depart.” - -Of Burns his brother Gilbert says, “When he selected any one out of the -sovereignty of his good pleasure, to whom he should pay his particular -attention, she was instantly invested with a sufficient stock of charms -out of the plentiful stores of his own imagination; and there was often -a great disparity between his fair captivator and her attributes. One -generally reigned paramount in his affections; but as Yorick’s -affections flowed out toward Madame de L—— at the remise door, while the -eternal vows of Eliza were upon him, so Robert was frequently -encountering other attractions, which formed _so many under-plots in the -drama of his love_.” - -In Goethe’s life these “under-plots” played a like prominent part. “He -always needed a number of feminine hearts of more or less personal -interest, in which to mirror himself,” we read; and he himself told his -Charlotte (in 1777) that her love was “the thread by which all his other -little passions, pastimes, and flirtations hung.” - -So that, after all, it seems possible to love two at a time; but it -_takes genius to do it_! - -Yet even with men of genius it is only possible in ordinary -love-affairs. A supreme love-affair allows but one goddess under any -circumstances. - -Schumann was one of the most multitudinous lovers on record. Apparently -his first love was Nanni, his “guardian angel,” who saved him from the -perils of the world, and hovered before his vision like a saint. “I feel -that I could kneel before her and adore her like a Madonna,” he says in -a letter. But Nanni had a dangerous rival in Liddy. Not long, however, -for he found Liddy silly, cold as marble, and—fatal defect! she could -not sympathise with him regarding Jean Paul. “The exalted image of my -ideal disappears when I think of the remarks she made about Jean Paul. -Let the dead rest in peace.” Curiously enough, there are references to -both these girls at various dates, showing that, like Ovid, he -vacillated between the two. He had a number of other flames, and after -his engagement to Clara Wieck gave her warning that he had the “very -mischievous habit” of being a great admirer of lovely women. “They make -me positively smirk, and I swim in panegyrics on your sex. Consequently, -if at some future time we walk along the streets of Vienna and meet a -beauty, and I exclaim, ‘Oh Clara! see this heavenly vision!’ or -something of the sort, you must not be alarmed nor scold me.” - -But the most enterprising lover ever known to the world was Alfieri; for -his first Love seems to have _embraced a whole female seminary_! In his -_Mémoires_, at any rate, he uses the plural in speaking of the object of -his first passion. He was indeed only nine years old, which may excuse -this amorous anomaly. He had seen in church a number of young novices, -and thus describes his feelings (the italics are mine): “My innocent -attraction towards _these_ novices became so strong that I thought of -them and their doings incessantly. At one moment my imagination painted -_them_ holding their candles in their hands, serving mass with an air of -angelic submission, and again raising the smoke of incense at the foot -of the altar; and, entirely absorbed in these images, I neglected my -studies; every occupation and all companionship bored me.” - - - V.—FICTITIOUSNESS - -If Shakspere could identify woman with frailty, one might with equal -propriety exclaim, Vanity, thy name is man! Clever men have a habit of -paying pretty girls neat compliments, less to please the girls than to -show off their wit. And clever women, though they may not accept these -remarks literally, still have cause to be gratified with them, in -proportion to the excellence of the wit; for ugliness or inferior beauty -never inspires a happy thought in a clever man. - -Poets represent the climax of masculine vanity. Though their first -Love-poems may be the embodiment of real passion, in subsequent efforts -the purely literary origin is too often apparent. Since poetic -composition is in itself a mingled agony and delight, very like Love -itself, nothing so facilitates its progress as exciting Love-memories. -Hence poets are for ever urged on to compose Love ditties in which they -endeavour to out-Romeo Romeo, to out-hyperbolise one another, as women -try to out-dress one another. This is one aspect of their vanity; the -other lies in their desire for sympathetic admiration. So, whenever a -poet meets a damsel who comes within half a mile of his ideal, he -forthwith unfolds before her eyes his gaudy dithyrambs and sonnets, and -indulges in various Love-antics, very much like an infatuated peacock. - -Even the great Dante is not free from the reproach of having used his -true love for mere literary purposes. Beatrice became to him gradually -an abstraction, an allegory, a name for woman in general. But it is in -his countryman Petrarch that the tendency to use a sweetheart for purely -ornamental purposes, as if she were a feather to be stuck in one’s hat, -is most vividly illustrated. Petrarch is a conspicuous illustration of -the fact that a poetic reputation once established will live on for -ever, for the simple reason that very few people ever take the trouble -to read and judge for themselves; so that an undeserved reputation, like -a disease, is inherited by generation after generation. - -No one, of course, can question Petrarch’s learning and his influence on -the progress of modern culture. I speak of him only as a love-poet; and -as such he occupies a wofully low rank. I have read and reread his -sonnets, and have found them one of the dreariest deserts the quest for -information has ever driven me into. To say with Mr. Symonds, in the -_Encyclopædia Britannica_, that “he was far from approaching the -analysis of emotion with the directness of a Heine or De Musset,” is -putting it very mildly indeed. Professor Scherr points out his lack of -poetic imagination in these words: “Though he took so much trouble to -hand down the beauty of his Laura to posterity, yet (he) never gets -beyond a tedious enumeration of her charms. Petrarch never gives us a -clear portrait of his lady.” “The poems of her lover,” says Mr. Symonds, -“demonstrate that she was a _married woman_, with whom he enjoyed a -respectful and not very intimate friendship.” Moore refers to Petrarch -as one “who would not suffer his only daughter to reside beneath his -roof, [but] expended thirty-two years of poetry and passion on an -idealised love.” Schopenhauer naïvely accepted the reality of Petrarch’s -passion, which the poor fellow had to drag through life “like a -prisoner’s chain,” because the case suited his argument; but Mr. -Macaulay more justly remarks that “to readers of our time, the love of -Petrarch seems to have been of that kind which breaks no hearts.” -Finally Professor Scherr’s opinion may be cited, which agrees with the -view here taken. - -In 1327 Petrarch “made the acquaintance of Laura, the wife of Hugo de -Sade, who has become famous through him, and whom during twenty-one -years he continued to love, or at least to celebrate in song; for one -feels somewhat uncertain regarding this love, and is very much tempted -to regard it more as a matter of the head than of the heart and the -senses—more as a welcome theme for his troubadour art and Provençal -amorous subtlety than as a genuine, true passion. Petrarch’s qualities -in general, both as a man and as a poet, are tainted by an appearance of -hollowness, a want of substance and character. He lacked genuine -originality, the power of spontaneous creation.” - -Petrarch, it is true, was an extreme case of the poet’s inclination to -give Love a fictitious permanence and depth; and he lived, moreover, at -a time when the novelty of the spiritual aspect of Love naturally -inclined the mind to exaggeration in that direction. In the case of -modern poets, much less allowance has to be commonly made for motives of -purely poetic or literary origin. - -Such being the leading characteristics of Love in men of genius, and -such men being emotionally a few centuries ahead of others, the -questions arise, “Is it likely that the Love of ordinary mortals will -gradually assume those traits? and is it desirable that it should?” - -There seems no immediate danger that the world will be peopled largely -by geniuses, though there is a rapid and steady advance in culture, -which in a thousand years may greatly lessen the difference between men -of genius and average men of the future as compared with those of -to-day. When that millennium arrives the man of genius may have advanced -another step, but not so great, perhaps, as that which now raises him -above the common herd. He will not then be so great an anomaly, and will -find society less willing than in the past to make allowance for his -irregularities, such as his fickleness and multiplicity of Love-affairs. - -Yet, after all, these great men are only partly to blame for their -fickleness. Beethoven once boasted of having loved one woman for _seven -months_ as something unusual. But had Beethoven been so fortunate as to -meet and marry a woman having those qualities which Sir Walter Scott -says the wife of a genius should have—either “taste enough to relish her -husband’s performances, or good nature enough to pardon his -infirmities,”—he might have been blessed with a love not of seven -months, but of seven times seven years. Of Shelley, Mr. Symonds tells us -that, “In his own words, he had loved Antigone before he visited this -earth: and no one woman could probably have made him happy, because he -was for ever demanding more from love than it can give in the mixed -circumstances of mortal life.” - -Mr. Galton, who has made such a careful study of the phenomena of genius -and marriage (_Hereditary Genius_), remarks on the “great fact ... that -able men take pleasure in the society of intelligent women, and, if they -can find such as would in other respects be suitable, they will marry -them in preference to mediocrities.” Unfortunately, as before dwelt on, -great beauty and great intellect, or amiability, do not always coincide, -owing to the fact that pretty girls do not feel the necessity of -cultivating their minds. But in men of genius their own store of -intellect is so great, and their admiration for Beauty so intense, that -they are constantly liable to marry silly girls; or before marriage to -flirt with one beauty after another without finding satisfaction. In a -few generations, however, there will doubtless be many more women than -now or in the past who will be intelligent, amiable, and beautiful at -the same time; and such women will be able to fetter even the erratic -love of geniuses with adamantine chains, impervious to rust and -alteration, and thus cure them of their Fickleness and their constant -effort to love more than one at a time. - -Poetic Fictitiousness, of course, is a trait which does no one any harm, -and often enriches literature with charming fancies. And as for the two -remaining characters of genius-Love—Ardour and Precocity—it is evident -that there cannot be too much of them in the world. The dawn of Love is -always the dawn of so much refinement of the soul, the awakening of so -much ambition, that it cannot be too precocious; and the more ardent it -is the more thoroughgoing will be its results. Nor need a big fire go -out sooner than a small one, provided there is a constant supply of -fresh fuel—a point which Balzac has discussed with much eloquence in his -_Physiologie du Mariage_. - -Coleridge says “It is the business of virtue to give a feeling and a -passion to our purer intellect, and to intellectualise our feelings and -passions.” Now this is precisely what is done by Romantic Love, which -first originated in the minds of men of genius. - - “The might of one fair face sublimes my love, - For it hath weaned my heart from low desires.” - -“Sublimes my love.” These three words of Michael Angelo contain the -whole philosophy of our subject. And what is it that sublimes Love -chiefly? “The might of one fair face”—the magic effect of Personal -Beauty. Perhaps, after all, the greatest difference between the Love of -a genius and an ordinary mortal is that in the former the æsthetic -element—the Admiration of Beauty—is so much stronger, making up -two-thirds of the whole passion. And as a taste for the beautiful in art -and nature becomes more common, the Love of common mortals, in -approaching that of genius, will more and more partake of this æsthetic -refinement—this worship of Personal Beauty for the sake of the higher -gratifications it yields to the imagination. - - - - - INSANITY AND LOVE - - - ANALOGIES - -The poets, who have in all ages insisted on the analogies between genius -and insanity, have also long since discovered a general resemblance -between Love and Insanity. Indeed, the notion that Love is a sort of -madness is as old as Plato. Love, as understood by him—that is, man’s -“worship of youthful masculine beauty”—is, he says, mad, irrational, -superseding reason and prudence in the individual mind. And the Stoics, -who regarded all affections as maladies, looked upon the severest of the -passions as a grave mental disease. - -Modern poetry is full of allusions to the fatuous folly of Love. Thus -Thomson— - - “A lover is the very fool of nature.” - -Shakspere— - - “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet - Are of imagination all compact.” - - “Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes, - That they behold and see not what they see?” - -And the mischievous Rosalind informs us that “Love is merely a madness, -and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; -and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is, that the -lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.” - -All this is mere poetic banter; but there is a substratum of truth which -the poets must have dimly felt. Modern alienists do not treat their -patients to dark rooms and whips, as their predecessors did. They regard -the maladies of their patients as brain diseases, which have been -studied and classified, and are treated on general hygienic and -therapeutic principles. A comparison of the classifications adopted in -psychiatry with the symptoms of Love shows that Insanity and Love -resemble each other especially in three common traits,—the presence of -Illusions, a sort of Delirium of Persecution, and the Desire for -Solitude. - -There are two ways in which madmen people the outside world with -phantoms of their own imaginations—by means of illusions and of -hallucinations. - -Hallucinations are pure figments of the imagination, without any object -corresponding to them or suggesting them in the outer world. A patient -suffering from them will stare into vacancy and see a friend, or perhaps -the devil with horns, tail, and hoofs; and he sees him as vividly as if -he were really there to be touched; the reason being that in that part -of the brain where impressions of sight are localised a diseased action -is set up which suggests a picture that is forthwith projected into -outward space—as usual with all sense-impressions. In a word, the -patient paints the devil in his mind’s eye, and there he is. - -Illusions, on the other hand, have real external objects for their -cause; but the diseased imagination so falsifies the objects that there -is little or no resemblance between the mental vision and the outside -reality. A patient suffering from illusions sees a candle and thinks it -is the sun, hears a footstep and thinks it thunder. - -Is not this precisely what Shakspere chides Cupid for—that he makes our -eyes “behold and see not what they see?” or makes them “see Helen’s -beauty in a brow of Egypt?” Concerning Burns we have just read that -“there was often a great disparity between his fair captivator and her -attributes”—that is, the attributes with which she was invested by her -lover. - -The lover, like the lunatic, has had moments when, “beholding his -maiden, he half-knows she is not that which he worships”; but such -intervals are rare. Take a madman who believes his body is made of -glass, and throw him downstairs: none the less will he believe in his -vitreous constitution. Show a lover the most beautiful woman in the -world, still will he believe his own Dulcinea a hundred times more -charming. - -There is, in the second place, a very common form of insanity, called -the Delirium of Persecution. The sufferer imagines that everybody he -passes notices him, suspects him of something, or even intends him some -harm. Dr. Hammond speaks of a patient of this class “who was sure that -all the clergymen had entered into a conspiracy to ‘pray him into hell’! -He went to the churches to hear what they had to say, and discovered -adroit allusions to himself, and hidden invocations to God for his -eternal damnation, in the most harmless and platitudinous expressions. -He wrote letters to various pastors of churches, denouncing them for -their uncharitable conduct toward him, and threatening them with bodily -damage if they persisted in their efforts to secure the destruction of -his soul.” - -“Quand nous aimons,” says Pascal, “nous nous imaginons que tout le monde -s’en aperçoit”—when we are in love we imagine that everybody perceives -it. The lover feels so awkward and embarrassed that he thinks every one -about him must discover his secret; and this constant apprehension -doubles his awkwardness, and in most cases does lead to his detection. -And the jealous lover to whom “trifles light as air” are confirmations -of infidelity, who sees dangerous rivalry in the most superficial -attentions, and inconstancy in the most harmless smile she bestows on -another—how does he differ from the man who thought the clergy were -trying to pray him into hell, except that in the one case the disordered -imagination is more easily restored to its normal functions than in the -other? - -Thirdly, the lunatic and the lover, in their melancholy stages, have a -common fondness for Solitude. For days and weeks a patient will sit -motionless, indifferent to everybody and everything in the world except -the one idea that has fixed on his brain like a leech, and is sucking -its life-blood. Nothing, says an observer, is so noticeable on visiting -an asylum where the patients are allowed some liberty, as the way in -which each one seeks a solitary place regardless of his fellows. - -Are not, in the same way— - - “Fountain-heads and pathless groves - Places which pale passion loves?”—FLETCHER. - -But what madman in his wildest flights ever conceived anything quite so -sublimely solitary as the flight which Burns projected for himself and -Clarinda (in lovers’ arithmetic twice one are one) in the following -epistle: "Imagine ... that we were set free from the laws of gravitation -which bind us to this globe, and could at pleasure fly, without -inconvenience, through all the yet unconjectured bounds of creation, -what a life of bliss would we lead, in our mutual pursuit of virtue and -knowledge, and our mutual enjoyment of love and friendship! - -“I see you laughing at my fairy fancies, and calling me a voluptuous -Mahometan; but I am certain I would be a happy creature beyond anything -we call bliss here below; nay, it would be a paradise congenial to you -too. Don’t you see us, hand in hand, or rather, my arm about your lovely -waist, making our remarks on Sirius, the nearest of the fixed stars; or, -surveying a comet flaming innoxious by us, as we just now would mark the -passing pomp of a travelling monarch; or, in a shady bower of Mercury or -Venus, dedicating the hour to love, in mutual converse, relying honour, -and revelling endearment, while the most exalted strains of poesy and -harmony would be the ready, spontaneous language of our souls.” - -Thus we have in the madman’s Illusions an analogy with Love’s -Hyperbolising tendency; in the Delirium of Persecution a suggestion of -Jealousy; in the Desire for Solitude a reminder of Love’s Exclusiveness, -and desire to be cast on a desert island. - -Gallantry, again, has in the past frequently assumed an extravagant form -bordering on madness. Thus, with reference to a Greek girl to whom Byron -made love in Athens, Moore says, “It was, if I recollect right, in -making love to one of these girls that he had recourse to an act of -courtship often practised in that country—namely, giving himself a wound -across the breast with his dagger. The young Athenian, by his own -account, looked on very coolly during the operation, considering it a -fit tribute to her beauty, but in no wise moved to gratitude.” - -In Spain, toward the beginning of the last century, Gallantry appears to -have assumed a form of mad extravagance. As Mme. d’Aunoy relates in her -_Mémoires sur l’Espagne_, no man who accompanied a lady was so rude as -to give her his hand or to take her arm under his. He only wrapped his -cloak around his arm, and then allowed her to rest her arm on the elbow. -Nor was even a lover permitted to kiss his love or caress her otherwise -than by tenderly grasping her arm with his hands. - -Of mediæval lovers’ madness cases have been cited elsewhere, showing to -what crazy excess the Knight-errants and Troubadours sometimes carried -their gallant devotion. One more amusing illustration may here be added: -the oft-cited cases of Peire Vidal, a Troubadour of the twelfth century, -who, to please his beloved, whose name was Loba (wolf), had himself -sewed up in a wolf’s hide and went about the mountains howling until his -manœuvres were brought to a sad end by some shepherd dogs, who, -having no sense of humour, gave him such a shaking that he was only too -glad to resume his normal attitude. - -There is, in fact, hardly a feature of Love which, in its exalted -manifestations, does not occasionally suggest a madhouse. The -extravagant Pride shown by a commonplace man in his more commonplace -bride, is quite as ludicrous as a lunatic’s delusion that he is a -millionaire or emperor of the five continents. The sham capture of a -bride still practised among many nations when all parties are willing, -illustrates a form of Coyness which would appear as pure lunacy to one -unfamiliar with the origin of that custom. - - - EROTOMANIA, OR REAL LOVE-SICKNESS - -Besides these general analogies there is a form of mental disease which -is genuine love-sickness, the outcome of brain disease, and which often -seems, for all the world, like a deliberate caricature of Coquetry. - -“It often happens,” says Dr. Hammond, “that the subjects of emotional -monomania of the variety under consideration do not restrict their love -to any one person. They adore the whole male sex, and will make advances -to any man with whom they are brought into even the slightest -association. If confined in an asylum they simper and clasp their hands, -and roll their eyes to the attendants, especially the physicians, and -even the male patients are not below their affections. There is very -little constancy in their love. They change from one man to another with -the utmost facility and upon the slightest pretext. ‘I am very much in -love with Dr. ——,’ said a woman to me in an asylum that I was visiting, -‘but he was late yesterday in coming to the ward, and now I love you. -You will come often to see me, won’t you?’ While she was speaking the -superintendent entered the ward. ‘Oh, here comes my first and only -love!’ she exclaimed. ’Why have you stayed away so long from your -Eliza?‘” - -Professor von Krafft-Ebing, in his admirable _Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie_, -thus characterises Erotomania in general: "The kernel of the whole -matter is the delusion of being singled out and loved by a person of the -other sex, who regularly belongs to a higher social sphere. And it -deserves to be noted that the love felt by the patient towards this -person is a romantic, ecstatic, but entirely ‘Platonic’ affection. In -this respect these patients remind one of the knight-errants and -minstrels of bygone times, whom Cervantes has so incisively lashed in -his _Don Quixote_.... - -"From the looks and gestures of the beloved individual they draw the -inference that they in return are not regarded with indifference. With -astonishing rapidity they lose their self-possession. The most harmless -incidents are regarded by them as signs of love, and an encouragement to -draw near. Even newspaper advertisements relating to others are supposed -to come from the person in question. Finally, hallucinations make their -appearance, by the aid of which the patients begin to be conversant with -the object of their love. Illusions also supervene; in the conversations -of others the patient fancies he hears references to his love-affairs. -He feels happy, exalted in his estimate of himself.... - -“At last the patient compromises himself by acting in consonance with -his delusion, thus making himself ridiculous and impossible in society, -and necessitating his confinement in an asylum.” - - - - - THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE - - -The insane freaks of erotomaniacs, and the analogous, ludicrous -exaggerations in the expression and conduct of lovers, may be regarded -as the pathologic and the comic sides of Love’s Language. - -Normally, Romantic Love has no fewer than three languages:—Words, Facial -Expression, and Caresses, including Kisses. It will at once be seen that -this classification involves a crescendo <, from the weakest form of -expression to its climax in kissing. Kissing, indeed, though it comes -under the head of Caresses, is of so much significance that it may be -regarded, if not as a separate language of Love, at least as a special -dialect—perhaps the long-sought world-language intelligible to all? - - - I.—WORDS - -Though the greatest poets have striven to become virtuosi in the art of -expressing Love in written language, yet words are the weakest and least -trustworthy mode of expressing the amorous emotions. Least trustworthy, -because the male flatterer, as well as the female coquette, constantly -use language to conceal their thoughts and real emotions. Weakest, -because words are less eloquent even than silence. For— - - “They that are rich in words must needs discover - They are but poor in that which makes a lover;” - -And - - “Silence in Love bewrays more woe - Than words though ne’er so witty.”—RALEIGH. - -Cordelia’s love was deeper than that of her sisters—too deep to be -expressed in formal words. And King Lear scorned her and favoured her -sisters; even as shallow maidens constantly look down on silent, awkward -adorers of deep affections, and throw themselves away on shallow, -fickle, loquacious Lotharios, because they do not understand the real -Language of Love, which, according to a stupid old myth, every woman is -supposed to know by intuition or instinct. - - - II.-FACIAL EXPRESSION, - -although more trustworthy than written or spoken words, may sometimes -prove deceptive too; for the cunning coquette who daily feigns Love to -attract poor moths by her brilliant fascinations, becomes in time so -perfect an actress that the coldest of cynics may be deceived by her -wiles. - -In his great work on the _Expression of the Emotions_, Darwin remarks -that although, “when lovers meet, we know that their hearts beat -quickly, their breathing is hurried, and their faces flush;” yet “love -can hardly be said to have any proper or peculiar means of expression; -and this is intelligible, as it has not habitually led to any special -line of action. No doubt, as affection is a pleasurable sensation, it -generally causes a gentle smile and some brightening of the eyes.” - -Inasmuch as a flushed face and transient blushes, a gentle smile and -brightening of the eyes, are characteristic of other emotions besides -Love, Darwin is right; yet he ignores two peculiarities of expression by -which a person in Love may be instantaneously recognised. - -“A lover,” says Chamfort, “is a man who endeavours to be more amiable -than it is possible for him to be; and this is the reason that almost -all lovers appear ridiculous.” Who has not seen this unmistakable, -ludicrous expression of masculine Love—head slightly inclined to the -left; face as near her face as possible, echoing every expression of -hers; a saccharine, beseeching smile on the kiss-hungry lips, producing -on the spectator an uneasy sense of unstable equilibrium—as if in one -more moment the force of amorous gravitation would draw down his face to -hers? - -Add to this his embarrassed gestures, the over-sweet falsetto of his -voice—an octave higher than when he speaks to others,—and the peculiar -lover’s pallor, and the picture is complete— - - “Why so pale and wan, fond lover? - Prithee, why so pale? - Will, when looking well can’t move her, - Looking ill prevail?”—SUCKLING. - -To women Cupid is kinder. Instead of making them appear ludicrous, Love -has the power of transforming even a homely feminine face into a vision -of loveliness by throwing a halo of tender expression around it. This -wondrous transformation effected by Love is one of its greatest -miracles; and to one who has seen the girl previously it immediately -betrays her infatuation. It is a kind of _emotional calligraphy_ in -which the merest tyro can read, “I love him.” - -And this temporary transformation of homely into beautiful faces, this -fusing and moulding of the features into forms of voluptuous expression, -is of extreme psychologic interest; for it shows that, after all, the -exalted, extravagant image of Her perfections in the lover’s mind is not -purely imaginary. It is not so much owing to a difference of “taste” -that he loves her more than others do, as because she actually _does_ -look more beautiful when her eyes are fastened on him than when looking -at any other man. - - - III.—CARESSES - -“Tenderness,” says Professor Bain, “is a pleasurable emotion, variously -stimulated, whose effort is to draw human beings into mutual embrace.” -Darwin finds the peculiarity of love in the same desire for contact; -and, as usual, he seeks for the origin of this desire, and endeavours to -trace it to analogous peculiarities of the animals most closely related -to us. - -“With the lower animals,” he says, “we see the same principle of -pleasure derived from contact in association with love. Dogs and cats -manifestly take pleasure in rubbing against their masters and -mistresses, and in being rubbed or patted by them. Many kinds of -monkeys, as I am assured by the keepers in the Zoological Gardens, -delight in fondling and being fondled by each other, and by persons to -whom they are attached. Mr. Bartlett has described to me the behaviour -of two Chimpanzees, rather older animals than those generally imported -into this country, when they were first brought together. They sat -opposite, _touching each other with their much-protruded lips_, and the -one put his hand on the shoulder of the other. Then they mutually folded -each other in their arms. Afterwards they stood up, each with one arm on -the shoulder of the other, lifted up their heads, opened their mouths -and yelled with delight.” - -Concerning human beings Darwin remarks: “A strong desire to touch the -beloved person is commonly felt; and love is expressed by this means -more plainly than by any other. Hence we long to clasp in our arms those -we tenderly love. We probably owe this desire to _inherited habit_, in -association with the nursing and tending of our children, and with the -mutual caresses of lovers.” - -When love first dawns on the mind, the faintest superficial contact -flashes along the nerves as a thrill of delicious emotion. To walk along -the beach in a stiff breeze, and have her veil accidentally flutter in -his face, is a romantic incident on which a youthful lover’s memory -feasts for a month. If allowed to carry her shawl on his arm, he would -not feel the cold of a Siberian winter. And later, what a variety of -tell-tale caresses are there by which mutual Love may be revealed! It is -not the voice alone that can say “I love you”; nor the speaking eyes. -Confessions of Love, proposals and acceptance—complete dramas of -Love—have been enacted by the language of two pairs of feet that have -accidentally touched under the table. A slight pressure of the hand in -the ballroom has told thousands of lovers, before a word was spoken, -that now they may soon put their arms round that lovely waist without -the excuse of a waltz or polka. - -One form of hand-caress, dear alike to mothers and lovers, is thus -described by Professor Mantegazza: “In a caress we give and receive at -the same time. The hand which distributes love, as by a magnetic -effusion, receives it in return from the skin of the beloved person. -Hence it is that one of the most common and most thrilling of the -expressions of love consists in passing the hand through the hair. The -hand finds, in this labyrinth of supple, living threads, the means of -multiplying infinitely the points of amorous contact. It appears as if -each hair were an electric wire, putting us into direct connection with -the senses, with the heart, and even with the thoughts, of those we -love. It is not without reason that woman’s hair has long been given as -a token of love.” - -What a clumsy thing is language, what an awkward thing a formal proposal -stuttered out by a lover more embarrassed than if he were an amateur -actor appearing on the stage for the first time, as Romeo before an -international audience of actors and critics! How much less natural, -less poetic, it is to hear the confession of Love than to feel it— - - “When panting sighs the bosom fill, - And hands, by chance united, thrill - At once with one delicious pain.”—CLOUGH. - -What poet, and were he a genius in condensation, could compress into a -line, a page, a volume, such an ocean of emotion as is contained in a -momentary caress of the hand? Not even the moment when the lovers are -“imparadised in one another’s arms” surpasses this in ecstasy. - -Yet there is a more delicious rapture still in the drama of Courtship. -“Love’s sweetest language is,” as Herrick says, “a kiss.” All other -caresses are valueless without a kiss; for is not a kiss the very -autograph of Love? - -But labial contact is a subject of such supreme importance in the -philosophy and history of Love that it cannot be disposed of briefly as -one form of caressing, but demands a chapter by itself. - - - - - KISSING—PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE - - -“The lips,” says Sir Charles Bell, “are of all the features the most -susceptible of action, and the most direct index of the feelings.” No -wonder that Cupid selected them as his private seal, without which no -passion can be stamped as genuine. - -For the expression of all other emotions, by words or signs, one pair of -lips suffices. Love alone requires for its expression two pairs of lips. -Could anything more eloquently demonstrate the superiority of the -romantic passion over all others? - -Steele said of kissing that “Nature was its author, and it began with -the first courtship.” Steele evidently evolved this theory out of his -“inner consciousness,” for the facts do not agree with it. The art of -Kissing has, like Love itself, been gradually developed in connection -with the higher stages of culture. Traces of it are found among animals -and savages; the ancients often misunderstood its purport and object, as -did our mediæval ancestors; and it is only in recent times that Kissing -has tended to become what it should be—the special and exclusive -language of romantic and conjugal love. - - - AMONG ANIMALS - -Honour to whom honour is due. The Chimpanzee seems to have been the -first who discovered the charm of mutual labial contact. In the -description by Mr. Bartlett just referred to, the two Chimpanzees “sat -opposite, touching each other with their much-protruded lips.” And in -some notes on the Chimpanzee in Central Park, New York, by Dr. C. -Pitfield Mitchell, published in the _Journal of Comparative Medicine and -Surgery_, January 1885, we find the following: “That tender emotions are -experienced may be inferred from the fact that he pressed the kitten to -his breast and kissed it, holding it very gently in both hands. In -kissing, the lips are pouted and the tongue protruded, and both are -pressed upon the object of affection. The act is not accompanied by any -sound, thus differing from ordinary human osculation.” - -Dogs, especially when young, may be seen occasionally exchanging a sort -of tongue-kiss; and who has not seen dogs innumerable times make a -sudden sly dash at the lips of master or mistress and try to _steal_ a -kiss? The affectionate manner in which a cow and calf eagerly lick one -another in succession may be regarded as quite as genuine a kiss as a -human kiss on hand, forehead, or cheek; and it is probable that even in -the billing of doves the motive is a vague pleasure of contact. - - - AMONG SAVAGES - -we meet once more with the anomalous fact that they seem ignorant, on -the whole, of a clever invention known even to some animals. Sir John -Lubbock, after referring to Steele’s opinion that kissing is coeval with -courtship, remarks: “It was, on the contrary, entirely unknown to the -Tahitians, the New Zealanders, the Papuas, and the aborigines of -Australia, nor was it in use among the Somals or the Esquimaux.” Jemmy -Button, the Fuegian, told Darwin that kissing was unknown in his land; -and another writer gives an amusing account of an attempt he made to -kiss a young negro girl. She was greatly terrified, probably imagining -him a new species of cannibal who had made up his mind to eat her on the -spot, raw, and without salt and pepper. - -Monteiro, in a passage previously quoted, says that in all the long -years he has been in Africa he has “never seen a negro put his arm round -a woman’s waist, or give or receive any caress whatever that would -indicate the slightest loving regard or affection on either side.” - -Considering the general obtuseness of a savage’s nerves, it is no wonder -that the subtle thrill of a kiss should be unknown to him. In many -cases, moreover, Kissing is rendered physically impossible by the habit -indulged in of mutilating and enlarging the lips. For instance, -Schweinfurth, in his _Heart of Africa_, says that among the Bongo women -“the lower lip is extended horizontally till it projects far beyond the -upper, which is also bored and fitted with a copper plate or nail, and -now and then by a little ring, and sometimes by a bit of straw, about as -thick as a lucifer match.” Many other similar cases could be cited. - -Evidently, under these circumstances, kissing would prove a snare and a -delusion. - - - THE ORIGIN OF KISSING - -is a topic on which doctors disagree, the opinions of Darwin and Mr. -Spencer in particular differing as widely as their views regarding the -origin of music. Mr. Spencer traces the primitive delight in osculation -to the gustatory sense, Darwin to contact. - -“Obviously,” says Mr. Spencer, "the billing of doves or pigeons, and the -like action of love-birds, indicates an affection which is gratified by -the gustatory sensation. No act of this kind on the part of an inferior -creature, as of a cow licking a calf, can have any other origin than the -direct prompting of a desire which gains by the act satisfaction; and in -such a case the satisfaction is that which vivid perception of offspring -gives to the maternal yearning. In some animals like acts arise from -other forms of affection. Licking the hand, or, where it is accessible, -the face, is a common display of attachment on a dog’s part; and when we -remember how keen must be the olfactory sense by which a dog traces his -master, we cannot doubt that to his gustatory sense, too, there is -yielded some impression—an impression associated with those pleasures of -affection which his master’s presence gives. - -“The inference that kissing, as a mark of fondness in the human race, -has a kindred origin, is sufficiently probable. Though kissing is not -universal—though the negro races do not understand it, and though, as we -have seen, there are cases where sniffing replaces it—yet, being common -to unlikely and widely-dispersed peoples, we may conclude that it -originated in the same manner as the analogous action among lower -creatures.... From kissing as a natural sign of affection, there is -derived the kissing which, as a means of simulating affection, gratifies -those who are kissed; and, by gratifying them, propitiates them. Hence -an obvious root for the kissing of feet, hands, garments, as a part of -ceremonial.” - -Darwin, on the other hand, holds that kissing “is so far innate or -natural that it apparently depends on pleasure from close contact with a -beloved person; and it is replaced in various parts of the world, by the -rubbing of noses, as with the New Zealanders and Laplanders, by the -rubbing or patting of the arms, breasts, or stomachs, or by one man -striking his own face with the hands or feet of another. Perhaps the -practice of blowing, as a mark of affection, on various parts of the -body may depend on the same principle.” - -Has Mr. Spencer ever kissed a girl? Certainly, to one who has, his -theory of the gustatory origin of Kissing would seem like a joke were it -not stated with so much scientific pomp and circumstance. The billing of -doves and love-birds, in the first place, cannot be regarded as a matter -of taste, literally, because in birds the sense of taste is commonly -very rudimentary or quite absent, as their habit of swallowing seeds and -other food whole and dry would make a sense which can only judge of -things in a state of solution quite useless. The sense of touch, on the -other hand, is exceedingly delicate in the bill of birds, which is, as -it were, their feeler or hand. - -That the motive which prompts cows and calves to lick one another is -likewise tactile rather than gustatory, I had occasion to observe only a -few days ago in a place worthy of so romantic a subject as the -experimental study of kissing. Scene: a green mountain-meadow above -Mürren, Switzerland. Frame of the picture, a semicircle of snow-giants, -including Wetterhorn, Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau, Breithorn, etc. Cows and -calves in the meadow, not in the least disturbed by the avalanches -thundering down the side of the Jungfrau every twenty minutes. Cow licks -calf, and calf retaliates by licking the cow’s neck. Cow enjoys it -immensely, holding her head up as high as possible, with an expression -of intense enjoyment, just like a dog when you rub and pat his neck. -Ergo, as cow was not licking but being licked, her enjoyment must have -been tactile, not gustatory. To the cow her tongue is what the bill is -to a bird—her most mobile organ, her feeler, and hand. - -Possibly Mr. Spencer was misled into his gustatory theory by a too -literal interpretation of a habit poets have always had of calling a -kiss sweet. Among the Romans a love-kiss was distinguished from other -kisses by being called a _suavium_ or sweet thing; and a modern German -poet boldly compares the flavour of kisses to wild strawberries (perhaps -she had just been eating some). Yet all this belongs to fancy’s -fairyland. Kisses are called sweet for the same reason that we speak of -the sweet concords of music, _i.e._ because the language of æsthetics is -so scantily developed that we are constantly compelled to borrow terms -from one sense and apply them to another, when their only resemblance is -that they are both agreeable or otherwise. - -There is a very prevalent impression that the senses of savages are more -delicate than ours. In one way they are. A savage can often see an -object at a greater distance, and hear a fainter sound, than a white -man. But in what may be called æsthetic as distinguished from physical -refinement, savages are vastly our inferiors. A savage can hardly tell -the difference between two adjacent notes in the musical scale, while a -musician can distinguish the sixtieth part of a semitone. And why would -the wondrous harmonies of a Chopin nocturne seem a mere chaos of sound -to a savage? Because his ears have not been trained through his -imagination and intellect to discriminate sounds and sound-combinations, -or to follow the plot or development of a musical narrative or “theme.” - -Just so with the sense of touch. A sweetheart’s veil fluttering in a -Hottentot’s face would only annoy him. A squeeze of the hand would leave -him cold; and would he refrain from putting his arm round her waist if -that gave him any pleasure? Obviously, then, the reason why the art of -kissing is unknown to him is because his senses are too callous, his -imagination too sluggish. - -Kissing, like every other fine art, has its sensuous and its imaginative -or intellectual side. Of all parts of the visible body the lips are the -most sensitive to contact. Here the layer in which the nerves and -blood-vessels are contained is not covered over, as elsewhere on the -skin, by a thick leathery epidermis, but only thinly veiled by a -transparent epithelium; so that when lips are applied to lips, the -blood-vessels which carry the vital fluid straight from the two loving -hearts, and the soul-fibres, called nerves, are brought into almost -immediate contact: whence that interchange of soul-magnetism—that -electric shock which makes the first mutual kiss of Love the sweetest -moment of life— - - “What words can ever speak affection - So thrilling and sincere as thine?”—BURNS. - -Yet herein the imagination plays a much more prominent _rôle_ than it -appears to do at first sight. The real reason why a savage cannot enjoy -a kiss is not so much because his lips are deficient in tactile -sensibility, as because he has no imagination to invest labial contact -with the romance of individualised passion. If a lover’s pleasure lay in -the mere labial contact, he would as soon exchange a kiss with any other -girl. But should a sweetheart, on being asked for a kiss, refer him, -say, to his sister or her sister; though the latter be a hundred times -more beautiful, he would chide his love for offering a stone where bread -was wanted. His imagination has so long painted to him the superior -ecstasy of a kiss from her that, when he finally gets it, the -long-deferred gratification ensures the unparalleled rapture -anticipated. - - - ANCIENT KISSES - -As the ancient civilised nations were much more addicted than we are to -gesture language, it seems natural that so expressive a sign as kissing -should have been used for a variety of purposes—for indicating not only -family affection, sexual passion and friendship, but general respect, -reverence, humility, condescension, etc. Among idolatrous nations, as -M‘Clintock and Strong remark, “it was the custom to throw kisses towards -the images of the gods, and towards the sun and moon.” Kissing the hand -appears to be a modern custom, but many other parts of the body were -thus saluted by the ancients: “Kissing the feet of princes was a token -of subjection and obedience, which was sometimes carried so far that the -print of the foot received the kiss, so as to give the impression that -the very dust had become sacred by the royal tread, or that the subject -was not worthy to salute even the prince’s foot, but was content to kiss -the earth itself near or on which he trod.” A similar observance is the -kissing of the Pope’s toe, or rather, the cross on his slipper—a custom -in vogue since the year 710. Among the Arabs the women and children kiss -the beards of their husbands or fathers. Among the ancient Hebrews, -“kissing the lips by way of affectionate salutation was not only -permitted, but customary among near relatives of both sexes, both in -patriarchal and in later times.” The kiss on the cheek “has at all times -been customary in the East, and can hardly be said to be extinct even in -Europe.” - -Among the ancient Greeks, Jealousy prompted the husbands to “make their -wives eat onions whenever they were going from home.” And in the Roman -Republic, “Among the safeguards of female purity,” says Mr. Lecky, “was -an enactment forbidding women even to taste wine.... Cato said that the -ancient Romans were accustomed to kiss their wives for the purpose of -discovering whether they had been drinking wine.” - -Breath-sweetening cloves and cachous were evidently unknown in the good -old times. - -The Romans had special names for three kinds of kisses—_basium_, a kiss -of politeness; _osculum_, between friends; _suavium_, between lovers. If -a man kissed his betrothed, she gained thereby the half of his effects -in the event of his dying before the celebration of the marriage; and if -the lady herself died, under the same circumstances, her heirs or -nearest of kin took the half due to her, a kiss among the ancients being -a sign of plighted faith. So seriously, indeed, was a kiss regarded by -the ancient Romans, that a husband would not even kiss his wife in -presence of his daughters. - -It was on account of this strict feeling regarding kisses exchanged by -man and woman that the early Christians subjected themselves to fierce -attacks and slander, because of the kisses that were exchanged as a -symbol of religious union at the Love-Feasts of the first disciples. -“But, in 397, the Council of Carthage thought fit to forbid all -religious kissing between the sexes, notwithstanding St. Paul’s -exhortation, ‘Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity.’” - - - MEDIÆVAL KISSES - -Among many other refinements of the ancients, the mediæval nations lost -the sense of the sacredness of kissing between the sexes. England was -apparently the greatest sinner in this respect; for it appears to have -been customary on visiting to kiss the host’s wife and daughters. -Indeed, up to a comparatively recent time, kissing on every occasion was -almost as prevalent and permissible as handshaking is at the present -day. In the sixteenth century it was customary in England for ladies to -reward their partners in the dance with a kiss; and for a long time the -minister who united a couple in the holy bonds of matrimony had the -privilege of kissing not only the bride but even the bridesmaids! No -wonder the ministry was the most popular profession in those days. - -“It is quite certain,” says a writer in the _St. James’s Magazine_ -(1871), “that the custom of kissing was brought into England from -Friesland, as St. Pierius Wensemius, historiographer to their High -Mightinesses, the states of Friesland, in his _Chronicle_, 1622, tells -us that the pleasant practice of kissing was utterly ‘unpractised and -unknown in England till the fair Princess Romix (Rowena), the daughter -of King Hengist of Friesland, pressed the beaker with her lippens, and -saluted the amorous Vortigern with a kusjen’ (little kiss).” - -Having recovered this lost art, however, the English lost no time in -making up for neglected opportunities. Erasmus writes in one of his -epistles: “If you go to any place (in Britain) you are received with a -_kiss_ by all; if you depart on a journey, you are dismissed with a -kiss; you return, kisses are exchanged ... wherever you move, nothing -but kisses. And if you, Faustus, had but once tasted them,—how soft they -are, how fragrant! on my honour, you would wish not to reside here for -ten years only, but for life!!!” - -Bunyan, however, frowned on this practice, and inquired most -pertinently—and impertinently—why the men only “salute the most handsome -and let the ill-favoured alone?” - -Pepys, in his _Diary_ for 1660, gives this account of some Portuguese -ladies in London: “I find nothing in them that is pleasing; and I see -they have _learnt to kiss_, and look freely up and down already, and I -do believe will soon forget the recluse practice of their own country.” - -One of the luckiest of mortals was Bulstrode Whitelock, who at the Court -of Christine of Sweden was asked to teach her ladies “the English mode -of salutation; which, after some pretty defences, their lips obeyed, and -_Whitelock most readily_!” - -The following extraordinary kissing story is told in _Chambers’s -Journal_ for 1861:— - -“When the gallant cardinal, Count of Lorraine, was presented to the -Duchess of Savoy, she gave him her hand to kiss, greatly to the -indignation of the irate churchman. ‘How, madame,’ exclaimed he, ‘am I -to be treated in this manner? I kiss the queen, my mistress, who is the -greatest queen in the world, and shall I not kiss you, a _dirty little -duchess_? I would have you know I have kissed as handsome ladies, and of -as great or greater family than you.’ Without more ado he made for the -lips of the proud Portuguese princess, and, despite her resistance, -kissed her thrice on her mouth before he released her with an exultant -laugh.” - -The fashion of universal kissing appears to have gone out about the time -of the Restoration. - - - MODERN KISSES - -The history of kissing, thus briefly sketched, shows that among -primitive men this art is unknown because they are incapable of -appreciating it. To the ancient civilised nations its charms were -revealed; but as usual in the intoxication of a new discovery, they -hardly knew what to do with it, and applied it to all sorts of stupid -ceremonial purposes. The tendency of civilisation, however, has been to -eliminate promiscuous kissing, and restrict it more and more to its -proper function as an expression of the affections. And even within this -sphere the circle becomes gradually smaller. Although in some parts of -Europe men still kiss one another as a token of relationship, -friendship, or esteem, yet the habit is slowly dying out, the example -having been set in England, where it was abandoned toward the close of -the seventeenth century. The senseless custom which women to-day indulge -in of kissing each other on the slightest provocation, often when they -would rather slap one another in the face, is also doomed to extinction. -The witticism that women kiss one another because they cannot find -anything better to kiss, differing herein from men, was not perpetrated -by a woman. The practice of kissing little children has been often -enough condemned on medical grounds, which also hold good in the case of -adults. That contagious diseases are thus often conveyed from one person -to another was already known to the ancient Romans, one of whose -emperors issued a special proclamation in consequence against -promiscuous kissing. - -From a sentimental point of view, the most objectionable of modern -kisses are those which are allowed between cousins. As long as a man may -become a suitor for the hand of his cousin he should, both for the sake -of his own love-drama and in justice to a possible rival, be debarred -from this privilege. Imagine the feelings of a lover who knows that his -rival has been permitted to steal the virgin kiss from the lips of his -adored one simply because his father happens to be her uncle! Family -kisses should, therefore, be allowed only within that degree of -relationship which precludes the idea of Love and marriage. Cousins will -have to be satisfied in future with a warmer grasp of the hand and an -extra lump of sugar in a maiden’s smile. - - - LOVE-KISSES - -The happiest moment in the life of the happiest man is that when he is -allowed for the first time to “steal immortal blessing” from the lips of -her who has just promised to be his for ever. No wonder the poets have -grown eloquent over this supreme moment of pre-heavenly rapture— - -TENNYSON— - - “O love, O fire! once he drew - With one long kiss my whole soul through - My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.” - -MOORE— - - “Grow to my lips thou sacred kiss.” - -SHAKSPERE— - - “As if he plucked up kisses by the root - That grew upon my lips.” - -RÜCKERT— - - “Meine Liebste, mit den frommen treuen - Braunen Rehesaugen, sagt, sie habe - Blaue einst als Kind gehabt. Ich glaub’es. - Neulich da ich, seliges Vergessen - Trinkend hing an ihren Lippen, - Meine Augen unterm langen Kusse - Oeffnend, schaut’ ich in die nahen ihren, - Und sie kamen mir in solcher Nähe - Tiefblau wie ein Himmel vor. Was ist das - Wer gibt dir der Kindheit Augen wieder? - Deine Liebe, sprach sie, deine Liebe, - Die mich hat zum Kind gemacht, die alle - Liebesunschuldsträume meiner Kindheit - Hat gereift zu sel’ger Erfüllung. - Soll der Himmel nicht, der mir im Herzen - Steht durch dich, mir blau durch’s Auge blicken?” - -Love-kisses are silent like deep affection— - - “Passions are likened best to floods and streams: - The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.”—RALEIGH. - -True, Petruchio kissed Katrina “with such a clamorous smack, that at the -parting all the church did echo”; but his object was not to express his -Love, but to tease and tame the shrew. Loud kisses, moreover, might -betray the lovers to profane ears, and bring on a fatal attack of -Coyness on the girl’s part— - - “The greatest sin ’twixt heaven and hell - Is first to kiss and then to tell.” - -Love-kisses are passionate and long; for Love is Cupid’s lip-cement— - - “Oh, a kiss, long as my exile, - Sweet as my revenge.”—SHAKSPERE. - - “A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth and love.” - - “For a kiss’s strength - I think it must be measured by its length.”—BYRON. - - “A kiss now that will hang upon my lip - As sweet as morning dew upon a rose, - And full as long.”—THOMAS MIDDLETON. - -Perhaps the longest kiss on record is that which Siegfried gives -Brünnhilde in the drama of _Siegfried_. But this is not an ordinary -kiss, for the hero has to wake with it the Valkyrie from the twenty -years’ sleep into which old Wotan had plunged her for disobeying his -orders. Thanks to Wagner’s art, the thrill of this Love-kiss, magically -transmuted into tones, is felt by a thousand spectators simultaneously -with the lover. - -Love-kisses are innumerable. Thus sings the Italian poet, Cecco -Angiolieri, in the thirteenth century— - - “Because the stars are fewer in heaven’s span - Than all those kisses wherewith I kept time - All in an instant (I who now have none!) - Upon her mouth (I and no other man!) - So sweetly on the twentieth day of June - On the New Year twelve hundred ninety-one.” - ROSSETTI’S TRANSL. - -Novelists and poets have exhausted their ingenuity in finding adjectives -descriptive of Love-kisses and others. An anonymous essayist has -compiled the following list:— - -“Kisses are forced, unwilling, cold, comfortless, frigid, and frozen, -chaste, timid, rosy, balmy, humid, dewy, trembling, soft, gentle, -tender, tempting, fragrant, sacred, hallowed, divine, soothing, joyful, -affectionate, delicious, rapturous, deep-drawn, impressive, quick, and -nervous, warm, burning, impassioned, inebriating, ardent, flaming, and -akin to fire, ravishing, lingering, long. One also hears of parting, -tear-dewed, savoury, loathsome, poisonous, treacherous, false, rude, -stolen, and great fat, noisy kisses.” - - - HOW TO KISS - -Kissing comes by instinct, and yet it is an art which few understand -properly. A lover should not hold his bride by the ears in kissing her, -as appears to have been customary at Scotch weddings of the last -century. A more graceful way, and quite effective in preventing the -bride from “getting away,” is to put your right arm round her neck, your -fingers under her chin, raise the chin, and then gently but firmly press -your lips on hers. After a few repetitions she will find out it doesn’t -hurt, and become as gentle as a lamb. - -The word adoration is derived from kissing. It means literally to apply -to the mouth. Therefore girls should beware of philologists who may ask -them with seemingly harmless intent, “May I adore you?” - -In kissing, as in everything else, honesty is the best policy. Stolen -kisses are not the sweetest, as Leigh Hunt would have us believe. A kiss -to be a kiss must be mutual, voluntary, simultaneous. “The kiss snatched -hasty from the sidelong maid” is not worth having. A stolen kiss is only -half a kiss. - - “These poor half-kisses kill me quite; - Was ever man thus served? - Amidst an ocean of delight, - For pleasure to be starved?”—MARLOWE. - - - - - HOW TO WIN LOVE - - - BRASS BUTTONS - -Inasmuch as language is the least eloquent and effective mode of -expressing Love, and inasmuch as Love is commonly inspired in woman by -the possession of qualities which she lacks, it is obvious that -Shakspere did not show his usual insight into human nature when he -wrote— - - “That man that hath a tongue is, I say, no man, - If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.” - -It seems, indeed, quite probable that Bacon wrote those two lines; if -Shakspere had written them he would have said— - - “That man that hath a uniform is, I say, no man, - If with his uniform he cannot win a woman.” - -The extraordinary infatuation for military uniforms shown by women of -all times and countries is one of the most obscure problems in mental -and social philosophy. Whenever an officer, though ever so humble in -rank, is present at a ball or other social gathering, all other men, be -they merchants, politicians, lawyers, physicians, artists, students, -ministers, are simply “nowhere.” - -What is the cause of this singular infatuation? Is it the colour-harmony -formed by the complementary blue cloth and yellow buttons? No, for -various officials, as well as messenger boys, wear similar uniforms -without making any special impression on the feminine heart. Is it the -beauty or the wit of the soldier? No, for he may be as stupid as a log, -and red-nosed and smallpox-pitted, without losing a jot of his -popularity. Nor can it be his valour, for he has perhaps never yet been -opposite the “business end” of a rifle, as they say out West. Nor, -again, is it likely that women admire soldiers from an inherited sense -of gratitude for the services they rendered in former warlike times in -protecting their great-great-grandmothers from the enemy’s barbarity; -for woman’s gratitude is not apt to be so very retrospective, while -gratitude itself is less apt to inspire Love than aversion. - -Whatever may be the cause of this mysterious phenomenon, the fact -remains that officers are woman’s ideals. Hence the first and most -important hint to those who would win a woman’s Love is: Put brass -buttons on your coat, have it dyed blue, and wear epaulettes and a waxed -moustache. This love-charm has never been known to fail. - - - CONFIDENCE AND BOLDNESS - -Women secretly detest bashful men. It is their own duty, prescribed by -etiquette, to be passive, shy, and diffident; hence if men were shy and -diffident too, no advances would be made, and all progress in -Love-making would be retarded. - -Women love courage. He who robs lions of their hearts can easily win a -woman’s. - - “Our doubts are traitors, - And make us lose the good we oft might win - By fearing to attempt,” - -says Shakspere; and Chesterfield remarks _à propos_, that “that silly -sanguine notion which is firmly entertained here, that one Englishman -can beat three Frenchmen, encourages and has sometimes enabled one -Englishman in reality to beat two.” - -Ovid knew the value of boldness. And although his object was not to -teach how to win permanent Love, but how to get honey without taking -care of the bees, yet his psychology is correct, and agrees with -Goethe’s aphorism that “if thou approachest women with tenderness thou -winnest them with a word; but he who is bold and saucy comes off -better.” - -Perhaps this is one reason why officers are so successful in Love, for -several of them have been known to be bold and saucy. - -Another reason may be that their pursuit is more distinctively and -exclusively masculine than any other profession. - -What, for instance, could be more delightfully masculine, _i.e._ -mediæval, than the way in which, according to the _Chronicon Turonense_, -William the Conqueror wooed and won Mathilde, the daughter of Count -Baldwin, Prince of Flanders. At first he was unsuccessful, “for the -young girl,” says Professor Scherr, “declared proudly she would not -marry a bastard. Then William rode to Bruges, waylaid Mathilde, attacked -her when she came from church, pulled her long hair, and maltreated her -with his fists and with kicks, after which heroic performance he made -his escape. Strange to say, this peculiar mode of Love-making imposed so -greatly on the beauty that she declared with tears in her eyes that she -would marry no one but the Norman Duke, whom she actually did marry. A -parallel case may be found in the German _Nibelungenlied_ (str. 870 and -901).” - -Since, according to the old philosophy, human nature, including Love and -Love-making, is the same at all times and in all countries, it follows -that a modern lover, after donning his brass buttons, should administer -his sweetheart a sound thrashing. That will make her mellow and docile. - - - PLEASANT ASSOCIATIONS - -The Germans, it is well known, are deficient in Gallantry, at least in -conjugal life, and often treat their wives more as upper servants than -as companions. Perhaps it was the unconscious desire to justify this -conjugal attitude that induced one of the leading German psychologists, -Horwicz, to pen these lines:— - -“Love can only be excited by strong and vivid emotions, and it is almost -immaterial whether these emotions are agreeable or disagreeable. The Cid -wooed the proud heart of Donna Ximene, whose father he had slain, by -shooting one after another of her pet pigeons. Such persons as arouse in -us only weak emotions, or none at all, are obviously least likely to -incline us toward them.... Our aversion is most apt to be bestowed on -individuals who, as the phrase goes, are ‘neither warm nor cold’; -whereas impulsive, choleric people, though they may readily offend us, -are just as capable of making us warmly attached to them.” - -How that modern genius, who lived two thousand years ago and called -himself Ovid, would have opened his eyes in wonder at this -German-mediæval Art of Love! He, queer fellow, believed that a lover -should never be otherwise than pleasantly associated in his sweetheart’s -mind. If she is spoiled by over-indulgence, do not, he says in effect, -take away her dainties with your own hand. If she is unwell, do not hand -her the bitter medicine in person: “Let your rival mix the cup for her.” - -So long as the professional manslayer is the highest ideal of woman’s -tender heart, lovers will do well to follow mediæval methods of -Courtship and make themselves as disagreeable as possible. When the -millennium arrives, and wholesale duels to avenge offended national -“honour” will, like private duels to avenge individual “honour,” have -become obsolete, then the Ovidian psychology of Love will begin to -prevail. Then will the lover endeavour to avoid all harshness and to be -only agreeably associated in the mind of his goddess—through bright, -cheerful conversation, harmless and sincere compliments, mutual -enjoyment of excursions and artistic entertainments, the avoidance of -disagreeable topics, of jealous suspicions and reproaches, etc.; hoping -thus to become the nucleus around which her dreams of matrimonial -happiness will gradually crystallise. - - - PERSEVERANCE - -Persistence alone may win a woman where all other means fail. She may -dream of an ideal lover and vainly wait for his appearance for several -years; and in the meantime the image of her ever-present suitor will -become brighter and more inviting in her mind. For is not perseverance, -is not unflagging devotion to a single aim, one of the noblest of manly -attributes, a guarantee of success in life and the highest test of -genuine passion? - -Perseverance may neutralise more than one refusal. - - “Have you not heard it said full oft - A woman’s nay doth stand for naught?” - -asks Shakspere; and Byron teaches that she - - “Who listens once will listen twice; - Her heart, be sure, is not of ice, - And one refusal no rebuff.” - -The fact that a proposal is the sincerest compliment a man can pay a -woman, contributes not a little to make a second proposal more -acceptable. A third should rarely be attempted. The first proposal may -have been refused more from momentary embarrassment than from real -indifference. The second, being weighted by reflection, is generally -final, though numerous exceptions have occurred; yet in such cases it is -probable that the woman gives her hand without her heart, having at last -discovered that her heart is impervious to all Love. There are hundreds -of thousands of such women, and some of them are very sweet and pretty. -The fault lies in their shallow education. - - - FEIGNED INDIFFERENCE - -Of every ten disappointed lovers seven might say: Had I been a less -submissive slave, I might have been a more successful suitor. - -“It is a rule of manners,” says Emerson, “to avoid exaggeration.... In -man or woman the face and the person lose power when they are on the -strain to express admiration.” - -In other words, one of the ways of winning Love is through stolidity and -indifference, real or feigned. - -Were women the paragons of subtle insight they are painted, they would -favour those who are most visibly affected by their charms, as being -best able to appreciate and cherish them. There are such women—a few; -but the majority are partial coquettes, to whom Love is known only as a -form of Vanity, who neglect a man already won, and reserve their -sweetest smiles for those that seem less submissive. The artificial -dignity under which so many young society men hide their mental vacuity -has an irresistible fascination for the average society girl. And the -high collar, which helps to keep the head in a dignified position, -unswerved by emotion, is responsible for innumerable conquests. - -Ergo, to win a society girl’s heart, wear a high collar, appear awfully -dignified and stolid, and show not the slightest interest in anything. -Above all, if you are of superior intelligence, carefully conceal the -fact. Brains are not “good form” in society; for what’s the use of -having flint where there is no steel to strike a spark? “Stolidity,” -says Schopenhauer, “does not injure a man in a woman’s eye: rather will -mental superiority, and still more genius, as something abnormal, have -an unfavourable influence.” - -A passage from Diderot’s _Paradox of Acting_ (Pollock’s translation) may -be cited in illustration of Schopenhauer’s remark. - -“Take two lovers, both of whom have their declarations to make. Who will -come out of it best? Not I, I promise you. I remember that I approached -the beloved object with fear and trembling; my heart beat, my ideas grew -confused, my voice failed me, I mangled all I said; I cried _yes_ for -_no_; I made a thousand blunders; I was inimitably inept; I was absurd -from top to toe, and the more I saw it the more absurd I became. -Meanwhile, under my very eyes, a gay rival, light-hearted and agreeable, -master of himself, pleased with himself, losing no opportunity for the -finest flattery, made himself entertaining and agreeable, enjoyed -himself; he implored the touch of a hand which was at once given him, he -sometimes caught it without asking leave, he kissed it once and again. I -the while, alone in a corner, avoided a sight which irritated me, -stifling my sighs, cracking my fingers with grasping my wrists, plunged -in melancholy, covered with a cold sweat, I could neither show nor -conceal my vexation. People say of love that it robs witty men of their -wit, and gives it to those who had none before: in other words, makes -some people sensitive and stupid, others cold and adventurous.” - -Another specialist in Love-lore, Lord Byron, discourses on this text in -five pithy lines— - - “Not much he kens, I ween, of woman’s breast - Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs, - Do proper homage to thine idol’s eyes, - _But not too humbly or she will despise; - Disguise even tenderness, if thou art wise_.” - -And even the king of German metaphysicians, old Kant, understood this -feminine foible, which may have been the reason why he never found a -wife: “An actor,” he says, “who remains unmoved, but possesses a -powerful intellect and imagination, may succeed in producing a deeper -impression by his feigned emotion than he could by real emotion. One who -is truly in love is, in presence of his beloved, confused, awkward, and -anything but fascinating. But a clever man who merely plays the _rôle_ -of a lover may do it so naturally as to easily ensnare his poor victim; -simply because, his heart being unmoved, his head remains clear, and he -can, therefore, make the most of his wits and his cleverness in -presenting the counterfeit of a lover.” - -“The counterfeit of a lover.” It is he, then, whom women, according to -these French, English, and German witnesses, encourage, instead of the -true lover. So that women are not only less capable of deep Love than -men, but they do not even promote the growth and survival of Love by -favouring the men most deeply affected by it. And the fault, be it said -once more, lies in the superficial education not only of their intellect -but of their emotions, for the heart can only be reached and refined -through the brain. The average woman, being incapable of feeling Love, -is incapable of appreciating it when she finds it in a man. She sees -only its ridiculous side—and ridicule is fatal, even to Love. Ridicule -killed Love in France, which to-day is the most loveless country in the -civilised world, its women the most frivolous and heartless,—and its -population gradually diminishing. - -The ridiculous exaggerations of a lover are indeed harmless if the girl -is in love too, for then she does not see them; but to one who has yet -to win Love, as girls are now constituted, they are fatal. Perhaps this -is the reason why the list of men of genius who failed in their truest -Love is so extraordinarily large: for, their Love being more ardent than -that of others, they were unable to restrain its excesses and feign -indifference; while another way in which they “lost power” was through -their extravagant admiration of Beauty, which put their faces “on the -strain” to express it. - -However this may be, lovers should keep in mind this paradoxical rule, -which follows as a corollary from the foregoing discussion: - -In order to win a woman, first cure yourself of your passion, then, -having won her through feigned indifference (which is easy), fall in -love again and bag her before she has had time to discover your change -of feeling. - -The only difficulty herein lies in the cure. Should this be found -impossible, even with the aid of our next chapter, one last resource is -open to the lover. Says La Bruyère: “Quand l’on a assez fait auprès -d’une femme pour devoir l’engager, il y a encore une ressource, qui est -de ne plus rien faire; _c’est alors qu’elle vous rappelle_.” In other -words, if you have failed to win her love, with all your attentions, -change your policy: leave her alone, and she will be sure to recall you. - -This trait is not simply the outcome of feminine perverseness or -coquetry. The explanation lies deeper. Every sensible woman, be she ever -so vain and accustomed to flattery, is painfully conscious of certain -defects, physical or mental. “Has he discovered them?” she will -anxiously ask herself when the sly lover suddenly withdraws; “I must -recover his good opinion.” So she sets herself the task of fascinating -and pleasing him; and this desire to please (Gallantry) being one of the -constituent parts of Love, it is apt to be soon joined by the other -symptoms which make up the romantic passion. - - - COMPLIMENTS - - “O flatter me, for love delights in praises,” - -exclaims one of Shakspere’s characters; and again— - - “Flatter and praise, commend, extol their graces; - Tho’ ne’er so black, say they have angels’ faces.” - -There is one advantage in writing about the romantic passion. Love is -such a tissue of paradoxes, and exists in such an endless variety of -forms and shades that you may say almost anything about it you please, -and it is likely to be correct. So again here. It is true, no doubt, -that skill in the art of flattery helps a man to win a woman’s goodwill, -but how does this rhyme with the doctrine that Feigned Indifference is -the lover’s sharpest weapon? - -Answer: A compliment is not so much an expression of Love as of simple -æsthetic admiration; or else it may spring from the flatterer’s desire -to show off his wit. A man may compliment a woman for whom he does not -feel the slightest Love; and women know it. Therefore even a coquette -does not despise and ignore a man who flatters her, as she invariably -does one whose _actions_ brand him as her captive and slave. - -At the same time, since the desire to be considered beautiful is the -strongest passion in a woman’s heart, the avenue to that heart may often -be found by a man who can convince her honestly that she is considered -beautiful by himself and others. For, as every man of ability has -moments when he doubts his genius, so every woman has moments when she -doubts her beauty and longs to see it in the mirror of a masculine eye. - -The most common mistake of lovers is to compliment a woman on her most -conspicuous points of beauty. This has very much the same effect on her -as telling Rubinstein he is a wonderful pianist. He knows that better -than you do, and has been told so so many million times that he is sick -and tired of hearing it again. But show him that you have discovered -some special subtle detail of excellence in his performance or -compositions that had escaped general notice, and his heart is yours at -once and for ever. A lover can have no difficulty in discovering such -subtle charms in his sweetheart, for Cupid, while blinding him to her -defects, places her beauties under a microscope. - -A man who attends a social gathering comes home pleased, not at having -heard a number of bright things, but in proportion to his own success in -amusing the company. On the same principle, if you give a -girl—especially one who mistrusts her conversational ability—a chance to -say a single bright thing, she will love you more than if you said a -hundred clever things to her. - -Sincerity in compliments is essential; else all is lost. It is useless -to try to convince a woman with an ugly mouth or nose that those -features are not ugly. She knows they are ugly, as well as Rubinstein -knows when he strikes a wrong note. “Very ugly or very beautiful women,” -says Chesterfield, “should be flattered on their understanding, and -mediocre ones on their beauty.” - -A clever joke is never out of place. You may intimate to a comparatively -plain woman that she is good-looking, and if she retorts with a -sceptical answer, you may snub her and score ten points in Love by -telling her you pity her poor taste. - -Indeed, the art of successful flattery, especially with modern -self-conscious girls, consists in the ability of giving “a heartfelt -compliment in the disguise of playful raillery,” as Coleridge puts it. -Conundrums are very useful. For instance, Angelina is patting a dog. “Do -you know why all dogs are so fond of you?” asks Adolphus. Angelina gives -it up. “Because dogs are the most intelligent of all animals.” Angelina -goes to Paris, and Adolphus enjoys his last walk with her. They pass a -weeping willow. “Why are we two like this tree?” She gives it up again. -“A weeping willow is graceful and melancholy; you are graceful, I -melancholy.” - -“How old am I?” asks Angelina. “I don’t know. Judging by your -conversation thirty-five, by your looks nineteen.” - -Tell a woman—casually, as it were—of the effect of her charms on a third -party, and it will please her more than a bushel of your neatest -compliments. As Lessing remarks, Homer gives us a more vivid sense of -Helen’s beauty by noting its effect even on the Trojan elders, than he -could have done by the most minute enumeration of her charms. Put your -flatteries into actions rather than words—“mettre la flatterie dans les -actions et non en paroles”—is Balzac’s advice. But “flattery in actions” -is simply another name for Gallantry. - -There is no danger that the subtlest compliment will ever escape notice. -In the discovery of praise the commonest mind has the quickness of -genius. - - - LOVE-LETTERS - -The great trouble with compliments is that they have an annoying habit -of occurring to the mind about ten or twenty minutes after the natural -opportunity for getting them off has passed away. It is here that -Love-letters come to the rescue. They enable a man to excogitate the -most excruciatingly subtle and hyperbolic compliments, and then “lead up -to them” most naturally. - -There is an old superstition that Love-letters _must_ be incoherent -trash to be genuine evidences of passion. When Keats’s Love-letters to -Fanny Brawne were sold at auction, a spicy journalist commented as -follows on the occasion:— - -“It is open to question whether, like so many of the letter-writers of -the age of which Keats inherited the traditions, the singer of -_Endymion_ had not a shrewd eye to posterity when he wrote the laboured -compositions which the world regards as the record of his wooing. The -manuscript is painfully correct, the punctuation worthy of a printer’s -reader, the capitals much nicer than fiery lovers usually form, and the -periods rounded with painful care. Like so many cultivators of the art -of letter-writing, the sensitive poet, ‘who was snuffed out by a -review,’ seems to have copied the gush, which last week sold for ten -times more than _Endymion_ fetched, before he committed it to the -fourpenny post. Hence the veriest scrawl, the most illegible postcard of -these times is, as an index to the writer’s character, infinitely more -valuable than the ponderous pieces of rhetoric which last century passed -for love-making between Strephon, who quotes the elegant Tully, and -Chloe, who makes free use of the ‘Elegant Extracts.’ Duller fustian than -such priggish love-letters it is hard to conceive. They remind one of -nothing so much as the epistles copied out of _The Complete -Letter-Writer_, and must recall to some middle-aged men certain painful -experiences of those salad days when their young affections suffered a -sudden blight by missives of so severely correct an order that they -suggest the idea of having undergone maternal supervision.” - -Yet why, pray, should Keats _not_ have written his Love-letters so -carefully and copied them so neatly? Is it not a fact that when a man is -in love he cares more to make a pleasing impression on one particular -person than on all the rest of the world combined? and that even his -ambition and fame, for which he labours so hard, seem valuable in his -eyes solely as a means of winning Her Love? And if Love is a deeper -passion, even in a poet, than ambition, why should he not go to the -extent even of _taking notes_ and utilising his very best conceits in -his Love-letters? The truth is, in the writing of Love-letters -everything depends on the man’s habits. If he is accustomed to writing -carelessly, his Love-letters will probably be hasty and slovenly enough -to suit orthodox notions on this subject. But if he is a literary -artist, he will probably polish his _billets-doux_ more than anything -else _con amore_, considering the probable effect on her mind of every -sentence. And although the thought of future publication may enter his -mind, it will appear as the veriest trifle compared with the more -important object of winning a woman’s Love by a display of complimentary -wit and passionate protestations of undying affection. - -Sir Richard Steele evidently did not believe that Love-letters, to be -genuine, must be slovenly. In one of his letters to Miss Scurlock he -apologises for not having time to revise what he had written. In another -letter he exclaims: “How art thou, oh my soul, stolen from thyself! how -is all my attention broken! my books are blank paper, and my friends -intruders.” Again: “It is the hardest thing in the world to be in love, -and yet attend business. As for me, all that speak to find me out, and I -must lock myself up, or other people will do it for me. A gentleman -asked me this morning, ‘What news from Holland?’ and I answered, ‘She is -exquisitely handsome.’ Another desired to know when I had been last at -Windsor; I replied, ‘She designs to go with me.’” And once more: “It is -to my lovely charmer I owe that many noble ideas are continually affixed -to my words and actions: it is the natural effect of that generous -passion to create in the admirers some similitude of the object admired; -thus, my dear, am I every day to improve from so sweet a companion.” - -The first score or so of Keats’s Love-letters have the ring of true -gold. Here are a few specimens in which the thermometer of endearments -rises steadily from My Dearest Lady, through My Sweet Girl, My Dear -Girl, My Dearest Girl, My Sweet Fanny, to My Sweet Love, Dearest Love -and Sweetest Fanny. In the very first letter he writes:— - -“Ask yourself, my love, whether you are not very cruel to have so -entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you confess this in the -letter you must write immediately? and do all you can to console me in -it—make it rich as a draught of poppies to intoxicate me—write the -softest words and kiss them, that I may at least touch my lips where -yours have been. For myself, if I do not know how to express my devotion -to so fair a form, I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word -than fair. I almost wish we were butterflies, and lived but three summer -days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty -common years could ever contain.” - -“All I can bring you is a swooning admiration of your beauty.” - -“I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks—your loveliness and the -hour of my death. O that I could have possession of them both in the -same minute.” - -“I hate the world: it batters too much the wings of my self-will, and -would I could take a sweet poison from your lips to send me out of it. -From no others would I take it.” - -“At Winchester I shall get your letters more readily; and it being a -cathedral city, I shall have a pleasure, always a great one to me when -near a cathedral, of reading them during the service up and down the -aisle.” - -All this is in the true Shaksperian key of Romantic Love, as are the -Love-letters of Burns, Byron, Moore, Heine, Bürger, Lenau, and most -other poets. Room must be made here for a few extracts from Lenau’s -letters to his love, which, in some respects, resemble those of -Keats—equally polished, poetic, deep, and sincere:— - -“It makes me melancholy to see how incapable I am of sympathizing with -the pleasures of my friends. My Love goes out afar towards you; it -hearkens and listens and stares in the distance for you, and takes no -note of all the love by which it is surrounded here. I am truly ill. I -constantly think of you alone and death. It often seems to me as if my -time had expired. I cannot write poetry, I cannot rejoice in anything, -cannot hope, can only think of you and death. The other day I wrote to -you to take good care of your health—though I myself feel so little -desire to live.” - -“The whole evening I was unable to think of anything but of you and the -possibility of losing you. The large crowd of people seemed to have -assembled on purpose to show me most painfully what a mere nothing the -world would be to me if I had to part from you. I constantly saw but -your face, your lovely, divine eye.” - -“Alexander wishes me to go to the baths at Leuk with him. He is quite -ill. But I cannot go. If I have to see Switzerland without you, I prefer -not to see it at all.” - -“My poetic composition is in a bad way. Though a thought sprouts in me -here and there, it withers before it has reached maturity. When I go to -see you I shall bring along a dry wreath of prematurely-faded poetic -blossoms, and make them revive in your presence, as there are warm -fountains dipped into which faded flowers blossom again.” - -“I have lost all pleasure in other people when you are absent. If you -had only been at Weinsberg! Even the Æolian harps did not produce the -usual impression on me.” It is noticeable how the overtone of Monopoly -is accented in all these plaints. - -“I have found in your companionship more evidence of an eternal life -than in all my investigations and studies of nature. Whenever, in a -happy hour, I believed I had reached the climax of Love and the proper -moment for death, since a more delicious moment could never follow: it -was on each occasion an illusion, for another hour followed in which I -loved you still more deeply. These ever new, ever deeper abysses of life -convince me of its immortality. To-day I saw in your eyes the full -measure of the divine. Most distinctly did I perceive to-day that the -swelling and sinking of the eye is the breathing of the soul. In an eye -of such beauty as yours we can see, as in a prophetic hieroglyphic, the -essence of which some day our immortal body will consist. If I die, I -shall depart rich, for I have seen what is most beautiful in the world.” - -“The rose you gave me at parting has a most delicious fragrance, as if -it were a Good-Night from you! Sleep well, dearest heart! Preserve the -second rose as a memento. I love you immeasurably.” - -No doubt the average Love-letters read in courts of justice in breach of -promise cases, to the intense amusement of the audience, are very -different in character from these poetic effusions. But to say that, -because the average Love-letters are ludicrous, therefore all -Love-letters, to be genuine, must be ludicrous and incoherent, is the -very Bedlam of absurdity. What makes common Love-letters so laughable is -the fact that the writer, previously a paragon of prosiness, suddenly -gets some poetic fancies and tries to put them into language. But as the -writing of poetry—in verse or prose—is a more difficult art than -piano-playing, first attempts cannot be otherwise than harrowing or -amusing. On the other hand, just as a pianist can never improvise so -soulfully as when he is in love, so a poet will write his best prose in -the letters addressed to his love; the only ludicrous feature being that -extravagant and exclusive admiration of one person which is the very -essence of Love. - -Surely Hawthorne was neither “insincere” nor “thinking of posterity” -when he finished one of his Love-letters with this poetic conceit, -expressed in his best prose style:— - -“When we shall be endowed with spiritual bodies I think they will be so -constituted that we may send thoughts and feelings any distance, in no -time at all, and transfuse them warm and fresh into the consciousness of -those we love. Oh, what happiness it would be, at this moment, if I -could be conscious of some purer feeling, some more delicate sentiment, -some lovelier fantasy than could possibly have had its birth in my own -nature, and therefore be aware that you were thinking through my mind -and feeling through my heart! Perhaps you possess this power already.” - -This is true epistolary Love-making—the sublimated essence of -complimentary Gallantry. - - - LOVE-CHARMS FOR WOMEN - -As women are not allowed to make Love actively, they resort to various -cunning arts with which they indirectly reach the hard hearts of men. -Magic is the most potent of these arts, and always has been so -considered by women; for, curiously enough, one finds on looking over -the folklore of various nations, ancient and modern, that in nineteen -cases out of twenty where a Love-charm is spoken of, it is one used by -women to win the affection of men. - -Probably the real reason why the vast majority of women are so curiously -indifferent to the hygienic arts of increasing and preserving Personal -Beauty—as shown in their devotion to tight-lacing, their aversion to -fresh air, sunshine, and brisk exercise—is because they know they can -infallibly win a man’s Love by the use of some simple powder or potion. -It is well known that the Roman poet Lucretius took his life in an -amorous fit caused by a love-potion; and Lucullus lost his reason in the -same way. The grandest musical work in existence would never have been -written had not Brangäne given to Tristan and Isolde a love-potion which -was so powerful that it made not only both the victims die of the fever -of Love, but united them even after death: "For from the grave of -Tristan sprang a plant which descended into the grave of Yseult. Cut -down thrice by order of the Cornish king, the irrepressible vegetable -bloomed verdant as ever next morning, and even now casts its shadow over -the tombs of the lovers— - - “‘An ay it grew, an ay it threw, - As they would fain be one.’” - -In mediæval times Personal Beauty was such a rare thing, and created -such havoc among men, that the unhappy possessors of it were frequently -accused of using forbidden Love-charms, and burnt at the stake as -witches. - -To-day, thanks to our superior sanitary and educational arrangements, -Beauty is such a common affair that it has lost all its effect on the -masculine heart; hence girls should carefully note a few of the ways by -which a man may be irresistibly fascinated. - -Italian girls practise the following method: A lizard is caught, drowned -in wine, dried in the sun and reduced to powder, some of which is thrown -on the obdurate man, who thenceforth is theirs for evermore. - -A favourite Slavonic device is to cut the finger, let a few drops of her -blood run into a glass of beer, and make the adored man drink it -unknowingly. The same method is current in Hesse and Oldenburg, -according to Dr. Ploss. In Bohemia, the girl who is afraid to wound her -finger may substitute a few drops of bat’s blood. - -Cases are known where invocations to the moon were followed by the -bestowal of true Love. And if a girl will address the new moon as -follows— - - “All hail to thee, moon! All hail to thee! - Prithee, good moon, reveal to me, - This night who my husband shall be,” - -she will dream of him that very night. - -A four-leaved clover secretly placed in a man’s shoes will make him the -devoted lover of the woman who puts it in. - -“Inside a frog is a certain crooked bone, which, when cleaned and dried -over the fire on St. John’s Eve, and then ground fine and given in food -to the lover, will at once win his love for the administerer.” - -If a girl sees a man washing his hands—say at a picnic—and lends him her -apron or handkerchief to dry them, he will forthwith declare himself her -amorous slave to eternity. - -There _are_ men, however, who, owing to some constitutional defect or -inherited anomaly, remain unaffected by these and similar arts. Should -any woman be so foolish as to crave such a man’s Love, she will do well -to bear in mind that _Vanity is the backdoor by which every man’s heart -may be entered_. Thus Byron says of a Venetian flame of his: “But her -great merit is finding out mine—there is nothing so amiable as -discernment.” “Let her be,” says Thackeray, “if not a clever woman, an -appreciator of cleverness in others, which, perhaps, clever folks like -better.” “Ne’er,” says Scott, - - “‘Was flattery lost on poet’s ears: - A simple race! they waste their toil - For the vain tribute of a smile.’” - -Rousseau’s last love was inspired by a woman’s admiration of his -writings. Balzac, celibate for many years, was at last captured by a -woman who returned to a hotel room for a volume of his works she had -left there, informing him, without suspecting who he was, that she never -travelled without it and could not live without it. - -“The story of the marriage of Lamartine,” says the author of _Salad for -the Solitary_, “is also one of romantic interest. The lady, whose maiden -name was Birch, was possessed of considerable property, and when past -the bloom of youth she became passionately enamoured of the poet from -the perusal of his _Meditations_. For some time she nursed this -sentiment in secret, and, being apprised of the embarrassed state of his -affairs, she wrote him, tendering him the bulk of her fortune. Touched -with this remarkable proof of her generosity, and supposing it could -only be caused by a preference for himself, he at once made an offer of -his hand and heart. He judged rightly, and the poet was promptly -accepted.” - -Sympathy, beauty, wit, elegant manners, amiability—these are woman’s -arrows of Love, ever sure of their aim. “She loved me for the dangers I -had passed,” says Othello, “and I loved her that she did pity them.” Or, -as Professor Dowden comments on this passage, “the beautiful Italian -girl is fascinated by the regal strength and grandeur, and tender -protectiveness of the Moor. _He_ is charmed by the sweetness, the -sympathy, the gentle disposition the gracious womanliness of Desdemona.” - -“The _gracious womanliness_ of Desdemona.” There lies the secret—the -charm of charms. It is fortunate that the political viragoes of to-day, -who would remove woman from her domestic sphere, have opposed to them -the greatest force in the universe—_the power of man’s Love!_ When they -have overcome that, they will find it easy to dam the current of the -Niagara River, and curb the force of the ocean’s countless breakers. - - - PROPOSING - -Countless as the stars, and only too apposite, are the jokes about -lovers who evolve masterpieces of eloquence wherewith to lay their -hearts at their idol’s feet; but who, when the crucial moment of the -trial arrives, like Beckmesser in Wagner’s comic opera, stutter out the -veriest parody of their song of Love. And no wonder, considering what is -at stake; for the Yes or No decides whether the lover is to -be—literally—the happiest or the unhappiest of all men for weeks or -months to come. - -Ovid cautions a man not to select a sweetheart in the twilight or -lamplight, since “spots are invisible at night and every fault is -overlooked; at that time almost every woman is held to be beautiful.” - -But proposing is a different matter from selecting. When once the choice -is made, and her choice alone remains to be decided, twilight is the -only proper time to “pop the question.” For a maiden’s independence and -Coyness are inversely related to the degree of light. In the morning, in -broad daylight, she can boldly face even the terrible thought of being -left an old maid; but in the twilight she feels the need of a man’s -protection, and it is at that time that the imagination is least deaf to -the whispered and self-suggested fancies of Romantic Love and wedded -bliss. A man who proposes in the morning deserves, therefore, to be -disappointed. - -Nature herself has provided a safeguard against morning proposals. No -woman is so beautiful in the daytime as is in the evening; and the -moon’s romantic associations are largely due to its magic effect of -beautifying the complexion and features of women, and thus urging the -lover’s courage to the point of amorous confession. - -There is still another reason why a tender and considerate lover should -propose in the chiaroscuro of subdued light—to spare her blushes— - - “But ’neath yon crimson tree, - Lover to listening maid might breathe his flame, - Nor mark, within its roseate canopy, - Her blush of maiden shame.”—BRYANT. - -Not many years ago a plan was described in the newspapers by which a -number of Southern youths who had not the courage to propose were -happily mated and wedded. An elderly person was selected, vowed to -eternal secrecy, and to him each youth and maiden who was in love -confided in writing the name of the beloved. Those couples that had -chosen one another were informed of the fact, and went away rejoicing, -arm in arm. - -A fairy story, on the face of it. A woman would sooner cut off her hand -than write with it the secret of her Love before she knew it was -returned; and that man that hath a tongue is, I say, no man, if he is -afraid to ask for a woman’s hand—or to take it unasked, and let it -respond to the touching question. “Love sought is good, but given -unsought is better,” says Shakspere. The only true proposals are those -where spoken words are dispensed with; where the magnetic thrill of the -hands, the eloquence of the tell-tale eyes, draw the lovers into mutual -embrace, and lips become glued on lips in unpremeditated ecstasy. - - - DIAGNOSIS OR SIGNS OF LOVE - -Though women may often feel in doubt concerning the intentions of men -who pay them attentions, they cannot help recognizing deep Love in a man -instantly; for the symptoms, as described in a previous chapter, are -absolutely unmistakable. A woman, too, who loves deeply, can hardly help -betraying herself, by the sly opportunities she finds for meeting her -lover (purely accidental, of course), and by the special pains she takes -to make it clear to her friends that she does not care for _that_ man -certainly; often also by the fact, pointed out by Jean Paul, that “Love -increases man’s delicacy and lessens woman’s”; tempting her occasionally -to throw away all prudence and regard for public opinion, in the wild -intoxication of her passion and her confidence in her lover. - -But in cases of doubt—how is a lover to decide whether it is safe and -worth while to proceed? A woman’s Coyness, of course, means nothing, and -may have been brought on by an assumption of excessive confidence and -boldness on the man’s part. Girls are like wild colts. They may be -safely approached to a certain distance, whence one step more will cause -them to stampede; but stand still at that point, and before long they -will cast away fear and meet you half-way. - -Trifles are the only safe tests of Love. For they are not so apt as -weighty words and actions to be the outcome of a deliberate coquettish -desire to deceive. To ascertain if you are loved—and this holds true for -both sexes—allude (with a careless assumption of indifference) to some -trifling details of previous conversation or common experience. If she -(or he) remembers them all, especially if of remote occurrence, the -chances are you are loved. - -Shakspere evidently had this in mind when he wrote— - - “If thou rememberest not the slightest folly - That ever love did make thee run into, - Thou hast not loved.” - - - - - HOW TO CURE LOVE - - -All hope abandon ye who enter here. It is a terrible haunt of pessimism, -for disappointed lovers only. All others will please pass it by, for the -object of this book is to advocate the cause of Love, not to weaken it. -Only when all hope of reciprocation is abandoned, should the tender -plant ever be crushed underfoot. - -An exception must be made in favour of those hopeful lovers who merely -wish to cure themselves in order to improve their chances of winning, as -explained in the last chapter, under the head of Feigned Indifference. - -It is useless to quote to a rejected lover Rosalind’s philosophy: “Our -poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all this time there -was not any man died in his own person, _videlicet_, in a love cause.... -Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for -love.” Useless to tell him, as Emerson does, that it is not a disgrace -to love unrequitedly: “It never troubles the sun that some of his rays -fall wide and vain into ungrateful space, and only a small part on the -reflecting planet.” - -To all such efforts at consolation the poor wretch may retort with -Shakspere: “Every one may master a grief but he who has it.” Yet he may, -at any rate, endeavour to “patch his grief” with the following -reflections, based on the experience of centuries. - - - ABSENCE - -Two thousand years ago Ovid advised the readers of his _Remedia Amoris_ -who wished to cure themselves of an unwelcome attachment to flee the -capital, to travel, hunt, or till the soil till all danger of a relapse -should he averted. “Out of sight, out of mind,” wrote Thomas à Kempis; -and this theme has been varied by a hundred writers in prose and verse. -“Love is a local anguish,” exclaims Coleridge; “I am fifty miles away -and am not half so miserable.” Carew puts it thus— - - “Then fly betimes, for only they - Conquer love, that run away.” - -Even the unspeakable Turk has a proverb advising a lover to fly to the -mountains. The Himalayas are probably meant, for no other chain would be -high enough to allay the anguish of a polygamist rejected by a whole -harem. - -On the other hand, “I find that absence still increases love,” wrote -Charles Hopkins in the seventeenth century; and Bayly gave this paradox -the familiar form of “absence makes the heart grow fonder”—to which a -modern realistic wag has added the coda “of the other man.” “La -Rochefoucauld has well remarked,” says Hume, “that absence destroys weak -passions, but increases strong ones; as the wind extinguishes a candle -but blows up a fire.” - -This simile is not very appropriate, nor is the statement -unquestionable. It is more correct to say that short absence increases -Love, while long absence cures it. - -There are two ways in which a short absence favours Love: - -Like the thirst of a man who would wean himself of strong liquor, the -lovers ardour is at first increased when he is placed where he can no -longer drink in the intoxicating sight of her beauty. Time is needed to -annihilate the maddening memory of that pleasure. - -Secondly, short absence favours the idealising process in the lover’s -mind. Removed from the corrective influence of her actual presence, his -imagination may abandon itself to the delightful task of painting a -gloriously unreal counterfeit of her charms—which is oil in the flames. - -This idealising process is facilitated by the strange difficulty which -most people—and lovers in particular—experience in recalling the -features of those specially dear to them. - -Given sufficient time to fix the idealised image of the beloved in the -memory, and a cure may be effected through the shock subsequently felt -on comparing this image with the greatly inferior reality. - - - TRAVEL - -It is safer, however, not to risk a return, but to avoid sight of her -altogether for several years. The advantages of travel are twofold, not -to mention the security from the danger of an accidental meeting. At -home the surrounding world is too familiar to afford distraction, -whereas in a strange place every object claims the attention and diverts -the mind from its amorous reveries. More important still is the fact -that in a foreign country the strangeness of national physiognomy -invests all women with a heightened charm, so that it is easier to find -an antidote by falling in love anew. - - - EMPLOYMENT - -“Great spirits and great business do keep out the weak passion of love,” -said Bacon; but long before him Ovid knew that Leisure is Cupid’s chief -ally. “If you desire to end your love, employ yourself and you will -conquer; for Amor flees business.” He advises military service, -agriculture, and hunting as excellent diversions. - -Poetry and music, however, as the same poet tells us, and all other -occupations tending to stir up the tender feelings, are to be carefully -avoided. Novel-reading is particularly bad, for to imagine another’s -Love is to revive your own. “Lotte Hartmann played some melodies of -Bellini on the piano this evening,” writes Lenau; “I ought to avoid -music when I am away from you, for it arouses in me a longing and an -anguish of consuming violence. I feel how my heart sadly shrinks within -itself, and unwillingly continues to beat.” - - - MARRIED MISERY - -Surely the thought that his romantic adoration will cease with marriage -ought to cure a rejected wooer. Unquestionably, marriage is the best -cure of Love. For though cynics are wrong in claiming that wedlock -changes Love to indifference, it does change it to conjugal affection, -which is an entirely different group of emotions. To the rejected lover, -unfortunately, matrimony is not available as a cure of his Love. But he -may give his overheated imagination an ice-bath by reflecting on the -dark side of conjugal life, the promised bliss of which has been -described as a mirage by so many great minds. - -Professor Jowett thus discourses on how a modern Sokrates in a cynical -mood might discourse on the seamy side of married life:— - -“How the inferior of the two drags the other down to his or her level; -how the cares of a family ‘breed meanness in their souls.’... They -cannot undertake any noble enterprise, such as makes the names of men -and women famous, from domestic considerations. Too late their eyes are -opened; they were taken unawares, and desire to part company. Better, he -would say, a ‘little love at the beginning,’ for heaven might have -increased it; but now their foolish fondness has changed into mutual -dislike.... How much nobler, in conclusion he will say, is friendship, -which does not receive unmeaning praises from novelists and poets, is -not exacting or exclusive, is not impaired by familiarity, is much less -expensive, is not so likely to take offence, seldom changes, and may be -dissolved from time to time without the assistance of the courts.” - -Dr. Johnson, in a letter to Baretti, points out the difference between -Love and Marriage: - -“In love, as in every other passion of which hope is the essence, we -ought always to remember the uncertainty of events. There is, indeed, -nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance as the thought of -passing life with an amiable woman; and if all would happen that a lover -fancies, I know not what other terrestrial happiness would deserve -pursuit. But love and marriage are different states. Those who are to -suffer the evils together, and to suffer often for the sake of one -another, _soon lose that tenderness of look_ and that benevolence of -mind which arose from the participation of unmingled pleasure and -successive amusement.” - -“Lose that tenderness of look!” Have you reflected that it is that -exquisite tenderness of look which chiefly fascinated you, and have you -not noticed that, as Johnson implies, married people rarely regard one -another with that look which constantly intoxicated them during -Courtship? For “beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, fades in his -eye, and palls upon the sense,” says Addison; or, as Hazlitt puts it, -“though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of -admiration.” - -“With most marriages,” says Goethe, “it is not long till things assume a -very piteous look.” Raleigh: “If thou marry beauty, thou bindest thyself -all thy life for that which, perchance, will neither last nor please -thee one year.” Seneca: “Beauty is such a fleeting blossom, how can -wisdom rely upon its momentary delight?” Howells: “Marian Butler was at -that period full of those airs of self-abnegation with which women adorn -themselves in the last days of betrothal and the first of marriage, and -never afterwards.” Alexander Walker: “It looks as if woman were in -possession of most enjoyments, and as if man had only an illusion held -out to him to make him labour for her.” - -Montaigne: “As soon as women are ours we are no longer theirs.” “The -land of marriage has this peculiarity that strangers are desirous of -inhabiting it, while its natural inhabitants would willingly be banished -thence.” Boucicault: “I wish that Adam had died with all his ribs in his -body.” De Finod: “Marriage is the sunset of love.” Goldsmith: “Many of -the English marry in order to have one happy month in their lives.” -Hood: “You can’t wive and thrive both in the same year.” Southey: “There -are three things a wise man will not trust,—the wind, the sunshine of an -April day, and a woman’s plighted faith.” Byron: “I remarked in my -illness the complete inertion, inaction, and destruction of my chief -mental faculties. I tried to rouse them, and yet could not—and this is -the _Soul_!!! I should believe that it was married to the body if they -did not sympathise so much with each other.” Colley Cibber: “Oh, how -many torments lie in the small circle of a wedding-ring!” Alphonse Karr: -“Women for the most part do not love us. They do not choose a man -because they love him, but because it pleases them to be loved by him.” - -Lady Montagu: “It goes far toward reconciling me to being a woman, when -I reflect that I am thus in no immediate danger of ever marrying one.” -Schopenhauer: “It is well known that happy marriages are rare.” “The -lover, contrary to expectation, finds himself no happier than before.” -Byron— - - “Think you if Laura had been Petrarch’s wife - He would have written sonnets all his life?” - -Burton: “Paul commended marriage, yet he preferred a single life.” -Buxton: “Juliet was a fool to kill herself, for in three months she’d -have married again, and been glad to be quit of Romeo.” Heine: “The -music at a marriage procession always reminds me of the music which -leads soldiers to battle.” Lessing— - - “Ein einzig böses Weib gibt’s höchstens in der Welt, - Nur schade dass ein jeder es für das seine hält.” - - “Of shrewish women in the world there’s surely only one, - A pity, though, that every man says she’s the wife he won.” - -Selden: “Marriage is a desperate thing. The frogs in Æsop were extremely -wise; they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into -the well, because they could not get out again.” - -When the Pope heard of Father Hyacinthe’s marriage, says Cheales, he -exclaimed: “The saints be praised! the renegade has taken his punishment -into his own hands. Truly the ways of Providence are inscrutable!” - - - FEMININE INFERIORITY - -Why are women so mysterious, so inscrutable? Cynics say because you -cannot calculate what they will do, as they have no fixed compass by -which they steer, _i.e._ no character. But Heine takes up their defence. -Far from having no character, he says, they have a new one every day. - -The world’s opinion of women is best revealed in the crystallised -wisdom, based on experience, called proverbs. It will soothe the wounded -lover’s heart to note the unanimity with which woman’s foibles are dwelt -on in the proverbs of all nations from ancient Greece to modern China -and France. To give only three instances of a thousand that may be found -in any collection of proverbs: “Women,” says a French proverb, “have -quicksilver in the brain, wax in the heart.” The old Greek poet -Xenarchus sang, “Happy the cicadas live, since they all have voiceless -wives.” “There is no such poison in the green snake’s mouth or in the -hornet’s sting as in a woman’s heart,” says a Chinese maxim. - -But it is not necessary to rely on such anonymous collections of wisdom -as proverbs to convince a man of the folly of linking himself for life -with such a miserable inferior being as a woman. From Plato to Darwin -there is a consensus of opinion as to woman’s vast inferiority to man. - -According to Plato, says Mr. Grote, “men are superior to women in -everything; in one occupation as well as in another.” Cookery and -weaving having been named as two apparent exceptions, Plato denies -woman’s superiority even in these. - -“The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes,” -says Darwin, “is shown by man’s attaining to a higher eminence, in -whatever he takes up, than can woman—whether requiring deep thought, -reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands. If -two lists were made of the most eminent men and women in poetry, -painting, sculpture, music (inclusive both of composition and -performance), history, science, and philosophy, with half a dozen names -under each subject, the two lists would not bear comparison.” - -“I found, as a rule,” says Mr. Galton, "that men have more delicate -powers of discrimination than women, and the business of life seems to -confirm this view. The tuners of pianofortes are men, and so, I -understand, are the tasters of tea and wine, the sorters of wool, and -the like. These latter occupations are well salaried, because it is of -the first moment to the merchant that he should be rightly advised on -the real value of what he is about to purchase or to sell. If the -sensitivity of women were superior to that of men, the self-interest of -merchants would lead to their being always employed; but as the reverse -is the case, the opposite supposition is likely to be the true one. - -“Ladies rarely distinguish the merits of wine at the dinner-table, and -though custom allows them to preside at the breakfast-table, men think -them, on the whole, to be far from successful makers of tea and coffee.” - -This disposes of the old myth that women are more sensitive than men. -And De Quincy, in his essay on _False Distinctions_, refutes the equally -absurd notion that “women have more imagination than men.” He comes to -the conclusion that, “as to poetry in its highest form, I never yet knew -a woman, nor yet will believe that any has existed, who could rise to an -entire sympathy with what is most excellent in that art.” - -One proof of this statement lies in the fact that as a rule men of -genius have been refused by the women they loved most deeply. - -Regarding the emotional sphere, we have seen that it is only in parental -and conjugal feeling that woman surpasses man. In Romantic Love, in all -the impersonal feelings for art and nature, she is vastly his inferior. -Her superficial education gives her no intellectual interests, and that -is the reason why so many married men prefer the club and friendship to -home and conjugal devotion—even as did the ancient Greeks. - -It is in the seventh book of the _Laws_, p. 806, that Plato remarks: -“The legislator ought not to let the female sex live softly and waste -money and have no order of life, while he takes the utmost care of the -male sex, and leaves half of life only blest with happiness, when he -might have made the whole state happy.” - -Is it not humiliating to man, who loves to call himself a “reasoning -animal,” to find that, after so many centuries, one of our greatest and -most liberal thinkers, Professor Huxley, is obliged to write in this -same Platonic tone that “the present system of female education stands -self-condemned, as inherently absurd,” because it fosters and -exaggerates instead of removing woman’s natural disadvantages? “With few -insignificant exceptions,” Professor Huxley continues, “girls have been -educated either to be drudges or toys beneath man, or a sort of angels -above him; the highest ideal aimed at oscillating between Clärchen and -Beatrice. The possibility that the ideal of womanhood lies neither in -the fair saint nor in the fair sinner; that women are meant neither to -be men’s guides nor their playthings, but their comrades, their fellows, -and their equals, so far as Nature puts no bar to their equality, does -not seem to have entered into the minds of those who have had the -conduct of the education of girls” (_Lay Sermons_, p. 25). - -Woman, in short, is a failure; and let any disappointed lover ask -himself, Is it businesslike to begin life with a failure? - - - FOCUSSING HER FAULTS - -Love being a magic emotional microscope which ignites passion by -magnifying the most beautiful features of the beloved, leaving -everything else indistinct and blurred, it follows that the simplest way -of arresting this flame is to _change the focus of this microscope_, to -fix the attention deliberately on her faults, while throwing her merits -and charms into an unfavourable light. - -This method is too self-evident and effective not to have occurred to -the ingenious Ovid. He advises the lover who wishes to be cured to study -the girl’s charms in a hypercritical spirit. Call her stout if she is -plump, black if she is dark, lean if slender. Ask her to sing if she has -no talent for music, to talk if unskilled in conversation, to dance if -awkward, and if her teeth are bad, tell her funny stories to make her -laugh. - -Her mental faults require no microscope to reveal them. Certainly her -taste is execrable, for does she not prefer that vulgar fellow Jones to -you, one of the cleverest fellows that ever condescended to be born on -this miserable planet? - -What folly, indeed, to love such a girl! What fascinates you is simply -the mysterious brilliancy of her coal-black eyes—of which you may find -ten thousand duplicates in Italy or Spain. Don’t you see that no flashes -of wit are ever mirrored in those eyes? that, though beautiful, they are -soulless, like a black pansy? that they look at one person as at -another, incapable of expressing shades and modulations of tender -emotion, because the soul of which they are the windows has never been, -and never will be, moved by Love? - -She never thinks of anything but her own pleasure; does nothing but -visit the dressmaker and the theatre and read novels; never thinks it -her duty to provide for her future husband’s comfort and happiness by -educating herself in domestic economy and æsthetic accomplishments of -real depth—as you have toiled and studied in anticipation of providing -for her comfort and happiness. She takes no sympathetic interest in your -affairs—how can you expect to be happy with her? If she loves you not, -you would be more than a fool to try to get her consent to marriage, for -is it not the ecstasy of Love to be loved and worshipped alone and -beyond any other mortal? - -The beauty of her eyes will not last,—it is nothing, anyway, but -sunlight mechanically reflected from a darkly-painted iris—and when its -youthful brilliancy vanishes there will be no soul-sparks to take its -place. And for this brief honeymoon mirage you are willing to give up -your bachelor comforts and pleasures, your freedom to do what you -please, go where you please, and travel whenever you please; to exchange -your refreshing sleep o’ nights for domestic cares and the pleasure of -trotting up and down the room with a bawling baby at two o’clock in the -morning? Bah! Are you in your senses? - -True, if you are rich some of these disadvantages may be avoided. But if -you are rich you will not be refused, for— - - “Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair,” - -as Byron remarks; and again: “For my own part, I am of the opinion of -Pausanias, that success in love depends upon _Fortune_.” - -But of all her shortcomings the most galling and fatal is that she loves -you not. This thought alone, says Stendhal, may succeed in curing a man -of his passion. You will notice, he says, that she whom you love favours -others with little attentions which she withholds from you. They may be -mere trifles, such as not giving you a chance to help her into her -carriage, her box at the opera. The thought of this, by “associating a -sense of humiliation with every thought of her, poisons the source of -love and may destroy it.” - -Thus wounded Pride is the easiest way out of Love, as gratified Pride is -the straightest way in. - - - REASON _VERSUS_ PASSION - -According to Shakspere, though Love does not admit Reason as his -counsellor, he _does_ use him as his physician. The most effective way -of using Reason to cure Love is by way of comparison. By dwelling on the -miseries of married life as just detailed, the disappointed lover may -mitigate his pains somewhat, as did that Italian mentioned by -Schopenhauer, who resisted the agony of torture by constantly keeping in -his mind’s eye the picture of the gallows that would have been the -reward of confession. - -Again, he may compare his present Love with a former infatuation that -seemed at the time equally deep and eternal, though now he wonders how -he could have _ever_ loved that girl. History repeats itself. - -Compare, moreover, your present idol with her stout and faded mother. In -a few years she will perhaps resemble her mother more than her present -self. - -Compare her charms, feature by feature, with some recognised paragon of -beauty. Look at her in the glaring light of the sun, which reveals every -spot on the complexion. - - - LOVE _VERSUS_ LOVE - -Longfellow says it is folly to pretend that one ever wholly recovers -from a disappointed passion; and Mr. Hamerton believes that “a wrinkled -old maid may still preserve in the depths of her own heart, quite -unsuspected by the young and lively people about her, the unextinguished -embers of a passion that first made her wretched fifty years before.” - -Occasionally this may be true, in the sense in which psychology teaches -that no impression made on the mind is ever completely effaced, but may, -though forgotten for years, be revived in moments of great excitement, -or in the delirium of fever; as, for example, in the case mentioned by -Duval, of a Pole in Germany, who had not used his native language for -thirty years, but who, under the influence of anæsthetics, “spoke, -prayed, and sang, using only the Polish language.” The persistence of an -old passion is the more probable from the fact that in mental disease -and age, as Ribot points out, the emotional faculties are effaced much -more slowly than the intellectual. Feelings form the self; _amnesia_ of -feeling is the destruction of self. - -Ordinarily, however, and for the time being, it may be possible to -practically obliterate a passion. “All love may be expelled by love, as -poisons are by other poisons,” says Dryden. And if the allopathic -remedies described in the preceding paragraphs should fail to effect a -cure, the lover may find the homœopathic principle of _similia -similibus_ more successful. - -Heine, in his posthumous Memoirs, thus refers to this principle of -curing like with like:— - -“In love, as in the Roman Catholic religion, there is a provisional -purgatory in which mortals are allowed to get used gradually to being -roasted before they get into the real eternal hell.... In all honesty, -what a terrible thing is love for a woman. Inoculation is herein of no -use.... Very wise and experienced physicians counsel a change of -locality in the opinion that removal from the presence of the -enchantress will also break the charm. Perhaps the homœopathic -principle, by which woman cures us of woman, is the best of all.... It -was ordained that I should be visited more severely than other mortals -by this malady, the heart-pox.... The most effective antidote to women -are women; true, this implies an attempt to expel Satan with Beelzebub; -and in such a case the medicine is often more noxious still than the -malady. But it is at any rate a change, and in a disconsolate -love-affair a change of the inamorata is unquestionably the best -policy.” - - - PROGNOSIS OR CHANCES OF RECOVERY - -After carefully following all the foregoing rules regarding absence, -travel, employment, dwelling on the miseries of marriage, the weaknesses -of women in general and one woman in particular, the disappointed lover -may boldly return and face her again. The chances are ten to one he will -find himself—more in love than ever! - -Women are magicians. No wonder they were burned as witches in the Middle -Ages. - - - - - NATIONALITY AND LOVE - - -Romantic love—commonly considered immutable—not only displays countless -individual variations in regard to duration and degrees of intensity, -but has a sort of “local colour” in each country; or, to keep up our old -metaphor, a varying clangtint, depending on the greater or less -prominence of certain “overtones.” - -To describe all these varieties of Love would require a separate volume. -And since all the most interesting forms of the romantic passion are to -be met with in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, England, and America, it -will suffice to briefly characterise Love in those countries. - - - FRENCH LOVE - -As literary luck would have it, the subject of French Love follows -naturally upon the subject of the last chapter, the _Remedia Amoris_. - -The French are too clever a nation to leave to individual effort the -difficult task of curing the mind of such an obstinate thing as Love. -All the papas and mammas in the land have put their heads together and -devised two methods of _killing Love wholesale_, compared with which all -the remedies named in the last chapter are mere fly-bites. - -These two methods are Chaperonage and Parental Choice, as opposed to -Courtship and Individual Sexual Selection. - -Paradoxical as it may seem, there is in the midst of modern Europe a -nation which, in the treatment of women, Love, and marriage, stands on -the same low level of evolution as the ancient, mediæval, and Oriental -nations. - -This is not a theory, but a fact patent to all, and attested by the best -English, German, and French authors. - -One of the deepest of French thinkers, whose eyes were opened by travel -and comparison, De Stendhal, in 1842, says in his book _De l’Amour_: -“Pour comprendre cette passion, que depuis trente ans la peur du -ridicule cache avec tant de soin parmi nous, il faut en parler comme -d’une maladie”—"To understand this passion, which during the last thirty -years has been concealed among us with so much solicitude, from fear of -ridicule, it is necessary to speak of it as a malady." - -But Stendhal greatly understates the case. It was not only within thirty -years from the time when he wrote, and by means of ridicule, that the -French had tried hard to kill Love. They have never really emancipated -themselves from mediæval barbarism. Pure Romantic Love between two young -unmarried persons has never yet flourished in France—because it has -never been allowed to grow. To-day, as in the days of the Troubadours, -the only form of Love celebrated in French plays and romances is the -form which implies conjugal infidelity. - -“Marriage, as treated in the old French epics,” says Ploss, “is rarely -based on love;” the woman marries for protection, the man for her wealth -or social affiliations. In the eighteenth century girls were compelled -from their earliest years to live only for appearance sake: “The most -harmless natural enjoyment, every childish ebullition, is interdicted as -improper. Her mother denies her the expression of tender emotion as too -bourgeois, too common. The little one grows up in a dreary, heartless -vacuum; her deeper feelings remain undeveloped.... Real love would be -too ordinary a motive of marriage, and therefore extremely ridiculous. -It is not offered her, accordingly, nor does she feel any.” - -Heine wrote from Paris in 1837 that “girls never fall in love in this -country.” "With us in Germany, as also in England and other nations of -Germanic origin, young girls are allowed the utmost possible liberty, -whereas married women become subjected to the strict and anxious -supervision of their husbands. - -"Here in France, as already stated, the reverse is the case: young girls -remain in the seclusion of a convent until they either marry or are -introduced to the world under the strict eye of a relative. In the -world, _i.e._ in the French salon, they always remain silent and little -noticed, for it is neither good form here nor wise to make love to an -unmarried girl. - -“There lies the difference. We Germans, as well as our Germanic -neighbours, bestow our love always on unmarried girls, and these only -are celebrated by our poets; among the French, on the other hand, -married women only are the object of love, in life as well as in -literature.” - -The difficulty of becoming acquainted with a young lady, Mr. Hamerton -tells us, is greatest “in what may be called the ‘respectable’ classes -in country-towns and their vicinities. In Parisian society young ladies -go out into _le monde_, and may be seen and even spoken to at -evening-parties.” - -“And even spoken to” is good, is very good. What a privilege for the -young men! The iron bars which formerly separated them from the young -ladies have actually been removed, and they are allowed to speak to -them—in presence of a heart-chilling, conversation-killing dragon. No -wonder Parisian society is so corrupt! - -Mr. Hamerton has given in _Round My House_ the most realistic and -fascinating account of French courtship and marriage-customs ever -written. He is a great admirer of the French, always ready to excuse -their foibles, and his testimony is, therefore, doubly valuable as that -of an absolutely impartial witness. He had an opportunity for many years -of studying French provincial life with an artist’s trained faculties; -and here are a few sentences culled from his descriptions:— - -“It is not merely difficult, in our neighbourhood, for a young man in -the respectable classes to get acquainted with a young lady, but _every -conceivable arrangement is devised to make it absolutely impossible_. -Balls and evening-parties are hardly ever given, and when they are given -great care is taken to keep young men out of them, and young -marriageable girls either dance with each other or with mere children.” - -Whereas in England “a young girl may go where she likes, without much -risk to her good name,” a French girl “may not cross a street alone, nor -open a book which has not been examined, nor have an opinion about -anything.” “The French ideal of a well-brought-up young lady is that she -should not know anything whatever about love and marriage, that she -should be both innocent and ignorant, and both in the supreme -degree—both to a degree which no English person can imagine.” - -“The young men are not to blame; they would be ready enough, perhaps, to -fall in love if they had the chance, like any Englishman or German, but -the respectable parents of the young lady take care that they shall -_not_ have the chance of falling in love.” - -The only opportunity a young man has of seeing a girl is at a distance, -at church or in a religious procession. Here he may see her face; her -character he can only ascertain through gossip, a lady friend, or the -parish priest. It is much more respectable, however, to show no such -curiosity, for its absence implies the absence of such a ridiculous -thing as Love. “_There is nothing which good society in France -disapproves of so much as the passion of Love_, or anything resembling -it.” “When Cœlebs asks for the hand of a girl he has seen for a -minute, he may just possibly be in love with her, which is a degrading -supposition; but if he has never seen her, you cannot even suspect him -of a sentiment so unbecoming.” - -There is but one way for the young man to gain admission to a house -where there is a marriageable young lady: “He must first, through a -third party, ask to marry the young lady, and, if her _parents_ consent, -he will then be admitted to see her and speak to her, but not otherwise. -_The respectable order of affairs is that the offer and acceptance -should precede and not follow courtship._” - -Would it be possible to conceive a more diabolically ingenious social -machinery for massacring Romantic Love _en gros_? - -“Marriages in France are generally arranged by the exercise of reason -and prudence, rather than by either passion or affection.” Mr. Hamerton -gives an amusing account of how he was asked to be matrimonial -ambassador by a young man who had never seen the girl he wanted to -marry. Mr. Hamerton obliged the young man, but was told by the mother -that if the young man would wait two years he might have a fair chance, -provided a _richer_ or _nobler_ suitor did not turn up in the meantime. - -Money and Rank _versus_ Love. French mammas have at least one virtue. -They are not hypocrites. - -The Countess von Bothmer, who lived in France a quarter of a century, -says in her _French Home Life_: “Where we so ordinarily listen to what -we understand by love—to the temptations of the young heart in all their -forms (however transitory), to our individual impressions and our own -opinions—the French consult fitness of relative situation, reciprocities -of fortune and position, and harmonies of family intercourse.” - -To annihilate the last resource of Love—elopement—the _Code Napoléon_ -forbids all marriages without either the consent of the father and -mother, or proof that they are both dead. “It is very troublesome to get -married in France; the operation is surrounded by difficulties and -formalities which would make an Englishman stamp with rage.” - -Social life, of course, suffers as much from this idiotic system as -Romantic Love. French hospitality “does not extend beyond the family -circle,” we are informed by M. Max O’Rell, who also gives this amusing -instance of the imbecility or mental slavery (he does not use these -words) produced by the French system of education and chaperonage:— - -“I remember I was one day sitting in the Champs Elysées with two English -ladies. Beside us was a young French girl with her father and mother. -The person on the right of papa rose and went away, and we heard the -young innocent say to her mother: ‘Mamma, may I go and sit by papa?’ It -was a baby of about eighteen or twenty. Those English ladies laugh over -the affair to this day.” - -Boys suffer as well as girls. As the author of an article on “Parisian -Psychology” remarks: “There are no mothers in France; it is a nation of -‘mammas,’ who, in the most unlimited sense of the word, spoil their -boys, weaken them in body and soul, dwarf their thought, dry their -hearts, and lower them to below even their own level, hoping thereby to -rule over them through life, as they too often do. Frenchwomen having -been at best but half-wives, regard their children as a sort of -compensation for what they have themselves not had; and after the -mischievous fashion of weak ‘mammas’ prolong babyhood till far into -mature life.” - -The French, in fact, are a nation of babies. Their puerile conceit, -which prevents them from learning to read any language but their own, -and thus finding out what other nations think of them, is responsible in -part for the mediæval barbarism of their matrimonial arrangements. The -Parisian is the most provincial animal in the world. In any other -metropolis—be it London, New York, Vienna, or Berlin—people understand -and relish whatever is good in literature, art, and life, be it English, -American, French, German, or Italian. But the Parisian understands only -what is narrowly and exclusively French. And this is the dictionary -definition of Provincialism. - -The consequences of this mediævalism and provincialism in modern France -are thus eloquently summed up by a writer in the _Westminster Review_ -(1877):— - -“Such education as girls receive is not only not a preparation for the -wedded state, it is a positive disqualification for it. They are not -taught to read, they are not taught to reason; they are _launched into -life without a single intellectual interest_. The whole effort of their -early training goes to fill their mind with puerilities and -superstitions. As regards God, they are instructed to believe in relics -and old bones; as regards man, they are instructed to believe in dress, -in mannerisms, and coquetry. Their love of appreciation, after being -enormously developed, is bottled up and tied down until a husband is -found to draw the cork. What else, then, can we look for but an -explosion of frivolity? Can we expect that such a provision of -coquettishness will be reserved for the husband’s exclusive use? He will -be tired of it in three months—unless it is tired of him before; and -then the pent-up waters will forsake their narrow bed and overflow the -country far and wide.” - -No wonder Napoléon remarked that “Love does more harm than good.” And -right he was, most emphatically, for the only kind of Love _possible_ in -France does infinite harm. It poisons life and literature alike. - -We can now understand the fierceness of Dumas’s attacks on _mariages de -convenance_: “The manifest deterioration of the race touches him; it -does not touch us. Nor do we at all realise the next to impossibility of -a man ever marrying for love in France. There are those who have tried -to do it, but they can never get on in life; they are reputed of ‘bad -example’” (_St. James’s Gazette_). - -And now we come upon a paradox which has puzzled a great many thinkers. -The Countess von Bothmer, while deploring the absence of Love in French -courtship, endeavours to show that domestic happiness and conjugal -affection are, nevertheless, not rare in France. French husbands “are -ordinarily with their wives, accompany them wherever they can, and share -their friendships and distractions.” Mr. Hamerton likewise bears witness -that French girls “become excellent wives, faithful, orderly, dutiful, -contented, and economical. They all either love their husbands, _or -conduct themselves as if they did so_.” He says the notion fostered by -novels “that Frenchmen are always occupied in making love to their -neighbours’ wives” is nonsense; that there is no more adultery than -elsewhere. “There exists in foreign countries, and especially in -England, a belief that Frenchwomen are very generally adulteresses. The -origin of the belief is this,— the manner in which marriages are -generally managed in France leaves no room for interesting love-stories. -Novelists and dramatists _must_ find love-stories somewhere, and so they -have to seek for them in illicit intrigues.” - -This is all very ingenious, but the argument is not conclusive. Even -granted for a moment that Mr. Hamerton is right in his defence of French -conjugal life, is it not a more than sufficient condemnation of the -French system of “courtship” that one-half of the nation are prevented -from reading its literature because it is so foul and filthy—because -Love has been made synonymous with adultery? - -But Mr. Hamerton’s assertion loses its probability when viewed in the -light of the following considerations. He himself admits that the French -are anxious to read about Love, that the novelists and dramatists _must_ -find stories of Love somewhere—mind you, not of conjugal but of Romantic -Love—and the Paris _Figaro_ not long ago denounced the French novelists -of the period for devoting their stories to Love almost exclusively, -whereas Balzac, Dumas, Thackeray, and Scott, at least introduced various -other matters of interest. Now French novels have the largest editions -of any books published; and if so vast an interest is displayed by the -French in reading about Love, is it likely that their interest is purely -literary? Certainly not. They will seek it in real life. And in real -life it can only be found in one sphere, which elsewhere is protected -against such invasions, by the young being allowed to meet one another. -“It is to be feared that they who marry where they do not love, will -love where they do not marry.’” In _this_ respect human nature is the -same the world over. The testimony of scores of unprejudiced authors on -this head cannot be ignored. - -This, however, is only one of the evils following from the French -suppression of pre-matrimonial Love. The parents may or may not suffer -through conjugal jealousy and infidelity, one thing is certain,—that the -children suffer from it, in body and mind. It is leading to the -depopulation of France. It was M. Jules Rochard who called attention to -the fact that “France, which two centuries ago included one-third of the -total population of Europe, now contains but one-tenth”; although the -death-rate is smaller in France than in most European countries, and -although there has been a gradual increase of wealth throughout the -country. - -That the suppression of Romantic Love and of all opportunities for -courtship is the principal cause of the decline of France, is apparent -from the fact that the countries in which population increases most -rapidly—as America and Great Britain—are those in which Romantic Love is -the chief motive to marriage. - -Romantic Love goes by complementary qualities, the defects of the -parents neutralising one another in the offspring; so that the children -who are the issue of a love-match are commonly more beautiful than their -parents. In France there is no selection whatever, except with reference -to money and rank. Not even Health is considered, the _sine qua non_ of -Love as well as Beauty. Hence the absence of Love in France has led to -the almost absolute absence of beauty. And it would be nothing short of -a miracle if the offspring of a young maiden, still in her teens, and an -old broken-down sinner, chosen by her parents for his wealth or social -position, were any different from the puny, hairy men and -coarse-featured, vulgar women that make up the bulk of the French -nation. - -In Paris one does occasionally see a fine figure and a rather pretty -face, but they almost always belong to the lower classes. As the lower -classes allow the young considerable freedom, it would seem as if beauty -in this class ought to be as common an article as in England or the -United States. But the incapacity of the young women for feeling and -reciprocating Love neutralises these opportunities. For of what use is -it for a man to feel Love if the woman invariably bases her choice on -money? This matter is most clearly brought out by Mr. Hamerton:— - -“Amongst the lower classes, the peasantry and workmen ... girls have as -much freedom as they have in England. The great institution of the -_parlement_ gives them ample opportunities for becoming acquainted with -their lovers; indeed the acquaintance, in many cases, goes further than -is altogether desirable. A peasant girl requires no parental help in -looking after her own interests. She admits a lover to the happy state -of _parlement_, which means that he has a right to talk with her when -they meet, and to call upon her, dance with her, etc. The lover is -always eager to fix the wedding-day, the girl is not so eager. She keeps -him on indefinitely until a richer one appears, on which No. 1 has the -mortification of seeing himself excluded from _parlement_, whilst -another takes his place. In this way a clever girl will go on for -several years, amusing herself by torturing amorous swains, until at -length a sufficiently big fish nibbles at the bait, when she hooks him -at once, and takes good care that _he_ shall not escape. Nothing can be -more pathetically ludicrous than the condition of a young peasant who is -really in love, especially if he is able to write, for then he pours -forth his feelings in innumerable letters full of tenderness and -complaint. On her part the girl does not answer the letters, and has not -the slightest pity for the unhappy victim of her charms. After seeing a -good deal of such love-affairs I have come to the conclusion that in -humble life young men do really very often feel - - “‘The hope, the fear, the jealous care, - The exalted portion of the pain - And power of love.’” - -And they ‘wear the chain’ too. Young women, on the other hand, seem only -to amuse themselves with all this simple-hearted devotion— - - “‘And mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.’” - -Schopenhauer pointed out that the French lack the _Gefühl für das -Innige_—the tenderness and emotional depth which characterise the -Germans and Italians. It is this that accounts for the inability of the -French to appreciate Love, and for the fact that even vice is coarser in -France than elsewhere, as remarked by Mr. Lecky, who, in his _History of -European Morals_, contrasts “the coarse, cynical, ostentatious -sensuality, which forms the most repulsive feature of the French -character,” with “the dreamy, languid, and æsthetical sensuality of the -Spaniard or Italian.” And it remained for the French to attempt to deify -vice as in that over-rated and repulsive story of _Manon Lescaut_. - -Mme. de Staël, who suffered so much from the provincialism (_alias_ -patriotism) of her countrymen, saw clearly the immorality of the French -system of marrying girls without consulting their choice. Brandes -relates the following anecdote of her: “One day, speaking of the -unnaturalness of marriages arranged by the parents, as distinguished -from those in which the young girls choose for themselves, she -exclaimed, ‘I would _compel_ my daughter to marry the man of her -choice!’” - -An attempt is being made at present in Paris to introduce the -Anglo-American feminine spirit into society. The word _flirter_ has been -adopted, and the thing itself experimented with. But the French girl -does not know how to draw the line between coquetry and flirtation. She -needs a better education before she can flirt properly. This education -the Government is trying to give her at present; but it meets with -stubborn resistance from the priests, and from the old notion that -intellectual culture is fatal to feminine charms and the capacity for -affection. If this book should accomplish nothing else than prove that -without intellect there can be no deep Love, it will not have been -written in vain. - - - ITALIAN LOVE - -In Italy, in the sixteenth century, women were kept in as strict -seclusion as to-day in France; and with the same results,—conjugal -infidelity and a great lack of Personal Beauty, as noted by Montaigne, -who remarks at the same time that it was regarded as something quite -extraordinary if a young lady was seen in public. - -Byron wrote in 1817 that “Jealousy is not the order of the day in -Venice”; and that the Italians “marry for their parents, and love for -themselves.” - -In Crowe and Cavalcaselle’s _Life and Times of Titian_ we read that -“Though chroniclers have left us to guess what the state of society may -have been in Venice at the close of the fifteenth century, they give us -reason to believe that it was deeply influenced by Oriental habit. The -separation of men from women in churches, the long seclusion of -unmarried females in convents or in the privacy of palaces, were but the -precursors to marriages in which husbands were first allowed to see -their wives as they came in state to dance round the wedding -supper-table.” - -But even at this early period when women were still treated as babies -unable to take care of themselves, we find at least one trace of the -Gallantry which is so essential an element in modern love. It was -customary for the men, on festive occasions, to stand behind their -wives’ chairs at table and serve them. - -Extremely ungallant, on the other hand, are some of the Italian proverbs -about women of this and other periods. “A woman is like a -horse-chestnut—beautiful outside, worthless inside.” “Two women and a -goose make a market.” “Married man—bird in cage.” “In buying a horse and -taking a wife shut your eyes and commend your soul to heaven.” - -Her exuberant health makes an Italian woman naturally prone to Love; but -though she falls in love most readily, the passion is apt to be fugitive -and superficial. She rarely loves with the passionate ardour of a -Spanish woman. “What we notice especially in Italian women,” says -Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, “is the absence of that alternation between those -extremes of temperament which are so conspicuous in other Southern -women. Energy is almost as unknown to her as the moral power of -resignation and sacrifice. Hence it can hardly surprise us that Italian -history records so few heroic women or pious female martyrs. Italy has -produced neither a Jeanne d’Arc nor an Elizabeth of Thuringia; the -crowns were too oppressive to be borne by these beauties, and life too -enchanting for them to invite to tragic self-sacrifice.” - -Probably the most realistic, and certainly the most fascinating, account -of Italian love-making ever given is to be found in Mr. Howells’s -_Venetian Life_. As it is too long to quote, I will attempt to condense -it, though at some sacrifice of that literary “bouquet,” as an epicure -would say, which constitutes the unique charm of Mr. Howells’s style:— - -"The Venetians have had a practical and strictly businesslike way of -arranging marriages from the earliest times. The shrewdest provision has -always been made for the dower and for the good of the state; private -and public interest being consulted, the small matters of affection have -been left to the chances of association. - -"Herodotus relates that the Assyrian Veneti sold their daughters at -auction to the highest bidder; and the fair being thus comfortably -placed in life, the hard-favoured were given to whomsoever would take -them, with such dower as might be considered a reasonable compensation. -The auction was discontinued in Christian times, but marriage contracts -still partook of the form of a public and half-mercantile transaction. - -“These passionate, headlong Italians look well to the main chance before -they leap into matrimony, and you may be sure Todaro knows, in black and -white, what the Biondina has to her fortune before he weds her.” - -“With the nobility and with the richest commoners marriage is still -greatly a matter of contract, and is arranged without much reference to -the principals, though it is now scarcely probable in any case that they -have not seen each other. But with all other classes, except the -poorest, who cannot or will not seclude the youth of either sex from -each other, and with whom, consequently, romantic contrivance and -subterfuge would be superfluous, love is made to-day in Venice as in the -_Capa y espada_ comedies of the Spaniards, and the business is carried -on with all the cumbrous machinery of confidants, _billets-doux_, and -stolen interviews.” - -The “operatic method of courtship” thence resulting commonly assumes -this form:— - -“They follow that beautiful blonde, who, marching demurely in front of -the gray-moustached papa and the fat mamma, after the fashion in Venice, -is electrically conscious of pursuit. They follow during the whole -evening, and, at a distance, softly follow her home, where the burning -Todaro photographs the number of the house upon the sensitised tablets -of his soul. This is the first step in love: he has seen his adored one, -and she knows that he loves her with an inextinguishable ardour.” - -The next step consists in his frequenting the _caffé_, where she goes -with her parents, and feasting his eyes on her beauty. After some time -he may possibly get a chance to speak a few words to her under her -balcony; or, what is more likely, he will bribe her servant-maid to -bring her a love-letter. Or else he goes to church to admire her at a -convenient distance. - -“It must be confessed that if the Biondina is not pleased with his -looks, his devotion must assume the character of an intolerable bore to -her; and that to see him everywhere at her heels—to behold him leaning -against the pillar near which she kneels at church, the head of his -stick in his mouth, and his attitude carefully taken with a view to -captivation—to be always in deadly fear lest she shall meet him in -promenade, or turning round at the _caffé_ encounter his pleading -gaze—that all this must drive the Biondina to a state bordering upon -blasphemy and finger-nails. _Ma, come si fa? Ci vuol pazienza?_ This is -the sole course open to ingenuous youth in Venice, where confessed and -unashamed acquaintance between young people is extremely difficult; and -so this blind pursuit must go on till the Biondina’s inclinations are at -last laboriously ascertained.” Then follow the inquiries as to her -dowry, after which nothing remains but “to demand her in marriage of her -father, _and after that to make her acquaintance_.” - -Topsy-turvy as this last arrangement may seem to Anglo-American notions, -here at least Love has some chance to bring about real Sexual Selection, -for a Southerner’s passions are momentarily inflamed, and the Italian -Cupid needs but a moment to fix his choice. And what distinguishes Italy -still more favourably from France is that, whereas the French consider -Love ridiculous, and have made the most ingenious contrivances for -annihilating it, the Italians worship it, revel in it, and are inclined -rather to make too many concessions to it than to ignore it. - -The result is patent to all eyes. For every attractive Frenchwoman there -are to-day a hundred beautiful Italians. And were Anglo-American methods -of courtship introduced in Italy, beauty would again be doubled in -amount. It must not be forgotten, however, that Love, as a beautifier of -mankind, has in Italy very strong allies in the balmy air and sunshine, -tempting to constant outdoor life, which mellows the complexion, -brightens the eyes, and fills out the figure to those full yet elegant -proportions which instantaneously arouse the romantic passion. - - - SPANISH LOVE - -Spanish veins contain more Oriental blood than those of any other -European nation; and to the present day Eastern methods of treating -women cast their shadow on Spanish life. But the shadow is so light, and -so much mitigated by the rosy hue of romance, that the “local colour” of -Love in Spain presents an unusually fascinating spectacle, which -countless literary artists have attempted to depict. - -During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Oriental shadow was -much darker, and kept the women in extreme subjection and ignorance. -“Their life,” says Professor Scherr, speaking even of the queens, -“passed away in a luxurious tedium which dulled the sentiments to the -point of idiocy. They were only crowned slaves. As an instance of their -absolute deprivation of liberty may be cited the case of Elizabeth, wife -of Philip II., who, when in 1565 she went to Bayonne to meet her mother, -had to wait three days before the gates of Burgos before it was possible -to ascertain the king’s decision whether the queen should pass through -the city or around it.” - -“Women of rank,” he continues, "lived in a seclusion bordering on that -of a convent, if not surpassing it. For nuns were at least allowed to -speak to male visitors behind bars, whereas married women were strictly -forbidden to receive the visit of a man, except with the special -permission of the husband. And only during the first year of their -wedded life were they allowed to frequent public drives in open -carriages by the side of their husband; subsequently they were only -allowed to go out in closed carriages. Of cosy family life not a -trace.... Even the table did not unite the husband and wife; the master -took his meal alone, while his wife and children sat respectfully on the -floor on carpets, with their legs crossed in Oriental fashion. - -“The poor women, excluded from every refined social diversion, were -confined to manual work, gossip with their duennas, mechanical praying, -playing with their rosaries, and—intriguing. For the greater the -subjection of women, the more does their cunning grow, the more -passionate becomes their desire to avenge themselves on their tyrants. -The Spaniards found this out to their cost. The most inexorable spirit -of revenge, all the parade of ‘Spanish honour,’ bordering in its excess -on clownishness, could not prevent the Spanish dames from loving and -being loved.” - -In course of time this Oriental despotism, with its fatal consequences -to conjugal fidelity—as in France—has been greatly mitigated in Spain. -In Pepys’s _Diary_, 1667, we read of an informant who told the writer -“of their wooing [in Spain] by serenades at the window, and that their -friends do always make the match; but yet they have opportunities to -meet at masse at church, and there they make love.” - -In an interesting book on Spain, written almost two and a quarter -centuries after Pepys’s _Diary_—Mr. Lathrop’s _Spanish Vistas_—we still -read concerning this ecclesiastic Love-making, in the Seville Cathedral: -“Every door was guarded by a squad of the decrepit army, so that -entrance there became a horror. These sanctuary beggars serve a double -purpose, however. The black-garbed Sevillan ladies, who are perpetually -stealing in and out noiselessly under cover of their archly-draped lace -veils—losing themselves in the dark, incense-laden interior, or emerging -from confession into the daylight glare again—are careful to drop some -slight conscience-money into the palms that wait. Occasionally, by -pre-arrangement, one of these beggars will convey into the hand that -passes him a silver piece, a tightly-folded note from some clandestine -lover. It is a convenient underground mail, and I am afraid the -venerable church innocently shelters a good many little transactions of -this kind.” - -How greatly the facilities for falling in love and for making love have -been increased in modern Spain is vividly brought out in the following -citation from Schweiger-Lerchenfeld regarding the scenes to be witnessed -every evening on the crowded promenade or Rambla at Barcelona:— - -“Are these elegantly-attired ramblers one and all suitors, since they -put no limit nor restraint on their whispered flatteries? No, that is -simply the custom in Barcelona. The women and girls are beautiful, and -though they are well aware of it, they nevertheless allow their charms -to be whispered in their ears hundreds of times every evening—a freedom -of intercourse which is only possible on Spanish soil.... And thus one -of these adored beauties walks up and down in the glare of the lamps, -and sweet music is wafted to her ears: ‘Your beauty dazzles me,’ -whispers one voice; and another, ‘Happiness and anguish your eyes are -burning into my soul.’ One compliments the chosen one on her hair, -another on her figure, a third on her graceful gait. Young adorers feel -a thrill running down their whole body if her mantilla only touches -them; while mature lovers are contented with nothing less than a -pressure of the hand. It is a picture that is possible, conceivable only -in Spain.” - -The same writer quotes some specimens of Spanish Love-songs, one of -which may be transferred to this page— - - “Échame, niña bonita, - Lágrimas en tu pañuelo, - Y los llevaré a Madrid - Que los engarce un platero.” - -“Show me, my little charmer, the tear in your handkerchief; to Madrid -will I take it and have it set by a jeweller.” - -What a contrast between this modern complimentary and poetic form of -Gallantry and the form prevalent in the good old times when lovers -endeavoured to win a maiden’s favour by flagellating themselves under -her window until the blood ran down their backs; and when, as Scherr -adds, “it was regarded as the surest sign of supreme gallantry if some -of the blood bespattered the clothes of the beauty to whom this crazy -act of devotion was addressed!” - -Nevertheless, the Spanish still have much to learn from England and -America regarding the proper methods of Courtship; for, according to a -writer in _Macmillan’s Magazine_ (1874), the unmarried maiden of the -higher classes, “like her humbler sister, can never have the privilege -of seeing her lover in private, and very rarely, indeed, if ever, is he -admitted into the _sala_ where she is sitting. He may contrive to get a -few minutes’ chat with her through the barred windows of her _sala_; but -when a Spaniard leads his wife from the altar, he knows no more of her -character, attainments, and disposition than does the parish priest who -married them, and perhaps not so much.” - -In one respect Spanish lovers have a great advantage over their -unfortunate colleagues in France. There marriage is impossible without -parental consent, whereas in Spain a law exists concerning which the -writer just quoted says:— - -“Should a Spanish lad and lassie become attached to one another, and the -parents absolutely forbid the match, and refuse their daughter liberty -and permission to marry, the lover has his remedy at law. He has but to -make a statement of the facts on paper, and deposit it, signed and -attested, with the alcalde or mayor of the township in which the lady’s -parents dwell. The alcalde then makes an order, giving the young man the -right of free entry into the house in question, within a certain number -of days, for the purpose of wooing and carrying off his idol. The -parents dare not interfere with the office of the alcalde, and the lady -is taken to her lover’s arms. From that moment he, and he alone, is -bound to provide for her: by his own act and deed she has become his -property.” Should he prove false “the law comes upon him with all its -force, and he is bound to maintain her, in every way, as a wife, under -pain of punishment.” - -Thus a Spanish girl is protected against perfidious lovers as well as is -an English and American girl through the possibility of suing for breach -of promise. If the short stories told in _Don Quixote_ may be taken as -examples, faithless lovers were very common in Spain at that time; -which, doubtless, accounts for the origin of this law. The girls on -their part erred by yielding too easily to the promises of the men; -though they are partially excused by the great strength of their -passions. - -In his work on Suicide, Professor Morselli has statistics showing that -more women take their life in Spain than in any other country; and he -attributes this to the force of their passions, which is greater than in -Italy, where the number of female suicides is considerably lower. - -Thus Love has a more favourable ground in Spain than either in Italy or -in France, notwithstanding certain restrictions. And the result shows -itself in this, that all tourists unite in singing the praises of -Spanish Beauty. Spain, indeed, unites in itself all the conditions -favourable to Beauty: a climate tempting to outdoor life; a considerable -amount of intellectual culture and æsthetic refinement; a mixture of -nationalities, fusing _ethnic_ peculiarities into a harmonious whole; -and Love, which fuses _individual_ complementary qualities into a -harmonious ensemble of beautiful features, graceful figure, amiable -disposition, and refined manners. - - - GERMAN LOVE - -When Tacitus penned his famous certificate of good moral character for -the Germans of his time, he little suspected how many thousand times it -would be quoted by the grateful and proud descendants of those early -Teutons, and pinned to the lapels of their coats as a sort of prize -medal in the competition for ancestral virtue. The more candid -historians, however, admit that the Roman historian somewhat overdrew -his picture in order to teach his own profligate countrymen a sort of -Sunday school lesson, by the vivid contrast presented by these -inhabitants of the northern virgin forests. - -There is no question that women were held in considerable honour among -these early Germans. Many of them served as priestesses, and adultery -was punished with death. Polygamy existed only among the chiefs, and -even among them it was not common. Yet the men did not treat the women -as their equals. “They had more duties than privileges,” says -Schweiger-Lerchenfeld. Their husbands were addicted to excessive -drinking or gambling when not engaged in war or the chase, leaving the -hard domestic and field labour to the women: and all this cannot have -tended to refine the women. - -“Marriage in the old Germanic times,” says Ploss, “was mostly an affair -of expediency.... In the choice of a wife beauty was of less moment than -property and good social antecedents. Love _before_ the betrothal rarely -occurs.” - -Gustav Freytag, in his _Pictures of German Life_, during the fifteenth, -sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, remarks: “Marriage was considered -by our ancestors less as a union of two lovers than as an institution -replete with duties and rights, not only of married people towards one -another, but also towards their relatives, as a bond uniting two -corporate bodies.... Therefore in the olden time the choice of husband -and wife was always an affair of importance to the relatives on both -sides, so that a German wooing from the oldest times, _even until the -last century_, had the appearance of a business transaction, which was -carried out with great regard to suitability.” - -And a business transaction it is, unfortunately, to the present day, in -the vast majority of cases. A certain amount of dower or property on the -bride’s part is the first and most essential requisite. Second in -importance is the desirability of not descending even a step in the -social ladder, though an extra lump of gold commonly suffices to pull -down social Pride to a lower level. Health, temper, Personal Beauty, and -mutual suitability—these are the trifles which, other things being -equal, come in as a third consideration. And thus is the order of Sexual -Selection, as ordained by Love, commonly reversed. - -What would an English or American youth of twenty-two say to his father -if the latter should undertake to write to all his relatives, asking -them to look about for an eligible partner for his son, and capping the -climax by starting himself on a trip in search of a bride for his son? -Would he accept without a murmur the girl thus found, and would an -English or American girl thus allow herself to be given away like a cat -in a bag, not knowing whither she was going? I have seen several such -cases with my own eyes. One of them was most pathetic. For when the -blooming bride, a sweet and refined girl, was introduced to the -bridegroom selected for her by her parents—a repulsive-looking brute, -twice her age—she conceived a perfect loathing for him, and almost wept -out her eyes before the wedding-day. But the man was rich, and that -settled the matter. - -What aggravated this outrage was the fact that the bride’s father also -was rich. And herein, in fact, lies the canker of the German system. -Money is such a comfortable thing to have that it is useless to preach -against it. There are money-marriages enough in England and America. But -in these countries it is generally considered sufficient if one party -has the money. Not so in Germany. It is not so much the comfort ensured -by a certain amount of money that is aimed at as the superior social -influence ensured by a large amount of wealth. Hence the rich marry the -rich, regardless of other consequences, and poor Cupid is left shivering -in the cold. So that, after all, the silly pride of social position is a -greater enemy of Romantic Love than money. - -And the consequences of such a matrimonial system? They have been most -eloquently set forth by the blind old philosopher, Dr. Dühring:— - -“The amalgamation of fortunes, and the resulting enervating luxury of -living, are the ruling matrimonial motives; and the want of mutual -adaptation of the individuals becomes the cause of the degenerate -appearance of the offspring. The loathsome products of such marriages -then walk about as ugly embodiments and witnesses of such a degraded -system of legalised prostitution (_Kuppelwirthschaft_). They bear the -stamp of incongruity on body and mind; for their appearance shows them -to be the offspring of disharmonious parents, blindly associated, or -even, in many cases, of parents who themselves are already products of -this new matrimonial method. This degeneracy necessarily continues from -one generation to another, and in this manner maltreated Nature avenges -herself by leading to personal decrepitude and the formation of a new -sort of idiocy.” - -“It is true,” he adds, “that love is not an infallible sign of mutual -suitability; but when it is absent, or even replaced by aversion, it is -certain that it is useless to expect a specially harmonious composition -of the offspring.” - -Is this one of the reasons why Personal Beauty is so rare, -comparatively, in Germany? - -But Individual Preference is not the only element of Love which thus -suffers in Germany through false Pride and parental tyranny. Gallantry -is another factor which needs mending. German women are sweet and -amiable. In fact, they are _too_ sweet and good-natured. They have -spoiled the men, who in consequence are excessively selfish in their -relations to women—the most selfish men in the world, outside of Turkey -or China. True, the German officer in a ballroom seems to be the very -essence of officious Gallantry. But his motives are too transparently -Ovidian: it is not true Anglo-American politeness of the heart that -inspires his conduct. He is either after forbidden sweets or parading -his uniform and his vanity. Take the same man and watch him at home. His -wife has to get him his chair, move it up to the fire, bring him his -slippers, put the coffee in his hand, and do errands for him. When he -goes out she puts on his overcoat and buttons it up carefully for him as -if he were a helpless big baby. This would be all very well—for why -should not women be gallant too?—if he would only retaliate. But he -never dreams of it. Even if it comes to a task which calls for masculine -muscular power—the carrying of bundles, etc.—he makes the wife do it. He -is, in fact, matrimonially considered, not only a big baby but also a -big brute, the very incarnation of masculine selfishness. - -In former centuries it was customary in Germany, as it is now with us, -for women to bow first to men. The modern German has reversed this. -Woman has no right to bow until her lord and superior has invited her to -do so by doffing his hat. - -The German girl, says the Countess von Bothmer in _German Home Life_, -“is taught that to be womanly she must be helpless, to be feminine she -must be feeble, to endear herself she must be dependent, to charm she -must cling.” “To keep carefully to the sheep-walk, to applaud in concert -and condemn in chorus, is the only behaviour that can be tolerated.” -“They have one bugbear and one object of idolatry, these monotonous -ladies,—a fetish which they worship under the name of Mode; a monster -between public opinion and Mrs. Grundy. To say a thing is not ‘Mode’ -here, is to condemn it as if by all the laws of Media and Persia. It is -not her centre [_sic_], but the system of her social education, that -renders the German woman so hopelessly provincial.” - -Of course it is the men who are responsible for this social education -and this feminine ideal of absolute dependence. It suits their selfish -pleasure to be worshipped and obeyed by the women without any efforts at -gallant retaliation on their part. - -A native writer tells us that “a true German philosophises occasionally -while he embraces his sweetheart; while kissing even, theories will -sprout in his mind.” - -No wonder, therefore, that one of the German metaphysicians, Fichte, -should have made a sophistic attempt to reduce masculine selfishness to -a system. He proves to his own satisfaction that it is woman’s duty to -sacrifice herself in man’s behalf; while man, on his part, has no such -obligations. His reasoning is too elaborate to quote in full; but is too -amusingly naïve to be omitted, so I will translate the summary of it -given by Kuno Fischer in his _History of Philosophy_:— - -“What woman’s natural instincts demand is self-abandonment to a man; she -desires this abandonment not for her own sake, but for the man’s sake; -she gives herself to him, for him. Now abandoning oneself for another is -self-sacrifice, and self-sacrifice from an instinctive impulse is LOVE. -Therefore love is a kind of instinctive impulse which the sexual -instinct in woman necessarily and involuntarily assumes. She feels the -necessity of loving.... This impulse is peculiar to woman alone; woman -alone loves [!!!]; only through woman does love appear among mankind.... -The woman’s life should disappear in the man’s without a remnant, and it -is this relation that is so beautifully and correctly indicated in the -fact that the wife no longer uses her own name, but that of her husband -[!].” - -The latest (and it is to be hoped the last) of the German -metaphysicians, the pessimist Hartmann, goes even a step beyond -Fichte in arrogating for man special privileges in Love. If Fichte -makes Love synonymous with Self-Sacrifice—feminine, mind you, not -masculine—Hartmann tries to prove that man may love as often as he -pleases, but woman only once. And what aggravates the offence, he -does it in such a poetic manner. “Though it may be doubtful,” he -says, “whether a man can truly love two women at the same time, it -is beyond all doubt that he can love several in succession with all -the depth of his heart; and the assertion that there is only one -true love is an unwarranted generalisation to all mankind of a maxim -which is true of woman alone.... Woman can learn but once by -experience what love is, and it is painful for the lover not to be -the one who teaches her first. True it is that a tree nipped by a -spring frost brings forth a second crown of leaves, but so rich and -luxuriant as the first it will not be; thus does a maiden-heart -produce a second bloom, if the first had to wither before maturity, -but its full and complete floral glory is unfolded only where love, -aroused for the first time, passes in full vigour through all its -phases.” - -Yet it is not ungallant selfishness alone that prompts German men to -bring up their women so that they shall be mere playthings at first and -drudges after marriage, never real soul-mates. They have the same old -stupid continental fear that culture of the intellect weakens the -feelings. This fear is based on slovenly reasoning—on the inference that -because a few blue-stockings have at all ages made themselves ridiculous -by assuming masculine attributes and parading their lack of tenderness -and feminine delicacy, therefore intellectual training must be fatal to -feminine charms. As if there were not plenty of masculine -blue-stockings, or pedants, without disproving the fact that the men of -the greatest intellectual power—men of genius—are also the most -emotional and refined of all men; or the fact proved by this whole -monograph, that Love and general emotional refinement grow with the -general intellectual culture of women. - -A typical illustration of German feeling on the subject of female -education is to be found in Schweiger-Lerchenfeld’s _Frauenleben der -Erde_, p. 530. Referring to the attempts now being made in France to -give young girls a rational education, he quotes the opinion of a French -legislator that a girl thus brought up would not love less deeply than -heretofore, while she would love more intelligently; and then comments -as follows: “How far this anticipation may be realised cannot be decided -now or in the near future. At any rate we must leave to the French -themselves the task of getting along with this classical female -generation of the future. Certain it is that their experiment will -hardly be imitated, and that the old Romans and Greeks may eventually -become more dangerous to masculine supremacy (Autorität) than the -pilgrimage stories of Lourdes.” - -It is time for German woman to rise in revolt against this mediæval -masculine selfishness. Not in active revolt, for a warlike woman is an -abomination. But in passive revolt. Let them cease to spoil the men, and -these bears will become more gallant. Germany is later in almost every -phase of literary and social culture than England. It was not an -accident that Shakspere came before Heine, the English before the German -poet of Love; for Love is much less advanced in Germany than in England. -It has not even passed the stage where a harsh sort of Coyness is still -in place. German women want to learn the cunning to be strange, They are -too deferential to the men, too easily won. They want to learn to -indulge in harmless flirtation, and they want the education which will -give them wit enough to flirt cleverly and make the men mellow. - -It must be admitted, however, notwithstanding all these strictures, that -there is much genuine Romantic Love in Germany, often differing in no -wise from Anglo-American Love. At first sight it seems, indeed, as if -chaperonage were as strict as in France; and no doubt many German girls -are brought up on the spring-chicken-coyness system which regards every -man as a hawk, and a signal for hiding away in a corner. But in general -German girls have much more freedom than French girls. They may walk -alone in the street in the daytime, go alone to the conservatory to -attend a music-lesson. They meet the young men freely at evening -parties, dances, musical entertainments, etc.; and the chaperons are not -nearly so obtrusive and offensive as in France. The mothers appear to -have taken to heart Jean Paul’s saying that “in the mother’s presence it -is impossible to carry on an edifying conversation with the daughter.” -So that there is plenty of opportunity for falling in love; and were it -not for parental dictation, Love-matches would perhaps be as common as -in England. But the girls lack independence of spirit to defy parental -tyranny, which it is their _moral duty_ to defy where money or rank are -pitted against Love. For the health and happiness of the next generation -are at stake. - -German girls also enjoy an advantage over the French in having a -literature which is pure and wholesome; and by reading about Romantic -Love they train and deepen their feelings. It is often said that Heine’s -influence has been chiefly negative. The truth is, _Heine is the -greatest emotional educator Germany has ever had_. More young men and -girls have wept over his pathetic lyrics than over any other poetry. His -_Buch der Lieder_ has done more to foster the growth of Romantic Love in -Germany than all other collections of verse combined; not only by their -own unadorned beauty, but through the soulful music wedded to these -poems by Schubert, Schumann, and other magicians of the heart. The fact -that the copyright on Heine’s works was soon to expire, and the country -to be flooded with cheap editions, has long caused Master Cupid to rub -his hands in gleeful anticipation of brisk business; and he has just -given orders in his arsenal for one hundred thousand new golden arrows. - -Heine indeed fathomed the secrets of Love much more deeply than Goethe. -Whereas Heine sang of Love in every major and minor key, Goethe appears -to have emphasised chiefly its transitoriness. “Love, as Goethe knows -it,” says Professor Seeley, “is very tender, and has a lyric note as -fresh as that of a song-bird. In his _Autobiography_ one love-passage -succeeds another, but each comes speedily to an end. How far in each -case he was to blame is a matter of controversy. But he seems to betray -a way of thinking about women such as might be natural to an Oriental -sultan. ‘I was in that agreeable phase,’ he writes, ‘when a new passion -had begun to spring up in me before the old one had quite disappeared.’ -About Frederika he blames himself without reserve, and uses strong -expressions of contrition; but he forgets the matter strangely soon. In -his distress of mind he says he found riding, and especially skating, -bring much relief. This reminds us of the famous letter to the Frau von -Stein about coffee. He is always ready in a moment to shake off the -deepest impressions and receive new ones; and he never looks back.... -Goethe was a man of the old _régime_.... Had he entered into the -reforming movement of his age, he might have striven to elevate -women.... He certainly felt at times that all was not right in the -status of women (‘woman’s fate is pitiable’), and how narrowly confined -was their happiness (wie enggebunden ist des Weibes Glück) ... but he -was not a reformer of institutions.” - -A reformer of institutions, however, has apparently just arisen in -Berlin. For we read that at a private female seminary the girls received -the following subject for an essay: “There is from the Ideas of Plato, -the atoms of Democritus, the Substance of Spinoza, the monads of -Leibnitz, and from the subjective mental forms of Kant, the proof to -bring, that the philosophy it never neglected has the to-be-calculated -results of their hypotheses with their into-perception-falling effects -to compare.” - -Such subjects, so elegantly expressed, are no doubt eminently calculated -to bring out the latent possibilities of feminine feeling and culture. - -To close this chapter with a sweet, soothing concord—major triad, horns -and ’cellos, _smorzando_—it must be admitted that the Germans have one -ingredient of Romantic Love which all other nations must envy them. They -have one more thrill in the drama of Love, in the ascending scale of -familiarities, than we have, namely, the word _Du_, which is something -very different from the stilted _Thou_, because still a part of everyday -language. The second person singular is used in Germany towards pet -animals and children, between students, intimate friends, relatives, and -lovers. French “lovers” do not say _tu_ to each other till after -marriage, and even then they do not use it in public. But the German -lover has the privilege, as soon as he is engaged, of exchanging the -formal _Sie_ for the affectionate _Du_; and the first _Du_ that comes -from her lips can hardly be less sweet than the first kiss. - -There is a game of cards, popular among young folks in Germany, during -which you have to address every one with _Du_ whom you otherwise would -have to call _Sie_, and _vice versâ_; cards have to be called spoons, -white black, etc. If there is a young man in the company secretly in -love with a young lady, you can always “spot” him by the eagerness he -shows to speak to her, and the fact that he always gets the _Du_ right -and everything else wrong; while she, strange to say, appears to have -never heard of such a thing at all as a personal pronoun. - - - ENGLISH LOVE - -Concerning Romantic Love in England and America, there is less to be -said under the head of National Peculiarities than in case of the -continental nations of Europe, for the simple reason that almost -everything said in the pages on Modern Love refers especially to these -two countries. Anglo-American Love is Romantic Love, pure and simple, as -first depicted by Shakspere, and after him, with more or less accuracy, -by a hundred other poets and novelists. There is no lack of colour in -this Love—colour warm and glowing—but it is no longer a mere local -colour, a national or provincial peculiarity, but Love in its essence, -its cosmopolitan aspect; Love such as will in course of time prevail -throughout the world, when the Anglisation of this planet—which is only -a question of time—shall have been completed. - -England has many a bright jewel in the crown of her achievements in -behalf of civilisation, but the brightest of all is this, that she was -the first country in the world—ancient, mediæval, or modern—that removed -the bars from woman’s prison-windows, opened every door to Cupid, and -made him thoroughly welcome and comfortable. And grateful Cupid has -retaliated by setting up English manners and customs as a model which -all other nations are slowly but surely copying. Eighteen million souls -in the United States, or almost two persons in every five, are not of -English origin; yet of these there are not one million who have not -given up their old country methods of courtship as antiquated, and -adopted the Anglo-American style. The Germans in America make love not -after the German but after the English fashion. So do the French, though -somewhat more reluctantly and tardily. In San Francisco and Chicago it -is said that but one name in ten is of English origin; yet who ever -heard of a San Franciscan or Chicagoan making love in foreign style? -During the last hundred years the majority of the immigrants to America -have come from non-English countries; yet, though the parents enter the -country as adults with all their national traditions stamped on their -memories, they invariably allow their sons and daughters to court and be -courted in American style. And now that England is gradually extending -her influence to every one of the five continents, Romantic Love—to -whose sway, quite as much as to their outdoor active life, the English -owe the fact that they are to-day the handsomest and most energetic race -in the world—is also rapidly extending its sphere, and will finally oust -the last vestiges of Oriental despotism, feminine suppression, and -mediæval masculine barbarism. - -For some centuries woman has been more favoured by law, and especially -by national custom, in England than in any other European state. It is -true that the Englishman who beats his wife is the most brutal savage on -the face of the globe, but he is to be found only among the lowest -classes. Nor has wife-selling ever been quite such a universal custom in -England as foreigners imagine; although cases are on record as far back -as 1302 and as late as 1884. In an article in _All the Year Round_ (Dec. -20, 1884) more than twenty cases are enumerated with full details, the -price of a wife varying from twenty-five guineas to a pint or half a -pint of beer, or a penny and a dinner; and the _Times_ of July 22, 1797, -remarks sarcastically: “By some mistake or omission, in the report of -the Smithfield market, we have not learned the average price of wives -for the week. The increasing value of the fair sex is esteemed by -several eminent writers the certain criterion of increasing -civilisation. Smithfield has, on this ground, strong pretensions to -refined improvement, as the price of wives has risen in that market from -half a guinea to three guineas and a half.” - -That these cases occurred only among the lowest classes is self-evident; -yet even the lowest classes often resented the brutal transaction by -pelting the offenders with stones and mud; whereas, as far as the women -were concerned, the offence was mitigated by the fact that in all cases -on record they appear to have been only too glad to be sold, so as to -get rid of their tyrants. - -It cannot be said that English women are all exempt from the hardest -manual labour even to-day; but the tendency to relieve them of tasks -unsuited to feminine muscular development has existed longer in England -than elsewhere. The difference can be best observed with regard to -agricultural labour. Any one who travels through Italy, Switzerland, -France, or Germany in the autumn, gets the impression that most of the -harvesting is done by the women; whereas in England, as shown by -statistics, there are twenty-two men to every woman engaged as -field-labourers. Yet even at that rate there are still 64,840 women in -England engaged in agricultural labour unsuited to their sex. - -On the other hand, English women, like American women, are manifesting a -great disposition at present to try their hand or brain at almost every -employment heretofore considered exclusively masculine. The census -enumerates 349 different classes of work, and of these all but about 70 -have been invaded by women; including 5 horse-dealers, 14 bicycle makers -and dealers, 16 sculptors, 18 fence makers, 19 fossil diggers, etc.; -whereas there are as yet no female pilots, dentists, police officers, -shepherds, law students, architects, cab-drivers, commercial travellers, -barristers, etc. [Full list in _Pall Mall Gazette_, Oct. 3, 1884.] - -Inasmuch as there are almost a million more women than men in England, -it is not surprising that women should thus seek to extend their sphere -of usefulness. We live in an experimental epoch, when it is to be -ascertained what is and what is not becoming to woman regarded as a -labourer. It is therefore of the utmost importance that there should be -some standard by which each employment is to be judged. And this -standard, fortunately, is supplied by Romantic Love. - -We have seen that the tendency of civilisation has been to differentiate -the sexes more and more in appearance, character, and emotional -susceptibilities, and that on this differentiation depends the existence -and power of Love, because it _individualises_ man and woman, and Love -is the more intense the more it is individualised. - -Hence every employment which tends to make woman masculine in appearance -or habits is to be tabooed by her because antagonistic to Love. If she, -nevertheless, persists in it, Love will have its revenge by eliminating -her through Sexual Selection. No man will marry a masculine woman, or -fall in love with her, so that her unnatural temperament will not be -transmitted to the next generation and multiplied. - -But what is to be accepted as the standard of femininity? The answer is -given us by Nature. Throughout the animal world, with a few -insignificant exceptions, the sexes are differentiated distinctly; and -the female is the more tender and gentle of the two, the more devoted to -domestic affection and the care and education of the young, the more -amiable, and, above all, less aggressive, bold, and pugnacious than the -male. “Any education which women undergo,” says the _Spectator_, “should -be an education not for the militant life of war against evil but for -the spiritual life inspiring a persuasive or patient charity.... Even in -a field properly suited to them—the field of charitable institutions, of -poor-law work, of educational representation—women no sooner take up the -cudgels than they lose their appropriate influence, and are either -unsexed or paralysed.” - -According to Mr. Ruskin, “woman’s work is—(1) To please people. (2) To -feed them in dainty ways. (3) To clothe them. (4) To keep them orderly. -(5) To teach them.” - -Statistics concerning the employments instinctively sought by the -majority of women bear out Mr. Ruskin’s table quite well. Woman’s first -duty is to please people by being beautiful, amiable, and fascinating in -conversation and manners. No man would marry a woman unless she pleased -him in one way or another; hence matrimony is the most successful female -profession, which in England includes 4,437,962 women. But there are -other ways in which women seek to please and prosper; hence there are in -England 2368 actresses as against 2197 actors, and 11,376 women whose -profession is music, as against 14,170 men. - -Domestic service, which includes the “feeding in dainty ways” (though -too often the “dainty” must be omitted), employs 1,230,406 women in -England—about 30,000 fewer than industrial employments, which are -somewhat more popular owing to the greater individual liberty they allow -the employed. Yet domestic service is a much better preparation for -married life than labour in a manufactory; so that, other things being -equal, a labouring man looking for a wife would be apt to select one who -has learned how to take care of his home. This thought ought to help to -render domestic service more popular. - -“To clothe them.” Dressmaking, staymaking (alas!), and millinery, employ -357,995 women in England. - -“To keep them orderly.” Bathing and washing service employ 176,670 -women; medicine and nursing, almost 50,000; missions, 1660. - -“To teach them.” This, one of woman’s special vocations, eminently -suited to her capacity, employs 123,995 females. - -If I have failed in correctly interpreting Mr. Ruskin’s oracle, I stand -subject to correction from that earnest labourer in the task of finding -for woman her proper sphere—a work for which he has not yet received the -recognition and thanks he deserves. - -That marriage, and not miscellaneous employment, is woman’s true -destiny, is shown by the way in which Cupid influences statistics. Thus -there are in England about 29,000 school-mistresses aged 15-20, and -28,500 aged 25-45; but the time from 20-25, the period of courtship and -marriage, has only 21,000. In the case of dressmakers this fact is -brought out still more strikingly: 15-20—84,000; 20-25—76,000; -25-45—129,000, in round numbers. - -Although, therefore, as Emerson remarks, “the circumstances may be -easily imagined in which woman may speak, vote, argue cases, legislate, -and drive coaches, if only it comes by degrees,” facts show that there -is more philosophy of the future in Mrs. Hawthorne’s remark that “Home, -I think, is the great arena for women, and there, I am sure, she can -wield a power which no king or emperor can cope with.” - -A consideration of all the foregoing facts shows that Love may be safely -accepted as a guiding-star in making a proper division of the world’s -labour between men and women. And the reason why England and America -have made so much more progress than other nations in ascertaining -woman’s true capacity and sphere, is because she has been educated to a -point where she can assert her independence, and where she can inspire -as well as feel Love—thus making man humble, gallant, gentle, ready to -make concessions and remove restrictions. It is in England and America -alone that Love plays a more important _rôle_ in marriage than money and -social position; that the young are generally permitted to consult their -own heart instead of parental command; and that the opportunities for -courtship are so liberal and numerous that the young are enabled to fall -in love with one another not only for dazzling qualities of Personal -Beauty, viewed for a moment, but for traits of character, emotional -refinement, and a cultured intellect. - -These two nations alone have fully taken to heart and heeded Addison’s -maxim that “Those marriages generally abound most with love and -constancy that are _preceded by a long courtship_. The passion should -strike root and gather strength before marriage be grafted on it. A long -course of hopes and expectations fixes the idea in our minds, and -habituates us to a fondness of the person beloved.” - -There is, however, a difference between English and American Love which -shows that we have learned Addison’s lesson even better than his own -countrymen. As Mr. Robert Laird Collier remarks in _English Home Life_: -“The American custom, among the mass of the people, of leaving young men -and young women free to associate together and to keep company with each -other for an indefinite length of time, without declaring their -intentions, is almost unknown in any country of Europe. It is not long -after a young man begins to show the daughter attentions before the -father gives intimation that he wishes to know what it means, and either -the youth declares his intentions or is notified to ‘cut sticks.’” -“Courtships in England are short, and engagements are long.” - -The London _Standard_ doubtless exaggerates the difference between -English and American girls and their attitude toward men in the course -of an article, part of which may, nevertheless, be cited: “American -girls offer a bright example to their English sisters of a happy, -unclouded youth, and instances seem to be few of their abusing the -liberty which is accorded to them. Perhaps their immunity from -sentimental troubles arises from the fact that from earliest childhood -they have been comrades of the other sex, and are therefore not disposed -to turn a man into a demi-god because they only see one at rare -intervals under the eagle eye of a mother or aunt. A great revolution in -public opinion would be required ere English girls could be emancipated -to the extent which prevails on the other side of the Atlantic, and even -then it is doubtful whether the system would work well. The daughters of -Albion, with but few exceptions, are single-hearted, earnest, and prone -to look upon everything seriously. They often make the mistake of -imagining that a man is in love because he is decently civil.” - -Yet in _German Home Life_, written from an English point of view, we -read that “There is no such thing as country life, as we understand it, -in Germany; no cosy sociability, smiling snugness, pleasant bounties and -hospitalities; and, above all, for the young folk, no freedom, -flirtation, boatings, sketchings, high teas, scamperings, and merriments -generally.” And again: “The sort of frank ‘flirtation,’ beginning openly -in fun and ending in amusement, which is common amongst healthy, -high-spirited boys and girls in England, and has no latent element of -intrigue or vanity in it, but is born of exuberant animal spirits, -youthful frolics, and healthy pastimes shared together, is forbidden to -her” (the German girl). - -The _Standard_ itself apparently contradicts itself in another article -on “Flirtation,” concerning which it says: “It is usually so innocent -that it has become part of the education most of our young women pass -through in their training for society. The British matron smiles -contentedly when she sees that her daughter, just entered on her teens, -exhibits a partiality for long walks and soft-toned confabulations with -her cousin Fred or her brother’s favourite schoolmate. Three or four -such juvenile attachments will do the girl no harm, if they are gently -watched over by the parental eye. They serve to evolve the sexually -social instincts in a gradual way. Through them the bashful maiden -learns the nature of man in the same fashion as she takes lessons on the -piano. In a word, she is ‘getting her hand in’ for the real game of -matrimony that is to be played in a few years. Her youthful swains, of -course, derive their own instructions from these innocent amours.... -Chivalrous feeling is developed which it takes a deal of worldly wisdom -to smother in after years.... When we observe this sentimentality in a -boy, we derive great amusement from it, but it should raise the lad in -our estimation. He has something in him to which ideals appeal, and his -early-developed susceptibility will—to use a beautiful but forgotten -word—engentle his nature.” - -Perhaps the difference between English and American courtship and -flirtation is not so great as often painted, and is becoming less every -year, owing to the Americanisation of Europe. - - - AMERICAN LOVE - -It is in the United States of America that Plato’s ideal—so completely -ignored by his countrymen—that young men and women should have ample -opportunity to meet and get acquainted with one another before marriage, -is most perfectly realised; as well as Addison’s supplementary advice -that marriage should be preceded by a long courtship. - -As boys and girls in America are commonly educated in the same schools, -they are initiated at an early age into the sweets and sorrows of -Calf-love Courtship, which has such a refining influence on the boys, -and renders the girls more easy and natural in society when they get -older; destroying among other puerilities that spring-chicken Coyness -which makes many of their European sisters appear so silly. In the -Western country-schools each girl has her “beau”—a boy of fourteen to -seventeen—who brings her flowers, apples, or other presents, accompanies -her home, and performs various other gallant services; nor has any harm -ever been known to result from this juvenile Courtship—except an -occasional elopement, in case of a prematurely frivolous couple, whom it -was just as well to get rid of in that way as any other. - -When they get a little older, the young folks go to picnics without a -chaperon, or they enjoy a drive or sleigh-ride, or go a-skating -together; and after a party, dance, church fair, or other social -gathering, where the elders commonly keep out of the way considerately, -each young man accompanies a young lady home. Were you to insinuate to -him the advisability of having a chaperon for the young lady, he would -inform you pointedly that the young lady needed no protection inasmuch -as he was a _gentleman_ and not a tramp. It is this high sense of -gentlemanly honour that protects women in America—a hundred times better -than all the barred windows of the Orient and the dragons of Europe. -Thanks to this feeling of modern chivalry, a young lady may travel all -alone from New York to Chicago, or even to San Francisco, and, if her -manners are modest and refined, she will not once be insulted by word or -look, not even in passing through the roughest mining regions. - -It is the consciousness of this chivalrous code of honour among the men -that gives an American girl the frank and natural gaze which is one of -her greatest charms, and that allows her to talk to a man just -introduced as if they were old acquaintances. It is a knowledge of this -gentlemanly code that makes parents feel perfectly at ease in leaving -their daughter alone in the parlour all the evening with a visitor. In a -word, American customs prove that if you treat a man as a gentleman he -will behave like a gentleman. - -Unquestionably there are girls who abuse the liberty allowed them, and -encourage the men to encourage them in their freedom. Mr. Henry James -has done a most valuable service in holding up the mirror to one of -these girls, to serve as a warning to all Daisy Millers and semi-Daisy -Millers. There are not a few of the latter kind, and I have myself met -three full-fledged specimens of the real “Daisy” in Europe—girls who -would not have hesitated to go out rowing on a lake at eleven o’clock in -the evening with a man known to them only a few hours, or to go next day -with him to visit an old tower, or to say that mamma “always makes a -fuss if I introduce a gentleman. But I _do_ introduce them—almost -always. If I didn’t introduce my gentlemen friends to mother, I -shouldn’t think I was natural.” It is this class of American tourists -that have, unfortunately, given foreigners a caricatured notion of the -American girl’s deportment. - -Etiquette differs somewhat in various American cities and among the -different classes. For instance, a young lady of the “upper circles,” -who in Chicago is permitted to drive to the theatre in a carriage with a -young man, is not allowed the same privilege in New York. - -The New York _Sun_, an excellent authority in social matters, gives the -whole philosophy of American Courtship and Love in answering a young -man’s question as to whether, in asking a young lady of the highest -circles to accompany him to a place of amusement, it is necessary to -invite a chaperon at the same time. He is told that he must,—in those -circles:— - -"But these people are only a few among the many. What is called society -more exclusively in New York comprises, all told, no more than a hundred -or two hundred families. Outside of them, of course, there are larger -circles, to which they give the law to a greater or less extent, but the -whole number of men and women in this great town of a million and a half -of inhabitants who pay obedience to that law is not over a few thousand. - -"Nine girls out of ten in New York, with the full consent of their -parents and as a matter of course, accompany young men to amusements -without taking a chaperon along. They feel, and they are, entirely able -to look out for themselves, and they would regard the whole fun as -spoiled if a third person was on hand to watch over them. A large part -of the audience at every theatre is always made up of young men and -young women who have come out in pairs, and who have no thought of -violating any rule of propriety. Very many of these girls would never be -invited to the theatre by their male acquaintances if they were under -the dominion of such a usage, for the men want them to themselves, else -they would not ask their company, and besides do not feel able to pay -for an extra ticket for an obnoxious third person; or, if they have a -little more money to spare, they prefer to expend it at an ice-cream -saloon after the play. - -"Nor can it be said that the morals of these less formal young people -are any worse than those of the more exacting society. Probably they are -better on the average, and if the laws of Murray Hill prevailed -throughout this city, the marriage-rate of New York would be likely to -decline, for nothing discourages the passion of the average young man so -much as his inability to meet the charmer except in the presence of a -third person, who acts as a buffer between him and her. He feels that he -has no show, and cannot appear to good advantage under the eyes of a -cool critic, whereas if he could walk with the girl alone in the shades -of the balmy evening, the courage to declare his affection would come to -him. - -“Therefore it is that engagements, even in the most fashionable society, -are commonly made in the country during the summer, where the young -people come together more freely and more constantly than in the town.” - -The attempt made in certain corners of New York “Society” to introduce -the foreign system of chaperonage is one of the most absurd and -incongruous efforts at aping foreign fashions (which are on the decline -even in Europe) ever witnessed in our midst. In Europe Chaperonage is in -so far excusable, as it is a modified survival from barbarous times when -men were mostly brutes, being drunk half the time and on military -expeditions the other half. To treat American men, who are brought up as -gentlemen, and commonly behave as such, as mediæval ruffians, is a -gratuitous insult, which they ought to resent by avoiding those houses -where Oriental experiments are being tried with the daughters. That -would bring the “mammas” to reason very soon. - -Yet it would seem as if New York “Society” had already had enough of the -Oriental experiment; for the same high authority just quoted asserted -last autumn that “A regular stampede in favour of the liberty of the -young unmarried female is to be undertaken this winter by a number of -‘three-years-in-society’ veterans, supported and encouraged by nearly -all this seasons _débutantes_. The first step is to be the establishment -of a right on the part of young girls to form parties for theatre -_matinées_ and afternoon concerts, untrammelled by the presence of even -a matron of their own age, and to which all ‘reliable and well-behaved -young men are to be eligible.’... Rule No. 2 establishes beyond all -dispute the often-mooted question whether the presence of a brother and -sister in a party of young people going to any place of evening -amusement throws a shield of respectability over the others of the -party. Society long ago frowned upon this mongrel kind of chaperonage; -but upon the principle that no young man would permit indiscretions or -improprieties in a party of which his sister made one, the ‘veterans’ -have voted in favour of it. The young man with a sister is therefore to -enact the part of dragon on these occasions, and will be largely in -demand. Failing a convenient sister, he may get a cousin, perhaps, to -take her place.” - -When it comes to the cousin, the reversion to Americanism, pure and -simple, will be complete. - -The gentlemanliness and Gallantry of Americans have at all times been -acknowledged by observers of all nationalities; and it is indeed hardly -too much to say that the average American is disposed to treat the whole -female sex with a studied Gallantry, which in most European countries is -reserved by men for the one girl with whom they happen to be in love. -Even the irate and vituperative Anthony Trollope in his book on North -America was obliged to admit that “It must be borne in mind that in that -country material wellbeing and education are more extended than with us, -and that therefore men there have learned to be chivalrous who with us -have hardly progressed so far. The conduct of the men to the women -throughout the states is always gracious.... But it seems to me that the -women have not advanced as far as the men have done.... In America the -spirit of chivalry has sunk deeper among men than it has among women.” - -Anthony Trollope is by no means the only writer who has put his finger -on the greatest foible of American women. No doubt they have, as a -class, been spoiled by excessive masculine Gallantry. They do not, like -the women of the Troubadour period, who were similarly spoilt, go quite -so far as to send their knights on crusades and among lepers, but they -often shroud themselves in an atmosphere of selfishness which is very -unfeminine—to choose a complimentary adjective. - -In the East, where there is already a large excess of women over men, -this evil is less marked than in the West, where women are still in a -minority. Thus the Denver _Tribune_, in an article on “The Impoliteness -of Women,” remarks: “If there is any characteristic of Americans of -which they are more proud than any other, it is the courtesy which the -men who are natives of this country exhibit towards women, and the -respect which the gentler sex receives in public. This is a trait of the -American character of which Americans are justly proud, and in which -they doubtless excel the people of any other country. But while this is -true of the men, it is a matter to be deeply regretted that as much -cannot be said of the women of this country.” After praising American -women for their beauty, vivacity, high moral character, and other -charms, the _Tribune_ adds that they “seem very generally to be prompted -in their conduct in public by a spirit of selfishness which very often -finds expression in acts of positive rudeness.” They are ungrateful, it -continues, to the men who give up their seats in street-cars; they -compel men to step into a muddy street, instead of walking one behind -the other at a crossing; and at such places as the stamp-window of the -post-office they do not wait for their turn, but force the men to stand -aside. - -Another Western paper, the Chicago _Tribune_, complains that in that -city there are 10,000 homes in which the daughters are ignorant of the -simplest kind of household duties. It adds “That they do not desire to -learn; that, having been brought up to do nothing except appear -gracefully in society, their object in life is to marry husbands who can -support them in idle luxury; that this state of things has substituted -for marriages founded on love and respect a market in which the men have -quoted money-values, and where a young man, however great his talents, -has no chance of winning a wife from the charmed circle.” - -So that the pendulum has apparently swung to the other extreme. In -mediæval times the women were married for their money by the lazy, -selfish men; now the women are lazy and selfish, while the men toil and -are married for their money. - -Yet there is much exaggeration in this view, which applies to only a -small portion of the American people. We are far from the times when -Miss Martineau complained of the feeble health of American women, and -attributed it to the vacuity of their minds. Their health is still, on -the average, inferior to that of English and German damsels, from whom -they could also learn useful lessons in domestic matters; but -intellectually the American woman has no equal in the world; while her -sweetness, grace, and proverbial beauty combine into an ensemble which -makes Cupid chuckle whenever he looks at a susceptible young man. - -Goldsmith says somewhere that “the English love with violence, and -expect violent love in return.” Certainly this holds true no less of the -Americans. There are indeed several favourable circumstances which -combine to make Romantic Love more ardent and more prevalent in the -United States than in any other part of the world. - -(1) The first is the intellectual culture of women just referred to, -which they owe partly to the leisure they enjoy, partly to the fact that -America has the best elementary schools in the world, so that their -minds are aroused early from their dormant state. As Bishop Spalding -remarks: “Woman here in the United States is more religious, more moral, -and more intelligent than man; more intelligent in the sense of greater -openness to ideas, greater flexibility of mind, and a wider acquaintance -with literature.” Now the whole argument of this book tends to show that -the capacity for feeling Romantic Love is dependent on intellectual -culture, and increases with it; hence we might infer that there is more -Love among the women of America than among those of any other country, -even if this were not so patent from the greater number of Love-matches -and various subtle signs known to international observers. - -And as the sweetest pleasure and goad of Love lies in the conviction -that it is really returned, man’s Love is thus doubled in ardour through -woman’s responsive sympathy. - -(2) That Courtship proper is longer than in England, and engagement -shorter, is a circumstance in favour of America. For nothing adds so -much to the ardour of Love as the uncertainty which prevails during -Courtship; whereas, after engagement, all these alternate hopes and -doubts, confidences and jealousies, are quieted, and the ship approaches -the still waters of the harbour of matrimony, which may be quite as deep -but are less sublime and romantic than mid-ocean, with its possibilities -of storm and shipwreck. - -Moreover, the longer the time of tentative Courtship, the fewer are the -chances of a mistake being made in selecting a sympathetic spouse. - -In Germany an engagement is so conclusive an affair that it is announced -in the papers, and cards are sent out as at a wedding. In America we -meet with the other extreme, for it is not very unusual for a couple to -be engaged some time before even the parents know it. Though there is -such a thing as breach of promise suits against fickle young men, such -engagements, if unsatisfactory to either side, are commonly broken off -amicably. And, as one of Mr. Howells’s characters remarks in _Indian -Summer_: “A broken engagement _may_ be a bad thing in some cases, but I -am inclined to think it is the very best thing that could happen in most -cases where it happens. The evil is done long before; the broken -engagement is merely sanative, and so far beneficent.” - -Were engagements less readily dissolved, divorces would be more frequent -even than they are now. - -(3) Parental dictation is almost unknown in America; nowhere else have -young men and women such absolute freedom to choose their own soul-mate. -Hence Individual Preference, on which the ardour of Love depends in the -highest degree, has full sway. The comparative absence of barriers of -rank and social grade also makes it easier for a man to find and claim -his real _Juliet_. - -(4) This dependence of Love on Individualisation gives it another -advantage in America. For nowhere is there so great a mixture of -nationalities as here; and, _away from home_, a national peculiarity of -feature or manners has a sort of individualising effect. Till we get -used to such national peculiarities through their constant recurrence we -are apt to judge almost every woman in a new city attractive. From this -point of view Love may be defined as an instinctive longing to absorb -national traits, and blend them all in the one cosmopolitan type of -perfect Personal Beauty. - -(5) There are beautiful women in all countries of the world, but no -country has so many pretty girls as America. Money and rank find it hard -to compete with such loveliness, hence Love has its own way. Here alone -is it possible to find heiresses who have failed to get married through -lack of Beauty. Personal Beauty is the great matchmaker in America; and -thus it comes that Beauty is ever inherited and multiplied. For Love is -the cause of Beauty as Beauty is the cause of Love. - -One more characteristic of American Love remains to be noted—the most -unique of all. American women are of all women in the world the most -self-conscious, and have the keenest sense of humour. To these -quick-witted damsels the sentimental sublimities of amorous Hyperbole, -which may touch the heart of a naïve German or Italian girl, are apt to -appear dangerously near the ludicrous; hence an American lover, if he is -clever enough, deliberately covers the step which separates the sublime -from the ridiculous. He gilds the gold of his compliments by using the -form of playful exaggeration, which is the more easy to him because -exaggeration is a national form of American humour. Mr. Howells’s heroes -often make love in this fashion. The lover in _The Lady of the -Aroostook_ spices his flatteries with open burlesque, and succeeds -admirably with this new _Ars Amoris_; and Colville in _Indian Summer_ -says to Imogene: “Come, I’ll go, of course, Imogene. A fancy-ball to -please you is a very different thing from a fancy-ball in the abstract.” - -“Oh, what nice things you say! Do you know, I always admired your -compliments? I think they’re the most charming compliments in the -world.” - -“I don’t think they’re half so pretty as yours; but they’re more -sincere.” - -“No, honestly. They flatter, and at the same time they make fun of the -flattery a little; they make a person feel that you like them even while -you laugh at them.” - -Perfect success in this form of flattery requires a talent for epigram. -Not many, unfortunately, even in America, are poets and wits at the same -time, like Mr. Howells; but there is an abundance of clever compliments -nevertheless, and they are apt to assume the form of playful -exaggeration. - - - - - SCHOPENHAUER’S THEORY OF LOVE - - -A first hasty perusal of Schopenhauer’s brilliant essay on the -“Metaphysics of Sexual Love” (in the second volume of his _Welt als -Wille und Vorstellung_) will dispose most readers to agree with Dühring -that the great pessimist “makes war on love.” But a more careful -consideration of his profound thoughts shows that this is not the case, -notwithstanding his habitual cynical tone. - -In the first place, his theory can do no possible harm, because, as he -himself admits, no lover will ever believe in it. Secondly, the gist of -Schopenhauer’s theory is to show that a lover is the most noble and -unselfish martyr in the world, because his usual attitude and fate is -self-sacrifice. - - - LOVE IS AN ILLUSION - -The fundamental truth which Schopenhauer claims to have discovered is -that love is an illusion—an _instinctive_ belief on the lover’s part -that his life’s happiness absolutely depends on his union with his -beloved; whereas, in truth, a love-match commonly leads to lifelong -conjugal misery. The lover, on reaching the goal so eagerly striven for, -finds himself disappointed, and realises, to his consternation, that he -has been the dupe of a blind instinct. Quien se casa por amores, ha de -vivir con dolores, says a Spanish proverb (“to marry for love is to live -in misery”): and this doctrine Schopenhauer re-echoes in a dozen -different forms: “It is not only disappointed love-passion that -occasionally has a tragic end; successful love likewise leads more -commonly to misery than to happiness.” “Marriages based on love commonly -end unhappily,” etc. - - - INDIVIDUALS SACRIFICED TO THE SPECIES - -The reason of this curious fact is given in this sentence: -“Love-marriages are formed in the interest of the species, not of the -individuals. True, the parties concerned imagine that they are providing -for their own happiness; but their real [unconscious] aim is something -foreign to their own selves—namely, the procreation of an individual -whose existence becomes possible only through their marriage.” - -What urges a man on to this sacrifice of individual happiness to the -welfare of his offspring is, as already intimated, a blind instinct -known as Love. The universal _Will_ (Schopenhauer’s fetish, or name for -an impersonal deity underlying all phenomena) has implanted this blind -instinct in man, for the same reason that it implants so many other -instincts in various animals—to induce the parents to undergo any amount -of labour, and even danger to life, for the sake of benefiting the -offspring, and thus preserving the species. All these animals, like the -lovers, are urged on blindly to sacrifice themselves in the belief that -they are doing it for their own pleasure and benefit; whereas it is all -in the interest of their offspring. - -Why was the _Will_ compelled to implant this blind instinct in man? -Because man is so selfish wherever guided by reason, that it would have -been unwise to entrust so important a matter as the welfare of coming -generations to his intellect and prudence. Prudence would tell young -people to choose not the most attractive and healthy partners, who would -be able to transmit their excellence to the next generation, but the -ones who are most liberally supplied with money and useful friends. That -is, they would invariably look out first for “Number One,” indifferent -to the deluge that might come after them. It was to neutralise this -selfishness that the _Will_ created the instinct of Love, which impels a -man to marry not the woman who will make _him_ the most happy and -comfortable, but whose qualities, combined with his own, will be likely -to produce a harmonious, well-made group of children. - -Schopenhauer’s _Will_, it must be understood, is an æsthetic sort of a -chap. He has his hobbies, and one of these hobbies is the desire to -preserve the species in its typical purity and beauty. There are a -thousand accidents of climate, vice, disease, etc., that tend to vitiate -the type of each species; but Love strives for ever to restore a -harmonious balance, by producing a mutual infatuation in two beings -whose combined (and opposite) defects will neutralise one another in the -offspring. - - - SOURCES OF LOVE - -More definitely speaking, there are three ways in which the _Will_ -preserves the purity of its types—three ways in which it inspires the -Love whose duty it is to achieve this result. Physical Beauty is the -first thing desired by the lover, because that is the expression of -typical perfection. Secondly, he may be influenced by such Psychic -Traits as will blend well with his own; and thirdly, he will be -attracted by perfections (or imperfections) which are the opposite of -his own. These three sources must be considered briefly in detail. - -(1) _Physical Beauty._—The most important attribute of Beauty, in the -lover’s eye, is Youth. Men prefer the age from eighteen to twenty-eight -in a woman; while women give the preference to a man aged from thirty to -thirty-five, which represents the acme of his virility. Youth without -Beauty may still inspire Love; not so Beauty without Youth. - -Health ranks next in importance. Acute disease is only a temporary -disadvantage, whereas chronic disease repels the amorous affections, for -the reason that it is likely to be transmitted to the next generation. - -A fine framework or skeleton is the third desideratum. Besides age and -disease, nothing proves so fatal to the chances of inspiring Love as -deformity: “The most charming face does not atone for it; on the -contrary, even the ugliest face is preferred if allied with a straight -growth of the body.” - -A certain plumpness or fulness of flesh is the next thing considered in -sexual selection; for this is an indication of Health, and promises a -sound progeny. Excessive leanness is repulsive, and so is excessive -stoutness, which is often an indication of sterility. “A well-developed -bust has a magic effect on a man.” What attracts women to men is -especially muscular development, because that is a quality in which they -are commonly deficient, and for which the children will accordingly have -to rely on the father. Women may marry an ugly man, but never one who is -unmanly. - -Facial beauty ranks last in importance, according to Schopenhauer. Here -too the skeleton is first considered in sexual selection. The mouth must -be small, the chin projecting, “a slight curve of the nose, upwards or -downwards, has decided the fate of innumerable girls; and justly, for -the type of the species is at stake.” The eyes and the forehead, -finally, are closely associated with intellectual qualities. - -(2) _Psychic Traits._—What charms women in men is preeminently courage -and energy, besides frankness and amiability. “Stupidity is no -disadvantage with women: indeed, it is more likely that superior -intellectual power, and especially genius, as being an abnormal trait, -may make an unfavourable impression on them. Hence we so often see an -ugly, stupid, and coarse man preferred by women to a refined, clever, -and amiable man.” When women claim to have fallen in love with a man’s -intellect, it is either affectation or vanity. Wedlock is a union of -hearts, not of heads; and its object is not entertaining conversation, -but providing for the next generation. This part of Schopenhauer’s -theory is evidently an outcome of his doctrine that children inherit -their intellectual qualities from the mother, and their character from -the father. Hence the feeling that they are capable of supplying their -children with sufficient intellect is part of the feminine -Love-instinct, and makes women indifferent to the presence or absence of -those qualities in men. - -It does not follow from all this that a sensible man may not reflect on -his chosen one’s character, or she on his intellectual abilities, before -marriage. Such reflection leads to marriages of reason, but not to -Love-marriages, which alone are here under consideration. - -(3) _Complementary Qualities._—The physical and mental attributes -considered under (1) and (2) are those which commonly inspire Love. But -there are cases where perfect Beauty is less potent to inflame the -passions than deviations from the normal type. - -“Ordinarily it is not the regular perfect beauties that inspire the -great passions,” says Schopenhauer; and this seems to be borne out by -the experience of Byron, who says: “I believe there are few men who, in -the course of their observations on life, have not perceived that it is -not the greatest female beauty who forms [inspires] the longest and the -strongest passions.” - -How is this to be accounted for? By the anxiety of Nature (or the -_Will_) to neutralise imperfections in one individual by wedding them to -another’s excesses in the opposite direction; as an acid is neutralised -by combining it with an alkali. The greater the shortcoming the more -ardent will be the infatuation if a person is found exactly adapted for -its neutralisation. The weaker a woman is, for example, in her muscular -system, the more apt will she be to fall violently in love with an -athlete. Short men have a decided partiality for tall women, and _vice -versâ_. Blondes almost always desire brunettes; and if the reverse does -not hold true, this is owing to the fact, he says, that the original -colour of the human complexion was not light but dark. A light -complexion has indeed become second nature to us, but less so the other -features; and “in love nature strives to return to dark hair and brown -eyes, as the primitive type.” - -Again, persons afflicted with a pug-nose take a special delight in -falcon-noses and parrot-faces; and those who are excessively long and -slim admire those who are abnormally short and even stumpy. So with -temperaments; each one preferring the opposite to his or her own. True, -if a person is quite perfect in any one respect, he does not exactly -prefer the corresponding imperfection in another, but he is more readily -reconciled to it. - -Throughout his essay, Schopenhauer tacitly assumes that the parental -peculiarities are fused or blended equally in the offspring, and that -this blending is what the _Will_ aims at. But on this point Mr. Herbert -Spencer has some remarks, in his essay on “Personal Beauty,” which -directly contradict Schopenhauer, of whose theory, however, he does not -seem to have been cognisant:— - -“The fact,” he says, "that the forms and qualities of any offspring are -not a mean between the forms and qualities of its parents, but a mixture -of them, is illustrated in every family. The features and peculiarities -of a child are separately referred by observers to father and mother -respectively—nose and mouth to this side; colour of the hair and eyes to -that; this moral peculiarity to the first; this intellectual one to the -second—and so with contour and idiosyncrasies of body. Manifestly, if -each organ or faculty in a child was an average of the two developments -of such organ or faculty in the parents, it would follow that all -brothers and sisters should be alike; or should, at any rate, differ no -more than their parents differed from year to year. So far, however, -from finding that this is the case, we find not only that great -irregularities are produced by intermixture of traits, but that there is -no constancy in the mode of intermixture, or the extent of variations -produced by it. - -“This imperfect union of parental constitutions in the constitution of -offspring is yet more clearly illustrated by the reappearance of -peculiarities traceable to bygone generations. Forms, dispositions, and -diseases, possessed by distant progenitors, habitually come out from -time to time in descendants. Some single feature, or some solitary -tendency, will again and again show itself after being apparently lost. -It is notoriously thus with gout, scrofula, and insanity.” - -Again, unite a pure race “with another equally pure, but adapted to -different conditions and having a correspondingly different physique, -face, and morale, and there will occur in the descendants not a -homogeneous mean between the two constitutions, but a seemingly -irregular combination of characteristics of the one with characteristics -of the other—one feature traceable to this race, a second to that, and a -third uniting the attributes of both; while in disposition and intellect -there will be found a like medley of the two originals.” - -The fact that the more remote ancestry must be taken into account -besides the parents, in considering the traits of the offspring, is one -which Mr. Galton has done much to emphasise, and which Schopenhauer -completely ignores. It tells against the metaphysical part of his -theory; for all the efforts of the _Will_ to merge opposite characters -into homogeneous traits must prove futile if a blue-eyed man, for -instance, who marries a black-eyed girl, finds that their children have -neither the father’s blue nor the mother’s black, but the grandmother’s -gray eyes. - -Yet in the long run diverse traits of figure and physiognomy do tend to -a harmonious fusion. Though a man with a prominent nose, which he -inherited from his father, is likely to transmit it to his son, though -his wife may have a snub-nose, yet there will be a slight modification -even in the son’s organ; and if the son keeps up the tradition of -marrying a snub-nosed girl, and his children follow his example, the -chances are that in a few generations the nose of that family will be a -feature of moderate size and classic proportions. The very fact -emphasised by Mr. Galton that all the ancestral influences count, will -here aid the ultimate fusion. Conspicuous instances of the -long-continued prevalence of a particular nose—or other feature—may be -accounted for by the fact that other kinds of that organ were rare in -the vicinity, or that marriage was decided by so many other -considerations that the dimensions of one organ could not come into -consideration, much as the bride or groom might have preferred an -improvement in that respect. - -So far as Schopenhauer’s theory concerns only the fact that Love is apt -to be based on complementary qualities, he is doubtless correct; but it -needs no erratic metaphysical fetish, as a _deus ex machina_, to account -for that fact. A simple application of psychologic principles explains -the whole mystery. - -In the first place, nothing could be more remote from the truth than the -cynical notion that every woman considers herself a Venus. She may, on -the whole, consider herself equal to the average of Beauty; but if she -has any special fault—a mouth too large or too small, an upper lip too -high, a nose too flat or too prominent, too much or too little flesh, -excessive height or shortness—she is not only conscious of the defect, -but morbidly conscious of it, and uses every possible device to conceal -it. Thus constantly brooding over her misfortune her mind, by a natural -reaction, will conceive a special admiration for an organ that exceeds -the line of Beauty in the opposite direction. Every day one hears a -_petite_ girl admiring a specially tall woman; and this admiration will -prompt her, other things being equal, to fall in love with a tall man. - -Secondly, familiarity breeds indifference to one’s own charms, and a -disposition to admire what we lack ourselves. - -Novelty comes into play. A Northern blonde among a nation of brunettes -cannot fail to slay hearts by the hundred, while the mystic flashes of a -Spanish woman’s black eyes are fatal to every Northern visitor. - -Nations, like individuals, admire and desire what they lack. The Germans -and the English are deficient in grace—hence that quality is what -chiefly charms them in the French, who have much more of it than of -Beauty, and in the Spanish. Byron was so much smitten with the -sun-mellowed complexions and the graceful proportions and gait of the -Spanish maidens, that he became quite unjust to his own lovely -countrywomen— - - “Who round the North for paler dames would seek? - How poor their forms appear! How languid, wan, and weak!” - -Were savages susceptible to Love, it might be suggested that their -practice of exogamy, or marrying a woman from another tribe, had -something to do with their admiration of novelty and complementary -qualities; but we know that they do not admire such qualities, but only -such typical traits as prevail among their own women, and these, -moreover, in an exaggerated form. This is one reason why savages are so -ugly. They have no Romantic Love to improve their Personal Beauty by -fusing heterogeneous defects into homogeneous perfections. - -Thus we may freely endorse Schopenhauer’s doctrine regarding the -benefits derived by the offspring (ultimately, in several generations) -from marriages based on complementary Love, without bowing down before -his fetish—a fetish which appears doubly objectionable because it is -old-fashioned; _i.e._ it strives to “maintain the type of the species in -its primitive purity,” whereas modern science teaches that this -“primitive type” of human beauty had a very simian aspect. - -Nor need we at all accept the pessimistic aspect of his theory—the -notion that Love is an illusion, and that Love-marriages commonly end -unhappily, the lover sacrificing himself for his progeny. - -Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his _Sociology_, elaborates an idea which so -curiously leads up to this phase of Schopenhauer’s doctrine that it must -be briefly referred to for its evolutionary suggestiveness. - -Among the lowest animals—the microscopic protozoa—the individual, as he -remarks, is sacrificed after a few hours of life, by breaking up into -two new individuals, or into a number of germs which produce a new -generation. The parents are here entirely sacrificed to the interests of -the young and the species. As we ascend in the scale of life this -sacrifice of parents to the young and the species becomes less and less -prevalent. Among birds, for instance, “The lives of the parents are but -partially subordinated at times when the young are being reared. And -then there are long intervals between breeding-seasons, during which the -lives of parents are carried on for their own sakes.... In proportion as -organisms become higher in their structures and powers, they are -individually less sacrificed to the maintenance of the species; and the -implication is that in the highest type of man this sacrifice is reduced -to a minimum.” - -Here is the point where Schopenhauer, had he been an evolutionist, might -have dovetailed his theory with Spencer’s, by saying that in man it is -no longer the life of the individual, or most of his time, that is -sacrificed, but merely his conjugal happiness, which the Love-instinct -induces him unconsciously to barter for the superior physical and mental -beauty of his offspring. - -Unfortunately, Schopenhauer did not take any pains to verify his theory -by testing it by vulgar facts. There are plenty of unhappy marriages, -but no one who will search his memory can fail to come to the conclusion -that the vast majority of them are cases where money or rank and not -Love supplied the motive of an unsympathetic union. Though Conjugal -Affection consists of a different group of emotions from Romantic Love, -yet there is an affinity between them; and it is not likely that -Conjugal Love will ever supervene where before marriage there was an -entire absence of sympathy and adoration. Even an imprudent Love-match -which leads to poverty—is it not preferable to a _mariage de -convenance_, which leads to lifelong indifference and _ennui_? Is it not -better to have one month of ecstatic bliss in life than to live and die -without ever knowing life’s highest rapture? - -Again, the French marry for money and social convenience, and their -children are ugly; the Americans marry for Love, and have the most -beautiful children in the world. Is it not more conducive to conjugal -happiness to know that one has lovely children and that the race is -increasing, than to have ugly children and to know that the race is -dying out? - -Love-matches would never end unhappily if the lovers would take proper -care of their own happiness by transfusing the habits of Courtship into -conjugal life, as elsewhere explained in this book. - -Schopenhauer’s whole argument is vitiated by the fact that it is chiefly -the physical complementary qualities that inspire Love, not the -mental—the latter, in fact, being barely noticed by him. Mental -divergence might indeed occasionally lead to an unhappy marriage, but -physical divergence—the fact that he is large and blond, she small and a -brunette—cannot possibly lead to matrimonial discord. This knocks the -whole bottom out of Schopenhauer’s erotic pessimism. The only sense in -which Love is an illusion is in its Hyperbolic phase—the notion that the -beloved is superior to all other mortals; and that is a very harmless -illusion. - -Schopenhauer’s pessimism, it should be added, is greatly mitigated by -the poetic halo of martyrdom with which he invests the lover’s head. -Society and public opinion, he points out, applaud him for instinctively -preferring the welfare of the next generation to his own comfort. “For -is not the exact determination of the individualities of the next -generation a much higher and nobler object than those ecstatic feelings -of the lovers, and their super-sensual soap-bubbles?” It is this that -invests Love with its poetic character. There is one thing only that -justifies tears in a man, and that is the loss of his Love, for in that -he bewails not his own loss but the loss of the species. - -Apart from the suggestive details of his essay, Schopenhauer’s merit and -originality lies, first, in his having pointed out that Love becomes -more intense the more it is individualised; secondly, in emphasising the -fact that in match-making it is not the happiness of the to-be-married -couple that should be chiefly consulted, but the consequences of their -union to the offspring; thirdly, in dwelling on the important truth that -Love is a cause of Beauty, because its aim always is either to -perpetuate existing Beauty through hereditary transmission, or to create -new Beauty by fusing two imperfect individuals into a being in whom -their short-comings mutually neutralise one another. - -Love, however, is only one source of Personal Beauty. Personal Beauty -has four sources; and these must now be considered in succession, in the -order which roughly indicates their successive evolution—Health, -Crossing, Love, and Mental Refinement. - -The remainder of this work will be devoted exclusively to the subject of -Personal Beauty, as it influences and is influenced by Romantic Love. -And here, as in the preceding pages, I shall always cite the _ipsissima -verba_ of the greatest specialists who have written on any particular -branch of this subject. - - - - - FOUR SOURCES OF BEAUTY - - - I.—HEALTH - -_Plants, Animals, Savages._—In two of the most exquisite passages, not -only in his own works, but in all English literature, Mr. Ruskin has -emphasised the dependence of physical beauty in plants on their healthy -appearance, and the independence of this beauty on any idea of direct -utility to man. - -“It is a matter of easy demonstration,” he says, “that, setting the -characters of typical beauty aside, the pleasure afforded by every -organic form is in proportion to its appearance of healthy vital energy; -as in a rose-bush, setting aside all considerations of gradated flushing -of colour and fair folding of line, which it shares with the cloud or -the snow-wreath, we find in and through all this certain signs pleasant -and acceptable as signs of life and enjoyment in the particular -individual plant itself. Every leaf and stalk is seen to have a -function, to be constantly exercising that function, and, as it seems, -_solely_ for the good and enjoyment of the plant. It is true that -reflection will show us that the plant is not living for itself alone, -that its life is one of benefaction, that it gives as well as receives, -but no sense of this whatever mingles with our perception of physical -beauty in its forms. Those forms which appear to be necessary to its -health, the symmetry of its leaflets, the smoothness of its stalks, the -vivid green of its shoots, are looked upon by us as signs of the plant’s -own happiness and perfection; they are useless to us, except as they -give us pleasure in our sympathising with that of the plant, and if we -see a leaf withered or shrunk or worm-eaten, we say it is ugly, and feel -it to be most painful, not because it hurts _us_, but because it seems -to hurt the plant, and conveys to us an idea of pain and disease and -failure of life in _it_.” - -“The bending tree, waving to and fro in the wind above the waterfall, is -beautiful because it is happy, though it is perfectly useless to us. The -same trunk, hewn down and thrown across the stream, has lost its beauty. -It serves as a bridge,—it has become useful; it lives not for itself, -and its beauty is gone, or what it retains is purely typical, dependent -on its lines and colours, not its functions. Saw it into planks, and -though now adapted to become permanently useful, its whole beauty is -lost for ever, or to be regained only in part when decay and ruin shall -have withdrawn it again from use, and left it to receive from the hand -of Nature the velvet moss and varied lichen, which may again suggest -ideas of inherent happiness, and tint its mouldering sides with hues of -life.” - -In the animal world we find the same dependence of Beauty upon Health. -As Mr. Wallace has shown, “colour and ornament are strictly correlated -with health, vigour, and general fitness to survive.” It is the superior -vitality, vigour, and vivacity of certain male animals that leads the -choicest females to prefer them to others less favoured; and thus it -happens that, thanks to the dependence of Beauty on Health, animals have -become more and more beautiful. Moreover, it is Love in its primitive -form that urges animals to prefer those that are most healthy. And thus -we have the three great agents acting and reacting upon one another. -Health produces Beauty, and together they inspire Love; while Love -selects Health, and thus preserves and multiplies Beauty. But this whole -subject has been so fully discussed in the chapter on Love among Animals -that it is needless to recapitulate the facts here. - -Concerning savages, there is a prevalent notion that, owing to their -free and easy life in the forests, they are healthier on the average -than civilised mankind. As a matter of fact, however, they are as -inferior to us in Health as in Beauty. Their constant exposure and -irregular feeding habits, their neglect and ignorance of every hygienic -law, in conjunction with their vicious lives, their arbitrary -mutilations of various parts, and their selection of inferior forms, -prevent their bodies from assuming the regular and delicate proportions -which we regard as essential to Beauty. They arrive at maturity at an -earlier age, and lose their vitality sooner than we do. “Decrepitude,” -says Dr. Topinard, “shows itself sooner in some races than in others. -The Australians and Bosjesmans are old men at a period when the European -is in the full enjoyment of his faculties, both physical and -intellectual. The Japanese the same, according to Dr. Krishaber, -physician to the Japanese embassy.” - -Women everywhere pay less attention to the laws of Health than men. They -have less exercise, less fresh air and sunshine than men. Hence, -although the most beautiful women are more beautiful than the handsomest -men, yet in probably every country of the world the average man is a -more perfect specimen of masculine than the average woman of feminine -Beauty. Concerning savages, Mr. Spencer says: “Very generally among the -lower races the females are even more unattractive in aspect than the -males. It is remarked of the Puttooahs, whose men are diminutive and -whose women are still more so, that ‘the men are far from being -handsome, but the palm of ugliness must be awarded to the women.’ The -latter are _hard-worked_ and apparently _ill-fed_.” Again, of the -inhabitants of the Corea Gutzlaff says: “The females are very ugly, -whilst the male sex is one of the best formed of Asia.... Women are -_treated like beasts of burden_.” Many similar cases are cited by Dr. -Ploss in _Das Weib_. - -Concerning modern civilised nations a well-known art-critic has given -his testimony to the effect that “Possibly owing to the fact that men -are freer to follow their normal lives, I have found that in a majority -of the countries I have visited there are more handsome men than -beautiful women. This is peculiarly the case with the modern Greek, and -was, if antique sculpture could be accepted as witness, with the -ancient.” - -_Greek Beauty._—In the preceding chapters of this work an attempt has -been made to show that there is a general connection between the growth -of Love and the growth of Beauty throughout the world. To some readers, -no doubt, the thought has suggested itself, “How, if this be true, did -the loveless Greeks succeed in reaching such uncommon physical -beauty—beauty which artists of all times have admired?” - -It must be borne in mind, however, that we are very liable to exaggerate -in our notions of Greek Beauty, because we are apt to generalise from -the fine statues that have come down to us, and to imagine that they -represent the common type of Greek Beauty. But it is well known that the -Greeks idealised their statues according to certain physiognomic rules; -and, moreover, as Winckelmann remarks, “Beauty was not a general quality -even among the Greeks, and Cotta in _Cicero_ says that, among the great -numbers of young persons at Athens, there were only a few possessing -true beauty.” - -Besides, it has not been claimed that Love is the _only_ cause of -Beauty. Taking into consideration the other sources of Beauty, it is -easy enough to account for such physical attractiveness as the Greeks -did possess. The intellectual culture which the men enjoyed gave them a -great advantage over the women; and equally important, if not more so, -was the attention which the men (and in some cases the women too) paid -to Health. Their habitual life in the open air, while the women were -locked up at home, combined with their daily gymnastic exercises in -making their complexion healthy, their eyes sparkling, their limbs -supple, vigorous, and graceful. - -Other causes that tended to keep up an average of healthy bodily -development were the refusal to bring up sickly and deformed infants, -and the existence of numerous slaves, who did all the drudgery for the -Greeks. - -It is most characteristic that the author of a very old Greek ode -formulates his wishes in this order: First, health; then, beauty; -thirdly, wealth honestly got; fourth, the privilege of being gay and -merry with his friends. - -First, Health; then, Beauty. There lies the secret, for they always go -together; and in aiming at one the Greeks got the other too. - -There was every reason why Greek parents should have striven eagerly to -follow those laws of Health which ensure beautiful children. In ancient -Greece Beauty was a possession which led to national fame. Some persons, -Winckelmann informs us, were even characterised by a particular name, -borrowed from some specially fine feature. Thus Demetrius Poliorketes -was named, from the beauty of his eyelids, χαριτοβλέφαρος _i.e._ on -whose lids the graces dwell. - -“It appears, indeed,” the same writer continues, "to have been a belief -that the procreation of beautiful children might be promoted by the -distribution of prizes for beauty, as there is reason to infer from the -contests of beauty which were instituted in the remotest ages by -Cypselus, King of Arcadia, in the time of the Heraclidæ, on the banks of -the river Alpheus, in Elis; and also from the fact that at the festival -of the Philesian Apollo, a prize for the most exquisite kiss was -conferred on the youthful. Its assignment was subject to the decision of -a judge, as was probably also the case at Megara, at the tomb of -Diocles. - -“At Sparta, and at Lesbos, in the temple of Juno, and among the citizens -of Parrhasia, the women contended for the prize of beauty. The regard -for this quality was so strong that, as Oppian declares, the Spartan -women placed in their sleeping-rooms an Apollo, or Bacchus, or Nereus, -or Narcissus, or Hyacinthus, or Castor and Pollux, in order that they -might bear beautiful children.” - -Some hint as to what the Greeks regarded as beautiful is given by the -epithets Homer bestows on Helen—"the well-rounded" “the white-armed,” -“fair-haired,” “of the beautiful cheeks.” - -_Mediæval Ugliness._—This is a topic which might as well be introduced -under any of the other Sources of Beauty, for it is difficult to say -which of these sources was most completely and deliberately choked up -during the Dark Ages. - -It is a curious irony of language that makes asceticism almost identical -with æstheticism, of which it is the deadly enemy. As diseases are -transmitted from generation to generation, so it seems that the fear of -Beauty born of mediæval asceticism has not yet died out completely; for -it is related that some years ago a pious dame in Boston seriously -meditated the duty of having some of her daughter’s sound teeth pulled -out, so as to mitigate her sinful Beauty. - -If this worthy lady had followed St. Jerome’s injunction—"I entirely -forbid a young lady to bathe"; if she had taught her that it is -unladylike to have a healthy appetite; if she had locked her up in a -house rendered pestilential by defective drainage; allowed her mind to -rot in fallow idleness; taught her that to be really saintly and -virtuous she must be pale and hysterical; or imitated the lady who was -praised by a bishop in the fourth century for “having brought upon -herself a swarm of diseases which defied all medical skill to cure,”—if -the worthy Boston lady had but followed this mediæval system, she would -have succeeded in a short time in overcoming her daughter’s sinful -Beauty, and making her “ugly as a mud-fence,” as they say out West. - -That Personal Beauty cannot flourish where Health is regarded as a vice -and Disease as a virtue is self-evident. And one needs only to look at -mediæval pictures to note how coarse and void of refined expression are -the men, how hard and masculine the women. The faces of the numerous -mediæval women in Planché’s _Cyclopædia of Costume_ have almost all an -expression approaching imbecility, and features as if they had been -chiselled by a small boy trying his hand at sculpture for the first -time. Thackeray does not hesitate to speak even of “those simpering -Madonnas of Rafael.” Mr. G. A. Simcox remarks that in manuscripts of the -twelfth and thirteenth centuries (like the Harleian Gospels and -Maccabees) we meet with “short, thickset figures, mostly with the long, -square, horsey face, moving stiffly in small groups, in heavy dresses; -and even the daughter of Herodias dances upon her head [_sic_] in a gown -that might have stood alone. On the other hand, the faces are more set, -more articulate, less flabby, though they are all mean, or almost all, -and look askance out of the corners of their eyes” (_Art Journal_, 1874, -p. 58). - -There may be Oriental countries where woman is kept more closely under -lock and key than she was in Europe during the Dark Ages; but nowhere -else has man so well succeeded in reducing the pursuit of unhappiness to -a science, in snubbing, scorning, abusing, maltreating woman. How all -this must have tended to increase Personal Beauty is well brought out in -the following advice given by Mr. Ruskin: “Do not think you can make a -girl lovely if you do not make her happy. There is not one restraint you -put on a good girl’s nature—there is not one check you give to her -instincts of affection or of effort—which will not be indelibly written -on her features, with a hardness which is all the more painful because -it takes away the brightness from the eyes of innocence, and the charm -from the brow of virtue.” - -_Modern Hygiene._—Disease is Beauty’s deadliest enemy. Yet for the sake -of gratifying a silly vanity—for the sake of being distinguished from -ordinary mortals—a certain pallor and _blasé_ languor have long been -considered in certain influential circles as more _distingué_ than ruddy -cheeks and robust health. Yet even if pale cheeks were more beautiful -than rosy cheeks, would it be worth while to purchase them at the cost -of premature decay—of the certainty that a _few_ years of pale cheeks -will be followed by _many_ years of sallow cheeks and lack-lustre eyes, -deeply sunk into their orbits? - -Though beauty is still of lamentably rare occurrence in every country, -there is infinitely more of it than during the Middle Ages; and -certainly not the least cause of this is the increased attention paid to -Hygiene—public and personal. The difference in this respect between us -and our ancestors is well brought out by the statistics regarding the -average length of life. In ancient Rome, it is stated, "the average -longevity among the most favoured classes was but thirty years, whereas -to-day the average longevity among the corresponding class of people is -fifty years. In the sixteenth century the average longevity in Geneva -was 21·21 years. Between 1814 and 1833 it was 40·68, and as large a -proportion now live to seventy as lived to forty-three three hundred -years ago." Dr. Corfield, comparing the statistics of 1842 with those of -1884, states that the mean duration of life in London has increased from -twenty-nine to thirty-eight years. “In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the -death-rate of the metropolis as it then was amounted to 40 per thousand. -In the reign of Queen Victoria, almost entirely by the reduction of -mortality by means of improved drainage, ventilation, and water, it has -often touched 15 and 14, and even fallen as low as 13 in the thousand,” -while “in many of the suburban districts, and in the fashionable region -about Hyde Park it ranges from 11 to 12.” - -In France, according to M. Topinard, the mean duration of life, which -was twenty-nine at the close of the eighteenth century, and thirty-nine -from 1817 to 1831, increased to forty from 1840 to 1859, thanks to the -progress of sanitary science and civilisation. - -As Hygiene is receiving more and more attention every year, it is -possible that in course of time Dr. W. B. Richardson’s ideal will be -realised—a town ideally perfect in sanitary matters, having a death-rate -of 9 per 1000, and 105 years the duration of a man’s life. - -As decrepitude and premature old age means a premature loss of Beauty, -personal attractiveness would be correspondingly prolonged and increased -with life itself. - -Even at the present time not one house in a thousand is so constructed -that every room has good ventilation. Architects are, however, less to -blame than the people who will persist in their absurd old superstition -that draughts and night air are injurious. Professor Reclam, the -distinguished hygienist, not long ago opened a crusade against the -horror of night air and draughts which is especially prevalent among his -countrymen. “Sleeping with open windows,” he says, “is most unjustly -decried among the people, as well as night air in general. But night air -is injurious only in swampy regions, whereas on dry soil, in the -mountains, and everywhere in the upper stories of a house it is _more -salubrious than day air_.... Draughts are not injurious unless we are in -a glow. To healthy persons they _cannot possibly do so much harm as the -stagnant air in a close room_. The fear of draughts is entirely -groundless, though it affects most people in a manner which is simply -ludicrous.” - -Electricity, no doubt, will in less than a decade abolish horses from -our cities, and with them the dust, foul odours, and sleep-murdering -noise. The gain to Health, and through it to Beauty, from this alone, -will be enormous. Doubtless one of the reasons why there is so much -Beauty, so many fresh and sparkling eyes, in Venice, is because there -are no horses in that city, and the inhabitants are not roused and -half-roused from sleep every fifteen minutes during the night by a -waggon rattling down the street. - -It is not sufficiently known that street-noise may injure the Health -even of those whom it does not entirely wake up. The restorative value -of sleep lies in its depth and the absence of dreams. A noisy waggon -interferes with the depth of sleep and starts a current of dreams, thus -depriving it of half its potency. - -“_Beauty sleep_” is an expression which rests on a real physiological -truth. Sleep before midnight really is more health-giving and -beautifying than after midnight, for the reason that in all towns and -cities there is less noise in the early hours of the night than after -four in the morning, wherefore sleep is deeper between ten and twelve -than between six and eight o’clock. The reason why so many more -proposals (by city folks) are made in the country than in the city is -not only because there are more frequent opportunities of meeting at a -summer hotel, but because the young folks retire early, and appear in -the morning with an exuberance of Health, born of fresh air and sound -sleep, which cannot fail to inspire Love. - -Other matters of Hygiene will be discussed in connection with the organs -which they specially concern. - - - II.—CROSSING - -Darwin has proved experimentally that in the vegetable kingdom -“cross-fertilisation is generally beneficial, and self-fertilisation -injurious. This is shown by the difference in height, weight, -constitutional vigour, and fertility of the offspring from crossed -and self-fertilised flowers, and in the number of seeds produced by -the parent plants.” He also showed that “the benefit from -cross-fertilisation depends on the plants which are crossed having -been subjected during previous generations to somewhat different -conditions.” - -Similarly, concerning animals, we read in Topinard, that “breeders who -select their subjects with a definite object to breed _in and in_, that -is to say, between near relations, rapidly obtain excellent results. -They know, however, that fertility then diminishes, and that it will -cease altogether if they do not have recourse from time to time to -crossing, in order to _strengthen the race_.” - -But both in the vegetable and the animal kingdom, as we have seen, -superior Health also implies superior Beauty. - -The inference is natural that the human race also must be benefited by -marriages of individuals of different races, or of the same race, but -brought up under different conditions of life. And the facts are -entirely in favour of this supposition, as are the best authorities in -Anthropology. Dr. Topinard gives the following instances among many -others: “Immigration into the United States, which has taken so -considerable a flight during the last thirty years, has already been -enormous. Every variety of cross has been going on between English, -Irish, Germans, Italians, French, etc., with the greatest possible -success. We may also mention numberless Spaniards from the Peninsula, -among whom are found the features of the Saracen invaders of the ninth -century; then that population on the Barbary coast, called Moors, and -which is a medley of races of every description, the Arab and Berber -blood predominating. On tracing back the yellow races, we also discover -a perfect eugenesis.... De Mas speaks in the highest terms of mixed -breeds of Chinese and Mongolians, and MM. Mondières and Morice of those -of Chinese and Annamites under the name of Minuongs. Dr. Bowring -describes a race in the Philippine Islands, intermediate between the -Malays and Chinese, as the principal agent of civilisation in these -latitudes.” - -On the other hand, “it is undeniable that in Africa the Negro races do -not cross to any great extent.” Nor has any one ever accused the Negroes -of an excessive amount of Beauty. Whereas in Lima, which has the finest -women in South America, “there are twenty-three different names to -designate the varieties of mixed breeds of Spaniards, Peruvians, and -Negroes.” “The number of mongrels on the face of the globe has been -estimated at twelve millions, of whom no fewer than eleven millions are -in South America.” South American women are already famous for their -Beauty, and there is reason to believe that when the fusion of all these -elements is complete the race will be one of the finest in the world. -What Beauty it has now seems to be owing chiefly to the magic of -Crossing; for attention to Health there is little but what comes from -life in the open air; while Romantic Love is perhaps as rare as Mental -Refinement, inasmuch as Courtship is not so free and easy a matter as in -North America. All the more honour to the potency of Crossing. - -Take a few more cases. The African Negroes, as just stated, do not mix -much, and are an ugly type. Among the Polynesians, on the other hand, -there are many very fine types of human beauty; and it is therefore not -surprising to read that to-day in Polynesia, “mixed breeds are so -numerous that it would be difficult to find among them any individuals -of pure race.” - -Again, concerning the Magyars or Hungarians, Schweiger-Lerchenfeld -remarks that “they are a splendid race, physically and -intellectually.... The girls and young women are of most piquant charm, -models of health in mind and body.” But these Magyars, when they first -came to Europe, were, as Waitz states, “of a repulsive ugliness in the -eyes of all their neighbours.” That they have mixed with the -Indo-Germanic type is shown by their appearance, as well as by -peculiarities of their language. “Where they have probably remained less -mixed,” Waitz continues, “and at the same time less cultivated, in some -remote regions, especially in the mountains, the ugly primitive type may -be found to the present day; in the plains may be found every -transitional form from this to the nobler type; at Szegedin both are -found face to face.” - -The Magyars, in turn, have, like the Slavo-Italians, Czechs, etc., -assisted the Austrians in evolving a superior type of Beauty by fusing -with them. That there is very much more Beauty in Vienna than in any -purely German city is an almost proverbial commonplace; and the reason -why may be found in the statistics: in Germany 31·80 per cent are blond, -14·05 brunet, 54·15 mixed; in Austria 19·59 per cent are blond, 23·17 -brunet, and 68·04 mixed. - -The European Turks have much nobler forms of the head and features than -their Asiatic relatives; and the inference seems inevitable that they -owe these improvements to intermarriage with Circassian women. - -A negative instance, showing the disadvantages of abstaining from -Crossing, is given by the Jews. There are handsome Jews and, up to a -certain age, very beautiful Jewesses. But the typical Jew is certainly -not a thing of beauty. The disadvantages of Jewish separatism are shown -not only in the long, thick, crooked nose, the bloated lips, almost -suggesting a negro, and the heavy lower eyelid, but in the fact that the -Jews “have proportionately more insane, deaf mutes, blind, and -colour-blind” than other Europeans. From an intellectual and industrial -point of view, the Jews are one of the finest races in the world, and -their absorption by the natives of the countries in which they have -settled could not but benefit both parties concerned. From this point of -view there may be something said even in favour of the money-marriages, -which are now so frequent between extravagant German officers and Jewish -heiresses. Unfortunately, the Jews have kept apart so long from the rest -of the world that they do not readily mix with non-Jews. Contrary to the -general rule, mixed marriages of Jews and Christians are less fertile -than pure Jewish unions. - -The precise manner in which a mixture of races improves physical -appearance is a question still open to debate. Professor Kollmann -(_Plastische Anatomie_) thinks “the result of the crossing of two forms -is comparable, not to a chemical, but to a mechanical mixture”; and this -agrees with the view of Mr. Herbert Spencer, who endeavours to trace to -this fact the frequent want of correspondence between intellectual and -physical beauty. He believes, however, the time will come “when the -present causes of incongruity will have worked themselves out,” and -intellectual beauty emerge in harmony with physical, in all details, as -it no doubt exists in general. - -There is no lack of facts supporting the view that sexual fusion is a -mere mechanical mixture. The “Bourbon nose” seems to defy mitigating -circumstances for generations; and “M. de Quatrefages knew a -great-grandson of the bailiff of Suffren who was a striking likeness of -his ancestor after four generations, and who, nevertheless, bore no -resemblance either to his father or his mother.” A child may resemble -its father, mother, aunt, uncle, grand-parents, or several of them at -once; and the resemblance may vary at different ages. - -More extraordinary are the following cases cited by Topinard: “Sometimes -the child possesses altogether the character of one or other parent: for -example, the child of a European father and a Chinese mother, Dr. -Scherzer says, is altogether a European or altogether a Chinese. A -Berber with blue eyes and with the lobule of the ear absent, married to -a dark Arab woman with a well-formed ear, had two children, one like -himself, the other like his wife. An English officer, fair, with blue -eyes and florid complexion, had several children by an Indian negress. -Some were the image of the father, others exactly like the mother.... A -decided negro, having had a white among his ancestors, has unexpectedly -a child with a white skin by a negress.” - -Yet all these are exceptional cases, which, like the winning number in a -lottery, get a disproportionate amount of attention. Moreover, this -“mechanical” form of assimilation seems to occur chiefly where very -unrelated races are fused, and then especially in the first generation. -In subsequent generations the union doubtless tends to become more and -more chemical—no longer a negro character floating on a white one, like -oil on water, but a mixture, as of wine and water. - -Take the American quadroons, for instance, famous for their beauty of -form and features. They are mongrels of the third generation, having -one-eighth black, seven-eighths white blood in their veins. Surely these -characters are not “mechanically” mixed in such a woman, but -“chemically.” That is, you do not find her with the eyes and nose of a -negro, the lips and ears of a white, one part of her skin dark the other -light: but in everything there is a fusion of the ancestral elements. -Her nose is not flat like that of her ancestress, nor her lips swollen, -but both are intermediate between those of her white and black -ancestors. Her lip is still thicker than that of the whites, and that -gives her a sensuous aspect, kiss-inviting. Her eyes, again, have lost -the fierce glare and opaque blackness of the negro-grandmother, and -assumed a more crystalline, tender lustre; while their form and -surroundings have become more refined and expressive. All this is -homogeneous fusion, not “heterogeneous mixture.” - -Finally, it is hardly correct to state dogmatically that a certain -person resembles this or that ancestor. In nothing else do opinions vary -so constantly and so ludicrously. No one who has ever been “trotted -around” among his relatives in the “old country,” can have failed to be -amused at the countless resemblances to this and that uncle, aunt, or -grand-parent discovered in him, until he came to the conclusion that he -must be a veritable epitome of the whole genealogy. A man who at home is -supposed to be absolutely unlike his brother, is elsewhere mistaken for -him and addressed as such; while another man finds a friend who knew his -father in his youth, and declares he is exactly like him; though a -second friend who knew only the mother, claims a similar hereditary -influence for her. All of which tends to show that there is more of both -parents in each person than is commonly supposed; and that the reason -why opinions differ so, is because the fusion is chemical rather than -mechanical, which makes it difficult to put the finger on distinct -points of resemblance. - -It is in the more closely allied races, like the English and German, or -Italian and Spanish, that “chemical” fusion is most readily attained, -and Beauty most rapidly evolved. Such are the unions which take place on -such a large scale in the United States and Canada; and this may account -for the fact that there is more Beauty in North America than in South -America, where the races that intermingle are less related. There is a -golden mean here as in everything else. - - - III.—ROMANTIC LOVE - -What Crossing does on a national scale, Love continues with individuals, -by fusing dissonant, but complementary, parental qualities into a -harmonious progeny. How this is done is sufficiently shown in the -chapter on Schopenhauer. - -This, however, is only one of the ways in which Love increases the -amount of Beauty in the world. There are several others. - -The second is that—apart from complementary considerations—Romantic Love -always urges the choice of a mate who approaches nearest to the ideal -type of Beauty. As Beauty is hereditary, and as a beautiful father and -mother may have six or more beautiful children, this predilection for -Beauty shown by Love necessarily preserves and multiplies it— - - “From fairest creatures we desire increase, - That thereby Beauty’s rose might never die,” - -says Shakspere, anticipating the modern theory of heredity. - -On this particular topic nothing more need be said here, because all the -remainder of this book will be taken up with a consideration of those -features of Personal Beauty for which the æsthetic taste which forms -part of Romantic Love shows a decided preference. - -The third way in which Love promotes the cause of Beauty is by the great -attention it pays to Health in its choice. For though Health is not -always synonymous with Beauty, it is the soil on which alone Beauty can -germinate and flourish. - -The fourth way is through the elimination of ugliness. Love, says Plato, -is devotion to Beauty: “with the ugly Eros has no concern.” - -From the æsthetic point of view, ugliness is disease. Now there is a -cast-iron Lykurgean law prevailing throughout Nature which eliminates -the diseased and the ugly. It is a cruel agency, called Natural -Selection, and has not the slightest regard for individuals, but -provides only for the weal of the species, as Schopenhauer erroneously -says is the case with Love. In a bed of plants, if there are more than -can find sustenance, the stronger crowd out the weaker. Among animals, -wherever there is competition, the best-developed, handsomest lion -survives in combat, and the most fleet-footed, and consequently most -graceful, deer escapes, while the clumsy, the ugly, and diseased perish -miserably, inexorably. Savages leave the old and feeble to die, and weak -or deformed children are either deliberately put out of the way or -perish from want of proper care. Nor among the ancient civilised nations -were such methods unknown. Plato and Aristotle, says Mr. Grote, agree in -this point: “Both of them command that no child born crippled or -deformed shall be brought up—a practice actually adopted at Sparta under -the Lykurgean Institutions, and even carried further, since no child was -allowed to be brought up until it had been inspected and approved by the -public nurses.” The Romans, too, were legally permitted to expose -deformed children. - -Christianity, the religion of pity and charity, abhors such practices. -Christianity is antagonistic to Natural Selection. One of its chief -functions is the building of hospitals in which the cripples, the -insane, the incurably diseased, are gratuitously and tenderly cared for, -instead of being allowed to perish, as they would under the sway of -Natural Selection. - -This artificial preservation of disease and deformity, in and out of -hospitals, due to Christian charity, might in the long run prove -injurious to the welfare of the human race, were it not for the stepping -in of Modern Love as a preserver of Health and Beauty. What formerly was -left to the agency of Natural Selection is now done by Love, through -Sexual Selection, on a vast scale. - -From a moral point of view, the substitution of Sexual for Natural -Selection is a great gain, in harmony with the spirit of Christianity. -For Cupid does not _kill_ those who do not come up to his standard of -Health and Beauty, but simply ignores and condemns them to a life of -single-blessedness. - - - IV.—MENTAL REFINEMENT - -“After all,” says Washington Irving, speaking of Spanish women, “it is -the divinity _within_ which makes the divinity _without_; and I have -been more fascinated by a woman of talent and intelligence, though -deficient in personal charms, than I have been by the most regular -beauty.” - -It is one of the commonest commonplaces of conversation that in moments -of intellectual or emotional excitement the features of plain people -assume an aspect of exquisite beauty. Love transfuses a homely girl’s -countenance with a glow of angelic loveliness; and biographies are full -of statements concerning the countenances of men of genius, which, -ordinarily unattractive, assumed an expression of unearthly beauty while -their minds were active and electrified the facial muscles. - -“There is not any virtue the exercise of which, even momentarily, will -not impress a new fairness upon the features,” says Mr. Ruskin; and -again, he speaks of “the operation of the intellectual powers upon the -features, in the fine cutting and chiselling of them, and removal from -them of signs of sensuality and sloth, by which they are blunted and -deadened, and substitution of energy and intensity for vacancy and -insipidity (by which wants alone the faces of many fair women are -utterly spoiled and rendered valueless); and by the keenness given to -the eye and fine moulding and development to the brow, of which effects -Sir Charles Bell has well noted the desirableness and opposition to -brutal types.” - -An English clergyman, the Rev. F. P. Lawson, diocesan inspector for -Northamptonshire, issued a report not long ago concerning the results of -his observations in 325 urban and rural schools during several years, -regarding the effects of good education in improving the appearance of -the children. “A school, thoroughly well taught, seldom failed to -exhibit a considerable number of interesting little faces, and a -striking absence of such faces might invariably be associated with -poverty of tone and superficial instruction. Nothing struck him more -forcibly in a school that has been suddenly lifted out of the mire by a -firstrate teacher than the bright and thoughtful look which the children -soon acquire.” - -Negative evidence to the same effect might also be cited by the volume, -but one case may suffice. “It is unhappily a fact,” says Mr. Galton, -“that fairly distinct types of criminals _breeding true to their kind_ -have become established, and are one of the saddest disfigurements of -modern civilisation.” - -The connection between culture and a superior type of Beauty is -strikingly revealed in the following remarks on the far-famed Georgian -women of the Caucasus, made by a great connoisseur of feminine beauty, -the poet Bodenstedt: "In Europe the notion prevails that a Georgian -woman is a tall, graceful being, of luscious form, clothed in wide, rich -garments, with dense black hair, long enough to enchain all masculine -hearts, an open, noble forehead, and a pair of eyes which contain within -their dark, mysterious, magic circle all the secrets of human delight -that come through the soul or the senses. Her gait is rapture. Joy -precedes, and admiration follows her.... With such notions in their -heads, strangers generally arrive in Georgia, and find themselves -wofully disappointed. The tourists who come with such great expectations -to visit this country, invested with the atmosphere of a fairyland by -history and legend, either adhere stubbornly to their preconceived -notions, or else they instantly go over to the opposite extreme, and -find everything dirty, ugly, disgusting, dreadful. - -"The truth lies between these extremes. The Georgians are, all in all, -one of the handsomest nations on the earth. But although I am a great -admirer of women, I am compelled in this case to award the prize to the -men instead of the women. This opinion is endorsed by all educated -inhabitants of Georgia who have eyes, taste, and an impartial judgment. - -“I must add that of that higher beauty where heart and intellect and -soul are mirrored in the eye, I found few traces in the whole Caucasus, -either among men or women. I have seen the greater number of the -beauties which Georgia boasts, but not one face have I seen that -satisfied me completely, though the picturesque native costume does much -to heighten the charms of the women. The face entirely lacks that -refined mental expression which makes a beautiful European woman such a -unique enchantress. Such a woman may still inspire love and win hearts -long after the time of her bloom; whereas in a Georgian _everything_ -fades with youth. The eyes, which, notwithstanding their apparent fire, -never expressed anything but calm and voluptuous indolence, lose their -lustre; the nose, which even in its normal relations exceeds the limits -of beauty, assumes, in consequence of the premature hollowness of the -cheeks, such abnormal dimensions that many people imagine that it -actually continues to grow; and the bosom, which the national costume -makes no effort to conceal, prematurely loses its natural firmness—all -of which phenomena are observed in European women much less frequently, -and in a less exaggerated form. If you add to this the habit, so -prevalent among Georgians, young and old, of using white and red -cosmetics, you will understand that such rude and inartistic arts of the -toilet can only add to the observer’s sense of dissatisfaction.” - -America affords many illustrations of the manner in which refinement of -mind and manners increases Beauty in a single generation. There are in -every city thousands of parents who began life as ordinary labourers, -but soon got rich through industry or good luck. They bring up their -children in houses where every attention is paid to sanitary rules; they -send them to school and college; and when they come back you would -hardly believe that those coarse-featured, clumsy-limbed, ungraceful -persons could be their father and mother. The discrepancy is sometimes -so great that when the young folks invite people of “their set” to their -house, the old birds keep out of the way discreetly, either of their own -accord or by filial dictation, which in America appears to be displacing -parental authority. - -But if there is such an intimate connection between culture and Beauty, -how is it that we so often find plain features joined with a noble mind -and fine features with a mean mind? Mr. Spencer has endeavoured to -explain this apparent discrepancy by assuming that in such cases plain -features are inherited severally and separately from ancestors of -diverse physiognomies, which being merely mechanically mixed, not fused, -fail to harmonise. There may be something in this, but a simpler -explanation is at hand. - -Noble minds are often the result of individual effort, and persistence -in it. Many men of genius have had humble parents not specially gifted. -From these parents and their ancestors they inherited their plain faces. -Now individual effort, in the short period of a lifetime, is -insufficient to alter the _proportions_ of a face, which depend on its -bony parts; but it does suffice to alter the _expression_, which depends -on the movements of the soft, muscular parts. Hence every person, -however plain-featured, may acquire a beautiful expression by -cultivating his mind and refining his manners and temper. Whenever, -therefore, we meet a man or woman whose features are less attractive at -rest than when moved to expression of emotion, we may feel sure that -they owe their mental refinement more to individual effort than to -inherited capacity. - -The children of such persons will be more beautiful than they are -themselves, because they will inherit the parents’ habit of expressive -muscular action of the features. And owing to the fact that all the bony -parts of the body are modified in accordance with the action of the -muscles attached to them, the bony parts, the proportions, of the face -will also be gradually modified and moulded into nobler shapes, through -the continuance of refined emotional expression. - -It is in this manner that intellectual growth and emotional refinement -have gradually differentiated our features from those of our savage -ancestors. Our lips have become more delicate, our mouths smaller, our -jaws less gigantic, ponderous, and projecting, because civilisation has -taught us to use the hands in preparing food, and to cut it instead of -tearing it off the bone with the teeth, as savages and other wild -animals do. - -Use increases, disuse diminishes the size of an organ. Hence for the -same reason that our jaws have become less projecting and heavy, our -forehead has lost its backward slope and become straight and noble, -owing to the growth of the brain. And similarly with other peculiarities -of the face, indicating the connection between mental refinement and -physical beauty. “Thus is it,” says Mr. Spencer, “with depression of the -bridge of the nose, which is a characteristic both of barbarians and of -our babes, possessed by them in common with our higher quadrumana. Thus, -also, is it with that forward opening of the nostrils, which renders -them conspicuous in a front view of the face,—a trait alike of infants, -savages, and apes. And the same may be said of widespread alæ to the -nose, of great width between the eyes, of long mouth, of large -mouth—indeed of all those leading peculiarities of feature which are by -general consent called ugly.” - - - - - EVOLUTION OF TASTE - - - SAVAGE NOTIONS OF BEAUTY - -In all the preceding remarks concerning the connection between mental -and physical beauty, the assumption has been made tacitly that what _we_ -consider beautiful is so in reality; and that our taste is a safe guide -to follow. Yet this assumption may be challenged, and has, indeed, been -often challenged. Every nation, every savage tribe, has its own standard -of Beauty; what right, therefore, have _we_ to claim dogmatically that -we are infallible judges? - -Ask the devil, says Voltaire, what is the meaning of το καλὸν—the -Beautiful—and he will tell you “Le beau est une paire de comes, quatre -griffes, et une queue”—a couple of horns, four claws, and a tail. Ask a -North American Indian, says Hearne, what is Beauty, he will answer: “A -broad, flat face, small eyes, high cheek-bones, three or four broad -black lines across each cheek, a low forehead, a large, broad chin, a -clumsy hook-nose, a tawny hide, and breasts hanging down to the belt.” -In the Chinese empire “those women are preferred who have ... a broad -face, high cheek-bones, very broad noses, and enormous ears.” “One of -the titles of the Zulu king,” says Darwin (who gives many other -instances _à propos_ in chapter xix. of the _Descent of Man_), “is ‘You -who are black.’ Mr. Galton, in speaking to me about the natives of South -Africa, remarked that their ideas of beauty seem very different from -ours; for in one tribe two slim, slight, and pretty girls were not -admired by the natives.” - -Darwin himself appears to have been staggered and puzzled by this -diversity of taste, and to have partly inclined to the theory that -Beauty is relative to the human mind (though elsewhere he repudiates -it)—a theory which Jeffrey has so boldly formulated in the assertion -that “All tastes are equally just and true, in as far as concerns the -individual whose taste is in question; and what a man feels distinctly -to be beautiful _is beautiful_ to him, whatever other people may think -of it.” - -Fiddlesticks! The Alison-Jeffrey school of Scotch æstheticians, having -been among the first in the field, have done more to confuse the English -mind on the subject of Beauty than several generations of other clever -writers will be able to clear up again. - -There are about half a dozen sound, square, solid, scientific reasons -why we have a better right to our opinion concerning the nature of -Beauty than a Hottentot or a North American Indian. - - - NON-ÆSTHETIC ORNAMENTATION - -One of the things most commonly forgotten by those who wonder at the -strange “taste” of savages is that many of their customs have nothing -whatever to do with the sense of beauty. The habit of putting on -“war-paint” originated not in a desire for ornamentation, but in the -wish to make themselves frightful in appearance to the enemy. For the -same reason heads are mutilated. As Waitz notes in speaking of Tahiti: -“A very ugly mutilation is that to which most of the boys had to subject -themselves. Immediately after birth their mothers compressed their -forehead and the back of the head, so that the former became narrow and -high, the latter flat; this was done to make their aspect more terrible, -and thus turn them into more formidable warriors.” Tattooing, likewise, -was originally intended to be an easy sign of recognition, or of social -or religious distinction, rather than an ornament of the body. And when -we consider how prone the mind of our own fashionable ladies is to -violate every canon of good taste in their wild effort to surpass one -another in some novel extravagance just from Paris; when we note that if -a Fifth Avenue lady wears a gull on her hat, her coloured cook will -invest in a turkey or ostrich for hers, we understand at once that many -of the mutilations approved by savages are the outcome of vanity and -emulation, not of æsthetic taste. - - - PERSONAL BEAUTY AS A FINE ART - -Yet there are undoubtedly a number of physiognomic and other -peculiarities which savages admire while we consider them ugly; and -some, again, which we admire and they dislike. Have we a right to -consider them inferior to us in taste because they fail to admire what -we adore? - -Certainly; beyond the shadow of a doubt. It takes genius to fully -appreciate genius; it takes a refined taste to appreciate refined -beauty. This is what the savage lacks. - -Look at any one of the fine arts. Why does the savage prefer his -monotonous drumming and ear-piercing war-songs to a soft, beautiful, -dreamy Chopin nocturne? Because he _cannot understand_ the nocturne. - -Why does he prefer his painted, clumsy, coarse-featured squaw to a -civilised woman with delicate contours, refined features, graceful gait? -Because he _does not understand_ the beauty of the latter. It is too -subtle for his coarse nerves, his feeble imagination. The smiles and -manifold expressions that chase one another across her lovely features, -like the subtly-interwoven melodies in a symphonic poem, are the visible -signs of thoughts and emotions which he has never experienced, and -therefore cannot understand. It is like giving him a page of Sanskrit to -read. - -It is for this reason that a negro never falls in love with a white -woman, and that a peasant prefers his plump, crude country-girl to the -fair, delicate city visitor. He requires more vigorous arms, broader -features, than the city girl possesses, to make an impression on his -callous nerves of touch and sight. And it is fortunate for the peasant -girl that her lover does lack taste, else she would soon find him a -fickle deserter. - -The savage, in a word, prefers his style of “beauty” to ours for the -same reason that he prefers a piece of raw liver and a glass of oil to -the subtle flavours of French cookery and French wines. His senses are -too coarse, his mind too vulgar, to perceive the poetry of refined -features. Everything must be loud and exaggerated to make an impression -on him—loud music, loud and glaring red and yellow colours, loud and -coarse features. - -This doctrine that differences of taste are merely due to differences in -the degree of æsthetic culture, and that there is such a thing as an -absolute standard of human beauty, derives further support from the -facts (1) that the ideal of beauty set up by the æsthetic Greeks two -thousand years ago corresponds so remarkably with that of modern -artistic minds; (2) that _e.g._ a Japanese student in the United States -soon learns to prefer American female beauty to the Japanese variety; -(3) that an English, Italian, or American audience who at first admire -_Norma_ and find _Lohengrin_ tiresome, can in a few seasons be so -educated as to prefer _Lohengrin_ and actually scorn _Norma_; but not -_vice versâ_, in either case (2) or (3). - -Mr. Ruskin takes a similar view regarding differences of taste when he -says that “respecting what has been asserted of negro nations looking -with disgust on the white face, no importance whatever is to be attached -to the opinions of races who have never received any ideas of beauty -whatsoever (these ideas being only received by minds under some certain -degree of cultivation), and whose disgust arises naturally from what -they suppose to be a sign of weakness or ill-health.” - -That this consideration of health does affect the negro’s judgment -regarding the beauty of the white complexion, is also shown by what Mr. -Winwood Reade told Mr. Darwin, namely, that the negro’s “horror of -whiteness may be attributed ... partly to the belief held by most -negroes that demons and spirits are white, and partly to their thinking -it a sign of ill-health.” - -But of all the theoretical truths emphasised in the _Modern Painters_ -none is so important as this: “That not only changes of opinion take -place in consequence of experience, but that those changes are from -_variation_ of opinion to _unity_ of opinion,—that whatever may be the -difference of estimate among unpractised or uncultivated tastes, there -will be unity of taste among the experienced; and that, therefore, the -result of repeated trial and experience is to arrive at principles of -preference in some sort common to all, and which are part of our -nature.” - -Let us now see what are those principles of Beauty that may be -considered independent of a more or less crude and undeveloped taste. -Some are negative, some positive. - - - NEGATIVE TESTS OF BEAUTY - -(_a_) _Animals._—"It has been argued," says Darwin (by Schaffhausen), -“that ugliness consists in an approach to the structure of the lower -animals, and no doubt this is partly true with the more civilised -nations, in which intellect is highly appreciated; but this explanation -will hardly apply to all forms of ugliness.” - -Curiously enough, savages themselves use animals as a negative test of -beauty. Thus we read that “the Indians of Paraguay eradicate their -eyebrows and eyelashes, saying that they do not wish to be like horses.” -“On the Eastern coast, the negro boys, when they saw Burton, cried out, -‘Look at the white man; does he not look like a white ape?’” “A man of -Cochin China ‘spoke with contempt of the wife of the English -ambassador—that she had white teeth like a dog, and a rosy colour like -that of potato-flowers.’” - -A few centuries ago it was a favourite pastime of physiognomists to draw -elaborate parallels between men and animals. Thus, in 1593, there -appeared a work, _De Humana Physiognomia_, with numerous illustrations, -in which always a human face was matched with some animal’s head. -Professor Wundt thus sums up the essence of this book: “A broad -forehead, we are told, indicates fearfulness, because the ox with his -broad head lacks courage. A long forehead, on the other hand, indicates -erudition, as is shown by means of an intelligent dog who has the honour -of serving as a pendant to Plato’s profile. Persons with shaggy hair are -good-natured, as they resemble the lion. He whose eyebrows are turned -inwards, towards the nose, is uncleanly like the pig, which this -resembles. The narrow chin of the ape signifies malice and envy. Long -ears and thick lips, such as the donkey possesses, are signs of -stupidity. A person who has a nose crooked from the forehead inclines, -like the raven, to theft, etc. These animal-physiognomists appear to -have favoured a thoroughly pessimistic view of man’s capacities, -inasmuch as for every creditable resemblance they find at least ten -discreditable ones.” - -Apart from these puerilities, it is in most cases simply absurd to -compare man with animals. Except in the case of apes there are no proper -terms of comparison, because the types are so distinct; and, moreover, -from the point of view of its own type, the average animal of any -species is more beautiful than the average man or woman from the human -point of view. This assertion is indirectly corroborated by Mr. Galton’s -testimony, that “our human civilised stock is far more weakly through -congenital imperfection than that of any other species of animals, -whether wild or domestic.” - -Schopenhauer considered animals beautiful in every way, and suggested -that whenever we do find an animal ugly it is due to some irrelevant, -inevitable association of ideas, as when a monkey suggests a man, or a -toad mud. And Mr. Ruskin pertinently suggests that “That mind only is -fully disciplined in its theoretic power which, when it chooses, -throwing off the sympathies and repugnancies with which the ideas of -destructiveness or of innocence accustom us to regard the animal tribes, -as well as those meaner likes and dislikes which arise, I think, from -the greater or less resemblance of animal powers to our own, can pursue -the pleasures of typical beauty down to the scales of the alligator, the -coils of the serpent, and the joints of the beetle.” - -When Sir Charles Bell intimated that in Greek sculpture the guiding -principle was remoteness from the animal type, he stated only one side -of the truth, of which the other is thus noted by Winckelmann: among the -Greeks, he says, “The study of artists in producing ideal beauties was -directed to the nature of the nobler beasts, so that they not only -instituted comparisons between the forms of the human countenance and -the shape of the head of certain animals, but they even undertook to -adopt from animals the means of imparting greater majesty and elevation -to their statues ... especially in the heads of Hercules.” Jupiter’s -head “has the complete aspect of the lion, the king of beasts, not only -in the large, round eyes, in the fulness of the prominent, and, as it -were, swollen forehead, and in the nose, but also in the hair, which -hangs from his head like the mane of the lion, first rising upward from -the forehead, and then, parting on each side into a bow, again falling -downward.” - -So that we may safely reject the theory that ugliness consists in an -approach to the structure of the lower animals, whatever savages and -Chinamen may think on this subject. Coarse minds little suspect what -exquisite beauty is to be found in the head of a cow or a donkey, a -puppy or a lamb—beauty which, like a lovely melody, may bring tears to -the eyes of one who is sensitive to æsthetic impressions. Objectively -considered, even the destructive emotions do not appear ugly in an -animal. The ferocity of a lion does not make him appear vicious, because -ferocity is his nature. He knows no better; can only live by fighting. -But a man is disfigured by ferocity because he does know better; he -_can_ live without fighting; and it is _the consciousness of his selfish -meanness_ that puts the stamp of ugliness on his distorted features. - -In apes alone does fierceness seem ugly and brutal instead of sublime. -For apes bear so much resemblance to us, and have a brain so superior in -structure to that of other animals, that we feel justified in applying -the human standard. Hence apes alone afford us a negative test of -beauty. Their heads and faces are cast in our mould, and therefore -afford the means of direct comparison. In looking at their massive, -brutal jaws, their receding foreheads, their undifferentiated hands and -feet, their coarse, hairy skin, their clumsy, inexpressive, gigantic -mouths, their flat noses and nostrils open to the view, we are justified -in calling them ugly, compared with ourselves, and in feeling proud that -civilisation has gradually raised us so far above our country cousins, -in beauty as in everything else, except the art of climbing trees. - -(_b_) _Savages_ are valuable as negative tests of beauty for the same -reason: they enable us to see what progress we have made in refining our -features into harmonious proportions, and making them susceptible of -diverse emotional expression. It should be noted that Nature constantly -endeavours to make primitive mankind beautiful, as it does with all -other animals. Tourists constantly note the occurrence of remarkable -instances of Personal Beauty among the young in most tribes. But this -natural Beauty is not appreciated by the vulgar taste of savages, as we -saw a few pages back in a case mentioned by Mr. Galton. Beauty must be -distorted and exaggerated before it pleases the savage’s taste. Paint -must be laid on an inch thick, the nose perforated and “adorned” with a -ring, and ditto the abnormally lengthened lips. This corrects the notion -that savage hideousness is a product of Nature. Nature may blunder, but -never so sadly as in the appearance of a savage belle or warrior; and in -scorning these we do not therefore scorn Nature, but merely the -artificial products of the vulgar taste of primitive man. - -(_c_) _Degraded Classes._—Poverty, suffering, want of leisure for mental -culture, want of money for sanitary modes of living, have, -unfortunately, produced in all countries a large class in whom Personal -Beauty occurs only as an accident. That such unhappy mortals afford a -negative test of Beauty is seen by the fact that, just as savages are -intermediate between monkeys and them, so they stand between savages and -refined men in features and expression. - -Poverty alone does not produce this vulgar type of personal appearance; -it is intellectual indolence, moral vice, and hygienic indifference that -are responsible for it. Hence this third negative teat of Beauty is not -at all difficult to find in any sphere of society, from the hod-carrier -to the aristocrat with a pedigree of a hundred generations. In every -scale of the social ladder may be found “features seamed by sickness, -dimmed by sensuality, convulsed by passion, pinched by poverty, shadowed -by sorrow, branded with remorse; bodies consumed with sloth, broken down -by labour, tortured by disease, dishonoured in foul uses; intellects -without power, hearts without hope, minds earthly and devilish” -(Ruskin). - -(_d_) _Age and Decrepitude._—It is not true, as a famous Frenchwoman has -remarked, that age and beauty are incompatible terms. Even age and Love -are not incompatible, as we saw in the chapter on Genius in Love; and -Byron has remarked that Love, like the measles, is most dangerous when -it comes late in life. - -There is a special variety of Beauty for every period of life, and the -Beauty of old age certainly is not the least attractive of these -varieties. What could be more majestic, more admirable, than the head of -a Longfellow in his last days? Provided health of mind and body has been -maintained, even the folds in the cheeks, the wrinkles on the forehead -of old age, are not unbeautiful. But when senility means decrepitude, -brought on by a neglectful or otherwise vicious life, then it is -positively ugly. The loveliest thing in the world is a fair and amiable -maiden; the ugliest a vicious old hag—savages and apes _not_ excepted. - -(_e_) _Disease._—Temperance preachers and other hygienic reformers -commonly dwell too exclusively on the dangers to health, domestic peace, -moral progress, and refinement which the indulgence in various vices -entails. If they would insist with equal, or even greater, emphasis on -the havoc which diseases brought on by intemperance and neglect of the -laws of Health make on Personal Beauty, they would double their -influence on their audiences or readers. For in woman’s heart the desire -to be beautiful is and always will be the strongest motive to action or -nonaction; nor are men, as a rule, much less interested in the matter of -preserving a handsome appearance. It may make _some_ impression on a man -to tell him that if he takes ice-water before breakfast, or “cock-tails” -at various odd hours on an empty stomach, he will ruin his digestion; -but the impression will be six times as deep if you can convince him -that he will ere long look like that confirmed dyspeptic Jones, with -lack-lustre eyes, sallow complexion, and a general expression of -premature senility, which accounts for the fact that he has been twice -already refused by the girl he adores. - -Or take that girl over there who never takes a walk, always sleeps with -her windows hermetically closed, and never allows a ray of sunshine to -touch any part of her body. Tell her she is ruining her health and she -may be momentarily alarmed by this vague warning, and walk half a mile -for a week or so, until she has forgotten it. But make it clear to her -what is the exact consequence of such neglect of the primal laws of -health—namely, the premature loss of every trace of Personal Beauty and -youthful charm, with old-maidenhood inevitably staring her in the face, -owing to her apathetic appearance and gait, her sickly complexion, her -features distorted by frequent headaches, brought on by lack of fresh, -cool air—each of which leaves its permanent trace in the form of an -addition to a wrinkle or subtraction from the plumpness of her -cheeks,—tell her all this, and that her eyes will soon sink into their -sockets and have blue rings like those of an invalid, and a ghastly -stare—and she will, perhaps, be sufficiently roused to save her Health -for the sake of her Beauty. - -We are now confronted with the question, Why is it that disease is a -mark of ugliness, health a mark of Beauty? The old Scotch school of -æstheticians think it is all a matter of association. We consider -certain forms characteristic of health as beautiful simply because we -associate with them various emotions of affection, the pleasures of -love, etc., and conversely with disease and vice. According to Stendhal, -“La beauté n’est que la promesse du bonheur,” or, in American, Beauty is -simply the promise of a “good time.” But it is Lord Jeffrey who, to use -another appropriate American expression, “goes the whole hog” in this -matter, by practically denying the existence of such a thing as a pure, -disinterested, æsthetic sense. Suppose, he says, "that the smooth -forehead, the firm cheek, and the full lip, which are now so distinctly -expressive to us of the gay and vigorous periods of youth—and the clear -and blooming complexion, which indicates health and activity—had been, -in fact, the forms and colours by which old age and sickness were -characterised; and that, instead of being found united to those sources -and seasons of enjoyment, they had been the badges by which Nature -pointed out that state of suffering and decay which is now signified to -us by the livid and emaciated face of sickness, or the wrinkled front, -the quivering lip, and hollow cheek of age; if this were the familiar -law of our nature, can it be doubted that we should look upon these -appearances, not with rapture, but with aversion, and consider it as -absolutely ludicrous or disgusting to speak of the beauty of what was -interpreted by every one as the lamented sign of pain and decrepitude? - -“Mr. Knight himself, though a firm believer in the intrinsic beauty of -colours, is so much of this opinion that he thinks it entirely owing to -those associations that we prefer the tame smoothness and comparatively -poor colours of a youthful face to the richly fretted and variegated -countenance of a pimpled drunkard.” - -Bosh! and a hundred times bosh! One feels that these men lived at a time -when port was drunk by the bottle, like claret, and when variegated -noses were to a certain extent fashionable. - -Though every reader feels the sophistry and absurdity of the above -argumentation, it is not easy to refute it. Professor Blackie declaims -against it, Ruskin sneers at it, but nowhere have I been able to find a -definite direct refutation of the thesis. The following suggestions may, -therefore, be of some value. - -In the first place, Jeffrey’s supposition is equivalent to saying that -if black were white, white would be black. For if all the phenomena of -human nature were reversed, our taste, being also a “phenomenon,” would -be reversed too. If health meant emaciation, then a lover would not be -happy unless he could kiss a pair of leathery lips and embrace a -skeleton. Hence his sense of touch, like his sight, would have to be the -reverse of what they are now; and that being the case, æsthetic taste, -which is based on the senses, would of course be reversed too. But that -is simply saying that if you stand a man on his head his feet will be in -the air. - -Secondly, Lord Jeffrey’s argument involves the old fallacy that the -useful and the beautiful are identical—that we only consider those -things beautiful which afford us some utilitarian gratification. If this -theory were correct, a coal-boat would be more beautiful than a yacht; a -savage’s big jaw-bone more beautiful than our delicate ones; a clumsy, -dirty, coarse-featured labourer more beautiful than a society belle. - -No; we have, thank heaven, an æsthetic sense which enables us to see and -admire beauty quite independently of any “associations” which it may -have with our utilitarian cravings. It is possible, however, and even -probable, that the æsthetic sense was originally _developed_ from -utilitarian associations. On this subject Mr. Grant Allen has some -exceedingly valuable remarks in his interesting work on the -Colour-Sense. He there eloquently sets forth the view that it was the -bright tints of luscious fruits that first taught primitive man to -derive pleasure from the sight of coloured objects. This gradually led -to a “predilection for brilliant dyes and glistening pebbles; till at -last the whole series culminates in that intense and unselfish enjoyment -of rich and pure tints which make civilised man linger so lovingly over -the hues of sunset and the myriad shades of autumn.... The -_disinterested_ affection can only be reached by many previous steps of -utilitarian progress.” But—and here lies the kernel of the -argument—"fruit-eaters and flower-feeders derive pleasure from brilliant -colours ... not because those colours have mental associations with -their food, but because the structures which perceive them have been -continually exercised and strengthened by hereditary use," until at last -they formed a special nervous or cerebral apparatus which presides over -impressions of beauty, and takes a special pleasure in its own activity, -apart from all utilitarian considerations. - -Lord Jeffrey apparently lacked this special æsthetic sense, as shown by -his whole argument, and by his inability, which he shared with Alison, -of finding beauty in Nature, unless it was in some way associated with -man’s presence and man’s mean utilities. - -How different this from the feelings of the man who of all writers on -Beauty has the most highly developed æsthetic sense—Mr. Ruskin, who has -just told us in his _Autobiography_ that his love of Nature, ardent as -it is, depends entirely on the _wildness_ of the scenery, its remoteness -from human influences and associations. - -It is this specially-developed æsthetic taste that would prevent man -from calling flabby cheeks, sallow complexions, pimpled noses, and -sunken eyes beautiful, if by some miracle they should be changed into -signs of health. For this sense of beauty was first educated not by the -sight of human beauty, but of beauty in Nature—fruits, pebbles, shells, -lustrous metals, etc.; and the notions of beauty thus obtained have been -gradually transferred to human beings as standards of attractiveness. It -can be shown that what the best judges pronounce the highest human -beauty, is so because it partakes of certain characteristics which we -find beautiful throughout Nature. And conversely, what we consider ugly -in the human form and features would also be called ugly in external -objects; in both cases, be it distinctly understood, without any direct -reference to utilitarian considerations, and sometimes even in -opposition to them, as in our admiration of a beautiful poisonous plant -or snake, or a tiger. - -It is these universal characteristics of Beauty, found in man as in -animals, that we now have to consider. They are the _positive_ criteria -of Beauty, and may be regarded as a new set of “overtones” or leading -motives for the remainder of this volume, although the old ones will -occasionally reappear and combine with them. - - - POSITIVE TESTS OF BEAUTY - -Of these there are at least eight—Symmetry, Curvature, Gradation, -Smoothness, Delicacy, Colour, Lustre, Expression, including Variety and -Individuality. - -(_a_) _Symmetry._—"In all perfectly beautiful objects," says Mr. Ruskin, -“there is found the opposition of one part to another, and a reciprocal -balance obtained; in animals the balance being commonly between opposite -sides (note the disagreeableness occasioned by the exception in flat -fish, having the eyes on one side of the head); but in vegetables the -opposition is less distinct, as in the boughs on opposite sides of -trees, and the leaves and sprays on each side of the boughs, and in dead -matter less perfect still, often amounting only to a certain tendency -towards a balance, as in the opposite sides of valleys and alternate -windings of streams. In things in which perfect symmetry is, from their -nature, impossible or improper, a balance must be at least in some -measure expressed before they can be beheld with pleasure.... Symmetry -is the _opposition_ of _equal_ quantities to each other. Proportion the -_connection_ of _unequal_ quantities with each other. The property of a -tree in sending out equal boughs on opposite sides is symmetrical. Its -sending out shorter and smaller towards the top, proportional. In the -human face its balance of opposite sides is symmetry, its division -upwards, proportion.” - -Mr. Darwin thus gives his testimony as to the prevalence of symmetry in -Nature: “If beautiful objects had been created solely for man’s -gratification, it ought to be shown that before man appeared there was -less beauty on the face of the earth than since he came on the stage. -Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the -gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created that -man might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet? Few objects are -more beautiful than the minute silicious cases of the diatomaceæ: were -they created that they might be examined and admired under the higher -powers of the microscope? The beauty in this latter case, and in many -others, is apparently wholly due to symmetry of growth” (_Origin of -Species_, chap. vi.) - -In the floral world, again, the natural tendency is always towards -symmetry. Wind-fertilised flowers are symmetrical in form; and “as Mr. -Darwin has observed, there does not appeal to be a single instance of an -irregular flower which is not fertilised by insects or birds” (Lubbock), -and therefore modified in form in the effort to adapt itself to useful -insects and to exclude pirates. - -Throughout the animal kingdom, including man, this law of symmetry is -true. Hence it is not likely that we should ever admire a lame leg, a -crooked nose, bent on one side, eyes that are not mates, or a face -several inches longer on one side than the other, owing to paralysis—as -_beautiful_, even if, as Jeffrey would have it, Madame Nature should -suddenly take it into her head to associate such abnormalities with -health instead of with disease. - -(_b_) _Gradation._—On this law of Nature Mr. Ruskin again has spoken at -once more scientifically and poetically than any other writer on -æsthetics: "What curvature is to lines, gradation is to shades and -colours.... For instances of the complete _absence_ of gradation we must -look to man’s work, or to his _disease_ and _decrepitude_. Compare the -gradated colours of the rainbow with the stripes of a target, and the -gradual concentration of the youthful blood in the cheek with an abrupt -patch of rouge, or with the sharply-drawn veining of old age. - -“Gradation is so inseparable a quality of all natural shade and colour -that the eye refuses in art to understand anything as either which -appears without it; while, on the other hand, nearly all the gradations -of nature are so subtile, and between degrees of tint so slightly -separated, that no human hand can in any wise equal, or do anything more -than suggest the idea of them.” - -The following remarks which the same writer makes in another place -concerning Gradation show at the same time how asinine it is for a -savage or any other person of uncultivated taste to set himself up as a -judge of Personal Beauty, as good as any one else, on the plea that it -is all “a matter of taste” and _de gustibus non est disputandum_:— - -“When the eye is quite uncultivated, it sees that a man is a man, and a -face is a face, but has no idea what shadows or lights fall upon the -form or features. Cultivate it to some degree of artistic power, and it -will then see shadows distinctly, but only the more vigorous of them. -Cultivate it still further, and it will see light within light, and -shadow within shadow, and will continually refuse to rest in what it has -already discovered, that it may pursue what is more removed and more -subtle, until at last it comes to give its chief attention and display -its chief power on _gradations which to an untrained faculty are partly -matters of indifference and partly imperceptible_.” - -The words italicised enable us to appreciate what Sokrates must have had -in his mind when he distinguished between that which _is_ beautiful and -that which only _appears_ beautiful. Æsthetic training enables us to see -things as they are, instead of as they appear through inattention, -through ignorance, or through clouds of national prejudice, or -individual utilitarianism. - -The way in which æsthetic training enables us to see gradations of -beauty previously imperceptible can be most strikingly illustrated in -the case of music. There are thousands of intelligent folks who cannot -tell the difference between a superb Steinway Grand, just timed for a -concert, and a harsh, clangy, mountain-hotel piano that has not been -tuned for two years. But give these persons a thorough musical -education, and they will soon be able to smile at Jeffrey’s notion that -the tone of the hotel-piano was quite as beautiful as that of the -Steinway, because it _seemed_ so to them. It is not only the imagination -but the senses themselves that require training. A Hottentot or any -unmusical person cannot tell the difference between two consecutive -tones on the piano, whereas a skilled musician can detect all the -gradations from one tone to another, down to the sixty-fourth part of a -semitone! - -“It is all a matter of taste!” Precisely. Of good taste and bad taste. - -Examples of gradation in the human form are the gradual tapering of the -limbs and the fingers, the exquisite line from the female neck to the -shoulders and the bosom, the blushes on the cheeks, so long as they do -not assume the form of a hectic flush, and the delicate tints of the -complexion in general, varying with emotional states, according as the -veins and arteries are more or less filled with the vital fluid. - -Is it then “entirely owing to their associations” with health or disease -that we prefer the complexion of a youthful face to the hideous daubs of -red which Knight refers to as the “richly fretted and variegated -countenance of a pimpled drunkard”? Is it owing to such associations -that we prefer the delicately gradated blushes of coloured marble to the -richly bedaubed countenance of a pimpled brickbat? But it would be a -waste of time to refer again to the crude anti-æsthetic notions of -Messrs. Knight, Alison, and Jeffrey. - -One more exquisite illustration of subtle gradation in the human form -divine may be cited from Winckelmann:— - -“The soul, though a simple existence, brings forth at once, and in an -instant, many different ideas; so it is with the beautiful youthful -outline, which appears simple, and yet at the same time has infinitely -different variations, and that soft tapering which is difficult of -attainment in a column, is still more so in the diverse forms of the -youthful body. Among the innumerable kinds of columns in Rome some -appear pre-eminently elegant on account of this very tapering; of these -I have particularly noted two of granite, which I am always studying -anew: just so rare is a perfect form, even in the most beautiful youth, -which has a stationary point in our sex still less than in the female.” - -(_c_) _Curvature._—"That all forms of acknowledged beauty are composed -exclusively of curves will," Mr. Ruskin believes, “be at once allowed; -but that which there will be need more especially to prove, is the -subtility and constancy of curvature in all natural forms whatsoever. I -believe that, except in crystals, in certain mountain forms admitted for -the sake of sublimity or contrast (as in the slope of debris), in rays -of light, in the levels of calm water and alluvial land, and in some few -organic developments, there are no lines or surfaces of nature without -curvature, though, as we before saw in clouds, more especially in their -under lines towards the horizon, and in vast and extended plains, right -lines are often suggested which are not actual. Without these we should -not be sensible of the value of contrasting curves; and while, -therefore, for the most part, the eye is fed in natural forms with a -grace of curvature which no hand nor instrument can follow, other means -are provided to give beauty to those surfaces which are admitted for -contrast, _as in water by its reflection of the gradations which it -possesses not itself_.” - -In a footnote to the last edition of the _Modern Painters_ he adds -regarding the apparent exceptions named: “Crystals are indeed subject to -rectilinear limitations, but their real surfaces are continually curved; -the level of calm water is only right lined when it is shoreless.” - -On the other hand, “Generally in all ruin and disease, and interference -of one order of being with another (as in the cattle line of park -trees), the curves vanish, and violently opposed or broken and unmeaning -lines take their place.” I feel tempted to cite another most admirable -passage on curvature throughout Nature—even where it is least looked -for, and the untrained eye cannot see it—in the shattered walls and -crests of mountains which “seem to rise in a gloomy contrast with the -soft waves of bank and wood beneath.” But it is too long to quote, and I -can only advise the reader most earnestly to look it up in chapter xiv. -vol. iv. - -“Straight lines,” Professor Bain observes, “are rendered artistic only -by associations of power, regularity, fitness, etc.” “In some situations -straight lines are æsthetic.... In the human figure there underlies the -curved outline a certain element of rigidity and straightness, -indicating strength in the supporting limbs and spine. Whenever firmness -is required, there must be a solid structure, and straightness of form -is a frequent accompaniment of solidity. The straight nose and the flat -brow are subsidiary to the movement and the stability of the face.” - -Yet even our straight limbs follow in their motions the law of -curvature. And to this fact that they move more easily and naturally in -a curved than in a straight line, which requires laborious adjustment, -Bain traces part of our superior pleasure in rounded lines. - -What infinite subtlety and variety Curvature is capable of is vividly -brought before the eyes by Winckelmann: “The forms of a beautiful body -are determined by lines the centre of which is constantly changing, and -which, if continued, would never describe circles. They are, -consequently, more simple, but also more complex, than a circle, which, -however large or small it may be, always has the same centre, and either -includes others or is included in others. This diversity was sought -after by the Greeks in works of all kinds; and their discernment of its -beauty led them to introduce the same system even into the form of their -utensils and vases, whose easy and elegant outline is drawn after the -same rule, that is, by a line which must be found by means of several -circles, for all these works have an elliptical figure, and herein -consists their beauty. The greater unity there is in the junction of the -forms, and in the flowing of one out of another, so much the greater is -the beauty of the whole.” - -_Masculine and Feminine Beauty._—The universality of curvature as a form -of beautiful objects throughout nature and art is of importance in -helping us to determine the question which is the more beautiful form, a -perfect man or a perfect woman—an Apollo or a Venus? A Venus, no doubt. -In those qualities which are subsumed under the terms of the sublime or -the characteristic—in strength, manly dignity, intellectual power, -majesty—the masculine type, no doubt, is superior to the feminine. But -in Beauty proper—in the roundness and delicacy of contours, in the -smoothness of complexion and its subtle gradations of colour, in the -symmetrical roundness and lustrous expressiveness of the eyes—the -feminine type is pre-eminent. - -“Woman,” says Professor Kollmann, “is smaller, more delicate, but also -softer and more graceful (_schwungvoller_) in form, in her breasts, -hips, thighs, and calves. No line on her body is short and sharply -angular; they all swell, or vault themselves in a gentle curve.... The -neck and the rounded shoulders are connected by gracefully curved lines, -whereas a man’s neck is placed more at a right angle to the more -straight and angular shoulders.... The hair is softer, the skin more -tender and transparent. All the forms are more covered over with adipose -tissue, and connected by those gradual transitions which produce the -gently rounded outlines; whereas in a man everything—muscles, sinews, -blood-vessels, bones—is more conspicuous.” - -Schopenhauer, accordingly, was clearly in the wrong when he endeavoured -to make out that man is vastly superior to woman in physical beauty,—a -notion which Professor Huxley, too, does not appear to disapprove of -very violently. At the same time it is, no doubt, true that there are -more good specimens of masculine beauty in most countries than of -feminine beauty; true also that man’s beauty lasts much longer than -woman’s. A boy is more beautiful than a girl under sixteen, for the very -reason that his form is more like that of an adult woman than a girl’s -is. From eighteen to twenty-five woman is more beautiful than man; while -after thirty, owing to the almost universal neglect of the laws of -health—women are apt to become either too rotund, which ruins their -grace and delicacy, or too angular—more angular than a man under fifty. - -(_d_) _Delicacy and Grace._—The difference between masculine and -feminine beauty and the superiority of the latter is also indirectly -brought out in Burke’s remarks on Delicacy, which, though open to -criticism in one or two points, are on the whole admirable and -exhaustive:— - -"An air of robustness and strength is very prejudicial to beauty. An -appearance of delicacy, and even of fragility, is almost essential to -it. Whoever examines the vegetable or animal creation will find this -observation to be founded in nature. It is not the oak, the ash, or the -elm, or any of the robust trees of the forest which we consider as -beautiful; they are awful and majestic, they inspire a sort of -reverence. It is the delicate myrtle, it is the orange, it is the -almond, it is the jasmine, it is the vine, which we look on as vegetable -beauties. It is the flowery species, so remarkable for its weakness and -momentary duration, that gives us the liveliest idea of beauty and -elegance. Among animals the greyhound is more beautiful than the -mastiff, and the delicacy of a jennet, a barb, or an Arabian horse is -much more amiable than the strength and stability of some horses of war -or carriage. - -“I need here say little of the fair sex, where I believe the point will -be easily allowed me. The beauty of women is considerably owing to their -weakness or delicacy, and is even enhanced by their timidity, a quality -of mind analogous to it. I would not here be understood to say that -weakness betraying very bad health has any share in beauty; but the ill -effect of this is not because it is weakness, but because the ill state -of health, which produces such weakness, alters the other conditions of -beauty; the parts in such a case collapse, the bright colour, the _lumen -purpureum juventæ_ is gone, and the fine variation is lost in wrinkles, -sudden breaks, and right lines.” - -Delicacy is a quality closely related to grace, or beauty in motion and -attitude. “Grace,” says Dr. J. A. Symonds, “is a striking illustration -of the union of the two principles of similarity and variety. For the -secret of graceful action is that the symmetry is preserved through all -the varieties of position.” This is well put; but the _first_ condition -and essence of grace is that there must be an exact correspondence -between the work done and the limb which does it. The attitude of an -oak-trunk, with nothing on the top but a geranium bush, however -symmetrical, would always be ungraceful, owing to the ludicrous -disproportion between the support and the thing supported. Conversely, a -weak fern-stalk, trying to support a branch of heavy cactus leaves, -would be equally ungraceful; for there must be neither a waste of energy -nor a sense of effort. Part of this feeling may perhaps be traced to -sympathy—thus showing how various emotions enter into our æsthetic -judgments, sometimes weakening, sometimes strengthening them. As -Professor Bain remarks, _à propos_: “We love to have removed from our -sight every aspect of suffering, and none more so than the suffering of -toil.” - -Grace is almost as powerful to inspire Love as Beauty itself. Women know -this instinctively, and in order to acquire the Delicacy which leads to -grace, they deprive their bodies of air and sunshine and strengthening -sleep, hoping thereby to acquire artificially, through ill-health, what -Nature has denied them. Fortunately such violations of the laws of -health always frustrate their object. Delicacy conjoined with Health -inspires Love, but delicacy born of disease inspires only pity—a feeling -which may inspire in a woman what she imagines is Love, but in a man -_never_. - -(_e_) _Smoothness_ is another attribute of Beauty on which Burke was the -first to place proper emphasis: It is, he says, “a quality so essential -to beauty that I do not recollect anything beautiful that is not smooth. -In trees and flowers, smooth leaves are beautiful; smooth slopes of -earth in gardens; smooth streams in the landscape; smooth coats of birds -and beasts in animal beauties; in fine women, smooth skins; and in -several sorts of ornamental furniture, smooth and polished surfaces.... -Any ruggedness, any sudden projection, any sharp angle, is in the -highest degree contrary to the idea of beauty.” - -Though there are exceptions to this rule of smoothness—including such a -marvel of beauty as the moss-rose, as well as various leaves covered -with down, etc.—yet, on the whole, Burke is right. Certainly the smooth -white hand of a delicate lady is more beautiful than the rough, horny -“paws” of a bricklayer; and the inferior beauty of a man’s arm is owing -as much to its rough scattered hairs as to the prominence of the -muscles, in contrast to the smooth and rounded arm of woman. In animals, -however, hairs on the limbs are not unbeautiful, because they are dense -enough to overlap, and thus form a hairy surface admirable alike for its -soft smoothness, its gloss, and its colour. - -(_f_) _Lustre and Colour._—Lustrous, sparkling eyes, glossy hair, pearly -teeth,—where would human beauty be without them without the delicate -tints and blushes of the skin, the brown or blue iris, the golden or -chestnut locks, the ebony eyebrows and lashes? - -Yet the greatest art-critics incline to the opinion that, on the whole, -colour is a less essential ingredient of beauty than form. “Colour -assists beauty,” says Winckelmann, but “the essence of beauty consists -not in colour but in shape.” “A negro might be called handsome when the -conformation of his face is handsome.” “The colour of bronze and of the -black and greenish basalt does not detract from the beauty of the -antique heads,” hence “we possess a knowledge of the beautiful, although -in an unreal dress and of a disagreeable colour.” - -Similarly Mr. Ruskin, who remarks of colour that it “is richly bestowed -on the highest works of creation, and the eminent _sign and seal of -perfection in them_; being associated with _life_ in the human form, -with _light_ in the sky, with purity and hardness in the earth,—death, -night, and pollution of all kinds being colourless. And although if form -and colour be brought into complete opposition, so that it should be put -to us as a stern choice whether we should have a work of art all of -form, without colour (as an Albert Dürer’s engraving), or all of colour, -without form (as an imitation of mother-of-pearl), form is beyond all -comparison the more precious of the two ... yet if colour be introduced -at all, it is necessary that, whatever else may be wrong, _that_ should -be right,” etc. - -Again: “An oak is an oak, whether green with spring or red with winter; -a dahlia is a dahlia, whether it be yellow or crimson; and if some -monster-hunting botanist should ever frighten the flower blue, still it -will be a dahlia; but let one curve of the petals—one groove of the -stamens—be wanting, and the flower ceases to be the same. Let the -roughness of the bark and the angles of the boughs be smoothed or -diminished, and the oak ceases to be an oak; but let it retain its -inward structure and outward form, and though its leaves grew white, or -pink, or blue, or tricolour, it would be a white oak, or a pink oak, or -a republican oak, but an oak still.” - -“If we look at Nature carefully, we shall find that her colours are in a -state of perpetual confusion and indistinctness, while her forms, as -told by light and shade, are invariably clear, distinct, and speaking. -The stones and gravel of the bank catch green reflections from the -boughs above; the bushes receive grays and yellows from the ground; -every hairbreadth of polished surface gives a little bit of the blue of -the sky, or the gold of the sun, like a star upon the local colour; this -local colour, changeful and uncertain in itself, is again disguised and -modified by the hue of the light or quenched in the gray of the shadow; -and the confusion and blending of tint is altogether so great that were -we left to find out what objects were by their colours only, we would -scarcely in place distinguish the boughs of a tree from the air beyond -them or the ground beneath them. I know that people unpractised in art -will not believe this at first; but if they have accurate powers of -observation, they may soon ascertain it for themselves; they will find -that, while they can scarcely ever determine the _exact_ hue of -anything, except when it occurs in large masses, as in a green field or -the blue sky, the form, as told by light and shade, is always decided -and evident, and the source of the chief character of every object.” - -Professor Bain remarks on this topic that “Among the several kinds of -beauty, the eye takes most delight in colour.... For this reason we find -the poets borrowing more of their epithets from colours than from any -other topic.” - -This view seems to be confirmed by the fact that lovers in expatiating -on the beauty of their Dulcineas seem to have much more to say about -their brown or golden locks, their light or dark complexion, their blue -or black eyes, than about the shape of their features. This, however, -partly finds its explanation in the fact that colour, being a sensuous -quality, is more easily and more directly appreciated than form, the -perception of which is a much more complicated matter, being a -translation into intellectual terms of remembered impressions of touch, -associated with certain colours, lights, and shades which recall them; -and partly in the greater ease with which peculiarities of colour are -referred to than peculiarities of form. In the days of ancient Greece -the nomenclature of colours was equally undeveloped, and is so vague in -Homer that Gladstone and Geiger actually set up the theory that Homer’s -colour-sense was imperfect, and that that sense has been gradually -developed within historic times,—a theory which I have confuted on -anatomical grounds in _Macmillan’s Magazine_, Dec. 1879. - -That as regards human beauty colour is of less importance than form is -shown, moreover, in this, that a girl with regular features and a -freckled complexion will much sooner find a lover than one with the most -delicately-coloured complexion, conjoined with a big mouth, irregular -nose, or sunken cheeks. And a beautifully-shaped eye is sure to be -admired by all, no matter whether blue, gray, or brown; whereas an eye -that is too small or otherwise defective in form can never be redeemed -by the most beautiful colour or brilliancy. - -On the other hand, there are several things to be said in favour of -colour that will mitigate our judgment on this point. In the first -place, colour is more perfect in its way than form, so that it is -impossible ever to improve on it by idealising, as it is often with -form. As Mr. Ruskin remarks, “Form may be attained in perfection by -painters, who, in their course of study, are continually altering or -idealising it; but only the sternest fidelity will reach colouring. -Idealise or alter in that, and you are lost. Whether you alter by -debasing or exaggerating, by glare or by decline, one fate is for -you—ruin.... Colour is sacred in that you must keep to facts. Hence the -apparent anomaly that the only schools of colour are the schools of -realism.” - -Again, looking at Nature with an artist’s eye, Ruskin discovered and -frequently alludes to the “apparent connection of brilliancy of colour -with vigour of life,” and Mr. Wallace, looking at Nature with a -naturalist’s eye, established this “apparent connection” as a scientific -fact. The passage in which he sums up his views has been once already -quoted; but it is of such extreme importance in enforcing the lesson -that beauty is impossible without health, that it may be quoted again:— - -“The colours of an animal usually fade during disease or weakness, while -robust health and vigour adds to its intensity.... In all quadrupeds a -‘dull coat’ is indicative of ill-health or low condition; while a glossy -coat and sparkling eye are the invariable accompaniments of health and -energy. The same rule applies to the feathers of birds, whose colours -are only seen in their purity during perfect health; and a similar -phenomenon occurs even among insects, for the bright hues of -caterpillars begin to fade as soon as they become inactive, preparatory -to their undergoing transformation. Even in the Vegetable Kingdom we see -the same thing; for the tints of foliage are deepest, and the colours of -flowers and fruits richest, on those plants which are in the most -healthy and vigorous condition.” - -(_g_) _Expression, Variety, Individuality._—Besides the circumstances -that colour is more uniformly perfect in Nature than form, and that it -is always associated with Health, without which Beauty is impossible, -another peculiarity may be mentioned in its favour. The complexion is a -kaleidoscope whose delicate blushes and constant changes of tint, from -the ashen pallor of despair to the rosy flush of delight, are the -fascinating signs of emotional expression. And herein lies the superior -beauty of the human complexion over all other tinted objects: it -reflects not only the hues of surrounding external bodies, but all the -moods of the soul within. - -Form without colour is form without expression. But form without -expression soon ceases to fascinate, for we constantly crave novelty and -variety; and form is one, while expression is infinitely varied and ever -new. Herein lies the extreme importance of expression as a test of -Beauty. Colour, of course, is only one phase of expression. The soul not -only changes the tints of the complexion, but liquifies the facial -muscles so that they can be readily moulded into forms characteristic of -joy, sadness, hope, fear, adoration, hatred, anger, affection, etc. - -Why is the portrait-painter so infinitely superior to the photographer? -Because the photographer—paradoxical as this may seem—gives you a less -realistic picture of yourself than the artist. He only gives you the -fixed form, or at most a transient expression which, being fixed -permanently, loses its essence, which is motion—and thus becomes a -caricature—an exaggeration in duration. But the artist studies you by -the hour, makes you talk, notes the habitual forms of expression most -characteristic of your individuality; and, blending these into a sort of -“typical portrait” of your various individual traits, makes a picture -which reveals all the advantages of art over mere solar mechanism or -photography. - -This explains why some of the most charming persons we know never appear -well in a photograph, while others much less charming do. The beauty of -the latter lies in form, of the former in expression. But expression is -much more potent to inspire admiration and Love than mere beauty of -features; and not without reason, for beautiful features, being a lucky -inheritance, may be conjoined with unamiable individual traits, whereas -beautiful expression is the infallible index of a beautiful mind and -character; and promises, moreover, beautiful sons and daughters, because -“expression is feature in the making.” It is by such subtle signs and -promises that Love is unconsciously and instinctively guided in its -choice. - -Formal Beauty alone is external and cold. It is those slight variations -in Beauty and expression which we call individuality and character that -excite emotion: so much so that Love, as we have seen, is dependent on -individuality, and a man who warmly admires all beautiful women is in -love with none. - -Speaking of the Greeks, Sir Charles Bell says: “In high art it appears -to have been the rule of the sculptor to divest the form of -expression.... In the Venus, the form is exquisite and the face perfect, -but there is _no expression_ there; it has no human softness, _nothing -to love_.” “All individuality was studiously avoided by the ancient -sculptors in the representation of divinity; they maintained the beauty -of form and proportion, but without expression, which, in their system, -belonged exclusively to humanity.” - -But inasmuch as the Greeks attributed to their deities all the various -emotions which agitate man, why did they refuse them the signs of -expression? One cannot but suspect that the Greeks did not sufficiently -appreciate the beauty of expression. Had they valued it more they would -not have allowed their women to vegetate in ignorance like flowers, one -like the other, but would have educated them and given them the -individuality and expression which alone can inspire Love. - -Again, if the Greeks had been susceptible to the superior charms of -emotional expression, is it likely that they would have been so -completely absorbed in the two least expressive and emotional of the -arts—architecture and sculpture? - -We cannot avoid the conclusion that the Greeks were as indifferent to -the charms of individual expression as to Romantic Love, which is -dependent on it. In their statues, as Dr. Max Schasler remarks, a mouth -or eye has no more significance as a mark of beauty than a well-shaped -leg. Whereas in modern, and even sometimes in mediæval art, what a world -of expression in a mouth, a pair of eyes! - -Leaving individual exceptions (like Homer) aside, it may be said that -the arts have been successively developed to a climax in the order of -their capacity for emotional expression, viz.—Architecture, Sculpture, -Painting, Poetry, and Music. Poetry precedes music, because though its -emotional scope is wider, it is less intense. To-day music is the most -popular and universal of all the arts because it stirs most deeply our -feelings. And just as the discovery of harmony, by individualising the -melodies, has increased the power and variety of music a thousandfold; -so the individualisation of Beauty and character through modern culture -has made Romantic Love a blessing accessible to all—the most prevalent -form of modern affection. - -Individuality is of such extreme importance in Love that a slight -blemish is not only pardoned but actually adored if it increases the -individuality. Bacon evidently had this in his mind when he said that -“there is no excellent beauty which has not some strangeness in its -proportion.” Seneca, as well as Ovid, noted the attractiveness of slight -short-comings; and the following anecdote shows that though the -Persians, as a nation, have ever been strangers to Romantic Love, their -greatest poet, Háfiz, understood the psychology of the subject in its -subtlest details:— - -“One day Timur (fourteenth century) sent for Háfiz and asked angrily: -‘Art thou he who was so bold as to offer my two great cities Samarkand -and Bokhara for the black mole on thy mistress’s cheek?’ alluding to a -well-known verse in one of his odes. ‘Yes, sire,’ replied Háfiz, ‘and it -is by such acts of generosity that I have brought myself to such a state -of destitution that I have now to solicit your bounty.’ Timur was so -pleased with the ready wit displayed in this answer that he dismissed -the poet with a handsome present.” - -To sum up: the reason why - - “The rose that lives its little hour - Is prized beyond the sculptured flower” - -is not, as Bryant implies, the transitoriness of the rose, but the fact -that the marble flower, like the wax-flower, is dead and unchangeable, -while the short-lived rose beams with the expression of happy vitality -after a shower, or sadly droops and hangs its head in a drouth. It has -life and expression, subtle gradations of colour, and light and shade, -which are the signs of its vitality and moods, varying every day, every -hour. And so with all the higher forms of life, those always being most -beautiful and highly prized which are most capable of expressing subtle -variations of health, happiness, and mental refinement. - -There is no part of the human body which does not serve as a mark of -expression— - - “In many’s looks the false heart’s history - Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange.” - - “There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, - _Nay, her foot speaks_.”—SHAKSPERE. - -It will not do, therefore, to neglect any part of the body. As it is the -last straw which breaks the camel’s back, so Cupid’s capricious choice -is often determined by some minor point of perfection, when the balance -is otherwise equal. Suppose there are two sisters whose faces, figures, -and mental attractions are about equal; then it is possible that one of -them will die an old maid simply because the other had a smaller foot, a -more graceful gait, or longer eyelashes. - -But though every organ has its own beauty, there is an æsthetic scale of -lower and higher which corresponds pretty accurately with the physical -scale from down upwards—from the foot to the eye and forehead. It is in -this order, accordingly, that we shall now proceed to consider the -various parts of the human form, and those peculiarities in them which -are considered most beautiful and most liable to inspire Romantic Love. - - - - - THE FEET - - - SIZE - - -There is hardly anything concerning which vain people are so sensitive -as their feet. To have large feet is considered one of the greatest -misfortunes that can befall a woman. Mathematically stated, the length -of a woman’s skirts is directly proportional to the size of her feet; -and women with large feet are always shocked at the frivolity of those -who have neat ankles and coquettishly allow them to be seen on occasion; -nor do they see any beauty in Sir John Suckling’s lines— - - “Her feet beneath her petticoat - Like little mice stole in and out, - As if they feared the light.” - -Nor are men, as a rule, sufficiently free from pedal vanity to pose as -satirists. Byron found a mark of aristocracy in small feet, and he was -rendered almost as miserable by the morbid consciousness of his own -defects as Mme. de Staël (who had very ugly feet, yet once ventured to -assume the _rôle_, in private theatricals, of a statue) was offended by -Talleyrand’s witticism, that he recognised her by the _pied de Staël_. - -There is a _ben trovato_, if not true, story of a clever wife who -objected to her husband’s habit of spending his evenings away from home, -and who reformed him by utilising his vanity. By insisting that his -boots were too large, she repeatedly induced him to buy smaller ones, -which finally tortured him so much that he was only too glad to stay at -home and wear his slippers. - - - FASHIONABLE UGLINESS - -How universal is the desire to have, or appear to have, small feet is -shown by the fact that everybody blackens his shoes or boots; for, owing -to a peculiar optical delusion, black objects always appear smaller than -white ones; which is also the reason why too slim and delicate ladies -never appear to such advantage in winter as they do in summer, when they -exchange their dark for light dresses. - -To a certain point the admiration of small feet is in accordance with -the canons of good Taste, as will be presently shown. But Taste has a -disease which is called Fashion. It is a sort of microbe which has the -effect of distorting and _exaggerating_ everything it takes hold of. -Fashion is not satisfied with small feet; it wants them _very_ small, -unnaturally small, at the cost of beauty, health, grace, comfort, and -happiness. Hence for many generations shoemakers have been compelled to -manufacture instruments of torture so ruinous to the constitution of man -and woman, that an Austrian military surgeon has seriously counselled -the enactment of legal fines to be imposed on the makers of -noxiously-shaped shoes, similar to those imposed on food-adulterators. - -Most ugly and vulgar fashions come from France; but as regards crippled -feet the first prize has to be yielded to the Chinese, even by the -Parisians. The normal size of the human foot varies, for men, from 9½ to -13; for women, from 5½ to 9 inches, man’s feet being longer -proportionately to the greater length of his lower limbs. In China the -men value the normal healthy condition of their own feet enough to have -introduced certain features of elasticity in their shoes which we might -copy with advantage; but the women are treated very differently. “The -fashionable length for a Chinese foot,” says Dr. Jamieson, “is between -3½ and 4 inches, but comparatively few parents succeed in arresting -growth so completely.” When girls are five years old their feet are -tightly wrapped up in bandages, which on successive occasions are -tightened more and more, till the surface ulcerates, and some of the -flesh, skin, and sometimes even a toe or two come off. “During the first -year,” says Professor Flower, “the pain is so intense that the sufferer -can do nothing but lie and cry and moan. For about two years the foot -aches continually, and is subject to a constant pain, like the pricking -of sharp needles.” Finally the foot becomes reduced to a shapeless mass, -void of sensibility, which “has now the appearance of the hoof of some -animal rather than a human foot, and affords a very insufficient organ -of support, as the peculiar tottering gait of those possessing it -clearly shows.” - -The difference between the Chinese belle and the Parisian is one of -degree merely. The former has her torturing done once for all while a -child, whereas the latter allows her tight, high-heeled shoes to torture -her throughout life. The English are the only nation that have -recognised the injuriousness and vulgarity of the French shoe, and -substituted one made on hygienic principles; and as England has in -almost everything else displaced France as the leader in modern fashion, -it is reasonable to hope that ere long other nations will follow her in -this reform. American girls are, as a rule, much less sensible in this -matter than their English sisters; one need only ask a clerk in a shoe -store to find out how most of them endeavour to squeeze their small feet -into shoes too small by a number. - -Fashions are always followed blindly, without deliberation. But would it -not be worth while for French, American, and German women—and many men -too—to ask themselves what they gain and what they lose by trying to -make their feet appear smaller than they are? The disadvantages outweigh -the advantages to an almost ludicrous extent. - -On the one side there is absolutely nothing but the gratification of -vanity derived from the fact that a few acquaintances admire one’s -“pretty feet”; and even this advantage is problematical, because a -person who wears too tight shoes can hardly conceal them from an -observer, and is therefore apt to get pity for her vain weakness in -place of admiration. - -On the other hand are the following disadvantages:— - -(1) The constant torture of pressure (not to mention the resulting corns -and bunions), which alone must surely outweigh a hundred times the -pleasure of gratified vanity at having a Chinese foot. - -(2) The unconscious distortion of the features and furrowing of the -forehead in the effort to endure and repress the pain,—and wrinkles, be -it remembered, when once formed are ineradicable. - -(3) The discouragement of walking and other exercise, involving a -general lowering of vitality, sickly pallor and premature loss of the -bloom of youth. - -(4) The wasting of the calf of the leg to dimensions characteristic of -savagedom, disease, and old age, not to speak of the numerous maladies -resulting to women from the use of hard high heels of fashionable shoes, -every contact of which with the ground sends a shock through the spinal -column to the brain and produces obscure disorders in various parts of -the organism. - -(5) The mutilation of one of the most beautiful and characteristically -human parts of the body. As the author of Harper’s _Ugly Girl Papers_ -remarks: “One’s foot is as proper an object of pride and complacency as -a shapely hand. But where in a thousand would a sculptor find one that -was a pleasure to contemplate like that of the Princess Pauline -Bonaparte, whose lovely foot was modelled in marble for the delight of -all the world who have seen it?” - -(6) Finally, and most important of all, the loss of a graceful gait, of -the poetry of motion, which is a thousand times more calculated to -inspire admiration—æsthetic or erotic—than a small foot. - -Man is said to be a reasoning animal; and man embraces woman. But surely -in matters of fashion woman is not a reasoning being. Very large feet -being properly regarded as ugly, she draws the inference that the -smaller they can be made the more will they be beautiful; forgetting -that Beauty is a matter of proportion, not of absolute size. A foot may, -like a waist, as easily appear ugly from being too small as from being -too large. A large woman with very small feet cannot but make a -disagreeable impression, like a bust on an insecure pedestal or a -leaning tower. - - - TESTS OF BEAUTY - -According to Schopenhauer, the great value which all attach to small -feet “depends on the fact that small feet are an essentially human -characteristic, since in no animal are the tarsus and metatarsus -together so small as in man, which peculiarity is connected with his -erect attitude: he is a plantigrade.” But it is difficult to see any -force in this reasoning, since not one person in a hundred thousand -knows what the bones called tarsus and metatarsus are, nor cares whether -they are larger in man or in animals; while, as regards the upright -position, large feet would appear more suitable for maintaining it than -small ones. - -If smallness were the test of beauty in man, why should we not feel -ashamed to have larger heads than animals, or envy the elephant, who, -for his size, has the smallest foot of all animals? - -Those who believe that human beauty consists in the degree of remoteness -from animal types, will derive satisfaction from the fact that apes have -feet that are larger than ours. Topinard gives these figures showing the -relative sizes: man, 16·96; gorilla, 20·69; chimpanzee, 21·00; orang, -25. But why should man feel a special pride in the fact that his feet -are somewhat smaller than those of his nearest relatives, whom, until -recently, he did not even acknowledge as such? - -It is, moreover, unscientific to compare man’s foot with the ape’s too -closely, because they have different functions—being used by man for -walking, by the ape for climbing—and therefore require different -characteristics. It is only in those organs that have a like function—as -the jaws, teeth, nose, eyes, and forehead—that a direct comparison is -permissible, and a progress noted in our favour. - -Again, as M. Topinard tells us, “The hand and the foot of man, although -shorter than those of the anthropoid ape, do not vary among races -according to their order of superiority, as we should have supposed. _A -long hand or foot is not a characteristic of inferiority._” - -The same is true among individuals of the same race. Mme. de Staël was -one of the most intelligent women the world has ever seen, yet her feet -were very large; and conversely, some of our silliest girls have the -smallest feet. - -Since, then, there is no obvious connection between small feet and -superior culture, it follows that the beauty of a foot is not to be -determined by so simple a matter as its length. There are other -peculiarities, of greater importance, in which the laws of Beauty -manifest themselves. First, in the arched instep, which is not only -attractive because it introduces the beauty-curve in place of the -straight, flat line of the sole, but which is of the utmost importance -in increasing the foot’s capacity for carrying its burden, just as -architects build arches under bridges, etc., for the sake of the greater -strength and more equable distribution of pressure thus obtained. -Secondly, in the symmetrical correspondence of the toes and contours of -one foot with those of its partner; in the gradation of the regularly -shortened toes, from the first to the fifth; in the delicate tints of -the skin which, moreover, is smooth and not (as in apes) covered with -straggling hairs and deep furrows, which would have concealed the -delicate veins that variegate the surface, and give it the colour of -life. - -Professor Carl Vogt, in his _Lectures on Man_, vividly illustrates the -principles on which our judgment regarding beauty in feet is based, by -comparing a negro’s foot with that of civilised man: “The foot of the -negro, says Burmeister, produces a disagreeable impression. Everything -in it is ugly; the flatness, the projecting heel, the thick, fatty -cushion in the inner cavity, the spreading toes.... The character of the -human foot lies mainly in its arched structure, in the predominance of -the metatarsus, the shortening and equal direction of the toes, among -which the great toe is remarkably long, but not, like the thumb, -opposable.... The toes in standing leave no mark, but do so in -progression. The whole middle part of the foot does not touch the -ground. Persons with flat feet, in whom the middle of the sole touches -ground, are bad pedestrians, and are rejected as recruits.... The negro -is a decided flat foot ... the fat cushion on the sole not only fills up -the whole cavity, but projects beyond the surface.” - -Inasmuch as it is the custom among all civilised peoples to cover the -foot entirely, many of its aspects of beauty are rendered invisible -permanently, so that it is perhaps not to be wondered at that in their -absence Fashion should have so eagerly fixed on the two visible -features—size and arched instep—and endeavoured to exaggerate them by -Procrustean dimensions and stilt-like high heels. Yet in this matter -even modern Parisians represent a progress over the mediæval Venetian -ladies, who, according to Marinello, at one time wore soles and heels -over a foot in height, so that on going out they had to be accompanied -by several servants to prevent them from falling. _Mais que voulez -vous?_ Fashion is fashion, and women are women. - -By the ancient Greeks the feet were frequently exposed to view; hence, -says Winckelmann, “in descriptions of beautiful persons, as Polyxena and -Aspasia, even their beautiful feet are mentioned.” Possibly in some -future age, when Health and Beauty will be more worshipped than vulgar -Fashion fetishes, a clever Yankee will invent an elastic, tough, and -leathery, but transparent substance that will protect the foot while -fitting it like a glove and showing its outlines. This would put an end -to the mutilations resorted to from vanity, guided by bad taste, and -would add one more feature to Personal Beauty. And the foot, as -Burmeister insists, has one advantage over every other part of the body. -Beauty in all these other features depends on health and a certain -muscular roundness. But the foot’s beauty is independent of such -variations, as it lies mainly in its permanent bony contours and in its -fat cushion, which alone of all adipose layers resists the ravages of -disease and old age. Hence a beautiful foot is a thing of beauty and a -joy for ever, long after all other youthful charms have faded and fled. - - - A GRACEFUL GAIT - -So long as the foot remains entirely covered, its beauty is, on the -whole, of less importance than the grace of its movements. Grace, under -all circumstances, is as potent a love-charm as Beauty itself—of which, -in fact, it is only a phase; and if young men and women could be made to -realise how much they could add to their fascinations by cultivating a -graceful gait and attitudes, hygienic shoemakers, dancing-masters, and -gymnasiums would enjoy as great and sudden a popularity as -skating-rinks, and a much more permanent popularity too. - -It is the laws of Grace that chiefly determine the most admirable -characteristics of the foot. The arched instep is beautiful because of -its curved outlines; but its greatest value lies in the superior -elasticity and grace it imparts to the gait. The habitual carrying of -heavy loads tends to make the feet flat and to ruin Grace; hence the -clumsy gait of most working people, and, on the other hand, the graceful -walk of the “aristocratic” classes. - -The proper size of the foot, again, is most easily determined with -reference to the principles of Grace. Motion is graceful when it does -not involve any waste of energy, and when it is in accordance with the -lines of Beauty. There must be no disproportion between the machinery -and the work done—no locomotive to pull a baby-carriage. Too large feet -are ugly because they appear to have been made for carrying a giant; too -small ones are ugly because seemingly belonging to a dwarf. What are the -exact proportions lying between “too large” and “too small” can only be -determined by those who have educated their taste by the study of the -laws of Beauty and Grace throughout Nature. - -From this point of view Grace is synonymous with _functional fitness_. A -monkey’s foot is less beautiful than a man’s, but in _climbing_ it is -more graceful; whereas in _walking_ man’s is infinitely more graceful. -Apes rarely assume an erect position, and when they do so they never -walk on the flat sole. “When the orang-outang takes to the ground,” says -Mr. E. B. Tylor, “he shambles _clumsily_ along, generally putting down -the outer edge of the foot and the bent knuckles of the hand.” - -I have italicised the word “clumsily” because it touches the vital point -of the question. Man owes his intellectual superiority largely to the -fact that he does not need his hands for walking or climbing, but uses -them as organs of delicate touch and as tools. To acquire this -independence of the hands he needed feet, which enabled him to stand -erect and walk along, not “clumsily,” but firmly, naturally, and -therefore gracefully. Hence in course of time, through the effects of -constant use, there was developed the callous cushion of the heel and -toes; while, through discontinuance of the habit of climbing, the toes -became reduced in size. In the ape’s foot, it is well known, the toes -are almost as long as the fingers of the hand: a fact which led -Blumenbach and Cuvier to classify apes as quadrumana or four-_handed_ -animals. But Professor Huxley showed that this classification was based -on erroneous reasoning. The resemblance between the hands and feet of -apes is merely _physiological_ or functional—because hands and feet are -used alike for climbing. But _anatomically_, in its bones and muscles, -etc., the monkey’s apparent hind “hand” is a true foot no less than -man’s. If the _physiological_ function, _i.e._ the opposability of the -thumb to the other fingers, were taken as a ground of classification, -then birds, who have such toes, would have no feet at all but only wings -and hands. - -There is a limit, however, beyond which the size of man’s toe’s cannot -be reduced without injuring the foot’s usefulness and the grace of gait. -The front part of the foot is distinguished for its yielding or elastic -character. Hence, says Professor Humphrey, “in descending from a height, -as from a chair or in walking downstairs, we alight upon the balls of -the toes. If we alight upon the heels—for instance, if we walk -downstairs on the heels—we find it an uncomfortable and rather jarring -procedure. In walking and jumping, it is true, the heels come first in -contact with the ground, but the weight then falls obliquely upon them, -and is not fully borne by the foot till the toes also are upon the -ground.” - -One of the reasons why Grace is more rare even than Beauty on this -planet is that the toes are cramped or even turned out of their natural -position by tight, pointed, fashionable shoes, and are thus prevented -from giving elasticity to the step. Instances are not rare (and by no -means only in China) where the great toe is almost at right angles to -the length of the foot. In walking, says Professor Flower, “the heel is -first lifted from the ground, and the weight of the body gradually -transferred through the middle to the anterior end of the foot, and the -final push or impulse given with the great toe. It is necessary then -that all these parts should be in a straight line with one another.” - -It is a mooted question whether the toes should be slightly turned -outward, as dancing-masters insist, or placed in straight parallel -lines, as some physiologists hold. For the reason indicated in the last -paragraph, physiologists are clearly right. With parallel or almost -parallel great toes, a graceful walk is more easily attained than by -turning out the toes. Even in standing, Dr. T. S. Ellis argues, the -parallel position is preferable: “When a body stands on four points I -know of no reason why it should stand more firmly if those points be -unequally disposed. The tendency to fall forwards would seem to be even -increased by widening the distance between the points in front, and it -is in this direction that falls most commonly occur.” - - - EVOLUTION OF THE GREAT TOE - -Perhaps the most striking difference between the feet of men and apes -lies in the relative size of the first and second toes. In the ape’s -foot the second toe is longer than the first, whereas in modern -civilised man’s foot the first or great toe is almost always the longer. -Not so, however, with savages, who are intermediate in this as in other -respects between man and ape; and there are various other facts which -seem to indicate that the evolution of the great toe, like that of the -other extreme of the body—the head and brain—is still in progress. - -There is a notion very prevalent among artists that the second toe -should be longer than the first. This idea, Professor Flower thinks, is -derived from the Greek canon, which in its turn was copied from the -Egyptian, and probably originally derived from the negro. It certainly -does not represent what is most usual in our race and time. “Among -hundreds of bare, and therefore undeformed, feet of children I lately -examined in Perthshire, I was not able to find one in which the second -toe was the longest. Since in all apes—in fact, in all other animals—the -first toe is considerably shorter than the second, a long first toe is a -specially human attribute; and instead of being despised by artists, it -should be looked upon as a mark of elevation in the scale of organised -beings.” - -Mr. J. P. Harrison, after a careful examination of the unrestored feet -of Greek and Roman statues in various museums and art galleries, wrote -an article in the _Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great -Britain_ (vol. xiii. 1884), in which he states that he was “led to the -conviction that it was from Italy and not Greece that the long second -toe affected by many English artists had been imported.” Among the -Italians a longer second toe is common, as also among Alsatians; in -England so rarely that its occurrence probably indicates foreign blood. -Professor Flower, as we have seen, found no cases at all; Paget examined -twenty-seven English males, in twenty-four of whom the great toe was the -longer. “In the case of the female feet, in ten out of twenty-three -subjects the first or great toe was longest, and _in ten females it was -shorter_ than the second toe. In the remaining three instances the first -and second toes were of equal length.” - -Bear these last sentences in mind a moment, till we have seen what is -the case with savages. Says Dr. Bruner: “A slight shortening of the -great toe undoubtedly exists, not merely amongst the Negro tribes, but -also in ancient and modern Egyptians, and even in some of the most -beautiful races of Caucasian _females_.” And Mr. Harrison found this to -be, with a few exceptions, a general trait of savages. The great toe was -shorter than the second in skeletons of Peruvians, Tahitians, New -Hebrideans, Savage islanders, Ainos, New Caledonians. - -Must we therefore agree with Carl Vogt when he says, “We may be sure -that, whenever we perceive an approach to the animal type, the female is -nearer to it than the male”? - -Perhaps, however, we can find a solution of the problem _somewhat_ less -insulting to women than this statement of the ungallant German -professor. - -It is _Fashion_, the handmaid of ugliness, that has thus apparently -caused almost half the women to approximate the simian type of the foot; -_Fashion_, which, by inducing women for centuries to thrust their tender -feet into Spanish boots of torture, has taken from their toes the -freedom of action requisite for that free development and growth which -is to be noticed in almost all the men. - -Considering the great difference between the left and the right foot, it -appears almost incredible, but is a sober fact, that until about half a -century ago “rights and lefts” were not made even for the men, who now -always wear them. But even to-day “they are not, it is believed, made -use of by women, except in a shape that is little efficacious,” says Mr. -Harrison; and concerning the Austrians Dr. Schaffer remarks, similarly, -that “the like shoe for the left and right foot is still in use in the -vast majority of cases.” No wonder women are so averse to taking -exercise, and therefore lose their beauty at a time when it ought to be -still in full bloom. For to walk in such shoes must be a torture -forbidding all unnecessary movement. - -Once more be it said—it is Fashion, the handmaid of ugliness, that is -responsible for the inferior beauty of the average female foot, by -preventing the free development and play of the toes which are -absolutely necessary for a graceful walk. - -To what an extent the woful rarity of a graceful gait is due to the -shape of “fashionable” shoes is vividly brought out in a passage -concerning the natives of Martinique, which appeared in a letter in the -New York _Evening Post_: “Many of the quadroons are handsome, even -beautiful, in their youth, and all the women of pure black and mixed -blood walk with a lightness of step and a graceful freedom of motion -that is very noticeable and pleasant to see. I say all the women; but I -must confine this description to those who go shoeless, for when a -negress crams her feet into even the best-fitting pair of shoes her gait -becomes as awkward as the waddle of an Indian squaw, or of a black swan -on dry land, and she minces and totters in such danger of falling -forward that one feels constrained to go to her and say, ‘Mam’selle -Ebène or Noirette, do, I beseech you, put your shoes where you carry -everything else, namely, on the top of your well-balanced head, and do -let me see you walk barefoot again, for I do assure you that neither -your Chinese cousins nor your European mistresses can ever hope to -imitate your goddess-like gait until they practise the art of walking -with their high-heeled, tiny boots nicely balanced on _their_ heads, as -you so often are pleased to do.’” - -There is another lesson to be learned from this discussion, namely, that -in trying to establish the principles of Beauty, it is better to follow -one’s own taste than adhere blindly to Greek canons, and what are -supposed to be Greek canons. The longer second toe, as we have seen, is -not a characteristic of Greek art, but due apparently to restorations -made in Italy where this peculiarity prevails. The Greeks, indeed, never -hesitated to idealise and improve Nature if caught napping; and there -can be little doubt that if in their own feet the first toe had been -shorter than the second, they would have made it longer all the same in -their statues, following the laws of gradation and curvature which a -longer second toe would interrupt. For it is undeniable that, as Mr. -Harrison remarks, “a model foot, according to Flaxman, is one in which -the toes follow each other imperceptibly in a graceful curve from the -first or great toe to the fifth.” - - - NATIONAL DIFFERENCES - -The statement made above regarding the prevalence among Italians of a -longer second toe enables us also to qualify the remark made in the -_Westminster Review_ (1884), that “Even at the present day it is a fact -well known to all sculptors that Italy possesses the finest models as -regards the female hands and feet in any part of Europe; and that to the -eye of an Italian the wrists and ankles of most English women would not -serve as a study even for those revivalisms of the antique which are to -be purchased in our streets for a few shillings.” Whatever may be true -of wrists and ankles, the toes must be excepted, at least if a larger -percentage of Italian than of English women have the second toe longer. - -Although in matters where so many individual differences exist it is -hazardous to generalise, the following remarks on national peculiarities -in feet, made by a reviewer of Zachariae’s _Diseases of the Human Foot_, -may be cited for what they are worth: “The French foot is meagre, -narrow, and bony; the Spanish foot is small and elegantly curved, thanks -to its Moorish blood.... The Arab foot is proverbial for its high arch; -‘a stream can run under his foot,’ is a description of its form. The -foot of the Scotch is large and thick—that of the Irish flat and -square—the English short and fleshy. The American foot is apt to be -disproportionately small.” - - - BEAUTIFYING HYGIENE - -Walking, running, and dancing are the most potent cosmetics for -producing a foot beautiful in form and graceful in movement. It is -possible that much walking does slightly increase the size of the foot, -but not enough to become perceptible in the life of an individual; and -it has been sufficiently shown that the standard of Beauty in a foot is -not smallness but curved outlines, litheness, and grace of gait, these -qualities being a thousand times more powerful “love-charms” than the -smallest Chinese foot. Moreover, it is probable that _graceful_ walking -has no tendency to enlarge the foot as a whole, but only the great toe; -and a well-developed great toe is a distinctive sign of higher -evolution. - -It is useless for any one to try to walk or dance gracefully in shoes -which do not allow the toes to spread and act like two sets of elastic -springs. One of the most curious aberrations of modern taste is the -notion that the shape of the natural foot is not beautiful—that it will -look better if made narrowest in front instead of widest. Even were this -so, it would not pay to sacrifice all grace to a slight gain in Beauty. -But it is not so. It is only habit, which blunts perception, that makes -us indifferent to the ugliness of the pointed shoes in our shop-windows, -or even in many cases prefer them to naturally-shaped shoes. Were we -once accustomed to properly-shaped hygienic boots, in which no part of -the foot is cramped, our present shoes, with their unnatural curves -where there should be none, and the absence of curves where they should -be (“rights and lefts”), would seem as “awful” and “horrid” as the old -crinoline does to the eyes of the present generation. As Professor -Flower remarks: “The fact that the excessively pointed, elongated toes -of the time of Richard II., for instance, were superseded by the broad, -round-toed, almost elephantine, but most comfortable shoes seen in the -portraits of Henry VIII. and his contemporaries, shows that there is -nothing in the former essential to the gratification of the æsthetic -instincts of mankind. Each form was, doubtless, equally admired in the -time of its prevalence.” - -The Germans claim that it was one of their countrymen, Petrus Camper, -who first called attention, about a hundred years ago, to another -objectionable peculiarity of the modern shoe—its high heels—ruinous -alike to comfort, grace, and health (a number of female diseases being -caused by them); yet they admit that Camper’s advice was hardly heeded -by the Germans, and that it therefore serves them right that quite -recently the modern hygienic shoe, with low, broad heels, has been -introduced in Germany as the “English form,” the English having proved -themselves less obtuse and conservative in this matter. - -The heel is, however, capable of still further improvement. It is not -elastic like the cushion of the heel, after which it should be modelled; -and Dr. Schaffer’s suggestion that an elastic mechanism should be -introduced in the heel is certainly worthy of trial. Everybody knows how -much more lightly, gracefully, as well as noiselessly, he can walk in -rubbers than in leather shoes; and this gain is owing to the superior -elasticity of the heel and the middle part of the shoe, covering the -arch, which should be especially elastic. It is pleasanter to walk in a -meadow than on a stone pavement; but if we wear soles that are both soft -and elastic we need never walk on a hard surface; for then, as Dr. -Schaffer remarks, “we have the meadow in our boots.” - -As the left foot always differs considerably from the right, it is not -sufficient to have one measure taken. The fact that shoemakers do take -but one measure shows what clumsy bunglers most of them are. As a rule, -it is easier to get a fit from a large stock of ready-made boots than at -a shoemaker’s. - -The stockings, as well as the shoes, often cramp and deform the foot; -and Professor Flower suggests that they should never be made with -pointed toes, or similar forms for both sides. Digitated stockings, -however, are a nuisance, for they hamper the free and elastic action of -the toes. Woollen stockings are the best both for summer and winter use. -No one who has ever experienced the comfort of wearing woollen socks -(and underclothes in general), will ever dream of reverting to silk, -cotton, or any other material. - -Soaking the feet in water in which a handful of salt has been dissolved, -several times a week, is an excellent way of keeping the skin in sound -condition. For perfect cleanliness it does not suffice to change the -socks frequently. As the author of the _Ugly Girl Papers_ remarks, “The -time will come when we will find it as shocking to our ideas to wear out -a pair of boots without putting in new lining as we think the habits of -George the First’s time, when maids of honour went without washing their -faces for a week, and people wore out their linen without the aid of a -laundress.” - - - DANCING AND GRACE - -Among the ancients dancing included graceful gestures and poses of all -parts of the body, as well as facial expression. In Oriental dancing of -the present day, likewise, graceful movements of the arms and upper part -of the body play a more important _rôle_ than the lower limbs. Modern -dancing, on the contrary, is chiefly an affair of the lower extremities. -It is pre-eminently an exercise of the toes; and herein lies its -hygienic and beautifying value, for, as we have seen, grace of gait -depends chiefly on the firm litheness and springiness of the toes, -especially the great toe. By their grace of gait one can almost always -distinguish persons who have enjoyed the privilege of dancing-lessons, -which have strengthened their toes and, by implication, many other -muscles, not forgetting those of the arm, which has to hold the partner. - -There are thousands of young women who have no opportunities for -prolonged and exhilarating exercise except in ballrooms. In the majority -of cases, unfortunately, Fashion, the handmaid of Ugliness and Disease, -frustrates the advantages which would result from dancing by prescribing -for ballrooms not only the smallest shoes, but the tightest corsets and -the lowest dresses, which render it impossible or imprudent to breathe -fresh air, without which exercise is of no hygienic value, and may even -be injurious. But what are such trifling sacrifices as Health, Beauty, -and Grace compared to the glorious consciousness of being fashionable! - - - DANCING AND COURTSHIP - -The ballroom is Cupid’s camping ground, not only because it facilitates -the acquisition of that grace by which he is so easily enamoured, but -because it affords such excellent opportunities for Courtship and Sexual -Selection. And this applies not only to the era of modern Romantic Love, -but, from its most primitive manifestations in the animal world, -dancing, like song, has been connected with love and courtship. - -Darwin devotes several pages to a description of the love-antics and -dances of birds. Some of them, as the black African weaver, perform -their love-antics on the wing, “gliding through the air with quivering -wings, which make a rapid whirring sound like a child’s rattle;” others -remain on the ground, like the English white-throat, which “flutters -with a fitful and fantastic motion;” or the English bustard, who “throws -himself into indescribably odd attitudes whilst courting the female;” -and a third class, the famous Bower-birds, perform their love-antics in -bowers specially constructed and adorned with leaves, shells, and -feathers. These are the earliest _ballrooms_ known in natural history; -and it is quite proper to call them so, for, as Darwin remarks, they -“are built on the ground for the sole purpose of courtship, for their -nests are formed in trees.” - -Passing on to primitive man, we again find him inferior to animals in -not knowing that the sole proper function of dancing is in the service -of Love, courtship, and grace. Savages have three classes of dance, two -being performed by the men alone, the third by men and women. First come -the war-dances, in which the grotesquely-painted warriors brandish their -spears and utter unearthly howls, to excite themselves for an -approaching contest. Second, the Hunter’s Dances, in which the game is -impersonated by some of the men and chased about, which leads to many -comic scenes; though there is a serious undercurrent of superstition, -for they believe that such dances—a sort of saltatorial prayer—bring on -good luck in the subsequent real chase. Third, the dance of Love, -practised _e.g._ by the Brazilian Indians, with whom “men and women -dance a rude courting dance, advancing in lines with a kind of primitive -polka step” (Tylor.) That there is as little refinement and idealism in -the savage’s dances as in his love-affairs in general is self-evident. - -The civilised nations of antiquity, as we have seen, had no prolonged -Courtship, and therefore no Romantic Love. Since young men and women -were not allowed to meet freely, dancing was of course not esteemed as a -high social accomplishment. It was therefore commonly relegated to a -special class of women (or slaves), such as the Bayaderes of India and -the Greek flute girls. Notwithstanding that even the Greek gods are -sometimes represented as dancing, yet this art came to be considered a -sign of effeminacy in men who indulged in it; and as for the Romans, -their view is indicated in Cicero’s anathema: “No man who is sober -dances, unless he is out of his mind, either when alone or in decent -society, for dancing is the companion of wanton conviviality, -dissoluteness, and luxury.” - -In ancient Egypt, too, the upper classes were not allowed to learn -dancing. And herein, as in so many things in which women are concerned, -the modern Oriental is the direct descendant of the ancients. “In the -eyes of the Chinese,” says M. Letourneau, “dancing is a ridiculous -amusement by which a man compromises his dignity.” - -Plato appears to have been the first who recognised the importance of -dancing as affording opportunities for Courtship and pre-matrimonial -acquaintance. But his advice remained unheeded by his countrymen. A view -regarding dancing similar to Plato’s was announced by an uncommonly -liberal theologian of the sixteenth century in the words, as quoted by -Scherr, that “Dancing had been originally arranged and permitted with -the respectable purpose of teaching manners to the young in the presence -of many people, and enabling young men and maidens to form honest -attachments. For in the dance it was easy to observe and note the habits -and peculiarities of the young.” - -Thus we see that, with the exception of the savage’s war-dances and -hunting pantomimes, the art of dancing has at all times and everywhere -been born of love; even the ancient religious dances having commonly -been but a veil concealing other purposes, as among the Greeks. But all -ceremonial dancing, like ceremonial kissing, has been from the beginning -doomed to be absorbed and annihilated by the all-engrossing modern -passion of Romantic Love. - -True, as a miser mistakes the means for the end and loves gold for its -own sake, so we sometimes see girls dance alone—possibly with a vaguely -coy intention of giving the men to understand that they can get along -without them. But their heart is not in it, and they never do it when -there are men enough to go round. As for the men, they are too open and -frank ever to veil their sentiments. They never dance except with a -woman. - -To-day our fashion and society papers are eternally complaining of the -fact that the young men—especially the _desirable_ young men—seem to -have lost all interest in dancing. But who is to blame for this? -Certainly not the men. It is _Fashion_ again, and the mothers who -sacrifice the matrimonial prospects of their daughters—as well as their -Health, Beauty, and Individuality—to this hideous fetish. It is the late -hours of the dance, prescribed by Fashion, that are responsible for the -apparent loss of masculine interest in this art. Formerly, when -aristocracy meant laziness and stupidity, the habit of turning night -into day was harmless or even useful, because it helped to rid the world -prematurely of a lot of fools. But to-day the leading men of the -community are also the busiest. Aristocracy implies activity, -intellectual and otherwise. Hence there are few men in the higher ranks -who have not their regular work to do during the day. To ask them after -a day’s hard labour to go to a dance beginning at midnight and ending at -four or five is to ask them to commit suicide. Sensible men do not -believe in slow suicide, hence they avoid dancing-parties as if such -parties were held in small-pox hospitals. - -Let society women throw their stupid conservatism to the winds. Let them -arrange balls to begin at eight or nine and end at midnight or one, and -“desirable” men will be only too eager to flock to assemblies which they -now shun. The result will be a sudden and startling diminution in the -number of old maids and bachelors. - -It is the _moral duty_ of mothers who have marriageable daughters to -encourage this reform. Maternal love does not merely imply solicitude -for the first twenty years of a daughter’s life, but careful provision -for the remainder of her life, covering twice that period, by enabling -her to meet and choose a husband after her own heart - - - EVOLUTION OF DANCE MUSIC - -Did space permit, it would be interesting to study in detail the dances -of various epochs and countries, coloured, like the Love which -originated them, by national peculiarities—the Polish mazourka and -polonaise, the Spanish fandango, the Viennese waltz, the Parisian -cancan, etc. Suffice it to note the great difference between the dances -of a few generations ago and those of to-day, as shown most vividly in -the evolution of dance-music. - -The earliest dance-tunes are vocal, and were sung by the (professional) -dancers themselves, in the days when the young were not yet allowed to -meet, converse, and flirt and dance. Subsequently, the transference of -dance-music to instruments played by others gave the dancers opportunity -to perform more complicated figures, and made it possible to converse. -But even as late as the eighteenth century dancing and dance-music were -characterised by a stately reserve, slowness, and pompous dignity which -showed at once that they had nothing to do with Romantic Love. It was -not the fiery, passionate youths who danced these solemnly stupid -minuets, gavottes, sarabandes, and allemandes, but the older folks, -whose perruques, and collars, and frills, and bloated clothes would not -have enabled them to execute rapid movements even if the warm blood of -youth had coursed in their veins. - -How all this artificiality and snail-like pomp has been brushed away by -triumphant Romantic Love, which has secured for modern lovers the -privilege of dancing together before they are married and cease to care -for it! True, we still have the monotonous soporific quadrille, as if to -remind us of bygone times; but the true modern dance is the round dance, -which differs from the stately mediæval dance as a jolly rural picnic -does from a formal morning call. - -The difference between the mediæval and the modern dance is thus -indicated by F. Bremer:— - -“Peculiar to modern dance-music is the round dance, especially the -waltz; and it is in consequence warmer than the older dance-music, more -passionate in expression, in rhythm and modulation more sharply -accented. As its creator we must regard Carl Maria von Weber, who, in -his _Invitation to Dance_, struck the keynote through which -subsequently, in the music of Chopin, Lanner, Strauss, Musard, etc., -utterance was given to the whole gamut of dreamy, languishing, -sentimental, ardent passion. The consequence was the displacement of the -stately, measured dances by impetuous, chivalrous forms; and in place of -the former naïve sentimentality and childish mirth, it is the _rapture -of Love_ that constitutes the spirit of modern dance-music.” - -Not to speak of more primitive dance-tunes, what a difference there is -between the slow and dreary monotony of eighteenth century dances and a -Viennese waltz of to-day! The vast superiority of a Strauss waltz lies -in this—that it is no longer a mere rhythmic noise calculated to guide -the steps, and skips, and bows, and evolutions of the dancers, but _the -symphonic accompaniment to the first act in the drama of Romantic Love_. -It recognises the fact that Courtship is the prime object of the dance. -Hence, though still bound by the inevitable dance rhythm, Strauss is -ever trying to break loose from it, to secure that freedom and variety -of rhythm which is needed to give full utterance to passion. Note the -slow, pathetic introductions; the signs in the score indicating an -accelerated or retarded tempo when the waltz is played at a concert, -where the uniformity of ballroom movement is not called for; note what -subtle use he makes of all the other means of expressing amorous -feeling—the wide melodic intervals, the piquant, stirring harmonies, the -exquisitely melancholy flashes of instrumental colouring, alternating -with cheerful moments, showing a subtle psychologic art of translating -the Mixed Moods of Love into the language of tones. - -In the waltzes, mazourkas, and polonaises of Chopin we see still more -strikingly that the true function of dance-music is amorous. Even as -Dante’s Love for Beatrice was too super-sensual, too ethereal for this -world, so Chopin’s dance-pieces are too subtle, too full of delicate -_nuances_ of _tempo_ and Love episodes, to be adapted to a ballroom with -ordinary mortals. Graceful fairies alone could dance a Chopin waltz; -mortals are too heavy, too clumsy. They can follow an amorous Chopin -waltz with the imagination alone, which is the abode of Romantic Love. -To a Strauss waltz a hundred couples may make love at once, hence he -writes for the orchestra; but Chopin wrote for the parlour piano, -because the feelings he utters are too deep to be realised by more than -two at a time—one who plays and one who listens, till their souls dance -together in an ecstatic embrace of Mutual Sympathy. - - - THE DANCE OF LOVE - -It is at Vienna, which has more feminine grace and beauty to the square -mile than any other city in the world, that the art of dancing is to be -seen in its greatest perfection. No wonder that it is the home of the -Waltz-King, Johann Strauss; and that a Viennese feuilletonist has shown -the deepest insight into the psychology of the dance in an article from -which the following excerpts are taken:— - -"The waltz has a creative, a rejuvenating power, which no other dance -possesses. The skipping polka is characterised by a certain stiffness -and angularity, a rhythm rather sober and old-fashioned. The galop is a -wild hurricane, which moves along rudely and threatens to blow over -everything that comes in its way; it is the most brutal of all dances, -an enemy of all tender and refined feelings, a bacchanalian rushing up -and down.... - -"The waltz, therefore, remains as the only true and real dance. Waltzing -is not walking, skipping, jumping, rushing, raving; it is a gentle -floating and flying; from the heaviest men it seems to take away some of -their materiality, to raise the most massive women from the ground into -the air. True, the Viennese alone know how to dance it, as they alone -know how to play it.... - -“The waltz insists on a personal monopoly, on being loved for its own -sake, and permits no vapid side-remarks regarding the fine weather, the -hot room, the toilets of the ladies; the couple glide along hardly -speaking a word; except that she may beg for a pause, or he, -indefatigable, insatiable, intoxicated by the music and motion, the -fragrance of flowers and ladies, invites her to a new flight around the -hall. And yet is this mute dance the most eloquent, the most expressive -and emotional, the most sensuous that could be imagined; and if the -dancer has anything to say to his partner, let him mutely confide it to -her in the sweet whirl of a waltz, for then the music is his advocate, -then every bar pleads for him, every note is a _billet-doux_, every -breath a declaration of love. Jealous husbands do not allow their wives -to waltz with another man. They are right, for the waltz is the Dance of -Love.” - - - BALLET-DANCING - -There is one more form of dancing which may be briefly alluded to, -because it illustrates the hypocrisy of the average mortal as well as -the rarity of true æsthetic taste. Solo ballet-dancing is admired not -only by the bald-headed old men in the parquet, but there are critics -who seriously discuss such dancing as if it were a fine art; generally -lamenting the good old times of the great and graceful ballet-dancers. -The truth is that ballet-dancing _never can be graceful_, as now -practised. To secure graceful movement it is absolutely necessary to -make use of the elasticity of the toes—to touch the ground at the place -where the toes articulate with the middle foot, and to give the last -push with the yielding great toe. Ballet-dancers, however, walk on the -tips of their stiffened toes, the result of which is, as the anatomist, -Professor Kollmann, remarks, that “their gait is deprived of all -elasticity and becomes stiff, as in going on stilts.” - -It speaks well for the growing sensibility of mankind that this form of -dancing is gradually losing favour. Like the vocal tight-rope dancing of -the operatic _prime donne_ with whom ballet-dancers are associated, -their art is a mere circus-trick, gaped at as a difficult _tour de -force_, but appealing in no sense to æsthetic sentiments. - -These strictures, of course, apply merely to solo-dancing on tiptoe. The -spectacular ballet, which delights the eye with kaleidoscopic colours -and groupings, is quite another thing, and may be made highly artistic. - - - - - THE LOWER LIMBS - - - MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT - -The assumption by man of an erect attitude has modified and improved the -appearance of his leg and thigh quite as marvellously as his feet. “In -walking,” says Professor Kollmann, “the weight of the body is -alternately transferred from one foot to the other. Each one is obliged -in locomotion to take its turn in supporting the whole body, which -explains the great size of the muscles which make up man’s calf. The -ape’s calf is smaller for the reason that these animals commonly go on -all fours.” Professor Carl Vogt gives these details: “No ape has such a -cylindrical, _gradually diminishing_ thigh; and we are justified in -saying that man alone possesses thighs. The muscles of the leg are in -man so accumulated as to form a calf, while in the ape they are more -equally distributed; still, transitions are not wanting, since one of -the greatest characteristics of the negro consists in his calfless leg.” -And again: “Man possesses, as contrasted with the ape, a distinctive -character in the strength, _rotundity_, and length of the lower limb; -especially in the thighs, which in most animals are shortened in -proportion to the leg.” - -The words here italicised call attention to two of the qualities of -Beauty—gradation and the curve of rotundity—which the lower limbs in -their evolution are thus seen to be gradually approximating. Other -improvements are seen in the greater smoothness, the more graceful and -expressive gait resulting from the rounded but straight knee, etc. - -The implication that savages are in the muscular development of their -limbs intermediate between apes and civilised men calls for further -testimony and explanation. Waitz states that “in regard to muscular -power Indians are commonly inferior to Europeans”; and Mr. Herbert -Spencer has collected much evidence of a similar nature. The Ostyaks -have “thin and slender legs”; the Kamtchadales “short and slender legs”; -those of the Chinooks are “small and crooked”; and the African Akka have -“short and bandy legs.” The legs of Australians are “inferior in mass of -muscle”; the gigantic Patagonians have limbs “neither so muscular nor so -large-boned as their height and apparent bulk would induce one to -suppose.” Spencer likewise calls attention to the fact that -relatively-inferior legs are “a trait which, remotely simian, is also -repeated by the child of the civilised man”—which thus individually -passes through the several stages of development that have successively -characterised its ancestors. - -Numerous exceptions are of course to be found to the rule that the -muscular rotundity and plumpness of the limbs increases with -civilisation. The lank shins which may be seen by the hundred among the -bathers at our sea-coast resorts contrast disadvantageously with many -photographs of savages; and tourists in Africa and among South American -Indians and elsewhere have often enough noted the occurrence of -individuals and tribes who would have furnished admirable models for -sculptors. But this only proves, on the one hand, that “civilised” -persons who are uncivilised in their neglect of the laws of Health, -inevitably lose certain traits of Beauty which exercise alone can give; -while, on the other hand, those “savages” who lead an active and healthy -life are _in so far_ civilised, and therefore enjoy the superior -attractions bestowed by civilisation. Moreover, as Mr. Spencer suggests, -“In combat, the power exercised by arm and trunk is limited by the power -of the legs to withstand the strain thrown on them. Hence, apart from -advantages in locomotion, the stronger-legged nations have tended to -become, other things equal, dominant races.” - -“Rengger,” says Darwin, “attributes the thin legs and thick arms of the -Payaguas Indians to successive generations having passed nearly their -whole lives in canoes, with their lower extremities motionless. Other -writers have come to a similar conclusion in analogous cases.” - -Although savages have to hunt for a living and occasionally go to war, -they are essentially a lazy crew, taking no more exercise than -necessary; which accounts for the fact that, with the exceptions noted, -their muscular development is inferior to that of higher races. - - - BEAUTIFYING EXERCISE - -One of the most discouraging aspects of modern life is the growing -tendency toward concentration of the population in large cities. Not -only is the air less salubrious in cities than in the country, but the -numerous cheap facilities for riding discourage the habit of walking. -London is one of the healthiest cities, and the English the most -vigorous race, in the world; yet it is said that it is difficult to -trace a London family down through five generations. Few Paris families -can, it is said, be traced even through three generations. Without -constant rural accessions cities would tend to become depopulated. - -The enormous importance of exercise for Health and Beauty, which are -impossible without it, is vividly brought out in this statement of -Kollmann’s: “Muscles which are thoroughly exercised do not only retain -their strength, but increase in circumference and power, in man as in -animals. The flesh is then firm, and coloured intensely red. In a -paralysed arm the muscles are degenerated, and have lost a portion of -one of their most important constituents—albumen. Repeated contractions -strengthen a muscle, because motion accelerates the circulation of the -blood and the nutrition of the tissues. What a great influence this has -on the whole body may be inferred from the fact that the organs of -locomotion—the skeleton and muscles—make up more than 82 per cent of the -substance of the body. With this enormous proportion of bone and muscle, -it is obvious that exercise is essential to bodily health.” - -Exercise in a gymnasium is useful but monotonous; and too often the -benefits are neutralised by the insufficient provision for fresh air, -without which exercise is worse than useless. Hence the superiority of -open-air games—base-ball, tennis, rowing, riding, swimming, etc., to the -addiction to which the English owe so much of their superior physique. -Tourists in Canada invariably notice the wonderful figures of the women, -which they owe largely to their fondness for skating. “Beyond question,” -says the _Lancet_, “skating is one of the finest sports, especially for -ladies. It is graceful, healthy, stimulating to the muscles, and it -develops in a very high degree the important faculty of balancing the -body and preserving perfect control over the whole of the muscular -system, while bringing certain muscles into action at will. Moreover, -there is this about it which is of especial value: it trains by exercise -the power of intentionally inducing and maintaining a continuous -contraction of the muscles of the lower extremity. The joints, hip, -knee, and ankle are firmly fixed or rather kept steadily under control, -while the limbs are so set by their muscular apparatus that they form, -as it were, part of the skate that glides over the smooth surface. To -skate well and gracefully is a very high accomplishment indeed, and -perhaps one of the very best exercises in which young women and girls -can engage with a view to healthful development.” - -For the acquisition of a graceful gait women need such exercise more -even than men; and while engaged in it they should pay especial -attention to exercising the left side of the body. On this point Sir -Charles Bell has made the following suggestive remarks:— - -“We see that opera-dancers execute their more difficult feats on the -right foot, but their preparatory exercises better evince the natural -weakness of the left limb; in order to avoid awkwardness in the public -exhibitions, they are obliged to give double practice to the left leg; -and if they neglect to do so an ungraceful preference to the right side -will be remarked. In walking behind a person we seldom see an equalised -motion of the body; the tread is not so firm upon the left foot, the toe -is not so much turned out, and a greater push is made with the right. -From the peculiar form of woman, and from the elasticity of her step, -resulting from the motion of the ankle rather than of the haunches, the -defect of the left foot, when it exists, is more apparent in her gait.” - -Those who wish to acquire a graceful gait will find several useful hints -in this extract from Professor Kollmann’s _Plastische Anatomie_, p. -506:— - -“Human gait, it is well known, is subject to individual variations. -Differences are to be noted not only in rapidity of motion, but as -regards the position of the trunk and the movements of the limbs, within -certain limits. For instance, the gait of very fat persons is somewhat -vacillating; other persons acquire a certain dignity of gait by bending -and stretching their limbs as little as possible while taking long -steps; and others still bend their knees very much, which gives a -slovenly character to their gait. And as regards the attitude of the -trunk, a different effect is given according as it is inclined backwards -or forwards, or executes superfluous movements in the same direction or -to the sides. All these peculiarities make an impression on our eyes, -while our ears are impressed at the same time by the differences in -rapidity of movement, so that we learn to recognise our friends by the -sound of their walk as we do by the quality of their voice.” - -Bell states that “upwards of fifty muscles of the arm and hand may be -demonstrated, which must all consent to the simplest action.” Walking is -a no less complicated affair, to which the attention of men of science -has been only quite recently directed. The new process of instantaneous -photography has been found very useful, but much remains to be done -before the mystery of a graceful gait can be considered solved. If some -skilled photographer would go to Spain and take a number of -instantaneous pictures of Andalusian girls, the most graceful beings in -the world, in every variety of attitude and motion, he might render most -valuable service to the cause of personal æsthetics. - -The time will come, no doubt, when dancing masters and mistresses will -consider the teaching of the waltz and the lancers only the crudest and -easiest part of their work, and when they will have advanced classes who -will be instructed in the refinements of movement as carefully and as -intelligently as professors of music teach their pupils the proper use -of the parts and muscles of the hand, to attain a delicate and varied -touch. The majority of women might make much more progress in the art of -gracefulness than they ever will in music; and is not the poetry of -motion as noble and desirable an object of study as any other fine art? - - - FASHIONABLE UGLINESS - -It is the essence of fashion to exaggerate everything to the point of -ugliness. Instead of trying to remedy the disadvantages to their gait -resulting from anatomical peculiarities (just referred to in a quotation -from Bell), women frequently take pains to deliberately exaggerate them. -As Alexander Walker remarks: “The largeness of the pelvis and the -approximation of the knees influence the gait of woman, and render it -vacillating and unsteady. Conscious of this, women, in countries where -the nutritive system in general and the pelvis in particular are large, -affect a greater degree of this vacillating unsteadiness. An example of -this is seen in the lateral and rotatory motion which is given to the -pelvis in walking by certain classes of the women in London.” - -The Egyptians and Arabians consider this ludicrous rotatory motion a -great fascination, and have a special name for it—Ghung. - -But Fashion, the handmaid of ugliness, is not content with aping the bad -taste of Arabians and Egyptians. It goes several steps lower than that, -down to the Hottentots. The latest hideous craze of Fashion, against -which not one woman in a hundred had taste or courage enough to -revolt—the bustle or “dress-improver” (!)—was simply the milliner’s -substitute for an anatomical peculiarity natural to some African -savages. - -“It is well known,” says Darwin, “that with many Hottentot women the -posterior part of the body projects in a wonderful manner; they are -steatopygous; and Sir Andrew Smith is certain that this peculiarity is -greatly admired by the men. He once saw a woman who was considered a -beauty, and she was so immensely developed behind, that when seated on -level ground she could not rise, and had to push herself along until she -came to a slope. Some of the women in various negro tribes have the same -peculiarity; and, according to Burton, the Somal men ‘are said to choose -their wives by ranging them in a line, and by picking her out who -projects farthest _a tergo_. Nothing can be more hateful to a negro than -the opposite form.’” - -Evidently “civilised” and savage women do not differ as regards Fashion, -the handmaid of ugliness. But the men do. While the male Hottentots -admire the natural steatopyga of their women, civilised men, without -exception, detest the artificial imitation of it, which makes a woman -look and walk like a deformed dromedary. - - - THE CRINOLINE CRAZE - -The bustle is not only objectionable in itself as a hideous deformity -and a revival of Hottentot taste, but still more as a probable -forerunner of that most unutterably vulgar article of dress ever -invented by Fashion—the crinoline. For we read that when, in 1856, the -crinoline came in again, it was preceded by the “inelegant bustle in the -upper part of the skirt”; and it is a notorious fact that cunning -milliners are making strenuous efforts every year to reintroduce the -crinoline. - -In their abhorrence of the crinoline men do not stand alone. There are -several refined women to-day who would absolutely refuse to submit to -the tyranny of Fashion if it should again prescribe the crinoline. One -of these is evidently Mrs. Haweis, who in _The Art of Beauty_ remarks -that “The crinoline superseded all our _attention to posture_; whilst -our long trains, which can hardly look inelegant [?] even on clumsy -persons, make small ankles or thick ones a matter of little moment. We -have become inexpressibly slovenly. We no longer study how to walk, -perhaps the most difficult of all actions to do gracefully. Our -fashionable women stride and loll in open defiance of elegance,” etc. -And again: “This gown in outline simply looks _like a very ill-shaped -wine-glass upside down_. The wide crinoline entirely _conceals every -natural grace of attitude_.” - -Another lady, writing in the _Atlantic Monthly_ (1859), remarks -concerning the crinoline: “A woman in this rig hangs in her skirts _like -a clapper in a bell_; and I never meet one without being tempted to take -her by the neck and ring her.” - -About 1710, says a writer in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, “as if -resolved that their figures should rival their heads in extravagance, -they introduced the hooped petticoat, at first worn in such a manner as -to give to the person of the wearer below her very tightly-laced waist a -contour _resembling the letter V inverted_—ʌ. The hooped dresses, thus -introduced, about 1740 attained to an enormous expansion; and being worn -at their full circumference immediately below the waist, they in many -ways emulated the most outrageous of the fardingales of the Elizabethan -period.” - -“About 1744 hoops are mentioned as so extravagant,” says Chambers’s -_Encyclopædia_, “that _a woman occupied the space of six men_.” George -IV. had the good taste to abolish them by royal command, but they were -revived in 1856. The newspapers of two decades ago daily contained -accounts of accidents due to the idiotic crinoline. “The _Spectator_ -dealt out much cutting, though playful, raillery at the hoops of his -day, but apparently with little effect; and equally unavailing are the -satires of _Punch_ and other caricaturists of the present time against -the hideous fashion of crinoline.... Owing to its prevalence, -church-pews that formerly held seven are now let for six, and yet feel -rather crowded. The hoops are sometimes made with a _circumference of -four or even five yards_.” - -It is universally admitted that the human form, in its perfection, is -Nature’s _chef d’œuvre_—the most finished specimen of her -workmanship. Yet the accounts of savage taste given by travellers and -anthropologists show that the savage is never satisfied with the human -outlines as God made them, but constantly mars and mutilates them by -altering the shape of the head, piercing the nose, filing or colouring -the teeth, enlarging the lips to enormous dimensions, favouring an -adipose bustle, etc. This is precisely what modern Fashion, the handmaid -of ugliness, does. We have just seen how fashionable women, unable to -comprehend the beauty of the human form, have for several generations -endeavoured to give it the shape of “a very ill-shaped wine-glass, -upside down,” “a clapper in a bell,” or “the letter V inverted.” And -concerning Queen Elizabeth the _Atlantic_ writer already quoted says -very pithily: “What with stomachers and pointed waist and fardingale, -and sticking in here and sticking out there, and ruffs and cuffs, and -ouches and jewels and puckers, she looks _like a hideous flying insect_ -with expanded wings, seen through a microscope—not at all like a woman.” - -Fortunately, for the moment, the crinoline, like the fardingale, is not -“in fashion.” But, as already stated, there is considerable danger of a -new invasion every year; and, should Fashion proclaim its edict, no -doubt the vast majority of women would follow, as they did a decade or -two ago. In the interest of good taste, as of common sense, it is -therefore necessary to speak with brutal frankness on this subject. -There is good evidence to show that the crinoline originated in the -desire of an aristocratic dame of low moral principles to conceal the -evidences of a crime. Hence the original French name for the -crinoline—_Cache-Bâtard_. Will respectable and refined women consent -once more to have the fashion set for them by a courtesan? - - - - - THE WAIST - - - THE BEAUTY CURVE - -In a well-shaped waist, as in every other part of the body, the curved -line of Beauty, with its delicate gradations, exercises a great charm. -Examination of a Greek statue of the best period, male or female, or of -the goddess of beauty in the Pagoda at Bangalur, India, shows a slight -inward curve at the waist, whereas in early Greek and Egyptian art this -curve is absent. The waist, therefore, like the feet and limbs, appears -to have been gradually moulded into accordance with the line of Beauty—a -notion which is also supported by the following remarks in Tylor’s -_Anthropology_: “If fairly chosen photographs of Kaffirs be compared -with a classic model such as the Apollo, it will be noticed that the -trunk of the African has a somewhat wall-sided straightness, wanting in -the inward slope which gives fineness to the waist, and in the expansion -below, which gives breadth across the hips, these being two of the most -noticeable points in the classic model which our painters recognise as -an ideal of manly beauty.” - -In woman, owing to the greater dimensions of her pelvis, this curvature -is more pronounced than in man; yet even in woman it must be slight if -the laws of Health and Beauty are to suffer no violation. “_Moderation_” -is the one word which Mr. Buskin says he would have inscribed in golden -letters over the door of every school of art. For “the least appearance -of violence or extravagance, of the want of moderation and restraint, -is,” as he remarks, “destructive of all beauty whatsoever in -everything—colour, form, motion, language, or thought—giving rise to -that which in colour we call glaring, in form inelegant, in motion -ungraceful, in language coarse, in thought undisciplined, in all -unchastened; which qualities are in everything most painful, because the -signs of disobedient and irregular operation. And herein we at last find -the reason of that which has been so often noted respecting the -subtility and almost invisibility of natural curves and colours, and why -it is that we look on those lines as least beautiful which fall into -wide and far license of curvature, and as most beautiful which approach -nearest (so that the curvilinear character be distinctly asserted) to -the government of the right line, as in the pure and severe curves of -the draperies of the religious painters,” etc. - - - THE WASP-WAIST MANIA - -But Fashion, the handmaid of ugliness, too vulgar to appreciate the -exquisite beauty of slight and subtle curvature, makes woman’s waist the -most maltreated and deformed part of her body. There is not one woman in -a hundred who does not deliberately destroy twenty per cent of her -Personal Beauty by the way in which she reduces the natural dimensions -of her waist. There is, indeed, ground to believe that the main reason -why the bustle, and even the crinoline, are not looked on with -abhorrence by all women is because they aid the corset in making the -waist look smaller by contrast. The Wasp-waist Mania is therefore the -disease which most imperatively calls for cure. But the task seems -almost hopeless; for, as a female writer remarks, it is almost as -difficult to cure a woman of the corset habit as a man of intemperance -in drink. - -“The injurious custom of tight lacing,” says Planché in his _Cyclopædia -of Costumes_, “‘a custom fertile in disease and death,’ appears to have -been introduced by the Normans as early as the twelfth century; and the -romances of the Middle Ages teem with allusions to and laudations of the -wasplike waists of the dames and demoiselles of the period.... Chaucer, -describing the carpenter’s wife, says her body was ‘gentyll and small as -a weasel’; and the depraved taste extended to Scotland. Dunbar, in _The -Thistle and the Rose_, describing some beautiful women, observes— - - “‘Their middles were as small as wands.’ - -And to make their middles as small as possible has been ever since an -unfortunate mania with the generality of the fair sex, to the detriment -of their health and the distortion of their forms.” - -Ever since 1602, when Felix Plater raised his voice against the corset, -physicians have written against tight lacing. But not only has it been -found impossible to cure this mania, even its causes have remained a -mystery to the present day. Certainly no man can understand the problem. -Is it simply the average woman’s lack of taste that urges her thus to -mutilate her Personal Beauty? Is it the admiration of a few vulgar -“mashers” and barber’s pets—since educated men detest wasp-waists? Or is -it simply the proverbial feminine craze for emulating one another and -arousing envy by excelling in some extravagance of dress, no matter at -what cost? This last suggestion is probably the true solution of the -problem. The only satisfaction a woman can get from having a wasp-waist -is the envy of other silly women. What a glorious recompense for her -æsthetic suicide, her invalidism, and her humiliating confession that -she considers the natural shape of God’s masterwork—the female -body—inferior in beauty to the contours of the lowly wasp! - -With this ignoble pleasure derived from the envy of silly women and the -admiration of vulgar men, compare a few of the disadvantages resulting -from tight lacing. They are of two kinds—hygienic and æsthetic. - -_Hygienic Disadvantages._—Surely no woman can look without a shudder at -a fashionable Parisian figure placed side by side with the Venus of Milo -in Professor Flower’s _Fashion in Deformity_, in Mrs. Haweis’s _Art of -Beauty_, or in Behnke and Brown’s _Voice, Song, and Speech_; or look -without horror at the skeletons showing the excessive compression of the -lower ribs brought about by fashionable lacing, and the injurious -displacement, in consequence, of some of the most important vital -organs. Nor can any young man who does not desire to marry a foredoomed -invalid, and raise sickly children, fail to be cured for ever of his -love for any wasp-waisted girl if he will take the trouble to read the -account of the terrible female maladies resulting from lacing, given in -Dr. Gaillard Thomas’s famous treatise on the _Diseases of Women_, in the -chapter on “Improprieties in Dress.” To cite only one sentence: Women, -he says, subject their waist to a “constriction which, in autopsy, will -sometimes be found to have _left the impress of the ribs upon the liver, -producing depressions corresponding to them_.” - -Says Dr. J. J. Pope: “The German physiologist, Sömmering, has enumerated -no fewer than _ninety-two diseases_ resulting from tight lacing.... ‘But -I do not lace tightly,’ every lady is ready to answer. No woman ever -did, if we accept her own statement. Yet stay. Why does your corset -unclasp with a snap? _And why do you involuntarily take a deep breath -directly it is loosened?_” Young ladies who imagine they do not wear too -tight stays, inasmuch as they can still insert their hand, will find the -fallacy and danger of this reasoning exposed in Mr. B. Roth’s _Dress: -its Sanitary Aspect_. - -The last line which I have italicised is of extreme significance. -Perhaps the greatest of all evils resulting from tight lacing is that it -discourages or _prevents deep breathing_, which is so absolutely -essential to the maintenance of health and beauty. The “heaving bosom” -of a maiden may be a fine poetic expression, but it indicates that the -maiden wears stays and breathes at the wrong (upper) end of her lungs. -“The fact of a patient breathing in this manner is noted by a physician -as a grave symptom, because it indicates mischief of a vital nature in -lungs, heart, or other important organ.” Healthy breathing should be -chiefly costal or abdominal; but this is made impossible by the corset, -which compresses the lower ribs, till, instead of being widely apart -below, they meet in the middle, and thus prevent the lungs from -expanding and receiving the normal share of oxygen, the only true elixir -of life, youth, and beauty. - -This wrong breathing, due to tight lacing, also causes “congestion of -the vessels of the neck and throat ... gasping, jerking, and fatigue in -inspiration, and unevenness, trembling, and undue vibration in the -production and emission of vocal tone.” - -Further, as the _Lancet_ points out, “tight stays are a common cause of -so-called ‘weak’ spine, due to weakness of muscles of the back.” Lacing -prevents the abdominal muscles from exercising their natural -functions—alternate relaxation and contraction: “A tight-laced pair of -stays acts precisely as a splint to the trunk, and prevents or greatly -impedes the action of the chief back muscles, which therefore become -weakened. The unfortunate wearer feels her spine weaken, thinks she -wants more support, so laces herself still tighter; she no doubt does -get some support in this way, but at what a terrible cost!” - -In regard to tight corsets, as another physician has aptly remarked, -women are like the victims of the opium habit, who also daily feel the -need of a larger dose of their stimulant, every increment of which adds -a year to their age, and brings them a few steps nearer disease and ugly -decrepitude. - -_Æsthetic Disadvantages._—Among the æsthetic disadvantages resulting -from the Wasp-waist Mania, the following may be mentioned, besides the -loss of a clear, mellow, musical voice already referred to:— - -(1) A stiff, inflexible waist, with a coarsely exaggerated contour, in -place of the slight and subtle curvature so becoming to woman. In other -words, a violation of the first law of personal æsthetics—imposing the -shape of a vulgar garment on the human form, instead of making the dress -follow the outlines of the body. - -(2) A sickly, sallow complexion, pale lips, a red nose, lack of -buoyancy, general feebleness, lassitude, apathy, and stupidity, -resulting from the fact that the compression of the waist induces an -oxygen-famine. The eyes lose their sparkle and love-inspiring magic, the -features are perceptibly distorted, the brow is prematurely wrinkled, -and the expression and temper are soured by the constant discomfort that -has to be silently endured. - -(3) Ugly shoulders. A woman’s shoulders should be sloping and well -rounded, like every other part of her body. Regarding the common -feminine deformity of square shoulders, Drs. Brinton and Napheys remark, -in their work on _Personal Beauty_, that “in four cases out of five it -has been brought about by too close-fitting corsets, which press the -shoulder-blades behind, and collar-bones in front, too far upwards, and -thus ruin the appearance of the shoulders.” - -(4) An ugly bust. Tight lacing “flattens and displaces the breasts.” - -(5) Clumsiness. The corset is ruinous to grace. “Almost daily,” says Dr. -Alice B. Stockham (_Tokology_), “women come to my office [in Chicago] -burdened with bands and heavy clothing, every vital organ restricted by -dress. It is not unusual to count from _sixteen to eighteen thicknesses -of cloth_ worn tightly about the pliable structure of the waist.” And -Dr. Lennox Browne advances the following crushing _argumentum ad -feminam_:— - -“It is impossible for the stiffly-corseted girl to be other than -inelegant and ungraceful in her movements. Her imprisoned waist, with -its flabby muscles, has no chance of performing beautiful undulatory -movements. In the ballroom the ungraceful motions of our stiff-figured -ladies are bad enough; there is no possibility for poetry of motion; but -nowhere is this more ludicrously and, to the thoughtful, painfully -manifest than in the tennis court. Let any one watch the movements of -ladies as compared with those of male players, and the absolute ugliness -of the female figure, with its stiff, unyielding, deformed, round waist, -will at once be seen. Ladies can only bend the body from the hip-joint. -All that wonderfully contrived set of hinges, with their connected -muscles, in the elastic column of the spine, is unable to act from the -shoulders downwards; and their figures remind one of the old-fashioned -modern Dutch doll.” - - - CORPULENCE AND LEANNESS - -Many women consider the corset necessary as a figure-improver, -especially if they suffer from excessive fatness. They will be surprised -to hear that the corset is one of the principal causes of their -corpulence. Says Professor M. Williams: “There is one horror which no -lady can bear to contemplate, viz. fat. What is fat? It is an -accumulation of unburnt body-fuse. How can we get rid of it when -accumulated in excess? Simply by burning it away—this burning being done -by means of the oxygen inhaled by the lungs. If, as Mr. Lennox Browne -has shown, a lady with normal lung capacity of 125 cubic inches, reduces -this to 78 inches by means of her stays, and attains 118 inches all at -once on leaving them off, it is certain that her prospects of becoming -fat and flabby as she advances towards middle age are greatly increased -by tight lacing, and the consequent suppression of natural respiration.” - -Thus corpulence may be put down as a sixth—or rather seventh—æsthetic -disadvantage resulting from the use of corsets. - -The reason why women, although inferior to men in muscular development, -have softer and rounder forms, is because there is a greater natural -tendency in women than in men towards the accumulation of fatty tissue -under the skin. The least excess of this adipose tissue is, however, as -fatal as emaciation to that admiration of Personal Beauty which -constitutes the essence of Love. Leanness repels the æsthetico-amorous -sense because it obliterates the round contours of beauty, exposes the -sinews and bones, and thus suggests old age and disease. Corpulence -repels it because it destroys all delicacy of form, all grace of -movement, and in its exaggerated forms may indeed be looked upon as a -real disease imperatively calling for medical treatment; as Dr. Oscar -Maas shows most clearly and concisely in his pamphlet on the -“Schwenninger Cure,” which should be read by all who suffer from -obesity. - -Although the very “father of medicine,” Hippokrates, studied the subject -of corpulence, and formulated rules for curing it, doctors still -disagree regarding some of the details of its treatment. Some forbid all -fatty food, others prescribe it in small quantities, and Dr. Ebstein -specially recommends fat viands and sauces as preventives; but the -preponderance of the best medical opinion is against him. Dr. Say -recommends the drinking of very large quantities of tea, while Professor -Oertel urges the diminution of fluids in the body, first by drinking -little, and secondly by inducing copious perspiration, either -artificially (by hot air and steam baths, etc.), or, what is much -better, by brisk daily exercise. Dr. Schwenninger, who secured so much -fame by reducing Bismarck’s weight about 40 pounds, forbids the taking -of liquids during or within an hour or two of meal-time; in other words, -he counsels his patients not to eat and drink at the same time. - -On the two most important points all authorities are practically agreed. -They are that the patient must avoid food which contains large -quantities of starch and sugar (such as cake, pastry, potatoes, bread, -pudding, honey, syrup, etc.); and secondly, that he must take as much -exercise as possible in the open air, because during walking the bodily -fat is consumed as fuel, to keep the machine going. - -The notorious Mr. Banting, who reduced his weight in a year from 202 to -150 pounds, “lived on beef, mutton, fish, bacon, dry toast and biscuit, -poultry, game, tea, coffee, claret, and sherry in small quantities, and -a night-cap of gin, whisky, brandy, or wine. He _abstained_ from the -following articles: pork, veal, salmon, eels, herrings, sugar, milk, and -all sorts of vegetables grown underground, and nearly all fatty and -farinaceous substances. He daily drank 43 ounces of liquids. On this -diet he kept himself for seven years at 150 pounds. He found, what other -experience confirms, that _sugar was the most powerful of all -fatteners_” (Dr. G. M. Beard, in _Eating and Drinking_, a most -entertaining and useful little volume). - -Lean persons wishing to increase their weight need only reverse the -directions here given as regards the choice or avoidance of certain -articles of food. Not so, however, with regard to exercise. If you wish -to reduce your corpulence, take exercise; if you wish to increase your -weight, again take exercise. The apparent paradox lurking in this rule -is easily explained. If you are too fat and walk a great deal, you burn -up the superfluous _fat_ and lose weight. If you are too lean and walk a -great deal you increase the bulk of your _muscles_, and thus gain -weight. Moreover, you greatly stimulate your appetite, and become able -to eat larger quantities of sweet and starchy food—more than enough to -counteract the wear and tear caused by the exercise. - -Muscle is the plastic material of beauty. Fat should only be present in -sufficient quantity to prevent the irregular outlines of the muscles -from being too conspicuously indicated, at the expense of rounded -smoothness. What the ancient Greeks thought on this subject is vividly -shown in the following remarks by Dr. Maas: “According to the unanimous -testimony of Thukydides, Plato, Xenophon, the gymnastic exercises to -which the Greeks were so passionately addicted, and which constituted, -as is well known, a very essential part of the public education of the -young, had for their avowed object the prevention of undue corpulence, -since an excessive paunch did not only offend the highly-developed -æsthetic sense of this talented nation, but was justly regarded as an -impediment to bodily activity. In order, therefore, to make the youths -not only beautiful, but also vigorous and able to resist hardship, and -thus more capable of serving their country, they were, from their -childhood, and uninterruptedly, exercised daily in running, wrestling, -throwing the discus, etc.; so that the prevention of corpulence was -practically raised to a formal state-maxim, and as such enforced -occasionally with unyielding persistence.” - -The ruinous consequences of an exaggerated abdomen to the harmonious -proportions of the body, and to grace of attitude and gait, are so -universally known that it would be superfluous to apply any of our -negative tests of Beauty—such as the facts that apes and savages are -commonly characterised by protuberant bellies, and that intemperance and -gluttony have the same disastrous effect on Personal Beauty. In -civilised communities, indolence and beer-drinking are the chief causes -predisposing to corpulence. In Bavaria, where enormous quantities of -beer are consumed, almost all the men are deformed by obesity; but in -other countries, as a rule, women suffer more from this anomaly than -men, because they lead a less active life. - -It may be stated as a general rule that girls under eighteen are too -slight and women over thirty too heavy—"fat and forty." This calamity is -commonly looked on as one of the inevitable dispensations of Providence, -whereas it is simply a result of indolence and ignorance. With a little -care in dieting, and two or three hours a day devoted to walking, -rowing, tennis, swimming, dancing, etc., any young lady can add ten to -fifteen pounds to her weight in one summer, or reduce it by that amount, -as may be desired. But as the consumption of enormous quantities of -fresh air by the unimprisoned lungs is the absolute condition of success -in this beautifying process, it is useless to attempt it without laying -aside the corset. - -The plea that corsets are needed to hold up the heavy clothing is of no -moment. Women, like men, should wear their clothing suspended from the -shoulder, which is a great deal more conducive to health, comfort, and -gracefulness than the clumsy fashion of attaching everything to the -waist. - -Still less weight can be attached to the monstrous argument that women -need stays for support. What an insulting proposition to assert that -civilised woman is so imperfectly constructed that she alone of all -created beings needs artificial surgical support to keep her body in -position! If there are any women so very corpulent or so very lean that -they need a corset as a figure-improver or a support, then let them have -it for heaven’s sake, and look upon themselves as subjects ripe for -medical treatment. What is objected to here is that strong, healthy, -well-shaped girls should deform themselves deliberately by wearing -tight, unshapely corsets, rankly offensive to the æsthetic sense. - - - THE FASHION FETISH ANALYSED - -Once more the question must be asked, “Why do women wear such hideous -things as crinolines, bustles, and corsets, so universally abhorred by -men?” Is it because they are inferior to men in æsthetic taste? Is -Schopenhauer right when he says that “women are and remain, on the -whole, the most absolute and incurable Philistines?” They are deficient -in objectivity, he adds: “hence they have no real intelligence or -appreciation for music or poetry, or the plastic arts; and if they make -any pretences of this sort, it is only apish affectation to gratify -their vanity. Hence it would be more correct to call them the -_unæsthetic_ than the beautiful sex.” - -The pessimistic woman-hater no doubt exaggerates. Yet—without alluding -to the paucity of women who have distinguished themselves in the fine -arts—is it credible that the average woman would so readily submit to a -repulsive fashion like the bustle, or a hat “adorned” with the corpse of -a murdered bird, if she had even a trace of æsthetic feeling? If women -had the refined æsthetic taste with which they are commonly credited, is -it conceivable that they would voluntarily adopt the African bustle, -because fashionable, in preference to a more becoming style? Have you -ever heard that a person of acknowledged musical taste, for example, -gave up his violin or piano to learn the African banjo, because that -happened to be the fashionable instrument? - -Yet there are, no doubt, many women whose eyes even custom cannot blind -to the hideousness of most Parisian fashions. But they have not the -courage to show their superior taste in their dresses, being overawed -and paralysed in presence of a monstrous idol, the Fashion Fetish. - -Never has a stone image, consecrated by cunning priests, exercised a -more magic influence on a superstitious heathen’s mind than the -invisible Fashion Fetish on the modern feminine intellect. It is both -amusing and pathetic to hear a woman exclaim: “Our women are most blind -and thoughtless followers of fashions still imposed upon them, _Heaven -knows wherefore and by whom_” (Mrs. Haweis). - -So great is the awe in which this Fetish is held that no one has yet -dared to lay violent hands on it. Yet if we now knock it on the head, we -shall find it hollow inside; and the fragments, subjected to chemical -analysis, show that they consist of the following five elements:— - -(1) _Vulgar Display of Wealth._—A certain number of rich people, being -unable to distinguish themselves from poorer mortals in any other way, -make a parade of their money by constantly introducing changes in the -fashion of their apparel which those who have less income are unable to -adopt at once. This, and not the love of novelty, is the real cause of -the minute variations in styles constantly introduced. Of course it is -generally understood that to boast of your wealth is as vulgar as to -boast of your wit or wisdom; but this makes no difference, for Fashion -in its very essence is vulgar. - -(2) _Milliners’ Cunning._—Milliners grow fat on fashionable -extravagance. Hence it is the one object of their life to encourage this -extravagance. So they constantly invent new styles, to prevent women -from wearing the same dress more than one season. And every customer is -slyly flattered into the belief that nothing was ever so becoming to her -as the latest style, though it probably makes her look like a fright. As -a little flattery goes a great way with most women, the milliner’s -hypocrisy escapes detection. “The persons who devise fashions are not -artists in the best sense of the word, nor are they persons of culture -or taste,” as Mr. E. L. Godkin remarks: “their business is not to -provide beautiful costumes but new ones.” - -It is to such scheming and unscrupulous artisans that women entrust the -care of their personal appearance. And they will continue doing so until -they are more generally taught the elements of the fine arts and a love -of beauty in Nature. - -To make sure of a rich harvest, milliners, when a new fashion has -appeared, manufacture all their goods in that style, so that it is -almost impossible to buy any others, all of which are declared “bad -form.” And their poor victims meekly submit to this tyranny! - -(3) _Tyranny of the Ugly Majority._—This is another form of tyranny from -which ladies suffer. Most women are ugly and ungraceful, and resent the -contrast which beautiful women, naturally and becomingly attired, would -present to their own persons: hence they favour the crinolette, the -bustle, the corset, the long, trailing dresses, the sleeve-puffs at the -shoulders, etc., because such fashionable devices make all women look -equally ugly and ungraceful. - -Mrs. Armytage throws light on the origin of some absurd fashions when -she refers to the cases of “the patches first applied to hide an ugly -wen: of cushions carried to equalise strangely-deformed hips; of long -skirts to cover ugly feet; and long shoes to hide an excrescence on the -toe.” - -Surely it is sufficient to expose the origin of such fashions to make -sensible women turn away from them in disgust. There are indeed -indications that the handsome women have at last begun to find out the -trick which the ugly majority have been playing on them; and many are -now dressing in such a way as to show their personal beauty to -advantage, undaunted by the fact that ugly women pretend to be shocked -at short dresses which allow a pretty ankle to be seen, and jerseys -which reveal the outlines of a beautiful bust and waist. - -(4) _Cowardice._—Many women adopt a fashion which they dislike simply -because they do not dare to face the remark of a rival that they are not -in fashion. As one of them frankly confesses: “We women dress not to be -simple, genuine, and harmonious, or even to please you men, but _to -brave each other’s criticism_.” A noble motive, truly! - -One is often tempted to doubt the old saying that the first desire of -women is to be considered beautiful, on observing how ready they are to -sacrifice fifty per cent or more of their beauty for the sake of being -in fashion. Last summer, for instance, the edict seems to have gone -forth that the hair was no longer to be allowed to form a graceful -fringe over the forehead, but was to be combed back tightly. So back it -was combed, and beautiful faces became rarer than ever. Leigh Hunt had -written in vain that the hair should be brought over large bare -foreheads “as vines are trailed over a wall.” Théophile Gautier, “the -most perfect poet in respect of poetical form that France has ever -produced” (Saintsbury), agreed with Schopenhauer regarding woman’s -æsthetic sense: “Women,” he says, “have only the sense of fashion and -not that of beauty. A woman will always find beautiful the most -abominable fashion if it is the _genre suprême_ to wear that style.” He -commends the women of Granada for their good taste in preferring their -lovely mantillas to the hideous French hats, and hopes Spain may never -be invaded by French fashions and milliners. - -(5) _Sheepishness._—It may seem ungallant to apply this term to the -conduct of a woman who imitates the habits of a sheep; but, after all, -which is the more gallant action: to applaud a woman’s self-chosen -ugliness, or, at least, to ignore it for fear of offending her; or, on -the other hand, to restore her beauty by boldly holding up the mirror -and allowing her to see herself as others see her? It is the nature of a -flock of sheep to jump into the sea without a moment’s hesitation if -their leader does so. It is the nature of fashionable women to commit -æsthetic suicide if their leader sets the example. Where is the -difference? - -It is surprising that Darwin did not refer to Fashion as furnishing a -most convincing proof of his theory that men are descended from -apelike ancestors. One of the ape’s most conspicuous traits is -imitativeness—blind, silly, slavish imitation: hence the verb “to -ape.” Blind, silly, slavish imitation is also the essence of Fashion. -Imitativeness implies a low order of mind, a lack of originality. The -more a man is intellectually removed from the ape, the less is he -inclined to imitate blindly. Men of genius are a law unto themselves, -while inferior minds can only re-echo or plagiarise. Just so the -prevalent anxiety to be in fashion is a tacit confession of mental -inferiority, of insufficient independence of taste and originality to -choose a style suited to one’s individual requirements. - - - INDIVIDUALISM _VERSUS_ FASHION - -Fashion is a deadly enemy of Romantic Love, not only because it makes -women sacrifice their Beauty to unhealthful garments and habits, but -because it obliterates _individuality_, on which the ardour of Love -depends. “Why don’t girls marry?” asks Mrs. Haweis. “Because the press -is great, and girls are undistinguishable in the crowd. The -distinguishable ones marry—those who are beautiful or magnetic in some -way, whose characters have some definite colouring, and who can make -their _individuality_ felt. I would have said—who can make themselves in -any way conspicuous, but that the word has been too long associated with -an _undesirable_ prominence. Yet after all, prominence is the thing -needed—prominence of character, or _individuality_. Men, so to speak, -pitch upon the girls they can see: those who are completely negative, -unnoticeable, colourless, formless, invisible, are left behind.” - -Women, in their eagerness to sacrifice their individuality to Fashion, -forget that _fashion leaders are never in fashion_, _i.e._ that _they_ -always adopt a new style as soon as the crowd has aped them: wherefore -it is doubly silly to join the apes. - -Mlle. Sarah Bernhardt never allows a corset to deform her figure and mar -her movements: and who has not had occasion to admire the inimitable -grace of this actress? But how many women have the courage thus to -sacrifice Fashion to Grace and Beauty? - -Yet, notwithstanding the continuance of the corset and the bustle mania -and Parisian hats, it may be asserted that women are just at present -more sensibly dressed than they have been for some generations, and -there is _some_ disposition to listen to the artistic and hygienic -advice of reformers. Unfortunately, the history of Fashion does not tend -to confirm any optimistic hopes that may be based on this fact. There -have been periods heretofore when women became comparatively sensible, -only to relapse again into utter barbarism. Thus we read that “after the -straight gown came the fardingale, which in turn developed into the hoop -with its concomitants of patches, paint, and high-heeled shoes.” Then -came the reaction: “Short waists and limp, clinging draperies came in to -expose every contour; stays and corsets were for a time discredited, -only to be reintroduced, and with them the whole cycle of fashions which -had once already had their day.” - -Experience shows that argumentation, ridicule, malicious or -good-natured, and satire, are equally powerless against Fashion. -Progress can only be hoped for in two ways—by instructing women in the -elementary laws of beauty in nature and mankind, and by destroying the -superstitious halo around the word _Fashion_. It has just been shown -that a disposition to imitate a fashion set by others is always a sign -of inferior intellect and rudimentary taste; and the time no doubt will -come when this fact will be generally recognised, and when it will be -considered anything but a compliment to have it said that one follows -the flock of fashionable imitators. - -The progress of democratic institutions and sentiments will aid in -emancipating women from the slavery of Fashion. Empresses who can set -the fashion for two continents are becoming scarce; and the woman of the -future will no doubt open her eyes wide in astonishment on reading that -in the nineteenth century most women allowed some mysterious personage -to prescribe what they should wear. “Can it be _possible_,” she will -exclaim, "that my poor dear grandmothers did not know that what is food -for one person is poison for another, and that any fashion universally -followed means æsthetic suicide for nine-tenths of the women who adopt -it? _I_ am _my own fashion-leader_, and wear only what is becoming to my -_individual_ style of beauty. What a preposterous notion to proclaim -that any particular colour or cut is to be exclusively fashionable this -year for all women, for blondes and brunettes, for the tall and the -short, the stout and the slim alike! What _could_ have induced those -women thus to annihilate their own beauty deliberately? And not only -their beauty, but their comfort as well. For I see that in New York, -Fashion used to decree that women must exchange their light, comfortable -summer clothes for heavier autumn fabrics exactly in the middle of -September, although the last two weeks of September are often the -hottest part of the year. And the women, almost without exception, -obeyed this decree! - -“And then those long trailing dresses! How they must have added to their -ease and grace of movement in the ballroom, tucked up clumsily or held -in the hand! And it seems that these trails were even worn in the dirty -streets, for I see that at one time the Dresden authorities forbade -women to sweep the streets with their dresses; and in one of Mr. -Ruskin’s works I find this advice to girls: ‘Your walking dress must -never touch the ground at all. I have lost much of the faith I once had -in the common sense, and even in the personal delicacy, of the present -race of average English women, by seeing how they will allow their -dresses to sweep the streets if it is _the fashion to be scavengers_.’” - - - MASCULINE FASHIONS - -In his emancipation from Fashion man has made much more progress than -woman. There is still a considerable number of shallow-brained young -“society men” who naïvely and minutely accept the slight variations -introduced every year in the cut and style of cravats, shirts, and -evening-dress by cunning tailors, in order to compel men to throw away -last season’s suits and order new ones. But much larger is the number of -men who disregard such innovations, and laugh at the silly persons who -meekly accept them, even when their taste is offended by such new -fashions as the hideous collars and hats with which the market is -occasionally flooded. - -There was a time when men spent as much time and money on dress in a -week as they now do in a year; a time when men were as strictly ruled by -capricious, cunning Fashion as women are to-day. Lord March, we read, -“laid a wager that he would make fashionable the most humiliating dress -he could think of. Accordingly, he wore a blue coat with crimson collar -and cuffs—a livery, and not a tasteful livery—but he won his bet.” After -the battle of Agincourt, it is said, “the Duc de Bourbon, in order to -ransom King John, sold his overcoat to a London Jew, who gave no more -than its value, we may be pretty sure, but nevertheless gave 5200 crowns -of gold for it. It seems to have been a mass of the most precious gems.” -The Duke of Buckingham “had twenty-seven suits of clothes made, the -richest that embroidery, lace, silk, velvet, silver, gold, and gems -could contribute; one of which was a white uncut velvet, set all over, -both suit and cloak, with diamonds valued at fourscore thousand pounds, -besides a great feather stuck all over with diamonds, as were also his -sword, girdle, hat, and spurs.” - -Mr. Spencer cites two amusing instances of masculine subjection to -fashion in Africa and mediæval Europe. Among the Darfurs in Africa, “If -the sultan, being on horseback, happens to fall off, all his followers -must fall off likewise; and should any one omit this formality, however -great he may be, he is laid down and beaten.” “In 1461, Duke Philip of -Burgundy, having had his hair cut during an illness, issued an edict -that all the nobles of his states should be shorn also. More than five -hundred persons sacrificed their hair.” - -So far as men are still subject to the influence of ugly fashions, they -differ from women in at least frankly acknowledging the ugliness of -these fashions. Whereas most women admire, or pretend to admire, -corsets, high-heeled boots, crinolettes, bustles, etc., there are few -men who do not detest _e.g._ the unshapely, baggy trousers, which were -so greatly abhorred by the æsthetic sense of the ancient Greeks; and -most men to-day (except those who have ugly legs) would gladly wear -knee-breeches, if they could do so without making themselves too -conspicuous. Herein lies the greatest impediment to dress reform. To -make oneself very conspicuous is justly considered a breach of good -manners; and few have the courage, like Mr. Oscar Wilde, to make martyrs -and butts of ridicule of themselves. - -But if individuals are comparatively powerless, clubs of acknowledged -standing might make themselves very useful to the cause of Personal -Beauty, as affected by dress, if they would vote to adopt in a body -certain reforms as regards trousers, hats, and evening-dress. Then it -would no longer be said of a man rationally dressed that he is -eccentric, but that he belongs to the X—— Club; and many outsiders would -immediately follow suit for the coveted distinction of being taken for -members of that club. Thus both the wise and the foolish would be -gratified. - -As showing how invariably and consistently Fashion is the handmaid of -ugliness, it is curious to note that the several styles of dress worn by -men are fashionable in proportion to their ugliness. For the greatest -occasions the swallow-tail or evening-dress is prescribed. Next in rank -is the ugly frock-coat, for morning calls. Of late, it is true, the more -becoming “cut-away” has been tolerated in place of the frock-coat; but -the sack-coat, which alone follows the natural outlines of the body, and -neither has a caudal appendage, like the evening-dress, nor, like the -frock-coat, gives the impression that a man’s waist extends down to his -knees, is altogether tabooed at social gatherings, except those of the -most informal kind. - -Man’s evening-dress is so uniquely unæsthetic and ugly that fashionable -women have of course long been eyeing it with envy and have gradually -adopted some of its features. One of these is the chimney-pot hat, the -cause of so much premature baldness and discomfort. But women are not -quite so foolish as men in this matter; for they do not wear tall hats -at evening-parties and the opera, but only when out riding, where the -necessity of dodging about to keep them on against the force of the wind -and the blows of overhanging boughs, compels them to go through all -sorts of grotesque gymnastics with neck and head. If they wore a more -rational and becoming head-dress on horseback they might easily look -pretty and graceful, which would be fatal to their chances of being -considered fashionable. - -In comparing masculine and feminine fashions, we must note that trousers -and swallow-tailed coats, though ugly, are harmless; while high-heeled -shoes, corsets, chignons, etc., are as fatal to health as to Personal -Beauty. - -It is sometimes claimed in behalf of Fashion that, though it often -favours ugliness, it establishes a rule and model for all; whereas, if -everything were left to individual taste, the result might be still more -disastrous. Nonsense. Rare as good taste is among women, a modicum is -commonly present; and there are extremely few who, if not overawed by -the Fashion Fetish, would ever invent or adopt such hideous -irrepressible monstrosities as bustles, crinolines, chignons, trailing -dresses, Chinese boots, bird-corpse hats, etc. - -A protest must, finally, be made against the horrible figures which in -our fashion papers are constantly offered as models of style and -appearance. Even in the best of them, such as Harper’s _Bazar_, which -frequently points out the injuriousness of tight lacing, female figures -are printed every week with hideously narrow waists, such as no woman -could possibly possess unless she were in the last stages of -consumption, or some other wasting disease. - - - - - CHEST AND BOSOM - - - FEMININE BEAUTY - -Burke, in his chapter on “Gradual Variation” as a characteristic of -Beauty, begs us to “observe that part of a beautiful woman where she is -perhaps the most beautiful, about the neck and breasts; the smoothness, -the softness, the easy and insensible swell; the variety of the surface, -which is never for the smallest space the same; the deceitful maze -through which the unsteady eye slides giddily, without knowing where to -fix, or whither it is carried. Is not this a demonstration of that -change of surface, continual, and yet hardly perceptible at any point, -which forms one of the greatest constituents of beauty?” - -There is reason to believe that the beautifully-rounded form of the -female bosom is a result of æsthetico-sexual selection; for primitive -human tribes resemble in this respect the lower animals. Says the famous -anatomist Hyrtl: “It is only among the white and yellow races that the -breasts, in their compact virginal condition, have a hemispheric form, -while those of negresses of a corresponding age and physique are more -elongated, pointed, turned outwards and downwards; in a word, more like -the teats of animals.” Even the Arabian poets sing of the charms of a -goatlike breast. In the Soudan older women, when at work, sometimes -throw their breasts over the shoulder to prevent them from being in the -way; and “the women of the Basutos, a Kaffir tribe, carry their children -on the back, and pass the breast to them under the arm.” - -It is a very interesting and important fact that not only do we find -more beauty among the higher than among the lower races of mankind, but -the superior beauty of civilised races is also _of a more permanent -kind_. This truth is admirably illustrated in the following remarks by -Dr. Peschuel Lœschke: The breasts of the Loango negress, he says, -“approach the conic rather than the hemispheric form; they often have a -too small and insufficiently gradated basis, and in rare extreme cases -have almost the appearance of teats, besides being unequally developed. -Breasts of such a shape are naturally much more easily affected by the -law of gravitation, and soon become changed into the pendent bags which -we find so ugly, especially among Africans, although they also occur -among other tribes, and are not unknown among civilised peoples. The -superior form, with a broad basis, is naturally the more enduring, and -remains in many cases an ornament of women of a more advanced age.” - -Savages and Orientals, being deficient in æsthetic taste, admire an -excessively-developed bust. Europeans, on the other hand, long ago -recognised the connection between such a bust and clumsy, unhealthy -corpulence, suggesting advanced age. The same appears to have been true -of the most refined nations of antiquity. Says Professor Kollmann: “The -ancient as well as the modern inhabitants of the Nile region appear, in -the majority of cases, like those of India, to possess hemispheric -breasts, for neither in the sphinxes or other superhuman beings, nor in -the images of human beauties, do we come across pointed breasts.... The -Romans did not consider large bosoms a mark of beauty. Among European -women the Portuguese are said to have the largest busts, the Castilians -the smallest. To judge by Rubens’s nude figures, the Netherland women -appear to rival the Portuguese in exuberant bosoms.” - -In Greek works of art, says Winckelmann, “the breast or bosom of female -figures is never exuberant.” “Among ideal figures, the Amazons alone -have large and fully-developed breasts.” “The form of the breasts in the -figures of divinities is virginal in the extreme, since their beauty was -made to consist in the moderateness of their size. A stone, found in the -Island of Naxos, was smoothly polished and placed upon them for the -purpose of repressing an undue development.” - -Modern Fashion, for a wonder, endorses the Greek standard of beauty as -regards a moderately-developed bust. But it was not always thus. It is -Fashion that induces some savages whose breasts are naturally long and -hanging to use bandages which make them still more hanging and elongated -in form. In Spain, during the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and in -other parts of Europe, on the contrary, Fashion prescribed flat chests. -Plates of lead were tied on the breasts of young girls with such force -that sometimes the natural form was replaced by an actual depression -where “love’s pillows” should have been. In some parts of South Germany -and the Tyrol a similar fashion prevails to the present day among the -lower classes, the result being not only a sacrifice of beauty, but a -great mortality among the children, that have to be reared artificially -in consequence of it. - -But if modern Fashion has a correct standard of taste in this matter, it -nevertheless encourages practices which lead to as disastrous results as -the Spanish fashions of three centuries ago. “The horrible custom of -wearing pads,” says the author of the _Ugly Girl Papers_ “is the ruin of -natural figures, by heating and pressing down the bosom.... A low, deep -bosom, rather than a bold one, is a sign of grace in a full-grown woman, -and a full bust is hardly admirable in an unmarried girl. Her figure -should be all curves, but slender, promising a fuller beauty when -maturity is reached. One is not fond of over-ripe years.... Due -attention to the general laws of health always has its effect in -restoring the bust to its roundness.... Weakness of any kind affects the -contour of the figure, and it is useless to try to improve it in any -other way than by restoring the strength where it is wanting.” - -The same author, whose book is brimful of useful advice, not only to -“ugly girls,” but to those who have beauty and wish to preserve it, also -recommends battledore, swinging the skipping-rope over the shoulder, -swinging by the hand from a rope, as well as playing ball, “bean bags,” -pillow fights, and especially daily vocal exercises with corset off and -lungs deeply inflated—as excellent means of improving the bust. - -If women could be made to realise how rarely they succeed, even with the -aid of the cleverest milliner, in counterfeiting a properly developed -chest, they would, perhaps, be more willing to submit to the exercise or -regimen requisite for the acquirement and preservation of Personal -Beauty. Flat chests are a consequence of insufficient muscular exercise, -insufficient fresh air, and insufficient food. The main reason why the -majority of girls in the world are over-delicate and fragile is because -they do not get enough properly-cooked food in which _fat is introduced -in such a way as to be palatable and digestible_. The adipose layer -between the skin and the muscles contributes so much to the undulating -roundness of contour peculiar to feminine beauty, that Kollmann places -it among the differentiating sexual characteristics. - -Too exuberant busts, on the other hand, are the result of too much -indulgence in fattening food, combined with lack of exercise in the open -air, which would consume the fat. Maternity, with proper hygienic -precautions, is never fatal to a fine bust. - -That savages, like their civilised brethren and sisters, owe their -deformed chests entirely to their indolence and neglect of the laws of -health, is shown by the fact that there are notable exceptions—energetic -tribes living healthy lives, and therefore blessed with beautiful -figures. Thus Mr. A. R. Wallace tells us regarding some of the Amazon -valley Indians that “their figures are generally superb; and I have -never felt so much pleasure in gazing at the finest statue as at these -living illustrations of the beauty of the human form. The development of -the bust is such as I believe never exists in the best-formed European, -exhibiting _a splendid series of convex undulations, without a hollow in -any part of it_.” And what he says in another place regarding a -neighbouring tribe explains the secret of this Beauty: “Though some of -them were too fat, most of them had splendid figures, and many of them -were very pretty. Before daylight in the morning all were astir and came -to the river to wash. It is the chilliest hour of the twenty-four, and -when we were wrapping our sheet or blanket more closely around us, we -could hear the plunges and splashings of these early bathers. Rain or -wind is all alike to them: their morning bath is never dispensed with.” - - - MASCULINE BEAUTY - -Wincklemann remarks that, among the ancient Greeks, “a proudly-arched -chest was regarded as a universal attribute of beauty in male figures. -The father of the poets describes Neptune with such a chest, and -Agamemnon as resembling him; and such a one Anakreon desired to see in -the image of the youth whom he loved.” - -“A prominent, _arched_ chest,” says Professor Kollmann, “is an -infallible sign of a vigorous, _healthy_ skeleton; whereas a narrow, -_flat_, and, still more, a bent thorax is a physical index of bodily -weakness and inherited _decrepitude_. An arched chest imparts to a man’s -whole figure an aspect of physical perfection, not to say sublimity, as -may be seen in the ancient statues of gods, in which the chest is -intentionally made more prominent than it ever can be in a man, -presumably in order to weaken the impression of the chest’s more -_animal_ neighbour, the abdomen. There is a deep meaning in our -phraseology which localises courage, boldness, martial valour, in a -man’s vigorous breast.” - -I have italicised several words in this quotation, because they tersely -show how writers on art are guided both by the positive and negative -tests of Beauty formulated in another part of this volume. - - - MAGIC EFFECT OF DEEP BREATHING - -Indolence is the mother of ugliness. No one who realises the absolute -necessity to Health of a sufficient supply of fresh air can wonder at -the rarity of Beauty in the world, if he considers that nineteen people -out of every twenty are _too lazy to breathe properly_. - -It is estimated that there are from 75 to 100 cubic inches of air which -always remain in a man’s lungs. About an equal amount of “supplemental” -air remains after an _ordinary_ expiration; and only 20 to 30 inches of -what Professor Huxley calls “tidal air” passes in and out. But this -“tidal air” can be largely increased in amount by the habit of breathing -deeply and _slowly_, whereby an additional supply of oxygen is supplied -to the lungs, which is a thousand times better for the health than -quinine, iron pills, or any other tonic. There are few persons whose -health and personal appearance would not be improved vastly if they -would take _several daily meals_ of fresh air—consisting of 20-50 deep -inspirations in a park or some other place where the air is pure and -bracing. Slowly inhale as much air as you can get into the lungs without -discomfort (avoiding a strain), and then exhale again just as slowly. -After a while the habit will be formed of _constantly_ breathing more -deeply than formerly, both awake and asleep; thus bringing into regular -use a larger part of the lungs’ surface. It is the slight sense of -fatigue at first accompanying deep breathing which prevents most people -from enjoying its benefits; but when once this natural indolence is -overcome the reward of deep breathing is analogous to the delicious -exhilaration which follows a brisk walk or a cold bath. - -It is important to note that all breathing, whether deep or ordinary, -should be done through the nose, as thus the air is warmed before it -reaches the delicate lungs, and the mucous membranes remain moist, thus -preventing those disagreeable enemies of refreshing sleep—a dry mouth -and snoring. - -Habitual deep breathing adds to Personal Beauty not only by exercising -the muscles of the chest, which thus becomes more arched and prominent -relatively to the abdomen, but also by throwing back the neck and head -and compelling the whole body to assume a straight, military attitude. -We are all taught as children, says Professor Kollmann, to hold -ourselves straight; but rarely is the information added that the best -way to secure an erect, manly bearing and a dignified gait is by -cultivating the habit of deep breathing. “It is worthy of notice that -forcible breathing, such as results from a correct bearing, from -prolonged sojourn and exercise in the open air, in hunting, gymnastic -exercises, riding, etc., not only increases the chest for the moment, -but permanently.... There are proofs in abundance that even with young -persons of eighteen to twenty years, the whole circumference of the -chest is capable of considerable widening under such circumstances.” - -A medical writer, referring to the fact that children frequently become -round-shouldered from sitting for hours and bending over a desk, makes -these very sensible suggestions:— - -“In the first place, the lungs should be fully expanded by drawing in -all the air that is possible; this process will be aided by throwing the -shoulders well back, and you should encourage your children to do this -frequently in the open air when going to and coming from school. -Children are easily bribed, and we would suggest to school teachers a -simple and effective way of accomplishing this desirable end. This -forcible expansion of the lungs will enlarge the chest and increase its -circumference. Then let the teacher, at the beginning of the session, -measure each child’s chest and record the circumference, then explain -and demonstrate to them how to forcibly fill the lungs, and offer a -premium at the end of the session to the child who shall have most -increased the circumference of his chest; make it worth their while to -expand their lungs, as much so as we now do for them to expand their -minds, and the result will be wonderful.” - - - A MORAL QUESTION - -An eminent authority on the physiology of the vocal organs, Dr. Lennox -Browne, remarks (in _Voice, Song, and Speech_), that “respiratory -exercises, and subsequently lessons in reading, reciting, and singing, -are oftentimes of the greatest use in strengthening a weak chest; and, -indeed, it is not too much to say, _in arresting consumption_.” Another -excellent authority, Mr. A. B. Bach, points out (in his _Musical -Education and Vocal Culture_, which should be consulted by all who wish -to learn the art of Deep Breathing) that “very few vocalists die of -consumption,” owing to the fact that they properly exercise their lungs -and chests. - -This brings us face to face with a moral question of enormous -importance, to which writers on ethics have by no means as yet given the -attention it loudly clamours for. Consumption, we read, “is a disease of -great frequency and severity, which, in the civilised nations of Europe, -produces from _one-sixth to one-tenth of the total mortality_, in -ordinary times.” Now if, as we have just seen, consumption can be -arrested and cured by proper exercise of the lungs and chest in pure -air, does it not follow that the neglect of such exercises makes certain -parties criminally responsible for the greater number of deaths from -consumption? It is “proved by careful inquiries that the workshops of -tailors, printers, and other businesses carried on in close, -ill-ventilated apartments, by large numbers of workmen, are, in a very -aggravated sense, _nurseries of consumption_. Cotton and linen factories -have also been shown, when ill-regulated, to be largely responsible for -the death of their inmates from this disease.” - -Why should not the owners of factories who refuse to ventilate their -buildings be held responsible for the ill-health, the early decrepitude -and death of many of the workers, and the workers’ weakly, consumptive -children who die young? As England alone has over three hundred thousand -women engaged in cotton manufacture, the amount of ill-health, early -senility, ugliness, consumption, etc., bred by criminal neglect of -hygienic precautions, is appalling to the imagination. A case was -mentioned in the American papers a few years ago, where the windows in a -factory were _nailed fast_ to prevent the poor, suffocating girls from -opening them. And, strange to say, the owner of that factory was not -immediately lynched. Surely, if ever a monster deserved to be hanged to -the nearest tree, it was the man who ordered those windows to be nailed -down. - -But factory owners are by no means the only persons who are thus -responsible for indirect manslaughter by foul-air poisoning. Thousands -of loving mothers and fathers blaspheme their Creator in attributing the -early death of their children to a “dispensation of Providence,” when -the plain truth, brutally expressed, is that they killed them with the -poisoned air, indigestible food, and insufficient exercise that brought -on the fatal consumption. To say that the disease was hereditary is only -to shift the hygienic crime on the shoulders of the grand-parents. - -In human courts of justice ignorance of the law is not considered an -excuse for the commission of crime. If the same principle holds true in -some future world where human actions will be judged, what terrible -indictments will be brought against some parents for crimes committed -against the health and life of their children and grandchildren, for -neglecting to learn the laws of health, as laid down in physiological -and hygienic textbooks! - -Inasmuch as Personal Beauty is the flower and symbol of perfect Health, -it might be shown, by following out this argument, that _ugliness is a -sin, and man’s first duty the cultivation of Beauty_. - - - - - NECK AND SHOULDER - - -Nowhere are the æsthetic laws of Gradation and gentle Curvature more -beautifully illustrated than in the neck—the column of the head. Note -how a lovely woman’s neck repeats on a small scale the delicate contours -of the trunk—widened at the base and at the top, with a subtle inward -slope towards the middle. Note, also, how imperceptibly it passes into -the shoulders, which continue the gentle curve in a downward slope, -unless prevented by the deforming corset. - -Man’s neck is less cylindrical than woman’s, and presents four slightly -flattened surfaces; while his shoulders are not sloping, but square. We -not only pardon, but even admire and demand this conformation in man; -because in judging masculine beauty we are guided by dynamic as much as -by æsthetic considerations, while the fair sex is judged by the laws of -beauty alone. A masculine neck is in good form if it shows traces of the -sinews and muscles which give it strength; but in a woman’s neck the -feminine adipose layer under the skin must obliterate all such traces of -masculinity,—especially the bones at the junction of neck and breast, -the prominence of which suggests emaciation and disease. - -In the face of such considerations, how can any one maintain that man is -more beautiful than woman? He may show more character, more -individuality, more originality than a fine woman, but more beauty -_never_. And the fact that in Sexual Selection women have always been -chiefly guided by dynamic considerations—_i.e._ vigour, boldness, -“manliness”—whereas men have been fascinated by beauty alone, explains -why, as Schopenhauer asserts, women are the “unæsthetic sex,” and why -their taste for Personal Beauty, not being exercised, like that of man, -in the selection of a mate, is so lamentably callous to the deformities -resulting from corsets and other instruments of torture. - -The neck being the pivot on which the head executes its movements, it is -evident that it requires attention from the point of view of Grace as -well as of Beauty. To how many women has it ever occurred that as the -feet are taught to dance lithely, the arms to execute eloquent gestures, -so the neck should be trained to naturally assume graceful attitudes? -Great paintings and famous actresses should be studied from this point -of view. Always bear in mind that grace of movement often excels beauty -of form in the power of inspiring Romantic Love. And remember that any -pains you take to acquire grace will not only multiply your own charms, -but will establish a habit of graceful movement in your muscles which -will be inherited by your children. It is owing to this circumstance -that the children of truly refined families are born with an ease, -grace, and dignity of movement and mien which it is impossible for -“self-made” persons to acquire in a lifetime, because they are not born -with an inherited _talent_ for graceful movement. - - - - - ARM AND HAND - - - EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL DIFFERENCES - -One of the redeeming features of what is ironically called “full-dress” -is the opportunity it gives of admiring a woman’s shapely neck, -shoulders, and arms—if she has such. No healthy woman of the well-to-do -classes need have an ill-favoured arm if she has a sensible mother, who -compels her from her childhood to exercise her muscles. The great -preponderance of leathery, angular, bony arms at ballrooms shows, -therefore, how shamefully the hygienic arts of personal adornment are -neglected in our best society. The stifling heat which commonly prevails -at social gatherings suggests the thought that many ladies are -indifferent to the display of their bony arms on the grounds given in -Sydney Smith’s exclamation: “Heat, ma’am! it was so dreadful here that I -found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in -my bones.” - -A meagre, skinny arm is objectionable not only because it offends -against all the conditions of Beauty—plump roundness, softness, fresh -colour, smoothness, gradual tapering to the wrist—but because it is -associated with the aspect of old age and disease; and again, because it -suggests man’s lowly origin by its approximation to the appearance of -the arms in our simian country cousins. - -Man’s arm has become differentiated from the ape’s not only in the -matter of greater muscular rotundity and smoothness, _i.e._ loss of -hair, but also in regard to length. An ape’s arms are much longer than a -white man’s, the negro’s being intermediate. Says Mr. Tylor: “In an -upright position and reaching down with the middle finger, the gibbon -can touch its foot, the orang its ankle, the chimpanzee its knee, while -man only reaches partly down his thigh.... Negro soldiers standing at -drill bring the middle finger-tip an inch or two nearer the knee than -white men can do, and some have been even known to touch the knee-pan.” -Taking this in connection with the fact that the arms of sailors, who -use them constantly in climbing, are longer than those of soldiers, we -may safely infer that man’s arms have gradually become shorter because -he has ceased to climb trees; while the greater muscular rotundity, -especially of the forearm, has been acquired through the varied activity -and movements of the hand and fingers: a circumstance almost -self-evident on physiological principles, and furthermore corroborated -by the fact that negroes, unskilled in trades which call for -manipulation of the separate fingers, again occupy an intermediate -position. “Even in muscular negroes the arms are less rotund,” says -Professor Carl Vogt; and, according to Van der Hœven, the skin -between the fingers reaches up higher in the negro, which must impede -activity. - -The peculiar arrangement of the hair on man’s arm has been referred to -by Wallace and Darwin as one of the countless signs arguing our descent -from apelike ancestors. On the arm of man, as of most anthropoid apes, -the hair “tends to converge from above and below to a point at the -elbow.” Now it is known that the gorilla, as well as the orang, “sits in -pelting rain with his hands over his head”; and Mr. Wallace, therefore, -suggests that the present inclination of the hair on man’s arms is -simply a survival of the time when his arboreal ancestors used to sit in -that fashion, the hair having gradually assumed the direction which -would most easily allow the rain to run off. - -The evolution theory that the hair on the arm, as on the body in -general, was lost through Sexual Selection, is corroborated by the fact -that woman’s arm has made more progress toward complete smoothness than -man’s, owing to the circumstance that man is in Sexual Selection more -guided by æsthetic, woman by dynamic, considerations. Yet there can be -no doubt that a hairy arm and hand are always ugly, in man as in woman, -not only on account of their simian suggestiveness, but because they -cover the smooth skin and its delicate tints, and, moreover, especially -if black, are very apt to make the arm and hand look as if they needed a -good scrubbing. Hair on the hand may sometimes be permanently removed by -passing the hand quickly and repeatedly through a large flame—a much -less painful process than the use of pincers. - -The _muscular_ deviations from the lines of beauty are much more -pardonable in a man’s arm than the hair, although it is evident that a -professional athlete’s excessively muscular arm is æsthetically -objectionable, however much it may be admired on other grounds. To -feminine beauty, and the chances of inspiring Love, an arm which is so -muscular as to obliterate the lines of beauty is absolutely fatal. Among -the labouring classes there are many women whose arms are so hard and -sinewy that the very bones to which they are attached have become heavy -and masculine, so that it becomes difficult to tell a woman’s from a -man’s skeleton, which ordinarily is very easy. - - - CALISTHENICS AND MASSAGE - -It is, however, hardly necessary to refer to these facts as a warning to -girls not to use their arms too much. The danger almost always lies the -other way, and what girls need is a set of intelligent directions for -securing a shapely arm. If the arm is too plump the method discussed in -preceding pages for the general reduction of corpulence will also affect -the arm. If too thin, which is much more frequently the case in young -women, don’t be afraid that exercise will make them thinner—on the -ground that hard labourers are commonly meagre. It is only _excessive_ -exercise that produces leanness, by burning away all the fat. Moderate -exercise develops the muscles—the plastic material of beauty—and -stimulates the appetite, so that the fat-cushion under the skin also -increases in depth, covering up the angular outlines of bones, muscles, -and sinews. - -It is a suggestive fact that the word calisthenics—"the art of promoting -the health of the body by exercise"—comes from two Greek words meaning -“beautiful” and “strength.” - -So many books have been written on calisthenics that it is needless to -repeat here minute directions for training the muscles of the arm or any -other part of the body. One bit of sensible advice may, however, be -quoted from the _Ugly Girl Papers_: “Throwing quoits and sweeping are -good exercises to develop the arms. There is nothing like three hours of -housework a day for giving a woman a good figure, and if she sleep in -tight cosmetic gloves, she need not fear that her hands will be spoiled. -The time to form the hand is in youth, and with thimbles for the -finger-tips, and close gloves lined with cold cream, every mother might -secure a good hand for her daughter.” - -It is an ill wind that blows no man good. The incessant piano-banging -and violin-scraping of thousands of unmusical young ladies has at least -one thing to be said in its favour: it helps to round and beautify the -arms of these young players. - -Active exercise is the surest and quickest way of securing muscular -rotundity. But in cases where, owing to some infirmity, long-continued -spontaneous exertion is out of the question, _massage_, which has been -defined as “passive exercise,” may be resorted to as of calisthenic -value. It should only be performed by an expert, and always -centripetally, _i.e._ in the direction of the heart. It facilitates the -flow of the venous current, which in the arms and lower limbs has to -struggle upwards against the force of gravitation; and to this is partly -due its refreshing effect. As Americans are the most nervous and -sensitive people in the world, it seems probable that the feeling of -ease following the facilitating of the venous flow has taught them -instinctively to assume that peculiar position, with the feet on a chair -or table, which has been so often ridiculed by Europeans. - - - THE “SECOND FACE” - -“The beauty of a youthful hand,” says Winckelmann “consists in a -moderate degree of plumpness, and a scarcely observable depression, -resembling a soft shadow, over the articulations of the fingers, where, -if the hand is plump, there is a dimple. The fingers taper gently -towards their extremities, like finely-shaped columns; and, in art, the -articulations are not expressed. The fore part of the terminating joint -is not bent over, nor are the nails very long, though both are common in -the works of modern sculptors.” - -Balzac pointed out that “men of superior intellect almost always have -beautiful hands, the perfection of which is the distinctive indication -of a high destination.... The hand is the despair of sculptors and -painters when they wish to express the changing labyrinth of its -mysterious lineaments.” - -A fine hand is, indeed, a sign of superior intelligence in a much more -comprehensive sense than that which Balzac had in mind. The difference -between the simian and human faces is hardly greater than the progress -from an ape’s hand to a man’s in beauty of outline, smoothness of -surface, grace of movement, and varied utility. The ape’s hand is hairy -on the upper surface, hard and callous on the lower. Except in climbing, -its movements are clumsy. The fingers have adapted themselves to the -need of climbing, and have become permanently bent in front, so that -when the animal goes on all fours it cannot walk on the palm, but only -on the bent knuckles. - -A step higher we have the negro’s hands, in which the fingers are less -independent and nimble, and the palmar fat-cushions less developed and -sensitive, than in our hands. These fat-cushions serve to protect the -blood-vessels as well as the delicate nerves, which make the hand the -principal organ of touch. The muscles of the hand are more easily and -instantaneously obedient to the will than those of any other part of the -body, except those of the mouth and eyes; and hence it is that the hands -are almost as good an index of a man’s character, habits, and profession -as his face, and have been aptly called his “second face.” - -Division of labour is the index of progress in the evolution of organs. -To the fact that his feet have become exclusively adapted to locomotion, -leaving the hands free to serve as tools, man chiefly owes his -superiority to other animals. For what would superior intellect avail -him without the implements needed to carry out its schemes? Feeling, -grasping, handling, writing, sewing, playing an instrument, squeezing, -caressing,—these are a few of the innumerable functions of the human -hand; while the ape’s is good for little but climbing. The finger -language of deaf mutes shows to what subtle intellectual uses the hands -can be put; and as for emotional expression, are there any facial -muscles which can indicate finer shades of feeling than the infinitely -varied touch with which a pianist or violinist gives utterance to every -mood and phase of human passion? - -No wonder that, just as the face has had its physiognomists and -phrenologists, so the hand its chiromancers, who pretended, by looking -at its lines, not only to read character, but even to foretell one’s -fate. Books on this subject are indeed still published, which shows that -the race of fools is in no immediate danger of extinction. Wrinkles in -the face do bear some relation to character and experience; but surely -no one needs to be told that the palmar lines are purely -accidental—caused by the manner in which the skin is folded when we -close the hand. - - - FINGER-NAILS - -Our nails are modified claws—modified to their advantage. When properly -cared for, they are one of the greatest personal ornaments—beginning and -ending as they do with a delicate curve, rounded on the surface, -suffused with a gentle blush, and smooth as ivory. They may also serve -as a mode of expression and index of nationality, as seen in these -remarks by Mr. E. B. Tylor: “In the Southern United States, till slavery -was done away a few years ago, the traces of Negro descent were noted -with the utmost nicety. Not only were the mixed breeds regularly classed -as mulattos, quadroons, and down to octoroons, but even where the -mixture was so slight that the untrained eye noticed nothing beyond a -brunette complexion, the intruder, who had ventured to sit down at a -public dinner-table, was called upon to show his hands, and the African -taint detected by the dark tinge at the root of the finger-nails.” - -Becker remarks that among the ancient Greeks “it was considered very -unseemly to appear with nails unpared”; nor did the Greeks consider it -beneath their dignity, like the Romans, to pare their own nails. - -The Greeks, being an æsthetic nation, were guided in the treatment of -their nails by the sense of beauty. Elsewhere, however, the idiotic -notion that laziness is aristocratic led to a different treatment of the -nails. Mr. Tylor, in his _Anthropology_, gives an illustration of the -hand of a Chinese ascetic whose finger-nails are five or six times as -long as his fingers. “Long finger-nails,” he remarks, “are noticed even -among ourselves as showing that the owner does no manual labour, and in -China and neighbouring countries they are allowed to grow to a monstrous -length as a symbol of nobility, ladies wearing silver cases to protect -them, or at least as a pretence that they are there.” - -Useless hands, with elongated nails, reverting to a clawlike character, -as “symbols of nobility!” The study of evolution throws much sarcastic -light on the fashionable follies of mankind. - - - MANICURE SECRETS - -According to the New York _Analyst_: “There are not nearly as many -secrets in manicure as people imagine. A little ammonia or borax in the -water you wash your hands with, and that water just lukewarm, will keep -the skin clean and soft. A little oatmeal mixed with the water will -whiten the hands. Many people use glycerine on their hands when they go -to bed, wearing gloves to keep the bedding clean; but glycerine don’t -agree with every one. It makes some skins harsh and red. These people -should rub their hands with dry oatmeal and wear gloves in bed. The best -preparation for the hands at night is white of egg, with a grain of alum -dissolved in it.... The roughest and hardest hands can be made soft and -white in a month’s time by doctoring them a little at bedtime, and all -the tools you need are a nail-brush (avoid metal), a bottle of ammonia, -a box of powdered borax, and a little fine white sand to rub the stains -off, or a cut of lemon. Manicures use acids in their shops, but the -lemon is quite as good, and isn’t poisonous, while the acids are.” - -In the _Ugly Girl Papers_ the following recipes are given:— - -“To give a fine colour to the nails, the hands and fingers must be well -lathered and washed with scented soap; then the nails must be rubbed -with equal parts of cinnabar and emery, followed by oil of bitter -almonds. To take white specks from the nails, melt equal parts of pitch -and turpentine in a small cup; add to it vinegar and powdered sulphur. -Rub this on the nails and the specks will soon disappear. Pitch and -myrrh melted together may be used with the same results.” - -But, after all, what is the use of beautifying one’s hands as long as -ladies bow to the Fashion Fetish, which compels them to conceal them in -the skins of animals? To wear gloves on going out, as a protection -against rough weather and for the sake of cleanliness, is rational -enough; but to wear them at social gatherings is almost as absurd as the -compulsory impenetrable veils of Turkish women; for does not the hand -rank next to the face as an index of character? - -Another stupidity of fashion is our enforced and cultivated -right-handedness. Despite the force of inherited habit, children show a -natural inclination toward using both their hands equally; but they are -constantly scolded and punished, until they have succeeded, like their -parents, in reducing one hand to a state of imbecility, so to speak, -which is constantly betrayed in awkward, ungraceful action. Practising -on a musical instrument, with special attention to the left hand, has a -tendency to correct this awkwardness. Indeed, is there any part of the -body that music does not benefit? Dancing to a Strauss waltz gives -elasticity to the limbs and grace to the gait; singing is the most -useful kind of lung-gymnastics, and develops the chest; a -musically-trained ear modulates the voice to sweeter expression; while -equally skilled and graceful hands are acquired by practice on a musical -instrument. So that the word music, though much less comprehensive than -among the ancient Greeks, has lost none of the magic, beautifying power -they ascribed to it. - -Much of the ugliness in the world is due to the neglect of parents in -properly supervising the actions of their children, to prevent the -formation of bad habits, which ruin beauty irretrievably. As an instance -of what can be done in this direction may be cited the following remark -by a Philadelphia surgeon: “The school-girl habit of biting the nails -must be broken up at once. If in children, rub a little extract of -quassia on the finger-tips. This is so bitter that they are careful not -to taste it twice. Not only the nails, but the whole finger and hand is -often forfeited by neglect in this respect.” - -By travelling from the shoulder down to the finger-tips we have -apparently interrupted our steady progress from toe to tip of the body. -But we shall see in a moment that the interruption is only apparent, for -our subject leads naturally “from Hand to Mouth.” - - - - - JAW, CHIN, AND MOUTH - - - HANDS _VERSUS_ JAWS - -Just as among some male ruminants the growth of horns as a means of -defence has apparently led to the disappearance of the canine teeth, so -man’s erect attitude, by leaving his hands free to do much of the work -which inferior animals do with their jaws and teeth, has gradually -modified the appearance of his face, greatly to its advantage. “The -early male forefathers of man,” says Darwin, “were probably furnished -with great canine teeth; but as they gradually acquired the habit of -using stones, clubs, or other weapons, for fighting with their enemies -or rivals, they would use their jaws and teeth less and less. In this -case the jaws, together with the teeth, would become reduced in size, as -we may feel almost sure from innumerable analogous cases.” And in -another place he remarks: “As the prodigious difference between the -skulls of the two sexes in the orang and gorilla stands in close -relation with the development of the immense canine teeth in the males, -we may infer that the reduction of the jaws and teeth in the early -progenitors of man must have led to a most striking and favourable -change in his appearance.” - -Why a “favourable” change? No doubt a male gorilla, if it could be -taught to pronounce an æsthetic judgment, would indignantly scout the -notion that our weak, delicate jaw is preferable to its own massive -bones; nor would a prognathous or “forward-jawed” African or Australian -admit that he is less beautiful than the orthognathous or -“upright-jawed” European. What right, then, have we to claim that we -alone have beautiful faces? Must we not admit, with the Jeffrey Alison -school, that it is all “a matter of taste,” and that in so far as a -heavy, projecting jaw _appears_ beautiful to a gorilla or a savage, it -_is_ beautiful to them? - -The general answer to such questions as these has already been given in -another part of this volume. We need therefore only say in brief -_résumé_ that a heavy, projecting, clumsy, brutal jaw probably appears -to a gorilla or a Hottentot _neither ugly nor beautiful_. The æsthetic -sense—as we can see among ourselves—is the last and highest product of -civilisation. Monkeys are apparently excited by brilliant _colours_, but -to beauty of _form_ neither apes nor the lower races and classes of man -appear to be susceptible. - -Should a negro, however, on having his attention called to this matter, -claim that his prognathous face is more beautiful than our orthognathous -face, the retort simple would be that his imagination is not -sufficiently educated to understand our more refined and delicate -beauty; just as an Esquimaux prefers a rotten egg to a fresh one, a -working man a glass of fusil oil to one of tokay—simply because their -senses of taste and smell are not sufficiently refined to appreciate _or -even detect_ the delicate flavour of a fresh egg and the subtle bouquet -of wine. - -Of the positive tests of beauty, Delicacy is the one which most -emphatically condemns the heavy, prognathous jaw and the accompanying -big mouth. Massive bones and clumsy movements are everywhere the signs -of excessive toil, fatal to beauty, as may be seen on comparing the -angular and almost masculine skeleton of a labouring woman with the -delicately-articulated joints of a “society woman”; or the heavy -structure of a dray-horse with the fine contours of a race-horse; -showing that Delicacy is always associated with the other elements of -beauty—Curvature, Gradation, Expression, etc. - -On the manner in which the beauty of the mouth is proportioned to its -capability for Expression, Mr. Ruskin has made the following interesting -observations: “Taking the mouth, another source of expression, we find -it ugliest where it has none, as mostly in fish; or perhaps where, -without gaining much in expression of any kind, it becomes a formidable -destructive instrument, as again in the alligator; and then, by some -increase of expression, we arrive at birds’ beaks, wherein there is much -obtained by the different ways of setting on the mandibles (compare the -bills of the duck and the eagle); and thence we reach the -finely-developed lips of the carnivora (which nevertheless lose their -beauty in the actions of snarling and biting); and from these we pass to -the nobler, because gentler and more sensitive, of the horse, camel, and -fawn, and so again up to man: only the principle is less traceable in -the mouths of the lower animals, because they are only in slight measure -capable of expression, and chiefly used as instruments, and that of low -function; whereas in man the mouth is given most definitely as a means -of expression, beyond and above its lower functions.... The beauty of -the animal form is in exact proportion to the amount of moral or -intellectual virtue expressed by it.” - -Shakspere, by the way, seems to differ from Ruskin’s theory implied in -this last sentence. According to Ruskin, animals “lose their beauty in -the actions of snarling and biting.” But man has an action similar to -snarling, namely, what Bell calls “that arching of the lips so -expressive of contempt, hatred, and jealousy.” It is to this that -Shakspere refers in these lines— - - “O what a deal of scorn looks beautiful - In the contempt and anger of his lip.” - -But the word “beautiful” is here evidently taken by Shakspere in the -wider sense of interesting and characteristic, and not in the special -æsthetic sense of formal and emotional beauty. - -Delicacy and the capacity for varied and subtle Expression—these, we may -conclude, are the chief criteria of beauty in the lower part of the -face. Anatomically, it may be well to state here, the word “face” does -not include the forehead, but only extends from the chin to the -eyebrows. The upper and posterior part is called the cranium or skull. -It seems odd at first not to include the forehead in the face, but there -are scientific grounds for making such a division, for a discussion of -which the reader must be referred to some anatomical text-book (_vide_ -Kollmann, pp. 82-85). - -To a certain extent the face and the cranium are independent of one -another in development and physiognomic significance. And it should be -noted that, contrary to the general impression, in estimating the degree -of intelligence and refinement, the face is a safer guide than the -cranium; for there are many powerful brains in low and even receding -foreheads, whereas a large projecting jaw is almost invariably a sign of -vulgarity or lack of delicate feeling. We do not find a dog ugly because -of his receding forehead; but we do find that the most infallible way of -giving a man’s picture a brutal expression is by enlarging the jaw and -mouth. It is the deadliest weapon of the caricaturist. - -What makes a gorilla so frightfully ugly is the prominence and massive -preponderance of his face over his cranium. It is his monstrous jaws, -with their “simply brutal armature” of teeth, that give him such a -repulsive appearance. The gorilla’s mouth, as Professor Kollmann -remarks, is a caricature even from the animal point of view. How much -more delicate and refined are a dog’s or cat’s jaws and teeth in -comparison! Unfortunately, while man is a savage, or when he relapses -into brutal habits, it is the gorilla’s mouth and teeth that his -resemble, and not the cat’s or the dog’s. - -A small face being therefore a test of refined beauty, we have here -another proof of the superiority of feminine over masculine beauty. For -although woman has a smaller cranium than man, it is larger than man’s -relatively to the face. In other words, women have smaller and less -massive faces than men, both absolutely and relatively to their size. -Kollmann, who is not an evolutionist, endeavours to account for this -difference on the ground that men are more addicted to the pleasures of -the table than women. But surely, though women eat less than men, they -do not make much less use of their teeth; and for any deficiency in this -respect they more than make up by the constant wagging of their jaws in -small-talk. It is infinitely more probable that Darwin is right in -attributing the massiveness of the masculine jaws to the accumulated, -inherited effects of constant use in fighting with enemies and -rivals—contests from which the passive females have as a rule been -exempt. - -It is the assumption by the hands of many of the former functions of the -teeth that has led to the decrease in the size of the teeth, and, in -consequence, of the jaw-bones to which they are attached. Some writers -have even claimed that the wisdom-teeth are becoming rudimentary, and -will ultimately disappear, because there will be no room for them in our -gradually diminishing jaws. We may feel confident, however, that if this -reduction in the size of the jaws tended to go _too_ far, the sense of -beauty and Sexual Selection, _i.e._ Love, would step in to arrest the -process, by favouring the survival of those who gave their teeth -sufficient exercise to prevent the lower part of the face from becoming -too much reduced in size. Our sense of beauty demands that the distance -from tip of chin to nose should be about the same as the length of the -nose and the height of the forehead. Should these proportions be -violated, Love will restore the balance; for no lover would ever select -a face in which the chin almost touches the nose, as in infants, whose -teeth and jaws are not yet developed, or as in old men and women, in -whom the loss of the teeth has led to a collapse of the jaws, resulting -in a loss of proportion, clumsy movements, and prognathism. - - - DIMPLES IN THE CHIN - -An oval, well-rounded chin is one of the most important elements of -formal beauty, and is a characteristic trait of humanity; for man is the -only animal that has a chin. Lavater distinguishes three principal -varieties of chin: the receding chin, which is peculiar to lower races -and types; the chin which does not project beyond a line dropped from -the lips; and the chin which does project beyond that line. Of all parts -of the face the chin has the least variety of form and capability of -emotional expression. Physiognomists have expended much ingenuity in -attempting to trace a connection between various forms of the chin and -traits of character; but their generalisations have no scientific value. -It is probable that often a very small, weak chin indicates weak desires -and a vacillating character, while an energetic chin, like Richard -Wagner’s, indicates the iron will of a reformer. But the connection -between the development of the brain and special modifications of the -bones of the chin is too remote to permit a safe inference in individual -cases. - -In ancient Egyptian art, as Winckelmann points out, “the chin is always -somewhat small and receding, whereby the oval of the face becomes -imperfect.” - -One of the most essential conditions of beauty in a chin, if we may -judge by the descriptions of novelists, is a dimple. Yet it is doubtful -whether a dimple can ever be accepted as a special mark of beauty. -Temporary dimples (for the production of which there seems to be a -special muscle) are interesting as a mode of transient emotional -expression. But permanent dimples interrupt the regular gradation of the -beauty-curve, and too often indicate that the plump roundness, so -fascinating in a woman’s face, has passed the line which indicates -corpulence and obliterates the delicate lines of expression. - -Dimples occur not only in the chin, but also in the cheek, at the -elbow-joints, on the back, and in plump female hands at the knuckles. -They are caused by a dense tissue of fibres, blood-vessels, and nerves -holding down the skin tightly in one place, and thus preventing such an -accumulation of fat between the skin and muscles as is seen in the -surrounding parts. - -Tommaseo (quoted by Mantegazza) probably had in mind the connection -between corpulence and mental indolence when he said that “a dimple in -the chin indicates more physical than mental grace.” - -“As a dimple—by the Greeks termed νύμφη—is an isolated and somewhat -accidental adjunct to the chin, it was not,” says Winckelmann, “regarded -by the Greek artists as an attribute of abstract and pure beauty, though -it is so considered by modern writers.” With a few unimportant -exceptions, it is not found in “any beautiful ideal figure which has -come down to us.” And although Varro prettily calls a dimple in a statue -of Bathyllus an impress from the finger of Cupid, Winckelmann thinks -that when dimples do occur in Greek art works they must be attributed to -a conscious deviation from the highest principles of art for the sake of -personal portraiture. “In images whose beauties were of a lofty cast, -the Greek artists never allowed a dimple to break the uniformity of the -chin’s surface. Its beauty, indeed, consists in the rounded fulness of -its arched form, to which the lower lip, when full, imparts additional -size.” - - - REFINED LIPS - -Whereas the beauty of the chin is purely physical, its neighbour, the -mouth, has the emotional charm of expression besides the formal beauty -of outline. When we come to speak of the ears we shall find that some -animals have five times as many muscles as man, wherewith they can -execute expressive movements with those organs. But in the number and -delicacy of the muscles of the mouth no animal approaches man, in whom -they are more numerous even than those which serve for the varied -expression of the eyes. Great as is the difference between an animal’s -forefoot and man’s hand, it is not so great as the difference between an -animal’s and a man’s mouth. Chewing and sucking are almost the only -functions of the animal’s mouth, while man moulds his lips into a -thousand shapes in singing, whistling, pouting, blowing, speaking, -smiling, kissing, etc. From being a mere mechanism for masticating food, -it has become the most delicate instrument for intellectual and -emotional expression. - -Sir Charles Bell’s testimony that “the lips are, of all the features, -the most susceptible of action, and the most direct index of the -feelings,” has already been quoted in the chapter on Kissing. Could -Rubinstein himself express a wider range of emotions, by subtle -variations of pianistic touch, than our lips can express degrees and -varieties of affection in the family, friendly, conjugal, and love -kisses? And can we find, even in the music of Chopin and Wagner, -harmonic changes more infinitely varied than the countless subtle -modulations of the human lips, as revealed in the fact that deaf mutes -can be taught to understand what we say to them merely by watching the -movements of our lips? - -“The mouth, which is the end of love” (Dante), is also the seat of -Love’s smiles; “and in her smile Love’s image you may see.” We often -read of smiling eyes, and the eyes _do_ partake in the expression of -smiling, by increased brightness and the wrinkling of the surrounding -muscles. But that the mouth is a more important factor in this -expression can be shown by painting the face of a man with a sad -expression, and then pasting on a smiling mouth, which will give the man -at once a happy expression, notwithstanding the unchanged eyes. In life -the muscles of the mouth and eyes execute certain movements in harmony. -“In all exhilarating emotions,” says Bell, “the eyebrows, the eyelids, -the nostril, and the angle of the mouth are raised. In the depressing -emotions it is the reverse.” - -For the execution of these diverse movements, which make it the most -expressive organ of the body, the mouth employs more than a dozen -important groups of muscles, some of which originate in the chin, some -in the cheeks, some in the lips themselves, enabling them to execute -independent movements. - -While surpassing the eyes in expressiveness, the mouth rivals them in -beauty of form and colour. “The lips answer the purpose of displaying a -more brilliant red than is to be seen elsewhere,” says Winckelmann. “The -under lips should be fuller than the upper.” In Greek divinities the -lips are not always closed: “and this is especially the case with Venus, -in order that her countenance may express the languishing softness of -desire and love.” At the same time, “very few of the figures which have -been represented laughing, as some Satyrs or Fauns are, show the teeth.” -This is natural enough, for the long-continued exposure of the teeth -would only result in a grimace. It is only in the transient smile that -the teeth may peep forth; and then what a charming contrast their ivory -curve and lustrous colour presents to the full-blooded, soft, pink lips! - - “Lilies married to the rose, - Have made her cheek the nuptial bed; - Her lips betray their virgin red, - As they only blushed for this, - That they one another kiss.” - -Health, Beauty, and Love—everywhere we see them inseparably associated. -Who could ever fall in love with a pair of thin, pallid lips that have -lost their pink and plump loveliness through anæmic indolence, or -disease, or tight lacing? The very teeth, though the hardest substance -of the body, lose their natural colour and beauty in ill-health. Not -only do they decay and become blackish, but “in bilious people they -become yellow, and in consumptive patients they show occasionally an -unnaturally pearly and translucent whiteness” (Brinton and Napheys). - -Negroes have, normally, teeth of a dazzling whiteness, which is often -regarded as a racial peculiarity, but is due, according to Waitz, to the -use of chalk or vegetal fibres. But various savages are dissatisfied -with the natural form and colour of their teeth, and disfigure them in -various ways. “In different countries the teeth are stained black, red, -blue, etc., and in the Malay Archipelago it is thought shameful to have -teeth like those of a dog” (Darwin). - -“In Macassar the women spend a part of the day in painting their teeth -red and yellow, in such a way that a red tooth follows a yellow one, and -alternately.” In Japan, Fashion compels married women to blacken their -teeth, not, however, as an ornament, but to make them ugly and save them -from temptation. - -Some African tribes knock out two or more of their front teeth, on the -ground that they do not wish to look like brutes. The Batokas “think the -presence of incisors most unsightly, and on beholding some Europeans, -cried out, ‘Look at the great teeth!’... In various parts of Africa, and -in the Malay Archipelago, the natives file the incisors into points like -those of a saw, or pierce them with holes, into which they insert -studs.” - -In case of the lips, primitive Fashion prescribes still more atrocious -mutilations. One would think that a negro’s swollen lips were ugly -enough to suit even a devotee of African Fashion; but no! Her lips being -naturally large, the fashionable negro belle considers it incumbent on -her to exaggerate them into additional hideousness, just as European and -American fashionable women exaggerate the slight and beautiful natural -curve of their waist into the atrocious hour-glass shape. - -“Among the Babines, who live north of the Columbia River,” says Sir John -Lubbock, “the size of the under lip is the standard of female beauty. A -hole is made in the under lip of the infant, in which a small bone is -inserted; from time to time the bone is replaced by a larger one, until -at last a piece of wood, three inches long and an inch and a half wide, -is inserted in the orifice, which makes the lip protrude to a frightful -extent. The process appears to be very painful.” - -“In Central Africa,” says Darwin, “the women perforate the lower lip and -wear a crystal, which, from the movement of the tongue, has ‘a wriggling -motion, indescribably ludicrous during conversation.’ The wife of the -chief of Latooka told Sir S. Baker that Lady Baker ‘would be much -improved if she would extract her four front teeth from the lower jaw, -and wear the long pointed polished crystal in her under lip.’ Further -south, with the Makalolo, the upper lip is perforated, and a large metal -and bamboo ring, called a _pelelé_, is worn in the hole. This caused the -lip to project in one point two inches beyond the tip of the nose; and -when the lady smiled, the contraction of the muscles elevated it over -the eyes. ‘Why do the women wear these things?’ the venerable chief -Chinsurdi was asked. Evidently surprised at such a stupid question, he -replied, ‘For beauty! They are the only beautiful things women have; men -have beards, women have none. What kind of a person would she be without -a _pelelé_? She would not be a woman at all, with a mouth like a man but -no beard.’” - -In New Zealand, according to Tylor, “it was considered shameful for a -woman not to have her mouth tattooed, for people would say with disgust, -‘She has red lips.’” - -Compare these two pictures for a moment: on the one side, the -protuberant mouth-borders of the negro woman, swollen as by disease or -an insect’s sting, enlarged, in smiling, to the very ears, and showing -not only the teeth but the gums, the tongue and the unæsthetic -œsophagus; on the other side, the full but delicate cherry lips of -civilised woman, capable of an infinite variety of subtle, graceful -movements, a keyboard on which the whole gamut of human feelings finds -expression, and revealing, in a smile, only the tips of the pearly, -undeformed teeth. Shall we say, with Alison and Jeffrey, that it is all -a matter of taste, and that the negro has as much right to his taste as -we have to ours? Or have we not plentiful reasons for claiming that -Personal Beauty is a fine art, and that the reason why the negro prefers -his coarse mouth to our refined lips is because he _does not understand_ -our highly-developed and specialised Beauty? - -There are cogent scientific reasons for believing that, just as the -skull has been modified and developed from the upper part of the spinal -column, and the brain from its contents, so the facial muscles are all -developed from the broad muscle of the neck. In the orang, according to -Professor Owen, we find already all the important facial muscles which -man uses to express emotions. But, as Darwin remarks, “distinct uses, -independently of expression, can ... be assigned with much probability -for almost all the facial muscles.” - -On the other hand, the facial muscles “are, as is admitted by every one -who has written on the subject, very variable in structure; and Moreau -remarks that they are hardly alike in half a dozen subjects. They are -also variable in function. Thus the power of uncovering the canine tooth -on one side differs much in different persons. The power of raising the -wings of the nostrils is also, according to Dr. Piderit, variable in a -remarkable degree; and other such cases could be given.” - -The facts that the facial muscles blend so much together that their -number has been variously estimated at from nineteen to fifty-five, and -that they vary so much in details of structure and function in -individuals, are of extreme significance. For, in the first place, this -variableness allows Love—or Sexual Selection—to favour the survival of -those modifications of the features which are most in harmony with the -laws of Beauty; and, secondly, it affords the means of further -specialisation and increased accuracy in the modes of emotional -expression. - -When we see a friend reading a letter, we fancy his face a perfect -mirror, reflecting every mood touched upon in its contents. Yet many of -our expressions are vague, and there is much room for improvement in -definiteness. Darwin, in the introduction to his work on the _Expression -of Emotions in Man and Animals_, has remarked how difficult it often is -to name the exact emotion intended to be expressed in a picture of a -man, unless we regard the accessories by which the painter illustrates -the situation; and how apt people are to disagree in naming the emotions -expressed by a series of physiognomic portraits. With monkeys, he says, -“the expression of slight pain, or of any painful emotion, such as -grief, vexation, jealousy, etc., is not easily distinguished from that -of moderate anger.” - -Savages, as we saw in a previous chapter, are strangers to many of the -tender emotions which enter into our daily life; hence it would be -absurd to look for muscles specially trained to express them. And even -with Europeans the refined emotions are of such recent development that, -as just stated, they are capable of much further specialisation. To take -only one case: it is probable that, whereas in the present stage of -human evolution, it is almost impossible, without accessories, to -distinguish the facial expression of feminine Romantic Love from that of -maternal love, future generations will have specially modified muscles -for those modes of expression. Duchenne has pointed out on the side of -the nose a series of transient folds expressive of amorous desire. As -Romantic Love displaces coarse passion, may not these or another set of -muscles be pressed into the special service of refined Love as a sign of -encouragement to lovers about to propose? Coquettes, of course, would -immediately cultivate this expression, as a new wile or “wrinkle.” - -Between the facial muscles that are thus utilised for the expression of -emotions and other muscles of the body, there is one difference which is -of the utmost importance from the point of view of Personal Beauty. The -function of ordinary muscles is to move bones, whereas the muscles of -expression in the face are only concerned with the movements of the -skin. Hence they do not enlarge the bones of the face, which would -destroy its delicacy. Their exercise gives elasticity and plump -roundness to the outlines of the face; and as they are subtly subdivided -in function, they cannot easily become too plump from exercise. - -Individual peculiarities of expression are of course due to the frequent -exercise of certain sets of muscles, leading gradually to a fixed -physiognomic aspect; for form is merely crystallised expression. Hence -no one can be beautiful without being good. Vice soon destroys Personal -Beauty. If the muscles of anger, envy, jealousy, spite, cruelty, etc., -are too frequently called into exercise, the result is a face on which -the word _vicious_ is written as legibly and in as many corners as the -numerals X and 10 are printed on a United States banknote. - -One of the reasons why Fashion encourages the _blasé_, _nil admirari_ -attitude, and the stolid suppression of emotional expression, is to hide -these signs of moral and hygienic sins. - -Oliver Wendell Holmes, anatomist and poet, says of Emerson that he had -“that look of refinement centring about the lips which is rarely found -in the male New Englander, unless the family features have been for two -or three cultivated generations the battlefield and the playground of -varied thoughts and complex emotions, as well as the sensuous and -nutritive port of entry.” - -Dr. Holmes need not have limited his generalisation to “male New -Englanders.” Refined mouths are rare in every country, among women as -well as among men. As a writer in the _Victoria Magazine_ exclaims: “It -is wonderful how far more common good foreheads and eyes are amongst us -than good mouths and chins.” Yet there is a special reason for singling -out the average male New Englander as a “warning example.” He inherits -the thin, famished, pale, stern, forbidding lips of his Puritan -ancestors, whose sins are thus visited on later generations. Sins? Yes, -sins against health. Without cheerfulness there can be no sound health, -and the Puritans made the systematic pursuit of unhappiness the chief -object of their life. They made cruel war on all those innocent pursuits -and amusements which bring the bloom of health and beauty to the -youthful cheek, and exercise the lips in the expression of refined -æsthetic emotion. Even music, the most innocent of the arts, was -included in their fanatic ostracism, to which historians also trace the -rarity of musical taste of the highest order in England. - -There is reason to believe that it is especially æsthetic culture which -betrays itself in the refined contours and expression of the lips. Men -of genius, though their cast of features is not always handsome, -commonly have finely-cut mouths. Among German women addicted to music -and love of nature, though beauty is comparatively rare—owing to causes -which will be considered in a later chapter—good mouths are more common -than in some other countries which boast a higher general average of -Personal Beauty. Among Americans in general, all the features are apt to -be finely cut, hence the lips also partake of this advantage. - -But it is among Spanish maidens that perhaps the most inviting, -full-blooded yet delicate, soft, and refined lips are to be sought. -True, the Spanish maiden seems to lack refined feelings when she goes, -as commonly supposed, to be thrilled by a bull fight. Yet it is well -known that the upper classes of women in Spain do not commonly attend -these spectacles; and if they did, would they be more cruel than our -fashionable women? Which is the more glaring evidence of callous -emotions, to voluntarily witness the slaughter of an infuriated, -dangerous beast, or to wear on one’s hat the painted corpses of innocent -song-birds? - -The following passage in one of Washington Irving’s works shows that the -Spanish have genuine æsthetic feeling and taste:— - -“‘How near the Sierra looks this evening!’ said Mateo; ‘it seems as if -you could touch it with your hand, and yet it is many leagues off.’ -While he was speaking a star appeared over the snowy summit of the -mountain, the only one yet visible in the heavens, and so pure, so -large, so bright and beautiful as to call forth ejaculations of delight -from honest Mateo. - -”‘Que lucero hermoso!—que clara y limpio es!—no pueda ser lucero mas -brillante.’ (What a beautiful star! how clear and lucid!—no star could -be more brilliant!) - -“I have often remarked this sensibility of the common people of Spain to -the charms of natural objects. The lustre of a star—the beauty or -fragrance of a flower—the crystal purity of a fountain, will inspire -them with a kind of poetical delight—and then what euphonious words -their magnificent language affords with which to give utterance to their -transports!” - -Possibly the constant pronouncing of these “euphonious words” is one of -the causes of the beauty of Spanish lips. But one need not go into such -subtle details for an explanation of the phenomenon. Sexual Selection -accounts for it sufficiently. The admiration of Beauty is the strongest -factor in Romantic Love. The Spaniard’s sense of Beauty is refined -through his love of Beauty in natural objects. Hence in Sexual Selection -he is guided by a taste which abhors equally the coarse, protuberant -lips suggestive of mere animality, and the leathery, lifeless lips -indicating neglect of the laws of health and a lack of lusty vitality. -For true labial refinement consists not in ascetic elimination of -sensuous fulness, but in æsthetic harmony between sense and intellect. -The lips, like all other parts of the body, are naturally plump and -full-blooded in Southern nations, saturated with sunshine and fresh air; -and when this plumpness is checked by mental refinement and the -exigencies of varied expression, then it is that lips become ideally -beautiful. - -It is with the lips as with Love, of which they are the perch. Neither -Zola nor Dante are the true painters of the romantic passion, but -Shakspere, who pays respect to flesh and blood as well as to emotion and -intellect. - - - COSMETIC HINTS - -Although the size and shape of the lips afford an index of coarse or -refined ancestry, the mouth is commonly the most self-made feature in -the countenance, because it is such an important seat of individual -expression. Herein lies a soothing balm to those who, owing to the -stupidly irregular and incalculable laws of heredity, have inherited an -ugly mouth from a grandfather or a more remote ancestor. - -A pleasing impression, oft repeated, leaves its traces on the facial -muscles. Kant gives this advice to parents: “Children, especially girls, -must be accustomed early to smile in a frank, unconstrained manner; for -the cheerfulness and animation of the features gradually leave an -impression on the mind itself, and thus create a disposition towards -gaiety, amiableness, and sociability, which lay an early foundation for -the virtue of benevolence.” - -So Kant evidently believed that we can beautify the soul by beautifying -the body. And the reverse is equally true. As Mr. Ruskin remarks: “There -is not any virtue the exercise of which, even momentarily, will not -impress a new fairness upon the features.... On the gentleness and -decision of just feeling there follows a grace of action which by no -discipline may be taught or obtained.” - -If educators and parents would thoroughly impress on the minds of the -young the great truth that good moral behaviour and the industry which -leads to intellectual pre-eminence are magic sources of youthful and -permanent Personal Beauty, they would find it the most potent of all -civilising agencies, especially with women. - -Drs. Brinton and Napheys, in their work on _Personal Beauty_ (1870), -which is especially valuable from the point of view of medical and -surgical cosmetics, but which is unfortunately out of print, offer the -following suggestions as to how the shape and expression of the mouth -may be improved:— - -"For cosmetic reasons, immoderate laughter is objectionable. It keeps -the muscles on the stretch, destroys the contour of the features, and -produces wrinkles. It is better to cultivate a ‘classic repose.’ - -"Still more decidedly should the habit of ‘making mouths’ be condemned, -whether it occur in conversing in private or to express emotions. It -never adds to the emphasis of the discourse, never improves the looks, -and leads to actual malformations. - -"Children sometimes learn to suck and bite their lips. This distorts -these organs, and unless they are persuaded to give it up betimes, a -permanent deformity will arise. - -“When the lips have once assumed a given form, it is difficult to change -them. Those that are too thin can occasionally be increased by adopting -the plan of sucking them. This forces a large quantity of blood to the -part, and consequently a greater amount of nutriment. When too large, -compresses can sometimes, but not always, be used to effect. We have -employed silver plates connected by a wire spring, or a mould of stiff -leather. Either may be worn at night, or in the house during the day.” - -It is astonishing to note how many persons are utterly unconcerned -regarding the appearance of their mouths in talking, smiling, and -laughing, sometimes revealing the whole of the teeth and even the gums, -like savages, or as if they were walking tooth-powder advertisements. -Self-observation before a mirror is the best antidote against such -grimaces. - -Chapped lips sometimes call for constitutional treatment, but ordinarily -they can be easily cured by obtaining a lip-salve of some reputable -chemist. Glycerine is almost always adulterated and injurious, and -should only be used on any part of the skin when chemically pure. - -Pale lips are commonly an indication of ill-health, and therefore call -for exercise, tonics, or other medical treatment. And the colour of the -lips is an index of emotion as well as of health— - - “Whispering, with white lips, ‘The foe! They come! They come!’”—BYRON. - -That sound teeth, though they should never be seen except in glimpses, -are an extremely important element in facial beauty, may be seen by the -fact that the loss of a few front teeth makes a person look ten years -older at once. The art of dentistry has reached such marvellous -perfection that there is no excuse for having unsightly teeth. They may -be easily preserved to a good age, if properly exercised on solid -food—bread crusts, etc. Very hot and very cold food and drink is -injurious, especially if cold and hot things are taken in immediate -succession. The teeth should be cleaned twice a day, on rising and -before retiring. The brush should not be too hard, and a harmless -powder, wash, or soap should be obtained of a trustworthy chemist for -the threefold purpose of whitening the teeth by removing tartar, of -killing the numerous microbes in the mouth, and purifying the breath. An -offensive breath is shockingly common, probably owing to the fact that -many brush only the outside surface of their teeth. They should be -brushed inside as well, and on the top, and the tooth wash or soap -should be brought into contact with every corner and crevasse of the -mouth and teeth. An offensive breath ought to be good cause for divorce, -and certainly it is a deadly enemy of Romantic Love. - - - - - THE CHEEKS - - - HIGH CHEEK-BONES - -When we look at a Mongolian, the flat nose and oblique eyes at once -attract our attention, but hardly to such a degree as his high and -prominent cheek-bones. The North American Indians, who are probably the -descendants of Mongolians, resemble them in their prominent cheek-bones; -and the Esquimaux likewise possess these in a most exaggerated form. -“The Siamese,” says Darwin, “have small noses with divergent nostrils, a -wide mouth, rather thick lips, a remarkably large face, with very high -and broad cheek-bones. It is therefore not wonderful that ‘beauty, -according to our notion, is a stranger to them. Yet they consider their -own females to be much more beautiful than those of Europe.’” - -Here is another “matter of taste,” which is decided in our favour by the -general laws of Beauty, positive and negative. - -High, prominent cheek-bones are ugly, in the first place, because they -interfere with the regularly gradated oval of the face. Secondly, -because, like projecting bones and angles in any other part of the body, -they interrupt the regular curve of Beauty. Thirdly, because they are -coarse and inelegant, offending the sense of delicacy and grace, like -big, clumsy ankles and wrists. Fourthly, because they suggest the -decrepitude of old age and disease. In the healthy cheek of youth and -beauty there is a large amount of adipose tissue, both under the skin -and between the subjacent muscles. When age or disease makes fatal -inroads on the body, this fat disappears and leaves the impression of -starvation. “Famine is in thy cheeks,” exclaims Shakspere; and again— - - “Meagre were his looks, - Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.” - -When the malar bones are too high, the fleshy cheeks, instead of -including them in a plump curve, are made by contrast to appear hollow, -thus simulating and suggesting the appearance of disease to those whose -imagination is sufficiently awake to notice such suggestions. And -besides emaciation, hollow cheeks suggest another sign of age and -decrepitude—the loss of the teeth, which on the sides of the jaws help -to give youthful cheeks their plump outlines. - -Finally, prominent cheek-bones are objectionable because they are -concomitants of the large, clumsy, brutal jaws which characterise -savages and apes. To the cheek-bones the upper jaw-bone is directly -attached; hence the larger the teeth are, and the more vigorously they -are exercised in fighting and picking bones, the more massive must be -the cheek-bones, to prevent the upper jaw from being pushed out of -position. Moreover, there is attached to the cheek-bones a powerful -muscle which connects it with the lower jaw, and by its contraction -brings the two jaws together; and this is a second way in which violent -exercise of the jaws tends to enlarge the cheek-bones, for all bones -become enlarged if the muscles attached to them are much exercised. - -At a recent meeting of the British Association, Sir George Campbell -advanced the theory that the Aryan race, to which we belong, originally -had prominent cheek-bones, like those of lower races. On general -evolutionary grounds this is indeed a foregone conclusion; as is the -corollary that our cheek-bones have become smaller, for the same reason -that our jaws have become more delicate; viz. because we no longer use -them to fight and tear our food like wild beasts, but to masticate soft -cooked food, to talk, etc. Thus does the progress of civilisation -enhance our Personal Beauty. - -An excessive diminution in the size of the cheek-bones, as of the jaws, -will be prevented by Romantic Love (Sexual Selection), which ever aims -at establishing and preserving those proportions and outlines of the -features which are most in harmony with the general laws of beauty. - -Among the lower animals cruel Natural Selection eliminates those -individuals who are ugly, _i.e._ unnatural, unhealthy, clumsy. With -mankind charity and pity have checked the operation of this cruel though -beneficial law, and progress in the direction of refinement and Beauty -would therefore be fatally impeded were it not that Sexual Selection, or -Love guided by the sense of Beauty, steps in to eliminate the -ill-favoured, who bear in their countenance too conspicuously the marks -of their savage and animal ancestry. Perhaps Mr. Wallace had some such -thought in his mind when he anticipated the time when man’s selection -shall have supplanted natural selection. - -Yet there are thousands of good people who still profess to believe that -“beauty is only skin deep,” and that Romantic Love and æsthetic culture -are of no practical importance, but mere gaudy soap-bubbles to delight -our vision for a transient moment! - -In future ages, when æsthetic refinement will be more common, and -Romantic Love, its offspring, less impeded by those considerations of -rank and money and imaginary “prudence” which lead parents to _sacrifice -the physique and wellbeing of their grand-children_ to the illusive -comfort of their sons and daughters (in “marriages of reason”)—what an -impetus will then be given to the development of Personal Beauty! -Refined mouths and noses, rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, plump and -graceful healthy figures, now so lamentably rare, will then become as -plentiful as blackberries in the autumn. - - - COLOUR AND BLUSHES - -Although the heart’s warm blood is not carried to the cheeks in so dense -a network of arteries, nor so near the surface as in the lips, yet the -cheeks come next to the lips in delicate sensibility—a fact which Love -has discovered instinctively; for a kiss on the cheeks is still a kiss -of love, whereas a kiss on the forehead or eyelids indicates less -ecstatic forms of affection or esteem. - -What makes the cheeks so sensitive is the great delicacy of their -transparent skin, which readily allows the colour of the blood to be -seen as through a veil, not only in blushing, but in the natural rosy -aspect of youth and health. - -Though the cheeks may not vie with the lips and teeth, the hair and the -eyes, in lustrous depth of colour, they have an advantage in their -chamæleonic variety and changes of tint, and their delicious gradations. -Even the delicate blushes on an apple or a peach, caused by the warm and -loving glances of the sun,—what are they compared to the luscious, -mellow tints on a maiden’s ripe cheeks? Nor is it possible to find in -the leaves of an autumnal American forest more endless individual -_nuances_ and shades of red and rose and pink than in the cheeks of -lovely girls—unless indolence or other sins against health have painted -them with ghastly repulsive pallor, or the hideous Hottentot habit of -bedaubing them with brutal paint has ruined their translucent delicacy. - -Says the author of the _Ugly Girl Papers_: “Some cheeks have a winelike, -purplish glow, others a transparent saffron tinge, like yellowish-pink -porcelain; others still have clear, pale carmine; and the rarest of all, -that suffused tint like apple-blossoms.” - -At summer resorts where girls drink in daily draughts of the elixir of -youth and beauty, commonly known as fresh air, one of their greatest -love-charms is these colour-symphonies on their cheeks, changing their -melody with every pulse-beat. These charms they might possess all the -year round did not their parents commonly convert their dwelling-houses -into hothouses, reeking with stagnant, enervating air. - -If, therefore, we read that Africans prefer the opaque, inky, immutable -ebony of their complexion to the translucent, ever-changing tints, -eloquent of health and varied emotions, in a white maiden’s face, -we—well, we simply smile, on recalling the fact that even among -ourselves a cheap, gaudy chromo is preferred by the great multitude to -the work of a great master which they do not understand. The slow growth -of æsthetic refinement is illustrated by the fact that it is only a few -years since Fashion has set its face against the use of vulgar paints -and powders, which ensure a most questionable temporary advantage at the -expense of future permanent defacement. - -The colours of the cheeks, so far under consideration, are to a certain -extent subject to our will and skill; for no one who cultivates the -complexion and has plenty of pure air need be without these blooming -buccal roses. But the “thousand _blushing apparitions_” that start into -our faces are, as Shakspere’s well-chosen words imply, as independent of -our will and control as any other apparitions. - -Are blushes ornamental or useful? That is, were they developed through -Sexual or through Natural Selection? Such Shaksperian expressions as -“Bid the cheek be ready with a blush, modest as morning;” “Thy cheeks -blush for pure shame to counterfeit our roses;” and “To blush and -beautify the cheek again,” suggest the notion that the great poet -regarded blushes as beautiful; while the following permit a different -interpretation: “Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty;” “Blushing cheeks -by faults are bred, and fears by pale white shown;” “You virtuous ass, -you bashful fool, must you be blushing?” “His treasons will sit blushing -in his face.” - -Let us see if any light is thrown on the problem by going back to the -beginning, and tracing the development of the habit of blushing. That -blushing is a comparatively recent human acquisition is made apparent -from the facts that it is not seen in animals, nor in very young -children, nor in idiots, as a rule; while among savages the faculty of -blushing seems to be dependent on the presence of a sense of shame, -which is almost, if not entirely, unknown to the lowest tribes. - -That animals never blush, Darwin thinks, is almost certain. “Blushing,” -he says, “is the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions. -Monkeys redden from passion, but it would require an overwhelming amount -of evidence to make us believe that any animal could blush.” Concerning -children he says: “The young blush much more freely than the old, but -not during infancy, which is remarkable, as we know that infants at a -very early age redden from passion. I have received authentic accounts -of two little girls blushing at the ages of between two and three years; -and of another sensitive child, a year older, blushing when reproved for -a fault.” - -“In the dark-brown Peruvian,” says Mr. Tylor, “or the yet blacker -African, though a hand or a thermometer put to the cheek will detect the -blush by its heat, the somewhat increased depth of colour is hardly -perceptible to the eye.” Dr. Burgess repeatedly had occasion to observe -that a scar in the face of a negress “invariably became red whenever she -was abruptly spoken to, or charged with any trivial offence.” And Darwin -was assured by several trustworthy observers “that they have seen on the -faces of negroes an appearance resembling a blush, under circumstances -which would have excited one in us, though their skins were of an -ebony-black tint. Some describe it as a blushing brown, but most say -that the blackness becomes more intense.” - -Now evidence has already been quoted in a previous chapter showing that -negroes admire a black skin more than a white one (vide _Descent of -Man_, 1885, p. 579). Is it likely, therefore, that the blush was admired -by negroes, and became a ground of selection, because it intensified the -blackness of the skin. It hardly seems probable that the coarse negro -can be influenced in his amorous choice by any such subtle, almost -imperceptible difference; and even the great originator of the theory of -Sexual Selection does not believe that it accounts for the origin of -blushes: “No doubt a slight blush adds to the beauty of a maiden’s face; -and the Circassian women who are capable of blushing invariably fetch a -higher price in the seraglio of the Sultan than less susceptible women. -But the firmest believer in the efficacy of sexual selection will hardly -suppose that blushing was acquired as a sexual ornament. This view would -also be opposed to what has just been said about the dark-coloured races -blushing in an invisible manner.” - -On the other hand, it seems equally difficult to account for the origin -of blushing on utilitarian grounds. No one likes to be caught blushing; -on the contrary, every one tries to conceal such a state by lowering or -averting the face. How could such an unwelcome, embarrassing habit prove -of advantage to us? Sir Charles Bell’s remarks on the subject may serve -as a clue to the answer. That blushing “is a provision for expression -may be inferred,” he says, “from the colour extending only to the -surface of the face, neck, and breast—the parts most exposed.... The -colour caused by blushing gives brilliancy and interest to the -expression of the face. In this we perceive an advantage possessed by -the fair family of mankind, and which must be lost to the dark; for I -can hardly believe that a blush may be seen in the negro.... Blushing -assorts well with youthful and with effeminate features, while nothing -is more hateful than a dog-face that exhibits no token of sensibility in -the variations of colour.” - -The poet Young tells us that “the man that blushes is not quite a -brute;” and Darwin quotes from Humboldt a sneer of the Spaniard, “How -can those be trusted who know not how to blush?” Darwin’s remark that -some idiots, “_if not utterly degraded_, are capable of blushing,” also -accords with Bell’s notion that blushing is a provision for expression. -Bell’s assertion that it is “indicative of excitement” is, however, not -sufficiently definite. What is it that a blush expresses? Evidently -nervous sensibility, a moral sense, modesty, innocence. The Circassian -who can blush is more highly valued than another, because the blush is -eloquent of maiden modesty and heart untainted. The fact that there is -also a blush of violated modesty, a blush of shame, and of guilt, does -not argue against this view, any more than the fact that we blush if, -though innocent, we are accused of guilt. It is the association of ideas -and of emotions that evokes the blush in such cases. - -We may therefore conclude that a blush is useful on account of its -_moral beauty_, _i.e._ its expressiveness of presumptive innocence, or -at least of a desire to be considered innocent; whereas the unblushing -front and cheek indicate a brutal, callous indifference to virtue. We -admire a blush as “the most peculiar and the most human of all -expressions.” And we admire it also, to some extent, on purely æsthetic -grounds, if not exaggerated. A slight blush has a rosy charm of its own, -and it is only when it becomes a too diffused and deep facial Aurora -borealis that it loses its charm, because suggestive of the hectic or -fever flush, or the redness caused by anger, heat, violent exertion, -etc., which has a physiological origin distinct from that of blushing. - -According to Bell, “the colour which attends exertion or the violent -passions, as of rage, arises from general vascular excitement, and -differs from blushing. Blushing is too sudden and too partial to be -traced to the heart’s action.” Darwin endeavours to find the explanation -of blushing in the intimate sympathy which exists between the capillary -circulation of the surface of the head and face, and that of the brain, -which would account for the mental confusion of shyness, modesty, etc., -being so immediately photographed on the face. He sums up his theory in -these words:— - -“I conclude that blushing—whether due to shyness—to shame for a real -crime—to shame from a breach of the laws of etiquette—to modesty from -humility—to modesty from an indelicacy—depends in all cases on the same -principle; this principle being a sensitive regard for the opinion, more -particularly for the depreciation of others, primarily in relation to -our personal appearance, especially of our faces; and secondarily, -through the force of association and habit, in relation to the opinion -of others on our conduct.” - -He gives various illustrations showing how by directing our attention to -certain parts of the body we can increase their sensitivity and activity -in a manner analogous to that postulated by the theory of blushing. But -for these the reader must be referred to his essay on this subject in -the Expression of Emotions—a masterpiece of physiological and -psychological analysis. One more passage, however, may be cited, as it -helps to justify this long discussion of blushing by showing its special -relations to Romantic Love and Personal Beauty:— - -“It is plain to every one that young men and women are highly sensitive -to the opinion of each other with reference to their personal -appearance; and they blush incomparably more in presence of the opposite -sex than in that of their own. A young man, not very liable to blush, -will blush intensely at any slight ridicule of his appearance from a -girl whose judgment on any important subject he would disregard. No -happy pair of young lovers, valuing each other’s admiration and love -more than anything else in the world, probably ever courted each other -without many a blush. Even the barbarians of Tierra del Fuego, according -to Mr. Bridges, blush ‘chiefly in regard to women, but certainly also at -their own personal appearance.’” - - - - - THE EARS - - - A USELESS ORNAMENT - -The shell of the ear appears to be the only part of man’s visible body -which has ceased to be useful and become purely ornamental “Persons -whose ears have been cut off hear just as well as before,” says -Professor Haeckel. Dr. J. Toynbee, F.R.S., “after collecting all the -evidence on this head, concludes that the external shell is of no -distinct use;” and Darwin was informed by Professor Preyer that after -experimenting on the functions of the shell of the ear he had come to -nearly the same conclusion. - -To infer from this that our external ears have been developed, through -Sexual Selection, for purely ornamental purposes, would not be in accord -with scientific analogies. For, often as existing organs (horns, -feathers, etc.) are _modified_ for ornamental purposes, there are no -known instances of any that have been specially developed for that -purpose; even the facial muscles of expression being, as we have seen, -in this predicament. Hence we are led to conclude that man has inherited -the shell of his ear from a remote apelike ancestor, to whom it was of -use in catching faint sounds, and who consequently had the power, common -to other animals, not only of directing the ears as a whole to different -points of the compass, but of temporarily altering its shape. Indeed, -one of the strongest proofs of our descent from lower animals lies in -the fact that man still possesses, in a rudimentary form, the muscles -needed to move the ears. Some savage tribes have considerable control -over these muscles. The famous physiologist, Johannes Müller, after long -and patient efforts, succeeded in recovering the power of moving his -ears; and Darwin writes: “I have seen one man who could draw the whole -ear forwards; other men can draw it upwards; another who could draw it -backwards; and from what one of these persons told me, it is probable -that most of us, by often touching our ears, and thus directing our -attention towards them, could recover some power of movement by repeated -trials.” - -Ordinary monkeys still possess the power to move their ears; but the -manlike or anthropoid apes resemble us in the rudimentary condition of -their ear-muscles; and Darwin was assured by the keepers in the London -Zoological Gardens that these animals never move or erect their ears. He -suggests two theories to account for the loss of this power: first, -that, owing to their arboreal habits and great strength, these apes were -not exposed to much danger, and thus gradually, through disuse, lost -control over these organs, just as birds on oceanic islands where they -are not subject to attacks have lost the use of their wings; secondly, -that the freedom with which they can move the head in a horizontal plane -enabled them to dispense with mobile ears. - -The remarkable variability of the ears—greater, by the way, in men than -in women—is another reason for regarding them as rudimentary organs, -inherited from remote semi-human ancestors, to whom they were useful; -for great variability is a characteristic of all rudimentary organs. -Haeckel facetiously suggests that “at large assemblies, where our -interest is not sufficiently enchained, nothing is more instructive and -entertaining than a comparative study of the countless variations in the -form of the ears.” The ancient Greek artists were aware of this -variability, for Wincklemann speaks of “the infinite variety of forms of -the ear on heads modelled from life.” “It was customary with the ancient -artists to elaborate no portion of the head more diligently than the -ears.” “In portrait figures, when the countenance is so much injured as -not to be recognised, we can occasionally make a correct conjecture as -to the person intended, if it is one of whom we have any knowledge, -merely by the form of the ear; thus we infer a head of Marcus Aurelius -from an ear with an unusually large inner opening.” - -If we compare a man’s ears with those of a dog or horse, differences of -shape appear no less conspicuous than differences in mobility. Two -points are especially characteristic of man—the folded upper margin and -the lobule. Our cousins, the anthropoid apes, are the only other animals -which have the margin of the ear thus folded inwards, the lower monkeys -having them simple and pointed, like other animals. The sculptor, Mr. -Woolner, called Darwin’s attention to “a little blunt point, projecting -from the inwardly-folded margin or helix.” Darwin, on investigating the -matter, came to the conclusion that these points “are vestiges of the -tips of former erect and pointed ears”; being led to think so “from the -frequency of their occurrence, and from the general correspondence in -position with that of the tip of a pointed ear.” - -The lobule is still more peculiar to man than the folded margin, since -he does not even share it with the anthropoid apes, although, according -to Professor Mivart, “a rudiment of it is found in the gorilla.” An -intermediate stage between man and ape is occupied by some savage tribes -in whom the lobule is scantily developed or even absent. - - - COSMETICS AND FASHION - -The lobule of the human ear has been presumably developed through the -agency of Sexual Selection, as it is an ornament the absence of which is -at once felt. And there are other ways in which this organ has been -gradually brought into harmony with the laws of beauty. Thus the loss of -the hair (of which rudiments are still occasionally present) made -visible the soft skin and the delicate tint of the ear, which, like that -of the cheeks, may be momentarily heightened by a blush, and thus become -an index of emotional expression. A permanently heightened colour of the -ear, however, caused by exposure to extreme cold or by rough treatment, -is almost as great a blemish as a red nose or pallid lips. If boxers are -anxious to deform their ears, no one has a right to object; but children -have a right to ask of their parents and teachers not to redden their -ears permanently by pulling or boxing them. That a delicate and -important sense-organ like the ear should be so frequently chosen as a -place to inflict punishment, shows the necessity of a general diffusion -of hygienic knowledge. It may not be superfluous to add a caution to -lovers, that the ears should never be taken as an osculatory substitute -for the lips or cheeks, as cases are known in medical practice where the -tympanum, and consequently the hearing, has been destroyed by a vigorous -kiss implanted by a foolish lover on his sweetheart’s ears. - -An ear to be beautiful should be about twice as long as broad. It should -be attached to the head almost straight, or slightly inclined backwards, -and should almost touch the head with the back of its upper point. Many -poor girls are deformed for life through the ignorance of their mothers, -who allow them to wear their hair or bonnets in such a way as to make -the ears stand out obliquely. As the ears contain no bones, but consist -entirely of cartilages and skin, they can be, more readily even than the -nose, moulded into a fine shape at an early age. As Drs. Brinton and -Napheys remark, “Even when the ear is in part or altogether absent, the -case is not desperate. An ‘artificial ear’ can be made of vulcanised -rubber, or other material, tinted the colour of the flesh, and attached -to the side of the head with such deftness that its character will -escape every ordinary eye.” There is therefore no excuse for having -badly-shaped or wrongly-inclined ears in these days of cosmetic surgery. - -In the most beautiful ears the lobe is free, and not attached to the -head in its lower part. Heavy earrings, which have a tendency to unduly -enlarge the lobules, are now tabooed by Fashion; but very small jewels -in the ear may be looked on, like small finger-rings, necklaces, and -bracelets, as unobjectionable from an æsthetic point of view, though -real beauty unadorned is adorned the most. - -Formerly Fashion maltreated the poor ears quite as badly as it still -does the waist and the feet. Lubbock remarks that the East Islanders -enlarge their ears till they come down to the shoulders; and Darwin, -after referring to liberties taken with the nose, says that “the ears -are everywhere pierced and similarly ornamented, and with the Botocudos -and Lenguas of South America the hole is gradually so much enlarged that -the lower edge touches the shoulder.” - -Among the Greeks, as Becker remarks, "it was considered a dishonour, or -a token of foreign manners, for men to have their ears bored.... Women -and girls, however, not only used earrings, ἐνώτια, ἐλλόβια, ἑλικτῆρες -which are seen perpetually in vases, but also wore numerous articles of -jewellery about the neck, the arms, and on the leg above the ankle." - -The ancients, too, had heard of the malformed ears of primitive peoples. -“It is possible,” says Tylor, “that there may be some truth in the -favourite wonder-tale of the old geographers, about the tribes whose -great ears reached down to their shoulders, though the story had to be -stretched a good deal when it was declared they lay down on one ear and -covered themselves with the other for a blanket.” - -Such blanket-ears would be the æsthetic equivalent of modern bustles, -crinolettes, and wasp-waists. - - - PHYSIOGNOMIC VAGARIES - -Ever since the days of ancient Greek philosophy ingenious attempts have -been made to find a special meaning for this or that particular form of -the ear. According to Aristotle, a long ear indicates a good memory, -whereas modern physiognomists incline to the opinion that a long ear -shows a man’s mental relationship to a certain unjustly-maligned animal. -Small ears, Lavater thinks, are a sign of an active mind, while a deep -shell indicates a thirst for knowledge. - -As a matter of fact, the ears have no connection whatever with -intellectual or emotional expression, except that a well-shaped ear -indicates in a general way that its possessor comes off a stock in which -the laws of cosmetic hygiene have been observed during many generations. -To many of the lower animals the ears are a means of emotional -expression. What, for instance, could be more expressive and droll than -the way a dog expresses mild surprise or expectation by pricking up his -ears? Or what a more certain sign of viciousness in a horse than the -drawing back of the ears?—a movement of which Darwin has found the -reason in the fact that all animals that fight with their teeth retract -their ears to protect them; whence, through habit and association, it -comes that they draw them back whenever a fighting mood comes over them. -Man, on the other hand, never uses his ears for emotional expression, -because they are the least mobile part of the body. Now form is merely -crystallised expression: and the absence of special movements for -emotional expression necessarily prevents individual alterations -indicative of character. Hence the absurdity of trying to use the ears -as a basis for physiognomic distinctions. - - - NOISE AND CIVILISATION - -What is the cause of the folding of the margin of the human ear, which -distinguishes it from that of all other animals? Darwin remarks that it -“appears to be in some manner connected with the whole external ear -being permanently pressed backwards;” but this does not explain the -mysterious phenomenon. After many hours of profound meditation on this -subject I have come to the conclusion that this slight folding of the -ear’s margin is the beginning of a new phase of human evolution. In -course of time—this cannot be disproved—the fold of the margin will -become larger and larger, until finally the shells of the ear will have -been transformed into mobile lids for shutting out at will disagreeable -noises, even as the eyelids have been developed to shut out glaring -light. This would account for the providential preservation of the -rudimentary ear-muscles referred to above. When this process of -evolution is completed men coming home late will no longer have to -listen to curtain-lectures. The innovation will tend to make them -polite, for instead of telling the lecturer to “shut up,” they will shut -up themselves. - -Seriously speaking, such movable ear-lids are very much needed in this -transition stage of civilisation. The present age of steam will by -future historians be classified as the age of noise. It is almost -impossible to find a place within ten miles of a city where one can rest -without having one’s sleep constantly disturbed, or at least _deprived -of its refreshing depth_, by the blowing of railway and factory -whistles. Both are unnecessary, inasmuch as railway signals would be -quite as effective if not so murderously loud and prolonged, while -factory whistles are either blown at the moment when the operatives go -to work, when a simple bell would do as well, or they are blown an hour -earlier to wake up the workmen,—a most outrageous proceeding, as -everybody else sleeping within a radius of a mile or more is thus waked -up at six o’clock. - -The fact that these nuisances have so long been tolerated shows how -primitive is as yet the æsthetic development of the average human ear. -Some people even smile at you for being so “nervous,” and boast of their -indifference to such hideous, brain-racking noises. The Esquimaux and -Chinese would doubtless assume a similar attitude regarding their -indifference to noisome stenches. In mediæval times, Europeans in -general were quite as indifferent to the emanations from their gutters -as they still are to the hideous noises in the streets. It has often -been noted with surprise that the death-rate in London and the general -aspect of health should be so much more favourable than that of -continental cities, which are free from the depressing London fogs. The -reason, doubtless, lies chiefly in the facts that there are no vile -sewer odours in London to poison the atmosphere, and that the pavement -of the streets is of such a nature that one can sleep soundly at night, -provided there are no steam whistles near. London, too, does not -tolerate the brutal whip-cracking which transforms French, German, and -Swiss towns and cities into Bedlams of noise. In this respect New York -resembles London; but here the comparison ends. New York pavements are -the noisiest, roughest, and dirtiest in the world. I have known of -invalids who were advised to drive in the Central Park, but could not do -so because they could not bear on their way to drive even up Fifth -Avenue,—a street lined with the houses of millionaires. And to walk on -Broadway for twenty minutes, talking to a friend, makes one as hoarse as -delivering a two-hour lecture. - -There can be no doubt that a horror of useless noise grows with the -general refinement of the senses and the mind. Goethe’s aversion to -noise, especially at night, is well known. It led him to poison dogs -that disturbed him. The delicate hearing of Franz, the great song -composer, was ruined by the whistle of a locomotive. And Schopenhauer -has put the whole matter into a nutshell in these admirable words: -“Intellectual persons, and all in general who have much _esprit_, cannot -endure noise. Astounding, on the other hand, is the insensibility of -ordinary people to noise. The quantity of noise which any one can endure -without annoyance is really related inversely to his mental endowments, -and may be regarded as a pretty accurate measure of them.” - - - A MUSICAL VOICE - -It is self-evident that indifference to ear-splitting noises implies a -lack of appreciation for the exquisite clang-tints of music; for -whenever the acoustic nerve is sufficiently refined to appreciate such -subtle tints, it is affected as painfully by harsh sounds as the -artistic eye is by glaring colours and flickering light. And an ear -which is indifferent to the sweetness of musical sounds is of course -indifferent also to the musical charm of the speaking voice. But a -sweetly modulated voice is one of the most conspicuous attributes of -Personal Beauty—for Beauty refers to sounds as well as to sights— - - “Her voice was ever soft, - Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.”—SHAKSPERE. - -There is as much variety in voices as in faces; and in estimating a -person’s general refinement, the voice is perhaps a safer guide than the -face; because the quality of the voice is largely a matter of individual -training, whereas in reading faces the judgment is warped by the -presence of inherited features speaking of traits which have not been -modified by individual effort and culture. - -Many young men and women live in absolute indifference to the quality of -their speaking voice, till one day Cupid arouses them from their -unæsthetic slumber with his golden arrows, and makes them eager not only -to brush up their hats and improve their personal appearance, but also -to modulate their voices into sweet, expressive accents. But the vocal -cords, like a violin, can only be made to yield mellow sounds after long -practice; hence the usual result of a sudden effort to speak in love’s -sweet accents is a ridiculous lover’s falsetto. - - - - - THE NOSE - - - SHAPE AND SIZE - -“The fate of innumerable girls has been decided by a slight upward or -downward curvature of the nose,” says Schopenhauer; and Pascal points -out that if Cleopatra’s nose had been but a trifle larger, the whole -political geography of this planet might have been different. Owing to -the fact that the nose occupies the most prominent part of the face, -Professor Kollmann remarks that “the partial or complete loss of the -nose causes a greater disfigurement than a much greater fault of -conformation in any other part of the face.” And Winckelmann thus bears -witness to the importance of the nose as an element of Personal Beauty: -“The proof, easy to be understood, of the superiority of shape of the -Greeks and the present inhabitants of the Levant lies in the fact that -we find among them no flattened noses, which are the greatest -disfigurement of the face.” - -Yet here again we find that “tastes differ.” Thus we read in Darwin -“that the ancient Huns during the age of Attila were accustomed to -flatten the noses of their infants with bandages, ‘for the sake of -_exaggerating a natural conformation_’” [note the stamp of Fashion]; -that, “with the Tahitians, to be called _long-nose_ is considered as an -insult, and they compress the noses and foreheads of their children for -the sake of beauty;” and that “the same holds true with the Malays of -Sumatra, the Hottentots, certain Negroes, and the natives of Brazil.” -But the _ne-plus-ultra_ of nasal ugliness is found among the Tartars and -Esquimaux. “European travellers in Tartary in the Middle Ages,” says -Tylor, “described its flat-nosed inhabitants as having no noses at all, -but breathing through holes in the face.” And among the Esquimaux, as -Mantegazza remarks, a rule can be placed on both the cheeks at once -without touching the nose. Flat noses, says Topinard, “are either -depressed as a whole, as among Chinese, or only in the lower half, as -among Malays. Negroes have both forms.” - -The yellow and black races, who naturally have flat noses, consider it -fashionable to have them _very_ flat. The same is true with our modern -Fashion regarding wasp-waists and feet. But in regard to the face the -white races—including even the women—have emancipated themselves from -the tyranny of fashionable exaggeration. Hence, though we admire -prominent noses, we do not admire them more and more in proportion to -their size. On the contrary, every one looks upon the very large Jewish -nose as ugly. The reason is that in judging of the face Fashion has been -displaced by æsthetic Taste, whose motto is Moderation, and which is -based on a knowledge of the cosmic laws of beauty. Savages have Fashion -but no Taste. We have both; but Taste is gradually demolishing Fashion, -like other relics of barbarism. - -Sometimes our estimate of the nose, as of other features, may be -influenced by non-æsthetic considerations—by prejudices of race, -aristocracy, etc. “In Italy,” says Mantegazza, “we call a long nose -aristocratic (especially if it is aquiline) perhaps because conquerors -with long noses, Greeks and Romans, have subjected the indigenous -small-nosed inhabitants.” But the Italians are not the only people who, -if asked to choose between a nose too large or one too small, would ask -for the former. And the cause of this preference is suggested very -forcibly in these remarks of Grose: “Convex faces, prominent features, -and large aquiline noses, though differing much from beauty, still give -an air of dignity to their owners; whereas concave faces, flat, snub, or -broken noses, always stamp a meanness and vulgarity. _The one seems to -have passed through the limits of beauty, the other never to have -arrived at them._” - - - EVOLUTION OF THE NOSE - -The flat, irregular nose of savages and semi-civilised peoples, with its -visible nostrils and imperfectly developed bridge, being intermediate -between the ape’s nose and our own, we are naturally led to infer that -the nose has been gradually developed into the shape now regarded as -most perfect by good judges of Beauty. To what are we indebted for this -favourable change—to Natural or to Sexual Selection? In other words, is -the present perfected shape of the nose of any use to us, or is it -purely ornamental? - -It appears that both these laws have acted in subtle combination to -improve our nasal organ. The nose is a sort of funnel for warming the -air on its way to the sensitive lungs. In cold latitudes a long nose -would therefore be an advantage favoured by Natural Selection; and it is -noteworthy that in general the flat-nosed peoples live in warm climes. -There are exceptions, however, notably the Esquimaux, showing that this -hypothesis does not entirely cover the facts. - -Let us examine, therefore, the second function of the nasal organ. The -external nose is a sort of filter for keeping organic impurities out of -the lungs. At the entrance of the nostrils there are a number of fine -hairs which serve to keep out the dust. If any particles manage to get -beyond this first fortress, they are liable to be arrested by the rows -of more minute, microscopic hairs, or _cilia_, which line the mucous -membrane and keep up a constant downward movement, by means of which -dusty intruders are expelled and the air filtered. Esquimaux living in -snowfields, and savages in the forests and grass-carpeted meadows, do -not need these filters so much as we do in our dusty cities and along -dusty country roads; hence their noses have remained more like those of -the arboreal apes, while ours have grown larger, so as to yield a larger -surface of sifting hairs and cilia. When we think of the dusty American -prairies and the African and Asian deserts, can we wonder, accordingly, -that the American Indians, as well as the nomadic Arabs and Jews, have -such immense noses? The theory seems fanciful, if not grotesque; but -perhaps there is more in it than appears at first sight. - -Even if both these hypotheses should prove untenable, there is a third -consideration which alone suffices to account for the development of the -European nose. The nose has a most important _musico-philological_ -function. The language of savages often consists of only a few hundred -words, while ours is so complicated that it requires the co-operation of -the vocal cords, and the cavities of the mouth and the nose to produce -the countless modifications of speech and song which make us listen with -so much pleasure to an eloquent speaker or a great singer. The subject -is far too complicated with anatomical details to be fully explained -here, and the reader must be referred to a full discussion (not from the -evolutionary point of view, however) to Professor Georg Hermann von -Meyer’s elaborate treatise on _The Organs of Speech_, chap. iii. - -A few points, however, must be noted here. The nasal air-passage, “with -its two narrow openings and intermediate greater width, possesses the -general form of a resonator, and there can be no doubt but that it has a -corresponding influence, and that the tones with which the air passing -through it vibrates are strengthened by its resonance. The larger the -nasal cavity the more powerful the resonance, and, consequently, the -reinforcement experienced by the tone.... In consequence of the -peculiarity of the walls of the nasal cavity, it appears that sounds -uttered with the nasal resonance, particularly the nasal vowels, are -fuller and more ample than the same sounds when strengthened by the -resonance of the cavity of the mouth. The general impression of fulness -and richness conveyed by the French language arises from its wealth in -nasal vowels; and it is for this reason that second-rate tragic actors -like to give a nasal resonance to all the vowels in the pathetic -speeches of their heroic parts.” - -Further, it is of great importance to bear in mind “_that the resonance -of the nasal cavity also plays a part in the formation of non-nasal -articulate sounds,_” appearing here as a mere reinforcement of the -resonance of the cavity of the mouth, and free from the nasal twang. -Indeed, paradoxical as it may seem, an infallible way to make our speech -sound “nasal” is to keep the air out of the nose by clasping it tightly; -whereas if the nasal passage remains open the nasal twang is replaced by -an agreeable resonance. What could more forcibly illustrate the -importance of a well-developed nose? - -Now there are several groups of muscles attached to the lower cartilages -of the nose,—parts which are imperfectly developed in apes and negroes. -The constant exercise of these, during many generations, in the service -of speech, in expressing several emotions, and in heavy breathing, -suffice to account, on accepted physiological principles, for the -gradual enlargement of the resonant tube which we call the nose. - -So much for Natural or Utilitarian Selection. But Sexual Selection or -Romantic Love plays also a most important _rôle_ in the development of -the nose. The quotations from Pascal and Schopenhauer made at the -beginning of this chapter show that the efficacy of Sexual Selection was -recognised long before Darwin had coined the term. As soon as a refined -æsthetic taste appears, it rejects ugly forms of the nose. It rejects, -for instance, open, visible nostrils, because they are a scavenging -apparatus, unæsthetic to behold, though the savage, having no taste, is -not thus offended. It gives the preference, in the second place, to the -long nose, on musical grounds, because its owner has a more sonorous -speech. It scorns the snub-nose because of its simian suggestiveness, -and dislikes the excessively large and aquiline nose because it is an -exaggerated form, which has passed beyond the delicate dimensions and -subtle curves of beauty. - - - GREEK AND HEBREW NOSES - -This checking of excessive development in the direction at first -prescribed by the cosmic laws of beauty is indeed one of the main -functions of Sexual Selection, without which our mouths would gradually -become too small, our eyes and noses too large, our foreheads too high, -our hair too scant, etc. - -Why, for instance, have the Jews such large noses compared with the -Greeks? Evidently because Taste—which, though commonly associated with -Romantic Love, may, in a highly æsthetic nation, act independently of -it—did not restrain the excessive development of the Jewish nose. The -ancient Hebrews were not an æsthetic nation, like the Greeks. The finest -works of sculpture ever created were made by the Greeks, while the -Hebrews practically had no sculpture at all—not even such works as were -produced by Assyrians and Egyptians. And if any further proof were -needed of the statement that the ancient Hebrews had little taste for -beauty it might be found in the fact that Solomon, esteemed a great -judge of feminine charms, compares his love’s nose to “the tower of -Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus.” - -The admission which I have just made that there may be a sort of -æsthetic selection independent of real Romantic Love, does not militate -against the general thesis of this book: that Love is the cause of -Beauty, as Beauty is the cause of Love. For though the Greek artists -knew what the shape and size of a beautiful nose should be, there are -cogent reasons for believing that “Greek noses” were rare even among the -ancient Greeks, thanks to their habit of sacrificing Romantic Love to -the dragon chaperon. Hear what Ruskin has to say, in his _Aratra -Pentelici_, about the Greek features in general: “Will you look again at -the series of coins of the best time of Greek art which I have just set -before you? Are any of these goddesses or nymphs very beautiful? -Certainly the Junos are not. Certainly the Demeters are not. The Siren -and Arethusa have well-formed and regular features; but I am quite sure -that if you look at them without prejudice, you will think neither -reaches even the average standard of pretty English girls. The Venus -Urania suggests at first the idea of a very charming person, but you -will find there is no real depth nor sweetness in the contours, looked -at closely. And remember, these are chosen examples; the best I can find -of art current in Greece at the great time; and even if I were to take -the celebrated statues, of which only two or three are extant, not one -of them excels the Venus of Melos; and she, as I have already asserted -in _The Queen of the Air_, has nothing notable in feature except dignity -and simplicity. Of Athena I do not know one authentic type of great -beauty; but the intense ugliness which the Greeks could tolerate in -their symbolism of her will be convincingly proved to you by the coin -represented in Plate VI. You need only look at two or three vases of the -best time to assure yourselves that beauty of feature was, in popular -art, not only unattained, but unattempted; and finally—and this you may -accept as a conclusive proof of the Greek insensitiveness to the most -subtle beauty—there is little evidence, even in their literature, and -none in their art, of their having ever perceived any beauty in infancy -or early childhood.” - -Nevertheless, it was to the contours of childhood that the Greek artists -apparently went for their ideal of the divine nose. Greek beauty was -youthful masculine beauty; and the “Greek nose” is one which not only is -straight in itself, but forms a straight line with the forehead. In -other words, there is no hollow at the root of the nose, where it meets -the forehead. Now the absence of this cavity is characteristic of youth, -and is owing to the imperfect development of the brain cavities. Later -in life these cavities bulge forwards and produce the hollow, which, -therefore, is an indication of superior cranial development and higher -intellectual powers. Hence, as Professor Kollmann suggests, the object -of the Greek artists in making the nose of their deities form a straight -line with the forehead, was probably to give them the stamp of eternal -youth; which would thus appear to have been considered a more important -attribute even than the expression of superior _masculine_ intellectual -power, which we associate with the hollow at the junction of nose and -forehead, and for which reason we do not admire it in women if too -pronounced. Nevertheless, even in women the cosmic laws of Beauty call -for a gentle curve instead of a perfectly straight line; but the more -subtle the curve the greater is its beauty; whereas the nose itself may -be perfectly straight on its upper edge, because it forms a dividing -line of the face into two symmetric halves, and by its contrasting -straightness heightens the beauty of the surrounding facial curves. - -To sum up: the Greeks admiration of such features as are naturally -associated with youthful masculine beauty no doubt led him, in choosing -a wife, to give the preference to similar features, including the -“Greek” nose. Yet in the absence of opportunities for courtship, Sexual -Selection could not operate very extensively; hence it is probable that -ungainly noses, though not so extravagant as among the Semitic races, -were common enough in Greece as in Rome. In the Dark Ages hideous noses -must have prevailed everywhere, as might be inferred from the facts that -Romantic Love was unknown, and physical beauty looked on as a sinful -possession, even if the painted and sculptured portraits did not prove -it to our eyes in most instances. - -Regarding modern noses it may be said that the nose is such a prominent -feature that more has been done for its improvement, through the agency -of Love or Sexual Selection, than for the mouth or any other feature, -excepting the eye. The average Englishman’s nose of to-day, for example, -is a tolerably shapely organ, and yet his ancestors were not exactly -distinguished for nasal beauty, according to a close observer and -student of portraiture, Mr. G. A. Simcox, who remarks that “sometimes -both Danes and Saxons had their fair proportions of snub-noses and -pug-noses, but when they escaped that catastrophe the Danish nose tended -to be a beak (rather a hawk’s beak than an eagle’s), while the Saxon -nose tends to be a proboscis.” - -Yet even at this date perfect noses are rare, and it is easy to see why. -In the first place, it takes many generations to wipe out entirely the -ugliness inherited from our unæsthetic ancestors; secondly, Romantic -Love, based on æsthetic admiration, is still very commonly ignored in -the marriage market in favour of considerations of rank and wealth; and -thirdly, a lover, infatuated by his sweetheart’s fascinating eyes, is -apt to overlook her large nose or mouth—till after the honeymoon. - - - FASHION AND COSMETIC SURGERY - -Inasmuch as the civilised races of Europe have so long been indifferent -to their ugly noses, we can hardly wonder that barbarians should not -only disregard their nasal caricatures, but even exaggerate their -grotesqueness deliberately. We have already seen how certain tribes -habitually flatten their already flat noses. Moreover, “in all quarters -of the world the septum, and more rarely the wings, of the nose are -pierced; rings, sticks, feathers, and other ornaments being inserted -into the holes.” “In Persia one still finds the nose-ring through one -side of a woman’s nostril;” and Professor Flower states that such rings -are often worn by female servants who accompany English families -returning from India. - -Captain Cook, in the account of his first voyage, says of the east-coast -Australians: “Their principal ornament is the bone which they thrust -through the cartilage which divides the nostrils from each other.... As -this bone is as thick as a man’s finger, and between five and six inches -long, it reaches quite across the face, and so effectually stops up both -the nostrils that they are forced to keep their mouths wide open for -breath, and snuffle so when they attempt to speak that they are scarcely -intelligible even to each other.” - -This last sentence bears out our assertion regarding the philological or -conversational importance of the nose. And there is another lesson to be -learned from these barbarian mutilations of the nose. If Huns, -Tahitians, and Hottentots are able to make their noses as delightfully -ugly as they please, why should not we utilise the plastic character of -the nasal cartilages for beautifying ourselves? Says a specialist: “Much -can be done by an ingenious surgeon in restoration and improvement. A -nose that is too flat can be raised, one with unequal apertures can be -modified, one too thin can be expanded. Cosmetic surgery is rich in -devices here, all of which are very available in children and young -persons, less so when years have hardened and stiffened the cartilages -and bones.” - -Thus may Cupid employ a medical artist as an assistant in his efforts at -improving the physical beauty of mankind. Needless to add that only a -first-class surgeon should ever be allowed to meddle with the features. - -Cosmetic surgery has already reached such perfection that it can even -make “a good, living, fleshly nose. It will transplant you one from the -arm or the forehead, Roman or Grecian, _à volonté_; it will graft it -adroitly into the middle of the face, with two regular nostrils and a -handsome bridge; and it will almost challenge Nature herself to improve -on the model” (Brinton and Napheys). - -Medical men are daily complaining in a more clamorous chorus that their -profession is overcrowded. Why don’t some of them in every city and town -make a specialty of cosmetic surgery and hygienic advice? Why leave this -remunerative field entirely in the hands of dangerous quacks who alone -have enterprise and sense enough to advertise? - -As illustrations of what may be done in this direction, two points may -be noted. A French surgeon, Dr. Cid, noticed that persons who wear -eyeglasses are apt to have long and thin noses. The thought occurred to -him that this might be due to the compression of the arteries which -carry blood to the nose, by the springs of the glasses; so he -constructed a special apparatus for compressing these arteries, and by -attaching it to a young girl’s large and fleshy nose, succeeded in -reducing its size. Why should people worry themselves and frighten -others with ugly noses when they can be so easily improved? - -The second point is still more simple. It is important that the nose -should occupy exactly the middle of the face, so as to secure bilateral -symmetry. Yet Welcker, who made a number of accurate observations on -skulls, plaster casts of the dead, as well as on the living countenance, -noted that perfect symmetry is very rarely found. The obliqueness is -sometimes at the root, sometimes at the tip of the nose, and the cause -of the deviation from a straight line is attributed to the habit most -persons have of sleeping exclusively on one side,—a practice which is -also objectionable on other grounds. Mantegazza, however, suggests that, -as he has found the deviation almost always toward the right side, it -may be due to our habit of always taking our handkerchief in the right -hand; and the same view is held by Drs. Brinton and Napheys. So that we -have here an additional argument in favour of ambidexterity. - -The New York _Medical and Surgical Reporter_ for November 1, 1884, -prints a lecture by Dr. J. B. Roberts on “The Cure of Crooked Noses by a -New Method,” which, as it is not conspicuous and hardly leaves a scar, -may be commended to the attention of those afflicted with nasal -deformities. The pin method, he says, is applicable “even to those -slight deformities whose chief annoyance is an æsthetic and cosmetic -one. I leave the pins in position for about two weeks.” - -Red noses, if due to exposure, can be readily whitened by one of the -methods to be discussed in the chapter on the complexion. If due to -disease, they call for medical treatment; if to intemperance or tight -lacing, moral and æsthetic reform is the only possible cure. - - - NOSE-BREATHING AND HEALTH - -Owing to its tendency toward unsightly redness and malformation, the -nose is very apt to be looked at from a comic point of view. Wits and -caricaturists fix on it habitually for their nefarious purposes, as if -it were a sort of facial clown. Indeed, ninety-nine persons in a -hundred, if questioned regarding the functions of the nose, would know -no answer but this: that it is sometimes ornamental, and is remotely -connected with the “almost useless” sense of smell. - -We have seen, however, that besides being ornamental _per se_, the nose -plays a most important æsthetic—as well as utilitarian—_rôle_ in giving -sonority and variety to human speech; and that it is, further, of great -use as an apparatus for warming, moistening, and filtering the air -before it enters the lungs. Hence the importance of nose-breathing. -Professor Reclam states that city people at the age of thirty usually -have _a whole gramme of calcareous dust in their lungs_, which they can -never again get rid of, and which may at any time engender dangerous -disease. This is one of the bad results of mouth-breathing, but by no -means the only one. “The continued irritation from dry, cold, and -unfiltered air upon the mucous membrane of the upper air tract soon -results,” says Dr. T. R. French, “in the establishment of catarrhal -inflammation, the parts most affected being the tongue, pharynx, and -larynx.... The habit of breathing through the mouth interferes with -general nutrition. The subjects of this habit are usually anæmic, spare, -and dyspeptic.” - -That mouth-breathing at night leaves a disagreeable taste in the mouth -and leads to snoring, thus interfering with refreshing sleep, has -already been stated. It also injures the teeth and gums by exposing them -all night to the dry air. And in the daytime it compels one to keep the -mouth wide open, which imparts a rustic if not semi-idiotic expression -to the face. Moreover, think of the filthy dust you swallow in walking -along the street with your mouth open. However, it is useless to advise -people on such matters. An attempt is made for a day or two to reform, -and then—the whole matter is forgotten. These points are therefore noted -here not with any missionary intentions, but merely for their scientific -interest. - - - COSMETIC VALUE OF ODOURS - -We come now to the fourth important function of the nose—the sense of -smell. What has this to do with Personal Beauty? A great deal. In the -first place, is not the flower-like fragrance of a lovely maiden a -personal charm that has been sung of by a thousand poets, of all times? -“The fragrant bosom of Andromache and of Aphrodite finds a place in -Homer’s poetry,” as Professor Bain remarks; and an eccentric German -professor, Dr. Jäger of Stuttgart, even wrote a book a few years ago on -the _Discovery of the Soul_, in which he endeavoured to prove that the -whole mystery of Love lies in the intoxicating personal perfumes. - -It is not with such fancies, however, that we are concerned here. It can -be shown on purely scientific grounds that the cause of Personal Beauty -would gain an immense advantage if people would train and refine their -olfactory nerves systematically, as they do their eyes and ears. -Unfortunately, Kant’s absurd notion, expressed a century ago, that it is -not worth while to cultivate the sense of smell, has been countenanced -to the present day by the erroneous views held by the leading men of -science, including Darwin, who wrote that “the sense of smell is of -extremely slight service” to man. - -In an article on the “Gastronomic Value of Odours,” which appeared in -the _Contemporary Review_ for November 1886, I pointed out that this -under-valuation of the sense of smell is explained by the fact that the -sense of taste has hitherto been credited with all the countless -flavours inherent in food, whereas, in fact, taste includes only four -sensations of gastronomic value—sweet, sour, bitter, and saline, all -other “flavours” being in reality odours; as is proved by the fact that -by clasping the nose we cannot distinguish between a lime and a lemon, -different kinds of confectionery, of cheese, of nuts, of meat, etc. - -Now it is well known that most people show a most amazing tolerance to -insipid, badly-cooked food, gulping it down as rapidly as possible; and -why? Simply because they do not know that in order to enjoy our meals we -must eat slowly, and, while masticating, _continually exhale the -aroma-laden air through the nose_ (mind, not inhale but _exhale_). This -is what epicures do unconsciously; and look at the results! No -dyspepsia, no anæmia and sickly pallor, no walking skeletons;—and surely -a slight _embonpoint_ is preferable to leanness from the point of view -of Personal Beauty. - -If this gastronomic secret were generally known, people would insist on -having better cooked food; dyspepsia, and leanness, and a thousand -infirmities hostile to Beauty would disappear, and in course of time -everybody would be as sleek and handsome and rosy-cheeked as a -professional epicure. - -Nor is this the only way in which refinement of the sense of smell would -benefit Personal Beauty. In consequence of the criminally superstitious -dread of night air, the atmosphere in most bedrooms is as foul, compared -to fresh air, as a street puddle after a shower compared to a mountain -brook. I have seen well-dressed persons in America and Italy take into -their mouths the shamefully filthy and disease-soaked banknotes current -in those countries; and I have seen others shudder at this sight who, if -their smell were as refined as their sight, would have shuddered equally -at the foul air in their bedrooms, which diminishes their vital energy -and working power by one-half. Architects, of course, will make no -provision for proper ventilation as long as they are not compelled to do -so. Why should they? They don’t even care, in building a theatre, how -many hundreds of people will some day be burnt in it, in consequence of -their neglect of the simplest precautions for exit. - -One more important consideration. When you leave the city for a few -weeks everybody will exclaim on your return, “Why, how well you look! -where have you been?” But wherein lies this cosmetic magic of country -air? Not in its oxygen, for it has been proved, by accurate chemical -tests, that in regard to the quantity of oxygen there is not the -slightest difference between city and country air. What, then, is the -secret? - -I am convinced, from numerous experiments, that the value of country air -lies partly in its tonic fragrance, partly in the _absence of -depressing, foul odours_. The great cosmetic and hygienic value of -deep-breathing has been proved in the chapter on the Chest. Now the -tonic value of fragrant meadow or forest air lies in this—that it causes -us involuntarily to breathe deeply, in order to drink in as many -mouthfuls of this luscious aerial Tokay as possible: whereas in the city -the air is—well, say unfragrant and uninviting; and the constant fear of -gulping down a pint of deadly sewer gas discourages deep breathing. The -general pallor and nervousness of New York people have often been noted. -The cause is obvious. New York has the dirtiest streets of any city in -the world, except Constantinople and Canton; and, moreover, it is -surrounded by oil-refineries, which sometimes for days poison the whole -city with the stifling fumes of petroleum, so that one hardly dares to -breathe at all. No wonder that, by universal consent, there is more -Fashion than Beauty in New York. And no wonder that it is becoming more -and more customary, for all who can afford it, to spend six to eight -months of the year in the country. - - - - - THE FOREHEAD - - - BEAUTY AND BRAIN - -It has been stated already that, anatomically considered, the forehead -is not a part of the face but of the cranium. From an artistic and -popular point of view, however, the forehead is a part of the face, and -a most important one. Modern taste fully endorses the ancient law of -facial proportion, which makes the height of the forehead equal to the -length of the nose, and to the distance from the tip of the nose to the -tip of the chin. “Foreheads villainous low” are objectionable, because -associated with a vulgar unintellectual type of man, and too vividly -suggestive of our simian ancestors. Foreheads abnormally high, though -preferable to the other extreme, displease, because they violate the law -of facial proportion. We excuse them in men, because they are commonly -expressive of intellectual power. But in women a high forehead is always -objectionable, because it gives them a masculine appearance. Hence -Romantic Love, which cannot exist without sexual contrasts, and which -aims at making woman a perfect embodiment of the laws of Beauty, -eliminates girls with too high foreheads. Yet at the command of Fashion -thousands of maidens deliberately prevent men from falling in love with -them by combing back their hair and giving their foreheads a masculine -appearance, instead of coyly hiding it under a fringe or “bang.” - -The fact that the feminine forehead, though more perpendicular than the -masculine at the lower part, slants backward in its upper part in a more -pronounced angle, is another reason why women should cover up this part -of their forehead, which Sexual Selection has not yet succeeded in -moulding into perfect shape. For the receding forehead is universally -recognised as a sign of inferior culture. Everybody knows what is meant -by Camper’s facial angle, which is formed by a horizontal line drawn -from the opening of the ear to the nasal spine, and a perpendicular line -touching the most prominent parts of the forehead and front teeth. In -adult Europeans Camper’s angle rarely exceeds 85 degrees. The average in -the Caucasian race is 80°; in the yellow races 75°; in the negro 60° to -70°; in the gorilla 31°. In antique Greek heads the angle is sometimes -over 90°. Says Camper: “If I cause the facial line to fall in front, I -have an antique head; if I incline it backwards, I have the head of a -negro; if I cause it to incline still further, I have the head of a -monkey; inclined still more, I have that of a dog, and, lastly, that of -a goose.” - -It appears, however, that this angle has more value as a test of beauty -than as an absolute gauge of intellect. Generally speaking, there is no -doubt a correlation between a bulging forehead and a superior intellect; -but individual exceptions to this rule are not infrequent. Nor is it at -all difficult to account for them. For intellectual power does not -depend so much on the size and shape of the skull as on the convoluted -structure of the brain. - -Our brain consists of two kinds of matter—the white, which is inside, -and the gray, which covers it. The white substance is a complicated -telegraphic network for conveying messages which are sent from the -external gray cells. It has been proved, by comparing the brains of man -and various animals, that the amount of intelligence depends not so much -on the absolute size of the brain, as on the abundance of this gray -matter. And, what is of extreme importance from a cosmetic point of -view, the gray cells are increased in number, not by an addition to the -absolute size or circumference of the brain, but by a system of furrows -and convolutions which increase the surface lining of the brain without -enlarging its visible mass. For the benefit of those who have never seen -a human brain, it may be very roughly compared to the convoluted kernel -of an English walnut. - -Wherein lies the æsthetic significance of this mode of cerebral -evolution? It prevents our head from becoming too large. Have you ever -considered why infants appear so ugly to every one but their mothers? -One of the principal reasons is that their heads are twice as large in -proportion to the rest of the body as those of adults. A child’s stature -is equal to four times the height of its head, an adult’s to eight -heads. If our heads continued to grow larger as our minds expanded, from -generation to generation, all the proportions of human stature would -ultimately be violated. But thanks to the peculiar mode of cerebral -evolution just described, Romantic Love may continue to “select” in -accordance with our present standards of beauty, without thereby -favouring the survival of lower intellectual types. - -This view of the question also solves a difficulty which has staggered -even such a leading evolutionist as Mr. Wallace, viz., the fact that the -oldest prehistoric skulls that have been found “surpass the average of -modern European skulls in capacity.” But if it is the easiest thing in -the world to find an ordinary stupid man in our streets with a larger -skull than that of many a clever brain-worker, why should we attach so -much importance to those prehistoric skulls? Had their brains been -examined, they would doubtless have been found as scantily furrowed as -those of a big-headed modern anarchist. - - - FASHIONABLE DEFORMITY - -That the intellectual powers are to a large extent independent of the -particular conformation of the skull is shown further by the -circumstance that so many savage tribes have for centuries followed the -fashion of artificially shaping their heads, without any apparent effect -on their minds. Man’s brain incites him, as Topinard remarks, “to the -noblest deeds, as well as to the most ridiculous practices, such as -cutting off the little finger, scorching the soles of the feet, -extracting the front teeth, or deforming the head _because others have -done so before him_.” But of all silly Fashions hostile to Beauty, that -of deforming the head has found the largest number of followers—always -excepting, of course, the modern Wasp-Waist Mania. - -Deformed skulls have been found in the Caucasus, the Crimea, Hungary, -Silesia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, in Polynesia, in different parts -of Asia, etc. “But the classic country in which these deformations are -found is America,” says Topinard. “M. Gosse has described sixteen -species of artificial deformation, ten of which were in American -skulls.” “Sometimes the infant was fastened on a plank or a sort of -cradle with leather straps; or they applied pieces of clay, pressing -them down with small boards on the forehead, the vertex, and the -occiput.... Sometimes the head was kneaded with the hands or knees, or, -the infant being laid on the back, the elbow was pressed on the -forehead. Circular bands were sometimes employed to support the sides of -the head.” - -“Many American Indians,” says Darwin, “are known to admire a head so -extremely flattened as to appear to us idiotic. The natives of the -north-western coast compress the head into a pointed cone;” while the -inhabitants of Arakhan “admire a broad, smooth forehead, and in order to -produce it, they fasten a plate of lead on the head of the new-born -children.” - -“The genuine Turkish skull is of the broad Tartar form,” says Mr. Tylor, -“while the nations of Greece and Asia Minor have oval skulls, which -gives the reason why at Constantinople it became the fashion to mould -the babies’ skulls round, so that they grew up with the broad head of -the conquering race. Relics of such barbarism linger on in the midst of -civilisation, and not long ago a French physician surprised the world by -the fact that nurses in Normandy were still giving the children’s heads -a sugar-loaf shape by bandages and a tight cap, while in Brittany they -preferred to press it round. No doubt they are doing so to this day.” - -“Failure properly to mould the cranium of her offspring,” says Bancroft, -“gives to the Chinook matron the reputation of a lazy and undutiful -mother, and subjects the neglected children to the ridicule of their -young companions, _so despotic is fashion_.” - -Food for thought will also be found in these remarks by Darwin. -Ethnologists believe, he says, “that the skull is modified by the kind -of cradle in which infants sleep;” and Schaffhausen is convinced that -“in certain trades, such as that of a shoemaker, where the head is -habitually held forward, the forehead becomes more round and prominent.” -If this is true, then we have one reason, at least, why authors have -such large foreheads. - - - WRINKLES - -Wrinkles in the face are signs of advanced age, or disease, or habits of -profound meditation, or frequent indulgence in frowning and grief. The -wrinkles on a thinker’s forehead do not arouse our disapproval, because -they are often eloquent of genius, which excuses a slight sacrifice of -the smoothness of skin that belongs to perfect Beauty. In women, -however, we apply a pure and strict æsthetic standard, wherefore all -wrinkles are regarded as regrettable inroads on Personal Beauty. Old -women, of course, form an exception, because in them we no longer look -for youthful Beauty, and are therefore gratified at the sight of -wrinkles and folds as stereotyped forms of expression bespeaking a life -rich in experiences, and associated with the veneration due to old age. -Such wrinkles are characteristic but not beautiful; and it may be -stated, by the way, that Alison’s whole book on Taste is vitiated by the -ever-recurring argument in which he forgets that we may take a personal -and even an artistic interest in a thing which is characteristic without -being beautiful. - -In youth, while the skin is firm and elastic, the wrinkles on the -forehead or around the eyes, caused by a frown or smile, pass away, -leaving no more trace than the ripples on the surface of a lake. With -advancing age the skin becomes looser and less elastic, so that frequent -repetition of those movements which produce a fold in the skin finally -leaves an indelible mark on the furrowed countenance. Woman’s skin, -being commonly better “padded” with fat than man’s, is not so liable to -wrinkles, provided attention is paid to the laws of health. Mantegazza -suggests that the simplest antidote for wrinkles would be to distend the -folded skin again by fattening up. The daily use of _good_ soap and -slight friction helps to ward off wrinkles by keeping the facial muscles -toned up and the skin elastic. - -The (voluntary) mobility of the skin of the forehead, to which we owe -our wrinkles, affords an interesting illustration of the way in which -facial muscles, once “useful,” have been modified for mere purposes of -expression. “Many monkeys have, and frequently use, the power of largely -moving their scalps up and down.” This may be of use in shaking off -leaves, flies, rain, etc. But man, with his covered head, needs no such -protection; hence most of us have lost the power of moving our scalps. A -correspondent wrote to Darwin, however, of a youth who could pitch -several heavy books from his head by the movement of the scalp alone; -and many other similar cases are on record, attesting our simian -relationship. But lower down on the forehead, our skin has universally -retained the power of movement, as shown in frowning and the expression -of various emotions. - -At first sight it is somewhat difficult to understand why meditation -should wrinkle the skin; but Darwin explains it by concluding that -frowning (which, oft repeated, results in wrinkles) “is not the -expression of simple reflection, however profound, or of attention, -however close, but of something difficult or displeasing encountered in -a train of thought or in action. Deep reflection can, however, seldom be -long carried on without some difficulty, so that it will generally be -accompanied by a frown.” - -Fashionable women sometimes endeavour (unsuccessfully) to distend the -skin and remove wrinkles by pasting court-plaster on certain spots in -the face. But the repulsive fashion of wearing patches of court-plaster -all over the face as an ornament (“beauty-spots!”), doubtless had its -origin in the desire of some aristocratic dame to conceal pimples or -other skin blemishes. At one time women even submitted to the fashion of -pasting on the face and bosom paper flies, fleas, and other loathsome -creatures. - -The African monkeys who held an indignation meeting when they first -heard of Darwin’s theory of the descent of man, had probably just been -reading a history of human Fashions. - - - - - THE COMPLEXION - - - WHITE _VERSUS_ BLACK - -“The charm of colour, especially in the intricate infinities of human -flesh, is so mysterious and fascinating, that some almost measure a -painter’s merit by his success in dealing with it,” says Hegel; and -again: “Man is the only animal that has flesh in its display of the -infinities of colour.” “No loveliness of colour, even of the humming -birds or the birds of Paradise, is living, is glowing with its own life, -but shines with the lustre of light reflected, and its charm is from -without and not from within” (_Æsthetics_, Kedney’s edition). - -For a metaphysician, trained to scornfully ignore facts, the difference -between man and animals is in these sentences pointed out with -commendable insight. Regard for scientific accuracy, it is true, compels -us to qualify Hegel’s generalisation, for not only have monkeys bare -coloured patches in their faces, and elsewhere, which are subject to -changes, but the plumage of birds, too, is dulled by ill-health and -brightened by health, reaching its greatest brilliancy in the season of -Courtship, thus showing a connection between internal states and -external appearances. Nevertheless, these correspondences in animals are -transient and crude; and man is the only being whose nude skin is -sufficiently delicate and transparent to indicate the minute changes in -the blood’s circulation brought about by various phases of pleasure and -pain. - -To understand the exact nature of these tints of the complexion, which -are so greatly admired—though different nations, as usual, have -different standards of “taste”—it is necessary to bear in mind a few -simple facts of microscopic anatomy. - -To put the matter graphically, it may be said that our body wears two -tight-fitting physiological coats, called the epidermis or overskin, and -the cutis or underskin. - -The overskin is not simple, but consists of an outside layer of horny -cells, such as are removed by the razor on shaving, and an inside mucous -layer, as seen on the lips, which have no horny covering. - -The underskin contains nerves, fat cells, hairbulbs, and numerous -blood-vessels, some as fine as a hair, all embedded in a soft, elastic -network of connective tissue. - -The overskin has none of these blood-vessels; but as it is very delicate -and transparent, it allows the colour of the blood to be seen as through -a veil. In the extremely blond races of the North nothing but the blood -can be seen through this veil; but in the coloured races the lower or -mucous layer of the overskin contains a number of black, brown, or -yellowish pigment cells. The colours of these cells blend with that of -the blood, thus producing, according to their number and depth of -coloration, the brunette, black, yellow, or red complexion. The palm of -the negro’s hand is whiter than the rest of his body, because there the -horny epidermis is so thick that the black pigmentary matter cannot be -seen through it. And the reason why every negro is born to blush unseen -is because the pigmentary matter in his skin is so deep and abundant -that it neutralises the colour of the blood. - -Now, why do the races of various countries differ so greatly in the -colour of their skin? This is the most vexed and difficult question in -anthropology, on which there are almost as many opinions as writers. - -The oldest and most obvious theory is that the sun is responsible for -dark complexions. Are not those parts of our body which are constantly -exposed to sunlight—the hands, face, and neck—darker than the rest of -the body? and does not this colour become darker still if we spend a few -weeks in the country or make a trip across the Atlantic? Do we not find -in Europe, as we pass from the sunny South to the cloudy North, that -complexion, hair, and eyes grow gradually lighter? And not only are the -Spaniards and Italians darker than the Germans, but the South Germans -are darker than the North Germans, and the Swedes and Norwegians lighter -still than the Prussians. - -The same holds true not only of South America as compared to North -America, but of the southern United States compared to the northern. It -also holds true of the East, where, as Waitz tells us, “The Chinese from -Peking to Canton show every shade from a light to a dark-copper colour, -while in the Arabians, from the desert down to Yemen, we find every -gradation from olive colour to black.” Moreover, aristocratic ladies in -Japan and China are almost or quite white, whereas the labouring -classes, as with us, are of a darker tint. - -These and numerous similar facts, taken in connection with the -circumstance that the blackest of all races lives in the hottest -continent, and that Jews may be found of all colours according to the -country they inhabit, lead almost irresistibly to the conclusion that it -is the sun who paints the complexion dark. - -Nevertheless there are numerous and striking exceptions to the rule that -the warmer the climate the darker the complexion. To obviate this -difficulty, Heusinger in 1829, Jarrold in 1838, and others after them, -have endeavoured to show that the moisture and altitude, as well as the -direct action of the sun, had to be taken into consideration. But since -“D’Orbigny in South America, and Livingstone in Africa, arrived at -diametrically opposite conclusions with respect to dampness and -dryness,” Darwin excogitated the theory (which, he subsequently found, -had already been advanced in 1813 by Dr. Wells), that inasmuch as “the -colour of the skin and hair is sometimes correlated in a surprising -manner with a complete immunity from the action of certain vegetable -poisons, and from the attacks of parasites ... negroes and other dark -races might have acquired their dark tints by the darker individuals -escaping from the deadly influence of the miasma of their native -countries, during a long series of generations.” - -The testimony on this point being, however, conflicting and -unsatisfactory, Darwin gave up this notion too, and fell back on the -theory that differences in complexion are due to differences in taste, -and were created through the agency of Sexual Selection. “We know,” he -says, “from the many facts already given that the colour of the skin is -regarded by the men of all races as a highly important element in their -beauty; so that it is a character which would be likely to have been -modified through selection, as has occurred in innumerable instances -with the lower animals. It seems at first sight a monstrous supposition -that the jet-blackness of the negro should have been gained through -sexual selection; but this view is supported by various analogies, and -we know that negroes admire their own colour.” - -Doubtless there is some truth in Darwin’s view, but it does not cover -the whole ground. Natural as well as Sexual Selection has been -instrumental in producing the diverse colours of various races. Hitherto -the trouble has been that no one could understand how a black skin could -be useful to an African negro. It ought to make him feel uncomfortably -hot—for is it not well known that black absorbs heat more than any other -colour? and do we not feel warmer in summer if we wear black than if we -wear white clothes? - -No doubt whatever. But it so happens that the skin is not made of dead -wool or felt. It contains, among various other ingenious arrangements, a -vast number of minute holes or pores, through which, when we are very -warm, the perspiration leaks, and, in changing into vapour, absorbs the -body’s heat and leaves it cool, or even cold. Now, in a negro’s skin -these pores are both larger and more numerous than in ours, which partly -accounts for his indifference to heat, and the fact that his temperature -is lower than ours. Yet it does not solve the problem in hand; for there -is no visible reason why Natural Selection should not succeed in -enlarging the number and size of the pores in a white skin as easily as -in a black one. - -A year or two ago Surgeon-Major Alcock sent a communication to _Nature_ -in which, as I believe, he for the first time suggested the true reason -why tropical man is black, and why his blackness is useful to him. He -pointed out that since the pigment-cells in the negro’s skin are placed -in front of the nerve terminations, they serve to lessen the intensity -of the nerve vibrations that would be caused in a naked human body by -exposure to a tropical sun; so that the pigment plays the same part as a -piece of smoked glass held between the sun and the eyes. - -This ingenious theory at once explains some curious and apparently -anomalous observations communicated to _Nature_ by Mr. Ralph Abercrombie -from Darjeeling. They are that “In Morocco, and all along the north of -Africa, the inhabitants blacken themselves round the eyes to avert -ophthalmia from the glare off hot sand;” that “In Fiji the natives, who -are in the habit of painting their faces with red and white stripes as -an ornament, invariably blacken them when they go out fishing on the -reef in the full glare of the sun;” and that “In the Sikkim hills the -natives blacken themselves round the eyes with charcoal to palliate the -glare of a tropical sun on newly-fallen snow.” - -How, on the other hand, are we to account for the white complexion of -northern races? It is well known that there is a tendency among arctic -animals to become white. This, in many cases, can be accounted for by -the advantage white beasts of prey, as well as their victims, thus gain -in escaping detection. But it is probable that another agency comes into -play, first suggested by Craven in 1846, and thus summarised by a writer -in _Nature_, 2d April 1885: “It is well known that white, as the worst -absorber, is also the worst radiator of all forms of radiant energy, so -that _warm-blooded_ creatures thus clad would be better enabled to -withstand the severity of an arctic climate—the loss of heat by -radiation might, in fact, be expected to be less rapid than if the hairs -or feathers were of a darker colour.” - -This argument, which may be applied to man as well as to animals, is -greatly strengthened by a circumstance which at first appears to oppose -it—the fact, namely, that insects in northern regions, instead of being -light-coloured, show a tendency toward blackness. But this apparent -anomaly is easily explained. Insects, being cold-blooded, cannot lose -any bodily heat through radiation; whereas a black surface, by absorbing -as much solar heat as possible while it lasts, adds to their comfort and -vitality. - -The question now arises, Which was the original colour of the human -race, white or black? This question, too, we are enabled to answer with -the aid of a principle of evolution which, so far, has stood every -test,—the principle that the child’s development is an epitome of the -evolution of his race. Before birth there is no colouring matter at all -in the skin of a negro child. “In a new-born child the colour is light -gray, and in the northern parts of the negro countries the completely -dark colour is not attained till towards the third year,” says Waitz; -and again, in speaking of Tahiti: “The children are here (as everywhere -in Polynesia) white at birth, and only gradually assume their darker -colour under the influence of sunlight; covered portions of their bodies -remain lighter, and since women wear more clothes than men, and dwell -more in the shade, they too are often of so light a colour that they -have red cheeks and blush visibly.” - -So we are entitled to infer that primitive man was originally white, or -whitish. As he moved south, Natural Selection made him darker and darker -by continually favouring the survival of those individuals whose -colour—owing to the spontaneous variation found throughout Nature—was of -a dark shade, and therefore better able to dull the ardour of the sun’s -rays. In the north, on the contrary, a light complexion was favoured for -its quality of retaining the body’s heat. The yellow and red varieties -need not be specially considered, for it has been shown that the -different tints of the iris are merely due to the greater or less -quantity of the same pigmentary matter; and as the colouring matter of -the complexion and the hair is similar to that of the eye, it is -probable that the same holds true of different hues of the skin; so that -yellowish, brown, and reddish tints may be looked upon as mere -intermediate stages between white and black. A trace of pigment, indeed, -is found even in our skins; and I believe that the reason why we become -brown on exposure to the sun is that the skin, when thus exposed and -irritated, secretes a larger amount of this colouring matter, to serve, -like a dimly-smoked glass, as a protection against scorching rays. - -From all these considerations we may safely infer that the particular -hue of man’s skin in each climate is useful to him, and not merely an -ornamental product of “taste,” as Darwin believed. Yet to some extent -Sexual Selection, doubtless, does come into play in most cases. At a low -stage of culture each race likes its special characteristics in an -exaggerated form,—a trait which would lead the more vigorous men to -persistently select the darkest girls as wives, and thus cause their -gradual predominance over the others: while the men, too, would, of -course, inherit a darker tint from their mothers. But a still more -important consideration is this, that, as Dr. Topinard points out, “Dark -colour in the negro is _a sign of health_,”—naturally, since the darker -the dermal pigment, the better are the nerves of temperature protected -against the enervating solar rays. Concerning the Polynesians, too, -Ellis (cited by Waitz) “notes expressly that a dark colour was more -admired and desired because it was looked upon as a sign of vigour.” - -These facts yield us a most profound insight into the methods of amorous -selection. The erotic instinct, whose duty is the preservation of the -species, is above all things attracted by Health, because without Health -the species must languish and die out. In a climate where—under the -circumstances in which negroes live—a light complexion is incompatible -with Health, it is bound to be eliminated. - -Fortunately, the negro’s taste is not sufficiently refined to make him -feel the æsthetic inferiority of the ebony complexion imposed on him by -his climate. Wherein this æsthetic inferiority consists is graphically -pointed out in these words of Figuier: “The colour of the skin takes -away all charm from the negro’s countenance. What renders the European’s -face pleasing is that each of its features exhibits a particular shade. -The cheeks, forehead, nose, and chin of the white have each a different -tinge. On an African visage, on the contrary, all is black, even the -eyebrows, as inky as the rest, are merged in the general colour; -scarcely another shade is perceptible, except at the line where the lips -join each other.” - -Nor is this all. Not only do we look in vain, in the monotonous -blackness of the negro’s face, for those varied tints which adorn a -white maiden’s face, borrowing one another’s charms by insensible -gradations, but also for those subtle emotional changes which, even if -they existed in the negro’s mind, could not paint themselves so -delicately on his opaque countenance, betraying every acceleration or -retardation in the heart’s beats, indicating every _nuance_ of hope and -despair, of pleasure or anguish. - -In our own latitude, luckily, Natural Selection favours, in the manner -indicated, the survival of the translucent white complexion. And what -Natural Selection leaves undone, Sexual Selection completes. Romantic -Love is the great awakener of the sense of Beauty, and in proportion as -Love is developed and unimpeded in its action, does the complexion -become more beautiful and more appreciated. Savages, blind to the -delicate tints of a transparent skin, daub themselves all over with -mixtures of grease and paint. The women of ancient Greece had taste -enough to feel the ugliness of the pallor caused by being constantly -chaperoned and locked up, but not enough to know that no artificial -paint can ever replace the natural colour of health. Hence, as Becker -tells us, “painting was almost universal among Grecian women.” Perhaps -they did not use any rouge at home, but it “was resumed when they were -going out, or wished to be specially attractive.” The men, apparently, -had better taste, for we read that “Ischomachos counselled his young -wife to take exercise, that she might do without rouge, which she was -accustomed constantly to use.” - -Coming to more recent times, we find men still protesting in vain -against the feminine fashion of bedaubing the face with vulgar paint. -More than two centuries ago La Bruyère informed his countrywomen -pointedly that “If it is the men they desire to please, if it is for -them that they paint and stain themselves, I have collected their -opinions, and I assure them, in the name of all or most men, that the -white and red paint renders them frightful and disgusting; that the red -alone makes them appear old and artificial; that men hate as much to see -them with cherry in their faces, as with false teeth in their mouth and -lumps of wax in the jaws.” - -It is needless to say that women who paint their faces put themselves on -a level with savages; for they show thereby that they prefer hideous -opaque daubs to the charm of translucent facial tints. Masculine -protestation, combined with masculine amorous preference for pure -complexions, has at last succeeded in banishing paint from the boudoir -of the most refined ladies; and this, combined with compulsory -vaccination against smallpox, accounts for the increasing number of good -complexions in the world. - -But, the important question now confronts us, Is there no limit to the -evolution of whiteness of complexion? Will Sexual Selection continue to -favour the lighter shades until the hyperbolic “milk and blood” -complexion will have been universally realised? - -An emphatic “No” is the answer. An exaggerated white is as objectionable -as black,—more so, in fact, because, whereas the deepest black indicates -good health, _extreme_ whiteness suggests the pallor of ill-health, and -will therefore always displease Cupid, the supreme judge of Personal -Beauty. Moreover, in a very white face the red cheek suggests the -confusing blush or the hectic flush rather than the subtle tints of -health and normal emotion. And again, the Scandinavian rose-and-lily -complexion is inferior to the delicate and slightly-veiled tint of the -Spanish brunette, because the latter suggests _the mellowing action of -the sun’s rays, which promises more permanence of beauty_. Hence it is -that in the marriage market a decided preference is shown for the -brunette type, as we shall see in the chapter on Blondes and Brunettes. - - - COSMETIC HINTS - -We are now in a position to understand the extreme importance of the -complexion from an amorous point of view, and to see why the care of the -complexion has almost monopolised the attention of those desiring to -improve their personal appearance, as shown by the fact that the word -“cosmetic,” in common parlance, refers to the care of the skin alone. - -Books containing recipes for skin lotions, ointments, and powders are so -numerous, that it is not worth while to devote much space to the matter -here. As a rule, the best advice to those about to use cosmetics is -_Don’t_. Every man whose admiration is worth having will infinitely -prefer a freckled, or even a pallid or smallpox-marked, face to one -showing traces of powder or greasy ointments, or lifeless, cadaverous -enamel, opaque as ebony blackness. - -If a woman’s skin is so morbidly sensitive as to be injured by ordinary -water and good soap, it is a sign of ill-health which calls for -residence in the country and the mellowing rays of the sun. Where this -is unattainable, the water may be medicated by the addition of a slice -of lemon, cucumber, or horse-radish, to all of which magic effects are -often attributed. The black spots on the sides of the nose may be -removed in a few weeks by the daily application (with friction) of lemon -juice. For pimples and barber’s itch a camphor and sulphur ointment, -which may be obtained of any chemist, is the simplest remedy. For a -shiny, polished complexion, and excessive redness of the nose, cheeks, -and knuckles, the following mixture is recommended by a good -authority:—Powdered borax, one half ounce; _pure_ glycerine, one ounce; -camphor-water, one quart. Borax, indeed, is as indispensable a toilet -article as soap or a nail-brush. After washing the face, exposure to the -raw air should always be avoided for ten or fifteen minutes. - -“A certain amount of friction applied to the face daily will do much,” -says Dr. Bulkley, “to keep the pores of the sebaceous glands open; and, -by stimulating the face, to prevent the formation of the black specks -and red spots so common in young people, I generally direct that the -face be rubbed to a degree short of discomfort, and that the towel be -not too rough.” Slight friction also helps to ward off wrinkles. - -Two or three weekly baths—hot in winter, cold in summer—are absolutely -necessary for those who wish to keep their skin in a healthy condition; -and no elixir of youth and beauty could produce such a sparkling eye and -glow of rosy health as a daily morning sponge bath, followed by -friction—care being taken, in a cold room, to expose only one part of -the body at a time. The importance of keeping open the pores of the skin -by bathing is seen by the fact that if a man were painted with varnish -he would suffocate in a few hours; for the skin is a sort of external -lung, aiding its internal colleague in removing effete products, -dissolved in the perspiration, from the system. - -The debris and oily matter brought to the surface of the skin and -deposited there by the perspiration cannot be completely removed without -soap. Unfortunately, this article has done more to ruin complexions than -almost any other cause, except smallpox and the superstitious dread of -sunshine. Many people have a peculiar mania for economising in soap. If -they can buy a piece of soap for a farthing, they consider themselves -wonderfully clever, regardless of the fact that it may not only ruin -their complexion, but produce a repulsive skin disease which it will -cost much gold to cure. Do they ever realise that these soaps, which -they thus smear over the most delicate parts of their body every day, -are made of putrid carcasses of animals, rancid fat, and corrosive -alkalies? Has no one ever told them that if a soap is both cheap and -highly perfumed it is _certain_ to be of vile composition, and injurious -to the skin? After washing yourself wait a moment till the soap’s -artificial odour has disappeared, and then smell your hands. That vile -rancid odour which remains—if you knew its source, you would immediately -run for a Turkish bath to wash off the very epidermis to which that -odour has adhered. - -What has ruined so many complexions is not soap itself, but bad soap. A -famous specialist, Dr. Bulkley, says that “there is no intrinsic reason -why soap should not be applied to the face, although there is a very -common impression among the profession, as well as the laity, that it -should not be used there.... The fact is, that many cases of eruptions -upon the face are largely due to the fact that soap has _not_ been used -on that part; and it is also true that, if properly employed, and _if -the soap is good_, it is not only harmless, but beneficial to the skin -of the face, as to every other part of the body.” - -“A word may be added in reference to the so-called ‘medicated soaps,’ -whose number and variety are legion, each claiming virtues far excelling -all others previously produced.... Now all or most of this attempt to -‘medicate’ soap is a perfect farce, a delusion, and a snare to entrap -the unwary and uneducated.... Carbolic soap is useless and may be -dangerous, because the carbolic acid may possibly become the blind -beneath which a cheap, poor soap is used; for in all these advertised -and patented nostrums the temptation is great to employ inferior -articles that the pecuniary gain may be greater. The small amount of -carbolic acid incorporated in the soap cannot act as an efficient -disinfectant.” - - - FRECKLES AND SUNSHINE - -Soap is not the only cosmetic that has been tabooed in the face because -of illogical reasoning. There is a much more potent beautifying -influence—viz., the mellowing rays of the sun—of which the face has long -been deprived, chiefly on account of an unscientific prejudice that the -sun is responsible for freckles. In his famous work on skin diseases -Professor Hebra of Vienna, the greatest modern authority in his -specialty, has completely disproved this almost universally accepted -theory. The matter is of such extreme importance to Health and Beauty -that his remarks must be quoted at length:— - -"It is a fact that lentigo (freckles) neither appears in the newly-born -nor in children under the age of 6-8 years, whether they run about the -whole day in the open air and exposed to the bronzing influence of the -sun, or whether they remain confined to the darkest room; it is -therefore certain that neither light nor air nor warmth produces such -spots in children.... - -“If we examine the skin of an individual who is said to be affected with -the so-called freckles only in the summer, at other seasons of the year -with sufficient closeness in a good light, and with the skin put on the -stretch by the finger, we shall detect the same spots, of the same size -but of somewhat lighter colour than in summer. In further illustration -of what has just been said, I will mention that I have repeatedly had -the opportunity of seeing lentigines on parts of the body that, as a -rule, are never exposed to the influence of the light and sun.... - -”_A priori_, it is difficult to understand how ephelides can originate -from the influence of sun and light in the singular form of disseminated -spots, since these influences act not only on single points, but -uniformly over the whole surface of the skin of the face, hands, etc. -The pigmentary changes must appear, therefore, in the form of patches, -not of points. Moreover, it is known to every one that, if the skin of -the face be directly exposed, even for only a short time, to a rough -wind or to intense heat, a tolerably dark bronzing appears, which -invades the affected parts uniformly, and not in the form or -disseminated, so-called summer-spots (freckles). It was, therefore, only -faulty observation on the part of our forefathers which induced them to -attribute the ephelides to the influence of light and sun." - -But the amount of mischief done by this “faulty observation of our -forefathers” is incalculable. To it we owe the universal feminine horror -of sunshine, without which it is as impossible for their complexion to -have a healthy, love-inspiring aspect, as it is for a plant grown in a -cellar to have a healthy green colour. How many women are there who -preserve their youthful beauty after twenty-five—the age when they ought -to be in full bloom? They owe this early decay partly to their -indolence, mental and physical, partly to their habit of shutting out -every ray of sunlight from their faces as if it were a rank poison -instead of the source of all Health and Beauty. If young ladies would -daily exercise their muscles in fresh air and sunshine, they would not -need veils to make themselves look younger. Veils may be useful against -very rough wind, but otherwise they should be avoided, because they -injure the eyesight. Parasols are a necessity on very hot summer -afternoons, but “the rest of the year the complexion needs all the sun -it can get.” - -Were any further argument needed to convince us that the sun has been -falsely accused of creating freckles, it would be found in the fact that -southern brunette races, though constantly exposed to the sun, are much -less liable to them than the yellow and especially the red-haired -individuals of the North. Professor Hebra regards freckles as “a freak -of Nature rather than as a veritable disease,” and thinks they are -“analogous to the piebald appearances met with in the lower animals.” As -has just been noted, they exist in winter as well as in summer. All that -the summer heat does is to make them visible by making the skin more -transparent. As the heat itself causes them to appear any way, it is -useless to taboo the direct sunlight as their source. - -Inasmuch as freckles appear chiefly among northern races, whose skin has -been excessively bleached and weakened in its action by constant indoor -life, it seems probable, notwithstanding Dr. Hebra’s opinion, that they -are the result of an unhealthy, abnormal action of the pigment-secreting -apparatus which exists even in the white skin. If this be so, then -proper care of the skin continued for several generations would -obliterate them. The reason why country folks are more liable to -freckles than their city cousins would then be referable, not to the -greater amount of sunlight in the country, but to the rarity of -bath-tubs, good soap, and friction-towels. My own observation leads me -to believe that freckles are rarer in England than on the continent, and -the English are proverbially enamoured of the bath-tub and open-air -exercise. - -For those who, without any fault of their own, have inherited freckles -from their parents, there is this consoling reflection that these -blemishes reside in a very superficial layer of the skin, and can -therefore be removed. Several methods are known; but as no one should -ever use them without medical assistance, they need not be described -here (see Hebra’s _Treatise_, vol. iii.) Any one who wishes to -temporarily conceal skin-blemishes may find this citation from Hebra of -use: “Perfumers and apothecaries have prepared from time immemorial -cosmetics whose chief constituent is _talcum venetum_, or _pulvis -aluminis plumosi_ (Federweiss), which, when rubbed in, in the form of a -paste, with water and alcohol, or a salve with lard, or quite dry, as a -powder, gives to the skin an agreeable white colour, and does not injure -it in the least, even if the use of the cosmetic be continued throughout -life.” - -It is probable that electricity will play a grand _rôle_ in future as an -agent for removing superfluous hairs, freckles, moles, port-wine marks, -etc. Much has already been done in this direction, and the only danger -is in falling into the hands of an unscrupulous quack. In vol. iii. No. -4 of the _Journal of Cutaneous and Venereal Diseases_, Dr. Hardaway has -an interesting article on this subject. - - - - - THE EYES - - -In one of the Platonic dialogues Sokrates points out the relativity of -standards of Beauty. “Is not,” he asks in effect, “the most beautiful -ape ugly compared to a maiden? and is not the maiden, in turn, inferior -in beauty to a goddess?” - -Regarding most of the human features it may be conceded that Sokrates is -right in his second question. To find a human forehead, nose, or mouth -that could not be improved in some respect, is perhaps impossible. But -_one_ feature must be excepted. There are human eyes which no artist -with a goddess for a model could make more divine. And of these glorious -orbs there are so many, in every country, that one cannot help -concluding that Schopenhauer made a great mistake in placing the face, -with the eyes, so low down in his list of love-inspiring human -qualities. On the contrary, I am convinced that no feminine charm so -frequently and so fatally fascinates men as lovely eyes, and that it is -for this reason that Sexual Selection has done more to perfect the eyes -than any other part of the body. - -When Petruchio says of Katharina that “she looks as clear as morning -roses newly washed with dew,” he compliments her complexion; but when -the Persian poet compares “a violet sparkling with dew” to “the blue -eyes of a beautiful girl in tears,” the compliment is to the violet. A -woman’s eye is the most beautiful object in the universe; and what made -it so is man’s Romantic Love. - -Putting poetry aside, we must now consider a few scientific facts and -correct a few misconceptions regarding the eye, its colour, lustre, -form, and expression. - - - COLOUR - -To say of any one that he has gray, blue, brown, or black eyes, is vague -and incorrect from a strictly scientific point of view, inasmuch as -there are no really gray or black eyes, and, as a matter of fact, every -eye, if closely examined, shows at least five or six different colours. - -There is, first, the tough sclerotic coat or _white_ of the eye, which -covers the greater part of the eyeball, and is not transparent, except -in front where the coloured _iris_ (or rainbow membrane) is seen through -it. This central transparent portion of the sclerotic coat is called the -cornea, and is slightly raised above the general surface of the eyeball, -like the middle portion of some watch-glasses. - -The white of the eye is sometimes slightly tinged with blue or yellow, -and sometimes netted with inflamed blood-vessels. All these deviations -are æsthetically inferior to the pure white of the healthy European, -because suggestive of disease, and conflicting with the general cosmic -standards of beauty. The bluish tint is a sign of consumption or -scrofulous disorders, being caused by a diminution of the pigmentary -matter in the choroid coat which lines the inside of the sclerotic. The -yellowish tint, in the European, is indicative of jaundice, dyspepsia, -or premature degeneracy of the white of the eye. It is normal, on the -other hand, in the healthy negro; but if a negro should claim that, -inasmuch as a yellowish sclerotic is to him not suggestive of disease, -he has as much right to consider it beautiful as we our white sclerotic, -the simple retort would be, that we are guided in our æsthetic judgment -by positive as well as negative tests. Disease is the negative test; the -positive lies in the fact that in inanimate objects, where disease is -altogether out of the question—as in ivory ornaments (which no one -associates with an elephant’s tusk)—we also invariably prefer a pure -snowy white to a muddy uncertain yellow. It is these two tests in -combination which have guided Sexual Selection in its efforts to -eliminate all but the pure white sclerotic,—a tint which, moreover, -throws into brighter relief the enchanting hues of the “sunbeamed” iris. - -More objectionable still than a yellowish or bluish sclerotic is a -bloodshot eye, not only because the inflamed blood-vessels which swell -and flood the white surface of the eye deface the marble purity of the -sclerotic (in a manner not in the least analogous to marble “veins”), -but because the red, watery blear eye generally indicates the ravages of -intemperance or unrestrained passions. However, a bloodshot eye may be -the result of mere overwork, or reading in a flickering light, or lack -of sleep; hence it is not always safe to allow the disagreeable æsthetic -impression given by inflamed eyes to prognosticate moral obliquity. But, -after all, the intimate connection between æsthetic and moral judgments -is in this case based on a correct, subtle instinct; for is not a man -who ruins the health and beauty of his eyes by intemperance in drink or -night-work sinning against himself? If attempts at suicide are punished -by law, why should not minor offences against one’s Health at least be -looked upon with moral disapproval? If this sentiment could be made -universal, there would be fifty per cent more Beauty in the world after -a single generation. - -In the centre of the white sclerotic is the membrane which gives the -eyes their characteristic variations of colour,—the iris or rainbow -curtain. If we look at an eye from a distance of a few paces, it seems -to have some one definite colour, as brown or blue. But on closer -examination we see that there are always several hues in each iris. The -colour of the iris is due to the presence of small pigment granules in -its interior layer. These granules are _always_ brown, in blue and gray -as well as in brown eyes; and the greater their number and thickness, -the darker is the colour of the iris. Blue eyes are caused by the -presence, in front of the pigment-layer, of a thin, almost colourless -membrane, which absorbs all the rays of light except the blue, which it -reflects, and thus causes the translucent iris to appear of that colour. - -The Instructions de la Société d’Anthropologie, says Dr. Topinard, -"recognise four shades of colour,—brown, green, blue, and gray; each -having five tones—the very dark, the dark, the intermediate, the light, -and the very light. The expression “brown” does not mean pure brown; it -is rather a reddish, a yellowish, or a greenish brown, corresponding -with the chestnut or auburn colour, the hazel and the sandy, made use of -by the English. The gray, too, is not pure; it is, strictly speaking, a -violet more or less mixed with black and white." - -“The negro, in spite of his name, is not black but deep brown,” as Mr. -Tylor remarks; and what is true of his complexion is also true of his -eyes; “what are popularly called black eyes are far from having the iris -really black like the pupil; eyes described as black are commonly of the -deepest shades of brown or violet.” - -The pupil, however, is always jetblack, not only in negroes, but in all -races. For the pupil is simply a round opening in the centre of the iris -which allows us to see clear through the lens and watery substance of -the eyeball to the black pigment which lines its inside surface. The -iris, in truth, is nothing but a muscular curtain for regulating the -size of the pupil, and thus determining how much light shall be admitted -into the interior of the eye. When the light is bright and glaring, a -little of it suffices for vision, hence the iris relaxes its fibres and -the pupil becomes smaller; whereas, in twilight and moonlight, the eye -needs all the light it can catch, so the muscles of the iris-curtain -contract and enlarge the pupil-window. This mechanism of the iris in -diminishing or enlarging the pupil can be neatly observed by looking -into a mirror placed on one side of a window. If the hand is put up in -such a way as to screen the eye from the light, the pupil will be seen -to enlarge; and if the hand is then suddenly taken away, it will -immediately return to its smaller size. For the muscles of the iris have -the power, denied to other unstriped or involuntary muscles, of acting -quite rapidly. - -Thus we find in the eyeball three distinct zones of colour—the white of -the eye, sometimes slightly tinted blue, yellow, or red; the iris, which -has various shades of brown, green, blue, and gray, commonly two or -three in each eye; and the central black pupil. Add to this the -flesh-colour of the eyelid and surrounding parts, and the light or dark -lashes and eyebrows, and we see that the eye in itself is a perfect -colour-symphony. - -Can we account for the existence of all these colours? The easiest thing -in the world, with the aid of the principles of Natural and Sexual -Selection. There are reasons for believing that the sense of sight is -merely a higher development from the sense of temperature, adapted to -vibrations so rapid that the nerves of temperature can no longer -distinguish them. In its simplest form, among the lowest animals, the -sense of sight is represented by a mere pigment spot. And in the highest -form of sight, after the development of the various parts of our -complicated eye, we still find this pigment as one of the most essential -conditions of vision. Its function, however, is not the same as that of -the pigment in the human skin. There it is interposed between the sun -and the underskin, in order to protect the nerves of temperature. The -optic nerve needs no such protection; for the heat-rays of the sun -cannot but be cooled on passing through the membranes, the lens, and the -watery substance in the eye, before reaching the optic nerve, spread out -on the retina. Consequently the eye-pigment, instead of being placed in -front of the nerves, is put behind them; and their function is to absorb -any excess of light that enters the eye. Were the membrane which -contains this pigment whitish, all the light would be reflected back, -and create such a glare and confusion that no object could be seen -distinctly. - -This view regarding the function of the pigment is strikingly supported -by the anomalous case of Albinos. “The pink of their eyes (as of white -rabbits) is caused by the absence of the black pigment,” says Mr. Tylor, -“so that light passing out through the iris and pupil is tinged red from -the blood-vessels at the back; thus their eyes may be seen to blush with -the rest of the face.” - -Bearing these facts in mind, it is obvious why it is an advantage in a -sunny country to have as much pigmentary matter as possible in the eye, -and why, therefore, Natural Selection makes the eyes blacker the nearer -we approach the tropics. And, as with the complexion, so here, it is -fortunate for the negro that he has not sufficient taste to feel the -æsthetic inferiority of the monotonous black thus imposed on him by -Natural Selection. “The iris is so dark,” says Figuier, “as almost to be -confounded with the black of the pupil. In the European, the colour of -the iris is so strongly marked as to render at once perceptible whether -the person has black, blue, or gray eyes. There is nothing similar in -the case of the negro, where all parts of the eye are blended in the -same hue. Add to this that the white of the eye is always suffused with -yellow in the Negro, and you will understand how this organ, which -contributes so powerfully to give life to the countenance of the White, -is invariably dull and expressionless in the Black Race.” - -To the Esquimaux, living in the constant glare of ice and snowfields, a -protective pigment is quite as necessary as to an African savage; hence -their eyes are equally black. But among other northern races, who are -less constantly exposed to the blinding rays of the sun, it suffices to -have coal-black pigment in the back part of the eye, as seen through the -pupil, while the iris need not be so absolutely opaque. This leaves room -for the action of Sexual Selection in giving the preference to eyes less -monotonously black. Our æsthetic sense craves variety and contrasts in -colour; and as the sense of Beauty originally stood in the service of -Love almost exclusively, it is to Cupid’s selective action that we -doubtless owe the diverse hues of the modern iris. - -To what kind of an iris does modern Love or æsthetic selection give the -preference? Doubtless to that which has the deepest and most -unmistakable colour—to dark brown, or deep blue, or violet. One reason -why we care less for the lighter, faded tints of the iris is because -they present a less vivid contrast to the white of the eye; and another -reason, as Dr. Hugo Magnus suggests, lies in the disagreeable impression -produced in us by the difficulty of making out the exact character of -the various indistinct shades of gray, yellow, green, or blue. - -The consideration of the question whether amorous selection shows any -further preference for one of its two favourite colours—dark brown and -deep blue—must be deferred to the chapter on Blondes and Brunettes. - - - LUSTRE - -But Cupid is not guided by colour alone in his choice. However beautiful -the colour of an eye, it loses half its charm if it lacks lustre. A -bright, sparkling eye is the most infallible index of youthful vigour -and health, whereas the lack-lustre eyes of ill-health can never serve -as windows from which Cupid shoots his arrows. No wonder that the poets -have searched all nature for analogies to the lustre of a maiden’s eye, -comparing it to sun and stars, to diamonds, crystalline lakes, the light -of glow-worms, glistening dewdrops, etc. - -What is the source of this light which shines from the eye and -intoxicates the lover’s senses? Several answers to this question have -been suggested. Twenty-five hundred years ago Empedokles taught that -“there is in the eye a fine network which holds back the watery -substance swimming about in it, but the fiery particles penetrate -through it like the rays of light through a lantern” (Ueberweg). And a -notion similar to this, that there is a kind of magnetic or nervous -emanation which beams from the eye and is a direct efflux of the soul, -was entertained in recent times by Lavater and Carus. It was apparently -supported by the peculiar light which may be seen occasionally in the -eyes of cats, dogs, and horses in the twilight; but this has been proved -to be a purely physical phenomenon of reflection, due to an anatomical -peculiarity in the eyes of these animals. - -Some writers have attempted to account for the lustrous fire of the eye -by attributing it to the increased tension of the eyeball brought about -through certain joyous and exciting emotions. Dr. Hugo Magnus, however, -denies that these emotions ever increase the tension of the eyeball: “We -know from numerous exceedingly minute measurements that there is no such -thing whatever as a rapid change of tension in the eye, as long as it is -in a healthy condition.” In some diseases, especially in cataract or -glaucoma, such an increased tension does occur, indeed, but it does not -in the least impart to the eye the sparkle of joyous excitement. Hence -Professor Magnus concludes that “the mimic significance of the eye -cannot be conditioned by changes in the form of the eyeball, through -tension or pressure on it.” - -His own theory (as developed in his two interesting pamphlets, _Die -Sprache der Augen_ and _Das Auge in seinen aesthetischen und -culturgeschichtlichen Beziehungen_) is that the greater or less -brilliancy of the eyes depends entirely on the movements of the eyelids. -Instead of calling the eye the window of the soul, it is more correct to -say that the cornea is a mirror which, like any other mirror, reflects -the light that falls on it. The higher the eyelids are raised the larger -becomes the mirror, and the more light is therefore reflected. Now it is -well known that exciting emotions like joy, enthusiasm, anger, and pride -have a tendency to raise the eyelids, while the sad and depressing -emotions cause them to sink and partially cover the eyeball; hence joy -makes the eyes sparkling, while grief renders them dull and lustreless. - -The old poetic and popular notion that the lustre of the eye is a direct -emanation of the human soul must therefore be abandoned. The sparkling -eye is a mere physical consequence of the involuntary raising of the -eyelids brought about through exhilarating or exciting emotions. - -This theory of Dr. Magnus doubtless comes nearer the truth than the -others referred to; and the fact that snakes’ eyes, though small, are -proverbially glistening, apparently because they are lidless, may be -used as an additional argument in his favour, which he overlooked. Yet -his view does not cover the whole ground; for it does not explain why, -after weeping, or when we are weary or ill, we may open our eyes as -widely as we please without making them appear lustrous. - -This difficulty suggested to me the theory that, though partly dependent -on the movements of the eyelids, the lustre of the eyes is due -originally to the tension and moisture of the _conjunctiva_. - -The _conjunctiva_, though consisting of 6-8 layers of cells, is an -extremely thin and highly sensitive, transparent membrane, which lines -the surface of the eyeball as well as the inside of the eyelids. In this -membrane is located the pain which we feel if dust, etc., flies into our -eyes. In order to wash out any particles that may get into the eye, and -to prevent the lid from sticking to the eyeball, the lachrymal glands -constantly secrete the water, which, during an emotional shower, -consolidates into tear-drops. - -Now, just as “the rose is sweetest washed with morning dew,” so the eye -is brightest and most fascinating which glistens in an ever fresh supply -of lachrymal fluid. After weeping, this supply is temporarily exhausted, -hence not only are the eyes “sticky” and the lids difficult to raise, -but even if they are raised there is no lustre; you look in vain for -“Cupid’s bonfires burning in the eye.” But when we wake up from -refreshing sleep in the morning, or when we take a walk in the bracing -country air, the eye sparkles its best and “emulates the diamond,” -because at such a time all the vital energies, including of course those -of the lachrymal glands, are incited to fresh activity, which they lose -again after prolonged use of the eye, thus making it appear duller in -the evening. - -Thus we can readily account for those lights in the eye “that do mislead -the morn.” Yet it is probable that (although in a less degree than dewy -moisture) the tension and translucency of the conjunctiva are also -concerned in the production of a liquid, lustrous expression. Though the -eyeball itself may not undergo any changes in tension, the conjunctiva -doubtless does. The eyeball rests on a bed of fatty tissue which shrinks -after death, owing to the emptying of the blood-vessels and the -consolidation of the fat, which makes a corpse appear “hollow-eyed.” The -same effect, to a slighter degree, is caused by disease and excessive -fatigue, making the eyes sink into their sockets. This sinking must -diminish the tension of the conjunctiva, both under the eyelids and on -the surface of the eyeball; and in shrinking it becomes less transparent -and glistening. - -The following observations of Professor Kollmann indirectly support my -theory that the conjunctiva is the source of the eye’s lustre: “After -death this transparent membrane (the conjunctiva) becomes turbid, the -eye loses its lustre and becomes veiled. The surface reflects but a -faint degree of light, the eye is ‘broken.’” The loss of lustre extends -to the white of the eye, but is less noticeable, perhaps because there -lustre does not blend with colour, as in the iris region. - -Fashionable young ladies who dance throughout the night several times a -week may well be disgusted with the _blue_ rings which appear around -their sunken eyes. These rings are a warning that they need “beauty -sleep” and fresh air to fill up the sockets again with healthy fat and -_red_ blood, so as to increase the tension of the conjunctiva and -stimulate the flow of dewy moisture on which the lustre of the eye -depends. There are tears of Beauty as well as of anguish and joy. - - - FORM - -Of the beauty of the eye as conditioned by its form, Dr. Magnus has made -such an admirable and exhaustive analysis that I can do little more than -summarise his observations. He points out, in the first place, that the -form of the eyeball itself is of subordinate importance. The differences -in the size and shape of eyeballs are insignificant, and are, moreover, -liable to be concealed by the shape of the eyelids; hence it is to the -lids and brows that the eye chiefly owes its formal beauty. - -“The form of the eye is conditioned exclusively by the cut of the lids -and the size of the aperture between them.... The countless individual -differences in this aperture give to the eyeballs the most diverse -shapes, so that we speak of round eyes, wide eyes, almond-shaped, -elongated, and owl eyes, etc.” - -The first condition of beauty in an eye is size. Large eyes have been -extolled ever since the beginnings of poetry. The Mahometan heaven is -peopled with “virgins with chaste mien and large black eyes,” and the -Arabian poets never tire of comparing their idols’ eyes to those of the -gazelle and the deer. The Greeks appear to have considered large eyes an -essential trait of beauty as well as of mental superiority; hence -Sokrates as well as Aspasia are described as having had such eyes; and -who has not read of Homer’s ox-eyed Juno? Juvenal specially mentions -small eyes as a blemish. - -Large eyes, however, are not beautiful if the aperture between the lids -is too wide, or if the white can be seen above the iris. They must owe -their largeness to the graceful curvature of the upper eyelid. As -Winckelmann remarks, “Jupiter, Apollo, and Juno have the opening of -their eyelids large and vaulted, and less elongated than is usual, so as -to make the arch more pronounced.” - -At the same time we are sufficiently catholic in taste to admire eyes -which are not quite round but somewhat elongated. One favourite variety -is that in which “the upper lid shows, in the margin adjoining the inner -corner of the eye, a rather decided curvature, which, however, -diminishes toward the outer corner in an extremely graceful and pleasing -wavy line. As the lower lid has a similar, though less decided, marginal -curve, the eyeball which appears within this aperture assumes a unique -oval form, which has been very aptly and characteristically named -‘almond-shaped.’ The Greeks compared the graceful curve of such lids to -the delicate and pleasing loops formed by young vines, and therefore -called an eye of this variety ἑλικοβλέφαρος. Winckelmann has noted that -it was the eyes of Venus, in particular, that the ancient artists were -fond of adorning with this graceful curve of the lids.... Italian, and -especially Spanish eyes, are far-famed for their classical and graceful -oval form.” - -Almond eyes are peculiar to the Semitic and ancient Aryan races. Some of -the bards of India sing the praises of an eye so elongated that it -reaches to the ear; and in Assyrian statues such eyes are common. The -ancient Egyptians had a similar taste; and Carus relates that some -Oriental nations actually enlarge the slit of the eye with the knife; -while others use cosmetics to simulate the appearance of very long eyes. -According to Dr. Sömmering, the eye of male Europeans is somewhat less -elongated than that of females. - -Round or oval marginal curvature, however, is not the only condition of -beauty in an eyelid. The surface, too, must be kept in a tense, -well-rounded condition. Sunken, hollow eyes displease us not only -because they suggest disease and age, but because they destroy the -smooth surface and curvature of the eyelids. Thus do we find the laws of -Health and Beauty coinciding in the smallest details. - -The position of the eye also largely influences our æsthetic judgment. -What strikes us first in looking at a Chinaman is his obliquely-set -eyes, with the outer corner drawn upwards, which displeases us even more -than their excessive elongation and small size. Oblique eyes are a -dissonance in the harmony of our features, and almost as objectionable -as a crooked mouth. True, our own eyes are rarely absolutely horizontal, -but the deviation is too minute to be noticed by any but a trained -observer. Sometimes, as Mantegazza remarks, the opposite form may be -noticed, the outer corner of the eye being lower than the inner. “If -this trait is associated with other æsthetic elements, it may produce a -rare and extraordinary charm, as in the case of the Empress Eugénie.” - -The eyelashes and eyebrows, though strictly belonging in the chapter on -the hair, must be referred to here because they bear such a large part -in the impression which the form of the eye makes on us. The short, -stiff hairs, which form “the fringed curtain of the eye,” are attached -to the cartilage which edges the eyelids. They are not straight but -curved, downward in the lower, upward in the upper lid. And the -Beauty-Curve is observed in still another way, the hairs in the central -part of each lid being longer than they are towards the ends. In the -upper lid the hairs are longer than in the lower. Their æsthetic and -physiognomic value will be considered presently under the head of -Expression. - -In the eyebrows the Curve of Beauty is again the condition of -perfection. It must be a gentle curve, however, or else it imparts to -the countenance a Mephistophelian expression of irony. Eyebrows were -formerly held to be peculiar to man, but Darwin states that “in the -Chimpanzee, and in certain species of Macacus, there are scattered hairs -of considerable length rising from the naked skin above the eyes, and -corresponding to our eyebrows; similar long hairs project from the hairy -covering of the superciliary ridges in some baboons.” - -The existence of the eyebrows may be accounted for on utilitarian -grounds. Natural Selection favoured their development because they are, -like the lashes, of use in preventing perspiration and dust from getting -into the eyes. Their delicately curved form, however, they probably owe -to Sexual Selection. Cupid objects to eyebrows which are too much or not -sufficiently arched, and he objects to those which are too bushy or -which meet in the middle. The ancient Greeks already disliked eyebrows -meeting in the middle, whereas in Rome Fashion not only approved of -them, but even resorted to artificial means for producing them. The -Arabians go a step farther in the use of paint. They endeavour to -produce the impression as if their eyebrows grew down to the middle of -the nose and met there. The Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, and Indians -also used paint to make their eyebrows seem wider, but they did not -unite them. On the outside border the eyebrows should extend slightly -beyond the corner of the eye. - - - EXPRESSION - -In the chapter on the nose reference was made to our disposition to -seize upon any sensation experienced inside the mouth and label it as a -“taste,” whereas psychologic analysis shows that in most cases the sense -of smell (excited during _exhalation_) has more to do with our enjoyment -of food than taste; and that the nerves of temperature and touch -likewise come into play in the case of peppermint, pungent condiments, -alcohol, etc. We are also in the habit of including in the term -“feeling” or “touch” the entirely distinct sensations of temperature, -tickling, and some other sensations, to the separate study of which -physiologists are only now beginning to devote special attention. - -Similarly with the eyes. Being the most fascinating part of the face, on -which we habitually fix our attention while talking, they are credited -with various expressions that are really referable to other features, -which we rapidly scan and then transfer their language to the eyes. Nor -is this all. Most persons habitually attribute to the varying lustre of -the eyeball diverse “soulful” expressions which, as physiologic analysis -shows, are due to the _movements_ of the eyeball, the eyebrows, and -lashes. The poets, who have said so many beautiful things about the -eyes, are rarely sufficiently definite to lay themselves open to the -charge of inaccuracy. But there can be little doubt that the popular -opinion concerning the all-importance of the eyeball is embodied in such -expressions as these: “Love, anger, pride, and avarice all visibly move -in those little orbs” (Addison). “Her eye in silence has a speech which -eye best understands” (Southwell). “An eye like Mars to threaten or -command.” “The heavenly rhetoric of thine eye, ’gainst which the world -cannot hold argument.” “Behold the window of my heart, mine eye.” -“Sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages.” “For -shame, lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers.” “If mine eyes can -wound, now let them kill thee.” “There’s an eye wounds like a leaden -sword.” The last three of these Shaksperian lines were evidently echoing -in Emerson’s mind when he wrote that “Some eyes threaten like a loaded -and levelled pistol, and others are as insulting as hissing or kicking; -some have no more expression than blueberries, while others as deep as a -well which you can fall into.” “Glances are the first _billets-doux_ of -love,” says Ninon de L’Enclos. - -In order to make perfectly clear the mechanism by which the eye becomes -an organ of speech, it is advisable to consider separately these six -factors, which are included in it—(_a_) Lustre; (_b_) Colour of the -Iris; (_c_) Movements of the Iris or Pupil; (_d_) Movements of the -Eyeball; (_e_) Movements of the Eyelids; (_f_) Movements of the -Eyebrows. - -(_a_) _Lustre._—"The physiological problem whether the surface of the -eyeball, independent of the muscles that cover and surround it, can -express emotion, a near study of the American girl seems to answer quite -in the affirmative." Dr. G. M. Beard remarks, without, however, -endeavouring to specify what emotions the surface of the eyeball -expresses, or in what manner it does express them. - -Dr. Magnus, on the other hand, who has made a more profound study of -this question than any other writer, is emphatic in his conviction that -“the eyeball takes no active part in the expression of emotions, which -is entirely accomplished by the muscles and soft parts surrounding it.” -His view is supported by the fact that although some of the ancient -sculptors endeavoured by the use of jewels or by chiselling semi-lunar -or other grooves into the eyeball to simulate its lustre by means of -shadows, yet as a rule sculptors and painters strangely neglect the -careful elaboration of the eyeball; and in the Greek works of the best -period, including those of Phidias, the eyeball was left smooth and -unadorned, the artists relying especially on the careful chiselling of -the lids and brows for the attainment of the particular characteristic -expression desired. - -Nevertheless Dr. Magnus goes too far in denying that ocular lustre can -be directly expressive of mental states without the assistance of the -movements of the eyebrows and lids. His own observations show that he -has overstated his thesis. We can indeed, he says, infer from the -appearance of the eyeball, “whether the soul is agitated or calm, but we -have to rely on the facial muscles to specify the emotion. This is the -reason why we can never judge the sentiments of one who is masked; for -the fire in his eye can only indicate to us his greater or less -agitation, but not its special character. _That_ we could only read in -the features which the mask conceals. It is for this reason that the -orthodox Mahometan makes his women cover up their face with a veil which -leaves nothing exposed but the eyes, because these cannot, without the -constant play of the facial muscles, indicate the emotional state. The -lustre of the corneal mirror therefore indicates to us only the -quantity, but never the quality of emotional excitement.” - -Herein Dr. Magnus follows the assertion of Lebrun, a contemporary of -Louis XIV., that “the eyeball indicates by its fire and its movements in -general that the soul is passionately excited, but not in what manner.” - -No doubt the Turk attains his object in leaving only the eyes of his -women open to view, for thus the passing stranger cannot tell whether -her eye flashes Love or anger. But he _can_ tell whether she is agitated -or indifferent: and is not that a language too? Do we not call music -_the_ “language of emotions,” although it can only indicate the quantity -of emotion, and rarely its precise quality—just like the eyes? Therefore -Dr. Magnus is wrong in denying to the eyeball the power of emotional -expression. Vague emotion is still emotion. - -It has already been intimated in what manner emotional excitement -increases the eye’s lustre. It causes the blood-vessels in the sockets -of the eye to swell, thus increasing the tension of the conjunctiva and -the flow of the lachrymal fluid. - -Besides quantitative emotion there is another thing which ocular lustre -expresses, and that is Health. It is true that consumption, fever, and -possibly other diseases may produce a peculiar temporary transparency of -complexion and ocular lustre; but, as a rule, a bright eye indicates -Health and abundant vitality. - -As Health is the first condition of Love, and as the ocular lustre which -indicates Health cannot be normally secured without it, women of all -times and countries have been addicted to the habit of increasing the -eye’s sparkle artificially by applying a thin line of black paint to the -edge of the lids. The ancient Egyptians, Persians, Hindoos, Greeks, and -Romans followed this custom. But the natural sparkle which comes of -Health and Beauty-sleep [_i.e._ before midnight, with open windows] is a -thousand times preferable to such dangerous methods of tampering with -the most delicate and most easily injured organ of the body. - -Still another way in which the eyeball itself can express emotion is by -the varying amount on it of the lachrymal fluid, to which, in my -opinion, its lustre is chiefly owing. There is a supreme and thrilling -sparkle of the eye which can only come of the heavenly joys of Love; but -there is also “a liquid _melancholy_” of sweet eyes, to use Bulwer’s -words. Scott remarks that “Love is loveliest when embalmed in tears;” -and Dr. Magnus attests that “especially in the eyes of lovers we often -find a slight suspicion of tears.” He traces to this fact a peculiar -charm that is to be found in the eyes of Venus, which the Greeks called -ὑγρὸν (liquid, swimming, languishing). The sculptors produced this -expression by indicating the border between the lower lid and the -eyeball but slightly, thus giving the impression as if this border were -veiled by a liquid line of tear-fluid. - -What enables the lid to keep this fluid line in place is the fact that -its edge is lined with minute glands secreting an oily substance. The -presence of these glands in the upper lid, where they cannot serve to -retain lachrymal fluid, suggests the important inference that the lustre -of the eye may be partly due to a thin film of oil spread over the -cornea by the up-and-down movements of this lid. Indeed, this may -possibly be the chief cause of ocular lustre. - -When the lachrymal fluid habitually present in the eye becomes too -abundant it ceases to express amorous tenderness, and becomes instead -indicative of old age, or, worse still, of intemperance. Alcoholism has -a peculiarly demoralising effect on the lower eyelid, which becomes -swollen and inflamed. This probably overstimulates the action of the oil -glands in the lids, thus accounting for the watery or blear eye, -eloquent of vice. - -(_b_) _Colour of the Iris._—There is nothing in which popular -physiognomy takes so much delight as in pointing out what particular -characteristics are indicated by the different colours of eyes. All such -distinctions are the purest drivel. We have seen that differences in the -colour of eyes are entirely due to the varying amount of the same -pigmentary matter present in the iris. Now, what earthly connection -could a greater or less quantity of this colouring matter have with our -intellectual or moral traits? It is necessary thus to trace facts to -their last analysis in order to expose the absurdities of current -physiognomy. - -Inasmuch as black-eyed southern nations are, on the whole, more -impulsive than northern races, it may be said in a vague, general way -that a black eye indicates a passionate disposition. But there are -countless exceptions to this rule—apathetic black-eyed persons, as well -as, conversely, fiery blue-eyed individuals. Nor is this at all strange; -for the black colour is not stored up in some mysterious way as a result -of a fiery temperament, but is simply accumulated in the iris through -Natural Selection, as a protection against glaring sunlight. - -Although, therefore, the brilliancy of the eye may vary with its colour, -the colour itself does not express emotion, either qualitatively or -quantitatively. In reading character no assistance is given us by the -fact that eyes are “of unholy blue,” “darkly divine,” “gray as glass,” -or “green as leeks.” Shakspere calls Jealousy a “green-eyed monster”; -and the green iris has indeed such a bad reputation that blondes in -search of a compliment commonly abuse their “green” eyes, to exercise -your Gallantry, and give you a chance to defend their “celestial blue” -or “divine violet.” - -Dr. Magnus suggests that the reason why we dislike decidedly green or -yellow eyes is simply because they are of rare occurrence, and therefore -appear anomalous; for in animals we do not hesitate to pronounce such -eyes beautiful. He also explains ingeniously why it is that we are apt -to attribute moral shortcomings to persons whose eyes are of a vague, -dubious colour. Such eyes displease our æsthetic sense, and this -displeasure we transfer to the moral sense, and thus confound and -prejudice our judgment. In the same way our dislike of unusual green -eyes disposes us to accuse their owners of irregularities of conduct. -Moral: Keep your æsthetic and ethical judgments apart. - -Conversely, in the case of snakes, our fear and horror make it difficult -for us to appreciate the æsthetic charm of their colours. And all these -cases show that the æsthetic sense, if properly understood and -specialised, is independent of moral and utilitarian considerations: -which knocks the bottom out of the theory of Alison, Jeffrey, and Co. - -One more abnormality of colour in the iris must be referred to. It -happens not infrequently that the colour of the two eyes is not alike, -one being brown, the other blue or gray. In such cases, though each eye -may be perfect in itself, we dislike the combination. What is the ground -of this æsthetic dislike? Simply the fact that the dissimilarity of the -eyes violates one of the fundamental laws of Beauty—the law of Symmetry, -which demands that corresponding parts on the two sides of the body -should harmonise. - -(_c_) _Movements of the Iris._—The jetblack pupil of the eye, as already -noted, is not always of the same size. It becomes smaller if an excess -of light causes the iris to relax, larger if diminution of light makes -the iris contract its fibres. Another way of altering the size of the -pupil is by gazing at a distant object, which causes it to enlarge, -while gazing at a near object makes it smaller. According to Gratiolet -and some other writers, there is still another way in which the pupil is -affected, namely, through emotional excitement. Great fear, for -instance, enlarges the pupil, according to Gratiolet. Dr. Magnus, -however, remarks that, apart from the fact that some observers have -denied that the pupil is affected by emotions, the alterations in its -size are as a rule too insignificant to be noted by any but a trained -observer; so that they could not play any important physiognomic _rôle_. - -Yet a large pupil is everywhere esteemed a great beauty, and is often -credited with a special power of amorous expression. “Widened pupils,” -says Kollmann, “give the eye a tender aspect; they seem to increase its -depth, and fascinate the spectator by the strangeness this imparts to -the gaze. Oriental women put atropine into their eyes, which enlarges -the pupil. They do this in order to give their eyes the soulful -expression which they believe is imparted by large pupils, distinctly -foreshadowing the joys of love.” - -Whether emotionally expressive or not, so much is certain that large -pupils are more beautiful than small ones, for the same reason that -large eyes are more beautiful than small ones, _i.e._ because we cannot -have too much of a thing of Beauty. - -Finally, there is this to be said regarding the lustre, colour, and size -of pupil and iris, that they emphasise the language of the eye. If we -play a love-song on the piano, we may admire it; but if it is sung or -played on the violoncello, it makes a doubly deep impression; and why? -Because the superior sensuous beauty of the voice, or the amorous -tone-colour of the ’cello, paints and gilds the bare fabric of the song. -A small dull-coloured eye, similarly, may speak quite as definite a -language of command or entreaty, pride or humility, as any other; but -the flashing large pupil and the lustrous deep-dyed iris intensify the -emotional impressiveness of this language a hundredfold, by adding the -incalculable power of sensuous Beauty. Thus lustre and colour are for -the _visible_ music of the spheres what orchestration is to audible -music. - -(_d_) _Movements of the Eyeball._—The socket of the eye contains -(besides the fat-cushion in which the eyeball is imbedded, the -blood-vessels, and other tissues) seven muscles; one for raising the -upper lid, and six for moving the eyeball itself upwards, downwards, -inwards, outwards, or forwards and obliquely. To the action of these -muscles the eye owes much of its expressiveness. - -It has been noted that elating emotions have a tendency to raise the -features, depressing emotions to depress them. The eyeball is no -exception. Persons who are elated by their real or apparent superiority -to others turn their eyes habitually from the humble things beneath -them; hence the muscle which turns the eyeball upwards has long ago -received the name of “pride-muscle”; while its antipode, the _musculus -humilis_, is so called because humility and modesty are characterised by -a downward gaze. - -The muscle which turns the eyeball towards the inner corner, nosewards, -is much used by persons who are occupied with near objects. If this -convergence of the eyes is too pronounced, it gives one a stupid -expression; whereas, if moderate, the expression is one of great -intellectual penetration, as Dr. Magnus points out. He believes that the -trick, made use of by some portrait-painters, of making the eyes appear -to follow you wherever you go depends on this medium degree of -convergence of the eyes. - -Slight divergence of the eyeballs, on the other hand, is characteristic -of children and of great thinkers—an item which Schopenhauer forgot to -note when he pointed out that genius always retains certain traits of -childhood. “Donders,” says Dr. Magnus, “has always observed this -divergent position of the eyes in persons who meditate deeply. And the -artists make use of this position of the eyes to give their figures the -expression of a soul averted from terrestrial affairs, and fixed on -higher spiritual objects. Thus the Sistine Madonna has this divergent -position of the eyes, as well as the beautiful boy she carries on her -arm.” It is also found in Dürer’s portrait of himself, and in a bust of -Marcus Aurelius in the Vatican. - -If, however, this divergence becomes too great, it loses its charm, for -the eyes then appear to fix no object at all, and the gaze becomes -“vacant,” as in the eyes of the blind or the sick. To appreciate the -force of these remarks it must be borne in mind that there is only one -part of the retina, called the “yellow spot,” with which we can -distinctly fix an object. What we see with other parts of the retina is -indistinct, blurred. - -These details are here given because many will be glad to know that by -daily exercising the muscles of the eyeballs before the mirror, they can -greatly alter and improve their looks. Every day one hears the remark, -“She has beautiful eyes, but she does not know how to use them.” When we -read of a great thinker, like Kant, fixing his gaze immovably on a tree -for an hour, we think it quite natural; nor does any one object to “the -poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,” for we all know that a poet is -merely an inspired madman. But a young lady who wishes to charm by her -Beauty must learn to fix her wandering eyes calmly on others, while -avoiding a stony stare. One of the greatest charms of American girls is -their frank, steady gaze, free from any tinge of unfeminine boldness. -Such a charming natural gaze can only be acquired in a country where -girls are taught to look upon men as gentlemen, and not as wolves, -against whom they must be guarded by dragons. - -Eye-gymnastics are as important to Beauty as lung-gymnastics to Health, -and dancing-lessons to Grace. But of course there is a certain number of -fortunate girls who can dispense with such exercises, because they -gradually learn the proper use of their eyes, as well as general -graceful movements, from the example of a refined mother. - -Goldsmith’s pretty line about “the bashful virgin’s sidelong looks of -love,” is not a mere poetic conceit, but a scientific _aperçu_; for, as -Professor Kollmann remarks, “the external straight muscle of the eye was -also called the lover’s muscle, _musculus amatorius_, because the -furtive side-glance is aimed at a beloved person.” - -Nor is this the only way in which the movements of the eyeball are -concerned with Romantic Love. By constantly exercising certain muscles -of the eyeball in preference to others, the eyes gradually assume, when -at rest, a fixed and peculiar gaze which distinguishes them from all -other eyes. It is comparatively easy to find two pairs of eyes of the -same colour or form, but two with the same gaze, _i.e._ characteristic -position of the eyeballs, never. Hence Dr. Magnus boldly generalises -Herder’s statement that “Every great man has a look which no one but he -can give with his eyes,” into the maxim that “_Every individual_ has a -look which no one else can make with his eyes.” - -Bungling photographers commonly spoil their pictures by compelling their -victims to fix their eyes in an unwonted position. The result is a -picture which bears some general resemblance to the victim, but in which -the characteristic _individual_ expression is wanting. - -Our habit of masking our eyes alone when we wish to remain unrecognised, -and leaving the lower part of the face exposed, affords another proof of -the assertion that the eye is the chief seat of individuality. For -though the eyeball itself remains visible, the surrounding parts are -covered, so that its characteristic position cannot be determined. - -Now we know that Individual Preference is the first and most essential -element of Romantic Love. Hence Dante was as correct in calling the eyes -“the beginning of Love,” as in terming the lips “the end of Love.” And -Shakspere agrees with Dante when he speaks of “Love first learned in a -lady’s eyes”; and again: “But for her eye I would not love her; yes, for -her two eyes.” - -(_e_) _Movements of the Eyelids._—Although the foregoing pages -considerably qualify Dr. Magnus’s thesis that the eyeball owes all its -life and expressiveness to the movements of the eyelids and brows, yet -the physiognomic and æsthetic importance of lids, lashes, and brows can -hardly be too much emphasised. A very large proportion of the pleasure -we derive from beautiful eyes is due to the constant changes in the -apparent size of the eyeball, and the gradations in its lustre, produced -by the rapid movements of the upper lid. This is strikingly proved by -the fact, noted by Dr. Magnus, “that the eyes of wax figures, be they -ever so artistically finished, always give the impression of death and -rigidity,” whereas “artificial eyes, such as are often inserted by -physicians after the loss of an eye, have, thanks to the constant play -of the lids, an appearance so animated and lifelike that it requires the -trained eye of a specialist to detect the dead, lifeless glass-eye in -this apparently so animated orb.” - -A complete emotional scale is symbolised in these movements of the upper -eyelids. A medium position indicates rest or indifference. Joyous and -other exciting emotions raise them, so that the whole of the lustrous -iris becomes visible. Thus we get the eye “sparkling with joy” or the -“angry flash of the eye,” as well as Cupid’s darts: “He is already dead; -stabbed with a white wench’s black eye.” “Alack, there lies more peril -in thine eye than twenty of their swords.” - -But if the lids are raised too high, so that the white above the iris -becomes visible, the expression changes to one of affectation, or -maniacal wildness, or extreme terror. There are persons, says Magnus, in -whom the aperture between the lids is naturally so wide as to reveal the -upper white of the eyes; and in consequence we are apt to accuse them of -hollow pathos. I have seen not a few beautiful pairs of eyes marred by -the habitual tendency to raise the lids too much—a fault that can be -readily overcome by deliberate effort and practice before the mirror. - -On the other hand, if the aperture between the lids is too small, that -is, if the lids are naturally (or only transiently) lowered too much, we -get an apathetic, drowsy expression. The Chinese eye displeases us not -only by its oblique set, and the narrowness of the lid, but also because -the natural smallness of the eyeball is exaggerated by the narrow -palpebral aperture. The negro appears more wide awake to us, because in -his eyes this aperture is wider—so wide, in fact, that he is apt to -displease us by showing too much of the white sclerotic. - -A very drooping eyelid being expressive of fatigue, physical or mental, -_blasé_ persons affect it in order to indicate their _nil admirari_ -attitude. But there is another secret reason why they drop their -eyelids. If we lower the head and open our eyes widely, they retire -within their sockets and appear hollow, suggesting dissipation or -disease; whereas, if we raise the head, throwing it slightly backwards, -and lowering the eyelids, we obliterate this hollow, and give the -impression of languid indifference. This, rather than the “raising of -the eyebrows,” is what constitutes the “supercilious” expression. - -It cannot be said that a supercilious appearance is specially -attractive, yet the obliteration of the eyes’ hollowness is an -advantage; and it may be added that, since perfect health is not a -superabundant phenomenon, the same reasoning explains why many faces are -so much more fascinating in a reclining or semi-reclining position than -when upright. Fashion, of course, being the handmaid of ugliness, does -not object to hollow eyes encircled by blue rings, but even cultivates -them. Yet in her heart of hearts every fashionable woman knows that -nothing so surely kills masculine admiration—not to speak of Love—as -sunken eyes with blue rings. - -A slight drooping of the eyelids, on the other hand, gives a pleasing -expression of amorous languor. The lid, with its lashes, in this case, -coyly veils the lustre of the eye, without extinguishing it. Hence, in -the words of Dr. Magnus, the sculptors of antiquity made use of this -slight lowering of the lid to express sensuous love; and accordingly it -was customary to chisel the eyes of Venus with drooping lids and a small -aperture. - -In their task of moderating and varying the lustre of the eyeball, the -lids are greatly assisted by the lashes. An eye with missing or too -short lashes is apt to appear too fiery, glaring, or “stinging.” Long -dark eyelashes are of all the means of flirtation the most irresistible. -Note yonder artful maiden. How modestly and coyly she droops her eyes, -till suddenly the fringed curtain is raised and a glorious symphony of -colour and lustre is flashed on her poor companion’s dazed vision! No -wonder he staggers and falls in love at first sight. - -“White lashes and eyebrows are so disagreeably suggestive,” we read in -the _Ugly Girl Papers_, “that one cannot blame their possessor for -disguising them by a harmless device. A decoction of walnut juice should -be made in season, and kept in a bottle for use the year round. It is to -be applied with a small hair-pencil to the brows and lashes, turning -them to a rich brown, which harmonises with fair hair.” Another recipe -given, by a good authority, is as follows: “Take frankincense, resin, -pitch, of each one half ounce; gum mastic, quarter of an ounce; mix and -drop on red-hot charcoals. Receive the fumes in a large funnel, and a -black powder will adhere to its sides. Mix this with fresh juice of -alderberries (or Cologne water will do), and apply with a fine -camel-hair brush.” - -Those who wish to make their lashes longer and more regular may find the -following suggestions, by Drs. Brinton and Napheys, of use: “The -eyelashes should be examined one by one, and any which are split, or -crooked, or feeble, should be trimmed with a pair of sharp scissors. The -base of the lashes should be anointed nightly with a minute quantity of -oil of cajuput on the top of a camel-hair brush, and the examination and -trimming repeated every month. If this is sedulously carried out for a -few months the result will be gratifying.” - -All such operations should be performed by another person, for the eye -is a most delicate organ. Yet, not even this organ has been spared by -deforming Fashion. The fact that some Africans colour their eyelids -black may have a utilitarian rather than a cosmetic reason. But what -shall we say to the Africans who eradicate their eyebrows, and the -Paraguayans, who remove their eyelashes because they “do not wish to be -like horses?” - -Twin sisters ever are Fashion and Idiocy. - -(_f_) _Movements of the Eyebrows._—Herder called the arched eyebrow the -rainbow of peace, because if it is straightened by a frown it portends a -storm. In plain prose, the eyebrow partakes of the general upward -movement from joyous excitement, and the downward movement in grief. If -the eyebrows are too bushy, they overshadow the eye and produce a gloomy -or even ferocious appearance. The Chinese, possibly from an instinctive -perception that their eyes are not too large or bright, shave their -eyebrows, leaving only a narrow fringe. Dr. Broca also notes that the -eyebrow adds to the oblique appearance of the Chinese eye through a -particular movement, the two internal thirds of the eyebrows being -lower, and the external third higher than with us. - -Though not, perhaps, directly concerned in the expression of Love, the -eyebrow is not to be under-rated. No detail of Beauty escapes Cupid’s -eyes; for do we not read of “the lover, sighing like furnace, with a -woeful ballad made to his mistress’s eyebrows”? - - - COSMETIC HINTS - -As modern lovers disapprove of eyebrows meeting over the nose, -superfluous hairs should be removed. Coarse irregular hairs in any part -of the eyebrow should be pulled out or kept in position by a _fixateur_. -“It is not well to trim the eyebrow generally, as it makes it coarse.... -When it is desired to thicken or strengthen them, two or three drops of -oil of cajuput may be gently rubbed into the skin every other night; but -here, and _always_ when wiping them, the rubbing should be in the -direction of the hair, from the nose outward, and _never_ in the reverse -direction.” Among harmless dyes, pencils of dark pomatum or walnut-bark, -steeped in Cologne for a week, are recommended; or, for a transient -effect, a needle smoked over the flame of a candle may be used. - -Regarding the general hygienic care of the eye, the following rules -should be borne in mind. Never read or work in a too weak or too glaring -light, or when lying down, or with the book too near the eye. Rest the -muscles occasionally by looking at a distant object. Bathe the eyes -every morning in cold water, _keeping them closed_. For disorders, -consult a physician immediately; a day’s delay may be fatal to ocular -beauty. For ordinary inflammation, an external application of -witch-hazel extract, mixed with a few drops of Cologne, is very -soothing. _Never_ sleep with your eyes facing the window. Ninety-nine -persons in a hundred do so; hence the large number of weak, lustreless -eyes, early disturbances of slumber, and morning headaches. Large -numbers of tourists in Switzerland constantly suffer from headaches, and -lose all the benefits of their vacation, simply because they fail to -have their head at night in the centre of the room, where it ought to -be, because the air circulates there more freely than near the wall. - - - - - THE HAIR - - - CAUSE OF MAN’S NUDITY - -“From the presence of the woolly hair or lanugo on the human fœtus, -and of rudimentary hairs scattered over the body during maturity,” -Darwin inferred that “man is descended from some animal which was born -hairy and remained so during life.” He believed that “the loss of hair -is an inconvenience and probably an injury to man, even in a hot -climate, for he is thus exposed to the scorching in the sun, and to -sudden chills, especially during wet weather. As Mr. Wallace remarks, -the natives in all countries are glad to protect their naked backs and -shoulders with some slight covering. No one supposes that the nakedness -of the skin is any direct advantage to man; his body, therefore, cannot -have been divested of hair through Natural Selection.” Accordingly, he -concludes that man lost his hairy covering through Sexual Selection, for -ornamental purposes. - -But if it can be shown that the nakedness of his skin _is_ in some way -of advantage to man, this argument falls to the ground. There are -sufficient reasons, I think, for believing that Natural Selection aided -Sexual Selection in divesting man of his hairy coat. - -With his usual candour Darwin noticed the evidence which seemed to tell -against his view. Mr. Belt, he says, “believes that within the tropics -it is an advantage to man to be destitute of hair, as he is thus enabled -to free himself of the multitude of ticks (acari) and other parasites -with which he is often infested, and which sometimes cause ulceration.” -Darwin doubts, however, whether this evil is of sufficient magnitude to -have led to the denudation of the body through Natural Selection, “since -none of the many quadrupeds inhabiting the tropics have, as far as I -know, acquired any specialised means of relief.” But as primitive man’s -habits of cleanliness are much inferior to those of animals, this -objection loses its force; and it is, moreover, weakened by the -testimony of Sir W. Denison that “it is said to be a practice with the -Australians, when the vermin get troublesome, to singe themselves.” We -also know that the ancient Egyptians shaved off their hair from motives -of cleanliness. - -However, it is not likely that the superior advantages of cleanliness -and freedom from parasites would alone have sufficed to produce so great -a change in man as the loss of his hair. It is more probable that the -sun was the chief agent in accomplishing this transformation. I fail to -see the force of Darwin’s contention that the fact that “the other -members of the order of Primates, to which man belongs, although -inhabiting various hot regions, are well clothed with hair, generally -thickest on the upper surface, is opposed to the supposition that man -became naked through the action of the sun.” For these animals commonly -live in forests and on trees, where they are protected from the rays of -the sun, which is not the case with man. - -Furthermore, Darwin himself mentions some circumstances which point to -the conclusion that the sun is the cause of man’s nudity. He says, for -instance, that “elephants and rhinoceroses are almost hairless; and as -certain extinct species which formerly lived under an arctic climate -were covered with long wool or hair, it would almost appear as if the -existing species of both genera had lost their hairy covering from -exposure to heat. This appears the more probable as the elephants in -India which live on elevated and cool districts are more hairy than -those on the lowlands.” - -Bearing in mind what was said in the chapter on the Complexion regarding -the negro’s skin, there is no difficulty in understanding why Natural -Selection should eliminate the hairy covering of the skin while -favouring a dark complexion. Hair not only absorbs the sun’s heat, but -retains that of the body; hence a hairy man not living on trees would be -very uncomfortable in Africa, and likely to succumb to the enervating -effects of high temperature. The negro’s naked skin, on the other hand, -is, as we have seen, specially devised as a _body-cooler_. The black -pigment protects the underlying nerves of temperature, while the solar -heat absorbed by this pigment is immediately radiated in the form of -perspiration. Now we can see not only why the negro’s skin is more -velvety, smooth, and hairless than our own, but why its sweat-pores are -larger and more numerous than in our skin. - -At a later stage of evolution Sexual Selection probably came in to aid -in this process of denudation. We may infer this, in the first place, -from the analogous case of apes who have denuded and variously-coloured -patches on the head and elsewhere, which they use for purposes of -display, to attract the notice of the opposite sex; in the second place, -from the fact that there are not a few tribes who pluck out their hairs. -“The Fuegians threatened a young missionary, who was left for a time -with them, to strip him naked, and pluck the hairs from his face and -body, yet he was far from being a hairy man;” and “throughout the world -the races which are almost completely destitute of a beard, dislike -hairs on the face and body, and take pains to eradicate them.” Darwin -also notes some facts which, by analogy, seem to make it probable that -“the long-continued habit of eradicating the hair may have produced an -inherited effect.” - -In the case of the white race we cannot rely so much on the action of -the sun as accounting for the absence of hair, but must place more -especial emphasis on Sexual Selection. We are warranted in doing this by -the consideration that Taste for Beauty is more developed in the white -race, and therefore has more influence in controlling the choice of a -mate. “As the body in woman is less hairy than in man, and as this -character is common to all races, we may conclude” with Darwin “that it -was our female semi-human ancestors who were first divested of hair,” -this character being then transmitted by the mothers to their children -of both sexes. - -The two universal traits of Beauty which chiefly guided man in the -preference of a hairless skin were evidently Smoothness and Colour. One -need only compare for a moment the face of a female chimpanzee, its -leathery folded skin and straggling hairs, with the smooth and rosy -complexion of a European damsel, to understand that, leaving touch out -of consideration, sight alone would have sufficed to give the preference -to the hairless skin. But since we derive less direct advantage than the -tropical races from such a skin, cases of reversion to the hairy type -are more common among us than with them, and our bodies in general are -more hairy. - - - BEARDS AND MOUSTACHES - -The elimination of hair from those parts of the body where it is less -beautiful than a nude skin, is only one of the functions of Sexual -Selection. Another equally important function is the preservation and -elongation of the hair in a few places for ornamental purposes. - -“We know from Eschricht,” says Darwin, “that with mankind the female as -well as the male fœtus is furnished with much hair on the face, -especially round the mouth; and this indicates that we are descended -from progenitors of whom _both sexes were bearded_. It appears, -therefore, at first sight, probable that man has retained his beard from -a very early period, whilst woman lost her beard at the same time that -her body became almost completely divested of hair.” - -A long beard serves, to some extent, to protect the throat, but a -moustache serves no such use, and it seems therefore more probable that -beards as well as moustaches were developed in man for ornamental -purposes, as in many monkeys (see, for some very curious pictures of -bearded monkeys, _Descent of Man_, chap. xviii.) But why should women -have lost their beards while men retained theirs? Because of the -importance of emphasising the secondary sexual differences between man -and woman, on which the degree of amorous infatuation depends. The -tendency of evolution, as we have seen, has been to make the sexes more -and more different in appearance; and as man chooses his mate chiefly on -_æsthetic_ grounds, he habitually gave the preference to smooth-faced -women, whereas woman’s choice, being largely based on _dynamic_ grounds, -fell on the bearded and moustached men, since a luxurious growth of hair -is commonly a sign of physical vigour. Hence the humiliation of the -young man who cannot raise a moustache, and the reciprocal horror of the -young lady who finds the germs of one on her lip. Both are instinctively -afraid of being “boycotted” by Cupid, and for ever debarred from the -pleasures of mutual Romantic Love. - -Women are quite right in dreading hair in the face as a blemish, for it -is not only objectionable as a masculine trait, but also as a -characteristic of old age, a hairy face being quite a common attribute -of aged females. But with men the case is different. Though women may -still be often influenced in their amorous choice by a beard, it is not, -as just pointed out, on æsthetic grounds; and it is indeed very dubious -if the beard can be accepted as a real personal ornament. True, the -ancient Greeks respected a beard as an attribute of maturity and -manhood, but their ideal of _supreme_ beauty was nevertheless an -unbearded youth: Apollo has neither beard nor moustache. The ancient -Egyptians had a horror of the bearded and long-haired Greeks. “No -Egyptian of either sex would on any account kiss the lips of a Greek,” -and whenever the Egyptians “intended to convey the idea of a man of low -condition, or a slovenly person, the artists represented him with a -beard” (Wilkinson). Similarly, in the second edition of his _Anatomy of -Expression_ (1824), Sir Charles Bell wrote that “When those essays were -first written there was not a beard to be seen in England unless joined -with squalor and neglect, and I had the conviction that this appendage -_concealed the finest features_. Being in Rome, however, during the -procession of the Corpus Domini, I saw that the expression was not -injured by the beard, but that it added to the dignity and character of -years.” - -These two sentences contain the whole philosophy of beards. The -expression of character is not injured, but rather increased by a beard; -but if it conceals the fine features of youth it is objectionable. There -are men whose faces are too wide, and whose appearance is therefore -improved by a chin-beard; and there are others whose faces are too -narrow, and who consequently look better with side-whiskers. But in a -well-shaped youthful masculine face a beard is as great a superfluity, -if not a blemish, as in a woman’s face. - -Now, since the faces of civilised races are undoubtedly becoming more -beautiful as time advances, it is comforting to know that, -notwithstanding female selection, the beard is gradually disappearing. -Very few men are able to raise a fine beard to-day, even with the -artificial stimulus of several years’ daily shaving; and the time, no -doubt, is not very distant when men will go to the cosmetic electrician -to have their straggling hairbulbs in the chin killed. This may produce -an inherited effect on their children; and the always smooth-faced -mother, too, cannot but exert some hereditary influence on her sons as -well as her daughters. The women, in turn, will inherit some of the -superior æsthetic Taste of the men, and begin to see that there is more -charm in a smooth than in a bearded face; while there will still be room -enough for those sexual differences in facial Beauty which feed the -flame of Love. - -The following newspaper paragraph, though it may be a mere _jeu -d’esprit_, is amusing and suggestive: “A Frenchman sent a circular to -all his friends asking why they cultivated a beard. Among the answers 9 -stated, ‘Because I wish to avoid shaving’; 12 ‘Because I do not wish to -catch cold’; 5 ‘Because I wish to conceal bad teeth’; ‘Because I wish to -conceal the length of my nose’; 6 ‘Because I am a soldier’; 21 ‘Because -I was a soldier’; 65 ‘Because my wife likes it’; 28 ‘Because my love -likes it’; 15 answered that they wore no beards.” - -Moustaches are much more common to-day than beards, and it is barely -possible that they may escape æsthetic condemnation, and survive to the -millennium. Persons with very short upper lips or flat noses, it is -true, only emphasise their shortcomings by wearing a moustache; but in -broad faces with prominent noses a well-shaped, not too drooping, -moustache is no doubt an ornament, relieving the gravity of the -masculine features and adding to their expression. As Bell remarks: -“Although the hair of the upper lip does conceal the finer modulations -of the mouth, as in woman, it adds to the character of the stronger and -harsher emotions.” “I was led to attend more particularly to the -moustache as a feature of expression,” he says, “in meeting a handsome -young French soldier coming up a long ascent in the Côte d’Or, and -breathing hard, although with a good-humoured, innocent expression. His -sharp-pointed black moustache rose and fell with a catamount look that -set me to think on the cause.” - -Young men may find in Bell’s remarks a suggestion as to how they may -make the moustache a permanent ornament of the human race. The movements -of the moustache are dependent on the muscle called _depressor alæ -nasi_. By specially cultivating this muscle men might in course of time -make the movements of the moustaches subject to voluntary control. Just -think what a capacity for emotional expression lies in such a simple -organ as the dog’s caudal appendage, aptly called the “psychographic -tail” by Vischer: and moustaches are double, and therefore equal to two -psychographic appendages! - -Sexual Selection would not fail to seize on this “new departure” in -moustaches immediately in order to emphasise the sexual differences of -expression in the face, and thus increase the ardour of romantic -passion. A few days ago I came across an attempt in a German paper to -explain the meaning of the word Flirtation. The writer derives the word -from an old expression meaning to toss or cast about. This he refers to -the eyes, and thinks that the proper translation of Flirtation is -_äugeln_, _i.e._ to “make eyes.” We, of course, know that flirting is a -fine art which includes a vast deal besides _äugeln_; but “making eyes” -is certainly one of its tricks. Now, is it not probable that by and by, -when young men will have properly trained their _depressor alæ nasi_, -they will look upon the making of eyes as a feminine attribute, and, -instead of winking at their sweethearts, express their admiration by -some subtle and graceful movement of the moustaches? This would -obliterate Darwin’s assertion that Love has no special means of -expression. - - - BALDNESS AND DEPILATORIES - -Superficial students of Darwinism are constantly making owlish -predictions that ere many generations will have passed bald heads will -be the normal aspect of man. But, as we have just seen in the case of -beards, it is not utility or Natural Selection so much as Sexual, -Æsthetico-Amorous Selection on which the evolution of Personal Beauty -depends. If Natural Selection were at work alone we should, indeed, -ultimately become bald; for as soon as man begins to cover his head with -a cap or hat, he takes away the chief function of the hair on the top of -the head, where it serves as a protection against wind and weather. But -Sexual Selection now steps in and says that the hair must remain, -because without it the head looks decidedly ugly, whatever its shape. - -“Eschricht states that in the human fœtus the hair on the face during -the fifth month is longer than that on the head; and this indicates that -our semi-human progenitors were not furnished with long tresses, which -must therefore have been a late acquisition. This is likewise indicated -by the extraordinary difference in the length of the hair in the -different races: in the negro the hair forms a mere curly mat; with us -it is of great length, and with the American natives it not rarely -reaches to the ground. Some species of Semnopithecus have their head -covered with moderately long hair, and this probably serves as an -ornament, and was acquired through sexual selection. The same view may -perhaps be extended to mankind, for we know that long tresses are now -and were formerly much admired, as may be observed in the works of -almost every poet; St. Paul says, ‘If a woman have long hair it is a -glory to her;’ and we have seen that in North America a chief was -elected solely from the length of his hair” (Darwin). - -Inasmuch as Sexual Selection or Love is impeded in its action not only -by pecuniary and social considerations, but by the fact that it cannot -be guided by any particular feature alone, its action is slow and -sometimes uncertain. Hence the increase of bald heads. It is therefore -necessary to supplement the beautifying results of Sexual Selection by -means of hygienic precautions, such as avoiding air-tight, warm, high -hats, badly ventilated rooms, intemperate habits, and other causes of -baldness. Hereditary baldness is difficult to arrest in its course; but -even in such cases much may be accomplished by beginning in childhood to -take proper care of the hair. Most persons—especially men—seem to -imagine that combs and brushes are made solely for the purpose of -arranging the hair in some approved fashion; whereas, if properly used, -a brush adds as much to the _sensuous_ beauty of the hair as to its -_formal_ appearance. To remove all the dust from the hair, and give it -gloss and healthy colour, about fifty daily strokes, or more even, are -recommended. Avoid irritating the scalp with fine combs or hard -bristles, and wash it once or twice a week with a weak solution of -ammonia or borax. Hair that is properly brushed is always glossy with -its natural oil, and needs no vulgar ointment, offensive to the smell -and suggestive of uncleanliness. If with these hygienic precautions the -hair refuses to become beautiful, it is time to get medical advice; for -the dull colour and dryness of the hair which lead to baldness are often -due to constitutional disease. - -Powdering the hair is fortunately no longer in vogue as it was formerly. -It is a most unæsthetic habit, not only because white or gray hair is -naturally suggestive of old age, grief, and decrepitude, but because the -flour forms with the perspiration and with the oil of the hair a nasty -compound. William Pitt “estimated, in 1795, that the amount of flour -annually consumed for this purpose in the United Kingdom represented the -enormous and incredible value of six million dollars.” - -It is estimated that the average number of hairs on the head is 120,000. -This allows one to look with considerable indifference on the loss of a -few hundred, all the more as in ordinary cases, even after illness, -every hair lost is replaced by another. But when the papilla at the base -of the hair cavity is destroyed, then baldness is inevitable. It follows -from this that the only certain way of removing hair permanently from -places where it is not desired is to destroy this papilla. “Plucking -hair out by the root” does not destroy it. “If they are pulled out with -the tweezers there is a still greater stimulus given,” says Dr. Bulkley -(_The Skin in Health and Disease_), “and the hairs return yet more -coarse and obtrusive.” The various Oriental and Occidental pastes for -removing the hair have no more permanent effect than shaving. -“Superfluous hairs can be removed either by the introduction of an -irregularly-shaped needle into the follicle (after the extraction of the -hair), which is then twisted so as to break up the papilla and produce a -little inflammation, which closes the follicle; or a needle can be -inserted, and a current from a battery be turned on, when the follicle -is destroyed by what is known as electrolysis. These procedures could be -done only by a physician.” - -Concerning electrolysis Dr. S. E. Woody says in the _American -Practitioner and News_ that the number of hairs to return and demand a -second removal will decrease with the skill of the operator and the -thoroughness of the operation. He usually expects the return of about 5 -per cent, but when these are in turn removed the cure is complete. “You -should have the patient come only on bright days, for good light is -necessary.” - -ÆSTHETIC VALUE OF HAIR - -If not the most beautiful part of the head, hair certainly is the most -beautifying. To improve the shape of mouth, nose, chin, or eyes requires -time and patience, but the arrangement of the hair can be altered in a -minute, not only to its own advantage, but so as to enhance the beauty -of the whole face. By clever manipulation of her long tresses, a woman -can alter her appearance almost as completely as a man can by shaving -off his long beard or moustache. - -But, alas! If the prevalence of the bustle and wasp-waist allowed any -doubt to remain as to the woful rarity of æsthetic taste among women, it -would be found in the arrangement of the hair and the kind of -head-dresses they commonly adopt at the behest of Fashion. “Because -women as a rule do not know what _beauty_ means,” says Mrs. Haweis (_The -Art of Beauty_), “therefore they catch at whatever presents itself as a -novelty.... They do not pause to consider whether the old fashion became -them better—whether the new one reveals more clearly the slight -shrinking of the jaw, or spoils the pretty colour still blooming in the -cheek.” - -The latest head-dress foisted on the feminine world by Parisian Fashion -shows most strikingly how Fashion is the Handmaid of Vulgarity as well -as of Ugliness. Heaven knows, the high silk hats worn by men are bad -enough, on hygienic as well as æsthetic grounds. They promote baldness -and destroy all the artistic proportions of stature, making the head -look by one half too high. But silk hats are a harmless trifle compared -with the shapeless straw-towers, ornamented with bird-corpses, that have -been worn of late by almost all women in countries which slavishly -follow Parisian example. And there is this great difference between -man’s silk hat and woman’s bird-sarcophagus—the former only results in -ugliness, the second is also evidence of heartlessness, and leads to -vulgarity. For what is it but vulgarity if women continue to go to the -theatre for two winters with hats which make it quite impossible for -those sitting behind them to see the scenery and enjoy the play—and all -this in spite of innumerable sarcastic and angry protests in the -journals? Is not the first rule of etiquette and good manners regard for -the feelings and pleasures of others? - -What would women say to a man who kept on his tall hat in a theatre -until the ushers threw him out? Would they not all pronounce him either -intoxicated or ineffably vulgar? Would not Schopenhauer, if he could go -to an American theatre to-day, be justified in saying that women are not -only the “unæsthetic sex,” but also the “ill-bred sex”? And can the -women who are so devoid of courtesy towards the men wonder that -masculine gallantry towards women on street-cars and elsewhere seems to -be on the wane? - -Although there are no two heads in which the most pleasing effect is -secured by precisely the same arrangement of the hair and the same style -of hat, it may be laid down as a universal rule that a very high hat or -arrangement of the hair is becoming to no one, for the reason above -indicated. Let it be observed, says Mr. Buskin, “that in spite of all -custom, an Englishman instantly acknowledges, and at first sight, the -superiority of the turban to the hat.” “Guido,” says Mrs. Haweis, -“probably felt the peculiar charm of the turban when he placed one upon -the quiet melancholy head of Beatrice Cenci.” For full and bright young -faces the Tam o’ Shanter is the loveliest of all head-dresses. But this -subject is too large to be discussed in a paragraph. In Mrs. Haweis’s -_Art of Beauty_ may be found some elegant illustrations of head-dresses -placed near fashionable monstrosities; and young ladies would do well to -devote an hour a day for a year or two to the study of some history of -costume. Nothing awakens the sense of Beauty so rapidly as good models -and comparisons. - -Concerning the arrangement of the hair two more points may be noted. Is -it not about time to do away with the venerable absurdity of parting the -hair? If entire baldness is voted ugly, why should partial baldness be -courted? The hair should be allowed to remain in its natural direction -of growth. It does not part itself naturally, nor again—and this is a -much more important point—does it grow backward from the forehead. The -Chinese coiffure disfigures _every_ woman who adopts it; and the habit -of combing back the hair tightly from the forehead, moreover, often -causes neuralgic headache, the cause of which is unsuspected; not to -speak of the fact that such a coiffure raises the eyebrows, and thus -gives a fixed expression of amazed stupefaction. The hair naturally -falls over the forehead, and fringes it as beautifully as a grove does a -lake. - -The ancient Greek notions on this subject are worthy of attentive -consideration. “Women who had a high forehead placed a band over it, -with the design of making it thereby seem lower,” says Winckelmann. Not -only in women but in mature men the hair was so arranged as to cover up -“the receding bare corners over the temples, which usually enlarge as -life advances beyond that age when the forehead is naturally high.” The -modern fringe or “bang” is, however, an improvement even on the Greek -curve of the hair over the temples. It improves the appearance of all -women except those whose forehead is very low naturally; but in all -cases exaggeration must be avoided. - -A writer in the London _Evening Standard_ thinks it is strange that the -English, “who have the poorest hair in Europe, make the least attempt to -show what they have,” and that it has now “come to such a pass that a -maiden of twenty thinks it almost indecent to wear her hair loose.” He -traces this to the tyranny of Fashion—the ugly majority having compelled -the beautiful minority to conceal their charms. But we may be sure that -ere long Beauty will revolt against Fashion. It will be another French -revolution, practically,—an emphatic protest against Parisian dictation -and vulgarity. - - - - - BRUNETTE AND BLONDE - - - “In the old time black was not counted fair, - Or if it were it bore not beauty’s name; - _But now is black beauty’s successive heir_.”—SHAKSPERE. - - - BLONDE _VERSUS_ BRUNETTE - -Becker tells us that among the ancient Greeks “black was probably the -prevailing colour of the hair, though blond is frequently mentioned”; -and he adds that both men and women used dyes, and “the blond or yellow -hair was much admired.” Mr. Gladstone, in his work on Homer, remarks -that “dark hair is a note of the foreigner and of Southern -extraction.... I have been assured that, in the Greece of to-day, light -hair is still held as indicating the purest Hellenic blood.” According -to Winckelmann, “Homer does not even once mention hair of a black -colour”; and again: "Flaxen, ξανθὴ hair has always been considered the -most beautiful; and hair of this colour has been attributed to the most -beautiful of the gods, as Apollo and Bacchus, not less than to the -heroes; even Alexander had flaxen hair." - -That the Romans agreed with the Greeks in giving the preference to light -hair seems probable from the extensive importations of yellow German -hair for the Roman ladies, as also from the fact that “Lucretius, when -speaking of the false flatteries addressed to women, quotes one in -illustration, namely, that a maiden with black hair is μελίχροος -(honey-coloured)—thus ascribing to her a beauty which she does not -possess.” - -When the fair-haired Teuton overran the South a new motive for -preferring blond hair arose, as a writer in the London _Standard_ -remarks: “Whatever the feeling of the men, we may be sure that the dark -beauties of those climes felt a natural inclination to resemble the -wives and daughters of the conqueror, and when we perceive their -likenesses again, at the revival of art in Italy, not a black tress is -to be seen. Is there a single Madonna not blond?—or ten portraits of -women by the great masters? In all the gallery of Titian, we think only -of a figure, naked to the waist, in the Uffizi, described as one of his -mistresses.... But we know that the blond tint was artificial in a -majority of cases—the deep black of eye and brow would show it if no -evidence were forthcoming. But evidence turns up at every side ... a -hundred recipes are found in memoirs, correspondence, and treatises of -the time.” - -Hear another witness: “Southern Europe,” says Mr. R. G. White, “is -peopled with dark-skinned, dark-haired races, and the superior beauty of -the blond type was recognised by the painters, who always, from the -earliest days, represented angels as of that type. The Devil was painted -black so much as a matter of course that his pictured appearance gave -rise to a well-known proverb; ordinary mortals were represented as more -or less dark; celestial people were white and golden-haired: whence the -epithet ‘divinely fair.’” - -And the poets were quite as partial as the artists to the light type. -Petrarch’s sonnets are addressed to a blue-eyed Laura. Krimhild of the -_Nibelungenlied_ is blue-eyed, like Fricka, the Northern Juno, and -Ingeborg of the _Frithjof’s Saga_, and the Danish princess Iolanthe, as -Dr. Magnus points out; and in the French folk-songs “the girls are -almost as invariably blond as in the songs of Heine,” as a writer in the -_Saturday Review_ (1878) remarks, adding that “there is even such an -expression as _aller en blonde_, ‘to go a-wooing,’ which proves the -universality of the belief in fair beauties.” - -Concerning England, a writer in the _Quarterly Review_ declares that -Shakspere mentions black hair only twice throughout his plays; and that -in the National Gallery of that date (1853) there was not a single -female head with black hair. - - - BRUNETTE _VERSUS_ BLONDE - -Thus we have evidence showing that during the epoch preceding the -general prevalence of Romantic Love, the blond type was considered the -ideal of beauty throughout Europe—in Greece and Italy as well as in -Germany, Scandinavia, France, and England. And where the hair was not -naturally blond, artificial means were used to make it so. - -But as soon as Love appears on the scene and sharpens the æsthetic -sense, we find a reaction in favour of brunettes. There can be no doubt -of this, for it is attested not only by personal opinions and -observations, but by accurate statistics. The _Quarterly Review_ just -referred to believed that blondes were gradually decreasing in England, -and the _Saturday Review_ asserts that “some years ago Mr. Gladstone, -whom nothing escapes, declared that light-haired people were far less -numerous than in his youth. Many middle-aged persons will probably agree -with him.” “The time was,” the writer adds, “when the black-haired, -black-eyed girl of fiction was as dark of soul as of tresses, while the -blue-eyed maiden’s character was of ‘heaven’s own colour.’ Thackeray -damaged this tradition by invariably making his dark heroines nice, his -fair heroines treacherous sirens.” Byron, we may add, also showed a -passionate preference for brunettes; and does not another great -love-poet, Moore, speak of “eyes of unholy blue”? - -Speaking of the Germans, the anthropologist Waitz remarks that “the -blond and red hair, the blue eyes and light complexion, which most of -them had at the period of the Roman wars, have not disappeared, it is -true, but certainly diminished greatly in frequency. In Jarrold we find -the analogous statement that as late as the time of Henry VIII. red hair -predominated in England, and that at the beginning of the fifteenth -century gray eyes were more common, dark eyes and dark hair less common, -than now.” As this change is correlated in both these countries with a -gradual refinement of the features, does it not indicate that modern -æsthetico-amorous selection favours the brunette type? - -Waitz’s assertion regarding the gradual decrease in the number of -blondes in Germany is strikingly confirmed by the results of a series of -statistical investigations undertaken under the supervision of Professor -Virchow. Almost eleven million school children were examined in Germany, -Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium, and the results showed that -Switzerland has only 11·10, Austria 19·79, and Germany 31·80 per cent of -pure blondes. Thus the very country which, since the days of ancient -Rome has been proverbially known as the home of yellow hair and blue -eyes, has to-day only 32 pure blondes in a hundred; while the average of -pure brunettes is already 14·05 per cent (and in some regions as high as -25 per cent). The 53·15 per cent of the mixed type are evidently being -slowly transformed into pure brunettes, thanks to intermarriages with -the neighbours who are of the dark variety east and west, as well as -south of Germany. - -In England Dr. Beddoe has collected a number of statistics which also -bear out the theory that brunettes are gaining on blondes. Among 726 -women examined he found 369 brunettes and 357 blondes. Of the brunettes -he found that 78·5 per cent were married, while of the blondes only 68 -per cent were married. Thus it would seem that a brunette has ten -chances of getting married in England to a blonde’s nine. Hence Dr. -Beddoe reasons that the English are becoming darker because the men -persist in selecting the darker-haired women as wives. - -In France a similar view has been put forth by M. Adolphe de Candolle in -the _Archives des Sciences_. He found that when both parents have eyes -of the same colour 88·4 per cent inherit this colour. "But the curious -fact comes out that more females than males have black or brown eyes, in -the proportion, say, of 49 to 45 or of 41 to 39. Next, it appears that -with different coloured eyes in the two parents, 53·09 per cent of the -progeny followed the fathers in being dark-eyed, and 55·09 per cent -followed their mothers in being dark-eyed. An increase of 5 per cent of -dark-eyed in each generation of discolorous unions must tell heavily in -the course of time. It would seem," adds _Science_, to which I owe this -summary of De Candolle’s views, “that, unless specially bred by -concolorous marriages, blue-eyed belles will be scarce in the -millennium.” - - - WHY CUPID FAVOURS BRUNETTES - -How are we to account for this undeniable change in favour of brunettes? -Is it merely a matter of Taste and Fashion? Are we simply going through -a period of brunette-worship which in turn will be followed by a century -or two of blonde-worship, and so on _ad infinitum_? or are there reasons -for believing that Cupid will abide by his present decision, and -continue to eliminate blondes? There are several such reasons, which may -best be discussed separately, under the heads of Complexion, Hair, and -Eyes. - -(1) _Complexion._—The dark skin is more soft and velvety than the light -skin, and therefore more agreeable to the touch; hence, as Winckelmann -remarks, “he who prefers dark to fair beauty is not on that account to -be censured; indeed, one might approve his choice, if he is attracted -less by sight than by the touch.” But the eye, too, is likely to be more -pleased by a brunette than a pure blond complexion. In the dark skin the -pigmentary matter tones down the too vivid red of the translucent blood, -wherefore the brunette complexion appears more mellow and delicate in -its tints than the Scandinavian blonde, in which a blush suggests a -hectic flush, and its normal whiteness the pallor of ill-health or a -lack of invigorating and beautifying sunshine. - -The brunette complexion, in a word, suggests to the mind the idea of -_stored-up sunshine_, i.e. _Health_; and as Health is what primarily -attracts Cupid, this, combined with his taste for delicate tints and -veiled blushes, partly accounts for his preference of the dark type. -Youthful freshness is another bait which tempts Cupid; and it is well -known that the dark complexion does not, as a rule, fade so soon as the -blond. - -That the brownish skin is commonly healthier than the white is also -shown by its being less subject to the irregularity in the secretion of -pigmentary matter which causes freckles. These blemishes, like smallpox -marks, are much rarer among the dark than among blond races and -individuals. - -The skin of blondes who are exposed to a hot sun and raw weather becomes -red, inflamed, and decidedly unbeautiful, while a brunette’s complexion -only becomes a shade darker, and possibly all the more attractive. This -suggests another reason why the brunettes have an advantage over blondes -in the country, where love-making is chiefly carried on in summer. Yet -it will not do for the blondes to avoid the sunshine on this account, -for that will make them anæmic and prematurely old. - -There is a class of extreme blondes to whom sunlight is not only -irritating, but positively painful. They are called albinos, because -there is no brown pigment whatever in any part of their body—skin, hair, -or iris. The Dutch call them Kakerlaken or cockroaches, because, like -these animals, they avoid the light. Such anomalous individuals occur -also among animals; and Darwin has noted regarding birds that albinos do -not pair, apparently because they are rejected by their -normally-coloured comrades. This fact has a remote bearing on our -argument, for blondes are intermediate between albinos and brunettes. - -It would appear, indeed, as if not only the complexion but the general -constitution of the dark type were superior to that of the blond type. -In the chapter on the Complexion it was stated that a dark hue is -regarded in Australia and elsewhere as evidence of superior strength. -The ancient Greeks, Winckelmann tells us, although they called the young -with fair complexions “children of the gods,” looked upon a brown -complexion in boys as an indication of courage. Professor Topinard -states that “the fair races are especially adapted to temperate and cool -regions, and the South is looked upon as almost forbidden ground. The -brown races, on the contrary, have a remarkable power of becoming -acclimatised.” Several writers have even endeavoured to account for the -gradual increase in the proportion of brunettes by connecting it with -the modern tendency towards centralisation of the population in large -cities, where the blondes, being unable to resist their unsanitary -surroundings, are eliminated, while the more vigorous and fertile -brunettes survive and multiply. - -One reason why tourists are more impressed by the prevalence of beauty -in southern than in northern regions, is because the working classes are -more beautiful in the South than in the North; and the working classes, -of course, constitute the vast majority of the population everywhere. -“In northern countries,” says Mr. Lecky, “the prevailing cast of beauty -depends rather on colour than on form. It consists chiefly of a -freshness and delicacy of complexion which severe labour and constant -exposure necessarily destroy, and which is therefore rarely found in the -highest perfection among the very poor. But the southern type is -essentially democratic. The fierce rays of the sun only mellow and -mature its charms. Its most perfect examples may be found in the hovel -as in the palace, and the effects of this diffusion of beauty may be -traced both in the manners and the morals of the people.” - -Another advantage to the study and development of Personal Beauty lies -in the fact, noted by Ruskin, “that in climates where the body can be -more openly and frequently visited by sun and weather, the nude both -comes to be regarded in a way more grand and pure, as not of necessity -awakening ideas of base kind (as pre-eminently with the Greeks), and -also from that exposure receives a firmness and sunny elasticity very -different from the silky softness of the clothed nations of the North.” - -(2) _Hair._—"That noble beauty," says Winckelmann, “which consists not -merely in a soft skin, a brilliant complexion, wanton or languishing -eyes, but in the shape or form, is found more frequently in countries -which enjoy a uniform mildness of climate.” “This difference shows -itself even in the hair of the head and of the beard, and both in warm -climates have a more beautiful growth even from childhood, so that the -greater number of children in Italy are born with fine curling hair, -which loses none of its beauty with increasing years. All the beards, -also, are curly, ample, and finely shaped; whereas those of the pilgrims -who come to Rome from the other side of the Alps are generally, like the -hair of their heads, stiff, bristly, straight, and pointed.” - -Nevertheless, the hair is the blonde’s one feature in which, so far as -the head itself is concerned, she may dispute the supremacy with the -brunette. Light hair is finer than dark hair, and there is more of it to -the square inch; and as for the colour, who will say that a girl with -“golden locks which make such wanton gambols” is inferior in beauty to -one who is “robed in the long night of her deep hair”? - -But if the positive tests of Beauty—Colour, Lustre, Smoothness, -Delicacy, etc.—do not permit us to give the preference to dark hair, it -is otherwise when we come to the negative tests. A fine head of blond -hair _may_ be as beautiful as a head of brown hair, but it is not so apt -to be beautiful; it has a tendency to become “stiff, bristly, straight, -and pointed.” There are various reasons for believing that light hair as -a rule is not so healthy, not so well-nourished, as dark hair. Every -reader must have noticed among his friends that the blondes are much -more likely than the brunettes to complain of dry and refractory hairs, -and difficulty in keeping them in shape. - -“The end of long hair is usually lighter in colour than its beginning,” -as Professor Kollmann remarks: “at a distance from the skin the hairs -lose their natural oil as well as the nourishing sap which comes from -their roots.” This implies that the colour of the hair becomes darker -with increasing vigour and vitality. We have seen that the same is true -of the colour of animals in general, the healthiest being the most -vividly coloured, and the males commonly darker than the less vigorous -females; and as for plants, who has not noticed how easy it is to trace -the course of an invisible brooklet in a meadow, not only by the greater -luxuriance, but the much darker colour of the grass which lines its -banks? - -Once more, we know that old age, great sorrow, terror, headaches, or -insanity, diminish the pigmentary matter in the hair and make it -lighter—gray or white; and that by frequently brushing blond hair we not -only make it more glossy and shapely, but at the same time darker. - -Red hair is probably an abnormal variety of blond hair, since it does -not occur among the darker races. It is disliked not only because it is -so often associated with freckles, but because it is commonly dry, -coarse, and bristly. The Brahmins were forbidden to marry a red-haired -woman; and the populace of most countries, confounding moral with -æsthetic impressions, accuses red-haired people of various shortcomings. -“Sandy hair, when well brushed and kept glossy with the natural oil of -the scalp, changes to a warm golden tinge. I have seen,” says the author -of the _Ugly Girl Papers_, “a most obnoxious head of colour so changed -by a few years’ care that it became the admiration of the owner’s -friends, and could hardly be recognised as the withered, fiery locks -once worn.” - -An American newspaper paragraph, for the truthfulness of which I cannot -vouch, recently stated that twenty-one men in Cincinnati, who had -married red-haired women, were found to be colour-blind. A person who is -colour-blind mistakes red for black. - -(3) _Eyes._—But it is when we leave the scalp that the superiority of -dark over light hair becomes most manifest. That black eyelashes and -eyebrows are infinitely more beautiful than light-coloured ones, is -admitted without a dissentient voice; and it is needless to add that -brunettes, whether gray or black-eyed, are almost certain to have dark -eyelashes, while blondes are almost certain not to have them. Hence the -painting of light eyelashes has been a common artifice among all nations -and at all times; and Mrs. Haweis goes so far as to sanction the use of -nasty gray hair powder because it “makes the eyebrows and eyelashes -appear much darker than they really are.” I have, however, seen black -eyelashes on several young ladies who could hardly be classed as -brunettes, and who assured me on their conscience that they had not dyed -them. Can it be possible that Sexual Selection (_i.e._ the æsthetic -overtone in Romantic Love) is endeavouring to evolve a type of Beauty in -which golden locks will be allowed to remain, while the eyelashes will -be changed to black? The only objection to this surmise is that the hair -in other parts of the face (chin and upper lip), though rarely of the -same colour as that on the scalp, is almost always lighter in hue. But, -whether or not Love can accomplish the miracle of making black lashes -universal, the fact remains that they are in all cases a thousand times -more charming than yellow or red lashes, and also more apt to be long -and delicately curved, coyly veiling the mysterious lustre and fire of -the iris. - -Concerning the iris, in turn, it cannot be denied that it is most -beautiful when black (dark brown), or so deeply blue or violet as to be -easily taken for black. This superiority of the dark hue is due partly -to the fact that a brown eye is commonly more lustrous than a light eye, -and partly to the law of contrast; for a light-coloured iris obviously -does not present such a vivid contrast to the white of the eye as a -brown iris, and is therefore apt to seem vague, watery, and superficial -in expression. The light blue or gray eye appears shallow. All its -beauty seems to be on the surface, whereas the “soul-deep eyes of -darkest night” appear unfathomable through their bewitching glamour. - -What is the etymology of the word bella donna? Was it given to the plant -on account of the beauty of its cherry-like berries? or was it not -rather chosen by some poet who noted the wondrous effect of these -poisonous berries in changing all eyes into black eyes by enlarging the -pupils, thus making every donna a bella donna, or “beautiful lady”? -Great, indeed, must be the fascination of a large pupil, since so many -women have braved the danger to health, and the certainty of impairment -of vision, which follow the use of this poison as a cosmetic. - -It was noted in an earlier part of this volume that young men are led to -propose chiefly in the evening, because the twilight enlarges the pupil, -thus not only beautifying _her_ eyes, but enabling him to see _his own_ -divine image reflected in them, proving his Monopoly of her soul. A -brunette’s dark eyes on such an occasion appear to be _all_ pupil: how, -then, can you wonder that brunettes are gaining on blondes? - -However, let not the blondes despair. As they become scarcer they will -for that very reason be valued the more as curiosities, and the last of -them, should she fail to find a husband, will be able to command a -handsome salary in a museum or as a comic opera singer. - -Moreover, there is no reason why physiologists should not ere long -discover the secret of changing the tint of the skin, hair, and iris to -suit one’s taste. All children are born with light eyes, but a great -many exchange them for dark eyes as soon as they realise their mistake. -We also know that ill-health temporarily changes the colour of the hair. -According to the _Popular Science Monthly_, “Prentiss records a case of -a patient to whom muriate of pilocarpine was administered -hypodermically, and whose hair was changed from light blond to nearly -jet black, and his eyes from light blue to dark blue.” The eating of -sorghum is also said to favour the evolution of a brunette colour. But -it is to the electricians that we must look for a harmless and efficient -method of stimulating the secretion of pigmentary matter in the iris, -skin, and hair. The man who first discovers how to change blondes to -brunettes will acquire a fame as great as Newton’s or Shakspere’s, and -when he dies Cupid will appoint him his private secretary. - -“John,” we can hear a woman say to her husband twenty years hence—"John, -Laura is now five years old. Don’t you think it is time to send her over -to Dr. Electrode? I don’t object to her yellow hair, but I do think her -complexion, iris, and eyelashes should be made several shades darker. -She will then stand a better chance in the marriage-market when she gets -older." - - - - - NATIONALITY AND BEAUTY - - -Beauty, like Love, has its national peculiarities, based on climate, -customs, traditions, mental and physical. As the description of all -these differences between the various peoples in the world would require -several volumes the size of this, it cannot, of course, be attempted -here even roughly. Nor is this necessary, for most of these national -peculiarities are variations which have more ethnologic than æsthetic -interest. Many of them have been considered in the preceding pages to -illustrate the Evolution of Personal Beauty; and something has been said -episodically regarding Greek, Hebrew, Georgian, and Mediæval Beauty. -Polish women are famous for their beauty, but as I have never been in -Poland nor in Russia, I do not feel competent to pronounce judgment on -the common verdict, and will therefore limit my observations to the six -nations whose Love-customs I have endeavoured to describe. And even in -these cases I cannot claim that the following remarks have any greater -value than such as attaches to mere casual jottings. In most European -countries the nations are as wildly mixed as in the United States, -though less recently; and it is therefore extremely difficult to draw -any general conclusions, as is shown by the conflicting opinions of -tourists. Moreover, each nation is variously subdivided, so that some -things are, _e.g._ true of North Germany which are not true of South -Germany, and so in other countries. Yet there are a few points on which -travellers commonly agree, and these will be briefly considered here. -The highest beauty is pretty much the same the world over—in Japan as in -France; and even among the savages of Africa young girls are to be found -who, but for their colour, would be pronounced beauties in Europe. Most -nations are on their way towards this highest type of Beauty, and they -occupy different stages of evolution according to their attitude and -advantages regarding the four principal sources of Personal -Beauty—Hygienic Habits, Mixture of Nationalities, Romantic Love, and -Mental Refinement. - - - - - FRENCH BEAUTY - - -Widely as tourists commonly differ in their opinions as to the -prevalence of Beauty in various countries, on one point there seems to -be a universal agreement—viz. that nowhere in Europe is it so rare as in -France. Thackeray notes that nature has “rather stinted the bodies and -limbs of the French nation.” Walker, in his work on Beauty, remarks that -“the women of France are among the ugliest in the world”; and Sir Lepel -Griffin puts the truth pointedly in these words: “National vanity, where -inordinately developed, may take the form of asserting that black is -white, as in France, where the average of good looks, among both men and -women, is perhaps lower than elsewhere in Europe. If a pretty woman be -seen in the streets of Paris, she is almost certainly English or -American; yet if a foreigner were to form an estimate of French beauty -from the rapturous descriptions of contemporary French novels, or from -the sketches of _La Vie Parisienne_, he must conclude that the -Frenchwoman was the purest and loveliest type in the world in face and -figure. The fiction in this case disguises itself in no semblance of the -truth.” - -Yet there have been French writers who felt the shortcomings of their -nation in regard to Personal Beauty. One of them says that you find in -the Frenchman “the love of the graceful rather than the beautiful”; and -in the following characterisation of his countrywomen, by M. Figuier, it -is easy to see that he lays much more emphasis on their grace and the -expressiveness of their features than on their Beauty proper: “There is -in her face much that is most pleasing, although we can assign her -physiognomy to no determinate type. Her features, _frequently -irregular_, seem to be borrowed from different races; they do not -possess that unity which springs from calm and majesty, but are in the -highest degree expressive, and marvellously contrived for conveying -every shade of feeling. In them we see a smile though it be shaded by -tears; a caress though they threaten us; and an appeal when yet they -command. Amid _the irregularity of this physiognomy_ the soul displays -its workings. As a rule the Frenchwoman is short of stature, but in -every proportion of her form combines grace and delicacy. Her -extremities and joints are fine and elegant, of perfect model and -distinct form, without a suspicion of coarseness. With her, moreover, -art is brought wonderfully to assist nature” (_The Races of Man_). - -It appears, indeed, as if Frenchwomen, who are naturally bright and -quickwitted, endeavoured to make up in grace what they lack in beauty. -Hence nothing is more common than Frenchwomen who are so fascinating -with their graceful little ways and movements that one almost or quite -forgets their homeliness. No French girl ever needs to be taught how to -use her eyes to best advantage; and, as a clever newspaper writer has -remarked, French girls “can say more with their shoulders than most -girls can with their eyes; and when they talk with eyes, hands, -shoulders, and tongue at once, it takes a man of talent to keep up.” - -Of course it would be absurd to say that no specimens of supreme Beauty -are to be found in France; but they are scarce as strawberries in -December. The general tendency of women to become either too stout or -too lean after they have got out of their teens, is apparently more -pronounced in France than elsewhere in Europe. And as for the men, they -can be recognised anywhere, either by their almost simian hairiness or -their puny appearance. What a difference in stature and general manly -aspect between a regiment of French and one of English or German -soldiers! And the superiority of the English soldiers to the French in -vigour and beauty is more than “skin-deep”; it appears to extend to the -very chemical composition of their tissues; for Professor Topinard -remarks in his _Anthropologie_ that he enunciated more than twenty years -ago “a fact which was more or less confirmed by others, namely, that the -mortality after capital operations in English hospitals was less by -one-half than in the French. We attributed it to a better diet, to their -better sanitary arrangements, and to their superior management. There -was but one serious objection offered to our statement. M. Velapeau, -with his wonderful acumen, made reply, at the Academy of Medicine, that -the flesh of the English and of the French differed; in other words, -that the reaction after operations was not the same in both races. It -is, in effect, an anthropological character.” - -Thus the “wonderful acumen” of two French scientists has established the -fact that French deterioration is shown not only in a surprisingly low -birth-rate, but in the general inferiority of the French constitution: -for the ability to resist the effects of wounds or illness is evidence -of a sound constitution. - -That the chief cause of French ugliness, degeneration, and infertility -lies in their contemptuous treatment of Romantic Love, must be apparent -to any one after reading the preceding chapter on French Love. French -parents may point triumphantly to cases of genuine Conjugal attachment -in their sons and daughters, whose marriages were based on social or -pecuniary considerations. But they forget the _grandchildren_. It is -they who suffer from these ill-assorted, fortuitous unions. Only the -children of Love are beautiful and destined to multiply. - -French indifference to the claims of Love also explains why another -leading source of Beauty—the mixture of races—is inoperative in their -country. The French are a very mixed nation. In the North, says Dr. -Topinard, “we find the descendants of the Belgæ, the Walloons, and other -Kymri; in the East, those of Germans and Burgundians; in the West, -Normans; in the centre, Celts, who at the same epoch at which their name -took its origin consisted of foreigners of various origins and of the -aborigines; in the South, ancient Aquitanians and Basques; without -mentioning a host of settlers like the Saracens, who are found here and -there, Tectosages, who have left at Toulouse the custom of cranial -deformities, and the traders who passed through the Phocæan town of -Marseilles.” But the advantages which might result to Personal Beauty -from such a mixture of peoples are neutralised through the universality -of money-marriages, notwithstanding that these must in some cases bring -together the descendants of different races. For a mixture of races is -not necessarily and always an advantage, but only when it enables a -lover to profit by the greater physiognomic variety in finding a mate -whose qualities will blend harmoniously with his own. - -In the case of a third primal source of Beauty—Mental Culture—we find -again that its action is impeded through the anomalous position of Love -in France. Inasmuch as adulterous love-making is the only kind of -Love-making sanctioned by French custom and described in French -literature, it is necessary to withhold most books and periodicals from -the young of both sexes, who are thus compelled to grow up in ignorance. -“The burden of ignorance presses sorely upon her,” says M. Figuier of -the Frenchwoman: “It is a rare thing for a woman of the people to read, -as only those of the higher classes have leisure, during their girlhood, -to cultivate their minds. And yet even they must not give themselves up -too much to study, nor aspire to honour or distinction. The epithet _bas -bleu_ (‘blue-stocking’) would soon bring them back to the common -crowd—_an ignorant and frivolous feminine mass_.” - -Note that this is the confession of a patriotic Frenchman. The fact that -there have been a few brilliant Frenchwomen, famous for their _salons_, -has created the impression that most Frenchwomen are brilliant, whereas -the majority appear to be utterly without intellectual interests or -ambition. Nor could this possibly be otherwise, considering the -extremely superficial education which even the most favoured receive in -the nuns’ schools. And not a few of them bring home from these schools -something worse than ignorance, viz. the constitution and habits of an -invalid. Not only the girls, even the boys in French schools are never -allowed to play without supervision. Healthy romping is considered -undignified in young girls, and when they get a little older the -high-heeled, pointed shoes prescribed by Fashion take away any desire -they may feel to indulge in beautifying exercise. Uncomfortable shoes -and clothing, combined with the necessity of having a chaperon, even to -simply cross the street, prevent French girls from indulging in those -long walks to which English girls owe their fine physique. Nor do the -French show such a devotion to the bath-tub and other details of -Personal Hygiene as their neighbours across the channel. - -Thus we see that the French, thanks to their conservative, Oriental -customs, are placed at a disadvantage as regards every one of the four -main sources of Beauty—Romantic Love, Mixture of Races, Mental Culture, -and Hygiene. And it is not only Personal Beauty that suffers. A writer -in _La Réforme Sociale_ complains that “family feeling is dying out, the -moral sense is growing weaker ... the country is falling into a state of -anæmia.” And another writer in the same periodical, after noting the -alarming fact that although France has gained eight million inhabitants -since 1805, the number of births is no larger than it was then, calls -upon those interested in these symptoms of national decay to investigate -the local causes of it. - -But it is needless to look for “local causes.” The disease is a national -one, and calls for constitutional treatment. Let the French, in the -first place, instead of locking up their girls till they are ready to be -sold to a rich _roué_, initiate them into the arts of Anglo-American -Courtship, and then allow Romantic Love to take the place of money as a -matchmaker. That the effect of such a change would be miraculous may be -inferred from the fact that the products of a few generations of -American love-making—French girls in Canada and the United States—are -vastly superior in Beauty and Health to their transatlantic cousins. - -In the second place, the French must give up the notion that disease is -aristocratic. “In almost all countries,” says M. About, “there exists a -class distinguished from the masses as the aristocracy. In this social -miscellany the women have small white hands, because they wear gloves -and do not work; a pale complexion, because they are never exposed to -the sun; a sickly appearance and thin features, because they spend the -four months of the winter at balls. Hence it follows that ‘distinction’ -consists in a faded complexion, sickly appearance, a pair of white -hands, and thin features. The Madonnas of Raphael are not ‘_distingué_,’ -and the Venus of Milo also is very deficient in that quality.” - -After they have ceased to ridicule Love and to worship Disease, it will -be in order for the French to cultivate their æsthetic Taste. That of -all European men Frenchmen show the worst taste in dressing is commonly -admitted; but the preposterous superstition that French_women_ have a -special instinct for dressing tastefully is so firmly rooted in the mind -of women elsewhere, that nothing short of a miracle would be able to -eradicate it. The reason why the roots of this superstition are so deep -is this: Frenchwomen rarely have any great beauty of figure or features. -Hence they devote all their time to devising means for hiding their -formal defects and distracting the attention of men by some novelty or -eccentricity of apparel. In America and Germany, where the majority of -the women are also ugly, these tricks are eagerly copied; and the pretty -girls are compelled to yield to the tyranny of the majority, as has been -fully explained in the chapter on the Fashion Fetish. - -Englishwomen have, to a large extent, emancipated themselves from -Parisian Fashion Tyranny, aided by the protests of the men against -self-inflicted ugliness. And it is one of the healthiest signs of the -times that in America, too, the men are beginning to break the ice of -gallant timidity, and telling the women plainly what they think of their -hideous Parisian fashions. Not long ago an intelligent woman wrote to -the Boston _Transcript_, asking: “Why will not the press, instead of -growling and snarling at _the poor women who cannot help themselves_,” -ask the theatre managers to compel the women to take off their high -hats, which, she admits, ninety-nine in a hundred women consider a -nuisance? Yet they “cannot help themselves!” The poor women! What a -terrible slavery! the pretty women of America _compelled_ to adopt the -fashions originated by the ugliest women of Europe in order to hide -their defects! - -If American women must have models, let them go to Spain or Italy for -them, especially in the matter of headdresses. Of the Spanish mantilla, -which can be adapted to the style of every face, Prosper Mérimée says -that “it makes ugly women pretty, and pretty ones enchanting.” And a -German lady on her way to Spain bought on her way, as a matter of -course, the latest Parisian hat. “But when I arrived in Madrid,” she -writes, “my genuine Parisian hat seemed of such apelike ugliness that I -felt actually ashamed to wear it. For my taste had been corrected and -improved at sight of the first mantilla I saw; and I am convinced that a -large majority of German women and girls possess quite as much sense of -beauty as I, and will therefore prefer the Spanish mantilla to any hat -made by the most noted _modiste_ in Europe.” - - - - - ITALIAN BEAUTY - - -Although differences in form, complexion, and physiognomy are to be -noted in different parts of France, they are less pronounced than in -Italy, concerning which it is therefore more difficult to make general -statements. “The barbarian invasions in the north, and the contact with -Greeks and Africans in the south,” says M. Figuier, “have wrought much -alteration in the primitive type of the inhabitants of Italy. Except in -Rome and the Roman Campagna, the true type of the primitive Latin -population is hardly to be found. The Grecian type exists in the South, -and upon the eastern slope of the Apennines, while in the North the -great majority of faces are Gallic. In Tuscany and the neighbouring -regions are found the descendants of the ancient Etruscans.... The -mixture of African blood has changed the organic type of the Southern -Italian to such an extent as to render him entirely distinct from his -Northern compatriots, the exciting influence which the climate has over -the senses imparting to his whole conduct a peculiar exuberance.” - -In their estimate of Italian Beauty tourists differ widely. The raptures -and ecstasies of some writers are explained by others as due to the -æsthetic intoxication produced by sudden contact with a new type; and -they claim that a few years’ residence suffices to dispel these -illusions. On the judgment of the Italians themselves it is not safe to -rely, for that is tinged too much by local patriotism, the Milanese -claiming the pre-eminence in Beauty for themselves, while the Venetians, -Florentines, Romans, and Neapolitans blow their own horns respectively. -Professor Mantegazza thinks that the men are handsomer in Italy than the -women, of whom he allows only about ten per cent to have any claims to -real Beauty. Sir Charles Bell notes that “Raphael, in painting the head -of Galatea, found no beauty deserving to be his model; he is reported to -have said that there is nothing so rare as perfect beauty in woman; and -that he substituted for nature a certain idea inspired by his fancy.” -Montaigne, who travelled in Italy in the latter part of the sixteenth -century, expressed his surprise at the rarity of beauty in women and -girls, who at that time were kept in more than French seclusion. A -German author, Dr. J. Volkmann, wrote in 1770 that “there are few -beautiful women in Rome, especially among the higher classes; in Venice -and Naples more are to be seen. The Italian himself has a proverb which -says that Roman women are not beautiful” (quoted by Ploss). - -Byron, in one of his letters, gives a glowing description of an Italian -beauty of the Oriental type whom he met, and then adds: “Whether being -in love with her has steeled me or not, I do not know; but I have not -seen many other women who seem pretty. The nobility, in particular, are -a sad-looking race—the gentry rather better.” In another place he writes -that “the general race of women appear to be handsome; but in Italy, as -on almost all the Continent, the highest orders are by no means a -well-looking generation.” - -Yet was it not Byron who wrote of Italy that it is “the garden of the -world,” and that its “very weeds are beautiful”? And does not this apply -to the race as well as the soil? It is because they constantly live in a -garden, in the balmy air and mellowing sunshine, that Italians can to a -certain extent defy the laws of personal Hygiene, and flourish under -conditions which would torture us to death. Miss Margaret Collier -remarks, in _Our Home by the Adriatic_, that in the rural communities, -even among the well-to-do, to ask for a bath is to create alarm as to -the state of your health. And Berlioz speaks somewhere of Italian -peasant-girls “carrying heavy copper vessels and faggots on their heads; -but all so wretched, go miserable, so tattered, so filthily dirty, that, -_in spite of the beauty of the race_ and the picturesqueness of their -costume, all other feelings are swallowed up in one of utter -compassion.” - -Could the cosmetic value of fresh air and sunshine be more strikingly -attested than by the fact that Berlioz could speak of “the beauty of the -race,” notwithstanding the national indifference to the laws of -cleanliness? - -In regard to Romantic Love as a source of Beauty, the Italians also -occupy a somewhat anomalous position. In the rural districts French -matrimonial methods seem to be largely followed. Miss Collier mentions a -young lady who visited her to receive her congratulations on her -approaching marriage, and who, on being asked the name of her future -husband, replied naïvely, “Oh, I don’t know; papa has not yet told me -that.” The peasantry, however, are free to choose their own mates, and -it is among them that Italian Beauty is accordingly most prevalent. In -the cities the method of love-making is “operatic,” as we saw in the -chapter on Italian Love; but the main point is that Individual Choice is -not made impossible as in France, and that the Italians worship Love as -a law instead of looking on it with contemptuous cynicism and ridicule. - -The way in which the Mixture of Races affects Italian Beauty affords a -fresh illustration of the superiority of the Brunette type. In Germany, -by general consent, Beauty is much more frequent in the South, where -brunettes abound, than in the North, where they are scarce. Hence we may -conclude that the Blonde type is improved by the intermixture of the -Brunette type. But is the Brunette type of Northern Italy improved to -the same degree by the admixture of Northern Blondes? Not in my -judgment. Venice and Milan and Bologna, it is true, boast many beautiful -women; but has any tourist in writing about these cities ever expressed -much admiration for Italian Blondes? And are not Naples and Capri, the -paradise of Brunettes, commonly regarded as the region where Italian -Beauty is seen at its best? Here it is chiefly dark races that have -intermingled, hence the eyes are sure to be of a deep brown colour; -whereas in Northern Italy the introduction of blonde blood produces the -lighter, less decided tints of the iris which we do not admire. This -disadvantage, it is true, is also encountered in South Germany, but it -is neutralised by the gain of dark eyebrows, and long black lashes, and -the more supple and rounded limbs of the South. - -That mental culture adds much to Italian beauty cannot be said, for -Italian women of all classes are noted for their intellectual indolence. -But atonement is largely made for this by their extreme emotional -susceptibility. Blue skies, rank vegetation, pretty scenery, and a -natural love of music have softened and trained their feelings; and -though the Italian climate does not favour profound artistic culture it -warms the blood and incites the features to give expression to every -passing mood. It is this habit of emotional expression that has given a -unique charm and the power of graceful modulation to Italian features. -As a German artist, Herr Otto Knille, remarks of the Italians, “They -pose unintentionally. Their features, especially among the lower -classes, have been moulded through mimic expression practised for -thousands of years. Gesture-language has shaped the hands of many into -models of anatomic clearness. They have a complete language of signs and -gestures, which each one understands, as, for instance, in the ballet. -Add to this the innate grace of this race ... and we see that the -Italian artist has an abundance of material for copying, as compared -with which the German artist must admit his extreme poverty. Whoever has -lived in Italy is in a position to appreciate these advantages.... Think -of the neck, the nape, and the bust of Italian woman, the fine joints -and the elastic gait of both men and women. Nor are we much better -endowed as regards the physiognomy. The German potato-face is not a mere -fancy—the mirror which A. de Neuville has held up to us, though clouded -with prejudice, shows us an image not entirely untrue to life. We -artists know how rarely a head, especially one which lacks the -enchanting charm of youth, can be used as a model for anything but flat -realism. Most German faces, instead of becoming more clearly chiselled -and elaborated with age, appear more spongy, vague, and unmeaning.” - -Winklemann’s remarks on Italian Beauty are in the same vein: “We seldom -find in the fairest portions of Italy the features of the face -unfinished, vague, and inexpressive, as is frequently the case on the -other side of the Alps; but they have partly an air of nobleness, partly -of acuteness and intelligence; and the form of the face is generally -large and full, and the parts of it in harmony with each other. The -superiority of conformation is so manifest that the head of the humblest -man among the people might be introduced in the most dignified -historical painting, especially one in which aged men are to be -represented. And among the women of this class, even in places of the -least importance, it would not be difficult to find a Juno. The lower -portion of Italy, which enjoys a softer climate than any other part of -it, brings forth men of superb and vigorously-designed forms, which -appear to have been made, as it were, for the purposes of sculpture.” - -In confirmation of my statement that in Northern as in Southern Italy it -is the Brunette type that chiefly excites the admiration of the tourist, -I may finally cite Heine’s remarks on the women of Trent. For, although -Trent is a town of the Austrian Tyrol, it yet is practically an Italian -community. Had not business called him southwards, Heine relates in his -_Journey from Munich to Genoa_, he would have felt tempted to remain in -this town where “beautiful girls were moving about in bevies. I do not -know,” he adds, “whether other tourists will approve of the adjective -‘beautiful’ in this case; but I liked the women of Trent exceptionally -well. They were just of the kind I admire—and I do love these pale, -elegiac faces with the large black eyes that gaze at you so love-sick; I -love also the dusky tint of those proud necks which Phœbus already -has loved and browned with his kisses; ... but above all things do I -love that graceful gait, that dumb music of the body, those limbs with -their exquisitely rhythmic movements, luxurious, supple, divinely -careless, mortally languid, anon æthereal, majestic, and always highly -poetic. I love such things as I love poetry itself; and these figures -with their melodious movements, this wondrous concert of femininity -which delighted my senses, found an echo in my heart, and awoke in it -sympathetic strains.” - - - - - SPANISH BEAUTY - - -In Spain, as in Italy, Germany, France, and the United States, we find -more Personal Beauty in the Southern than in the Northern regions. This -coincidence cannot be accidental, but attests the great cosmetic value -of sunshine and plenty of fresh air. Perhaps no other portion of the -globe has such a paradisiacal climate as Andalusia, where the -inhabitants practically pass all their time in the open air,—on -verandahs and in their cosy little galleries, and fragrant orange -groves, in whose shade they can spend the hot part of the day, while the -nights are cooled by balmy mountain or sea breezes. To these natural -hygienic advantages add the unusually happy mixture of nationalities, -and the fact that Romantic Love is much less impeded in its sway than in -France or Italy, and we see at a glance to what the young Andalusian -owes the undulating lines and luscious plumpness of her figure, her -ravishing facial beauty, and her graceful gait, or “melodious -movements,” as Heine would say. - -Surely the goddess of Beauty herself mixed the national colours that -make up the Spanish type. When Spain was added to the Roman dominion she -was, as Mr. E. A. Freeman remarks, “the only one of the great countries -of Europe where the mass of the people were not of the Aryan stock. The -greater part of the land was still held by the _Iberians_, as a small -part is even now by their descendants the Basques. But in the central -part of the peninsula _Celtic_ tribes had pressed in, and ... there were -some _Phœnician_ colonies in the south, and some _Greek_ colonies on -the east coast. In the time between the first and second Punic Wars, -Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, and Hannibal had won all Spain as far as the Ebro -for _Carthage_.” Among the other nations which successively overran the -country were the Goths, Vandals, Suevi, and Moors; to whom must be added -large numbers of Jews and Gypsies, of which latter race Spain still -possesses about 50,000. - -Most of these nations had some favourable physical traits which Sexual -Selection had the opportunity to fix upon and perpetuate; while sundry -incongruities must have been neutralised and obliterated by the -intermingling of races. And another important consideration is, that -this intermingling of nations was effected so many centuries ago that it -is now no longer a heterogeneous physical mixture, but a true -“chemical,” or physiological, fusion, in which dissonances and -incongruities are less likely to occur than in countries where the -mixture is more recent. - -That the addition of Greek and Roman blood, redolent of ancient -civilisation, to the original Spanish stock was an advantage is obvious. -The Goth brought his manly vigour; the Gypsy his concentrated essence of -Brunetteism; the Arab his oval face, dusky complexion, the straight line -connecting nose and forehead, the small mouth and white teeth, the dark -and glossy hair, the delicate extremities and gracefully-arched foot, -and above all, the black eyes and long black eyelashes. If Shakspere is -right in saying that there is no author in the world “teaches such -beauty as a woman’s eye,” then Andalusia easily leads the world in -Personal Beauty. The prosiest tourist becomes poetic in describing the -Andalusian’s “black eye that mocks her coal-black veil.” Large and round -are these eyes, like those of Oriental Houris; long and dense their -black lashes, which yet cannot smother the mysterious fire and sparkle -which their iris appears to have borrowed of the Gypsies. In many cases -there is a vague, piquant indication of the almond-shaped palpebral -aperture—one of the Semitic traits derived from the Phœnicians, Jews, -and Saracens. And then, what woman can make such irresistibly -fascinating use of her eyes as the Spanish brunette? - -M. Figuier thus sums up the physical characteristics of the Spanish -woman: “She is generally brunette, although the blonde type occurs much -more frequently than is usually supposed. The Spanish woman is almost -always small of stature. Who has not observed the large eyes, veiled by -thick lashes, her delicate nose, and well-formed nostrils? Her form is -always undulating and graceful; her limbs are round and beautifully -moulded, and her extremities of incomparable delicacy. She is a charming -mixture of vigour, languor, and grace.” - -“The appearance of a Spanish woman,” says Bogumil Goltz, “is the -expression of her character. Her fine figure, her majestic gait, her -sonorous voice, her black, flashing eye, the liveliness of her -gesticulations, in a word, her whole external personality indicates her -character.” - -It is to be noted that whereas French Beauty appears to be visible to -French eyes only, and regarding Italian Beauty opinions differ, all -nations unite in singing the praises of “Spain’s dark-glancing -daughters.” To the French and German testimony just cited may now be -added a few Italian, English, and American witnesses. - -Signor E. de Amicis, in his interesting work on Spain, says of the women -of Madrid that “they are still the same little women so besung for their -great eyes, small hands, and tiny feet, with their very black hair, but -skin rather white than dark, so well-formed, erect, lithe, and -vivacious.” But, like all other tourists, he reserves most of his -remarks on Spanish women for his chapters on Andalusia, although this is -the part of Spain which also offers the richest material for description -in its architecture and scenery. Concerning the women and girls of -Seville, as seen in the large tobacco factory which employs 5000 -females, he says: “There are some very beautiful faces, and even those -that are not absolutely beautiful, have something about them which -attracts the eye and remains impressed upon the memory—the colouring, -eyes, brows, and smile, for instance. Many, especially the so-called -_gitane_, are dark brown, like mulattoes, and have protruding lips: -others have such large eyes that a faithful likeness of them would seem -an exaggeration. The majority are small, well-made, and all wear a rose, -pink, or a bunch of field-flowers among their braids.... On coming out -of the factory, you seem to see on every side for a time, black pupils -which look at you with a thousand different expressions of curiosity, -ennui, sympathy, sadness, and drowsiness.” - -The same writer found that “The feminine type of Cadiz was not less -attractive than that celebrated one at Seville. The women are a little -taller, a trifle stouter, and rather darker. Some fine observer has -asserted that they are of the Greek type; but I cannot see where. I saw -nothing, with the exception of their stature, but the Andalusian type; -and this sufficed to make me heave sighs deep enough to have blown along -a boat and obliged me to return as soon as possible to my ship, as a -place of peace and refuge.” - -Mr. G. P. Lathrop’s description (in _Spanish Vistas_) of the girls in -the Seville factory is pitched in a somewhat lower key than Signor de -Amicis’s: “Some of them,” he writes, “had a spendthrift, common sort of -beauty, which, owing to their southern vivacity and fine physique, had -the air of being more than it really was.... There were some appalling -old crones.... Others, on the contrary, looked blooming and coquettish. -Many were in startling deshabille, resorted to on account of the intense -(July) heat, and hastened to draw pretty pañuelos of variegated dye over -their bare shoulders when they saw us coming.... The beauty of these -Carmens has certainly been exaggerated. It may be remarked here that, as -an offset to occasional disappointment arising from such exaggerations, -all Spanish women walk with astonishing gracefulness, and natural and -elastic step; and that is their chief advantage over women of other -nations.” - -A writer in _Macmillan’s Magazine_ (1874), after referring to “the -stately upright walk of the Spanish ladies, and the graceful carriage of -the head,” notes that a mother will not allow her daughter to carry a -basket, so as not to destroy her “queenly walk”; and “her dull eye too -will grow moist with a tear, and her worn face will kindle with absolute -softness and sweetness, if an English señor expresses his admiration of -her child’s magnificent hair or flashing black eyes.” - -The description given by the same writer of a scene he witnessed along -the Guadalquiver, suggests one reason of the healthy physique and -vitality of Spanish women: “An old mill-house, with its clumsy wheel and -a couple of pomegranates, shaded one corner of this part of the river; -and under their shade, sitting up to their shoulders in the water, on -the huge round boulders of which the bottom of the river is composed, -were groups of Spanish ladies. Truly it was a pretty sight! They sat as -though on chairs, clothed to the neck in bathing-gowns of the gaudiest -colours—red, gray, yellow, and blue; and, holding in one hand their -umbrellas, and with the other fanning themselves, they formed a most -picturesque group.” - -Washington Irving, in a private letter, paints this picture of a Spanish -beauty whom he saw on a coast steamer: “A young married lady, of about -four or five and twenty, middle-sized, finely-modelled, a Grecian -outline of face, a complexion sallow yet healthful, raven black hair, -eyes dark, large, and beaming, softened by long eyelashes, lips full and -rosy red, yet finely chiselled, and teeth of dazzling whiteness. Her -hand ... is small, exquisitely formed, with taper fingers, and blue -veins. I never saw a female hand more exquisite.” The husband of this -young lady, noticing that Mr. Irving was apparently sketching her, -questioned him on the matter. Mr. Irving read his sketch to the man, who -was greatly pleased with it; and this led to a delightful though brief -acquaintance. - -in another letter, Washington Irving writes to a friend: “There are -beautiful women in Seville as ... there are in all other great cities; -but do not, my worthy and inquiring friend, expect a perfect beauty to -be staring you in the face at every turn, or you will be awfully -disappointed. Andalusia, generally speaking, derives its renown for the -beauty of its women and the beauty of its landscape, from the rare and -captivating charms of individuals. The generality of its female faces -are as sunburnt and void of bloom and freshness as its plains. I am -convinced, the great fascination of Spanish women arises from their -natural talent, their fire and soul, which beam through their dark and -flashing eyes, and kindle up their whole countenance in the course of an -interesting conversation. As I have had but few opportunities of judging -them in this way, I can only criticise them with the eye of a sauntering -observer. It is like judging of a fountain when it is not in play, or a -fire when it lies dormant and neither flames nor sparkles.” - -Byron, in _Childe Harold_, waxes enthusiastic over the Spanish woman’s -“fairy form, with more than female grace”— - - “Her glance how wildly beautiful! how much - Hath Phœbus wooed in vain to spoil her cheek, - Which glows yet smoother from his amorous clutch! - Who round the North for paler dames would seek? - How poor their forms appear! how languid, wan, and weak!” - -But in a letter from Cadiz Byron notes the weak as well as the strong -points of Spanish women. “With all national prejudice, I must confess, -the women of Cadiz are as far superior to the English women in beauty, -as the Spaniards are inferior to the English in every quality that -dignifies the name of man.... The Spanish women are all alike, their -education the same.... Certainly they are fascinating; but their minds -have only one idea, and the business of their lives is intrigue.... Long -black hair, dark languishing eyes, clear olive complexions, and forms -more graceful in motion than can be conceived by an Englishman used to -the drowsy, listless air of his countrywomen, added to the most becoming -dress, and, at the same time, the most decent in the world, render a -Spanish beauty irresistible.” - -“Their minds have only one idea,” is an exaggeration, for the Andalusian -women are famed for a considerable amount of innate wit, rivalling the -brightness of their eyes. Yet of deeper intellectual interests there are -none. Of the total population of Spain only a quarter can read and -write; for although schools exist in abundance, they are very generally -neglected; and the estimation in which teachers are held is seen from -the fact that out of 15,000 one half receive an annual salary of less -than twenty pounds sterling. - -Mental Culture avenges itself bitterly on the women of Spain, as of -other Southern countries, for this neglect of its claims. While the -freshness of youthful Beauty remains, all is well, for then the sensuous -charms are so great that intellectual claims can be ignored. But when -this freshness fades, then it is that the features begin to show a lack -of mental training. Intellectual apathy masks the face, and gives it an -expression of vacuity; exercise is neglected, and indolence, combined -with excessive indulgence in fattening food, soon destroy the lovely -contours of the figure and the fairy-like gait. “A Spanish woman of -forty appears twice as old,” says Goltz. - -Thus we see that for perfect and permanent Beauty _all_ its sources must -be kept open and utilised. - -Attention must finally be called to one feature of Andalusian Beauty -which all tourists emphasise, namely, the small stature of the women, to -which they largely owe their exceptional grace of gait. And there are -reasons for believing that the perfected woman of the millennium will -resemble the Andalusian Brunette, not only in complexion, hair, eyes, -gait, and tapering plumpness of figure, but also in stature. In other -words, it seems that Sexual Selection is evolving the _petite_ Brunette -as the ideal of womanhood. - -Among the ancient Greeks who were not swayed by Romantic Love, Amazons -were greatly admired, as previously noted; and Mr. Gladstone remarks -that “stature was a great element of beauty in the view of the ancients, -for women as well as for men; and their admiration of tallness, even in -women, is hardly restrained by a limit.” - -From this Greek predilection modern æsthetico-amorous Taste differs, for -several weighty reasons. The first is that a very tall and bulky woman, -though she may be stately and majestic, cannot be very graceful; and -Grace, as we know, is as potent a source of Love as formal Beauty. -Again, there is something incongruous and almost comic in the thought of -a very large woman submitting to Love’s caresses; and _le ridicule tue_. -Thirdly, great stature is rarely associated with delicate joints and -extremities. But the principal reason why the modern lover disapproves -of Amazonian women, mental and physical, is because they are -quasi-masculine. Romantic Love tends to differentiate the sexes in -stature as in everything else. True, Mr. Galton, after making -observations on 205 married couples, came to the conclusion that -“marriage selection takes little or no account of shortness and -tallness. There are undoubtedly sexual preferences for moderate -contrasts in height; but the marriage choice appears to be guided by so -many and more important considerations that questions of stature exert -no perceptible influence upon it.... Men and women of contrasted -heights, short and tall or tall and short, married just about as -frequently as men and women of similar heights, both tall or both short; -there were 32 cases of one to 27 of the other.” - -But Mr. Galton’s argument is rather weak. He admits that “there are -undoubtedly sexual preferences for moderate contrast in height”; and his -own figures show 32 to 27 in favour of mixed-stature marriages, in most -of which the women must have been shorter, owing to the prevalent -feminine inferiority in size. And in course of time the elimination of -non-amorous motives of marriage will assist the law of sexual -differentiation in suppressing Amazons. - -The modern masculine preference for _petite_ female stature is, -furthermore, attested by an irrefutable philological argument which will -be found in the following citation from Crabb’s _English Synonymes_: -“_Prettiness_ is always coupled with simplicity; it is incompatible with -that which is large; a tall woman with masculine features cannot be -_pretty_. _Beauty_ is peculiarly a female perfection; in the male sex it -is rather a defect; a man can scarcely be _beautiful_ without losing his -manly characteristics, boldness and energy of mind, strength and -robustness of limb; but though a man may not be _beautiful_ or _pretty_, -he may be _fine_ or _handsome_.” “A woman is _fine_ who with a striking -figure unites shape and symmetry; a woman is _handsome_ who has good -features, and _pretty_ if with symmetry of feature be united delicacy.” - -Burke believed that it is possible to fall in love with a very small -person, but not with a giant. There is, indeed, a natural prejudice in -the modern mind against very tall statue even in men. Thus, we read in -Fuller’s _Andronicus_: “Often the cockloft is empty in those whom Nature -hath built many stories high”; and Bacon is reported to have said that -“Nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories -high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.” -An apparent scientific confirmation of this belief is found in Professor -Hermann’s _Nervensystem_ (ii. 195), where we read that “when the body -becomes abnormally large, the brain begins to decrease again, -relatively, as Langer found in measuring giant skeletons.” And, another -sign of regression is found in the fact that tall men are apt to have -relatively too have jaws. - - - - - GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN BEAUTY - - -Although the Germans of to-day are by no means a pure and distinct race, -they are less thoroughly and variously mixed than most other European -nations; and this is one of the main reasons why Personal Beauty is -comparatively rare in the Fatherland. It is rarest in the northern and -central regions, where the original Blonde type is best preserved, and -becomes more frequent the nearer we approach the Brunette neighbours of -Germany—Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Poland—whose women have been aptly -called “the Spaniards of the north.” France forms an exception. There, -thanks to the imprisonment of Cupid, ugliness is so rampant that -intermarriage only intensifies the natural homeliness,—a fact of which -any one may convince himself by spending a few days in the borderland -between France and Germany. - -Partly owing to this lack of variety in the national composition of the -Germans, partly to the custom of chaperonage, Romantic Love has not as -wide a scope of selective action as elsewhere; and as if these -impediments to the increase of Beauty were not sufficient, they are -augmented in a wholesale fashion by the parental illusion that the -Love-instinct is a less trustworthy guide to a happy marriage than -“Reason,” _i.e._ the consideration that the bride has a few thousand -marks and belongs to the same social clique as the bridegroom. Like -their French neighbours, the Germans in these cases forget the claims of -the _grandchildren_ to Health and Beauty—_i.e._ the harmonious fusion of -the complementary parental qualities by which Love is inspired. - -But in regard to the third source of Beauty—Mental Culture—the Germans -surely are pre-eminent among nations, it will be claimed. In one sense, -no doubt, they are. Almost all Germans can read and write, and no race -equals them in special erudition. But erudition is not culture. The -German system of education is exceedingly defective, because it -cultivates too largely the lowest of the mental faculties—the Memory. -The number of scientific, historic, and philological facts a German -schoolboy knows by heart is simply astounding; but he has not digested -them, and cannot apply them practically. No attempt is made to cultivate -his higher faculties—his imagination, originality, or the gift of -expressing a thought in elegant language. Were a candidate to show the -wit and brilliancy of a Heine or a Shakspere, it would not add one grain -to the weight his pedantic professors attach to his work. They will not -favour the growth of qualities in which they themselves are so -conspicuously deficient. Note, for example, the vast contempt with which -the pedants of the University of Berlin look down on “the German -Darwin,” Professor Haeckel, because he dares not only to be original, -but to write his books in a language clear as crystal, and adorned with -wit, satire, and literary polish. - -Other nations are proud of their great men _even before they are dead_; -not so the Germans. Nor are the Germans really a literary nation, as a -whole. Many books are written there, but they rarely come under the head -of _literature_; and their circulation, on the average, is not one-tenth -that of English, French, and American books. Beer is more popular than -books. - -No, the pedantic erudition, which alone is officially honoured in -Germany, is not synonymous with Mental Culture. It does not vivify the -features sufficiently to mould them into plastic shape. Hence the -prevalence of the “spongy features” and Teutonic “potato-faces” referred -to by a German artist quoted in the chapter on Italian Beauty. “The true -national character of the Germans is clumsiness,” says Schopenhauer; and -again: “The Germans are distinguished from all other nations by the -slovenliness of their style, as of their dress.” And the Swiss -Professor, H. F. Amiel, remarks in his _Journal Intime_ that “the notion -of ‘bad taste’ seems to have no place in German æsthetics. Their -elegance has no grace in it; they cannot understand the enormous -difference there is between distinction (which is _gentlemanly_, -_ladylike_) and their stiff _Vornehmheit_. Their imagination lacks -style, training, education, and knowledge of the world; it has an -ill-bred air even in its Sunday dress. The race is poetical and -intelligent, but common and ill-mannered.” - -It must be admitted, however, that the Germans have made great progress -in external refinement and manners since their late war with France, one -of the greatest advantages of which to them was that it destroyed the -mystic halo which had for many generations surrounded the important -Parisian Fashion Fetish. What the Germans need now is a period of -Anglomania. They have already ceased to laugh at the Englishman for -travelling with his bath-tub, and have found it worth while to provide -him with that commodity in the hotels. In course of time bath-tubs in -private German houses may be expected to become more common than they -are now; and after a generation or two shall have given proper attention -to skin-hygiene, freckles and other cutaneous blemishes will be less -prevalent than at present. In their houses the Germans are really as -tidy as any nation; but their indifference to the appearance of their -collars and cuffs often leads one to suspect the contrary. - -The next thing the Germans ought to learn of the English is greater -gallantry toward the women, who are too apt to be looked upon as -household drudges, whom it is not necessary to educate or amuse. -Especially ruinous to female Beauty is the hard field labour required of -the women who have the misfortune to belong to a nation which has not -yet outgrown its condition of mediæval militarism. A German physician, -quoted by Dr. Ploss, notes the fact that the beauty and bloom of youth -last but a short time with the working classes of North Germany: “The -hard labour performed before the body is fully developed too easily -destroys the plumpness, which is an essential element of beauty, draws -furrows in the face, and makes the figure stiff and angular. Often have -I taken a mother who showed me her child for its grandmother.” - -The author of _German Home Life_ remarks in a similar vein: “German -girls are often charmingly pretty, with dazzling complexions, abundant -beautiful hair, and clear lovely eyes; but the splendid matron, the -sound, healthy, well-developed woman, who has lost no grain of beauty, -and yet gained a certain magnificent maturity such as we in England see -daily with daughters who might well be her youngest sisters—of such -women the Fatherland has few specimens to show. The ‘pale unripened -beauties of the North’ do not ripen, they fade.” And no wonder, for -either the girls belong to the poorer classes and lose their beauty -prematurely from overwork; or, if they are of the well-to-do classes, -they get no Beauty-preserving exercise at all. “German girls,” the -Countess Von Bothmer continues, “have no outdoor amusements, if we -except skating when the winter proves favourable. Boating, riding, -archery, swimming, croquet—all the active, healthy outdoor life which -English maidens are allowed to share and to enjoy with their brothers is -unknown to them.... Such diversions are looked upon by the girls -themselves as bold, coarse, and unfeminine.... It is in vain that you -tell them such exercises, far from unsexing them, fit them all the -better for the duties of their sex; it is difficult for them to hear you -out and not show the scorn they entertain for you.” - -German men, as a rule, are much handsomer than their sisters, and they -owe this superiority partly to the fact that their minds are not so -vacant, and partly to the prolonged physical training which is the one -redeeming feature of their military system. Nevertheless, especially in -South Germany, the men too often lose their fine manly proportions in an -enormous _embonpoint_, the penalty of drinking too much beer. Nor is the -acquisition of a turnip shape the only bad result of the German habit of -spending every evening in a tavern. The air in these beer-houses is so -filthy, so soaked with vile tobacco smoke and nicotine, that after -sitting in it for an hour the odour haunts one’s clothes for a week, and -poisons the lungs for a month. It is this foul atmosphere, combined with -the stupefying effect of the beer, that accounts for German heaviness -and clumsiness in appearance, attitude, gait, and literary style. - -These disadvantages might be to some extent neutralised if, on returning -to his bedroom, the German would spend the rest of the night, at least, -in fresh air. But no! He dreads the balmy night air as he would a -dragon’s breath, although Professor Reclam and other great authorities -on Hygiene have told him a million and sixty times that night air is -more salubrious than day air, except in swampy regions. - -Tourists in Switzerland often wonder why it is that the natives, -notwithstanding their glorious Alpine air, are, with rare exceptions, so -utterly devoid of Beauty. Partly this is due to the hard labour and -scanty food to which most of them are condemned; but the main reason is -that they enjoy their health-laden air only in the daytime and in -summer. At night and in winter they close their windows hermetically, -and in the morning the atmosphere in such a room is something which no -one who has ever breathed it will ever forget. - -When the Germans visit Switzerland they carefully imitate the example of -these ignorant peasants, thus depriving themselves of all the benefits -of an Alpine tour. An eye-witness last summer told me of the following -encounter in a Swiss hotel between an English lady and a German. The -dining-room being hot to suffocation, the English lady opened a window, -whereupon the German immediately got up and closed it. The English lady -opened it again, and again it was closed; whereupon she pushed her elbow -through the glass, and thenceforth enjoyed the fresh, fragrant air, to -the horror and indignation of the assembled Teutons. - -All these remarks of course apply to the Germans only in a very general -way. Among all classes in Germany specimens of Beauty may be found that -could hardly be surpassed anywhere else. Pretty faces are more frequent -than elegant figures, which commonly are too robust and masculine. -German girls are the most domestic and amiable in the world, and it is -their amiability and depth of feeling that gives their mouth such a -sweet expression and refined outlines. When German girls are educated, -as often they are in America, their faces beam in irresistible beauty. -The most beautiful non-Spanish eyes I have ever seen belonged to a girl -in Baden; and the most roguish blue eyes I have ever seen, to a -Würtemberg girl. Regular Italian features are not uncommon in Bavaria, -although snub-noses are most frequent there. The Bavarian complexion, -though somewhat too pale, is beautifully clear; and I have almost come -to the conclusion that this is in some way connected with the national -habit of drinking beer three times a day. It might be worth while to -inquire whether there is a beautifying ingredient in beer which might be -obtained without its stupefying effects. - -The Germans commonly consider the maidens along the Rhine their most -favourable and abundant specimens of Beauty; but Robert Schumann, who -had a fine eye for feminine Beauty, emphasized the amiability rather -than the beauty of these maidens in the following passage from one of -his private letters: “What characteristic faces among the lowest -classes! On the west shore of the Rhine the girls have very delicate -features, indicating amiability rather than intelligence; the noses are -mostly Greek, the face very oval and artistically symmetrical, the hair -brown. I did not see a single blonde. The complexion is soft, delicate, -with more white than red; melancholy rather than sanguine. The Frankfort -girls, on the other hand, have in common a sisterly trait—the character -of German, manly, sad earnestness which we often find in our quondam -free cities, and which toward the east gradually merges into a gentle -softness. Characteristic are the faces of all the Frankfort girls: -intellectual or beautiful few of them; the noses mostly Greek, often -snub-noses; the dialect I did not like.” - -Concerning the peasant women of Saxony, Mr. Julian Hawthorne remarks in -his _Saxon Studies_: “Massive are their legs as the banyan root; their -hips are as the bows of a three-decker. Backs have they like derricks: -rough hands like pile-drivers.” And again: “Handsome and pretty women -are certainly no rarity in Saxony, although few of them can lay claim to -an unadulterated Saxon pedigree.” “We see lovely Austrians, and -fascinating Poles and Russians, who delicately smoke cigars in the -concert gardens. But it is hard for the peasant type to rise higher than -comeliness; and it is distressingly apt to be coarse of feature as well -as of hand, clumsy of ankle, and more or less wedded to grease and dirt. -Good blood shows in the profile; and these young girls, whose faces are -often pleasant and even attractive, have seldom an eloquent contour of -nose and mouth. There is sometimes great softness and sweetness of eye, -a clear complexion, a pretty roundness of chin and throat. Indeed, I -have found scattered through half a dozen different villages all the -features of the true Gretchen; and once, in an obscure hamlet whose name -I have forgotten, I came unexpectedly upon what seemed a near approach -to the mythic being.” - -One thing must be admitted. The Germans are the most systematic and -persevering nation in the world. They took music, for instance, from her -Italian cradle, and reared her till she developed into the most -fascinating of the modern muses. They lead the world in scientific -research; and within a few years they have terrified the English -monopolists by a sudden outburst of thorough-going Teutonic industrial -activity and world-competition. Let but the Germans once make up their -mind that they want Personal Beauty, and lo! they will have it in -superabundance. The Professorships of Hygiene, which are now being -established at the Universities, will doubtless bear rich fruit. If -Bismarck discovered the full significance of Anglo-American Courtship, -he would forthwith order an hour of it to be added to the daily academic -curriculum; and if he realised the importance of racial mixture, he -would order shiploads of South American and Andalusian brunettes to be -distributed among his officers as wives. Nor would female education be -any longer neglected, were it fully understood how essential it is to -Personal Beauty and true Romantic Love, the basis of happy conjugal -life. - -What _can_ be done with German stock if it is duly mixed with Brunette -ingredients, is shown at Vienna, which, by the apparently unanimous -consent of tourists, boasts more beautiful women than any other city in -the world. Austria has about ten per cent more of the pure Brunette and -fourteen per cent more of the mixed types than Germany. The dark blood -of Italians, Hungarians, Czechs, flows in Viennese veins, and there is -also a piquant suspicion of Oriental beauty. The Viennese woman combines -Andalusian plumpness of figure and grace of movement, with American -delicacy of features and purity of complexion. The bust is almost always -finely developed and rarely too luxuriant; and the joints are the -admiration of all tourists and natives. Speaking of England, Mr. Richard -Grant White says that “Plump arms are not uncommon, but really fine arms -are rare; and fine wrists are still rarer. Such wrists as the Viennese -women have ... are almost unknown among women of English race in either -country.” And the Countess von Bothmer thus describes the neighbours of -Germany:— - -"Polish, Hungarian, and Austrian women, whom we, in a general, -inconclusive way, are apt to class as Germans, are ‘beautiful -exceedingly’; but here we come upon another race, or rather such a -fusion of other races as may help to contribute to the charming result. -Polish ladies have a special, vivid, delicate, spirited, haunting -loveliness, with grace, distinction, and elegance in their limbs and -features that is all their own; you cannot call them fragile, but they -are of so fine a fibre and so delicate a colouring that they only just -escape that apprehension. Of Polish and Hungarian _pur sang_ there is -little to be found; women of the latter race are of a more robust and -substantial build, with dark hair and complexion, fine flashing eyes, -and pronounced type; and who that remembers the women of Linz and Vienna -will refuse them a first prize? They possess a special beauty of their -own, a beauty which is rare in even the loveliest Englishwomen; rare, -indeed, and exceptional everywhere else; a beauty that the artist eye -appreciates with a feeling of delight. They have the most delicately -articulated joints of any women in the world. The juncture of the hand -and wrist, of foot and ankle, of the _nuque_ with the back and -shoulders, is what our neighbours would call ‘adorable.’ - -“But alas that it should be so! The full gracious figures—types at once -of strength and elegance—the supple, slender waists, the dainty little -wrists and hands, become all too soon hopelessly fat, from the -persistent idleness and luxury of the nerveless, unoccupied lives of -these graceful ladies.” - - - - - ENGLISH BEAUTY - - -Like the Viennese, the English afford an illustration of what can be -done with Teutonic stock by a judicious admixture of dark blood. -Although the mysteries of English ethnology have not been completely -unravelled, the original inhabitants of the British Islands appear to -have been “composed of the long-headed dark races of the Mediterranean -stock, possibly mingled with fragments of still more ancient races, -Mongoliform or Allophylian” (Dr. Beddoe). In the later history of the -race Romans, Germans, Danes, and Normans added their blood to this -mixture. The Celtic-speaking people who in the time of the Roman -Conquest inhabited South Britain, partook, according to Dr. Beddoe, -“more of the tall blond stock of Northern Europe than of the thickset, -broad-headed, dark stock which Broca has called Celts.” But the true -Blonde invasion of Britain did not occur till towards the beginning of -the fifth century, when the Low-Dutch tribes, the Angles and Saxons, -came over from the river Elbe and the coast region, and drove the -Britons to the west of the island, where they were called the Welsh, -which is an old German appellation for foreigners. - -The inference naturally suggests itself that the predilection for -Blondes shown in English literature up to a recent date (as noted in the -chapter on Blondes and Brunettes) may be traced to this fact that the -conquering race was fair, and that consequently dark hair and eyes -stigmatised their possessor as belonging to the conquered race. This -condemnation of the Brunette type (on _non-æsthetic_ grounds, be it -noted) is forcibly illustrated by the following lines of the shepherdess -Phebe in _As You Like It_— - - “I have more cause to hate him than to love him; - For what had he to do to chide at me? - He said mine eyes were black and my hair black, - And, now I am remember’d, scorned at me.” - -But when this temporary aristocratic ground of preferring the Blond type -was neutralised through the lapse of time, and Romantic Love, that -potent awakener of the æsthetic sense, appeared on the scene and opened -men’s eyes to the inferior beauty of that type, then began the reaction -in favour of Brunettes, which has been going on ever since. This view is -strikingly confirmed by the following remarks of Mr. Charles Roberts in -_Nature_, January 7, 1885:— - -“American statistics show that the blonde type is more subject to all -the diseases, except one (chronic rheumatism), which disqualify men for -military service, and this must obviously place blondes at a great -disadvantage in the battle of life, while the popular saying, ‘A pair of -black eyes is the delight of a pair of blue ones,’ shows that sexual -selection does not allow them to escape from it. It is more than -probable, therefore, from all these considerations, that the darker -portion of our population is gaining on the blond, and this surmise is -borne out by Dr. Beddoe’s remark that the proportion of English and -Scotch blood in Ireland is probably not less than a third, and that the -Gaelic and Iberian races of the West, mostly dark-haired, are _tending -to swamp the blond Teutonic of England by a reflex migration_.” - -Obviously, the ideal Englishwoman of the future will be a Brunette. -Thackeray had a prophetic vision of her when he described Beatrix -Esmond: “She was a brown beauty: that is, her eyes, hair, and eyebrows -and eyelashes were dark; her hair curling with rich undulations, and -waving over her shoulders” [note that]; “but her complexion was as -dazzling white as snow in sunshine; except her cheeks, which were a -bright red, and her lips, which were of a still deeper crimson ... a -woman whose eyes were fire, whose look was love, whose voice was the -sweetest love-song, whose shape was perfect symmetry, health, decision, -activity, whose foot as it planted itself on the ground was firm but -flexible, and whose motion, whether rapid or slow, was always perfect -grace,—agile as a nymph, lofty as a queen—now melting; now imperious, -now sarcastic—there was no single movement of hers but was beautiful. As -he thinks of her, he who writes feels young again and remembers a -paragon.” - -Sexual Selection, however, has not limited its efforts to the -improvement of the colour of the hair, eyes, and complexion; the form of -the features and figure has also been gradually altered and refined. An -examination of the portraits in the National Gallery showed to Mr. -Galton “what appear to be indisputable signs of one predominant type of -face supplanting another. For instance, the features of the men painted -by and about the time of Holbein have unusually high cheek-bones, long -upper lips, thin eyebrows, and lank dark [?] hair. It would be -impossible, I think, for the majority of modern Englishmen so to dress -themselves, and clip and arrange their hair, as to look like the -majority of these portraits.” And again: “If we may believe -caricaturists, the fleshiness and obesity of many English men and women -in the earlier years of this century must have been prodigious. It -testifies to the grosser conditions of life in those days, and makes it -improbable that the types best adapted to prevail then would be the best -adapted to prevail now.” - -Yet this improvement in the British figure and physiognomy is far from -universal. The English are beyond all dispute the finest race in the -world, physically and mentally; but the favourable action of the four -Sources of Beauty, to which they owe this supremacy, does not extend to -all classes. The lowest-class Englishman or Irishman is the most hideous -and brutal ruffian in the world. Of Mental or Moral Culture not a trace; -and whereas “the Spaniard, however ignorant, has naturally the manners -and the refined feelings of a gentleman” (_Macmillan’s Magazine_, 1874), -as well as a love of the beautiful forms and colours of nature; the -Englishman of the corresponding class has nerves and senses so coarse -that he is absolutely impervious to any impressions which do not come -under the head of mere brutal excitement. In this class there is no -Mixture of Races, but a worse than barbarian promiscuity; Romantic Love -is of course miles beyond the conception of imaginations so filthy and -sluggish; and Hygienic neglect here finds its most hideous examples in -the Western World. - -In his _English Note-Books_ Hawthorne speaks as follows of “a countless -multitude of little girls” taken from the workhouses and educated at a -charity school at Liverpool: “I should not have conceived it possible -that so many children could have been collected together, without a -single trace of beauty or scarcely of intelligence in so much as one -individual; such mean, coarse, vulgar features and figures betraying -unmistakably a low origin, and ignorant and brutal parents. They did not -appear wicked, but only stupid, animal, and soulless. It must require -many generations of better life to wake the soul in them. All America -could not show the like.” - -“Climate,” he says in another place, “no doubt has most to do with -diffusing a slender elegance over American young women; but something, -perhaps, is also due to the circumstance of classes not being kept apart -there as they are here: they interfuse amid the continual ups and downs -of our social life; and so, in the lowest stations of life, you may see -the refining influence of gentle blood.” - -Taine, in his _Notes on England_, thus sketches the lowest of the -Englishmen: “Apoplectical and swollen faces, whereof the scarlet hue -turns almost to black, worn-out, bloodshot eyes like raw lobsters; the -brute brutalised. Lessen the quantity of blood and fat, while retaining -the same bone and structure, and increasing the countrified look; large -and wild beard and moustache, tangled hair, rolling eyes, truculent -muzzle, big, knotted hands; this is the primitive Teuton issuing from -his woods; after the portly animal, after the overfed animal, comes the -fierce animal, the English bull.” “The lower-class women of London,” -says another French writer, Mr. Max O’Rell, “are thin-faced or -bloated-looking. They are horribly pale; there is no colour to be seen -except on the tips of their noses.” - -Personal Beauty in England diminishes in quality and frequency, not only -as we go from the upper to the lower classes, but also if we leave -London and go to other cities. How far sanitary and educational -differences account for this state of affairs, and how much is due to a -habitual and natural immigration of Beauty to a place where it is most -sure of appreciation, it is not easy to say. Hawthorne thus records the -impression made on his artistic eyes by an excursion party of Liverpool -manufacturing people: “They were paler, smaller, less wholesome-looking, -and less intelligent, and, I think, less noisy than so many Yankees -would have been.... As to their persons,” the women “generally looked -better developed and healthier than the men; but there was a woeful lack -of beauty and grace,—not a pretty girl among them, all coarse and -vulgar. Their bodies, it seems to me, are apt to be very long in -proportion to their limbs—in truth, this kind of make is rather -characteristic of both sexes in England.” - -A French writer, quoted by Figuier, Dr. Clavel, makes a similar -statement: “The level plains, which are as a rule met with in England, -are not favourable to the development of the lower extremities, and it -is a fact that the power of the English lies, not so much in their legs, -as in the arms, shoulders, and loins.... The barely-marked nape of his -neck and the oval form of his cranium indicate that Finn blood flows in -his veins; his maxillary power and the size of his teeth evidence a -preference for an animal diet. He has the high forehead of the thinker, -but not the long eyes of the artist.... In dealing craftily with his -antagonist, he is well able to guard himself against the weaknesses of -feeling. His face rarely betrays his convictions, and his features are -devoid of the mobility which would prove disadvantageous.” - -The Englishwoman, according to the same writer, “is tall, fair, and -strongly built. Her skin is of dazzling freshness; her features are -small and elegantly formed; the oval of her face is marked, but it is -_somewhat heavy toward the lower_ portion; her hair is fine, silky, and -charming; and her _long and graceful neck_ imparts to the movements of -her head a character of grace and pride. So far all about her is -essentially feminine; but upon analysing her bust and limbs we find that -the large bones, peculiar to her race, interfere with the delicacy of -her form, enlarge her extremities, and lessen the elegance of her -postures and the harmony of her movements.... She lacks a thousand -feminine instincts, and this lack is revealed in her toilette, the -posture she assumes, and in her actions and movements.” - -M. Taine also was convinced of the frequent lack of taste in dress and -bearing in Englishwomen. Yet it is noticeable, and cannot be too much -emphasised, that he _goes to Spain and not to France_ for a comparison: -“Compared with the supple, easy, silent, serpentine undulation of the -Spanish dress and bearing, the movement here (in England), is energetic, -discordant, jerking, like a piece of mechanism.” Nor does Taine in other -respects venture to hold up his own countrywomen as models. He -repeatedly refers to the superior beauty of the English complexion: -“Many ladies have their hair decked with diamonds, and their shoulders, -much exposed, have the incomparable whiteness of which I have just -spoken, the petals of a lily, the gloss of satin do not come near to -it.” And though he thinks that ugliness is more ugly in England than in -France, he confesses that “generally an Englishwoman is more thoroughly -beautiful and healthy than a Frenchwoman.” “Out of every ten young girls -one is admirable, and upon five or six a naturalist painter would look -with pleasure.” “Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who came to see the Court -of the Regent in France, severely rallied our slim, painted, affected -beauties, and proudly held up as a contrast ‘the natural charms and the -lively colours of the unsullied complexions’ of Englishwomen.” “The -physiognomy remains youthful here much later than amongst us, especially -than at Paris, where it withers so quickly; sometimes it remains open -even in old age; I recall at this moment two old ladies with white hair -whose cheeks were smooth and softly rosy; after an hour’s conversation I -discovered that their minds were as fresh as their complexions. Even -when the physiognomy and the form are commonplace, the whole satisfies -the mind; a solid bony structure, and upon it healthy flesh, constitute -what is essential in a living creature.” - -That is it precisely. The Englishman is the finest _animal_ in the -world; and it is because other nations so often forget that one must be -a fine animal before one can be a fine man, that the English have -outstripped them in colonising the world, and imposing on it their -special form of culture and manners. As Emerson remarks, in his Essay on -_Beauty_, “It is the soundness of the bones that ultimates itself in the -peach-bloom complexion; health of constitution that makes the sparkle -and the power of the eye.” “We are all entitled to beauty, should have -been beautiful, if our ancestors had kept the laws,—as every lily and -every rose is well.” - -The London _Times_ characteristically speaks of “that worst of sins in -English eyes—uncleanliness”; and it is in England alone of all European -countries that cleanliness is esteemed next to godliness. The -Frenchman’s paradoxical exclamation, “What a dirty nation the English -must be that they have to bathe so often!” is not so funny as it seems. -The English, as can be seen in the uneducated classes, _would be_ the -dirtiest people in the world, thanks to their fogs and smoke, if they -were not the most cleanly. It is the magic of tub and towel that has -compelled M. Figuier to admit that although the Englishwomen “do not -offer the noble appearance and luxurious figure of the Greek and Roman -women,” yet “their skins surpass in transparency and brilliancy those of -the female inhabitants of all other European countries.” - -It is needless to dilate on the other hygienic habits to which the -English owe their Health, notwithstanding their often depressing -climate,—the passion for walking and riding, for tennis, boating, and -other sports, which, moreover, have the advantage of bringing the sexes -together, and enabling every Romeo to find his Juliet. One cannot help -admiring the independence and common sense of the respectable London -girls who go home on the top of the ’bus, enjoying the fresh air and -varied sights, instead of being locked up in the foul-aired interior. -They know very well, these clever girls, that their cheeks will be all -the rosier, their smiles more bewitching, their eyes more sparkling -after such a ride. In countries where there are fewer _gentlemen_ such a -thing would be considered as improper for a girl as it is for a man to -give a girl a chance to choose her own husband. Do the French agree with -the Turks that women have no souls, since, in Taine’s words, a Frenchman -“would consider it indelicate to utter a single clear or vague phrase to -the young girl before having spoken to her parents”? Taine imparts to -his countrymen the curious information that in England men and women -marry for Love, but he does not appear to realise how much of their -superior Beauty—which he acknowledges—they owe to the habitual privilege -of choosing their own wives for their personal charms, instead of having -them selected by their parents for their money value. He does, however, -realise the effect this system of courtship has on conjugal life; for in -his _History of English Literature_ he refers to the Englishwoman’s -extreme “sweetness, devotion, patience, inextinguishable affection,—a -thing unknown in distant lands, and in France especially; a woman here -gives herself without drawing back, and places her glory and duty in -obedience, forgiveness, adoration, wishing and pretending only to be -melted and absorbed daily deeper and deeper in him whom she has _freely -and for ever chosen_.” - -And there is another English custom the value of which Taine realises -and acknowledges: “In France we believe too readily,” he says, “that if -a woman ceases to be a doll she ceases to be a woman.” True, it is only -a decade or two since the superstition that a higher education would -“destroy all the feminine graces” has been successfully combated even in -England; but there has always been a vast amount of home education, and -the girls have profited immensely by the unimpeded opportunity of -meeting the young men and talking with them, and by the fact that the -purity of tone which pervades English literature has made all of it -accessible to them. Hence the charming intellectual lines which may be -traced in an English woman’s face. - -What the English still need is gastronomic and æsthetic training. After -a few generations of sense-refinement the lower part of the English face -will become as perfect as the upper part is now. Cultivation of the fine -arts and freer facial expression of the emotions are the two great -cosmetics which will put the finishing touch on English Beauty. - - - - - AMERICAN BEAUTY - - -England and America—which of these two countries has the most beautiful -women, and which the largest number of them? Few questions of -international diplomacy have been more frequently discussed than these -problems in comparative æsthetics. But as in most cases patriotism has -taken the place of æsthetic judgment in forming a verdict, few tangible -results have been reached. There is too much exaggeration. Many English -tourists have denied that there is any remarkable Beauty at all in the -United States, and Americans have said the same of England. - -If these sceptical Englishmen had only spent an hour on either side of -the New York and Brooklyn Bridge at 6 P.M., they would have seen Beauty -enough to bewilder all their senses; and if the American sceptics, next -time they go to London, will spend a shilling in buying penny stamps at -a dozen of those small post-offices so profusely scattered all over the -city, they will see enough feminine Beauty in an hour to make them wish -to stay in London the rest of their life,—especially if they remember -that an advertisement for eleven girls to fill these postal clerkships -has been answered by as many as 2000,—the majority of whom, presumably, -were as good-looking as those who got the places, since postal clerks -are not selected for their Beauty, but for their intelligence and -efficiency. - -A few specimens of the sweeping generalisations of tourists may here be -cited. According to Richard Grant White, “The belief, formerly -prevalent, that ‘American’ women had in their youth pretty doll faces, -but at no period of life womanly beauty of figure, is passing away -before a knowledge of the truth, and I have heard it scouted here by -Englishmen, who, pointing to the charming evidence to the contrary -before their eyes, have expressed surprise that the travelling -bookwriters ... could have so misrepresented the truth.” Yet the same -author indulges in the following absurdly extravagant statement: “Beauty -is very much commoner among women of the English race than among those -of any other with which I am acquainted; and among that race it is -commoner in America than in England. I saw more beauty of face and -figure at the first two receptions which I attended after my return than -I had found among the hundreds of thousands of women whom I had seen in -England.” - -The late Dr. G. M. Beard, though an acute observer, allowed his -patriotism a still more ludicrous sway over his imagination: “It is not -possible,” he says, “to go to an opera in any of our large cities -without seeing more of the representatives of the highest type of female -beauty than can be found in months of travel in any part of Europe!” - -Possibly Sir Lepel Griffin had read these lines when he was moved to pen -the following counter-extravagances: “More pretty faces are to be seen -in a day in London than in a month in the States. The average of beauty -is far higher in Canada, and the American town in which most pretty -women are noticeable is Detroit, on the Canadian border, and containing -many Canadian residents. In the Western States beauty is conspicuous by -its absence, and in the Eastern towns, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New -York, and Boston, it is to be chiefly found. In New York, in August, I -hardly saw a face which could be called pretty.... In November New York -presented a different appearance, and many pretty women were to be seen, -although the number was comparatively small; and at the Metropolitan -Opera House even American friends were unable to point out any lady whom -they could call beautiful. A distinguished artist told me that when he -first visited America he scarcely saw in the streets of New York a -single face which he could select as a model, though he could find -twenty such in the London street in which his studio was situated.” - -Volumes might be filled with similar unscientific generalisations, but -it would be a waste of space. My own general impression is that there -are more pretty girls In America, and more beautiful women in England; -that the average Englishwoman has a finer, healthier figure and colour, -the American greater mobility and finer chiselling of the features. If -English hands and feet are often somewhat large, American hands are just -as often too small,—the greater blemish of the two, because it usually -goes with too thin limbs. Irish girls of the best classes appear to be -intermediate. Some of the finest figures and faces in the world belong -to them; an Andalusian could hardly be more plump and graceful than many -Irish and Irish-American girls. The Scotch, in the opinion of Hawthorne, -“are a better-looking people than the English (and this is true of all -classes), more intelligent of aspect, with more regular features. I -looked for the high cheek-bones, which have been attributed, as a -characteristic feature, to the Scotch, but could not find them. What -most distinguishes them from the English is the regularity of the nose, -which is straight, and sometimes a little curved inward; whereas the -English nose has no law whatever, but disports itself in all manner of -irregularity. I very soon learned to recognise the Scotch face, and when -not too Scotch, it is a handsome one.” - -Comparative Æsthetics is still in its infancy, and many years will -doubtless elapse before it will become an exact science, in place of a -collection of individual opinions based on vague impressions. The -statistics which have lately been collected regarding the proportion of -Blondes and Brunettes in various countries, may be regarded as the -beginning of such a science. The next step should be the collection of a -series of national composite portraits after the manner in which Mr. -Galton has formed typical faces of criminals, etc. If in each country a -number of individuals of pronounced national aspect were photographed on -the same plate, the result would be a picture which would emphasise the -typical national traits, and enable one to judge how far they deviate in -each case from regular Beauty. - -In most European countries it would be comparatively easy to obtain -characteristic composite portraits of this kind. But in America the -difficulties would perhaps be insurmountable. For there the mixture of -nationalities is too great and too recent to have produced any national -type. The women of Baltimore, New York, Boston, and San Francisco—what -have they in common with one another any more than with their cousins in -London? Almost one-third of the inhabitants of New York are -foreign-born, including about half a million Irish and Germans. A fusion -of these has been going on for generations, while others have retained -their national traits; and to look, therefore, for a special type of New -York Beauty would be absurd. Thanks to this large number of -foreigners—not always of the most desirable classes—there is less Beauty -in New York in proportion to the number of inhabitants than in most -other cities of the United States. When people imagine they can tell -from what American city a given woman comes, they are hardly ever -influenced in their judgment by physiognomy or figure, but by -peculiarities of dress, speech, or manner. - -Dr. Weir Mitchell says that in America you may see “many very charming -faces, the like of which the world cannot match—figures somewhat too -spare of flesh, and, especially south of Rhode Island, a marvellous -littleness of hand and foot. But look farther, and especially among New -England young girls; you will be struck with a certain hardness of line -in form and feature, which should not be seen between thirteen and -eighteen at least. And if you have an eye which rejoices in the tints of -health, you will miss them on a multitude of the cheeks which we are now -so daringly criticising.” The notion that there is too much angularity -of outline in New England faces and forms is a wide-spread one, and to -some extent founded on truth; yet many of the plumpest, rosiest, and -most charming American women come from Boston—as if to make amends for -their antipodes, whom Mr. R. G. White describes as “certain women, too -common in America, who seem to be composed in equal parts of mind and -leather, the elements of body and soul being left out, so far as is -compatible with existence in human form.” - -Concerning the multitudinous mixture of nationalities in the United -States one thing may be asserted confidently: that the finest ingredient -in it is the English. Yet it has long been held that the English blood -deteriorates in the United States; that the descendants of the English, -like those of the Germans and other nations and their mixtures, -gradually lose the sound constitution of their ancestors. Hawthorne, in -his _Scarlet Letter_, was probably one of the first to give expression -to this belief. Speaking of the New England women who two centuries ago -waited for the appearance of Hester, he says: “Morally, as well as -materially, there was a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens of old -English birth and breeding than in their fair descendants, separated -from them by a series of six or seven generations; for throughout that -chain of ancestry every successive mother has transmitted to her child a -fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer beauty, and a slighter -physical frame, if not a character of less force and solidity, than her -own.... The bright morning sun, therefore, shone on broad shoulders and -well-developed busts, and on round and ruddy cheeks, that had ripened in -the far-off island, and had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the -atmosphere of New England.” - -Yet in his _English Note-Books_, written after the _Scarlet Letter_, he -relates that he had a conversation with Jenny Lind: “She talked about -America, and of our unwholesome modes of life, as to eating and -exercise, and of the ill-health especially of our women; but I opposed -this view as far as I could with any truth, insinuating my opinion that -we were about as healthy as other people, and affirming for a certainty -that we live longer.... This charge of ill-health is almost universally -brought forward against us nowadays,—and, taking the whole country -together, I do not believe the statistics will bear it out.” But why -does he in another place speak of English rural people as “wholesome and -well-to-do,—not specimens of hard, dry, sunburnt muscle, like our -yeoman”? and on still another page: “In America, what squeamishness, -what delicacy, what stomachic apprehension, would there not be among -three stomachs of sixty or seventy years’ experience! I think this -failure of American stomachs is partly owing to our ill-usage of our -digestive powers, partly to our want of faith in them.” - -Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe exclaims that “the race of strong, hardy, -cheerful girls ... is daily lessening; and, in their stead, come the -fragile, easy-fatigued, languid girls of a modern age, drilled in -book-learning, ignorant of common things.” Dr. E. H. Clarke writes in -his _Sex and Education_, which should be read by all parents: “‘I never -saw before so many pretty girls together,’ said Lady Amberley to the -writer, after a visit to the public schools of Boston; and then added, -‘They all looked sick.’ Circumstances have repeatedly carried me to -Europe, where I am always surprised by the red blood that fills and -colours the faces of ladies and peasant girls, reminding one of the -canvas of Rubens and Murillo; and I am always equally surprised on my -return by crowds of pale, bloodless, female faces, that suggest -consumption, scrofula, anæmia, and neuralgia.” - -Dr. S. Weir Mitchell remarks that “To-day the American woman is, to -speak plainly, physically unfit for her duties as woman.” Dr. Allen, -quoted by Sir Lepel Griffin, remarks that a majority of American women -“have a predominance of nerve tissue, with _weak muscles_ and digestive -organs”; and Mr. William Blaikie says that “scarcely one girl in three -ventures to wear a jersey, mainly because she knows too well that this -tell-tale jacket only becomes a good figure.” - -Dr. Clarke relates that when travelling in the East he was summoned as a -physician into a harem where he had the privilege of seeing nearly a -dozen Syrian girls: “As I looked upon their well-developed forms, their -brown skins, rich with the blood and sun of the East, and their -unintelligent sensuous faces, I thought that if it were possible to -marry the Oriental care of woman’s organisation to the Western liberty -and culture of her brain, there would be a new birth and loftier type of -womanly grace and form.” - -There is, doubtless, much truth in these assertions. It is distressing -to see the thin limbs of so many American children, and the anæmic -complexions and frail, willowy forms of so many maidens. What the -American girl chiefly needs is more muscle, more exercise, more fresh -air. A large proportion of girls, it is true, become invalids because -their employers in the shops never allow them to sit down and rest; and -standing, as physiologists tell us, and as has been proved in the case -of armies, is twice as fatiguing as walking. As if to restore the -balance, therefore, the average well-to-do American girl never walks a -hundred yards if a street car or ’bus is convenient; and the men, too, -are not much better as a rule. One of the most disgusting sights to be -seen in New York on a fine day is a procession of street cars going up -Broadway, crowded to suffocation by young men who have plenty of time to -walk home. In the case of the women, the cramping French fashions, which -impede exercise, are largely to blame. - -Fresh-air starvation, again, is almost as epidemic in America as in -Germany. Although night air is less dreaded, draughts are quite as much; -and people imagine that they owe their constant “colds” to the _cold_ -air with which they come into contact, whereas it is the excessively -_hot_ air in their rooms that makes them morbidly sensitive to a -salubrious atmosphere. If young ladies knew that the hothouse air of -their parlours has the same effect on them as on a bunch of flowers, -making them wither prematurely, they would shun it as they would the -sulphurous fumes of a volcano. Why should they deliberately hasten the -conversion of the plump, smooth grape into a dull, wrinkled raisin? - -It is through their morbid fondness for hothouse air and their indolence -that American women so often neutralise their natural advantages: thanks -to the fusion of nationalities and the unimpeded sway of Romantic Love, -they are born more beautiful than the women of any other nation; but the -beauty does not last. - -It must be admitted, however, that a vast improvement has been effected -within the last two generations. Beyond all doubt the young girls of -fifteen are to-day healthier and better-looking than were their mothers -at the same age. It is no longer fashionable to be pale and frail. -Anglomania has done some good in introducing a love of walking, tennis, -etc., as well as the habit of spending a large part of the year in the -country. - -Mr. Higginson, Mr. R. G. White, and many others, have insisted on this -gradual improvement in the health and physique of Americans; and Dr. -Beard remarks in his work on _American Nervousness_: “During the last -two decades the well-to-do classes of America have been visibly growing -stronger, fuller, healthier. We weigh more than our fathers; the women -in all our great centres of population are yearly becoming more plump -and more beautiful.... On all sides there is a visible reversion to the -better physical appearance of our English and German ancestors.... The -one need for the perfection of the beauty of the American women—increase -of fat—is now supplied.” Yet the one cosmetic which 20 per cent of -American women still need above all others is the ability to eat food -which they scorn as “greasy,” but which is only greasy when badly -prepared. It is to such food that Italian and Spanish women owe their -luscious fulness of figure. - -Dr. Clarke’s work on _Sex and Education_ made a great sensation because -he pointed out that the ill-health of American women is largely due to -the brain-work imposed on them at school. Now the superior beauty of -American women is admittedly largely due to the intelligent animation of -their features, to the early training of their mental faculties. Is this -advantage to be sacrificed? Dr. Clarke’s argument does not point to any -such conclusion. He simply contended that the methods of female -education were injurious. “The law has, or had, a maxim that a man and -his wife are one, and that the one is the man. Modern American education -has a maxim, that boys’ schools and girls’ schools are one, and that the -one is the boys’ school.” Girls need different studies from boys to fit -them for _their_ sphere in life; and above all they need careful -hygienic supervision and periods of rest.—Dr. Clarke’s book affords many -irrefutable arguments in favour of one of the main theses of the present -treatise: that the tendency of civilisation is to differentiate the -sexes, mentally and physically. It is on this differentiation that the -ardour and the cosmetic power of Romantic Love depend. Hence the -hopelessness of the Virago Woman’s Rights Cause, especially in America, -where the women are more thoroughly feminine than elsewhere. It is said -that when the first female presidential candidate announced a lecture in -a western town, _not a single auditor_ appeared on the scene. American -women, evidently, are in no immediate danger of becoming masculine and -ceasing to inspire Love. - -Women, however, must be educated and thoroughly, for it has been -abundantly shown in the preceding pages that only an educated mind can -feel true Romantic Love. But their education should be feminine. They -need no algebra, Greek, and chemistry. What they need is first of all a -thorough knowledge of Physiology and Hygiene, so that they may be able -to take care of the Health and Beauty of their children. Then they -should be well versed in literature, so as to be able to shine in -conversation. Their artistic eye should be trained, to enable them to -teach their children to go through the world with their eyes open. Most -of us are half blind; we cannot describe accurately a single person or -thing we see. Music should be taught to all women, as an aid in making -home pleasant and refined, and as an antidote to care. Natural history -is another useful feminine study which enlarges the sympathies by -showing, for example, that birds love and marry almost as we do, -wherefore it is barbarous to wear their stuffed bodies on one’s hat. - -Education, Intermarriage, Hygiene, and Romantic Love will ultimately -remove the last traces of the ape and the savage from the human -countenance and figure. Climate will perhaps always continue to modify -different races sufficiently to afford the advantages of -cross-fertilisation or intermarriage. The remarkable fineness of the -American complexion, for instance, has been ascribed to climatic -influences, and with justice it seems, for, according to Schoolcraft, -the skin of the native Indians is not only smoother, but more delicate -and regularly furrowed than that of Europeans. The notion, however, that -the climate is tending to make the American like the Indian in feature -and form is nonsensical. The typical “Yankee” owes his high cheek-bones -and lankness to his indigestible food; his thin colourless lips to his -Puritan ancestry and lack of æsthetic culture. - -Even if climate did possess the power to modify the forms of our -features, it would not be allowed to have its own way where these -modifications conflicted with the laws of Beauty. Science is daily -making us more and more independent of crude and cruel Natural -Selection, and of the advantages of physical conformity to our -surroundings. Hence Sexual Selection has freer scope to modify the human -race into harmony with æsthetic demands. Perhaps the time will come when -the average man will have as refined a taste and as deep feelings as a -few favoured individuals have at present; that epoch will be known as -the age of Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. - - - - - INDEX - - - About, E.: fashionable disease, 510 - Absence: effect on Love, 256 - Addison: familiarity, 184, 258 - Æsthetic sense: developed from utilitarian associations, 336; - training the, 340; - highest product of civilisation, 409, 479 - Æsthetic suicide, 388, 390 - Affection, impersonal, 11-16; - for dismal scenery, 13 - Affections, Personal: love for animals, 16-19; - maternal love, 19; - paternal, 20; - filial, 22; - brotherly and sisterly, 23; - friendship, 24; - romantic love, 26; - differentiation of, 180 - Age: which preferred by Cupid, 303; - beauty of old, 334; - and decrepitude, 334; - ears in old, 430; - eyebrows, 474; - hair, 489, 493 - Air: fresh, 317; - necessary to Beauty, 186, 319, 397, 426, 446, 447, 492, 515 - Albinos, 468, 501 - Alcock, Dr.: colour of tropical man, 456 - Alfieri: first love, 204, 214 - Alison: on taste, 451 - Allen, Grant: origin of æsthetic sense, 336 - Amazons, 191 - Ambidexterity, 408, 444 - American beauty, 177, 300; - South American, 319; - quadroons, 321; - rapid development of, 326; - feet, 362; - frank gaze, 481, 531, 535-543; - complexion, 542 - American Love: courtship, 118; - flirtation, 122, 126; - Gallantry, 158; - and Beauty, 177; - at eighteen, 193; - replaces German and French courtship, 288, 294-301 - Amicis, E. de: Spanish beauty, 517 - Amiel, H. F.: on Germans, 523 - Animals: love for, 16; - ignored in Christian ethics, 18; - love among, 33; - jealousy, 39, 128; - kissing, 227, 229; - as tests of Beauty, 331; - arctic, why white, 456 - Apes, caressing, 225; - kissing, 225, 228; - ugliness of, 333; - feet, 355, 359; - gait, 357; - legs, 371; - abdomen, 385; - arms, 402; - hands, 405; - jaws, 409; - nude patches, 487; - hair, 492 - Apollo, 490 - Arabian beauty, 516 - Aryan Love, ancient, 72 - Asceticism and ugliness, 314 - Augustine, St.: love and jealousy, 128 - Austrian beauty, 319, 516 - - Bach, A. B.: chest-exercise, 399 - Bachelors, 194 - Bacon: friendship, 25; - amorous hyperbole, 162; - celibacy and genius, 197; - love and genius, 207; - employment _versus_ love, 257 - Bain, Prof., 225, 341, 346. - Baldness, 492 - Ballet-dancing, 370 - Ballrooms: unhealthy, 364, 402; - for birds, 365 - Balzac: prolonging Love, 218; - how his love was won, 252; - hand of great men, 405 - “Bangs,” 388, 495 - Banting, 384 - Bathing, 461, 518, 524, 534 - Beard, G. M.: diet, 384; - eyeball, 476; - American beauty, 536, 541 - Beard, the, 489 - Beauty, in flowers, origin of, 8; - dependent on Health and Cross-fertilisation, 10 - Beauty, Personal: the æsthetic overtone of Love, 32; - admiration of, by animals, 43; - by savages, 59; - among Hebrews, 72; - Hindoos, 74; - Greeks, 83; - Romans, 88; - mediæval, 108; - feminine _versus_ masculine strength, 115; - arouses jealousy, 133; - when only skin-deep, 155; - and intellect, 155; - refines Love, 177-180; - feminine, in masculine eyes, 177; - masculine, in feminine eyes, 178; - neglected after marriage, 185; - lost prematurely, 186; - “skin-deep,” 190; - elimination of ugly and masculine women, 190; - fatal to bachelors, 194; - physical, a source of Love, 303; - facial, 304; - dependent on Health, 310; - independent of utility, 311; - Greek, 313; - increased through Hygiene, 316, 335; - effect of crossing on, 318; - Jews, 320; - quadroons, 321; - increased through Love, 322, 323; - as a fine art, 329, 417; - tests of, negative, 331; - positive, 338; - human less frequent than animal, 391; - lost in degradation, 333; - and age, 334; - expression _versus_ form, 349; - proportion, 354; - feet, 355, 361; - value of exercise, 362, 403; - lower limbs, 371; - Hygiene and civilisation, 372, 394; - lacing fatal to, 381, 382; - corpulence, 383; - rare, 387; - chest, 394, 396; - increased by deep-breathing, 399; - neglect of, a sin, 400; - neck and shoulder, 400; - finger-nails, 406; - jaw, 408; - characteristic, 411; - dimples, 412; - lips, 413; - cheeks, 423; - colour and blushes, 425; - ears, 429; - noses, 440; - Greek, 440; - arm and hand, 405, 408; - cosmetic value of gastronomy, 446; - of fragrant air, 447; - of sunlight, 460, 462; - skin, 453, 458, 488; - eyes, 464 _et seq._, 516; - beards and moustaches, 489; - sexual selection preserves hair, 492; - sensuous, of eyes, 480; - of hair, 492, 493; - _versus_ Fashion, 387, 496; - Brunette _versus_ Blonde, 496; - national traits, 505; - race-mixture and Love, 508; - and mental culture, 324, 520; - stature, 520; - beautiful and pretty, 521 - Beauty-sleep, 317 - Beauty-spots, 452 - Beddoe, Dr.: brunettes and blondes, 499; - races of Britain, 529 - Beer, 525, 526 - Beethoven: Love-affairs, 210, 212, 217 - Bell, Sir Charles: the lips, 227; - Greek beauty, 349; - woman’s gait, 373; - facial expression, 414; - beards, 490 - Bella donna, 504 - Berlioz: love-affairs, 199, 206 - Birds: affections of, 35; - intermarriages, nuptial mass meetings, 37; - courtship, 38; - love-dances, 39, 52; - jealousy, 39; - coyness, 40; - choice of a mate, 42; - source of colours, 44; - love-calls, 51; - female seeks male, 51; - display of ornaments, motives of, 52; - æsthetic taste of, 53; - murdered for vulgar women, 150; - billing, 230 - Blackie, Prof.: Goethe’s love-affairs, 212 - Blaikie, W.: American physique, 540 - Blind, why love is, 164, 202 - Blonde _versus_ Brunette, 496, 529 - Blushes, 425; - eyes of Albinos, 468 - Bodenstedt: Oriental women, 185; - Georgian women, 325 - Bones, 410 - Bothmer, Countess von: French Love, 269, 270; - German women, 283; - English flirtation, 293 - Brain, the, 449, 522 - Brandes, Georg: feminine Love at thirty, 193, 197 - Breath, offensive, 423 - Breathing, healthy, 380; - deep, magic effects of, 397, 447 - Brinton and Napheys, 379, 421, 432, 444, 484 - Brotherly and sisterly love, 23 - Browne, Lennox: corset ruins grace, 382; - consumption, 399 - Brunette _versus_ Blonde, 305, 496, 513, 520, 526, 529 - Bryant, 254 - Büchner, L., 534 - Bulkley, Dr.: care of skin, 460; - removing hairs, 493 - Bunyan: kissing, 284 - Burke: delicacy, 343; - smoothness, 344; - neck and breasts, 394; - love and stature, 521 - Burns: Love and cosmic attraction, 6; - amorous hyperbole, 162; - first love, 205; - ardour of his love, 208; - fickleness, 211; - undercurrents, 213; - a lover’s dream, 220; - kissing, 231 - Burton, 4, 259 - Bustle, the, 375, 494 - Buxton, 259 - Byron, Lord: affection for mountains, 13; - epitaph on dog, 17; - woman’s Love, 121; - waltzing, 129; - the coquette, 142; - Romantic Love, 163; - love-affairs, 202; - first love, 204; - a poet’s love, 210; - Swift, 210; - kissing, 236; - refusals, 241; - how to win love, 243, 252; - sarcasm on marriage, 259; - money and “love,” 263; - Italian Love, 274; - Love inspired by inferior beauty, 305; - black eyes, 498; - Italian beauty, 512 - - Calderwood: on affection, 11 - Calisthenics, 397 - Campbell, Sir G.: Aryan cheekbones, 424 - Camper’s angle, 449 - Canada: Love-matches and Beauty, 178, 373, 510 - Capture of women, 56 - Caresses, 225 - Carew, 256 - Celibacy: mediæval notions of, 92; - bachelors, 195; - and genius, 197 - Cervantes, 202, 280 - Chamfort, 224 - Chaperonage: in Greece, 77; - Rome, 87; - mediæval, 103; - modern, 119, 126, 174, 181, 186, 192; - in France, 193, 266 _et seq._; - England, 268, 293; - Italy, 274; - Spain, 277; - Germany, 285; - America, 294, 296 - Characteristic, the, 410 - Cheeks, 423; - colour and blushes, 425 - Chemical affinities, 3-6 - Chest, the, 304, 394, 397 - Chesterfield: birth of “flirtation,” 124; - flattery, 245 - Children: head, 449; - eyes, 480 - Childs, Mrs,: Love and marriage, 122 - Chin, 412 - China: Love in, 118; - jealousy, 129, 133; - aristocracy of intellect, 210; - standard of Beauty, 328; - mutilation of the feet, 352; - dancing, 366; - cheeks, 423; - eyes, 473, 483, 485 - Chiromancy, 406 - Chivalry: militant and comic, 98; - poetic, 101 - Choice, sexual. _See_ Individual Preference - Chopin: musician for lovers, 170 - Christianity and Love, 97; - sympathy, 149; - and Beauty, 323 - Circassian women, 320, 427 - City air, 447; - city life, injurious to health, 372 - Civilisation: and Beauty, 424; - and noise, 434 - Clarke, E. H.: American Health and Beauty, 539; - sex and education, 541 - Clavel, Dr.: English Beauty, 532 - Cleanliness, 96, 364, 533 - Climate, 542 - Clough, 227 - “Colds,” 540 - Coleridge: fruitless Love, 121; - best marriages, 190; - virtue and passion, 218; - compliments, 245; - love and absence, 256 - Collier, Miss M.; Italian Love and Hygiene, 512 - Collier, R. L.: English and American courtship, 292 - Colour: a normal product, proportionate to vitality, 44; - Typical and Sexual, 44; - Protective and Warning, 48; - means of recognition of species, 49; - complementary, 172, 345; - in cheeks, 425; - ears, 432; - skin, 453, 488; - of man’s skin, original, 456; - eyes, 465, 478 - Complementary qualities: colours, 172; - guide Love, 272, 305 - Complexion: white _versus_ black, 453; - Scandinavian and Spanish, 459; - cosmetic hints, 460; - freckles, 462; - brunette _versus_ blonde, 500, 526; - English, 533, 534; - injured by hot air, 540 - Compliments, 244 - Confidence, value of, to lovers, 239, 242 - Conjugal love: among animals, 34; - savages, 182; - Hebrews, 69; - Greeks, 75; - Romans, 86; - troubadours, 102; - self-sacrifice, 160; - in France, 162; - differs from Romantic, 180 _et seq._; - modern, 182; - essence of, 183; - feminine deeper than masculine, 186; - and friendship, 258 - Constable, 167 - Consumption, nurseries of, 399 - Coquetry: in birds, 40; - and flirtation, 122; - historic excuse for, 124; - essence of, 142; - masculine, 142; - and high collars, 242 - Corpulence, 304, 382; - how to reduce, 384; - in old England, 530 - Corset: fatal to Beauty, 379 _et seq._; - causes corpulence, 382, 385; - ruins chest, 400 - Cosmetic hints (_see_ also Hygiene and Exercise): how to refine the - lips, 421; - ears, 431; - odours, 445; - complexion, 460, 464; - electricity, 464; - eyelashes, 484; - eyes, 485; - hair, 491; - scalp, 493; - colour of eyes, 504; - fresh air, 513 - Cosmic attraction, 3-6 - Costume, study of, 495 - Court-plaster, 452 - Courts of Love, 103 - Courtship: among animals, 37; - facilitated by love-calls, 50; - display of ornaments, 53; - among savages, 56; - Hebrews, 70; - Greeks, 77; - Plato on, 78; - advice to mediæval girls, 106; - definition and value of, 118; - playing at, 122; - modern, 125, 126, 173; - mediæval, 239; - French, 268; - Italian, 275; - Spanish, 278; - German, 282; - American and English, 288, 292, 294, 299; - the object of dancing, 364; - needed in France, 509; - Germany, 527 - Cousins: Love and kissing, 235; - as chaperons, 297 - Coyness: an overtone of Love, 30; - among animals, 40; - among primitive maidens, 64; - Hindoos, 74; - Greeks, 77; - mediæval, 100; - modern, 114; _et seq._; - a feminine weapon, 115; - disadvantages of, 118; - lessens woman’s Love, 119; - displaced by flirtation, 122; - of fate, 170; - after marriage, 185; - varies, 253; - how to overcome, 254; - needed in Germany, 285 - Crimes, against Health and Beauty, 400, 419 - Criminal types, 324 - Crinoline craze, the, 376 - Cross-fertilisation: advantages to Health and Beauty, 8, 318 - Crossing, 306; - a source of Beauty, 318 - Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 274 - “Cunning to be strange,” 115 - Cupid’s arrows, 84 - Curing Love, art of: 154, 196, 255; - absence, 256; - travel, 257; - employment, 257; - contemplation of married misery, 257; - of feminine inferiority, 260; - focussing her faults, 262; - reason _versus_ passion, 263; - Love _versus_ Love, 264 - Curvature, 341, 355, 371, 379, 381, 393, 396, 400, 413, 473, 474 - - Dancing: love-dances of birds, 39, 52; - and grace, 364; - and courtship, 365; - birds, 365; - Greeks and Romans, 366; - why men no longer care for, 367; - evolution of dance-music, 367; - dance of Love, 369; - ballet, 370 - Dante, 2, 109, 168, 198, 201, 215, 420 - Darwin: on flowers and insects, 7; - benefactor of animals, 18; - birds, 35; - animal jealousy, 39; - coyness, 40; - sexual selection, 43; - love charms and calls, 50; - birds displaying their ornaments, 53; - English Beauty, 145; - female tenderness, 150; - masculine females, 190; - expression of Love, 224; - amorous desire for contact, 225; - origin of kissing, 229; - feminine inferiority, 260; - taste, 326; - symmetry in nature, 338; - bird dances and courtship, 365; - Hottentot bustle, or steatopyg, 375; - jaws and hands, 409; - lip mutilations, 416; - expression of emotions, 418; - Siamese notions of Beauty, 423; - blushing, 427; - Albinos, 501; - movements of ears, 430, 433; - point of, 431; - mutilations, 432; - the nose, 436; - sense of smell, 446; - Indian heads, 450; - movements of the scalp, 452; - complexion, 455; - eyebrows, 474; - loss of man’s hair, 486 - Darwinism, new proof for, 389 - Decrepitude, 334 - Deformity: fatal to Love, 304; - elimination of, 323 - Degradation: a cause of ugliness, 333 - Delicacy, 343, 410, 413 - Depilatories, 492 - De Quincy: inferiority of feminine imagination, 261 - Diagnosis of Love, 254 - Diderot: effects of Love, 242 - Dimples, 405, 412 - Disease: kills Love, 304; - a cause of ugliness, 334, 341; - resulting from tight shoes, 354; - from lacing, 380, 381; - hollow eyes, 473; - and Fashion, 510, 541 - Display of ornaments, by animals, 52 - Don Juans, among birds, 36 - Draughts, stupid fear of, 317 - Drayton, 167 - Dress, improprieties of, 380; - woman’s for woman, 388; - in France, 510 - Dryden: on Love, 89, 166; - Love _versus_ Love, 264 - Dühring, Dr.: German money-marriages, 282 - Dürer, 481 - - Ears: a useless ornament, 429; - physiognomic theories, 432 - Eckstein: antiquity of Love, 1 - Education of Girls, 156; - the right kind, 195, 261; - effect of on Beauty, 324, 541, 542 - Egypt: Love in, 67 - Electricity, as a cosmetic, 464, 493, 505 - Eliot, George: on first Love, 138 - Elopements, 61, 188 - Elson, L. C.: Troubadours and Minnesingers, 104 - Emerson: poetry and science, 9; - lovers’ sympathy, 31; - on lovers, 134; - amorous hyperbole, 163, 165, 241; - balm for rejected lovers, 255; - ocular expression, 475; - Health and Beauty, 533 - Emotional differentiation, 180 - Empedokles, 3, 180 - Engagements, 293; - broken, 300 - English Beauty, 145; - feet, 359, 362; - open-air games, 373; - mouths and chins, 419; - nose, 442; - beards, 489; - Brunettes gaining on Blondes, 499; - physique, 507, 509, 528 _seq._ - English Love: courtship, 118; - flirtation, 122, 126, 193, 196; - kissing, 233, 237, 288-294; - Goldsmith on, 299 - Epicures: why handsome, 446 - Erasmus: kissing in England, 233 - Erotomania, 222 - Evolution of Love, 111, 173, 180, 181; - of Beauty, 327; - of taste, 327; - great toe, 359 - Exaggeration: characteristic of bad taste, 61 - Exclusiveness: amorous. _See_ Monopoly - Exercise: effects on Beauty, 186, 313, 372; - reduces fatness but increases muscle, 384, 403; - in France, 509, 520, 525 - Exogamy, 56 - Expression: improves form of features, 155; - facial, of Love, 224; - of lips, 227; - of Beauty, 327, 347-352; - mouth, 409; - facial, 414, 458; - of vice, 418; - of lust, 418; - ears, 433; - eyes, 470, 475; - dog’s tail, 491; - Italian, 513 - Eyes, 164, 262; - smiling, 415; - the most beautiful feature, 464; - colour of, 465; - lustre, 469; - form, 472; - lashes and brows, 474, 503, 483; - expression of, 479; - movements of iris, 475; - of eyeball, 480; - of lids, 482; - of brows, 484; - “making eyes,” 491; - dark _versus_ light, 503; - Spanish, 516, 517 - - Face, the, 411, 448, 490 - Factories: unhealthy, 400; - whistles, 434 - Fashion: the Handmaid of Ugliness, 328; - a disease, 352; - mutilates the feet, 352, 360; - frustrates advantages of dancing, 365; - prescribes absurd hours, 367; - its essence vulgar exaggeration, 375; - crinoline craze, 375; - wasp-waist mania, 379; - lacing, 380; - Fashion Fetish analysed, 385; - and Darwinism, 389; - repeats itself, 389; - ludicrous features, 390; - masculine, 391, 393; - disgusting pictures, 393; - deforms the breasts, 395; - finger-nails, 406; - gloves, 407; - right-handedness, 408; - teeth, 415; - powders and paints, 425, 458, 459; - ears, 432; - noses, 436, 443; - _versus_ Taste, 437; - forehead, 431, 450, 451; - court-plaster, 452; - eyebrows, 474; - hollow eyes, 483; - mutilates eyes, 485; - head-dresses, 494; - tyranny of ugliness, 496; - in France, 509; - and bad manners, 510 - Fat, cosmetic value of, 120, 132 - Feet, the: size, 351; - fashionable ugliness, 352; - tests of Beauty, 354; - not enlarged by _graceful_ walking, 362 - Feminine Beauty: in masculine eyes, 177; - prematurely lost, 186, 312; - rarer than masculine, 313; - greater than masculine, 342; - bosom, 342, 394, 400, 403; - face, 411; - nose, 441; - forehead, 388, 448, 496; - wrinkles, 451; - skin, 488; - beard, 489, 521 - Feminine Inferiority, 260, 262, 274 - Feminine Love: less deep than masculine, 120, 273; - desire to please, 159; - dynamic, not æsthetic, 178, 253, 303; - at thirty, 193; - expression of, 224; - lessens delicacy, 254; - Fichte on, 284, 401 - Feminine virtues, 98; - mediæval culture, 105; - cruelty, 150; - devotion, 160 - Femininity, standard of, 290 - Fichte: feminine Love, 284 - Fickleness of genius, 210 - Figuier, 458, 506, 509, 511, 517 - Figure: a good, inspires Love, 154; - Oriental, 540; - plump, 541 - Filial Love, 22 - Finger-nails, 406 - Fletcher, 167 - Flirtation and coquetry, 122; - definition of, 123; - _versus_ coyness, 123; - in France, 273; - in Spain, 278; - Germany, 285; - England, 293; - with the eyes, 484, 491 - Flower love and beauty, 7-11 - Flower, Prof.: walking, 358; - toes, 359; - nose-rings, 443 - Forehead, the, 388, 411; - Beauty and brain, 448; - fashionable deformity, 450, 496 - Fragrance, a tonic, 447 - France: the source of vulgar Fashions, 352 - Franklin, B.: early marriages, 189; - advantages of large families, 189 - Freckles, not caused by sunshine, 462, 500, 524 - French Beauty: rare as Love-marriages, 272; - feet, 362; - ugly fashions, 389; - brunettes and blondes, 499; - general 506; - in America, 510; - compared with English, 533 - French Love: Chivalry, 99; - Troubadours, 102; - no flirtation, 123, 126; - grandchildren sacrificed, 162; - lower classes, 176; - feminine, at thirty, 193, 196; - killed by ridicule, 243, 265-274, 341, 508 - French, T. R.: nose-breathing, 445 - Freytag, G.: mediæval German marriages, 281 - Friendship, 24; - among animals, 34; - female, in Greece, 81, 180; - advantages over conjugal love, 258 - Fringe, 388, 495 - - Gait, graceful, 357, 363; - defects in woman’s, 373, 375, 376; - in Spain, 518, 520, 533 - Gallantry: an overtone of Love, 30; - among animals, 39; - among savages, 66; - birth of, in Rome, 91; - crazy mediæval, 100, 157; - modern, 157; - conjugal, 185; - extravagant forms of, 221; - feminine, 244; - flattery in actions, 245; - Italian, 274; - Spanish, 278; - German, 283; - American, 298; - true, 388; - why on the wane, 495 - Galton: on Coyness, 124; - callous feelings, 148; - morals and large families, 189; - heredity of genius, 201; - woman’s senses less delicate than man’s, 261; - ancestral influences, 306; - criminal types, 324; - stature and marriage, 521; - change in English physiognomy, 530 - Gastronomy: cosmetic value of, 446; - England, 535; - America, 539 - Gautier, Th.: woman has no sense of beauty, 124 - Genius: emotional, 2, 90, 110; - and Health, 179; - and marriage, 197; - and Love, 201, 217; - modern, abundant, 203; - in Love, 204; - amorous precocity, 204; - ardour, 207; - _versus_ rank and money, 209; - fickleness, 210; - multiplicity, 213; - and Monopoly, 214; - fictitiousness, 215 - Georgian women, 60 - German Beauty: 144; - Bavarian corpulence, 385; - Brunettes gaining on Blondes, 499; - physiognomy, 514; - general, 522-528 - German Love: chivalry, 99; - Minnesingers, 103; - in Folksongs, 105; - word for courtship, 118, 126; - in novels, 143, 196; - gallantry, 240; - compared with French, 266, 280-288 - Girls: of the Period, 119; - plain, chances of getting married, 154; - pretty, apt to be spoiled, 155, 200; - wrong education, 156, 261; - cages _versus_ nets, 185; - hints on men, 187; - American and English, 188; - best education for, 195; - easily duped, 224; - in France, 267; - Germany, 283; - know when they are ugly, 307; - should skate, 373; - how to acquire a fine figure, 385, 404 - Gladstone: Greek hair, 496, 498; - stature, 520 - Godkin, E. L.: true character of milliners, 387 - Goethe: _Elective Affinities_, 5; - affection for nature, 15; - ancient love, 116; - first love, 136; - intellect and Love, 157; - love affairs, 202, 206, 212, 213; - unhappy marriages, 258; - transitoriness of Love, 287; - aversion to noise, 435 - Goldsmith: on Love, 116, 165; - his first love, 211; - English Love, 299 - Grace, where found, 308, 343; - of gait, 357; - acquired by dancing, 364; - destroyed by corsets, 382; - movements of the head, 401; - French, 507; - Italian, 514; - Spanish, 518, 520 - Gradation, 42, 339, 355, 371, 394, 400, 404, 459 - Grandchildren: sacrificed to money-marriages, 160, 162, 245, 260 - Gratiolet, 479 - Greek Beauty, 83; - sources of, 313; - animals as ideals, 332; - no expression, 348, 349; - feet, 356; - gymnastics, 384; - hands, 406; - chin, 413; - lips, 414; - ears, 430, 433; - beards, 489; - arrangement of hair, 495; - colour of hair, 495; - stature, 520 - Greek Love, 75, 116, 157, 180, 191 - Griffin, Sir L.: French women, 506; - American women, 536 - Grose: noses, 437 - Grote, G.: Platonic love, 80; - Greek Beauty, 83; - Amazons, 191 - Gymnastics: among Greeks, 384 - Gypsy, Spanish, 516 - - Haeckel, Prof., 431, 523 - Hair: how to wear, 388, 530; - on the arm, 403; - cause of man’s nudity, 486; - how to remove, 491; - preserved by Sexual Selection, 492; - æsthetic value of, 494; - blonde and brunette, 496, 501; - red, 503 - Hamerton, P. G.: Love and age, 138; - feminine sympathy, 156; - embers of passion, 264; - French Love, 267, 271, 272 - Hammond, Dr. W.: Delirium of Persecution, 220; - erotomania, 222 - Hand, 402, 405, 408 - Handel, 199 - Harrison, J. P.: length of first and second toes, 359 - Hartmann, E. von: pleasure and pain, 168; - masculine and feminine Love, 284 - Hats, tall, 393; - hideous French, 388, 494 - Haweis, Mrs.: Fashion _versus_ Beauty, 494; - turban, 495; - hair-powder, 503 - Hawthorne, N.: a love-letter, 250; - English Beauty, 531; - American physique, 538 - Hawthorne, Julian: German Beauty, 526 - Haydn, 198, 206 - Hazlitt, 258 - Head, the deformities of, 328; - and hair, 492 - Health: correlated with Beauty in flowers, 8, 10; - in animals, 46; - men and women, 178; - source of Love, 303; - source of Beauty, 310-317, 331, 534; - and delicacy, 344; - exercise, 372; - lacing, 380; - sins against, 419; - and colour, 347, 453, 458; - and lustre, 469, 477; - eyelids, 473; - and sunshine, 500; - in Italy, 512; - England, 534; - America, 538. - Hebra, Prof.: freckles, 462 - Hebrews: Love among ancient, 69; - sense of beauty, 72; - absence of jealousy, 129; - beauty and ugliness of, 320; - noses, 438, 440 - Hegel: colour of the skin, 453 - Heine: flower and butterfly love, 10; - the word love, 11; - joy and torture, 32; - persiflage of coyness, 118, 120; - jealousy, 130, 132; - on first Love, 137; - his marriage, 157; - poet for lovers, 170, 202; - his first love, 205; - his true love, 208; - æsthetic love, 211; - multiplicity, 213; - wedding music, 259; - woman’s character, 259; - curing Love with Love, 264; - French Love, 267; - an emotional educator, 286; - Italian Beauty, 515 - Helmholtz: overtones, 29 - Herder: Love, 71; - eyes of great men, 482 - Heredity: of genius, 201 - Hetairai, 79 - Higginson, T. W.: sexual likeness, 174; - American physique, 541 - Hindoo Love maxims, 73 - History of Love, 67 - Holland, F. W.: morals and large families, 189 - Holmes, O. W.: feminine barbarity, 151; - refined lips, 419 - Homer: Helen’s Beauty, 314 - Honeymoon, 164, 188 - Horwicz, 16, 21, 240 - Hottentots: notions of Beauty, 376 - Howells, W. D.: monogamy, 133; - feminine self-abnegation, 259; - Italian courtship, 275-276; - broken engagements, 300; - playful flattery, 301 - Hueffer, F.: Troubadours, 102 - Hume: uncertainty augments passion, 124; - mixed emotions, 172 - Humphrey, Dr.: walking, 358 - Hungarian Beauty, 319 - Huxley: female education, 261; - ape’s foot, 358 - Hygiene, modern: a source of Beauty, 316; - of the feet, 362; - legs, 373; - chest, 397, 398; - fatal consequences of neglect, 399; - eyes, 485, 527; - hair, 493; - in England, 534 - Hyperbole: emotional, an overtone of Love, 32; - in ancient Aryan Love, 74; - modern, 162-166; - after marriage, 184; - pathologic analogies, 219, 221; - contact, 225; - and genius, 243; - in America, 301 - - Indians, American: wooing, 173; - standard of Beauty, 327; - muscular power, 371; - deformed skulls, 450 - Indifference, feigned: value to lovers, 241 - Individual Preference: an overtone of Love, 30; - among animals, 42; - savages, 57, 59; - Hebrews, 70, 78; - Greeks, 79; - Romans, 87; - mediæval times, 94, 112; - modern, 173-177, 188; - in France, 268; - Italy, 275; - Spain, 278; - Germany, 282; - England, 288, 535; - America, 300; - Schopenhauer on, 310 - Individualism _versus_ Fashion, 389 - Individuality, 174; - and nationality, 300, 350, 482, 508 - Individuals: sacrificed to species, 302, 308 - Insanity and Love: analogies, 218; - erotomania, 222 - Intellect and Beauty, 61, 155, 217, 324, 326, 534 - Intellect and Love, 61, 74, 79, 83, 90, 122, 154, 157, 193, 203, 209, - 216, 285, 299, 304 - Intoxication, amorous, 163, 197 - Iris, 466, 479 - Irving, Washington: transient Love, 211; - intellect and Beauty, 324; - Spanish Beauty, 519 - Italian Beauty: 274, 276; - feet, 359, 361; - nose, 437; - hair, 497, 502; - complexion, 501; - general, 511-515 - Italian Love: chivalry, 101; - no word for courtship, 118, 196, 274-277, 512 - - Jaeger, G.: personal perfumery, 446 - James, Henry: American women, 158; - Daisy Miller, 295 - Japan: jealousy, 129, 133 - Jaws, the, 408 - Jealousy: an overtone of Love, 30; - among animals, 39; - moral mission of, 62; - occasional absence among savages, 62; - Greek, 77; - mediæval, 103; - modern, 127-133; - retrospective and prospective, 131; - aroused by Beauty, 133, 172; - conjugal, 184; - Oriental, 185; - morbid, 221 - Jeffrey: on Taste, 328; - theory of Beauty, 335 - Jews. _See_ Hebrews - Johnson, Dr.: second Love, 135; - marriage and Love, 258 - Jowett, Prof.: Sokrates, love and friendship, 258 - - Kant: women ensnared by counterfeit lovers, 243; - value of smiles, 421 - Karr, A.: Woman’s Love, 259 - Keats: amorous hyperbole, 163; - paradox, 168; - Beauty and Love, 177; - love-letters, 246-248 - Kissing, 142, 227; - among animals, 227; - savages, 228; - origin of, 229; - ancient, 232; - mediæval, 233; - modern, 234; - love-kisses, 235; - art of, 237; - varieties of, 414; - on the ears, 432; - cheeks, 425 - Knight: Beauty and utility, 336, 340 - Knille: Italian Beauty, 514 - Kollmann, Prof.: feminine Beauty, 342; - walking, 371; - muscular development, 373; - gait, 374; - breasts, 395; - face, 411; - nose, 436; - hair, 502; - results of crossing, 320 - Koran, the: on woman’s soul, 94 - Krafft-Ebing: Insanity and Love, 173, 222 - - La Bruyère: how to win love, 244; - on use of paint, 459 - Lacing: fatal to Beauty, 379 - Lamartine: genius and Love, 210; - love-affairs, 252 - Lamb, Chas.: amorous paradoxes, 166; - love-affairs, 212 - Language of Love: words, 223; - facial expression, 224; - caresses, 225; - kissing, 227 - La Rochefoucauld: Love and friendship, 26; - and absence, 256 - Lathrop, G. P.: Love-making in Spain, 278; - Spanish Beauty, 518 - Laughter, 421 - Lavater: chin, 412; - ocular lustre, 470 - Lawson, F. P.: effect of education on Beauty, 324 - Leanness, 304, 382; - how to cure, 384 - Lecky: on kindness to animals, 18; - family affections among Greeks, 75; - asceticism and chastity, 93; - feminine devotion, 160; - southern type of Beauty, 501 - Lenau: love-letters, 248; - music and Love, 257 - Leo, Judah: on Love, 4 - Lessing: every woman a shrew, 259 - Life: prolonged through hygienic care, 316 - Lips, 227, 231; - expression of scorn, 410; - refined, 413; - lip language, 414; - effect on, of æsthetic culture, 419 - Liszt, 199 - London, 435 - Longfellow, 264 - Love-charms (and calls): among animals, 50; - for women, 250, 426 - Love-dramas, among flowers, 9 - Love-maxims: Hindoo, 11 - Love, Romantic: a modern sentiment, 1, 180; - superior to friendship, 26; - to maternal love, 27; - secures to man the benefits of cross-fertilisation, 28; - overtones of, 29; - a great moral, æsthetic and hygienic force, 28, 97; - among animals, 33; - savages, 54; - Egyptians, 67; - Hebrews, 69; - ancient Aryans, 72; - more traces of modern in Indian poetry than in Greek and Roman, 73; - among Greeks, 75; - origin of, 85; - among Romans, 86; - Mediæval, 92; - wooing and waiting, 101; - dependent on refinement, 101; - maid _versus_ married woman, 105; - birth of modern, 109; - order of development proved, 111; - at the altar, 113; - in novels, 113; - pleasure of pursuit, 115; - value of procrastination, 116, 118; - coyness lessens woman’s, 119; - masculine deeper than feminine, 120, 259, 272; - modern jealousy, 127; - passion or admiration, 130; - is transient, 135, 180; - is first best? 136; - Heine on first, 137; - first is not best, 137; - individual _versus_ the species, 139; - coquetry, 142; - opposed by rank, 143; - intensifies emotions, 147; - stimulates social sympathy, 149; - selfish aspect of, 151; - at first sight, 38, 152; - inspired by a fine figure, 154; - by sympathy, 156; - responsible for general growth of Gallantry, 158; - refines men, 159; - impels toward self-sacrifice, 159, 161; - in France, 162; - emotional hyperbole, 162, 175; - intoxication of, 163; - honeymoon, 164; - mixed moods and paradoxes, 166; - course of true, 170; - lunatic, lover, and poet, 172; - and conjugal, 173; - individual choice, 174; - and culture, 176; - idealised by Beauty, 177-180; - responsible for Beauty, 177; - differs from conjugal, 180; - elements of, in conjugal affection, 184; - makes men embarrassed, 187; - free choice does not always imply Love, 188; - eliminates ugly and masculine women, 190; - inspired by Beauty, 194; - a duty, 196; - must be mutual, 196; - genius is amorous, 201; - _a creative impulse_, 202; - imagined is real, 203; - arouses genius, 204; - precocious, 204; - most intense in men of genius, 208; - fickle, 210, 216; - loving two at once, 213; - “sublimed” by Beauty, 218; - pathologic analogies, 218; - erotomania, 222; - language of, 223; - facial expression of, 224; - caresses, 225; - kissing, 227; - how to win, 237-255; - feminine, and genius, 242; - effects of, 242; - compliments, 244; - love-letters not necessarily slovenly, 247; - extracts from, 247-250; - charms for women, 251; - masculine, and vanity, 252; - opposed to viragoes, 252; - proposing, 253; - signs and tests of, 254; - how to cure, 255; - effect of absence on, 256; - effects of marriage on, 257; - poisoned by humiliation, 263; - _versus_ Love, 264; - chances of recovery, 265; - national peculiarities, 265; - massacred in France, 266; - Italian, 274, 276; - Spanish, 277; - German, 280; - English, 288, 299; - American, 294; - a cause of Beauty, 280, 301, 309; - points out woman’s sphere, 292; - obedience to, a moral duty, 286; - Schopenhauer’s theory of, 301-310; - sources of, 303; - complementary, explanation of, 307; - leads to happy marriages, 309; - a source of Beauty, 322; - displaces cruel Natural Selection, 323, 424; - is inspired by grace, 344, 357, 362; - more concerned with form than with colour, 347; - guided by subtle signs, 349; - individualisation and “beauty-spots,” 350; - neglects no detail of Beauty, 351; - the object of dancing, 365; - killed by fashionable deformity, 380; - feminine and masculine, 401; - maintains æsthetic proportion, 412; - related to Health and Beauty, 415; - beautifies the face, 324, 418; - special expression of, 418; - beautifies the lips, 420; - the cheeks, 424; - and fresh air, 426; - and blushes, 429; - inspired by a musical voice, 435; - beautifies the nose, 440; - eliminates high feminine foreheads, 448, 450; - method of amorous selection, 458; - awakens the sense of beauty, 458; - banishes rouge, 459; - inspired by eyes, 464, 482; - beautifies the eyes, 469; - eyebrows, 474, 485; - large pupils, 479; - _musculus amatorius_, 482; - killed by sunken eyes, 483; - preserves the hair, 492; - favours brunettes, 305, 497, 529; - eye-lashes, 503; - and Beauty, 508; - favours small women, 520; - _versus_ reason, 522; - and Beauty in England, 534; - sexual differentiation, 541; - in America, 541; - age of, 542 - Lovers: selfish bores, 135, 147; - quarrels, 170; - musician and poet for, 169; - falsetto, 224, 436 - Love-sickness: real, 222 - Love-stories; none in Greek literature, 76 - Lubbock, Sir J.: on flowers and insects, 8; - absence of certain emotions in savages, 55; - kissing, 228 - Lungs: hygiene of, 398 - Lustre, 345; - in eyes, 469, 476 - Luther: and marriage, 97 - Lynn-Linton, Mrs.: Girl of the Period, 187 - - Macaulay: Petrarch’s love, 216 - Madonna, Sistine, 481; - blond, 497 - Magnus, Dr. Hugo: colour of the eye, 469; - lustre, 470; - expression, 475; - portraits, 481; - individuality, 481 - Manicure secrets, 407 - Manners: essence of good, 495; - Spanish, 530 - Mantegazza: on courtship, 118; - caresses, 226; - Esquimaux nose, 437; - Italian noses, 437, 444; - wrinkles, 452; - Italian Beauty, 512 - Manu, laws of: on woman, 72 - Mariolatry: influence on woman’s position, 97 - Marlowe: amorous hyperbole, 165; - half-kisses, 238 - Marriage: among animals, 36, 37; - Egyptian trial, 68; - modern ideal of, 68; - in Greece, 78; - in Rome, 93; - and chivalry, 99, 103; - Love _versus_ expediency, 112; - maiden _versus_ wife, 115; - through accident, 139; - men becoming cautious, 156; - Love not a motive in France, 162; - of men of genius, 164, 197, 199; - money _versus_ Beauty, 177; - “the sunset of Love,” 181; - conditions of happy, 182; - nets and cages, 185; - of love, _versus_ “reason,” 186, 522; - hints, 188; - chances for ugly women, 191; - age for, advancing, 192; - misery of, 257-260; - in France, 268; - Germany, 281; - America, 301; - based on Love, 302; - and dancing, 367; - and noses, 436; - and complexion, 459; - Albinos, 501; - and stature, 521 - Masculine Beauty: in feminine eyes, 177; - more common than feminine, 312, 348, 397, 400, 403; - face, 411; - nose, 441; - forehead, 448; - wrinkles, 451; - beard, 489, 490, 521; - in Germany, 524 - Masculine Love; deeper than feminine, 120, 259, 273; - coquetry, 142; - Gallantry, 158; - beautifying impulse, 179; - insincerity, 187; - comic expression of, 224; - won _vid_ Vanity, 252; - increases delicacy, 254; - _versus_ feminine, 284 - Masculine vanity, 252 - Masculine women: eliminated as old maids, 190, 253 - Massage, 403 - Maternal Love, 19; - among animals, 34, 183 - Mediæval Love, 92; - celibacy, _versus_ marriage, 92; - woman’s lowest degradation, 93; - negation of feminine choice, 95; - Christianity and love, 97; - chivalry, militant and comic, 99; - poetic, 101; - female culture, 105; - Personal Beauty, 107; - Spenser on Love, 108; - Dante and Shakspere, 109 - Mediæval Ugliness: causes of, 315 - Meditation beautifies the face, 480 - Mental culture: a source of Beauty, 324; - France, 509; - Italy, 513; - Spain, 519, 520; - Germany, 522; - England, 534; - America, 541 - Middleton, 167 - Mill, J. S.: female self-denial, 161; - companionship in marriage, 184; - woman’s sphere, 194 - Milliners’ cunning, 387 - Milton, 107, 198 - Minnesingers, 103 - Mitchell, Dr. W.: American physique, 538 - Mitchell, P. C.: monkeys’ kisses, 228 - Mixed Moods and Paradoxes of Love, 32, 166, 185 - Mixture of races (_see_ also Crossing): and Love, 508; - in France, 508; - Italy, 511; - Spain, 515; - Germany, 522; - England, 516, 528, 538 - Modesty: a source of Coyness, 115; - and blushes, 164 - Monogamy: favours the development of Love, 64; - in Egypt, 68 - Monopoly: an overtone of Love, 30; - among savages, 63; - in ancient Aryan Love, 74; - modern, 133-141; - and genius, 213; - three are a crowd, 221; - in Lenau’s love-letters, 249; - masculine and feminine Love, 284, 504 - Montagu, Lady: on woman, 259 - Montaigne: on marriage, 259; - Italian Beauty, 274 - Moore, T.: genius and marriage, 197, 200; - first love, 204 - Moral impressions: confounded with æsthetic, 479 - Mormons, 63 - Mountains: feelings inspired by, 12 - Mouth: muscles of, 413; - self-made, 420 - Muscles: development of, 303; - use and disuse, 327; - the plastic material of Beauty, 384; - of an athlete, 403; - facial, 417; - mouth, 418 - Music: of male birds, does it charm the females? 50; - dance-music, 103; - Chopin’s funeral march, 170; - fans love, 257, 330, 339, 408, 419, 480 - - Nationality: and Beauty, 505; - and Love, 266 - Natural Selection: a cause of Beauty, 42 _seq._; - replaced by Love, 323, 424; - blushes, 426; - complexion, 455; - eyebrows, 475; - loss of hair, 486, 492 - Neck, 400 - Negroes: African, strangers to Love, 55; - American, can they love? 66; - ugliness of, 319; - standard of Beauty, 328, 331; - feet, 355; - legs, 371, 405; - teeth, 415; - lips, 416; - cause of blackness, 456; - complexion, inferiority of, 458; - eyes, 464, 467, 468, 483; - hair, 492 - New York: a silly fashion in, 390; - noise in, 435, 447; - effeminate men, 541 - Nordau, Max: love in Germany, 176 - Norton, C. E.: on Dante, 109 - Nose, the: shape and size, 436; - evolution of, 437; - Greek and Hebrew, 440; - fashion and cosmetic surgery, 442; - important functions of, 445 - Nose-breathing: importance of, 398, 445 - Novels: Love in, 11 - Novelty: and first Love, 140 - Nudity: cause of man’s, 486 - - Odours: cosmetic value of, 446 - Old Maids, 190 - O’Rell, Max: French chaperonage, 269; - English degraded women, 531 - Origin of Love, 85 - Ornamentation: non-æsthetic, 328 - Ovid: on tricks of Gallantry, 1; - rarity of Beauty in Rome, 88; - art of making love, 90; - Gallantry, 92; - conception of Love, 118; - enduring a rival, 129; - estimate of, 201; - loving two at once, 213; - how to cure love, 255, 257, 262 - - Paradoxes of Love, 166-173, 210 - Parasols, 463 - Pascal: self-conscious lovers, 220 - Paternal love, 20; - animals, 34, 107, 183 - Pepys: Spanish wooing, 278 - Perfume: personal, 446; - cosmetic value of, 446 - Pessimism, erotic, 302, 310 - Petrarch: as a love-poet, 215 - Photographs: why inferior to portraits, 348; - why so often bad, 482 - Physiognomy: comparative, 331; - ears, 433; - colour of the eyes, 478; - variety in, and Love, 508; - language of passion, 153 - Pity and Love, 150 - Planché: wasp-waists, 379 - Plato: on Courtship, 78, 295; - “Platonic” Love, 80; - origin of Love, 85; - pre-matrimonial acquaintance, 127; - mixed mood of love, 168; - irrational love, 218; - feminine inferiority, 260; - Love and Beauty, 322 - Pleasure and pain, 168 - Ploss: love-charms, 251; - Germanic marriages, 281 - Plumpness: inspires Love, 304 - Polish Beauty, 528 - Polygamy: among animals, 36; - conducive to Jealousy, 63; - among Hebrews, 69; - in India, 72; - neutralizes conjugal love, 181 - Portraits, 348, 480; - typical, 537 - Pretty: definition of, 521 - Pride: in paternal love, 22; - in Romantic Love, 31; - and vanity, 141-145; - in conjugal love, 184; - masculine vanity, 215; - wounded, cures Love, 263 - Procrastination, 116 - Proportion, 338; - facial, 448; - stature, 449 - Proposing, 70, 142, 152, 242, 253 - Prudery, 125, 388 - Purchase of wives, 58 - Puritans: sins of, against Health, 419 - - Quadroons: beauty of American, 321; - graceful gait, 361 - - Railway whistles, 434 - Raleigh: deep love, 224, 258 - Rank: an enemy of Love, 143, 269 - Raphael: on Beauty, 512 - Realism: emotional, desirable in novels, 68 - Reclam, Prof.: dust in lungs, 445; - night air, 317, 525 - Richardson, W. B.; the ideal city, 316 - Right-handedness, 408 - Roberts, Charles: brunettes and blondes, 529 - Roberts, J. B.: nasal deformities, 444 - Rochefoucauld, La: women, love, and friendship, 26; - pleasure of love, 196 - Roman Beauty, 88; - hair, 497 - Roman Love, 86-92 - Rousseau: on woman’s Love, 120; - his last love, 206, 252 - Rückert: kissing, 236 - Ruskin: poetry and science, 9; - love of dismal scenery, 13; - amorous paradoxes, 167; - woman’s work, 291; - health and beauty, 311; - and utility, 311; - happiness essential to beauty, 315; - intellect beautifies the features, 324; - taste of savages, 330; - beauty and utility, 332; - degradation and ugliness, 334; - wild scenery, 337; - symmetry, 338; - curvature, 341; - colour, 345, 347; - moderation, 378; - expression in the mouth, 410; - virtue and Beauty, 421; - Greek features, 440; - turban, beauty of, 495; - southern Beauty, 501 - Russian old maids, 193 - - Sappho: as a Love-poet, 81 - Savages: development of maternal love, 20; - parental love, irregular, 21; - filial love weak, 22; - strangers to Romantic Love, 54; - inferior to birds, 54; - courtship, 56; - regard for beauty, 60; - Jealousy and Polygamy, 62, 128; - Gallantry, 157; - masculine women, 174; - notions of Beauty, 179, 328; - conjugal attachment, 182; - kissing, 229; - sense delicacy, 231; - inferior to us in Health, 312; - taste, 327, 409; - tests of Beauty, 331, 485; - ugliness of, 333; - dancing, 365; - muscular development, 371; - noses, 437; - paint, 458 - Scalp: movements of, 451 - Scandinavian complexion, 459, 500 - Scherer: on mediæval German Love, 105 - Scherr, J.: on witchcraft trials, 94; - Wieland in love, 213; - Petrarch, 216; - mediæval courtship, 239; - mediæval Spanish women, 277 - Schiller: Minnesingers, 104 - Schopenhauer: on the Will, 3; - æsthetic enjoyment, 13; - final cause of colour in animals, 50; - love at first sight, 152; - self-sacrifice, 161; - torments, 169; - celibacy and genius, 197; - genius and woman’s love, 242; - unhappy marriages, 259; - theory of Love, 301-310; - animal Beauty, 332; - masculine and feminine beauty, 343; - small feet, 354; - the unæsthetic sex, 386; - noise and culture, 435; - noses and marriage, 436, 443; - Germans, 523 - Schumann, R.: 162; - love-affairs, 214; - on German Beauty, 526 - Schweiger-Lerchenfeld: Italian women, 275; - Spanish love-making, 278 - Schwenninger cure for corpulence, 383 - Scotch Beauty, 537 - Scott, Sir W.: on Dryden and Love, 89; - and marriage, 198, 217; - masculine vanity, 252 - Seeley, Prof.: Goethe on Love, 287 - Selden: marriage, 261 - Self-sacrifice: an overtone of Love, 31, 131, 157; - conjugal, 160, 188; - in feminine Love, 284; - Schopenhauer on, 301, 309 - Sellar, Prof.: Ovid, 201 - Seneca: Beauty, 259 - Sensuality and Romantic Love, 76 - Service for a wife, 58 - Sex: the unæsthetic, 386; - and education, 541 - Sexual differentiation, 174, 489, 520, 541 - Sexual Selection (_see_ also Love and Individual Preference): among - animals, 44; - primitive men, 59; - effect on chest, 394; - loss of hair, 403, 486; - blushes, 426; - ears, 429; - noses, 440; - complexion, 455; - eyes, 464, 465; - masculine and feminine, 489; - preserves hair on head, 492; - action uncertain, 493; - _versus_ Natural Selection, 542 - Shakspere: treatment of Love, 2, 111; - invests inanimate objects with human feelings, 3; - on Beauty, 32; - coyness and modesty, 115; - woman’s Love, 120; - amorous hyperbole, 162; - course of true love, 170; - what inspires love in women, 178; - marriage of, 198; - amorous character of, 201; - blind love, 202; - lunatic and lover, 218; - kissing, 236; - winning love, 238; - refusals, 241; - flattery, 244; - unsought love, 254; - tests of Love, 255; - love never fatal, 255; - reason as Love’s physician, 263; - hereditary Beauty, 322; - feet, 351; - the beautiful and the characteristic, 410; - poet of Love, 421; - blushes, 426; - expression in the eyes, 475, 483; - love inspired by eyes, 482; - Blondes and Brunettes, 496, 497 - Shelley: paradox of Love, 167; - loving and being loved, 196; - amorous disposition of, 202, 217 - Shoes: tight, objections to, 353; - improvements in, 363 - Shoulders, the, 400 - Simcox, G. A.: on Gallantry, 92; - mediæval ugliness, 315; - noses, 442 - Sisterly love, 23 - Skating: effects on Beauty, 373 - Skin. _See_ Complexion. - Sleep: and noise, 317, 434; - refreshing, 398 - Smoothness, 344, 394, 403, 432, 488, 490 - Soap: should be used in the face, 452, 462; - good and bad, 461 - Solomon’s Song, 70 - Sources of Love, 303 - Southey: woman’s faith, 259 - Southwell, 167 - Spanish Beauty: feet, 362; - grace, 374, 518, 533; - chest deformed by Fashion, 395; - lips, 419; - mantillas, 388, 510; - complexion, 501; - general, 515-522; - refinement, 524 - Spanish Love: chivalry, 99; - falling in love, 152, 196; - extravagant Gallantry, 221; - ardour, 275, 277-280 - Spencer, Herbert: on primitive paternal love, 21; - filial love, 22; - analysis of Love, 31, 33; - money-marriages, 113; - woman’s sphere, 195; - origin of kissing, 229; - irregular mixture of ancestral qualities in children, 306; - individuals _versus_ the species, 308; - female savages uglier than male, 312; - intellectual and physical beauty, 320; - evolution of Beauty, 327; - muscular power of savages, 371; - laziness of savages, 372; - masculine Fashion, 392 - Spenser: Love and friendship, 108 - Staël, Mme. de: on Beauty and intellect, 32; - Love _versus_ parental dictation, 273 - Stanton, Mrs. E. C., 97 - Stature and Beauty, 520 - Stays: for deformed women, 385 - Steatopyga, 375 - Steele: kissing, 227; - love-letters, 247 - Stenches and noises, 435 - Stendhal: Love and age, 138; - Love in France, 176; - humiliation poisons Love, 263, 266 - St. Jerome: on the education of girls, 96 - Stockings: best kind, 363 - Suckling: lovers’ pallor, 225 - Suicide: from Love, 121 - Sunshine: good for the complexion, 454; - does not cause freckles, 462; - and Health, 500, 512, 515 - Surgery, cosmetic, 432, 443 - Swift: marriage, 185; - love-affairs, 210 - Swiss, the, 525 - Symmetry, natural tendency to, in flowers, 10, 73, 180, 216 - Symonds: on Italian Love, 101; - formal code of Love, 106; - Petrarch, 216; - Shelley, 217 - Sympathy: and affection, 73; - an overtone of love, 31, 145-157; - development of, 147; - in conjugal love, 183 - - Taine, H.: English Beauty and Love, 532 _seq._ - Taste: æsthetic theories of, 327; - disputing about, 339, 409, 417, 423; - _versus_ Fashion, 437; - sense of, 446; - non-æsthetic standard, 529 - Teeth: 409, 411, 415; - care of, 422 - Tennyson: kissing, 235 - Tests of Beauty: negative, 330; - positive, 338 - Thackeray: advice to lovers, 126; - Love, 168; - to women, 252; - simpering Madonnas, 315; - dark heroines, 498; - French physique, 506 - Thaxter, Mrs.: women and birds, 151 - Thomson, 218 - Toe, great, evolution of, 359 - Topinard: early decrepitude of savages, 312; - life prolonged in France, 316; - crossing, 318, 320; - nose, 437; - deformed skulls, 450; - dark races, 501; - French nation, 508 - Tourgenieff: on a dog’s love, 17; - first love, 204 - Trollope, A.: American Gallantry, 298 - Troubadours, 102, 221, 222 - Trousers, 392 - Turks, 319 - Tylor, E. B.: the ape’s gait, 357; - arms, 402; - negro’s finger-nails, 406; - blushing, 427; - ears, 433; - nose, 437; - skulls, 450 - Tyranny of ugly women, 387, 496 - - Ugliness: follows ill-health in animals, 46; - in women, 186; - no bar to marriage, 191; - mediæval, 314; - due to simian resemblance, 331; - savage features, 333; - degradation, 333; - decrepitude and disease, 334; - tyranny of, 387; - due to indolence, 397; - a sin, 400; - “beauty-spots,” 452 - Use and disuse, effect of, on organs, 327 - Utility and Beauty, 332, 336 - - Veils, 463 - Vice: destroys Beauty, 418, 478 - Viragoes, 175, 190 - Virchow, Prof.: Brunettes and Blondes, 499 - Virgil: Love-episode, 89 - Vogt, Carl: sexual divergence, 174; - negro’s feet, 356; - females and animals, 360; - thighs, 371 - Voice, a musical, 435 - Voltaire: on ancient and modern friendship, 26; - standard of taste, 327 - - Wagner, R.: leading motives, literary application of, 114; - analogies between Love and music, 140; - feminine devotion, 160; - marriage, 198; - a musical kiss, 237, 330, 414 - Waist, 378 - Waitz: Magyars, 319; - Chinese complexion, 454, 457; - decrease in number of blondes, 498 - Walker, A.: 259; - woman’s gait, 375; - French Beauty, 506 - Walking, 357, 364 - Wallace, A. R.: on choice exerted by animals, 43; - Natural _versus_ Sexual Selection, 43-50; - beauty correlated with health in animals, 46; - sources of colour in animals, 48; - chest of Amazon Indians, 396; - hair on arm, 403 - Waltz: the dance of Love, 369 - Warner, Chas. D.: women and birds, 151 - Wasp-waist mania, the, 379, 494 - Wealth, vulgar display of, 387 - White, R. G.: blonde type, 497; - Viennese Beauty, 528 - Wieland: love-affair, 213 - Wife: capture, 57; - purchase, 58; - service for, 58; - capture and coyness, 114; - selling, 289 - Wilde, Oscar, 392 - Winckelmann: Greek Beauty, 314, 332; - curvature, 342; - breasts, 395; - Greek chest, 397; - hand, 405; - chin, 413; - dimples, 413; - lips, 415; - ears, 431; - nose, 436; - eyes, 473; - hair, 496, 502; - dark complexion, 500, 501; - Italian Beauty, 514 - Winning Love, art of: 1, 41, 75, 115, 126, 129, 237-255; - brass buttons, 238; - confidence and boldness, 239; - pleasant associations, 239; - perseverance, 241; - feigned indifference, 241; - compliments, 245; - Love-letters, 246; - for women, 250; - proposing, 253; - how to meet coyness, 254; - spicing flattery with burlesque, 301 - Witchcraft, trials for, 94 - Woe, ecstasy of, 168 - Woman: weak in impersonal emotions, 16; - strong in conjugal and maternal love, 19; - inferior to man in Romantic Love, 19, 120; - prefers manly to handsome men, 60; - position in Egypt, 67; - among Hebrews, 69; - in India, 72; - ancient Greece, 77; - Rome, 87; - mediæval degradation, 93; - proverbs about, 96; - oasis of culture, 105; - position in France, 107; - cruelty to birds, 150; - intelligent, 155; - in public life, 160, 175; - loses Beauty prematurely, 186; - employment problem, 195, 290; - uniform worship, 237; - discourages deep Love, 242; - inferior to man, 259; - Huxley’s ideal, 261; - in mediæval Spain, 277; - indifferent to loss of Health, and the consequences, 312; - superior in Beauty to man, 342; - deplorable conservatism, 367; - penalty of indolence, 385; - has no sense of beauty, 385, 388, 396, 401, 494; - needs no stays, 385; - deficient in taste, 386; - duped by sly milliners, 387; - object of dress, 388; - needs æsthetic instruction, 389; - riding hat, 392; - fashion preferred to good manners, 495 - Wooing. _See_ courtship - Woody, S. E.: electrolysis for removing hairs, 494 - Wrinkles, 406, 451 - - Yankee, 542 - Young, 198 - - Zimmermann, O.: Ecstasy of woe, 168 - Zola, 420 - - THE END - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note - -Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and -are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. -The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions. - - 27.27 the lover[’]s concentrated affection Restored. - - 53.20 at their [b/h]oly places Replaced. - - 53.26 in displaying their beauty.[’/”] Replaced. - - 55.28 Letourne[a]u, in his _Sociologie_ Inserted. - - 63.1 ‘the means of causing enmity’[”] Probable - closing. - - 64.11 monog[o/a]my is the only marital relation Replaced. - - 67.26 mere passion linked with opportunity.[”] Added. - - 133.44 Prior[-]ity of discovery Removed. - - 138.12 as a woman of twenty-eight;[”] Probable - closing. - - 138.18 the gay and thoughtless first love.[”] Added. - - 163.9 B[i/y]ron really feels Replaced. - - 178.19 their energy[,] courage, and manly prowess Added. - - 205.1 really attached since[’/”] Replaced. - - 241.18 Who listens once will listen twice[;] Added. - - 252.39 was promptly accepted.[”] Probable - closing. - - 271.38 where they do not marry.[’/”] Replaced. - - 273.19 And power of love.’[”] Added. - - 272.4 not knowing wh[e/i]ther she was going? Replaced. - - 285.38 [“]O love, O fire! once he drew Added. - - 288.30 but the brigh[t]est of all is this Inserted. - - 323.4 [‘/“]with the ugly Eros Replaced. - - 393.19 considered fashionable[.] Added. - - 394.26 under the arm.[”] Added. - - 406.19 modified to their advantage[.] Added. - - 407.17 but glycerine [don’t] agree with every one _Sic_ - - 424.43 have supplanted natural selection[.] Added. - - 459.34 An emphatic [“]No” is the answer. Added. - - 487.14 the ancient Egypt[ai/ia]ns Transposed. - - 506.19 in these words: [“]National vanity Added. - - 516.6 the central part of the peni[u/n]sula Inverted. - - 521.39 [“]A woman’ is _fine_ Added. - - 522.3 said that [“]Nature did never Added. - - 539.6 in the atmosphere of New England.[”] Added. - -The punctuation of the Index is occasionally irregular, and has been -silently standardized. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Love and Personal Beauty, by -Henry Theophilus Finck - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC LOVE AND PERSONAL BEAUTY *** - -***** This file should be named 60054-0.txt or 60054-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/0/5/60054/ - -Produced by KD Weeks, Turgut Dincer and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Romantic Love and Personal Beauty - Their development, causal relations, historic and national - peculiarities - -Author: Henry Theophilus Finck - -Release Date: August 4, 2019 [EBook #60054] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC LOVE AND PERSONAL BEAUTY *** - - - - -Produced by KD Weeks, Turgut Dincer and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Transcriber’s Note:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Footnotes have been collected at the end of each chapter, and are -linked for ease of reference.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s <a href='#endnote'>note</a> at the end of this text -for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered -during its preparation.</p> - -<div class='htmlonly'> - -<p class='c001'>Any corrections are indicated using an <ins class='correction' title='original'>underline</ins> -highlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce the -original text in a small popup.</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='epubonly'> - -<p class='c001'>Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate the -reader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in the -note at the end of the text.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The cover image was created from elements of the title page and is -hereby placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div> - <h1 class='c002'><span class='large'>ROMANTIC LOVE</span> <br /> <span class='small'>AND</span> <br /> <span class='large'>PERSONAL BEAUTY</span></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='small'>THEIR</span></div> - <div class='c000'>DEVELOPMENT, CAUSAL RELATIONS,</div> - <div>HISTORIC AND NATIONAL PECULIARITIES</div> - <div class='c000'><span class='small'>BY</span></div> - <div class='c000'>HENRY T. FINCK</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><span class="blackletter">New York</span></div> - <div>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</div> - <div><span class='small'>LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., <span class='sc'>Ltd.</span></span></div> - <div>1902</div> - <div><span class='xsmall'><i>All rights reserved</i></span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div>COPYRIGHT, 1887</div> - <div>BY HENRY T. FINCK</div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c004' /> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='small'><span class='sc'>Set Up and Electrotyped, 1887</span></span></div> - <div><span class='small'><span class='sc'>New Edition, February, 1903</span></span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><span class='small'>Press of J. J. Little & Co.</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>Astor Place, New York</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_i'>i</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='4%' /> -<col width='4%' /> -<col width='4%' /> -<col width='4%' /> -<col width='73%' /> -<col width='7%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c007'>PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Evolution of Romantic Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Cosmic Attraction and Chemical Affinities</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_3'>3</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Flower Love and Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_7'>7</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Impersonal Affection</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Personal Affections</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>I.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Love for Animals</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>II.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Maternal Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>III.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Paternal Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_20'>20</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>IV.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Filial Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_22'>22</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>V.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Brotherly and Sisterly Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>VI.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Friendship</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>VII.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Romantic Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_26'>26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Overtones of Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>I.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Individual Preference</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>II.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Monopoly or Exclusiveness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>III.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Jealousy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>IV.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Coyness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>V.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Gallantry</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>VI.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Self-Sacrifice</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>VII.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Sympathy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>VIII.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Pride of Conquest and Possession</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>IX.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Emotional Hyperbole</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>X.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Mixed Moods</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>XI.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Admiration of Personal Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Herbert Spencer on Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_33'>33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Love among Animals</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_33'>33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Courtship</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_37'>37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>a</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Jealousy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_39'>39</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>b</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Coyness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_40'>40</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>c</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Individual Preference</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>d</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Personal Beauty and Sexual Selection</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_43'>43</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(1)</td> - <td class='c006'>Protective Colours</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_ii'>ii</span> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(2)</td> - <td class='c006'>Warning Colours</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(3)</td> - <td class='c006'>Typical Colours</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(4)</td> - <td class='c006'>Sexual Colours</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Love Charms and Love Calls</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Love Dances and Display</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_52'>52</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Love among Savages</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Strangers to Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Primitive Courtship</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(1)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Capture</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(2)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Purchase</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_58'>58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(3)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Service</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_58'>58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Individual Preference</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Personal Beauty and Sexual Selection</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_60'>60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Jealousy and Polygamy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_62'>62</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Monopoly and Monogamy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Primitive Coyness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Can American Negroes Love?</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>History of Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_67'>67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Love in Egypt</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_67'>67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Ancient Hebrew Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Ancient Aryan Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_72'>72</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Hindoo Love Maxims</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Greek Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Family Affection</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>No Love Stories</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_76'>76</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Woman’s Position</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Chaperonage <i>versus</i> Courtship</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Plato on Courtship</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Parental <i>versus</i> Lovers’ Choice</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>The Hetæræ</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_79'>79</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Platonic Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Sappho and Female Friendship</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Greek Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_83'>83</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Cupid’s Arrows</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_84'>84</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Origin of Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Roman Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Woman’s Position</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>No Wooing and Choice</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Virgil, Dryden, and Scott</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Ovid’s Art of Making Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_90'>90</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Birth of Gallantry</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Mediæval Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Celibacy <i>versus</i> Marriage</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Woman’s Lowest Degradation</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_iii'>iii</span> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Negation of Feminine Choice</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Christianity and Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_97'>97</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Chivalry—Militant and Comic</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_98'>98</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Chivalry—Poetic</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_101'>101</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>a</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>French Troubadours</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_102'>102</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>b</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>German Minnesingers</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_103'>103</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Female Culture</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Personal Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Spenser on Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Dante and Shakspere</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Modern Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>A Biologic Test</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Venus, Plutus, and Minerva</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_112'>112</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Leading Motives</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_114'>114</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Modern Coyness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_114'>114</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(1)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>An Echo of Capture</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_114'>114</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(2)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Maiden <i>versus</i> Wife</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(3)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Modesty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(4)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Cunning to be Strange</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(5)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Procrastination</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Goldsmith on Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Disadvantages of Coyness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_118'>118</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Coyness lessens Woman’s Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_120'>120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Masculine <i>versus</i> Feminine Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_120'>120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Flirtation and Coquetry</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_122'>122</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Flirtation <i>versus</i> Coyness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Modern Courtship</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_125'>125</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Modern Jealousy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_127'>127</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Lover’s Jealousy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_129'>129</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Retrospective and Prospective Jealousy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_131'>131</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Jealousy and Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Monopoly or Exclusiveness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>True Love is Transient</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Is First Love Best?</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_136'>136</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Heine on First Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_137'>137</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>First Love is not Best</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_137'>137</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Pride and Vanity</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_141'>141</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Coquetry</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Love and Rank</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_143'>143</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Special Sympathy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_145'>145</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>How Love Intensifies Emotions</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_146'>146</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Development of Sympathy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_147'>147</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Pity and Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_150'>150</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Love at First Sight</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_152'>152</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_iv'>iv</span> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Intellect and Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_154'>154</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Gallantry and Self-Sacrifice</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_157'>157</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Active and Passive Desire to Please</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_159'>159</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Feminine Devotion</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Emotional Hyperbole</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_162'>162</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Mixed Moods and Paradoxes</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_166'>166</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Lunatic, Lover, and Poet</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Individual Preference</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_173'>173</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Sexual Divergence</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_174'>174</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Making Woman Masculine</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_175'>175</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Love and Culture</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_176'>176</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Personal Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_177'>177</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Feminine Beauty in Masculine Eyes</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_177'>177</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Masculine Beauty in Feminine Eyes</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_178'>178</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Conjugal Affection and Romantic Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Romance in Conjugal Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_184'>184</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Marriages of Reason or Love Matches?</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_187'>187</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Marriage Hints</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_189'>189</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Old Maids</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_190'>190</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Bachelors</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_194'>194</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Genius and Marriage</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_197'>197</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Genius and Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_201'>201</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Genius in Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_204'>204</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(1)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Precocity</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_204'>204</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(2)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Ardour</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_207'>207</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(3)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Fickleness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_210'>210</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(4)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Multiplicity</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_213'>213</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(5)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Fictitiousness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_215'>215</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Insanity and Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_218'>218</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Analogies</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_218'>218</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Erotomania, or Real Love-Sickness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_222'>222</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Language of Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_223'>223</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>I.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Words</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_223'>223</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>II.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Facial Expression</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_224'>224</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>III.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Caresses</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_225'>225</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Kissing—Past, Present, and Future</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Among Animals</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Among Savages</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Origin of Kissing</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_229'>229</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Ancient Kisses</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_232'>232</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Mediæval Kisses</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_233'>233</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Modern Kisses</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_234'>234</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Love Kisses</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_235'>235</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>How to Kiss</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_237'>237</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span><span class='sc'>How to Win Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_238'>238</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Brass Buttons</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_238'>238</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Confidence and Boldness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_239'>239</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Pleasant Associations</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_240'>240</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Perseverance</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_241'>241</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Feigned Indifference</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_241'>241</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Compliments</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_244'>244</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Love Letters</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_246'>246</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Love Charms for Women</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_250'>250</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Proposing</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_253'>253</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Diagnosis, or Signs of Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_254'>254</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>How to Cure Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_255'>255</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Absence</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_256'>256</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Travel</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_257'>257</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Employment</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_257'>257</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Married Misery</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_257'>257</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Feminine Inferiority</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Focussing Her Faults</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_262'>262</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Reason <i>versus</i> Passion</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_263'>263</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Love <i>versus</i> Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_264'>264</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Prognosis, or Chances of Recovery</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_265'>265</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Nationality and Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_265'>265</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>French Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_266'>266</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Italian Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_274'>274</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Spanish Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_277'>277</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>German Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_280'>280</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>English Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_288'>288</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>American Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_294'>294</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Schopenhauer’s Theory of Love</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_301'>301</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Love is an Illusion</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_302'>302</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Individuals Sacrificed to the Species</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_302'>302</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Sources of Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_303'>303</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(1)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Physical Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_303'>303</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(2)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Psychic Traits</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_304'>304</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>(3)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Complementary Qualities</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_305'>305</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Four Sources of Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_310'>310</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>I.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Health</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_310'>310</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Greek Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_313'>313</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Mediæval Ugliness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_314'>314</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Modern Hygiene</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_316'>316</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>II.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Crossing</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_318'>318</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>III.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Romantic Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_322'>322</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='fss'>IV.</span></td> - <td class='c006' colspan='3'>Mental Refinement</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_324'>324</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Evolution of Taste</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_327'>327</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Savage Notions of Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_327'>327</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Non-Æsthetic "Ornamentation"</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_328'>328</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Personal Beauty as a Fine Art</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_329'>329</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Negative Tests of Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_331'>331</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>a</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Animals</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_331'>331</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>b</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Savages</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_333'>333</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>c</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Degraded Classes</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_333'>333</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>d</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Age and Decrepitude</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_334'>334</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>e</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Disease</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_334'>334</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Positive Tests of Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_338'>338</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>a</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Symmetry</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_338'>338</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>b</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Gradation</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_339'>339</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>c</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Curvature</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_341'>341</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006'>Masculine and Feminine Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_342'>342</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>d</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Delicacy</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_343'>343</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>e</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Smoothness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_344'>344</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>f</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Lustre and Colour</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_345'>345</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c009' colspan='2'>(<i>g</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Expression, Variety, Individuality</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_348'>348</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Feet</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_351'>351</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Size</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_351'>351</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Fashionable Ugliness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_352'>352</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Tests of Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_354'>354</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>A Graceful Gait</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_357'>357</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Evolution of the Great Toe</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_359'>359</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>National Peculiarities</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_361'>361</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Beautifying Hygiene</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_362'>362</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Dancing and Grace</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_364'>364</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Dancing and Courtship</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_365'>365</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Evolution of Dance Music</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_367'>367</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>The Dance of Love</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_369'>369</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Ballet-Dancing</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_370'>370</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Lower Limbs</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_371'>371</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Muscular Development</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_371'>371</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Beautifying Exercise</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_372'>372</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Fashionable Ugliness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_375'>375</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>The Crinoline Craze</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_376'>376</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Waist</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_378'>378</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>The Beauty-Curve</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_378'>378</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>The Wasp-Waist Mania</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_379'>379</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Hygienic Disadvantages</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_380'>380</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Æsthetic Disadvantages</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_381'>381</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Corpulence and Leanness</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_382'>382</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>The Fashion Fetish Analysed</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_386'>386</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Individualism <i>versus</i> Fashion</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_389'>389</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Masculine Fashions</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_391'>391</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Chest and Bosom</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_394'>394</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Feminine Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_394'>394</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Masculine Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_397'>397</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Magic Effect of Deep Breathing</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_397'>397</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>A Moral Question</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_399'>399</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Neck and Shoulder</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_400'>400</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Arm and Hand</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_402'>402</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Evolution and Sexual Differences</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_402'>402</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Calisthenics and Massage</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_403'>403</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>The Second Face</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_405'>405</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Finger Nails</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_406'>406</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Manicure Secrets</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_407'>407</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Jaw, Chin, and Mouth</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_408'>408</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Hands <i>versus</i> Jaws</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_408'>408</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Dimples in the Chin</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_412'>412</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Refined Lips</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_413'>413</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Cosmetic Hints</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_421'>421</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Cheeks</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_423'>423</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>High Cheek Bones</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_423'>423</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Colour and Blushes</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_425'>425</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Ears</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_429'>429</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>A Useless Ornament</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_429'>429</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Cosmetics and Fashion</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_431'>431</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Physiognomic Vagaries</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_433'>433</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Noise and Civilisation</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_434'>434</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>A Musical Voice</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_435'>435</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Nose</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_436'>436</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Size and Shape</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_436'>436</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Evolution of the Nose</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_438'>438</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Greek and Hebrew Noses</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_440'>440</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Fashion and Cosmetic Surgery</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_443'>443</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Nose-Breathing and Health</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_445'>445</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Cosmetic Value of Odours</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_446'>446</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Forehead</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_448'>448</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Beauty and Brain</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_448'>448</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Fashionable Deformity</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_450'>450</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Wrinkles</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_451'>451</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Complexion</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_453'>453</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>White <i>versus</i> Black</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_453'>453</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Cosmetic Hints</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_460'>460</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Freckles and Sunshine</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_462'>462</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Eyes</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_464'>464</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Colour</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_465'>465</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Lustre</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_469'>469</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Form</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_472'>472</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Expression</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_475'>475</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>a</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Lustre</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_476'>476</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>b</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Colour of Iris</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_478'>478</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>c</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'>Movements of the Iris</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_479'>479</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>d</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'> ” ” Eyeball</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_480'>480</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>e</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'> ” ” Eyelids</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_482'>482</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'>(<i>f</i>)</td> - <td class='c006' colspan='2'> ” ” Eyebrows</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_485'>485</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Cosmetic Hints</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_485'>485</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>The Hair</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_486'>486</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Cause of Man’s Nudity</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_486'>486</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Beards and Moustaches</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_489'>489</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Baldness and Depilatories</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_492'>492</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Æsthetic Value of Hair</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_494'>494</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Brunette and Blonde</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_496'>496</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Blonde <i>versus</i> Brunette</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_496'>496</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Brunette <i>versus</i> Blonde</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_498'>498</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c006' colspan='4'>Why Cupid Favours Brunettes</td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_499'>499</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Nationality and Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_505'>505</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>French Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_506'>506</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Italian Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_511'>511</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>Spanish Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_515'>515</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>German and Austrian Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_522'>522</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>English Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_528'>528</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006' colspan='5'><span class='sc'>American Beauty</span></td> - <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_535'>535</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c010'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span><span class='large'>ROMANTIC LOVE & PERSONAL BEAUTY</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>EVOLUTION OF ROMANTIC LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Of all the rhetorical commonplaces in literature and conversation, -none is more frequently repeated than the assertion that Love, as -depicted in a thousand novels and poems every year, has existed -at all times, and in every country, immutable as the mountains -and the stars.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Only a few months ago one of the leading German writers of -the period, Ernst Eckstein, wrote an essay in which he endeavoured -to prove that not only was Love as felt by the ancient Romans -the same as modern Love, but that it was identical with the -modern sentiment even in its minutest details and manifestations. -He based this bold inference on the fact that in Ovid’s <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Ars Amoris</cite></span> -directions are given to the men regarding certain tricks of gallantry—such -as dusting the adored one’s seat at the circus, fanning her, -applauding her favourites, and drinking from the cup where it was -touched by her lips.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Curious and interesting these hints are, no doubt. But a closer -examination of Roman literature and manners shows that Dr. -Eckstein has been guilty of the common blunder of generalising -from a single instance. Gallantry is one of the essential traits of -modern Love; and far from having been a common practice in -ancient Rome, the interest of Ovid’s remarks lies in the fact that -they give us the <em>first</em> instance on record of an attempt at gallant -behaviour on the part of the men; as will be shown in detail in -the chapter on Roman Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And as with Gallantry, so with the other traits which make up -the group of emotions known to us as Love. We look for them in -vain among modern savages, in vain among the ancient civilised -nations. Romantic Love is a modern sentiment, less than a -thousand years old.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>Conjugal Love is, indeed, often celebrated by Greek, Hebrew, -and other ancient writers, but regarding Romantic—or pre-matrimonial—Love -(which alone forms the theme of our novelists), they -are silent. The Bible takes no account of it, and although Greek -literature and mythology seem at first sight to abound in allusions -to it, critical analysis shows that the reference never is to Love as -we understand it. Greek Love, as will be shown hereafter, was a -peculiar mixture of friendship and passion, differing widely from -the modern sentiment of Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is because among the Romans the position of woman was -somewhat more elevated and modern than among the Greeks, that -we find in Roman literature a vague foreshadowing of <em>some</em> of the -elements of modern Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the Dark Ages there is a relapse. The germs of Love could -not flourish in a period when women were kept in brutal subjection -by the men, and their minds refused all nourishment and refinement. -The Troubadours of Italy and France proved useful -champions of woman, as did the German Minnesingers, by teaching -the mediæval military man to look upon her with sentiments of -respect and adoration. Yet their conduct rarely harmonised with -their preaching; and the cause of Romantic Love gained little by -their poetic effusions, which were almost invariably addressed to -married women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Not till Dante’s <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>Vita Nuova</cite></span> appeared was the gospel of modern -Love—the romantic adoration of a maiden by a youth—revealed for -the first time in definite language. Genius, however, is always in -advance of its age, <em>in emotions as well as in thoughts</em>; and the -feelings experienced by Dante were obviously not shared by his -contemporaries, who found them too subtle and sublimated for -their comprehension. And, in fact, they <em>were</em> too ethereal to quite -correspond with reality. The strings of Dante’s lyre were strung -too high, and touched by his magic hand, gave forth harmonic -overtones too celestial for mundane ears to hear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It remained for Shakspere to combine the idealism with the -realism of Love in proper proportions. The colours with which he -painted the passion and sentiment of modern Love are as fresh -and as true to life as on the day when they were first put on his -canvas. Like Dante, however, he was emotionally ahead of his -time, as an examination of contemporary literature in England and -elsewhere shows. But within the last two centuries Love has -gradually, if slowly, assumed among all educated people characteristics -which formerly it possessed only in the minds of a few -isolated men of genius.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>Before we proceed to prove all these assertions in detail, it will -be well to cast a brief glance at the analogies to human Love -presented by cosmic, chemical, and vegetal phenomena; as well as -to distinguish Romantic Love from other forms of human and -animal affection. This will enable us to comprehend more clearly -what modern Love is, by making apparent what it is not.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>COSMIC ATTRACTION AND CHEMICAL AFFINITIES</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>It is a favourite device of poets to invest plants and even -inanimate objects with human thoughts and feelings. The -parched, withering flower, tormented by the pangs of thirst, -implores the passing cloud for a few drops of the vital fluid; and -the cloud, moved to pity at sight of the suffering beauty, sheds its -welcome, soothing tears.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And ’tis my faith, that every flower</div> - <div class='line'>Enjoys the air it breathes.”—<span class='sc'>Wordsworth.</span></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,</div> - <div class='line'>When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,</div> - <div class='line'>And they did make no noise.”</div> - <div class='line'> . . . . . . . .</div> - <div class='line'>“Purple the sails, and so perfumed that</div> - <div class='line'>The winds were love-sick with them.”—<span class='sc'>Shakspere.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>One of the first authors who thus endowed non-human objects -with human feelings was the Greek philosopher Empedokles, who -flourished about twenty-three centuries ago. Just as the last of -the great German metaphysicians, Schopenhauer, believed that all -the forces of Nature—astronomic, chemical, biological, etc.—are -identical with the human Will, of which they represent different -stages of development or “objectivation,” so Empedokles insisted -that the two ruling passions of the human soul, Love and Hate, -are the two principles which pervade and rule the whole universe. -In the primitive condition of things, he taught, the four elements, -Earth, Water, Air, and Fire are mingled harmoniously, and Love -rules supreme. Then Hate intervenes and produces individual, -separate forms. Plants are developed, and after them animals, or -rather, at first, only single organs—detached eyes, arms, hands, -etc. Then Love reasserts its force and unites these separate organs -into complete animals. Strange monstrosities are the result of -some of these unions—animals of double sex, human heads on the -bodies of oxen, or horned heads on the bodies of men. These, -however, perish, while others, which are congruous and adapted -to their surroundings, survive and multiply.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>Thus Empedokles, “the Greek Darwin,” was the originator of -a theory of evolution based on the alternate predominance of -cosmic Love and Hate; Love being the attractive, Hate the repulsive -force.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the preface to the first volume of <span lang="es" xml:lang="es"><cite>Don Quixote</cite></span>, Cervantes -refers those who wish to acquire some information concerning Love -to an Italian treatise by Judah Leo. The full title of the book, -which appeared in Rome in the sixteenth century, is <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>Dialoghi di -amore, Composti da Leone Medico, di nazione Ebreo, e di poi -fatto cristiano</cite></span>. There are said to be three French translations of -it, but it was only after long searching that I succeeded in finding -a copy, at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It proved to be a -strange medley of astrology, metaphysics, theology, classical erudition, -mythology, and mediæval science. Burton, in the chapter -on Love, in his <cite>Anatomy of Melancholy</cite>, quotes freely from this -work of Leo, whom he names as one of about twenty-five authors -who wrote treatises on Love in ancient and mediæval times.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Like Empedokles, Leo identifies cosmic attraction with Love. -But he points out three degrees of Love—Natural, Sensible, and -Rational.</p> - -<p class='c001'>By Natural Love he means those “sympathies” which attract a -stone to the earth, make rivers flow to the sea, keep the sun, moon, -and stars in their courses, etc. Burton (1652) agrees with Leo, -and asks quaintly, “How comes a loadstone to draw iron to it ... -the ground to covet showers, but for love? ... no stock, -no stone, that has not some feeling of love. ’Tis more -eminent in Plants, Hearbs, and is especially observed in vegetals; -as betwixt the Vine and Elm a great sympathy,” etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Sensible” Love is that which prevails among animals. In it -Leo recognises the higher elements of delight in one another’s -company, and of attachment to a master.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Rational” Love, the third and highest class, is peculiar to -God, angels, and men.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the inclination to confound gravitation and other natural -forces with Love is not to be found among ancient and mediæval -authors alone. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is the “gross -materialist,” Dr. Ludwig Büchner, who exclaims rapturously: “For -it is love, in the form of <em>attraction</em>, which chains stone to stone, -earth to earth, star to star, and which holds together the mighty -edifice on which we stand, and on the surface of which, like -parasites, we carry on our existence, barely noticeable in the infinite -universe; and on which we shall continue to exist till that distant -period when its component parts will again be resolved into that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>primal chaos from which it laboriously severed itself millions of -years ago, and became a separate planet.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Büchner carries on this anthropopathic process a step farther, -by including all the chemical affinities of atoms and molecules as -manifestations of love: “Just as man and woman attract one -another, so oxygen attracts hydrogen, and, in loving union with it, -forms water, that mighty omnipresent element, without which no -life nor thought would be possible.” And again: “Potassium -and phosphorus entertain such a violent passion for oxygen that -even under water they burn—<i>i.e.</i> unite themselves with the -beloved object.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Goethe’s novel, <cite>Elective Affinities</cite>, which was inspired by a late -and hopeless passion of its author, is based on this chemical notion -that no physical obstacle can separate two souls that are united by -an amorous affinity. But the practical outcome of his theory—that -the psychic affinity of two persons suffices to impress the -characteristics of both on the offspring of one of them—has nothing -to support it in medical experience; while the chemical analogy, -with all due deference to Goethe’s reputation as a man of science, -is against his view. His notion was that the children of two souls -loving one another will inherit their characteristics. But what -distinguishes a chemical compound (based on “affinity”) from a -mere physical mixture, is precisely the contrary fact that the compound -does not in any respect resemble the parental elements! -Read what a specialist says in Watts’s <cite>Dictionary of Chemistry</cite>:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Definite chemical compounds generally differ altogether in -physical properties from their components. Thus, with regard -to <em>colour</em>, yellow sulphur and gray mercury produce red cinnabar; -purple iodine and gray potassium yield colourless iodide of potassium.... The -<em>density</em> of a compound is very rarely an exact -mean between that of its constituents, being generally higher, and -in a few cases lower; and the <em>taste</em>, <em>smell</em>, <em>refracting power</em>, <em>fusibility</em>, -<em>volatility</em>, <em>conducting power for heat and electricity</em>, and -other physical properties, are not for the most part such as would -result from mere mixture of their constituents.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Chemical affinities, accordingly, cannot be used as analogies of -Love. Not even on account of the violent <em>individual preference</em> -shown by two elements for one another, for this apparently <em>individual</em> -preference is really only <em>generic</em>. A piece of phosphorus -will as readily unite with one cubic foot of oxygen as with -another; whereas it is the very essence of Love that it demands a -union with one particular <em>individual</em>, and no other.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Equally unsatisfactory are all similar attempts to identify Love -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>with gravitation or other forms of cosmic attraction. Here is -what a great expert in Love has to say on this subject: “The -attraction of love, I find,” writes Burns, “is in inverse proportion -to the attraction of the Newtonian philosophy. In the system of -Sir Isaac, the nearer objects are to one another, the stronger is the -attractive force. In my system, every milestone that marked -my progress from Clarinda awakened a keener pang of attachment -to her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>How beautifully, in other respects, does the law of gravitation -simulate the methods of Love! Does not the meteor which -passionately falls on this planet and digs a deep hole into it, show -its love in this manner, even as that affectionate bear who smashed -his master’s forehead in order to kill the fly on it? Does not the -avalanche which thunders down the mountain-side and buries a -whole forest and several villages, afford another touching illustration -of the love of attraction, or cosmic Love?—a crushing argument -in its favour? Or the frigid glacier, in its slower course, -does it not lacerate the sides of the valley, and strew about its -precious boulders, merely by way of illustrating the amorous effect -of gravitation? And millions of years hence, will not this same law -of attraction enable the sun to prove his ecstatic love for our earth -by swallowing her up and reducing her to her primitive chaotic -state? Imagine a man and a woman whose love consists in this, -that they must be kept widely separated by a hostile force to prevent -them from dashing together, and reducing each other to atoms -and molecules! <em>That</em> is the “love” of the stars and planets.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But it is needless to continue this <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>reductio ad absurdum</i></span> of -pantheistic or panerotic vagaries. The method of the writers on -Love here quoted—Empedokles, Leo, Burton, Büchner—has been -to identify Love with cosmic force simply because they possess in -common the one quality of attraction, by virtue of which the large -earth hugs a small stone, and a large man a small maiden. -Modern scientific psychology objects to this (<i>i.e.</i> not the hugging, -but the method), because it does not in the least aid us in understanding -the nature of Love; and because it is as irrational to call -attraction Love as it would be to call a brick a house, a leaf a tree, -or a green daub a rainbow. For Love embraces every colour in -the spectrum of human emotion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Having failed to find a satisfactory solution of the mystery of -Love in the inorganic world, let us now see if the vegetable kingdom -offers no better analogies in its sexual phenomena.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span> - <h2 class='c005'>FLOWER LOVE AND BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Until a few decades ago, it was the universal belief that flowers -had been specially created for man’s exclusive delight. This was -such an easy way, you know, to overcome the difficulty of explaining -the immense variety of forms and colours in the floral world; -and it was, above all, so flattering to man’s egregious vanity. But -one fine morning in May a German naturalist, Conrad Sprengel, -published a remarkable book in which he pointed out that flowers -owe their peculiar shape, colour, and fragrance to the visits of -insects. Not that the insects visit the flowers in order to shape -and paint and perfume them. On the contrary, they visit them for -the unæsthetic purpose of eating their pollen and their honey; while -the flowers’ scent and colour exist solely for the purpose of indicating -to winged insects at a distance where they can find a savoury lunch.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But why should flowers take such pains to attract insects by -serving them with a breakfast of honey, and by hanging out big -petals to serve as coloured and perfumed signal-flags? Nature is -economical in the expenditure of energy; and as the production of -honey and large flowers costs the plant some of its vital energies, -we may be sure that this expenditure secures the plant some -superior advantage. Sprengel noticed that the insects, while -pillaging flowers of their honey, unwittingly brushed off with their -wings and feet some of the fertilising dust or pollen, and carried it -to the pistil or female part of a flower. But it remained for -Darwin to point out what advantage this transference of the -pollen secured to the flower. Darwin, says Sir John Lubbock, -“was the first clearly to perceive that the essential service which -insects perform to flowers consists not only in transferring the -pollen from the stamens to the pistil, but in transferring it from -the stamens of one flower to the pistil of another. Sprengel had -indeed observed in more than one instance that this was the case, -but he did not altogether appreciate the importance of the fact. -Mr. Darwin however, has not only made it clear from theoretical -considerations, but has also proved it, in a variety of cases, by -actual experiment. More recently Fritz Müller has even shown -that in some cases pollen, if placed on the stigma of the same -flower, has no more effect than so much inorganic dust; while, and -this is perhaps even more extraordinary, in others, the pollen -placed on the stigma of the same flower acted on it like poison”—a -curious analogy to the current belief that close intermarriage is -injurious to mankind.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>What Darwin and others have proved by their experiments is -that cross-fertilised flowers are more vigorous than those fertilised -with their own pollen, and have a more healthy and numerous -offspring. With this fact before us we need only apply the usual -evolutionary formula to account for the beauty of flowers. It is -well known that Nature rarely, if ever, produces two leaves or -plants that are exactly alike. There is also a natural tendency in -all parts of a plant except the leaves to develop other colours -besides green. Now any plant which, owing to chemical causes, -favourable position, etc., developed an unusually brilliant colour, -would be likely to attract the attention of a winged insect in search -of pollen-food. The insect, by alighting on a second flower soon -after, would fertilise it with the pollen of the first flower that -adhered to its limbs, thus securing to the plant the advantages of -cross-fertilisation. Thanks to the laws of heredity, this advantage -would be transmitted to the young plants, among which again -those most favoured would gain an advantage and a more numerous -offspring. And thus the gradual development not only of coloured -petals, but of scents and honey, can be accounted for.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What makes this argument irresistible is the additional fact, -first pointed out by Darwin, that plants which are not visited by -insects, but are fertilised by the agency of the wind, are neither -adorned with beautifully-coloured flowers, nor provided with honey -or fragrance. And another most important fact: Darwin found -that flowers which depend on the wind for their fertilisation follow -the natural tendency of objects to a symmetrical form; whereas -the irregular flowers are always those fertilised by insects or birds. -This points to the conclusion that insects and birds are responsible -not only for the colours and fragrance of flowers, but also for the -shape of those that are most unique and fantastic. And this <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>a -priori</i></span> inference is borne out by thousands of curious and most -fascinating observations described in the works of Darwin, Lubbock, -Müller, and many others. The briefest and clearest presentation -of the subject is in Lubbock’s <cite>Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves</cite>, which -no one interested in natural æsthetics should fail to read. There -is indeed no more interesting study in biology than the mutual -adaptation of flowers, bees, butterflies, humming-birds, etc.; for -just as these animals have modified the forms of flowers, so the -flowers have altered the shape of these animals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Many of the changes in the shapes of flowers are made not only -with a view to facilitate the visits of winged insects, but also for -keeping out creeping intruders, such as ants, which are very fond -of honey, but which, as they do not fly, would not aid the cause of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>cross-fertilisation. Of these contrivances, “the most frequent are -the interposition of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>chevaux de frise</i></span>, which ants cannot penetrate, -glutinous surfaces which they cannot traverse, slippery slopes -which they cannot climb, or barriers which close the way.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>How obtuse are those who, with Ruskin and Emerson, accuse -science of destroying the poetry of nature! What poetry is there -in the thought that flowers were made for unæsthetic man, when -not one man in a thousand ever takes the trouble to examine one, -while for every single flower on which a human eye ever rests, a -million are born to blush unseen?</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if we abandon the narrow anthropocentric point of view, -and admit that insects too have a right to live, how the scope of -Nature’s poetry widens! How easy it then becomes to share not -only Wordsworth’s belief that “every flower enjoys the air it -breathes,” but to endow it with a thousand thoughts and emotions -like our own—delight in a gaily-coloured floral envelope; hope -that yonder gaudy butterfly will be attracted by it; anxiety lest -that “horrid” ant may steal some of its honey; determination to -breathe the sweetest perfume on this darling honey bee, so as to -induce it to speedily call again.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love dramas, too, tragic and comic, are enacted in this world -of flowers and insects. Thus the Arum plant resorts to the following -stratagem to secure a messenger of love for carrying its -pollen to a distant female flower:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The stigmas come to maturity first, and have lost the possibility -of fertilisation before the pollen is ripe. The pollen must -therefore be brought by insects, and this is effected by small flies, -which enter the leaf, either for the sake of honey or of shelter, and -which, moreover, when they have once entered the tube, are -imprisoned by the fringe of hairs. When the anthers ripen, the -pollen falls on to the flies, which, in their efforts to escape, get -thoroughly dusted with it. Then the fringe of hairs withers, and -the flies, thus set free, soon come out, and ere long carry the pollen -to another plant” (Lubbock).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then there are male flowers which go a-courting like any -amorous swain of a Sunday night. One of these belongs to the -Valisneria plant, concerning which the same writer observes that -“the female flowers are borne on long stalks, which reach to the -surface of the water, on which the flowers float. The male flowers, -on the contrary, have short, straight stalks, from which, when -mature, the pollen detaches itself, rises to the surface, and, floating -freely on it, is wafted about, so that it comes in contact with the -female flowers.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>But alas for the poor flowers! Few of them are thus privileged -to roam about and seek their own bride. Most flowers have no -more free choice in the selection of their spouse than an Oriental -or a French girl. There is no previous acquaintance, no courtship -before marriage, hence no Romantic Love, even if the undifferentiated -germs of nervous protoplasm in the plant were capable of -feeling such an emotion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Poor flowers! Their honeymoon is without pleasure, unconscious. -The wind may woo, the butterfly caress them—but the -wind has no thought of the flower, and the insect’s attachment is -mere “cupboard love.” The beauty of one flower cannot exist for -another which has no eyes to see it; its honey and its fragrance -are not for a floral lover’s delight, but for a gastronomic insect’s -epicurean use. No modest coyness, no harmless flirtation, no -gallant devotion and self-sacrifice, enter into the flower’s sexual -life; not even the bitter-sweet pangs of jealousy, for, as Heine has -ascertained, “the butterfly stops not to ask the flower, ‘Has any -one kissed thee before?’ nor does the flower ask, ‘Hast thou -already flitted about another?’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus “flower-love,” with all its poetic analogies, has none of -the elements of Romantic Love. Even attraction fails, for plants -are commonly sessile, and cannot go forth to seek a mate.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I prayed the flowers,</div> - <div class='line'>Oh, tell me, what is love?</div> - <div class='line'>Only <em>a fragrant sigh</em> was wafted</div> - <div class='line'>Thro’ the night.”—<cite>German Song.</cite></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Two important lessons of this chapter should, however, be -carefully borne in mind; for though our search for Love has -so far yielded only negative results, some light has been thrown on -the general laws of Beauty in Nature. The lessons are:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) That there is in flowers a natural tendency towards Symmetry -of Form, all normal irregularities being due to the agency -of insects and birds.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(2) That the superior Beauty of one flower over another is due -to its superior vitality or Health, which, again, is promoted by -cross-fertilisation or intermarriage—the choosing of a mate not in -the same but in another flower-bed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Regarding the beauty of flowers a further detail may be added. -Some of the coloured lines on flowers are so placed as to guide the -visiting bees to the nectar or honey. More complicated colour-patterns -probably owe their existence to the advantage of having -an easy means of recognition at a distance. It is well known that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>bees on any single expedition visit the flowers of one species only. -Now it has been experimentally proved by Lubbock that bees -can distinguish different colours; and, if we may judge by analogy -with the human eye, they can distinguish colours at a greater -distance than forms. Hence the advantage to each flower of -having its own colours in its flag.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>IMPERSONAL AFFECTION</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>From the sexual life of plants we ought to pass on to that of -animals; but before doing so, it will be advisable to ascertain -clearly what is meant by Romantic Love, and how it differs from -other forms of affection, impersonal and personal; from the love for -inanimate objects and for plants and animals; from the family -affections—maternal, paternal, filial, brotherly, and sisterly love; -from friendship; and from conjugal love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love is the most attractive word in the language, as Heine and -Oliver Wendell Holmes have remarked. Out of every half-dozen -novels one is likely to have the word Love in its title, as a bait -sure to catch readers. But whereas novelists always use this word -in the sense of Romantic or pre-matrimonial Love, in common -language it is vaguely used as a synonym for any kind of attachment, -from that of Romeo to the schoolgirl who “just <em>loves</em> -caramels.” For the verb <em>to love</em> there is perhaps no satisfactory -and equally comprehensive substitute; but in place of the noun -<em>love</em> it is advisable, at least in a scientific work, to use the word -Affection, which comprehends every form of love mentioned above. -In the present work Love, with a capital L, always means Romantic -Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Professor Calderwood, in his <cite>Handbook of Moral Philosophy</cite>, -says that “Affection is inclination towards others, disposing us to -give from our own resources what may influence them either for -good or ill. In practical tendency, the Affections are the reverse -of the Desires. Desires absorb, Affections give out. Affections -presuppose a recognition of certain qualities in persons, and, in a -modified degree, in lower <em>sentient</em> beings, but <em>not in things</em>, for the -exercise of Affection presupposes in the object of it the possibility -either of harmony or antagonism of feeling.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In other words, the eminent Scotch moralist thinks we can -entertain affections only towards human beings, and, to some -degree, towards animals; but not towards plants or inanimate -objects. Careful analysis of our emotions, however, does not sustain -this distinction, which is as unpoetic as it is anthropocentric -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>and unscientific. Dr. Calderwood obviously confounds affection -with sympathy. Sympathy means literally to suffer with another, -or to share his feelings; and this, indeed, “presupposes in the -object of it the possibility either of harmony or antagonism of -feeling.” But affection, in his own words, “gives out,” and hence -can be bestowed, and <em>is</em> bestowed, by all emotional and refined -persons on a variety of “things,” that are neither sentient nor -even animate; and a poetic soul will even feel <em>sympathy</em> with such -a non-sentient thing as a crushed flower, for his imagination unconsciously -endows it with the requisite feeling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Things” are of two kinds—those fashioned by man, and -those produced by Nature. A poem, a symphony, a violin, a -novel come under the first head; a tree, a precious metal, a -mountain under the second. An author who has passed through -the whole gamut of emotion in writing his book, follows its fate -with a paternal pride and an affectionate anxiety as great as if his -bodily child had been sent into the world to seek its fortune. -Perhaps the story of the German soldier who was carried off his -feet by a cannon-ball, and who grasped first his pipe and then his -severed leg, is not a legend. For was not his pipe, like a good, -friend, associated with all the pleasant hours of his life? An -artist certainly can entertain for his favourite instrument an -affection almost, if not quite, human in quality. When Ole Bull -suffered shipwreck on the Mississippi, he swam ashore, holding his -violin high above water, at the risk of his life. And to an -amateur who has often called upon his pianoforte to feed his -momentary mood with a nocturne or a scherzo, the instrument -soon assumes the functions of “a true friend, to whom,” as Bacon -would say, “you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, -counsels, and whatever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a -kind of civil shrift or confession.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>As for “things” not produced by man, who that has ever -spent a summer in Switzerland is not quite willing to believe the -legend of the Swiss Heimweh—the exiled mountaineer’s reminiscent -longing and affection for his native haunts, which causes him -to die of a broken heart, even if wife and children accompany him -in his exile? His feelings are not identical with the æsthetic -admiration of a tourist; for these imply a certain degree of novelty -and artistic perception foreign to his mind. They are true -<em>impersonal affection</em>, for the snowy summits, sluggish glaciers, -azure lakes, chasing clouds coyly playing hide-and-seek with the -scenery below; the balmy breezes, and boisterous storm-winds; -the green slopes studded with cows, whose welcome chimes alone -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>interrupt the sublime silence of the Alpine summits. For these -sounds and scenes are so interwoven with all his experiences, -thoughts, and associations, that he cannot live and be happy -without them in a foreign land.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The attitude of an æsthetically-refined visitor is thus expressed -by Byron: “I live not in myself, but I become portion of that -around me; and to me high mountains are a feeling”—a poetic -anticipation of Schopenhauer’s doctrine, that for true æsthetic -enjoyment it is necessary that the percipient subject be completely -merged in the perceived object,—the personal man and the -impersonal mountain becoming one and indistinguishable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Like Romantic Love, the affection for the grander aspects of -Nature appears to be essentially a modern sentiment. The -Greeks, as has often been pointed out, had little regard for the -impersonal beauties of Nature; and to make the forests, brooks, -and mountains attractive to the popular mind the poets had to -people them with personal beauties; with nymphs and dryads and -goddesses.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The latest phase of the modern passion for impersonal nature -includes even its most dismal and awe-inspiring aspects, with an -ecstatic predilection that would have seemed incomprehensible to -an ancient Greek. This phase has been thus beautifully described -by Ruskin: “There is a sense of the material beauty, both of -inanimate nature, the lower animals, and human beings, which in -the iridescence, colour-depth, and morbid (I use the word -deliberately) mystery and softness of it—with other qualities -indescribable by any single words, and only to be analysed by -extreme care—is found to the full only in five men that I know of -in modern times; namely, Rousseau, Shelley, Byron, Turner, and -myself, differing totally and in the entire group of us from the -delight in clear-struck beauty of Angelico and the Trecentisti, and -separated, much more singularly, from the cheerful joys of -Chaucer, Shakspere, and Scott, by its unaccountable <em>affection</em> for -‘Rokkes blok’ and other forms of terror and power, such as those -of the ice-oceans, which to Shakspere were only Alpine rheum; -and the Via Malas and Diabolic Bridges which Dante would have -condemned none but lost souls to climb or cross,—all this love of -impending mountains, coiled thunderclouds, and dangerous sea, -being joined in us with a sulky, almost ferine, love of retreat in -valleys of Charmettes, gulphs of Spezzia, ravines of Olympus, low -lodgings in Chelsea, and close brushwood at Coniston.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ruskin flatters himself if he still imagines he is the sole living -possessor of this feeling. Though there is much hypocrisy and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>guide-book-star-admiration among tourists, there are yet unquestionably -hundreds who enjoy the Via Malas, the ice-oceans and -solitary Swiss valleys they visit; and though their dismal delight -may not be so intense as Ruskin’s, it is yet sufficient to indicate -the growth of a general affection for impersonal nature in all her -moods, whether smiling or frowning.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To a mind that can thus rise above human associations and -utilities, the sublimest thing in the world is the absolute solitude -of an Alpine summit. To the ignorant peasant the harsh cow-bell -which interrupts this silence is sweet music, because it -suggests the abodes of mankind; and on this primitive stage of -æsthetic culture Jeffrey placed himself when he wrote that, “It -is man, and man alone, that we see in the beauties of the earth -which he inhabits.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as mountain solitudes are accessible to only a very -small proportion of mankind, the existence of true impersonal -affection on a large scale can be more easily demonstrated by -recurring for a moment to the floral world. A city belle is apt to -look upon flowers merely from a social or military point of view; -the more bouquets, the more evidence of admiration and conquest. -of male hearts. And the city belle can hardly be blamed for this -callousness of feeling; for bunched flowers have lost as much of -their natural charm and grace as butterflies stuck up on rows of -pins in a museum. But watch that fair gardener in a suburban -cottage or a country seat; how she recognises every individual -plant, every single flower, as a friend for whose comfort she -provides with all the affectionate care which as a child she -lavished on her doll. If, after a refreshing shower, the flowers -hold up their heads and look bright and happy, her face reflects -the same feeling; if a drouth has parched them and dimmed their -lustre, she will neglect her own pleasures to bring them water, -and derive from this charitable action the same sympathetic -pleasure as if they had been so many suffering human beings. -And if an early frost kills all her floral friends, her sorrow and -despair will find vent in a flood of tears. What is all this but -affection—true affection—though flowers be but “things,” and -not “sentient beings.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Obviously Professor Calderwood erred in his definition of affection; -for, as the above analysis shows, when the regard for an -impersonal object rises to the fervour of adoring interest, it does -not specifically differ from personal affections any more than, for -example, maternal love differs from friendship. Unemotional -persons, who have had no opportunities to cultivate their love of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>Nature, may feel inclined to doubt this; but they should remember -that just as there is an intellectual eminence (Shakspere, Kant, -Wagner) which the ignorant are too lazy or too weak to climb, so -there is an emotional horizon, beyond which those only can see -who have taken the trouble to ascend the summit whence a wider -scene is unfolded to the view.</p> - -<p class='c001'>From one point of view, impersonal affections are even higher -and nobler than personal attachments. The evolution of emotions -has been but little studied, but so much is apparent—that there -has been a gradual development from utilitarian attachments to -those that are less utilitarian, or less obviously so. Personal -affections are too often exclusively selfish and based on material interests, -as the loss of “friends,” which commonly follows the loss of -wealth or position, shows. Whereas impersonal attachments are less -apt to be interested, selfish, and fickle, since they presuppose more -intellectual power, more imagination, more refinement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, although it must be admitted that man is the crown -and compendium of Nature, uniting in himself most of the excellences -of the lower kingdoms with others exclusively his own; yet -it cannot be denied, either, that the vast majority of these -“crowns” of Nature are so full of flaws in workmanship, and -have lost so many of their jewels, that the sight of them is anything -but exhilarating. Indeed, it is obvious that the average -plant and the average animal are, <em>in their way</em>, far superior to the -average man, in beauty, health, vitality; natural selection, which -has been arrested in man, having made them so. No wonder, -then, that some of the greatest minds have turned away from -mankind, and devoted all their thoughts and energies to the -world of “things” and ideas.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Goethe and other men of genius have often been accused of being -cold and unsympathetic, because they refused to shape their conduct -so as to please the people with whom they chanced to come into -contact. Had they wasted their affections and sympathies on their -commonplace admirers and acquaintances, instead of bestowing -them on art and science, on the great ideas that teemed in their -brains, we should now be without many of those glorious works -which could never have been created had not their authors ignored -personal relations for the time being, and bestowed all their -warmest impersonal affections on their ideas.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As compared with men of genius, women have achieved but -little that can lay claim to immortal fame; and the principal -reason of this is that their affections are apt to be too exclusively -personal. A girl will assiduously practice on the piano as long as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>that will assist her in fascinating her suitors. But how many women, -outside the ranks of teachers, continue their practice after marriage, -from the <em>impersonal</em> love of music itself? Needless to say they -have no time; for every hour devoted to emotional refreshment -strengthens the nerves for two hours of extra labour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As regards the love of Nature, woman is, indeed, artificially -hampered. She may botanise to some extent, but she cannot, as -a rule, indulge in those solitary walks in a virgin forest which -alone can establish a deep communion with Nature. If accompanied -by friend, brother, husband, or lover, her thought will -inevitably retain a human tinge. No doubt there is something -comic in the ardent affection with which a German professor hugs -his pet theory regarding the Greek dative, or the origin of honey -in flowers, and in the ferocity with which he will defend it against -his best friends, if they happen to oppose it. But such complete -devotion to abstract crotchets is absolutely necessary to the discovery -of original ideas: and as women are rarely able or willing -to emerge from the haunts of personal emotion, this explains why -they have achieved greatness in hardly anything but novel-writing, -which is chiefly concerned with personal emotions.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>PERSONAL AFFECTIONS</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>I.—LOVE FOR ANIMALS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Over inanimate objects and plants we have this great emotional -advantage that we can love them, whereas they cannot love us, -nor even one another, though related by marriage, like flowers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Animals, however, can love both us and one another and be -loved; and this establishes a distinction between them and lower -beings, and a relationship with us, that warrants us in placing their -attachments under the head of Personal Affections.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Calderwood is sufficiently liberal to admit that, to a degree -animals may be included in our affections. But Adolf Horwicz -who has written the most complete, and, on the whole, most satisfactory -analysis of the human feelings in existence, denies this. -“Love is and remains a personal feeling,” he asserts; it “can -only be referred to persons, not to things. The tenderness of -American ladies towards dogs and cats is simply a gross emotional -caricature.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So it is, very often, especially in the case of ladies who neglect -their children and make fashionable pets of animals, changing and -exchanging them with the fashion. But it is simply absurd to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>mention this case as a fair instance of human love towards animals. -How many of the greatest geniuses the world has produced have -become famous for their affectionate devotion to their dogs! “A -dog!” says an old English writer, “is the only thing on this -earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” And should we -be morally inferior to the dog—unable to love him in return? -especially when we remember that “histories,” as Pope remarks, -“are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Vischer, the well-known German writer on æsthetics, goes so -far as to admit that whenever he is in society his only wish is, -“Oh, if there was only a dog here!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is something much nobler and deeper than sarcasm on -humanity in Byron’s famous epitaph on his dog:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in14'>“Near this spot</div> - <div class='line in2'>Are deposited the remains of one</div> - <div class='line in2'>Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Strength without Insolence,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Courage without Ferocity,</div> - <div class='line'>And all the Virtues of man without his Vices.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>I wonder if Horwicz could read the following exquisite prose -poem of Turgenieff without feeling ashamed of himself:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>"We two are sitting in the room: my dog and I. A violent -storm is raging without.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"The dog sits close before me—he gazes straight into my eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"And I too gaze straight into his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"It seems as if he wished to say something to me. He is -dumb, has no words, does not understand himself; but I understand -him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"I understand that he and I are at this moment governed by -the same feeling, that there is not the slightest difference between -us. We are beings of the same kind. In each of us shines and -glows the same flame.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Death approaches, flapping his broad, cold, moist wings....</p> - -<p class='c001'>"And all is ended.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Who then will establish the difference between the flames -which glowed within us two?</p> - -<p class='c001'>"No! We who exchange those glances are not animal and -man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Created alike are the two pairs of eyes that are fixed on each -other.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And each of these eye-pairs, that of the man as well as that -of the animal, expresses clearly and distinctly <em>an anxious craving -for mutual caresses</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>It is a vicious trait of the human character that it soon grows -callous to caresses, and that the unmasked expression of tender -emotion is regarded as undignified and in “bad form.” It is the -absence in the dog’s mind of this ugly human trait that makes him -such a delightful friend and companion. However much you -caress and fondle him, he will always be anxious and grateful for -the next gentle pat on the head, the next kind look, and will -never despise you for any excess of fond emotion lavished on him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The greatest flaw in Christian ethics is, that it takes so little -account of this capacity of animals for affection, and our duties -towards them. The duty of kindness towards animals is indeed, -as Mr. Lecky remarks, “the one form of humanity which appears -more prominently in the Old Testament than in the New.” “Thou -shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn,” -is a precept which deprecates even a very modified form of cruelty -to animals. Had this precept been given in a more generalised -and comprehensive form, what an incalculable amount of suffering -might have been saved the animals that had the misfortune to -be born in Christian countries, as compared with those in the -Oriental countries.</p> - -<p class='c001'>According to Mr. Lecky, Plutarch was the first writer who -placed the duty of kindness to animals on purely moral grounds; -“and he urges that duty with an emphasis and detail to which no -adequate parallel can, I believe, be found in the Christian writings -for at least 1700 years.” Some of the earlier Greek philosophers -had based this duty on the doctrine of the transmigration of human -souls into animal bodies; and it is related that Pythagoras used -to buy of fishermen the whole contents of their nets, for the -pleasure of letting the fish go again. Leonardo da Vinci, from less -superstitious motives, used to buy caged birds for the same purpose; -and similar traits are told of other men of genius who were -sufficiently refined to recognise the evidences of emotion in animals. -In our times, finally, we have a man, Mr. Bergh, who devotes his -whole life to the object of establishing the personal rights of -animals to kind treatment on legal grounds.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But, after all, the most influential friend animals have ever -possessed was Darwin, who, by establishing their relationship to -man on grounds which no one who understands the evidence can -question, for ever vindicated for them the privilege of personal -affection. The very grammar of our language has been affected -by Darwinism. Formerly, it was customary to write “the dog -<em>which</em> jumped into the water to save a child.” Now we say, “the -dog <em>who</em> jumped into the water.” In other words, animals are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>no longer regarded as “things,” or animated machines, but as -persons.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>II.—MATERNAL LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Within the range of impersonal emotions and affections, as we -have seen, women are vastly inferior to men; but in personal -affections—partly owing to their almost exclusive devotion to -them—women are commonly superior to men. Not always, -however; for, as we shall see later on, the prevalent dogma that -woman’s Romantic Love is deeper and more ardent than man’s is -an absurd myth. But in conjugal affection—which differs widely -from Romantic Love—woman is generally more sincere, devoted, -and self-sacrificing than man. In friendship, too, women are -more sincere and ardent than men; for friendship is an ancient, -rather than a modern sentiment; and as women are more conservative -than men, they have preserved this sentiment (at least -in early life), while among men it has become nearly extinct:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“All friendship is feigning, all loving mere folly.”—<span class='sc'>Shakspere.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>But the one affection in which woman stands infinitely above -man is the maternal, compared with which paternal love is ordinarily -a mere shadow. Romantic Love in man and child-love in -woman are the two strongest passions which the human mind -entertains.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In depth and strength these two passions are perhaps alike. -In point of antiquity, the maternal feeling has an advantage over -the Love-passion; for, of all personal affections, the maternal was -developed first, and the sentiment of Romantic Love last.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Personal affections are of two kinds: (1) Those based on blood-relationship—maternal, -paternal, filial, brotherly, and sisterly -love; (2) Those not based on blood-relationship—friendship and -Romantic Love. Conjugal affection belongs psychologically to the -first class.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That of all relationships the one between mother and child is -the most intimate is obvious. The child is part and parcel of the -mother: her own flesh and blood and soul; and in loving it the -mother practically loves a detached portion of herself—thus uniting -the force of selfish with that of altruistic emotion. This is the -primitive fountain of maternal affection. A second source of it -lies in the resemblance of the child to the father, reviving in the -mother’s memory the romantic days of pre-matrimonial Love. It -must be an unending source of interest in a mother’s mind to note -which of the child’s traits are derived from her, which from the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>father. If she loves herself, and loves her husband, the child that -unites the traits of both must be doubly dear to her. The fact -that the child is inseparably associated with all the mother’s joys -and sorrows, from the wedding-day to death, constitutes a third -source of her attachment; and a fourth is the social regard and -honour which an energetic and gifted son, or a beautiful and accomplished -daughter, may reflect on her.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The mother herself is of course unconscious of the complex -nature of her feeling and its origin; especially in the first days, -when the new feeling dawns upon her like a revelation. As in -the case of budding Love, the feeling is at first less individual than -generic—less the affection of this particular mother for this particular -child than the bursting out of the general feeling of motherhood, -inherited by her in common with all women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Natural selection helps us to explain how this general feeling -of motherhood was developed. As among animals, so among our -savage and semi-civilised ancestors, those mothers who fondly cared -for their infants naturally succeeded in rearing a larger and more -vigorous progeny than those mothers who neglected their children. -And through hereditary transmission this instinct gradually acquired, -that marvellous intensity and power which we now admire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The sublime and almost terrible height to which this emotion -can rise is most realistically depicted in Rubens’s famous picture in -Munich, representing the murder of the children at Bethlehem; -in which mothers grasp the naked daggers, and frantically expose -their breasts to receive the blows intended for their little ones. -Throughout the animal kingdom, including mankind, the female is -less pugnacious than the male, less provided with means of defence, -and hence more gentle and timid; yet in the moment of peril the -mother’s affection absolutely annihilates fear, and makes her face -danger and death with a courage, supernatural strength, and endurance, -rarely equalled by man, with all his weapons and natural -consciousness of superior muscle.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is in this blind, impetuous, passionate willingness of self-sacrifice -that maternal affection most closely resembles the passion -of Romantic Love.</p> - -<h3 class='c015'>III.—PATERNAL LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>For paternal affection Natural Selection has done much less -than for maternal; and it is easy to understand why. For, useful -as the father’s assistance is in securing various advantages to the -growing child, yet even if he should cruelly abandon it altogether, -the maternal love would still remain interposed to save and rear it.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>Nor is it in the human race alone that paternal is weaker than -maternal love. Among mammals, as Horwicz remarks, we even -come across a Herr Papa occasionally who shows a great inclination to -dine on his progeny. And how irregularly the paternal—sometimes -even the maternal—instinct is displayed among savages is graphically -shown by this group of cases collected by Herbert Spencer:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“As among brutes the philoprogenitive instinct is occasionally -suppressed by the desire to kill, and even devour, their young -ones; so among primitive men this instinct is now and again overridden -by impulses temporarily excited. Thus, though attached -to their offspring, Australian mothers, when in danger, will sometimes -desert them; and if we may believe Angas, men have been -known to bait their hooks with the flesh of boys they have killed. -Thus, notwithstanding their marked parental affection, Fuegians -sell their children for slaves; thus, among the Chonos Indians, a -father, though doting on his boy, will kill him in a fit of anger -for an accidental offence. Everywhere among the lower races we -meet with like incongruities. Falkner, while describing the -paternal feelings of Patagonians as very strong, says they often -pawn and sell their wives and little ones to the Spaniards for -brandy. Speaking of the children of the Sound Indians, Bancroft -says they ‘sell or gamble them away.’ According to Simpson, the -Pi-Edes ‘barter their children to the Utes proper for a few trinkets -or bits of clothing.’ And of the Macusi, Schomburgk writes, ‘the -price of a child is the same as an Indian asks for his dog.’ This -seemingly heartless conduct to children often arises from the difficulty -experienced in rearing them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Some light is thrown on the genesis and composition of parental -affection by the three reasons named by Spencer, why among -savages and semi-civilised peoples in general sons were much more -appreciated than daughters. While daughters were little more -than an encumbrance to the parents, useless before puberty, and -lost to them after marriage, the sons could make themselves useful -in warding off the enemy, in avenging personal injuries, and in performing -the funeral rites for the benefit of departed ancestors.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In a higher stage of civilisation it is probable that utilitarian -considerations of a somewhat different kind still formed a principal -ingredient in parental love. A son was valued as an assistant in -workshop or field, a daughter as a domestic drudge. Feelings of -a tenderer nature were of course sometimes present, but that they -were not general is shown by the fact, attested by numerous historic -examples, that the aim of our paternal ancestors in centuries -past was to make their children fear rather than love them.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>A slight element of fear is indeed necessary for the maintenance -of filial respect and discipline; but our forefathers were too prone -to sacrifice their tender feelings of sympathy with their offspring -to the gratification of parental authority, for the obvious reason -that the latter feeling was stronger than the former. The frequency -with which daughters especially were forced to sacrifice -their personal preferences in marriage to the ambitions and whims -of their father, affords the most striking instance of the former -embryonic state of parental affection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In modern parental love Pride is perhaps the most conspicuous -trait. This Pride has two aspects—one comic, one serious. -Nothing is more amusing than the suddenness with which the -“pride of authorship” converts a bachelor’s well-known horror of -babies into the young father’s fantastic worship. Yet though he -feels “like a little tin god on wheels,” he recognises the superior -rank of the young prince, spoils his best trousers in kneeling -before him, allows him to pull his moustache and whiskers, and, -indeed, shows a disposition towards self-sacrifice almost worthy of -a lover.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The serious side of the matter reveals one of the greatest differences -between paternal and maternal love. A mother’s love is -largely influenced by pity; hence she is very apt to lavish her -fondest caresses on that child which happens to be imperfect in -some way—say a cripple—and therefore unhappy. The father on -the other hand, will show most favour to his handsomest daughter, -his most talented son; and nothing will so swell a father’s heart -and cause it to overflow with affection as the news of some great -distinction acquired by this son.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>IV.—FILIAL LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Mr. Spencer is doubtless right in asserting that of all family -affections filial love is the least developed; and in tracing this -weakness especially to the parental harshness and disposition to -inspire excessive fear just referred to. In Germany the example -of the Prussian king who so unmercifully treated his children was -extensively imitated. The condition in France is indicated by the -words of Chateaubriand: “My mother, my sister, and myself, -transformed into statues by my father’s presence, only recover -ourselves after he leaves the room;” and in England, in the -fifteenth century, says Wright, “Young ladies, even of great -families, were brought up not only strictly, but even tyrannically.” -And even two centuries later “children stood or knelt in trembling -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>silence in the presence of their fathers and mothers, and might not -sit without permission.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among animals filial affection can scarcely be said to exist, -except as a very utilitarian craving for protection and sustenance. -Among primitive men it is a common practice to abandon aged -parents to their fate. The parents do not resent this treatment; -and of the Nascopies Heriot even says that the aged father -“usually employed as his executioner the son who is most dear -to him.” Nor are cases of heartless neglect at all uncommon -even among modern civilised communities. But the gradual -change of fathers “from masters into friends” has tended to -multiply and intensify filial love at the same rate as paternal; -and the advance of moral refinement will tend to make the lot of -aged parents more and more pleasant, not only because the duty -of gratitude for favours received will be more vividly realised and -enforced by example, but because the cultivation of the imagination -intensifies sympathy, thus making it impossible for a son or -daughter to be happy while they know their parents to be unhappy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Our feelings are curiously complicated and subtly interwoven. -Parents feel a natural pride in their children. The best way -therefore to repay them for all their troubles is to act in such a -way as to justify and intensify that pride. On the other hand, -the thought that the parental pride is gratified also gratifies filial -vanity, and proves an additional incentive to ambitious effort.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>V.—BROTHERLY AND SISTERLY LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Young people of both sexes more frequently make confidants -and “bosom friends” of their playmates and classmates than of -their brothers and sisters. Why is this so? Novelty perhaps -has something to do with it. The domestic experiences and -emotions of two brothers or sisters are apt to be so much alike as -to become monotonous; whereas a member of another family may -initiate them into a fresh and fascinating sphere of emotion and a -novel way of looking at things. Moreover, friendship is very -capricious in its choice; and as the number of brothers and sisters -is limited, the selection is apt to be made in the wider field outside -the domestic circle. Again, it is a peculiarity of human nature to -appear in great <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>négligé</i></span> at home, and to regard the nearest relatives -as the best lightning-rods for disagreeable moods; and this does -not tend to deepen the love of brothers and sisters.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It may be doubted whether this form of affection exists among -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>animals or among primitive men; and even among civilised peoples -the bond is but a weak one, except in the most refined families. -Though brothers feel bound to protect their sisters, they reserve -most of their gallantry for some one else’s sister; and though a -sister will feel proud if her brother is one of a victorious crew, her -heart will beat twice as fast if it is her lover instead of her brother. -The English language has not even a collective word for the love -of brothers and sisters; and even the partial terms, “sisterly love” -and “brotherly love,” have more of an ecclesiastic than a domestic -flavour. The German language has a collective word—and a big -one too,—<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><em>Geschwisterliebe</em></span>; but it would perhaps be misleading to -infer from its existence and size that this species of family love is -more developed in Germany than in England. The German’s -advantage appears to be philological merely, and not sociological. -He is less of a traveller and colonist than the Englishman, who is -very often separated from his brothers and sisters for years. Yet -this sometimes is rather a gain than a loss; for it destroys that -excessive familiarity which, as just noted, makes friendship rarer -among members of the same hearth than between individuals of -different families.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To the wider circles of blood-relationship—up to “forty-second -cousins”—the Germans pay much more regard than the English; -and the French perhaps go a step beyond the Germans. For in -France each family, with its ramifications, forms a sort of clique -into which an outsider can rarely enter. Needless to say that this -forms a great impediment to Love’s free choice.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>VI.—FRIENDSHIP</h3> - -<p class='c013'>If we now turn to the two remaining species of personal affection—Friendship -and Love—the emotional scenery undergoes a -great change. In all the cases so far considered, blood-relationship -was <em>a source of affection</em>; whereas in friendship it is commonly a -disadvantage, and in Romantic Love it is positively abhorred, except -in the more remote degrees. Some savage tribes, it is true, -allow, or even prescribe, marriages between brother and sister—especially -a younger sister; and cases occur of marriages between -father and daughter, mother and son. But civilised society—guided -by religious precepts, and possibly also by a vague instinctive -recognition of the advantages of cross-fertilisation—condemns -such unions as hideous crimes; and the mediæval theologians, in -their extreme zeal, forbade all marriages within the seventh degree -of relationship.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>In the case of friendship the objection to blood-relationship is -not founded on a social or religious precept; but it exists all the -same, as already noted. Perhaps Jean Paul’s maxim that friends -may have everything in common except their room accounts -for its existence. Brothers and sisters are commonly too much -alike in their thoughts and tastes to become friends, in the special -sense of the word. Hence it is that there is apt to be a deeper -attachment between those brothers and sisters who have frequently -been separated by school-terms than among those who are always -together. For in friendship, as in love, a short absence is advantageous.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Friendship is partly an outgrowth of the social instinct and -partly a result of special associations, habit, community of interests -and tastes. As a boy I had an opportunity to make some interesting -observations on friendship among animals, showing that it -differed in degree only, and not in kind or origin, from that of man. -Among the animals we kept at our country-house were a dog, a pet -sheep, and some pigs. The dog showed his confidence in the -sheep’s amiable forbearance by abandoning his cold kennel on -winter nights and seeking warmer quarters by the side of his -woolly neighbour. For the pigs his friendly regards were shown -in a less utilitarian manner, by driving away, unbidden and untaught, -any swinish tramps that appeared, uninvited, to share their -meals. But the most peculiar relations existed between the sheep -and the pigs. In the absence of any other means of satisfying its -gregarious or social instincts, the sheep joined the pigs every -morning in their foraging expeditions in the woods, returning with -them in the evening. And, what was still more remarkable, when -after a time a dozen sheep were added to our stock of animals, the -old pet remained faithful to the pigs, and paid no attention whatever -to the newcomers. Here the friendly attachment, based on -habitual association and the memory of mutual pleasures of grazing, -was strong enough to overcome the inherited fellow-feeling for -members of its own species.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Between this instance and those ordinary cases of companionship -among men which are called friendship, there is hardly any -difference. In the more intimate cases of special friendship the -craving for companionship is strengthened by a community of -thoughts and emotions. Bacon gives us in a nut-shell three of the -ingredients of friendship which are not to be found in the primitive -form just considered. The first is this, that each friend becomes -a sort of secular confessor, to whom the other may confide all his -hopes and fears, joys and sorrows; the second is this, that “a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>friend’s wits and understanding do clarify and break up in the -communicating and discoursing with another;” so that “he -waxeth wiser than himself; and that more by an hour’s discourse -than by a day’s meditation;” the third is the “aid and bearing a -part in all actions and occasions” to be expected of a friend.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Friendship is not a modern sentiment. Cases of it such as -existed among the ancient Greeks and Romans, characterised by -an ardour that made Friendship resemble the Love passion, are no -longer to be met with, although a somewhat less intense form -frequently occurs among young men at college or young ladies in -high schools: thus illustrating the law that the individual passes -through the same stages of development as the race.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The enthusiasm of friendship,” says Voltaire in his <cite>Philosophic -Dictionary</cite>, “was greater among the Greeks and Arabians than it -is among ourselves. The tales which these peoples have imagined -on friendship are delightful; we have nothing to match them. -We are somewhat dry in everything. I do not see a single grand -trait of friendship in our novels, in our histories, on our stage.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why is this so? Let another Frenchman, La Rochefoucauld, -answer: “The reason why the majority of women are but little -touched by friendship, is because it seems insipid after one has -experienced love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Precisely. The reason why the ancients, in their histories and -dramas, made so much of friendship, while modern poets almost -ignore it, is that the latter have a subject a thousand times more -fascinating than friendship, a subject unknown to the ancients—the -inexhaustible subject of Romantic Love.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>VII.—ROMANTIC LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>That Love is superior to friendship is apparent from the one -consideration that it includes <em>all</em> the features of friendship, and -adds to them a thousand ecstasies of which friendship never -dreams. The lover, no less than the friend, gratifies his social -instinct, his desire for companionship, his need of confessing his -own and sharing another’s hopes and fears, his craving for stimulating -conversation, his sympathetic disposition to give and receive -aid in the trials of life. But if modern friendship ever had any -moments to compare with the romantic episodes, the tragic agonies -and wild delights of love, would it be conceivable that our realistic -novelists and poets could neglect it altogether and devote all their -attention to Love?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The other personal affections fare no better in comparison with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>Love. How prosaic even Conjugal Love seems to us as compared -with Romantic Love, of which it is the metamorphosis and -continuation, is shown by the fact that novelists always end their -stories with the marriage of the hero and heroine.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Maternal Love, however, has four traits which occasionally -make it resemble Romantic Love in intensity. They are: (1) a -disposition toward self-sacrifice; (2) jealousy; (3) an exaggerated -adoration; and (4) pride of ownership. But of these the first is -the only one that ever quite rises to the giddy heights of rapturous -Love. Jealousy is often aroused in mothers if their children -display excessive fondness or partiality for their father or a family -friend; and they know well in such a case how to make the latter -understand that his presence is an impertinence. But this -momentary ebullition of feeling is but a storm in a tea-kettle -compared to the ferocity of a jealous lover seeking to devour his -rival. Nor does a mother’s excessive worship of the self-evident -beauty and accomplishments of her offspring ever quite equal the -hyperbolic illusion and folly of a lover.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, Romantic Love is a monopolist who never shares his -treasures of affection with another, whereas a mother, if she has -more than one child, is obliged to divide her heart like an apple, -so that each may get a slice. Would you infer from this that the -mother has a deeper fund of affection than the lover, because she -can love several at a time? Impossible. The amount of emotion -human nerves can bear is limited. The more you widen it, the -shallower does it become. The general love for all mankind is -the weakest and shallowest of all, the <a id='corr27.27'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='lover s'>lover’s</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_27.27'><ins class='correction' title='lover s'>lover’s</ins></a></span> concentrated affection -for one person the deepest and strongest. See what a terrible -strain on his nerves this deep passion is: how he loses flesh, -grows pale and feverish, and prone to self-destruction. Could a -mother survive if she loved each one of five or ten children with -the depth and intensity of a lover? No, we must take back what -we said a few pages back. Maternal affection is after all a mere -phantom compared with Romantic Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And the ace of hearts is yet to be played—in favour of -Romantic Love. The mother’s affection is bestowed on what -after all is merely a severed portion of her own individuality; -whereas the two lovers are individuals utterly unrelated. And -herein lies the Miracle of Love: that it can in a few days, ay, a -few minutes, ignite between two young persons who have perhaps -never before seen each other, a passion more intense than that -which in the mother is the growth of months and years.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It follows as a corollary from this that Romantic Love is not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>only more intense, more concentrated, more immediate and irresistible -than parental affection, but also more just, more in -accordance with the highest precepts of morality, because more -altruistic. For the mother loves only her own flesh and blood, -while the lover adores a stranger; like Romeo, he may even adore -the daughter of an enemy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thousands of fathers and mothers, moreover, love their own -ugly, vicious, and stupid children more than the beautiful, well-behaved, -and clever children of their neighbours. Who, on the -other hand, ever heard of a young man loving his ugly sister more -than the beautiful and accomplished daughter of his neighbour?</p> - -<p class='c001'>In consideration of the great importance of the family feelings -as a social cement, the parental injustice in question is pardoned -and even commended. But from the standpoint of progressive -culture, under guidance of the law of Natural Selection, it must be -condemned; for it favours demerit in preference to merit, and -retards the advent of the time when family and national prejudices -will be forgotten and replaced by a loverlike, cosmopolitan admiration -of personal excellence wherever and in whomsoever found.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This matter, though it has a semi-humorous aspect, is of the -deepest philosophic import. If family affection, so important as -the first step in the development of society, were the only form of -personal love, close intermarriage between blood-relations would be -unduly encouraged. Fortunately the all-powerful instinct of -Romantic Love comes in as a corrective of family affection, basing -its preferences not on relationship and resemblance, but on differences -and complementary qualities, thus securing for the human -race the advantages of “cross-fertilisation.” We have already seen -that flowers owe their beauty to the cross-fertilisation brought -about through the agency of bees and butterflies. In the same -way the human race owes its supreme beauty to the cross-fertilisation—the -union of complementary qualities—brought about through -the agency of Love. Is it perhaps for this reason that Love is so -much like a butterfly, and that Cupid has wings?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Instead of being merely a transient malady of youth, as cynics -aver, or only an epicurean episode in our emotional life, Love is -thus seen to be one of the greatest (if not <em>the</em> greatest) moral, -æsthetic, and hygienic forces that control human life. And in face -of this fact the few pages, or lines, commonly devoted to this -passion in psychologic text-books, seem wofully inadequate. No -apology is therefore needed for our attempt to subject Romantic -Love to a thorough chemical analysis, and to discover its ingredients. -We shall first enumerate and briefly characterise these ingredients; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>then proceed to examine how many of them are to be found in the -love of animals and savages, of the ancient nations and of our -mediæval ancestors; and finally, we shall attempt to describe these -various component parts of the passion, as fully developed in -Modern Love.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>OVERTONES OF ROMANTIC LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>First of all it is necessary to get rid of the prevalent illusion -that Love is a single emotion. It is, on the contrary, a most -complex and ever-varying <em>group</em> of emotions. Love is not a -diamond which drops from a celestial body, cut and polished, and -ready to be set into the human soul. Rather is it the crown of -life, composed of various jewels, some of which, mixed with much -coarse ore, may be found in the animal kingdom, among primitive -men and ancient civilised nations; but of which no complete -specimens are to be found till we come to comparatively modern -times. Each lover has his own crown, but no two of them are -exactly alike. The component jewels vary in size and brilliancy. -Some—as Coyness, Adoration, Gallantry, Jealousy—are occasionally -missing or lacking in lustre; and in Ancient Love those are -habitually absent which in Modern Love are most prominent and -cherished.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the composite nature of Love can be still better illustrated -by a comparison with colours, and with “overtones” in -music, between which and the elements of Love there exists a -wonderfully close analogy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Professor Helmholtz has proved that just as white is not a -simple colour, but a combination of all the hues of the rainbow, so -any single tone produced by the voice or a musical instrument is -not simple, as it seems, but contains, besides the <em>fundamental</em> tone -which the ordinary listener alone hears, several partial or “overtones,” -which blend so closely with the fundamental tone, that it -takes a very delicate ear and close attention to distinguish them. -Were it not for these overtones, all instruments would sound alike, -and music would lose all its charms of “colour.” For the fundamental -tones of instruments and voices are identical, and the only -thing that enables a musician to tell at a distance whether a given -note proceeds from a piano, voice, or violin, is the presence of these -overtones, which vary in their number, relative loudness and pitch -(or height), thus giving rise to the differences of quality or <em>timbre</em> -in instruments.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>In Love the fundamental tone is the sexual relation—the fact -that one of the lovers is male, the other female. This fundamental -tone does not vary throughout Nature. It is the same among -animals and savages as among civilised men; and what distinguishes -the passion of one of these groups from that of the other is alone -the overtones of love, which vary in number, relative prominence, -and refinement (“high-toned”).</p> - -<p class='c001'>What are these overtones?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>I.—INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>What first ennobles Love and raises it above mere passion, is -the stubborn preference for a particular individual. A savage -chief ignorant of Love would not hesitate a moment to exchange -his bride for two or three other women equally young and tempting; -whereas a man under the influence of Love would not give -his beloved for the choice among all the beauties of the Caucasus -and Andalusia. “If we pass in review the different degrees of -love,” says Schopenhauer, “from the most transient attachment to -the most violent passion, we shall find that the difference between -them springs from their different degrees of <em>individualisation</em>.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>II.—MONOPOLY OR EXCLUSIVENESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Closely connected with the first overtone is that of exclusiveness. -True Love is a monopolist. As in a sun-glass all the solar -rays are concentrated into one burning focus, so are the lover’s -emotions on his beloved. Not only does he care for <em>her</em> alone of -all women, but he voluntarily offers her a monopoly of <em>his</em> thoughts -and feelings. In return for this, however, he expects and exacts -of her a like monopoly of her affection and favours; and this leads -to the next overtone.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>III.—JEALOUSY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>This is the salt and pepper of Love. A little of it is piquant, -too much of it spoils the soup. The moral mission of Jealousy is, -by means of watchfulness and the inspiring of fear, to ensure -fidelity and chastity, and thus help to develop the romantic -features of Love.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>IV.—COYNESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>This is a specially feminine trait of Love, which, by retarding -the eager lover’s conquest, augments and idealises his passion. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>In Modern Love, Coyness varies in two directions—towards -prudery on one side, coquetry on the other.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>V.—GALLANTRY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>If Coyness is a peculiarly feminine ingredient of Love, Gallantry, -on the other hand, is a specially masculine attribute. The eager -desire to please, it is true, is also present in a woman’s Love; but -it shows itself less as an active impulse to do something for the -lover, than as a desire to please him by making herself as attractive -as possible.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>VI.—SELF-SACRIFICE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In the most violent cases of Love this overtone may reveal -itself in two ways: either as a mere exaggeration of Gallantry—a -desire to please even at the risk of life; or as a suicidal impulse in -cases of hopeless passion—when the one object which seemed to -make life worth living has been placed beyond reach.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>VII.—SYMPATHY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>“In order to feel with another’s pain it is enough to be a man; -to feel with another’s pleasure it is needful to be an angel.” If -this be true, then lovers are angels. For not only do they share -one another’s pleasures, but it is impossible for the one to be really -happy unless the other enjoys the same emotion. “Does that -other see the same star, the same melting cloud; read the same -book, feel the same emotion that now delights me?”—these are, -in Emerson’s words, the questions which the lovers, when separated, -ask incessantly.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>VIII.—PRIDE OF CONQUEST AND POSSESSION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In his suggestive but incomplete analysis of Love, in his -<cite>Principles of Psychology</cite>, Mr. Herbert Spencer names as two -of the emotions which enter into it, the Love of Approbation and -Self-Esteem, which he thus defines: “To be preferred above all -the world, and that by one admired beyond all others, is to have -the love of approbation gratified in a degree passing every previous -experience: especially as, to this direct gratification of it, there -must be added that reflex gratification of it, which results from -the preference being witnessed by unconcerned persons. Further, -there is the allied emotion of self-esteem. To have succeeded in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>gaining such attachment from, and sway over, another, is a practical -proof of power, of superiority, which cannot fail agreeably to excite -the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><em>amour propre</em></span>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This is well expressed, but the names are obviously not well -chosen. It is hardly correct to intimate that the “love of approbation” -and “self-esteem” constitute two of the group of emotions -which we call Love. What the lover <em>feels</em> is not a “love of -approbation,” etc., but the emotion of <em>Pride</em> at having conquered -and gained possession of so desirable a prize.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>IX.—EMOTIONAL HYPERBOLE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The lover sees, thinks, and feels only in superlatives. His -eyes are no longer mere “<em>windows</em> of the soul,” but <em>microscopes</em> -which magnify all the beloved’s merits on the scale of seven square -miles to the inch. And the hyberbolic imagery which constitutes -the essence of love-poetry is his everyday food—with a special -<em>menu</em> on Sundays.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>X.—MIXED MOODS—MAJOR AND MINOR</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is in Love that “confusion makes his masterpiece.” The -lover is so incessantly tossed on the ocean of turbulent emotion -that he soon ceases to know or care which is up and which down, -and all that remains is an all-engrossing sense of love-sickness.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Angels call it heavenly joy,</div> - <div class='line'>Infernal torture the devils say;</div> - <div class='line'>And men? They call it—Love.”—<span class='sc'>Heine.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>XI.—ADMIRATION OF PERSONAL BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>This is the æsthetic overtone of Love; and so prominent is it -that it is commonly heard before and above all the others. -“Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold,” says Shakspere; -and if you tell twenty of your male acquaintances that you have -been introduced to a young lady, nineteen of them will ask immediately, -“Is she pretty?” No reporter ever writes about -a girl murdered by a tramp or burnt in a house, without describing -her as a model of beauty, in order to double the reader’s interest -and quintuple his pity. Madame de Staël confessed that she -would have gladly exchanged her literary genius for beauty. -With the Greeks already the words Love and Beauty were inseparably -associated; and even the Chinese, who are not embarrassed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>by an excess of beauty, have a proverb, “With one -smile she overthrew a city, with another a kingdom.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This completes the preliminary analysis of Love. I regret -exceedingly that I have been able to discover only eleven “overtones” -in Modern Love: but inasmuch as at least six of these—Nos. -V. to X.—are only about a thousand years old, there is -reason to hope that some fine morning in May a new one will be -born to make up the round dozen. If so, it is to be hoped it will -assume in men the form of an absolute insistance on feminine -health, and an instinctive detestation of the hideous and love-killing -fashions with which women still persist in ruining their -beauty.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>HERBERT SPENCER ON LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>For the sake of comparison I may cite Mr. Spencer’s summary -of the elements which he thinks compose Love: “Round the -physical feeling forming the nucleus of the whole there are -gathered the feelings produced by personal beauty, that constituting -simple attachment, those of reverence, of love of approbation, -of self-esteem, of property, of love of freedom, of sympathy. All -these, each excited in the highest degree, and severally tending to -reflect their excitement on each other, form the composite psychical -state which we call Love. And as each of these feelings is -in itself highly complicated, uniting a wide range of states of consciousness, -we may say that this passion fuses into an immense -aggregation, nearly all the elementary excitations of which we are -capable; and that from this results its irresistible power.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let us now see how many of the characters of true Romantic -Love are to be found in the courtship of animals and savages.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>LOVE AMONG ANIMALS</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>As comparative psychology is the youngest branch of philosophy, -there are still among us thousands of excellent but ignorant folks -who cling to the old mythologic notion that animals are animated -machines or things “which” are devoid of intellect and feeling, -and guided by a metaphysical fetish called “instinct.” To such -the undertaking of a search for Love—real Romantic Love—among -animals, will seem not only absurd, but a sort of high -treason against human conceit. To mitigate any possible indignation -on the reader’s part, it may be advisable, therefore, to begin -by giving a few illustrations demonstrating the existence of various -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>family affections and friendship in the animal world; after which, the -possibility of finding traces of Love proper will appear less remote.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Paternal, filial, brotherly, and sisterly</em> love, comparatively -weak and undeveloped in man, are indeed almost absent in the -lower animals. Birds of the same brood do not recognise each -other after they have left their nest; and a dog will not hesitate -to attack his own brother as a stranger after a year’s separation. -The part which a male bird takes in feeding and protecting the -young is, as Horwicz suggests, an element of his conjugal rather -than his paternal feeling; and a young animal that would risk its -own life in defence of its mother or father is yet to be heard from.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Friendship</em>, however, does exist between animals, as we have -already seen; and not only among animals of the same species, -but of different species. “Happy families” of animals commonly -hostile to each other have been known outside of the showman’s -cage. Büchner cites instances of friendship between a robin and a -cat; a fox and duck; dog and deer; cat and mouse; and even -such absurdly incongruous cases of attachment as between a crow -and a bull; a dog and an elephant; a cat and a rattlesnake. But the -deepest feeling of friendship which any animal is capable of feeling -is undoubtedly the dog’s love of his master. “Professor Braubach,” -says Darwin, “goes so far as to maintain that a dog looks on his -master as on a god.” “It is said,” he adds in a footnote, “that -Bacon long ago, and the poet Burns, held the same notion.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Maternal and conjugal</em> affection, however, are, as in man, so -in animals, the two strongest forms of family attachment. A -French author, M. Menault, has written a special treatise on -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Amour Maternel chez les Animaux</cite></span>, and Dr. Büchner exclaims, -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>à propos</i></span>: “If a human mother, with certain destruction staring -in her face, dashes into a burning house to save her imperilled -child, and thus finds her own death, this sacrifice is no greater, no -more heroic, than that of a stork-mother who, after vain efforts to -save her brood, is voluntarily burnt up with them in her nest; or -of those elephant-mothers who, as Schweinfurth narrates, in the -African hunting expeditions, when the bushes along the shore are -ignited in order to drive out the elephants, seek to save their -young ones by filling their trunks with water and sprinkling it -over them, while they themselves are roasting.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>How low down in the scale of animal life traces of <em>conjugal</em> -attachment are to be found is shown by the following case cited -by Darwin: “An accurate observer, Mr. Lonsdale, informs me -that he placed a pair of landsnails, one of which was weakly, into -a small and ill-provided garden. After a short time the strong -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>and healthy individual disappeared, and was traced by its track of -slime over a wall into an adjoining well-stocked garden. Mr. -Lonsdale concluded that it had deserted its sickly mate, but after -an absence of twenty-four hours it returned, and apparently communicated -the result of its successful exploration, for both then -started along the same track and disappeared over the wall.” -Again, the naturalist, Mr. Bate, experimented on the conjugal -feelings of <em>Gammarus marinus</em>, or the sandskipper common on -English shores, by separating a male from its female, and imprisoning -both in the same vessel with many individuals of the -same species. “The female, when thus divorced, soon joined the -others. After a time the male was put again into the same -vessel; and he then, after swimming about for a time, dashed -into the crowd, and without any fighting at once took away his -wife. This fact shows that in the Amphipoda, an order low in -the scale, the males and females recognise each other, and are -mutually attached.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning birds, Darwin remarks: “It has often been said -that parrots become so deeply attached to each other that when -one dies the other pines for a long time; but Mr. Jenner Weir -thinks that with most birds the strength of their affection has -been much exaggerated. Nevertheless, when one of a pair in a -state of nature has been shot, the survivor has been heard for days -afterwards uttering a plaintive call; and Mr. St. John gives -various facts proving the attachment of mated birds. Mr. Bennett -relates that in China after a drake of the beautiful mandarin Teal -had been stolen, the duck remained disconsolate, though sedulously -courted by another mandarin drake, who displayed before her all -his charms. After an interval of three weeks the stolen drake -was recovered, and instantly the pair recognised each other with -extreme joy.” “Dr. Buller says (<cite>Birds of New Zealand</cite>) that a -male king lory was killed, and the female ‘fretted and moped, refused -her food, and died of a broken heart.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But there are exceptions to this rule of conjugal attachment -and fidelity, as is shown in the following quotation, which completes -the curious analogy between human and bird love connubial: -“Mr. Harrison Weir has himself observed, and has heard from -several breeders, that a female pigeon will occasionally take a -strong fancy for a particular male, and will desert her own mate -for him. Some females, according to another experienced observer, -Riedel, are of a profligate disposition, and prefer almost any stranger -to their own mate. Some amorous males, called by our English -fanciers ‘gay birds,’ are so successful in their gallantries that, as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>Mr. H. Weir informs me, they must be shut up on account of the -mischief which they cause.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So there are Don Juans even among pigeons!</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Intermarriages</em> or mixed unions also occur among birds. Says -Darwin: “It is certain that distinct species of birds occasionally -pair in a state of nature and produce hybrids. Many instances -could be given: thus Macgillivray relates how a male blackbird -and female thrush ‘fell in love with each other,’ and produced -offspring. Several years ago eighteen cases had been recorded of -the occurrence in Great Britain of hybrids between the black -grouse and pheasant.... A male widgeon, living with females -of the same species, has been known to pair with a pintail duck. -Lloyd describes the remarkable attachment between a shield-drake -and a common duck. Many additional instances could be given; -and the Rev. E. S. Dixon remarks that ‘those who have kept -many different species of geese together, well know what unaccountable -attachments they are frequently forming, and that they are -quite as likely to pair and rear young with individuals of a race -(species) apparently the most alien to themselves, as with their -own stock.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In their <em>marriages</em> animals have anticipated man in every -possible arrangement—promiscuity, polygamy, monogamy, polyandry. -According to Darwin, “Many mammals and some few -birds are polygamous, but with other animals belonging to the -lower classes I have found no evidence of this habit.” He has -not “heard of any species in the Orders of Cheiroptera, Edentata, -Insectivora, and Rodents being polygamous, excepting that among -the Rodents the common rat, according to some rat-catchers, lives -with several females.” Among the terrestrial carnivora the lion -seems to be the only polygamist, while the marine carnivora are -“eminently polygamous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Domestication sometimes has the bad effect of converting wild -birds to Mormonism. Thus “the wild duck is strictly monogamous, -the domestic duck highly polygamous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is among wild birds in general that the most remarkable -cases of conjugal attachment in the animal world are found. -And since most birds are monogamous, pairing sometimes even for -life, we may hence draw the important conclusion that among -animals, as among men, monogamy seems to favour the development -of conjugal love. Polygamy, on the other hand, everywhere -introduces jealousies, rivalries, discords. Among Oriental nations -where polygamy prevails, each wife must have her own apartments, -and no one would dare to taste food prepared by another, for fear -<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>of poison. On some animals polygamy seems to have a similar -effect, for we read that “Mr. Bartlett believes that the Lophophorus, -like many other gallinaceous birds, is naturally polygamous, -but two females cannot be placed in the same cage with a male, as -they fight so much together.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COURTSHIP</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The foregoing illustrations, many of which show the gross -injustice lurking in our expression “animal passion,” will have -prepared the reader’s mind for the search after the elements of -<em>romantic</em> or pre-nuptial Love in animals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The development of romantic, as distinguished from conjugal -love, depends on the existence of <em>a more or less prolonged period of -courtship</em>. Where this is absent Love is absent, as among the -ancient nations and those of the moderns who lock up their women -until they are ready to be sold to a husband, at sight.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among animals the young females are not locked up or -chaperoned. They are free to meet the young males and fall in -love with the one that pleases them most.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As a rule the preliminaries to animal marriages are doubtless -brief. If a healthy, vigorous male comes across a mature, healthy -female, it is usually a case of mutual <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>veni, vidi, vici</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In other cases, however, courtship is a more prolonged affair, -owing partly to the coyness of the female, partly to the rivalries -among the male suitors.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Animal courtship is carried on either by single pairs in the -romantic shades of the forests, or else at special <em>nuptial mass -meetings</em>, resembling those held by some primitive tribes whose -unmarried young people assemble on certain days in the year to -select partners. Of the common magpie, for instance, Darwin -relates that “Some years ago these birds abounded in extraordinary -numbers, so that a gamekeeper killed in one morning nineteen -males, and another killed by a single shot seven birds roosting -together. They then had the habit of assembling very early in -the spring at particular spots, where they could be seen in flocks, -chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling, and flying about the -trees. The whole affair was evidently considered by the birds as one -of the highest importance. Shortly after the meeting they all -separated, and were then observed by Mr. Fox and others to be -paired for the season.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This was known as the “great magpie marriage.” In Germany -and Scandinavia similar assemblages of black game are so -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>common that special names have been given to them. “The -bowers of the bower-birds are the resort of both sexes during the -breeding season; and here the males meet and contend with each -other for the favours of the females, and here the latter assemble -and coquet with the males.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Two more cases may be cited: “With one of the vultures -(<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Cathartes aura</i></span>) of the United States parties of eight, ten, or -more males and females assemble on fallen logs, ‘exhibiting the -strongest <em>desire to please</em> mutually,’ and after many caresses each -male leads off his partner on the wing. Audubon likewise carefully -observed the wild flocks of Canada geese, and gives a graphic -description of their love-antics; he says that the birds which had -been previously mated ‘renewed their courtship as early as the -month of January, while the others would be contending or -coquetting for hours every day, until all seemed satisfied with the -choice they had made, after which, although they remained together, -any person could easily perceive that they were careful to -keep in pairs. I have observed also that the older the birds the -shorter were the preliminaries of their courtship. The bachelors -and old maids, whether in regret or not caring to be disturbed by -the bustle, quietly moved aside and lay down at some distance -from the rest.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Separate courtship</em> may be illustrated by the following cases, -the first of which is also interesting as showing that it is not -among men alone that the female occasionally becomes the wooer; -and the second as showing how early in the scale of animal life a -primitive sort of courtship may be found. Concerning a wild duck -brought up in captivity Mr. Hewitt says that “After breeding a -couple of seasons with her own mallard, it at once shook him off -on my placing a male pintail on the water. It was evidently a -case of <em>love at first sight</em>, for she swam about the newcomer caressingly, -though he appeared evidently alarmed and averse to her -overtures of affection. From that hour she forgot her old partner. -Winter passed by, and the next spring the pintail seemed to have -become a convert to her blandishments, for they nested and produced -seven or eight young ones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The second case relates to the landsnail, concerning which -Agassiz says: “Quiconque a eu l’occasion d’observer les amours -des limaçons ne saurait mettre en doute la séduction déployée dans -les mouvements et les allures qui préparent et accomplissent le -double embrassement de ces hermaphrodites.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The opportunities for prolonged Courtship being thus given, the -question arises, “Do animals, while a-wooing, experience the same -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>feelings as a human lover?” In other words, Are any of the overtones -of Romantic Love present in the amorous passion of animals?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Several of them no doubt are habitually absent. Animals have -not sufficient imagination to meditate consciously on their probable -success or failure in Courtship; and this lack of imaginative power -excludes those “overtones” which are chiefly dependent on that -faculty; notably Sympathy with the beloved’s feelings, Pride of -Conquest and Possession, Hyperbolic Adoration, Voluntary Self-Sacrifice -for the other, and the Woful Ecstasy of Mixed Moods. -That Gallantry, or the Desire to Please, <em>may</em> be present is shown -by the words I have italicised in the quotation just made regarding -the courtship of vultures, and is further shown by the display of -their ornamental plumage by male birds to excite the attention of -the female. Exclusiveness of affection is indicated by the occasional -indifference of the wooer to every rival; and when we read -of the German blackcock’s love-dances, during which, “the more -ardent he grows the more lively he becomes, until at last the bird -appears like a frantic creature”; and that “at such times the -blackcocks are so absorbed that they become almost <em>blind and deaf</em>, -but less so than the capercailzie,” so that “bird after bird may be -shot on the spot, or even caught by the hand”—when we read -this, we feel tempted to credit these birds even with those highest -and most specialised forms of lover’s madness which lead to oblivion—Self-Sacrifice -and Ecstatic Adoration.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The four traits of Romantic Love which are doubtless present -in the passion of animals are Jealousy, Coyness, Individual Preference, -and Admiration of Personal Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>a</i>) <em>Jealousy.</em>—Volumes might be filled with accounts of the -tragedies brought about through animal rivalry and jealousy during -the season of love. “The courage and the desperate conflicts of -stags have often been described,” says Darwin; “their skeletons -have been found in various parts of the world, with the horns inextricably -locked together, showing how miserably the victor and -vanquished had perished.” “Male sperm-whales are very jealous” -at the season of love; “and in their battles ‘they often lock their -jaws together, and turn on their sides and twist about’; so that -their lower jaws often become distorted.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>When birds gaze at themselves in a looking-glass, as they often -do, the same authority inclines to the belief that they do it from -jealousy of a supposed rival; and Mr. Jenner Weir, he states, “is -convinced that birds pay particular attention to the colours of -other birds, sometimes out of jealousy, and sometimes as a sign of -kinship;” while “many naturalists believe that the singing of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>birds is almost exclusively ‘the effect of rivalry and emulation,’ -and not for the sake of charming their mates.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Animal Jealousy is apparently dependent on the immediate -presence of the rival and the female; while the Jealousy of a -human lover is also a matter of the imagination, and smarts even -more intensely during Her absence; for his morbid fancy then loves -to picture Her in the arms of his victorious rival. He does not, -however, except in some southern countries, emulate the jealous -lion by seeking to devour his rival, but is contented if he can ward -him off by stratagem, or make him appear in a disadvantageous -light in Her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>b</i>) <em>Coyness.</em>—Just as the Jealousy displayed by two animals -fighting for a female is a gross, primitive emotion, so the Coyness -of female animals is crude and clumsy compared with the delicious -subtlety with which a human maiden veils a Yes under an -apparent No. Yet it plays a prominent <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> in the courtship of -animals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A human lover would often consider it a special privilege to be -eaten up, skin, bones, and all, by his mistress; but it is doubtful -whether spiders are ever madly enough in love to relish the conduct -of their females, as described by Darwin: “The male is generally -much smaller than the female, sometimes to an extraordinary -degree, and he is forced to be extremely cautious in making his -advances, as the female often carries her coyness to a dangerous -pitch. De Geer saw a male that ‘in the midst of his preparatory -caresses was seized by the object of his attentions, enveloped by -her in a web, and then devoured’; a sight which, as he adds, filled -him with indignation and horror. Female fishes also are apt to -give a cannibal tinge to their coyness by eating up the smaller -males—actions to which remote human analogies may be found in -the coyness of mediæval dames, who sent their lovers to wars and -into lions’ dens as conditions of enjoying their favours; or, conversely, -in the habits of those Australians who eat their wives -after they have ceased to be either ornamental or useful.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Indubitable evidences of Coyness are found as low down as -among insects; as, for example, in the species called <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Smynthurnus -luteus</i></span>, “wingless, dull-coloured, minute insects, with ugly, almost -misshapen heads and bodies,” concerning which Sir John Lubbock -remarks: “It is very amusing to see these little creatures -coquetting together. The male, which is much smaller than the -female, runs round her, and they butt one another standing face -to face and moving backward and forward like two playful lambs. -Then the female pretends to run away, and the male runs after -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>her with a queer appearance of anger, gets in front and stands -facing her again; then she turns coyly round, but he, quicker and -more active, scuttles round too, and seems to whip her with his -antennæ; then for a bit they stand face to face, play with their -antennæ, and seem to be all in all to one another.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Coyness of birds is illustrated by the following cases cited -by Büchner from Brehm and A. and K. Müller: “A genuine -coquette is the female cuckoo, who answers the call of the male -with a peculiar resonant, tittering or laughing love-call. ‘The -call is seducing, promising in advance, and its effect on the male -simply enchanting.’ But how long the lovers pursuing the siren -have to wait before she accepts one of them! A wild flight -begins, among bushes and tree-tops, while the female encourages -the pursuers with repeated calls, and finally gets them into a state -of erotic excitement bordering on madness. At the same time the -female is no less excited than her frantic suitors. Her favourite, -no doubt, is the most eager of the lovers, and her apparent -resistance simply the desire to excite him still more!... The -female of the icebird (<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Alcedo ispida</i></span>) often teases her lover half a -day at a time, by repeatedly approaching him, screaming at him, -and flying away again. At the same time she never loses sight of -him, but in her flight casts glances at him backwards and sidewise, -moderates the rapidity of her flight, and returns in a wide -curve if the male suddenly ceases from his pursuit.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Could anything be more naïvely, more humanly, more -exquisitely feminine? If a lover, says a French philosopher, fails -in his suit, let him desist for a moment, and she will presently -call him back.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No inquiry has ever been made by naturalists, so far as I am -aware, as to the origin of Coyness among animals. Two probable -sources of this feeling may therefore be here suggested. The first -is a vague instinctive presentiment (based on inherited cerebral -impressions) that with mating the labours of life will begin: the -painful laying of eggs; the loss of liberty during incubation—an -incalculable loss to these most active of all animals; and the care -of the young, which, again, is not a trifling matter, inasmuch as a -family of starlings, for example, needs for its daily food more than -eight hundred snails, caterpillars, etc.; and birds sometimes perish -from exhaustion in the attempt to feed their offspring.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The second source of Coyness is probably another instinctive -feeling (based on inherited experience) which induces the female -to defer her choice until the combats and manœuvres of the males -have shown which one is the most energetic, courageous, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>persistent: for he will obviously be best able to support her -brood, and protect it as well as herself against enemies. Hence, -during the combats of rival males, the female is commonly a -passive spectator, and at the end quietly marches or flies off with -the victor. All of which, by the way, shows that among animals -already masculine love is deeper than feminine. Indirectly, it is -true, feminine Coyness is the cause of Love—but only of <em>masculine</em> -Love; for if the female animal always accepted the first male -who asked her—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“My pretty maiden, may I venture</div> - <div class='line'>To offer you my arm and escort?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>there would be no opportunity for the growth of pre-matrimonial -passion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>c</i>) <em>Individual Preference.</em>—Owing to our scant information -concerning the courtship of animals in a state of nature, Darwin -did not succeed in discovering any cases among mammals of -decided preference shown by a male for any particular female; -and regarding domesticated quadrupeds, “The general impression -amongst breeders seems to be that the male accepts any female; -and this, owing to his eagerness, is, in most cases, probably the -truth.” A few cases of special preference or antipathy in dogs, -horses, bulls, and boars, were, however, communicated to him. -Concerning birds Darwin remarks that “In all ordinary cases the -male is so eager that he will accept any female, and does not, as -far as we can judge, prefer one to the other, but ... exceptions -to this rule apparently occur in some few groups. With -domesticated birds, I have heard of only one case of males -showing any preference for certain females, namely, that of the -domestic cock, who, according to the high authority of Mr. -Hewitt, prefers the younger to the older hens.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This, however, is at best only a polygamous sort of Preference, -which, after all, lacks the essential traits of Individualisation and -Exclusiveness. With the long-tailed duck (<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Harelda glacialis</i></span>), -M. Ekström says, “It has been remarked that certain females are -much more courted than the rest. Frequently, indeed, one sees -an individual surrounded by six or eight amorous males.” -Whether this statement is credible Darwin does not know; but -the Swedish sportsmen, he adds, shoot these females and stuff -them as decoys.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In female animals, on the other hand, the “overtone” of -Individual Preference appears to be more frequently present. -Darwin even asserts that “the exertion of some choice on the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>part of the female seems a law almost as general as the eagerness -of the male;” but this is not borne out by the numerous illustrations -given by himself, showing that when two or more males are -engaged in jealous combat, “the female looks on as a passive -spectator,” and finally goes off with the victor, whichever of the -rivals he may prove to be, without showing the slightest concern -for the vanquished. An Australian forest-maiden might behave -similarly under these circumstances, but a civilised maiden would -cling to the one who had made the deepest impression on her -previous to the combat; and if wounded, would adore him all the -more; for in her Love pity is a stronger ingredient than even the -love of prowess.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That female birds, however, <em>sometimes</em> exert a choice is admitted -even by Mr. A. R. Wallace (<cite>Tropical Nature</cite>, p. 199); and a few -of the cases referred to by Darwin may here be cited: “Audubon—and -we must remember that he spent a long life in prowling -about the forests of the United States and observing the birds—does -not doubt that the female deliberately chooses her mate; -thus, speaking of a woodpecker, he says the hen is followed by half -a dozen gay suitors, who continue performing strange antics ‘until -a marked preference is shown for one.’ The female of the red-winged -starling (<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Agelæus phœniceus</i></span>) is likewise pursued by several -males, ‘until, becoming fatigued, she alights, receives their -addresses, and soon makes a choice.’ He describes also how -several male nightjars repeatedly plunge through the air with -astonishing rapidity, suddenly turning, and thus making a singular -noise; ‘but no sooner has the female made her choice than the -other males are driven away.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning domesticated birds we have seen that that gallinaceous -sultan, the domestic cock, shows a decided preference for the -younger hens in his harem. But the female is not a bit less -frivolous and capricious; for, according to Mr. Hewitt, she almost -invariably prefers the most vigorous, defiant, and mettlesome male; -hence it is almost useless, he adds, “to attempt true breeding if a -game-cock in good health and condition runs the locality, for -almost every hen on leaving the roosting-place will resort to the -game-cock, even though that bird may not actually drive away the -male of her own variety.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>d</i>) <em>Personal Beauty and Sexual Selection.</em>—Mr. Wallace, who -discovered the law of Natural Selection independently of Darwin, -admits, as just stated, that “in birds the females do sometimes -exert a choice”; but he adds that “amid the copious mass of -facts and opinions collected by Mr. Darwin as to the display of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>colour and ornaments by the male birds, there is <em>a total absence of -any evidence that the females admire or even notice this display</em>. -The hen, the turkey, and the pea-fowl go on feeding while the -male is displaying his finery; and there is reason to believe that -it is his persistency and energy rather than his beauty which wins -the day.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Briefly stated, the difference between the views of these two -eminent naturalists is this: Darwin believes that in those cases -where the sexes are not alike, the differences are due to the <em>males</em>, -originally plain, having become modified through <em>Sexual</em> Selection -for <em>ornamental</em> purposes; while Mr. Wallace believes that colour -is a normal product in animal integuments, proportionate to their -vitality, and that the sexual differences in ornamentation are due -to the <em>females</em> having been modified through <em>Natural</em> Selection for -the sake of <em>protection</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the best brief <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>résumé</i></span> Darwin has made of his views -on this subject is given on page 421 of the <cite>Descent of Man</cite> -(London edition, 1885), which may therefore be here cited in full: -"If an inhabitant of another planet were to behold a number of -young rustics at a fair courting a pretty girl, and quarrelling about -her like birds at one of their places of assemblage, he would, by -the eagerness of the wooers to please her and to display their -finery, infer that she had the power of choice. Now with birds -the evidence stands thus: they have acute powers of observation, -and they seem to have some taste for the beautiful both in colour -and sound. It is certain that the females occasionally exhibit, from -unknown causes, the strongest antipathies and preferences for -particular males. When the sexes differ in colour or in other -ornaments, the males with rare exceptions are the more decorated, -either permanently or during the breeding season. They sedulously -display their various ornaments, exert their voices, and perform -strange antics in the presence of the females. Even well-armed -males who, it might be thought, would altogether depend for -success on the law of battle, are in most cases highly ornamented; -and their ornaments have been acquired at the expense of some -loss of power. In other cases ornaments have been acquired at -the cost of increased risk from birds and beasts of prey. With -various species many individuals of both sexes congregate at the -same spot, and their courtship is a prolonged affair. There is -even reason to suspect that the males and females within the same -district do not always succeed in pleasing each other and pairing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What then are we to conclude from these facts and considerations? -Does the male parade his charms with so much pomp and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>rivalry for no purpose? Are we not justified in believing that the -female exerts a choice, and that she receives the addresses of the -male who pleases her most? It is not probable that she consciously -deliberates; but she is most excited or attracted by the most -beautiful, or melodious, or gallant males. Nor need it be supposed -that the female studies each stripe or spot of colour; that the -peahen, for instance, admires each detail in the gorgeous train of -the peacock—she is probably struck only by the general effect. -Nevertheless, after hearing how carefully the male Argus pheasant -displays his elegant primary wing-feathers, and erects his ocellated -plumes in the right position for their full effect; or again, how the -male goldfinch alternately displays his gold-bespangled wings, we -ought not to feel too sure that the female does not attend to each -detail of beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now it was this very case of the Argus pheasant that first shook -Mr. Wallace’s “belief in ‘sexual,’ or, more properly, ‘female’ -selection. The long series of gradations by which the beautifully-shaped -ocelli on the secondary wing-feathers of this bird have been -produced are clearly traced out; the result being a set of markings -so exquisitely shaded as to represent ‘balls lying loose within -sockets’—purely artificial objects of which these birds could have -no possible experience. That this result should have been attained -through thousands and tens of thousands of female birds all preferring -those males whose markings varied slightly in this one -direction, this uniformity of choice continuing through thousands -and tens of thousands of generations, is to me absolutely incredible. -And when, further, we remember that those who did not so vary -would also, according to all evidence, find mates and have offspring, -the actual result seems quite impossible of attainment by such -means.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>According to Darwin’s own admission (<cite>Descent of Man</cite>, p. -211), he advanced the theory of Sexual Selection because, in his -opinion, Natural Selection did not account for the various ornaments -and attractions of the males in question. Mr. Wallace, -on the other hand, believes that Sexual Selection does <em>not</em>, while -Natural Selection <em>does</em> account for these ornaments; so, in place -of Darwin’s view that the beauty of certain male animals leads -the females to prefer them to their less ornamented rivals, he substitutes -the theory that it is the superior vitality, persistence, and -vivacity of the favoured males that fascinate the females, and that -masculine beauty is simply a natural result of superior vigour and -superabundant health.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Darwin doubtless errs in claiming an æsthetic sense for animals -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>so low in the scale of life as butterflies and other insects, and in -attributing to it such extraordinary effects in the development of -personal beauty. What Mr. Wallace has done in <cite>Tropical -Nature</cite> is to show simply that it is quite unnecessary to invoke -the aid of so questionable an agency as Sexual Selection in order -to account for the ornaments of animals; and that the fundamental -principle of Darwinism, <em>Natural</em> Selection, accounts for -everything.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He maintains that colour is a normal product of organisation, -and that not so much its presence as its absence needs accounting -for. White and black are comparatively rare and exceptional in -nature, while the various tints of red, blue, green, etc., are -continually appearing spontaneously and irregularly in the integuments -of animals. These irregular colours, if injurious to the -species, will be at once eliminated by Natural Selection; but if -useful for purposes of identification or protection, they will be -preserved and intensified.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now colour, Mr. Wallace continues, is proportionate to integumentary -development, and is most conspicuous in the wings of -butterflies and the feathers of birds, for the reason that, just as -“the spots and rings on a soap-bubble increase with increasing -tenuity,” similarly the delicately-organised surface of feathers and -scales is highly favourable to the production of varied colour-effects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Colour being thus proportionate to integumentary development, -we find next that integumentary development is, in turn, proportionate -to vigour and vitality; the strongest animals having the -largest feathers, scales, horns, etc. Hence the most vigorous and -healthy animals are also the most beautiful, the most brilliantly -coloured. And this correlation between healthful vigour and -beauty is still more strikingly shown in this, that “The colours of -an animal usually fade during disease or weakness, while robust -health and vigour adds to their intensity.... In all quadrupeds -a ‘dull coat’ is indicative of ill-health or low condition; while a -glossy coat and sparkling eye are the invariable accompaniments -of health and energy. The same rule applies to the feathers of -birds, whose colours are only seen in their purity during perfect -health; and a similar phenomenon occurs even among insects, for -the bright hues of caterpillars begin to fade as soon as they -become inactive preparatory to their undergoing transformation. -Even in the vegetable kingdom we see the same thing: for the -tints of foliage are deepest, and the colours of flowers and fruits -richest, on those plants which are in the most healthy and -vigorous condition.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>Add to all these considerations that “this intensity of coloration -becomes most developed during the breeding season, when the -vitality is at a maximum,” and we shall be prepared for Mr. -Wallace’s summing up of his case:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If now we accept the evidence of Mr. Darwin’s most trustworthy -correspondents, that the choice of the female, so far as she -exerts any, falls upon ‘the most vigorous, defiant, and mettlesome -male’; and if we further believe, what is certainly the case, that -these are as a rule the most highly-coloured and adorned with -the finest developments of plumage, we have a real and not -a hypothetical cause at work. For these most healthy, vigorous, -and beautiful males will have the choice of the finest and most -healthy females; and will be able best to protect and rear those -families. Natural Selection, and what may be termed Male -Selection, will tend to give them the advantage in the struggle -for existence; and thus the fullest and the finest colours will be -transmitted, and tend to advance in each succeeding generation.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>By this strong chain of reasoning (to which my brief <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>>résumé</i></span> of -course cannot do justice) Mr. Wallace shows that Darwin needlessly -introduced the principle of Sexual Selection into animal -courtship; and at the same time furnishes a new confirmation of -Darwin’s compliment that he has “an innate genius for solving -difficulties.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What makes Mr. Wallace’s argument the more cogent is the -fact that Darwin himself, in speaking of the lowest classes of -animals, explains their beauty on the same principles as those -which Mr. Wallace applies to the higher animals. Thus he says: -“We can, in our ignorance of most of the lowest animals, only -say that their bright tints result either from the chemical nature -or the minute structure of their tissues, independently of any -benefit thus derived.” “It is almost certain that these animals -have too imperfect senses, and much too low mental powers, to -appreciate each other’s beauty or other attractions, or to feel -rivalry.” “Nor is it at all obvious how the offspring from the -more beautiful pairs of hermaphrodites would have any advantage -over the offspring of the less beautiful, so as to increase in -number, <em>unless indeed vigour and beauty generally coincided</em>.” -And once more, “The sedentary annelids become duller-coloured, -according to M. Quatrefages, after the period of reproduction; -and this I presume may be attributed to their less vigorous -condition at that time.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So far we have only considered the origin of animal colours in -general. Mr. Wallace, however, has not only made clear the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>general connection between beautiful and vivid colours and health, -but, by utilising his own researches and those of Mr. Bates and -other naturalists, he has been able to show to what a great extent -we can explain even the <em>particular</em> colours of the various classes -of animals. He distinguishes four classes of animal colours—Protective, -Warning, Sexual, and Typical.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) <em>Protective Colours.</em>—These “are exceedingly prevalent in -nature, comprising those of all the white arctic animals, the sandy-coloured -desert forms, and the green birds and insects of tropical -forests. It also comprises thousands of cases of special resemblance—of -birds to the surroundings of their nests, and especially of -insects to the bark, leaves, flowers, or soil on or amid which they -dwell. Mammalia, fishes, and reptiles, as well as mollusca, present -similar phenomena; and the more the habits of animals are investigated, -the more numerous are found to be the cases in which their -colours tend to conceal them, either from their enemies or from the -creatures they prey upon.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(2) <em>Warning Colours.</em>—In this class, on the other hand, the -object is not to conceal the animal, but to make it conspicuous. -Certain species of gorgeously-coloured butterflies, <i>e.g.</i> are never -eaten by birds, spiders, lizards, or monkeys, who eagerly feed on -other butterflies. “The reason simply is that they are not fit to -eat, their juices having a powerful odour and taste that is absolutely -disgusting to all these animals. Now we see the reason of -their showy colours and slow flight. It is good for them to be -seen and recognised, for then they are never molested; but if they -did not differ in form and colouring from other butterflies, or if -they flew so quickly that their peculiarities could not be easily -noticed, they would be captured, and though not eaten, would be -maimed or killed.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mimicry is the name given to a second and still more marvellous -class of Warning Colours. They belong to defenceless creatures -which so closely resemble other brightly-coloured but nauseous or -dangerous animals that they are mistaken for the latter, and -therefore left alone. <i>E.G.</i> “Wasps are imitated by moths, and -ants by beetles; and even poisonous snakes are mimicked by -harmless snakes, and dangerous hawks by defenceless cuckoos.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) <em>Typically</em>-coloured animals are those species which are -brilliantly coloured in both sexes, “and for whose particular -colours we can assign no function or use.” This group “comprises -an immense number of showy birds, such as Kingfishers, Barbets, -Toucans, Lories, Tits, and Starlings; among insects most of the -largest and handsomest butterflies,” etc. “It is a suggestive fact -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>that all the brightly-coloured birds mentioned above build in holes -or form covered nests, so that the females do not need that protection -during the breeding season which I believe to be one of the -chief causes of the dull colour of female birds when their partners -are gaily coloured.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(4) <em>Sexual Colours</em>, comprising those cases in which the sexes -differ, and with which Darwin’s theory of Sexual Selection is -directly concerned. Through no <em>direct</em> fault of his own, Darwin -leaves on his readers the impression—which has become almost a -commonplace of conversation—that it is the general rule among -animals for the males of each species to be more ornamented than -the females. The truth is, however, that “with the exception of -butterflies, the sexes are almost alike in the great majority of -insects. The same is the case in mammals and reptiles; while -the chief departure from the rule occurs in birds, though even here -in very many cases the law of sexual likeness prevails.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The reason why I have devoted so much space to Mr. Wallace’s -colour theories is to emphasise the truth contained in this last -sentence; the fact, namely, that even if Sexual Selection were -accepted as an active principle, it would account in only a very -limited number of cases for the personal beauty of animals, and -the reader of Mr. Wallace’s <cite>Tropical Nature</cite> and his <cite>Contributions -to the Theory of Natural Selection</cite> cannot fail to be convinced that -Sexual Selection does not even hold good in this limited number -of cases, but that “the primary cause of sexual diversity of colour -is the need of protection, repressing in the female those bright -colours which are normally produced in both sexes by general -laws.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Incidentally Mr. Wallace mentions as an additional function of -colour the fact that it may serve as a <em>means of recognition</em> to the -sexes. “This view affords us an explanation of the curious fact -that among butterflies the females of closely-allied species in the -same locality sometimes differ considerably, while the males are -much alike; for, as the males are the swiftest, and by far the -highest flyers, and seek out the females, it would evidently be -advantageous for them to be able to recognise their true partners -at some distance off.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To me it seems that this function of colour is, next to Protection, -its most important object, and that Mr. Wallace does not -give it sufficient prominence. He says, in speaking of <em>Typical -Colours</em>, that we can assign “no function or use for them.” But -why should they not serve the sexes as a means of recognition at -at a distance? especially as colours can be recognised at a greater -<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>distance than forms. Many years before Darwin and Mr. Wallace -wrote on this subject, Schopenhauer’s genius anticipated this view -of the matter. “The extremely varied and vivid colours of the -feathers of tropical birds,” he wrote, “have been explained in a -very general way, with reference to their efficient cause, as due to -the strong effect of the tropical light. As their final cause I would -suggest that these brilliant plumes are the gala uniforms by means -of which the species, which are so numerous there and often belonging -to the same genus, recognise each other; so that every male -finds his female. The same is true of the butterflies of different -zones and latitudes” (<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Welt als Wille u. V.</cite></span>, ii. 381).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Schopenhauer of course errs in attributing, in his ignorance of -Protective, Warning, and other colours, all the hues of birds and -butterflies to this agency. But it is probable that whenever colours -and other ornaments do not serve for purposes of protection (as -<i>e.g.</i> the lion’s mane and the horns of beetles, <i>vide</i> <cite>Tropical Nature</cite>, -p. 202), they serve the purpose of sexual recognition of species. -A case cited by Darwin to prove that quadrupeds take notice of -colour, is very suggestive in this connection: “A female zebra -would not admit the addresses of a male ass until he was painted -so as to resemble a zebra, and then, as John Hunter remarks, she -received him very readily.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is probable, therefore, that in many cases the unique spots -and stripes and colours of animals subserve the special use of -facilitating the finding of a partner; and in this way they relate -directly to the courtship and Romantic Love of animals. Thus -we see how the Love affairs of animals may indirectly affect their -Personal Beauty in a way quite different from that suggested by -Darwin.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>LOVE-CHARMS AND LOVE-CALLS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The same reasoning applies to the music of animals, vocal and -instrumental, on which Darwin lays great stress. In his opinion, -the music of some male animals serves to charm the females -æsthetically, and thus gives to the best musicians special advantages -through Sexual Selection. But the instances cited by him -hardly warrant this conclusion, and seem rather to point to the -inference that the function of animal music is chiefly to facilitate -courtship, by making it easy for the females to discover the whereabouts -of a male of the same species. The evidence tends to show -that it is not the male whose voice is most mellow and melodious -that catches the female, but rather the one who is most vigorous -and persistent and has the loudest organ. As Jaques says in <cite>As -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>You Like It</cite>: “Sing it: ’tis no matter how it be in tune, so it -make noise enough!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Darwin himself quotes a naturalist’s statement, that “the -stridulation produced by some of the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Locustidæ</i></span> is so loud that it -can be heard during the night at the distance of a mile;” and such -cases as “the drumming of the snipe’s tail, the tapping of the -woodpecker’s beak, the harsh, trumpetlike cry of certain water-fowl,” -though Darwin tries to dispose of them on the ground of a -difference in æsthetic taste, nevertheless incline one to the belief -that the music of the forest troubadours is not so much intended -to gratify the æsthetic taste of the female as to guide her to the -spot where the male awaits her; for, contrary to common opinion, -it is the female in these cases that searches for a male and not <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>vice -versâ</i></span>. Montagu, for instance, asserts that “males of song-birds -and of many others do not in general search for the female, but, on -the contrary, their business in spring is to perch on some conspicuous -spot, breathing out their full and amorous notes, which, by -instinct, <em>the female knows, and repairs to the spot</em> to choose her -mate.” And Dr. Hartman, speaking of the American <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Cicada -septemdecim</i></span>, says: “The drums are now heard in all directions. -This I believe to be the marital summons from the males. Standing -in thick chestnut sprouts about as high as my head, where -hundreds were around me, I observed the females coming around -the drumming males.” And, says Darwin, “the <em>spel</em> of the blackcock -certainly serves as a call to the female, for it has been known -to bring four or five females from a distance to a male under confinement; -but as the blackcock continues his <em>spel</em> for hours during -successive days, and in the case of the capercailzie ‘with an agony -of passion,’ we are led to suppose that the females which are present -are thus charmed.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There appears to be no <em>direct</em> evidence, however, that female -birds are more <em>charmed</em> by one male than another, and prefer him -on account of his superior song, as the theory of Sexual Selection -postulates. And when we remember that likewise there is no -evidence that birds, etc., are ever influenced in their choice by the -superior colours of certain males, and that in fact it is the rule for -the female to follow passively the most vigorous and victorious -male, we are brought back to the conclusion with which we set -out—that it is not the superior songster who wins the female by -charming her, but the loudest and most persistent songster, by -guiding her to the courting-place.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Darwin himself evidently felt the weakness of his position, for -he constantly speaks of “love-charms <em>or</em> love-calls” in the same -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>sentence. Thus, “the true song of most birds and various strange -cries are uttered chiefly during the breeding-season, and serve as a -charm, <em>or merely as a call-note</em>, to the other sex.” Again: “It -is often difficult to conjecture whether the many strange cries and -notes uttered by male birds during the breeding-season serve as a -charm or merely as a call to the female.” The distinction between -love “charms” and mere “calls” is of course of the utmost -importance. For if male song charms the females and influences -them in their choice, we have Sexual-æsthetic-female Selection. -But if the male song merely serves as a call to the female and as -a sign of species-recognition, then Natural Selection accounts for -everything, because the most vigorous, loudest, and most persistent -male will have the choice of the most numerous females brought -to his side by his musical efforts.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>LOVE-DANCES AND DISPLAY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>There is one more important link in the chain of Darwin’s -reasoning, which must be broken before his theory of Sexual -Selection can be regarded as demolished. The mad antics of the -blackcock and other birds have been already referred to; and some -of the lower animals seem to endeavour to surpass them, as, for -example, the male alligator, who strives to attract the attention of -the female by splashing and roaring in the water; “swollen to an -extent ready to burst, with its head and tail lifted up, he spins or -twirls round on the surface of the water, like an Indian chief -rehearsing his feats of war.” “To suppose,” says Darwin, “that -the females do not appreciate the beauty of the males, is to -admit that their splendid decorations, all their pomp and display, -are useless; and this is incredible.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But are there no other ways of accounting for all this “pomp -and display”? Certainly, several of them. We have seen that -the most vigorous males are those which are most highly ornamented, -and that it is the vigour and vivacity of the males that -seems to decide the choice of the females where there is any. Now -instinct, <i>i.e.</i> inherited experience, teaches the female the connection -between vigour and display of ornament, and influences her -choice accordingly. Again, the males indulge in their display for -the purpose of arousing the attention of the passive female. This -supposition is rendered the more probable by Darwin’s admission -that “we must be cautious in concluding that the wings are spread -out solely for display, as some birds do so whose wings are not -beautiful.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>A third motive of display is the need of finding an outlet for -overflowing nervous energy and excitement. To this Mr. Wallace -refers as follows: “At pairing time the male is in a state of excitement -and full of exuberant energy. Even unornamented birds -flutter their wings or spread them out, erect their tails or crests, -and thus give vent to the nervous excitability with which they are -overcharged.” “It is not improbable,” he continues,—and this -suggests a fourth use of display—"that crests and other erectile -feathers may be primarily of use in <em>frightening away enemies</em>, -since they are generally erected when angry or during combat."</p> - -<p class='c001'>A fifth motive of display is suggested by an analogy furnished -by human butterflies and birds of Paradise. Among animals -where the sexes differ, it is commonly the male who is adorned the -most. With us it is the women. But woman’s fineries are not -intended to charm the eyes of men, but to excite one another’s -rivalry and envy. Now it seems that male birds, with whose -plumes our heartless women are so fond of decking themselves, are -guilty of an analogous weakness. They will sometimes display -their ornaments, says Darwin, “when not in the presence of the -females, as occasionally occurs with grouse at their <a id='corr53.20'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='boly'>holy</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_53.20'><ins class='correction' title='boly'>holy</ins></a></span> places, -and as may be noticed with the peacock; this latter bird, however, -evidently wishes for a spectator of some kind, and, as I have -often seen, will show off his finery before poultry or even pigs. -All naturalists who have closely attended to the habits of birds, -whether in a state of nature or under confinement, are unanimously -of opinion that the males take delight in displaying their <a id='corr53.26'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='beauty.’'>beauty.”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_53.26'><ins class='correction' title='beauty.’'>beauty.”</ins></a></span> -And, once more, “with birds of Paradise a dozen or more full-plumaged -males congregate in a tree to hold a <em>dancing-party</em>, as it -is called by the natives; and here they fly about, raise their wings, -elevate their exquisite plumes, and make them vibrate; and the -whole tree seems, as Mr. Wallace remarks, to be filled with -waving plumes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if it be the unanimous opinion of naturalists who have -closely studied the habits of birds, “that the males take delight in -displaying their beauty,” why should not the females also take -pleasure in witnessing this display? Perhaps they do, sometimes; -for even Mr. Wallace admits that “the display of the various -ornamental appendages of the male during courtship may be -attractive” to the female. But there is a world-wide difference -between this assertion and the doctrine that the females are so -greatly and so constantly influenced by their æsthetic taste that -they always prefer among males those that are slightly more beautiful -than the others, thus increasing their personal beauty by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>transmission. This is an assumption unsupported by facts, and -rendered unnecessary because Natural Selection accounts for all the -phenomena in question.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Admiration of Personal Beauty does not appear, therefore, to -enter noticeably into animal love, except in so far as a slight -amount of æsthetic taste may be admitted in birds. This taste -may be strengthened by the sight of the brilliant masculine ornaments -during the season of love being associated with the -remembered pleasures of courtship.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Indirectly, however, female animals promote the cause of beauty -by preferring the more healthy and vigorous individuals, who are -commonly also the most beautiful ones. And is not the same true -of females of the human persuasion, who likewise are much less -influenced in their choice by the beauty than by the boldness, -energy, vivacity, and “manliness” of their suitors? It seems to -hold true throughout nature that the female’s Love is weak in the -æsthetic element, her taste being little developed and too often -neutralised by unconscious utilitarian considerations.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>LOVE AMONG SAVAGES</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>STRANGERS TO LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In passing from animals to human beings we find at first not -only no advance in the sexual relations, but a decided retrogression. -Among some species of birds, courtship and marriage are -infinitely more refined and noble than among the lowest savages; -and it is especially in their treatment of females, both before and -after mating, that not only birds but all animals show an immense -superiority over primitive man; for male animals only fight -among themselves, and never maltreat the females.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This anomaly is easily explained. The intellectual power and -emotional horizon of animals are limited; but in those directions -in which Natural Selection has made them <em>specialists</em>, they reach -a high degree of development, because inherited experience tends -to give to their actions an instinctive or quasi-instinctive precision -and certainty. Among primitive men, on the other hand, reason -begins to encroach more on instinct, but yet in such a feeble way -as to make constant blunders inevitable: thus proving that strong -instincts, combined with a limited intellectual plasticity, are a -safer guide in life than a more plastic but weak intellect minus -the assistance of stereotyped instincts.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If neither intellect nor instinct guide the primitive man to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>well-regulated marital relations, such as we find among many -animals, so again his emotional life is too crude and limited to -allow any scope for the domestic affections. Inasmuch as, -according to Sir John Lubbock, gratitude, mercy, pity, chastity, -forgiveness, humility, are ideas or feelings unknown to many or -most savage tribes, we should naturally expect that such a highly-compounded -and ethereal feeling as Romantic Love could not exist -among them. How could Love dwell in the heart of a savage -who baits a fish-hook with the flesh of a child; who eats his wife -when she has lost her beauty and the muscular power which -enabled her to do all his hard work; who abandons his aged -parents, or kills them, and whose greatest delight in life is to kill -an enemy slowly amid the most diabolic tortures?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Or how could a primitive girl love a man whose courtship -consists in knocking her on the head and carrying her forcibly -from her own to his tribe? A man who, after a very brief period -of caresses, neglects her, takes perhaps another and younger wife, -and reduces the first one to the condition of a slave, refusing to -let her eat at his table, throwing her bones and remains, as to a -dog, or even driving her away and killing her, if she displeases -him? These are extreme cases, but they are not rare; and in a -slightly modified form they are found throughout savagedom.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That Love is a sentiment unknown to savages has been -frequently noted in the works of anthropologists and tourists. -When Ploss remarks that the lowest savages “know as little of -marriage relations as animals; still less do they know the feeling -we call Love,” he does a great injustice to animals, as those who -have read the preceding chapter must admit. <a id='corr55.28'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Letourneu'>Letourneau</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_55.28'><ins class='correction' title='Letourneu'>Letourneau</ins></a></span>, in his -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Sociologie</cite></span>, remarks: “Among the Cafres Cousas, according to -Lichtenstein, the sentiment of love does not constitute a part of -marriage. ‘The idea of love, as we understand it,’ says Du -Chaillu, in speaking of a tribe of the Gabon, ‘appears to be -unknown to this tribe.’” Monteiro, speaking of the polygamous -tribes of Africa, says: “The negro knows not love, affection, or -jealousy.... In all the long years I have been in Africa I have -never seen a negro manifest the least tenderness for or to a -negress.... I have never seen a negro put his arm round a -woman’s waist, or give or receive any caress whatever that would -indicate the slightest loving regard or affection on either side. -They have no words or expressions in their language indicative of -affection or love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Spencer, in commenting on this passage, remarks that -“This testimony harmonises with testimonies cited by Sir John -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>Lubbock, to the effect that the Hottentots ‘are so cold and -indifferent to one another that you would think there was no such -thing as love between them’; that among the Koussa Kaffirs -there is ‘no feeling of love in marriage’; and that in Yariba, ‘a -man thinks as little of taking a wife as of cutting an ear of corn—affection -is altogether out of the question.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Winwood Reade, on the other hand, informed Darwin -that the West Africans “are quite capable of falling in love, and -of forming tender, passionate, and faithful attachments.” And -the anthropologist Waitz, speaking of Polynesia, says that -“examples of real passionate love are not rare, and on the Fiji -Islands it has happened that individuals married against their will -have committed suicide; although this has only happened in the -higher classes.” Unfortunately in these cases we are left in -doubt as to whether the reference is to Conjugal or to Romantic -Love; conjugal attachment, being of earlier growth than -Romantic Love, because the development of the latter was -retarded by the limited opportunities for prolonged Courtship and -free Choice.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PRIMITIVE COURTSHIP</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In his anxiety to find cases of Romantic Love among North -American and other primitive peoples, Waitz is obliged to fall -back on legends of Lovers’ Leaps and Maiden Rocks, and on a -poem about a South American maiden who committed suicide on -her lover’s grave to avoid falling into the hands of the Spaniards. -Legends and poems, unfortunately, do not count for much as -scientific evidence. At the same time, it would doubtless be -incorrect to assert on the strength of some of the authorities just -quoted that Love does not exist at all among savages, and therefore -to make the chapter on Love among Savages as brief as that -chapter on Snakes in Ireland. We shall find, on the contrary, -that several of Love’s “overtones” are occasionally present; and -that though full-fledged cupids may never appear with their -poisoned arrows, mischievous <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>amourettes</i></span> sometimes do flit across -the field of vision. For the goddess of Love is ever watchful of -an opportunity for one of her emissaries to bag some game.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Romantic Love is dependent on opportunities for Courtship. -Among savages and semi-civilised nations we find three grades of -Courtship—Capture, Purchase, and Service. These must be -briefly examined in turn.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) <em>Capture.</em>—One of the most curious features of savage life -is the widely-prevalent custom called by M‘Lennan Exogamy, or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>marrying out. This custom compels a man who wishes a wife of -his own to steal or purchase her of another tribe, private marriage -within his own tribe being considered criminal and even punishable -with death. To this rule of Exogamy Sir John Lubbock -traces the origin of Monogamy. In his view women were at first, -like other kinds of property, held in common by the tribe, any -man being any woman’s husband <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ad libitum</i></span>. No man could -therefore claim a woman for himself without infringing on the -rights of others. But if he stole a woman from another tribe, she -became his exclusive property, which he had a right to guard -jealously, and to look upon with the Pride of Conquest—a pride, -however, quite distinct from that which intoxicates a civilised -lover when he finds, or fondly imagines, that his goddess <em>has -chosen him</em> among all his rivals. The primitive man’s pride is -more like that of the warrior who wears a large number of scalps -in his belt; and as in his case marriage immediately follows -Capture, this feeling, moreover, belongs more properly to the -sphere of conjugal sentiment than to that of Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This primitive form of courtship, it is obvious, is very much -ruder than that which prevails in the animal kingdom, where the -males alone maltreat one another, while in this early human -courtship the woman, if she resists, is simply knocked on the -head, and her senseless body carried off to the captor’s tent. -Diefenbach relates concerning the Polynesians that “if a girl was -courted by two suitors, each of them grasped one arm of the -beloved and pulled her toward him; the stronger one got her, but -in some cases not before her limbs had been pulled out of joint.” -And Waitz says that “the girls were commonly abducted by -force, which led frequently to most violent fights, in which the -girl herself was occasionally wounded, or even killed, to prevent -her from falling into the hands of the enemy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. E. B. Tylor, after stating that marriage by Capture may -be seen at the present day among the fierce forest tribes of Brazil, -continues: “Ancient tradition knows this practice well, as where -the men of Benjamin carry off the daughters of Shiloh dancing at -the feast, and in the famous Roman tale of the rape of the -Sabines, a legend putting in historical form the wife-capture which -in Roman custom remained as a ceremony. What most clearly -shows what a recognised old-world custom it was, is its being thus -kept up as a formality where milder manners really prevailed. -It had passed into this state among the Spartans, when Plutarch -says that though the marriage was really by friendly settlement -between the families, the bridegroom’s friends went through the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>pretence of carrying off the bride by violence. Within a few -generations the same old habit was kept up in Wales, where the -bridegroom and his friends, mounted and armed as for war, carried -off the bride; and in Ireland they used even to hurl spears at the -bride’s people, though at such a distance that no one was hurt, -except now and then by accident, as happened when one Lord -Howth lost an eye, which mischance seems to have put an end -to this curious relic of antiquity.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Moreover, we are told that “in our own marriages the ‘best -man’ seems originally to have been the chief abettor of the bridegroom -in the act of capture.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In a modified form “wife-capture” cannot be said to be extinct -even in this advanced age. Elopement is the modern name for it -When the parents dissent and the couple are very young, this -climax of courtship doubtless is often reprehensible. But in those -cases where the consent of all parties has been obtained, it ought -to be universally adopted. Sudden flight and an impromptu marriage -would add much to the romance of the honeymoon, and would -enable the bridal couple to avoid the terrors and stupid formalities -of the wedding-day, the anticipation of which is doubtless responsible -for the ever-increasing number of cowardly bachelors in the -world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(2) <em>Purchase</em> represents a somewhat higher stage of Courtship -than Capture. Like Capture this custom has existed among the -peoples of the five continents, and is still retained in some parts of -Africa and elsewhere. In Holstein, Germany, it prevailed in all -its purity, according to Ploss, till the end of the fifteenth century. -Nor would it be doing facts great violence to class our frequent -money-marriages under this head.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are two grades of the custom of Purchase. In the first -the girl has no choice whatever, but is sold by her father for so -many cows or camels, in some cases to the highest bidder. Among -the Turcomans a wife may be purchased for five camels if she be -a girl, or for fifty if a widow; whereas among the Tunguse a girl -costs one to twenty reindeer, while widows are considerably -cheaper. In the second class of cases the purchased girl is allowed -a certain degree of liberty of choice, as we shall see directly, under -the head of Individual Preference.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) <em>Service.</em>—On the custom of securing a wife by means of -services rendered her parents, Mr. Spencer remarks: “The practice -which Hebrew tradition acquaints us with in the case of -Jacob, proves to be a widely-diffused practice. It is general with -the Bhils, Ghonds, and Hill tribes of Nepaul; it obtained in Java -<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>before Mahometanism was introduced; it was common in ancient -Peru and Central America; and among sundry existing American -races it still occurs. Obviously, a wife long laboured for is likely -to be more valued than one stolen or bought. Obviously, too, the -period of service, during which the betrothed girl is looked upon -as a future spouse, affords room for the growth of some feeling -higher than the merely instinctive—initiates something approaching -to the courtship and engagement of civilised peoples.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>All the cases thus far referred to relate to what might be called -indirect or mediate courtship. When a girl is captured and -knocked on the head she can hardly be said to be courted and consulted -as to her wishes; and the man too, in such cases, owing to -the dangers of the sport, is apt to pay no great attention to -a woman’s looks and accomplishments, but to bag the first one -that comes along. In courtship by Purchase, again, the girl is -rarely consulted as to her own preferences, the addresses being -paid to the father, who invariably selects the wealthiest of the -suitors, and only in rare cases allows the daughter a choice, as -among the Kaffirs if the suitors happen to be equally well off. -And thirdly, in courtship by Service, the suitor’s work is not done -to please the daughter, but to recompense the parents for losing -her.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet there appear to be some instances of real courtship, in the -modern sense of the word, among the lower races, where the lovers -pay their addresses directly to the girl and she chooses or rejects -at will. Thus, among the Orang-Sakai, on the Malayan peninsula, -the following custom prevails, as described by Ploss: “On the -wedding-day, the bride, in presence of her relatives, and those of -her lover, and many other witnesses, is obliged to run into the -forest. After a fixed interval the bridegroom follows and seeks to -catch her. If he succeeds in capturing the bride she becomes his -wife, otherwise he is compelled to renounce her for ever. If therefore -a girl dislikes her suitor, she can easily escape from him -and hide in the forest until the time allowed for his pursuit has -expired.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Darwin remarks, in trying to prove the existence of Sexual -Selection among the lower races, that “in utterly barbarous tribes -the women have more power in choosing, rejecting, and tempting -their lovers, or of afterwards changing their husbands, than might -have been expected;” and he cites the following cases, among -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>others: “Amongst the Abipones, a man on choosing a wife, bargains -with the parents about the price. But ‘it frequently -happens that the girl rescinds what has been agreed upon between -the parents and the bridegroom, obstinately rejecting the very -mention of marriage.’ She often runs away, hides herself, and -thus eludes the bridegroom. Captain Musters, who lived with the -Patagonians, says that their marriages are always settled by inclination; -‘if the parents make a match contrary to the daughter’s -will, she refuses, and is never compelled to comply.’ In Tierra del -Fuego a young man first obtains the consent of the parents by doing -them some service, and then he attempts to carry off the girl; -‘but if she is unwilling, she hides herself in the woods until her -admirer is heartily tired of looking for her, and gives up the -pursuit; but this seldom happens.’”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PERSONAL BEAUTY AND SEXUAL SELECTION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Evidence proving that primitive women are influenced in their -choice of a mate by æsthetic considerations appears to be almost -as scant as among animals. Darwin, however, tries to prove that -men owe their beards to sexual or female selection; and the -following more general instances may be cited for what they are -worth: Azara “describes how carefully a Guana woman bargains -for all sorts of privileges before accepting some one or more -husbands; and the men in consequence take unusual care of their -personal appearance.” Among the Kaffirs “very ugly, though rich -men, have been known to fail in getting wives. The girls, before -consenting to be betrothed, compel the men to show themselves -off first in front and then behind, and ‘exhibit their paces.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In general, however, it seems that the women choose, not the -handsomest men, but those whose boldness, pugnacity, and virility -promise them the surest protection against enemies, and general -domestic delights. Thus, we read that “before he is allowed to -marry, a young Dyack must prove his bravery by bringing back -the head of an enemy;” and that when the Apaches warriors return -unsuccessful, “the women turn away from them with assured -indifference and contempt. They are upbraided as cowards, or for -want of skill and tact, and are told that such men should not have -wives.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It must be remembered, however, that (as we have seen in the -case of plants and animals) the greatest amount of health, vigour, -and courage generally coincide with the greatest physical beauty; -hence the continued preference of the most energetic and lusty men -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>by the superior women who have a choice, has naturally tended to -evolve a superior type of manly beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the case of men it seems much more probable that they -frequently select their wives in accordance with an æsthetic standard. -The chiefs of almost every tribe throughout the world have -more than one wife; and Mr. Mantell informed Darwin that until -recently almost every girl in New Zealand who was pretty, or -promised to be pretty, was <em>tapu</em> to some chief; while among the -Kaffirs, according to Mr. C. Hamilton, “the chiefs generally have -the pick of the women for many miles round, and are most -persevering in establishing or confirming their privilege.” In -the lower tribes, where “communal marriage” and marriage -by Capture alone prevail, æsthetic choice is of course out of the -question, and cannot make its appearance till we come to less -pugnacious tribes, such as the Dyacks, whose children “have the -freedom implied by regular courtship,” or the Samoans, whose children -“have the degree of independence implied by elopements when -they cannot obtain parental assent to their marriage” (Spencer).</p> - -<p class='c001'>In general, however, among the lower races, Sexual or æsthetic -Selection leads to sorry results, owing to the bad taste of the -selectors. The standard of primitive taste is not harmonious proportion -and capacity for expression, but Exaggeration. The negro -woman has naturally thicker lips, more prominent cheek-bones, -and a flatter nose than a white woman; and in selecting a mate, -preference is commonly given to the one whose lips are thickest, -nose most flattened, and cheek-bones most prominent: thus producing -gradually that monster of ugliness—the average negro -woman. What right we have to set ourselves up as judges, and -claim that our taste is superior to the negro’s, is a question which -will be discussed in a subsequent section of this treatise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One other point, however, may be referred to here, namely, -that although the æsthetic overtone of Love—the Admiration of -Personal Beauty—may enter into a savage’s amorous feelings, it is -only the sensuous aspect of it that affects him, the intellectual -and moral sides being unknown to him. His admiration is purely -physical. He marries his chosen bride when she is a mere child, -and before the slightest spark of mental charm can illumine her -features and impart to them a superior beauty; and subsequently, -when experience has somewhat sharpened her intellectual powers, -hard labour has already destroyed all traces of her physical beauty -so that the combination of physical and mental charms which -alone can inspire the highest form of Love is never to be found in -primitive woman.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span> - <h3 class='c014'>JEALOUSY AND POLYGAMY</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The moral mission of Jealousy, as stated on a preceding page, -is, by means of watchfulness and the inspiring of fear, to ensure -fidelity and chastity. Darwin says that from the strength of the -feeling of jealousy all through the animal kingdom, as well as -from the analogy of the lower animals, especially those which -come nearest to man, he “cannot believe that absolutely promiscuous -intercourse prevailed in times past, shortly before man -attained to his present rank in the zoological scale.” This may be -true, yet it is astonishing to find how many of the lower tribes -are utterly unconcerned regarding the morals both of married and -unmarried women. A vast number of cases illustrating this -absence of jealousy are collected in Waitz’s <cite>Anthropology</cite>, Spencer’s -<cite>Sociology</cite>, the works of Lubbock, and especially in Ploss’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Das -Weib</cite></span>, i. 205-214. In some cases girls are allowed to do as they -please until after marriage, when they are jealously guarded; in -other cases the reverse is true. In some parts of Africa a breach -of faith on the wife’s part is regarded as an attack not on the -husband’s honour but on his property; hence a pecuniary compensation -is all that is required. Lubbock enumerates a large -number of races among whom the lending of a wife or daughter is -a common and obligatory form of hospitality. And the Chibchas -of South America went so far in their indifference to virginity -that they considered a virgin bride to be unfortunate, “as she had -not inspired affection in men.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jealousy for the possession of a woman, however, was much -sooner developed than jealous regard for her conduct. The statement -of Sir John Lubbock about the men of an Indian tribe, that -they “fight for the possession of the women, just like stags,” and -similar statements regarding other savages, imply that, just like -stags, these men feel the pangs of primitive Jealousy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among polygamous nations the women, too, often fight for the -men, whose favourites in their absence are apt to suffer much at -the hands of jealous rivals. It is among the polygamous semi-civilised -nations in general that Jealousy asserts itself in the most -shrill and dissonant manner. It is not that bitter-sweet romantic -Jealousy which by its constant fluctuations between hope and -doubt fans a modern lover’s passion into brighter flames; it is a -more vicious kind of conjugal Jealousy which destroys domestic -peace and plots the ruin of rivals. In Madagascar, Mr. Spencer -tells us, “the name for Polygyny—‘fampovafesana’—signifies -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>‘the means of causing <a id='corr63.1'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='enmity’'>enmity’”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_63.1'><ins class='correction' title='enmity’'>enmity’”</ins></a></span>; and that kindred names are -commonly applicable to it we are shown by their use among the -Hebrews: in the Mishna a man’s several wives are called ‘tzârot,’ -that is, troubles, adversaries, or rivals. In modern Persia, where -polygamy prevails, the same state of affairs is encountered. Says -Ploss: “If there are several women in the house, each one inhabits -a separate division; in the houses of the wealthy each -wife, moreover, has her own servants. Constantly apprehending -evil intentions, no woman touches the dishes of a rival.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is among the polygamous nations of the East, too, that -history records such a profusion of bloody wars of succession -waged by half-brothers; for how could fraternal or any other -kind of domestic affection flourish in families where the mothers -are constantly goaded by Jealousy into deadly hatred of one -another?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MONOPOLY AND MONOGAMY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The United States being a “free country,” its government -has sometimes been blamed by “freethinkers” for attempting to -repress Mormon Polygamy. But a free country is not one in -which social experiments injurious to public welfare are to be -necessarily allowed. Readers of history and anthropology know -that polygamy is an experiment which has been tried so often -with disastrous social results, that it may be looked upon safely -as criminal and treated accordingly. Even the forcible argument -of that spiteful old pessimist, Schopenhauer, that polygamy should -be introduced because it would rid the world of old maids, does -not save the institution; since it is well—for the prospects of -Beauty, at any rate—that some women should be “eliminated” -in the form of old maids.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the causes which tended to make polygamy the commonest -form of marriage among savages, four may be briefly -enumerated: (1) The constant wars among the tribes decimated -the men, leaving a larger proportion of women than men, although -this was to some extent neutralised by the habit of female infanticide, -which the women indulged in to make themselves more -cherished through scarcity and, possibly, to preserve their beauty; -(2) The women being commonly secured as booty in war, it was -naturally looked on as an honour and a sign of valour to have -more than one wife; (3) Women being regarded and treated as -slaves, the more a man had of them the more they could, by their -combined labour, increase his wealth and influence in the tribe; -(4) The rapid decay of the youthful beauty of primitive woman, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>naturally inclined her husband, whose affection was solely based -on those physical charms, to add a second or third, younger woman -to his harem.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As woman’s position improved with advancing civilisation, -these influences favouring polygamy were gradually weakened; -and as in treating of Love among Animals, we found the most -remarkable instances of affection—conjugal and romantic—among -birds, who are mostly monogamous; so, among the lower races of -man, monogamy is commonly a sign of superior culture and higher -development of the affections. And this might have been foreseen -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>a priori</i></span>, inasmuch as <a id='corr64.11'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='monogomy'>monogamy</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_64.11'><ins class='correction' title='monogomy'>monogamy</ins></a></span> is the only marital relation compatible -with that Monopoly of affection which is one of the conditions -of Romantic Love. How could a man feel an exclusive -amorous interest in his bride, knowing that in a few months or -years another would come to claim half his interest? or how -could the bride concentrate all her Love on a man of whom she -knew that he could give her only half or a smaller fraction of his -affection?</p> - -<p class='c001'>A similar view is taken by Mr. Spencer. Monogamic unions, -he says, “tend in no small degree indirectly to raise the quality of -adult life, by giving a permanent and deep source of æsthetic -interest. On recalling the many and keen pleasures derived from -music, poetry, fiction, the drama, etc.; and on remembering that -their predominant theme is the passion of love, we shall see that -to monogamy, which has developed this passion, we owe a large -part of the gratifications which fill our leisure hours.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PRIMITIVE COYNESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Among the Samoiedes, says Klemm, “a man purchases a wife -for a number of reindeer, varying from five to twenty; the bride, -as is the case also in Greenland, struggles violently against leaving -the paternal house, and commonly she has to be caught forcibly -and bound on the bridegroom’s sledge.” In some of the Bedouin -tribes the destined bride runs from tent to tent to escape being -brought to the bridegroom. When an Esquimaux girl is asked in -marriage, says Kranz (quoted by Mr. Spencer), she “directly falls -into the greatest apparent consternation and runs out of doors, -tearing her bunch of hair; for single women always affect the -utmost bashfulness and aversion to any proposal of marriage, lest -they should lose their reputation for modesty.” So among the -Bushmen a lover’s attentions “are received with an affectation of -great alarm and disinclination on her part”; while an Arab bride -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>“defends herself with stones, and often inflicts wounds on the -young men, even though she does not dislike the lover; for -according to custom, the more she struggles, bites, kicks, cries, -and strikes, the more she is applauded ever after by her own -companions.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Obviously these glacier, forest, and desert belles have a somewhat -cruder way than our city belles of hiding their feelings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Spencer refers to the Coyness of these maidens as one -motive or cause of wife-capture, but he does not inquire into the -origin of Coyness itself, which is a much more interesting point in -the psychology of Love. The fear “lest they should lose their -reputation for modesty,” mentioned above, is the most obvious -cause of this exaggerated resistance, as it is of the excessive -prudishness often encountered in some European civilised countries -of to-day. Again, the sight of the harsh treatment to which her -married sisters or friends are subjected, would make the primitive -bride naturally averse to exchange her maiden freedom for conjugal -slavery.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It seems, however, that in most cases, the Coyness is less real -than simulated; and for this form of Coyness—reversing Mr. -Spencer’s reasoning—we may say that Exogamy, or Capture, is -responsible. For since Capture implies courage and valour on the -part of the husband, it may have been to secure the “prestige of -a foreign marriage”—as fashionable novelists would say—that the -form of Capture was imitated in cases where there was no opposition, -either on the part of the girl or her parents.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another explanation of sham Coyness is afforded by the following -case: Among the inhabitants of the Volga region, in Russia, -the bride is occasionally captured and carried off, though here too -there is no opposition on her part or from her parents. The cause -of this procedure is the desire to avoid the expenses of the marriage -ceremony, which in that region are out of all proportion to the -means of the lower classes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Finally it may be suggested that Coyness, so far as it really -exists in the primitive maiden, owes its origin to the instinctive -perception that the men value them more if they do not throw -themselves into their arms on the first impulse. And more than -anything else, this attitude of reserve feeds the flames of Romantic -Love by transferring its delights and pangs to the imagination.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet, after all, manifestations of Coyness must be the exception -and not the rule in the lower races, inasmuch as in the vast -majority of cases, where no choice is allowed the bride, there is -little or no opportunity for the exercise of such a trait.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>Of <span class='sc'>Gallantry</span> I have not succeeded in discovering any traces -in the records of savage life, except possibly in the case of the -natives of Kamtchatka, where the wooer has to go into service for -his bride, and during this time endeavours constantly to lighten -her labours and make himself agreeable to her. So far as Gallantry -occurs, it is more likely to be a feminine trait—as among one of -the North American Indian tribes, where the maiden cooks her -suitor’s game, and sends him back the best morsels with presents; -or as with another tribe, the Osages, where the maidens pay court -to the warriors by offering them ears of corn.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As for the remaining characters of Romantic Love, which -require a vivid imagination and persistent emotions for their realisation, -it would be useless to look for them in Savagedom—except -perhaps in those infinitesimal proportions in which various chemical -substances are found by analysts in mineral waters. The following -may be offered as an approximate list of the ingredients in the -Love of savage and semi-civilised peoples:—</p> - -<table class='table1' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='62%' /> -<col width='37%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Selfishness</td> - <td class='c007'>25·7684</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Inconstancy</td> - <td class='c007'>20·3701</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Jealousy</td> - <td class='c007'>0 to 20·7904</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Coyness</td> - <td class='c007'>” 10·5523</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Individual Preference</td> - <td class='c007'>” 5·0073</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Personal Beauty</td> - <td class='c007'>” 5·7002</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Monopoly</td> - <td class='c007'>” 7·3024</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Pride of Possession</td> - <td class='c007'>4·5082</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Sympathy</td> - <td class='c007'>0·0000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Gallantry</td> - <td class='c007'>0·0006</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Self-Sacrifice</td> - <td class='c007'>Traces</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Ecstatic Adoration</td> - <td class='c007'>” </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>Mixed Emotions</td> - <td class='c007'>” </td> - </tr> -</table> - -<h3 class='c014'>CAN AMERICAN NEGROES LOVE?</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is a very interesting question how far the negroes transplanted -to America, who have adopted so many of the habits and -ways of thinking of their white neighbours, are capable of forming -a true romantic attachment, characterised by the various traits -described in this work. I have not been able to find any conclusive -evidence on this head; and should any readers of this book -positively know any cases, I should be greatly obliged if they -would forward a detailed account of them to me, in care of the -publisher.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As regards a negro’s capacity for falling in Love with a white -woman, the following interesting communication<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c016'><sup>[1]</sup></a> appeared in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span><cite>New York Nation</cite>, 12th February 1885: “In corroboration of -‘Bill Arp’s’ view, referred to in No. 1020 of the <cite>Nation</cite>, that -negroes, as a race, do not desire to ‘mix’ with the white race, I -may cite a remark recently made by a negro carpenter to a friend -of mine. The latter said to him, as a village belle passed them -on the street, ‘Charles, don’t you think that’s a very handsome -young lady?’ ‘I reckon so,’ he answered doubtfully, and immediately -added, ‘Fact is, boss, us coloured folks don’t think white -ladies handsome; we like ’em coloured the best.’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Had it been otherwise there would, doubtless, have been -innumerable instances, in the North as well as at the South, of -love-longings on the part of negro men toward girls of the dominant -race. Yet during all the years I have spent in the Southern -States, I never knew or heard of any instances of this kind, and -their exceptional character in the North must be known to all -your readers. The hopelessness of such attachments would, of -course, diminish their number; but fancy is always free, and -‘hopeless attachments’ among members of the same race are as -common now as when Petrarch sighed for Laura, and Tasso wrote -‘The throne of Cupid has an easy stair,’ himself having climbed it -uninspired by hope. The existence of many persons of mixed -blood throughout the country affords no proof that the two races -feel toward each other the attraction of love; for the fathers, in -these cases, are almost invariably white, and the offspring cannot -be called ‘love-children,’ but the fruit of mere passion linked with -<a id='corr67.26'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='opportunity.'>opportunity.”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_67.26'><ins class='correction' title='opportunity.'>opportunity.”</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. Signed Sue Harry Clagett.</p> -</div> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>HISTORY OF LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>It would be a profitless task to hunt for the first traces of the -various elements of Love in the records of all the nations of -antiquity; for we meet almost everywhere with the same old story -of Romantic Love impeded in its growth or its very existence by -the degraded position of women, and by the absence of opportunities -for courtship, and for free matrimonial choice. A few -remarks, however, must be made concerning Love among the -ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and our Aryan -kinsfolk in India, before passing on to Mediæval and Modern -Love.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>LOVE IN EGYPT</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Dr. Georg Ebers, the Leipzig professor, and author of the -popular series of historic Egyptian novels, remarks that “if it is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>true that a nation’s degree of culture can be estimated by the more -or less favourable position accorded its women, then Egyptian -culture ranks above that of all other ancient peoples.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The women of ancient Egypt were not kept in seclusion like -those of Greece. They did their own marketing, and had other -domestic and public liberties and privileges which astonished the -Greek historian Herodotus, who also mentions that although -polygamy was tolerated among them, monogamy was the rule. -Inasmuch as the Egyptians had an advanced culture, invented -many arts, promoted the sciences, and were industrial rather than -militant in their occupations, it is possible that several of the more -refined elements of Romantic Love may have existed among them; -for just as we have seen that some animals have higher notions of -love, conjugal and romantic, than some savages, although the -latter represent a later stage of evolution, so it seems probable -that among the nations of antiquity Love did not progress steadily, -year by year; but that some nations had more and some less of -it; while the acquisitions of one period may have been lost in evil -and corrupt times following, as was certainly the case in India.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since we have no such extensive literature of Egypt as we have -of the Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews, it is not easy to arrive at -definite conclusions. But the Egyptian custom of forming “trial -marriages” for one year, and the ease with which a husband could -divorce and expel his wife by simply pronouncing three words in -her presence do not harmonise with our modern notions of Love. -How scornfully a modern Romeo would reject the very notion of -such a trial-marriage! for does he not feel <em>absolutely</em> certain that -his Love is eternal and unalterable?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The institution of trial-marriages seems to point to the conclusion -that the Egyptians, like the Greeks, looked upon marriage primarily -as a means of augmenting the family and the state, and not as a -union of loving souls—children or no children—which is the -modern ideal.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Professor Ebers of course has a right to make use of a poetic -license in painting the Love affairs of his Egyptian heroes and -heroines in modern colours, as Shakspere does in <cite>Antony and -Cleopatra</cite>. At the same time it would give an added flavour to -historic romances if their pictures of domestic and public life were -characterised by <em>emotional realism</em> as well as by general antiquarian -accuracy. The elaborate analysis of Love, for the first time -attempted in the present monograph, should facilitate this task -for novelists.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span> - <h2 class='c005'>ANCIENT HEBREW LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>It is almost startling to find, on consulting a Concordance of -the Old and New Testaments, that in the whole of the Bible there -is not a single reference to Romantic Love. Had this sentiment -existed among the ancient Hebrews as it does among their -descendants to-day, it is obvious that it could not possibly have -been ignored in the Book of Books, which so eloquently and -poetically discourses of everything else that is of vital interest to -man. Conjugal Love (which apparently antedates Romantic Love -in every nation) is indeed repeatedly referred to and enjoined, as -well as the other family affections; but in the remaining cases the -word Love is always used in the sense of religious veneration, or -of regard for a neighbour or an enemy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This absence of any reference to Romantic Love is all the more -surprising in view of the fact that among the ancient Hebrews -woman was held more in honour than with any other Oriental -nation, ancient or modern. Thus we are told in M‘Clintock and -Strong’s <cite>Cyclopædia of Biblical etc. Literature</cite>, that “the seclusion -of the harem and the habits consequent upon it were utterly -unknown in early times, and the condition of the Oriental woman, -as pictured to us in the Bible, contrasts most favourably with that -of her modern representative. There is abundant evidence that -women, whether married or unmarried, went about with their faces -unveiled. An unmarried woman might meet and converse with -men, even strangers, in a public place; she might be found alone -in the country without any reflection on her character; or she -might appear in a court of justice.” The wife “entertained guests -at her own desire in the absence of her husband, and sometimes -even in defiance of his wishes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since, therefore, the Hebrew woman was not “the husband’s -slave but his companion,” how are we to account for the absence -of Love?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Some light is thrown on the matter by the prevalence of polygamy, -which, as we have seen, is inimical to the growth of Love. -Polygamy, though not universal, was sanctioned by the Mosaic -law, except in the case of priests. “The secondary wife was -regarded by the Hebrews as a wife, and her rights were secured by -law.” In the cases of Abraham and Jacob, polygamy was resorted -to at the request of their own wives, “under the idea that children -born to a slave were in the eye of the law the children of the -mistress.” Now if a woman advises her own husband to take -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>another wife, there must be a total absence of Jealousy and Monopoly—the -two elements of Romantic Love which pass into conjugal -affection without diminution of force.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, although Hebrew women are said to have had considerable -liberty of going about alone in town and country, this -probably refers in most cases to the privilege of tending sheep and -of fetching water at the well. “From all education in general,” -says Ploss, “as well as <em>from social intercourse with men, woman -was excluded</em>; her destination being simply to increase the number -of children, and take care of household matters. She lived a quiet -life, merely for her husband, who, indeed, treated her with respect -and consideration, but without feeling any special tenderness -toward her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is the line which I have italicised in the above quotation -that suggests the principal reason of the non-existence of Love in -Biblical times: There were no meetings of the young, no opportunities -for Courtship, the indispensable condition of Love, which -requires time and opportunity for its growth. And not only were -there no regular opportunities for Courtship, but if they offered -themselves casually, the young folks could not derive much benefit, -from them; for not only the daughter’s choice, but even the son’s -was neutralised by the parental command. “Fathers from the -beginning considered it both their duty and prerogative to find or -select wives <em>for their sons</em> (Gen. xxiv. 3; xxxviii. 6). In the -absence of the father, the selection devolved upon the mother -(Gen. xxi. 21). Even in cases where the wishes of the son were -consulted, the proposals were made by the father (Gen. xxxiv. 4, -8); and the violation of this parental prerogative on the part of -the son was ‘a grief of mind’ to the father (Gen. xxvi. 35). The -proposals were generally made by the parents of the young man, -except when there was a difference of rank, in which case the -negotiations proceeded from the father of the maiden (Exod. ii. -21), and when accepted by the parents on both sides, sometimes -also consulting the opinion of the adult brothers of the maiden -(Gen. xxiv. 51; xxxiv. 11), the matter was considered as settled, -<em>without requiring the consent of the bride</em>” (M‘Clintock and -Strong).</p> - -<p class='c001'>But how about the Song of Solomon—the Song of Songs? Is -not that a song of Love, and an exception to our general statement? -It appears so at first sight; and the German writer -Herder, in his detailed and glowing analysis of it, declares that it -depicts love “from its first origin, from its tenderest bud, through -all stages and conditions of its growth, its flowering, its maturing, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>to the ripe fruit and new offshoot.” Herder, however, is a very -unsafe and shallow guide in this matter. An attempt has lately -been made to rehabilitate him in Germany, where his fame has -become almost extinct; but in vain, for his pompous, stilted -rhetoric and imagery cannot conceal from modern readers his lack -of ideas and limited knowledge of facts. He asserts that, as there -is only one Goodness, one Truth, so there is but one Love (or -Affection). If you do not love your wife, he says, you will not -love your friend, parents, or child. A writer whose notions of the -psychology of love are so excessively crude cannot be considered a -trustworthy judge in the matter in question. So far as love is -referred to in the Song of Solomon, it is probable that conjugal -affection is meant.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is a curious fact that of the famous German, English, and -French theologians who have written commentaries on the Song of -Songs, no two seem to agree in their interpretation of its plot and -significance. It is now generally agreed, too, that the Song was -not written by Solomon, but some time after him. It seems, -indeed, incredible that a monarch who had a thousand wives, and -whose affections must have been torn into a thousand shreds, and -cannot have been very lasting, should have written these marvellous -lines: “For love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: -the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement -flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods -drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for -love, it would utterly be contemned.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This passage has a remarkably modern and romantic sound—so -modern and romantic that it would not seem out of place in Shakspere. -But it needs no knowledge of Hebrew to see that the -responsibility for this modern sound rests with the English translators. -Luther’s more literal version appears much less modern. -Indeed, throughout the Song of Solomon the English translators -have idealised the language of passion, in harmony with modern -notions on the subject; so that it is only on reading Luther’s -version that one begins to understand why the Talmudists did not -allow the Jews to read this book before their thirtieth year.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the most ingenious and consistent of the numerous -interpretations of the Song of Solomon is that given by M. Chas. -Bruston in the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Encyclopædie des Sciences Religieuses</cite></span> (ii. 610-612). -The repetition of the flatteries occurring in the poem he -explains by showing that the second time they refer, not to the -Sulamite, but to a princess of Lebanon whom Solomon married. -Hence, he insists, the repetition is not so much a literary blemish -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>as an indication <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“combien est vil et méprisable l’amour sensuel et -polygame, qui prodigue indifférement les mêmes flatteries a des -femmes différentes.”</span></p> - -<p class='c001'>The imaginative and poetic terms in which feminine charms -are depicted in the Song of Songs show that, nevertheless, at least -the sensuous phase of the overtone of Personal Admiration was -strongly developed among the ancient Hebrews; not strongly -enough, however, to lead them, as it led other ancient nations, to -embody their ideals of feminine and masculine beauty in marble -monuments of sculpture.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>ANCIENT ARYAN LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>As it is among the Aryan or “Indo-Germanic” races of Europe -and America that Modern Love has produced its most beautiful -blossoms, it is, even more than in the case of the non-Aryan Jews -and Egyptians, of interest to know something concerning its -prevalence among the Asiatic peoples who appear as the nearest -modern representatives of our remote Aryan ancestors.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In no country, perhaps, has the position of woman differed so -greatly at various epochs as in India. Previous to the introduction -of Brahminism, women were held in esteem, enjoyed diverse -privileges, and were allowed free social intercourse with the men, -while monogamy was the recognised form of marriage. The -Brahmins, however, introduced polygamy, setting a good example -by sometimes marrying a whole family, “old and young, daughters, -aunts, sisters, and cousins”; and one case is known of a Brahmin -who had 120 wives, according to Schweiger Lerchenfeld. Family -feeling was subordinated to considerations of caste, and by a -sophistical interpretation of ancient laws the Brahmins introduced -the custom of Suttee, or the burning alive of widows on the -deceased husband’s funeral pyre. This habit is sometimes -regarded as the very apotheosis of conjugal affection, but it was -simply what is known in modern psychology as an epidemic -delusion; the poor women being rendered willing to sacrifice -themselves by the doctrine that to die in this way was something -specially voluptuous and meritorious; while those who refused to -be immolated were treated as social outcasts who were not allowed -to marry again or to adorn their persons in any way.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The references to women in the laws of Manu show in what -low esteem they came to be held in India. A few of the maxims -contained in this work may be cited: “Of dishonour woman is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>the cause; of enmity woman is the cause; of mundane existence -woman is the cause; hence woman is to be avoided.” “A girl, -a maiden, a wife shall never do anything in accordance with her -own will, not even in her own house.” “A woman shall serve -her husband all life long, and remain true to him even after -death; even though he should deceive her, love another, and be -devoid of good qualities, a good wife should nevertheless revere -him as if he were a god; she must not displease him in anything, -neither in life nor after his death.” So wretched, indeed, became -woman’s lot that Indian mothers, it is said, “often drown their -female children in the sacred streams of India, to preserve them -from the fate awaiting them in life.” Letourneau states that -“up to modern times Hindoo laws and manners have been -modelled after the sacred precepts. When Somerat made his -voyage, it was considered improper for a respectable woman to -know how to read or dance. These futile accomplishments were -left to the courtesan, the Bayadere.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>HINDOO LOVE MAXIMS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>That such a state of affairs was not favourable to Romantic -Love is obvious. Nevertheless there appears to have been a -period—about 1200 or 1500 years ago—when some of the -inhabitants of India were familiar with most of the emotions -which enter into Modern Love. This evidence is contained in the -<cite>Seven Hundred Maxims of Hâla</cite>, a collection of poetic utterances -dating back not further than the third century of our era, and -comprising productions by various authors, including as many as -sixteen of the female persuasion. They are written in a sister-language -of Sanscrit, the Prâkrit; and their form indicates that -they were intended to be sung. Herr Albrecht Weber remarks in -the <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Deutsche Rundschau</cite></span> with reference to this collection: “At -the very beginning of our acquaintance with Sanscrit literature, -towards the end of the last century, it was noticed, and was -claimed forthwith as an eloquent proof of antique relationship, -that Indian poetry, especially of the amatory kind, is in character -remarkably allied to our own modern poetry. The sentimental -qualities of modern verse, in one word, were traced in Indian -poetry in a much higher degree than they had been found in -Greek and Roman literature; and this discovery awakened at -once, notably in Germany, a sympathetic interest in a country -whose poets spoke a language so well known to our hearts, as -though they had been born among ourselves.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>Some of these maxims apparently depict the family life of the -lower classes; others appear rather as if they had been intended -to be sung by the Bayaderes, or singing and dancing girls of the -Buddhist temples, who emancipated themselves from the domestic -and educational restrictions placed on other women, and sought to -fascinate men with their wit, love, and æsthetic accomplishments. -This suggestion is borne out by the fact that most of the maxims -are feminine utterances, and often of questionable moral character. -Although, therefore, some of these revelations of early Aryan Love -have an unpleasant by-flavour, they are yet extremely interesting -as showing how dependent Romantic Love is on the freedom and -the intellectual and æsthetic culture of woman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We find in the maxims of Halâ evidences of that important -overtone of Love, Ecstatic Adoration or Poetic Hyperbole, which -we have not encountered elsewhere, so far. What could be more -modern than this:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Although all my possessions were burnt in the village fire, -yet is my heart delighted, since <em>he</em> took the buckets from me -when they were passed from hand to hand.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Or this:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“O thou who art skilled in cookery, restrain thy anger! The -reason why the fire refuses to burn, and only smokes, is that it -may the longer drink in the breath of your mouth, fragrant as the -red potato-blossoms.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following two show how Personal Beauty was appreciated:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He sees nothing but her face, and she too is quite intoxicated -by his looks. Both, satisfied with each other, act as if in the -whole world there were no other women or men.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Other beauties likewise have in their faces beautiful, wide -black eyes, with long lashes,—but no one else understands as she -does how to use them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>How Love establishes his Monopoly in heart and mind, -tolerating no other thought, is thus shown:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She stares without a (visible) object, draws a deep sigh, -laughs into empty space, mutters unintelligible words—forsooth, -there must be something on her heart.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ovid himself might have written the following, showing -Love’s inconstancy:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Love departs when lovers are separated; it departs when -they see too much of each other; it departs in consequence of -malicious gossip; aye, it departs also without these causes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The nature of Coyness is evidently understood, for the lover is -thus admonished:—</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>“My son, such is the nature of love, suddenly to get angry, to -make up again in a moment, to dissemble its language, to tease -immoderately.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>And yet the poet deems it necessary to tell a sweetheart -that—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“By forgiving him at first sight, you foolish girl, you deprived -yourself of many pleasures,—of his prostration at your feet -[a trace of Gallantry], of a kiss passionately stolen.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The sadness of separation thus finds utterance:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“As is sickness without a physician; as living with relatives -when one is poor,—as the sight of an enemy’s prosperity,—so is -it difficult to endure separation from you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we find in Ancient Aryan Love some of the leading -features of modern romantic passion.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>GREEK LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The Greeks, too, were Aryans, and they were the most refined -and æsthetic nation of antiquity; yet we look in vain in their -literature for delineations of that Romantic Love which, according -to our notions, ought to accompany so high a degree of culture.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FAMILY AFFECTIONS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Conjugal tenderness and the other family affections appear; -indeed, to have been known and cherished by the Greeks at all -times, in the days of Athenian supremacy, when women were kept -in entire seclusion, no less than in Homeric times, when they seem -to have enjoyed more liberty of action. Plutarch tells us in his -<cite>Conjugal Precepts</cite> that “With women tenderness of heart is indicated -by a pleasing countenance, by sweetness of speech, by an -affectionate grace, and by a high degree of sensitiveness;” and Mr. -Lecky thus eloquently sums up the evidence that the Greeks -appreciated the various forms of domestic affection:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The types of female excellence which are contained in the -Greek poems, while they are among the earliest, are also among -the most perfect in the literature of mankind. The conjugal tenderness -of Hector and Andromache; the unwearied fidelity of -Penelope, awaiting through the long revolving years the return of -her storm-tossed husband, who looked forward to her as the crown -of all his labours; the heroic love of Alcestis, voluntarily dying -that her husband might live; the filial piety of Antigone; the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>majestic grandeur of the death of Polyxena; the more subdued -and saintly resignation of Iphigenia, excusing with her last breath -the father who had condemned her; the joyous, modest, and -loving Nausicaa, whose figure shines like a perfect idyll among the -tragedies of the <cite>Odyssey</cite>—all these are pictures of perennial beauty, -which Rome and Christendom, chivalry and modern civilisation, -have neither eclipsed nor transcended. Virgin modesty and -conjugal fidelity, the graces as well as the virtues of the most -perfect womanhood, have never been more exquisitely portrayed.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>NO LOVE-STORIES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>But Mr. Lecky, ignoring, like most writers, the enormous -difference between conjugal and romantic love, forgets to notice -the absolute silence of Greek literature on the subject of pre-matrimonial -infatuation. Not one of the Greek tragedies is a -“love-drama”; romantic love does not appear even in the writings -of Euripides, who has so much to say about women, and who -named most of his plays after his heroines. Had Love been -known to Sophokles and Euripides, as it was known to Shakspere -and Goethe, we should no doubt have a Greek <cite>Romeo and Juliet</cite> -and a Greek <cite>Faust</cite>. For although there were certain limitations -as to the scope and the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>dramatis personæ</i></span> of a Greek play, there -was nothing whatever to exclude a love-story. And when we -consider how the sentiment of Love colours all modern literature; -how almost impossible it is for a play or a novel to succeed unless -it embodies a love-story: the absolute ignoring of this passion in -Greek literature forces on us the inevitable conclusion that -Romantic Love was unknown to them, or only so faintly -developed as to excite no interest whatever.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And this conclusion harmonises with the dictum of the best -Greek scholars. It is true that Becker, in his <cite>Charikles</cite>, referring -to the frequency with which the comedians introduce a youth -desperately enamoured of a girl, faintly objects to the statement -that “There is no instance of an Athenian falling in love with a -free-born woman, and marrying her from violent passion,”—made -by Müller in his famous work on the Dorians. But he makes the -fatal admission that “Sensuality was the soil from which such -passion sprang, and none other than a sensual love was acknowledged -between man and wife.” No one, of course, would deny -that sensual passion prevailed in Athens; but sensuality is the -very antipode of Romantic Love.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span> - <h3 class='c014'>WOMAN’S POSITION</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>How are we to account for this anomaly—the absence of sexual -romance in a nation which was so passionately enamoured of -Beauty in its various forms?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The answer is to be found in the non-existence of opportunities -for courtship, and the degraded position of woman. The following -sentences, culled at random from Becker’s classical work, show how -the Greek men regarded their women, whom they considered inferior -to themselves in heart as well as in intellect. Iphigenia -herself is made to admit by Euripides that one man is worth more -than a myriad of women:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>εἶς γ’ ανὴρ κρείσσων γυναικῶν μυρίων.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>“The ἀρετή (virtue) of which a woman was thought capable in -that age differed but little from that of a faithful slave.” “Except -in her own immediate circle, a woman’s existence was scarcely -recognised.” “It was quite a Grecian view of the case to consider -a wife as a necessary evil.” "Athenians, in speaking of their -wives and children, generally said τέκνα καὶ γυναῖκας, putting -their wives last: a phrase which indicates very clearly what was -the tone of feeling on this subject" (Smith).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women “were not allowed to conclude any bargain or transaction -of consequence on their own account,” though Plato urged -that this concession should be made to them; and it was even -“enacted that everything a man did by the counsel or request of -a woman should be null.” “There were no educational institutions -for girls, nor any private teachers at home.” “Hence there -were no scientifically-learned ladies, with the exception of the -Hetæræ.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>CHAPERONAGE <i>VERSUS</i> COURTSHIP</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In such an arid, rocky soil Love of course could not grow or -even germinate. Still more fatal to the romantic passion, however, -was the absolute seclusion of the sexes, precluding all possibility -of courtship and free choice among the young. Greek women -were not allowed to enjoy the society of men, nor to attend “those -public spectacles which were the chief means of Athenian culture,” -and which would have afforded the young folks an opportunity of -seeing and falling in love with one another. The wife was not -even permitted to eat with her husband if male visitors were -present, but had to retire to her private apartments, so absurd -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>was the jealousy of the men. “The maidens lived in the greatest -seclusion till their marriage, and, so to speak, regularly under lock -and key,” which had the “effect of rendering the girls excessively -bashful, and even prudish,” and so stupid, in all probability, that -no wonder the men considered marriage a punishment, and sought -entertainment with the educated Hetæræ—as to-day in France. -Even young married women were obliged to have a chaperon. -“No respectable lady thought of going out without a female -slave.” “Even the married woman shrank back and blushed if -she chanced to be seen at the window by a man.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PLATO ON COURTSHIP</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is one of the most remarkable facts in the history of Love -and of social philosophy that Plato, the most modern of all ancient -thinkers, <em>foresaw the importance of pre-matrimonial acquaintance</em> -as the basis of a rational and happy marriage choice long before -any other writer. Making allowance for the fact that Greek -notions as to what is within “the rules of modesty” differed from -our own, the following passage cannot be too deeply pondered: -“People,” Plato tells us in the sixth book of the <cite>Laws</cite> (p. 771), -“must be acquainted with those into whose families and to whom -they marry and are given in marriage; in such matters as far as -possible to avoid mistakes is all-important, and with this serious -purpose let games be instituted, in which youths and maidens -shall dance together, seeing and being seen naked, at a proper age -and on a suitable occasion, not transgressing the rules of modesty.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PARENTAL <i>VERSUS</i> LOVERS’ CHOICE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Marriages in Greece were often arranged for girls while they -were mere children, of course without any reference to their -choice, since they were looked upon as the <em>property</em> of the father, -who could dispose of them at his pleasure. Besides these early -betrothals there was an obstacle to free choice in the Athenian -law which forbade a citizen under very severe penalties to marry -a foreigner. And again, “In the case of a father dying intestate, -and without male children, his heiress had no choice in marriage; -she was compelled by law to marry her nearest kinsman, not in -the ascending line.... Where there were several co-heiresses, -they were respectively married to their kinsmen, the nearest having -the first choice”—a law resembling one in the Jewish code, -and exemplified by Ruth, as pointed out in Smith’s <cite>Dictionary</cite>.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>How Sexual Selection was rendered impracticable in Greece -is further shown in the following citations from Becker: “The -choice of the bride seldom depended on previous, or at least on -intimate acquaintance. More attention was generally paid to the -position of a damsel’s family, and the amount of her dowry, than -to her <em>personal qualities</em>.” "It was usual for a father to choose -for his son a wife, and one perhaps whom the bridegroom had -never seen." “Widows frequently married again; this was often -in compliance with the testamentary dispositions of their husbands, -as little regard being paid to their wishes as in the case of girls.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we see that three causes combined to prevent the growth -of Romantic Love in Greece—the degraded position of women, the -absence of direct Courtship, and the impossibility of exercising -Individual Preference.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>THE HETÆRÆ</h3> - -<p class='c013'>That the absolute seclusion and chaperonage of the young -women, and their consequent ignorance and insipidity, were the -reasons why they could neither feel nor inspire Romantic Love, is -shown by the fact that there existed in Greece in the time of -Perikles a mentally superior class of women who appear to have -aroused Love, or something very like it, by means of the artistic -and intellectual charms which they united with their physical -beauty. These women were called Ἡταίραι, or <em>companions</em>, evidently -to distinguish them from the domestic women who were no -“companions” after the first charm of novelty had worn away: -a state of affairs for which of course the men themselves, who -gave them no education and locked them up, were to blame.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What seems paradoxical is that these women, who were morally -inferior to the others, should have been the first to inspire in men -a more <em>refined</em> sort of Love; but the paradox is rendered the -more probable by the circumstance that in India, likewise, we -found the first traces of Romantic Love among the Bayaderes, a -class corresponding to the Hetæræ.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is reason to believe that Aspasia, who aided the greatest -statesman of antiquity in writing his stirring speeches, inspired -not only him but other great contemporaries with true Romantic -passion—which they were enabled to feel because men of genius -are not only intellectually but also emotionally ahead of their -time.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Diotima was another of these women. She was also revered -as a prophetess, and is credited by Plato with having given -Sokrates, and through him Greece, the first adequate discourse on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>Love—a discourse, we may add, in which some flashes of true -modern insight are mingled with the curiously confused notions of -the Greeks on the subject of Love and Friendship. What these -notions were is best seen by briefly considering the peculiarities of</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PLATONIC LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>On this subject the most incorrect and absurd notions universally -pervade modern literature and conversation. As commonly -understood, “Platonic Love” means a friendship between a man -and a woman from which all traces of passion are excluded. Such a -notion is utterly foreign to Plato’s way of thinking, and is nowhere -referred to in his writings. Platonic love has nothing to do with -women whatever. It is an attachment between a man and a youth, -which may be defined as friendship united with the ecstatic ardour -which in modern life is associated only with Romantic Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. George Grote thus describes what he calls the “truly -Platonic conception of love”. It is “a vehement impulse towards -mental communion with some favoured youth, in view of producing -mental improvement, good, and happiness to both persons concerned: -the same impulse afterwards expanding, so as to grasp -the good and beautiful in a larger sense, and ultimately to fasten -on goodness and beauty in the pure Ideal.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Once more, Platonic love might be defined as <em>creative friendship</em>, -which has for its object the conception of great ideas,—of -works of art, literature, philosophy. Such a friendship, Plato tells -us, should be formed between a man and a youth, not too young, -but when his beard begins to grow and his intellect to develop; -and such a friendship is apt to last throughout life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the most striking instance in Greek literature of -Platonic love is that given in Plato’s <cite>Symposium</cite> as existing -between the pure-minded Sokrates, who kept aloof from all Greek -vices, and the beautiful young Alkibiades. This youth thus -describes the effect which the discourse of Sokrates has on him: -“When I hear him, my heart leaps in my breast, more than it -does among the Korybantes, and tears roll down my cheeks at his -words, and I notice that many others have the same experience. -When I heard Perikles and other excellent orators, I came to the -conclusion that they spoke well; but this experience was different -from the other, and my soul did not lose its control or gnash its -teeth like a prostrate slave, but by this Marsyas (= Sokrates) I -was put into such a mood that the condition in which I found -myself did not seem praiseworthy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>He further describes Sokrates as being always “in love with -beautiful youths, and talking with them, and being quite beside -himself”; hence when he (Alkibiades) appears at the Symposium, -and finds Sokrates sitting next to the most beautiful man in the -company, he chides him in words which have exactly the sound of -Jealousy inspired by <em>Romantic</em> Love: “And why did you recline -here and not next to Aristophanes, or some other wit, or would-be -wit, but, instead, crowded forward in order to be next to the -handsomest?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To which Sokrates replies: “Agathon, come to my assistance; -for my love for this person has cost me dearly. Ever since I -have loved him, I have not been allowed to look at anybody, or -to talk with any one who is beautiful, or else this youth, in his -jealousy and envy, does unheard-of-things, and chides me, and -hardly refrains from violence. Be on your guard, therefore, that -he may not resort to violence now, and reconcile us, or if he dares -to become unruly, assist me; for I very much fear his madness -and infatuation.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although this was probably said in the playful tone common -to Sokrates, it yet is noticeable how closely the language used -resembles the language of modern Romantic Love.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>SAPPHO AND FEMALE FRIENDSHIP</h3> - -<p class='c011'>To this form of Platonic or mono-sexual love there existed a -female counterpart, as shown in some of the lyric effusions of -Greek poets. Some of these poets, it is true, especially Anakreon, -knew naught of the imaginative side of Love—of its protracted -tortures and intermittent joys. Like a butterfly that kisses every -flower on its way, he “cared only for the enjoyment of the passing -moment.” But Sappho apparently wrote of Love in terms worthy -of Heine or Byron, as shown even in this crude translation of one -of her poems:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“While gazing on thy charms I hung,</div> - <div class='line'>My voice died faltering on my tongue,</div> - <div class='line'>With subtle flames my bosom glows,</div> - <div class='line'>Quick through each vein the poison flows;</div> - <div class='line'>Dark dimming mists my eyes surround,</div> - <div class='line'>My ears with hollow murmurs sound.</div> - <div class='line'>My limbs with dewy chillness freeze,</div> - <div class='line'>On my whole frame pale tremblings seize,</div> - <div class='line'>And losing colour, sense, and breath,</div> - <div class='line'>I seem quite languishing in death.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Longinus calls this the most perfect expression in all ancient -<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>literature of the effects of Love. It happens, however, to have -nothing to do with Love. For, as Plato’s “love” is merely -ecstatic friendship between man and youth, so Sappho’s love is -friendship between two women. This is the opinion of Bode and -Müller, and it is entirely borne out by the language of the original -text.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It has been suggested that Sappho, being a woman, and a -Greek woman, could not have addressed such glowing words to a -man without violating the current notions of decorum; and hence -wrote as if she were a man addressing a woman. But Sappho was -one of the Æolian women who had greater liberty than the -Athenians; and she was, moreover, a blue-stocking who would not -have stuck at such a trifle as shocking Greek notions regarding -woman’s privileges. And in some of her poems she <em>does</em> mention -a youth “to whom she gave her whole heart, while he requited -her passion with cold indifference” (Müller).</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the Platonists, Maximus Tyrius (<i>dis.</i> 24, p. 297), takes -the same view regarding Sappho. “The love of the Lesbian -poet,” he says, “what can it be, if we may compare remote with -more recent things than the Sokratic art of love? For both -appear to promote the same <em>Friendship</em>, she among women, he -among men. They both confess they love many, and are captivated -by all beauties. For what Alkibiades and Charmides are to -Sokrates, Gyrinna and Atthis and Anaktoria are to Sappho.” -“Even Sokrates confesses that it was from Sappho that he partly -derived his noble views of the enthusiastic <em>love of mental beauty</em>” -(<cite>Phædon</cite>, c. 225).</p> - -<p class='c001'>To one of the girls just referred to, Sappho addresses these -words: “Again does the strength-dissolving Eros, that bittersweet, -resistless monster, agitate me; but to thee, O Atthis, the -thought of me is importunate; thou fliest to Andromeda.” “It -is obvious,” says Müller, “that this attachment bears less the -character of maternal interest than of passionate love; as amongst -Dorians in Sparta and Crete analogous connections between men -and youths, in which the latter were trained to noble and manly -deeds, were carried on in a language of high-wrought and passionate -feeling, which had all the character of an attachment between -persons of different sexes. This mixture of feelings, which among -nations of a calmer temperament have always been perfectly -distinct, is an essential feature of the Greek character.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Greek Love, <i>i.e.</i> Friendship, being thus tinged and strengthened, -as we see in the cases of Sokrates and Alkibiades, Sappho and -Atthis, by jealousy, ecstatic adoration, exclusiveness, admiration -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>of personal beauty, and other qualities which modern civilisation -has transferred to Romantic Love, we are enabled to understand -why Friendship was so much more potent and prevalent in -antiquity than it is now, when, having lost these traits <em>through -the differentiation of emotions</em>, it seems “insipid to those who -have tasted Love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The lesson to be learned from this whole discussion on Greek -Friendship is of extreme importance to the psychology of Love. -It is this: The Greeks were too intellectual and refined not to -have at least a vague presentiment of the higher possibilities and -charms of imaginative Love. But Greek women—with the rare -exceptions referred to—were too stupid to enable the men to -realise their vague ideal. Hence they sought it in ardent attachments -to youths, who <em>were</em> quick-minded and able to <em>sympathise</em> -with their intellectual aspirations. And thus Greek Love became -identical with male friendship—the female friendship referred to -being a sort of compensating echo.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Greek Love is symbolised in the mythic youth Narcissus, who -scorns all the beautiful nymphs that are eager for his caresses, and -falls in love with his own image reflected in the water.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>GREEK BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It even seems as if, apart from Love, the Greeks admired -youthful masculine beauty more than feminine charms; and many -of them would probably have agreed with Schopenhauer that men -are more beautiful than women. Certain it is that, as the most -eminent critic of Greek art, Winckelmann, points out “the -supreme beauty of Greek art is male rather than female.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following citation from Grote’s famous work on Plato -suggests some reasons for this fact, besides reflecting further light -on points discussed in the preceding pages:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“In the Hellenic point of view, upon which Plato builds, the -attachment of man to woman was regarded as a natural impulse -and as a domestic, social sentiment; yet as belonging to <em>a commonplace -rather than to an exalted mind</em>, and seldom or never rising -to that pitch of enthusiasm which overpowers all other emotions, -absorbs the whole man, and aims either at the joint performance -of great exploits, or the joint prosecution of intellectual improvement -by continued colloquy. We must remember that the wives -and daughters of citizens were seldom seen abroad; that she had -learned nothing except spinning and weaving; that the fact of her -having seen so little and heard as little as possible, was considered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>as rendering her more acceptable to her husband; that her sphere -of duty and exertion was confined to the interior of the family. -The beauty of women yielded satisfaction to the senses, but little -beyond. It was the masculine beauty of youth that fired the -Hellenic imagination with glowing and impassioned sentiment. -The finest youths, and those, too, of the best families and education, -were seen habitually uncovered in the Palæstra and at the public -festival-matches; engaged in active contention and graceful exercise, -under the direction of professional trainers. The sight of the -living form in such perfection, movement, and variety, awakened a -powerful emotional sympathy, blended with æsthetic sentiment, -which in the more susceptible natures was exalted into intense and -passionate devotion. The terms in which this feeling is described, -both by Plato and Xenophon, are among the strongest which the -language affords—and are predicated even of Sokrates himself. -Far from being ashamed of this feeling, they consider it admirable -and beneficial, though very liable to abuse, which they emphatically -denounce and forbid. In their view it was an idealising passion, -which tended to raise a man above the vulgar and selfish pursuits -of life, and even above the fear of death. The devoted attachments -which it inspired were dreaded by the despots, who forbade the -assemblage of youths for exercise in the Palæstra.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another reason for the Greek preference of masculine beauty is -suggested by Mr. Lecky, who attributes it to the fact that the -principal art of the Greeks, sculpture, is “especially suited to -represent male beauty, or the beauty of strength”; whereas -“female beauty, or the beauty of softness,” became the principal -object of the painters, after Christianity had won attention for the -feminine virtues of gentleness and delicacy. (For further remarks -on Greek Beauty, see the chapters on “Four Sources of Beauty,” -and “The Nose.”)</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>CUPID’S ARROWS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Possibly some of my readers have not yet quieted all their doubts -regarding the existence of real Love among the Greeks; for did -they not have special deities of love—Aphrodite and Eros, Venus -and Cupid? Quite so; but those familiar with Greek history -know that the cult of Venus had but a remote connection with -imaginative or Romantic Love, which alone is here under consideration. -Yet our modern poets owe a vast debt of gratitude to the -ancient bards for these mythic deities, whom they have simply -taken and idealised, like Love itself. There is, especially, the -mischievous Dan Cupid, who, in his modern metamorphosis, is still -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>“the anointed sovereign of sighs and groans.” This little fellow -seems to have been taken very seriously indeed by the earliest -Greeks. He has one attribute—wings—which we readily understand, -as Love is inconstant ever; but another of his attributes -would excite the greatest surprise in our minds were we not so -accustomed to it as to accept it as a matter of course, namely, his -arrows. It would seem more in accordance with modern notions -that he should produce his magic effects by means of Love-potions -or other Love-charms, rather than with such a warlike weapon as -an arrow.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A German feuilletonist, Dr. Michael Haberlandt, has lately -advanced an ingenious theory to account for this weapon. The -ancient Greeks had the peculiar belief that all diseases were caused -by the invisible poisoned arrows of evil or angry deities; as in the -well-known case of the offended Apollo sending his pest-laden -arrows among the Hellenes. Now love, in the irresistible and -maddening, though primitive form known to the early Greeks, was -doubtless looked on as a real, mysterious affliction, and not merely -as love sickness in the figurative modern sense: what more natural -therefore than to attribute it to the arrows of a mischievous deity?</p> - -<p class='c001'>In course of time poetic fancy added to the image of Cupid -other attributes that naturally suggested themselves: the wings to -symbolise fickleness; a bandage to indicate blindness; while the -arrows were represented as dipped in poison, gall, or honey. The -curious fact may be added that the ancient East Indians, whose -deities numbered 330,000,000 (in round numbers), likewise had a -god of love armed with bow and arrows: a conception which they -seem to have originated independently of the Greeks.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>ORIGIN OF LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Plato’s <cite>Symposium</cite> contains two curious theories of the cause -and origin of love, which, in conclusion, may be briefly summarised, -as they help to characterise Greek notions on this subject. The -first is placed in the mouth of Sokrates, who says he heard it of -the Hetaira Diotima. What, she asks, is the cause of this love-sickness, -this anxiety of men and animals, first to get a mate, and -then to take care of the offspring? It is, she replies, the desire to -perpetuate themselves. For just as the famous heroes and -heroines—Alkestis, Achilles, Kadros—would not have so nobly -sacrificed their lives had they not been sustained by the thought -that their fame and glory would survive among future generations; -so the fact that parents in the affection for their young will even -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>go so far as to sacrifice their own lives to protect them, is due to -their craving for immortality in their offspring.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This theory may be regarded as a vague foreshadowing of -Schopenhauer’s, which will be considered in another place.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The second theory of the origin of love is attributed by Plato to -Aristophanes, who relates it in the form of a myth. Human -nature, he begins, was not always as it is now. At the beginning -there were three sexes: one, the male, descended of the sun-god; -the second, female, descended of the earth; and the third, which -united the attributes of both sexes, descended of the moon. Each -of these beings, moreover, had two pairs of hands and legs, and -two faces, and the figure was round, and in rapid motion revolved -like a wheel, the pairs of legs alternately touching the ground and -describing an arc in the air.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These beings were fierce, powerful, and vain, so they attempted -to storm heaven and attack the gods. As Zeus did not wish to -destroy them—since that would have deprived him of sacrifices -and other forms of human devotion—he resolved to punish them -by diminishing their strength. So he directed Apollo to cut each -of them into two, which was done; and thus the number of human -beings was doubled. Each of these half-beings now continually -wandered about, seeking its other half. And when they found -each other, their only desire was to be reunited by Vulcan and -never be parted again. “And this longing and striving after -union—this is what is meant by the name of Love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The waggish Aristophanes appends a caution to human beings -not to offend Zeus again, because it was that god’s intention, on a -repetition of the offence, to split human beings once more, so that -they would have to hop about on one leg!</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the metaphors used by the comic poet is very pretty, -even if translated into terms of Modern Love. He compares the -two divided halves of one human being to the dice which among -the ancients were used as marks of hospitality, being broken into -two pieces, of which each person received one, and which were -afterwards fitted together in token of recognition. A pair of -lovers, then, are like these halved dice, naturally belonging to -each other, and craving to be reunited.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>ROMAN LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>WOMAN’S POSITION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Among the Romans the domestic position of women was on the -whole much more favourable to the growth of feminine culture -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>than in Greece. They were not jealously guarded in special apartments, -but were allowed to retain their seat at the table and join -in the conversation when guests arrived, as Cornelius Nepos points -out with a pardonable sense of superiority. Becker, in his <cite>Gallus</cite>, -thus states the difference between Greek and Roman treatment of -women: “Whilst we see that in most of the Grecian states, and -especially in Athens, the women (<i>i.e.</i> the whole female sex) were -little esteemed and treated as children all their lives, confined to -the gynaikoreitis, shut out from social life and all intercourse with -men and their amusements, we find that in Rome exactly the -reverse was the case. Although the wife is naturally subordinate -to the husband, yet she is always treated with open attention and -regard. The Roman housewife always appears as the mistress of -the whole household economy, instructress of the children, and -guardian of the honour of the house, equally esteemed with the -paterfamilias both in and out of the house.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Walking abroad was only limited by scruple and custom, not -by a law or the jealous will of the husband. The women frequented -public theatres as well as the men, and took their places -with them at festive banquets.” "Even the vestals participated -in the banquets of the men." Although “learned women were -dreaded,” a knowledge of Greek and the fine arts was in later -times counted an essential part of feminine culture. “Certain -advantages accrued to those who had many children, <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>jus trium -liberorum</i></span>.” Masculine “voluntary celibacy was considered, in -very early times, as censurable and even guilty;” and from -Festus “we learn that there was a celibate fine.” The statement -apparently credited by Mr. Lecky that for 520 years there was no -case of divorce in Rome, has been shown to rest on a misconception -of a passage in Gellius. Yet “manners were so severe, that -a senator was censured for indecency because he had kissed his -wife in the presence of their daughter.” It was also considered -“in a high degree disgraceful for a Roman mother to delegate to -a nurse the duty of suckling her child.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>NO WOOING AND CHOICE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Yet amid all these domestic virtues and family affections we -search in vain for the prevalence of Romantic Love. We have -already seen that for the growth of this sentiment something more -is needed than domestic affection, and that something is comprised -in the word <span class='sc'>Wooing</span>. There was no wooing at Rome. In most -cases, the father took his daughter’s heart in his hand, and, treating -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>it as a piece of personal property, bestowed it on the suitor -who best “suited” him. “From the earliest times,” says Ploss, -“it was customary in Rome to marry girls when they had barely -reached their twelfth or thirteenth year; engagements were probably -made at a still earlier age. Although legally the daughter’s -consent was required, in actual practice <em>she exercised no choice</em>; her -extreme youth in itself preventing this. Often a marriage contract -was a mere matter of agreement between two families in -which love and personal favour were disregarded; nor did even the -betrothal bring the future couple into closer intimacy.” With -reference to the laws of the Twelve Tablets, M. Legouvé remarks, -in his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Histoire Morale des Femmes</cite></span>, that “Rome was worthy of -Athens. Not only did a Roman father dispose of his daughter -against her inclination, but he even had the right to dissolve a -marriage into which she had entered, and to take away from his -daughter the husband he had given her, whom she loved, and by -whom she had children.” In justice, however, it must be added -that this latter right was rarely exercised; but the fact that the -Romans could tolerate the very notion of such a law shows what -little account was made of love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another absurd impediment to personal choice was raised by -the Theodosian Code, which compelled a girl to marry a man who -had the same calling as her father—a custom which, indeed, seems -to prevail in parts of Europe to the present day, and which is as -incompatible with Love as the ancient Hebrew rule that the oldest -daughter must be married first—a rule which compelled Jacob to -marry Leah before he could get his beloved Rachel, for whom he -had laboured seven years. “First come first served” is a rule -which Cupid rarely heeds in the case of several sisters.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the case of the men it is possible that Sexual Selection -occasionally came into play, when early betrothals did not prevent -it; for the old Romans were too rational to anticipate the silly -and criminal French custom of bargaining for a bride before they -had even seen her. In such a case, if the bride was attractive, the -suitor’s imagination, dwelling on the fact that this vision of loveliness -was to be his own, exclusively, for ever, may have been -warmed for a moment with something very like romantic sentiment. -But beauty in Rome, Ovid informs us, was very rare—"How -few are able to boast it!"—so that even with the men who -had a choice, Individual Preference based on Personal Beauty -could have been rarely exercised. And as for the women who had -no choice, they may have felt a temporary elation on first meeting -their destined husbands; but this feeling was merely the manifestation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>of a vague instinct, comparable to the “love” which a bevy -of modern boarding-school “buds” show for the only man they are -allowed to see regularly,—their ugly teacher,—and the unreality -and silliness of which they laugh at themselves when they are at -last allowed to meet the man of their own, individual, free choice, -who teaches them the feeling of real Romantic Love.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>VIRGIL, DRYDEN, AND SCOTT</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Nevertheless, compared with Greek literature, the works of the -Roman poets show an advance in their conception of Love; for -they avoid at least the Hellenic confusion of love with friendship. -Compared with the best modern poets, however, who labour with -the pure gold of Love alone, the Roman poet’s productions still -show much of the base ore from which the modern gold has been -extracted. It is interesting, in this connection, to read what -Dryden has to say concerning Virgil’s conception of Love, and -Scott’s comments on Dryden.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In his dedication of the <cite>Æneid</cite>, Dryden speaks of Book IV. as -"This noble episode, wherein the whole passion of love is more -exactly described than in any other poet. Love was the theme -of his fourth book; and though it is the shortest of the whole -Æneis, yet there he has given its beginning, its progress, its traverses, -and its conclusion; and had exhausted so entirely his -subject, that he could resume it but very slightly in the eight -ensuing books.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She was warmed with the graceful appearance of the hero; -she smothered those sparkles out of decency; but conversation -blew them up into a flame. Then she was forced to make a confidante -of her whom she might best trust, her own sister, who -approves the passion, and thereby augments it: then succeeds her -public owning it; and after that the consummation. Of Venus -and Juno, Jupiter and Mercury, I say nothing; for they were all -machining work; but, possession having cooled his love, as it -increased hers, she soon perceived the change, or at least grew -suspicious of a change; this suspicion soon turned to jealousy, and -jealousy to rage; then she disdains and threatens, and again is -humble and entreats, and nothing availing, despairs, curses, and at -last becomes her own executioner. See here the whole process of -that passion, to which nothing can be added.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sir Walter Scott, however, does add, in a foot-note to his -edition of Dryden: “I am afraid this passage, given as a just -description of love, serves to confirm what is elsewhere stated, that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>Dryden’s ideas of the female sex and of the passion were very gross -and malicious.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>OVID’S ART OF MAKING LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Gross and malicious also are the ideas of the female sex and the -passion frequently encountered in the poems of Ovid; not so coarse -and cynical, indeed, as in Martial and Catullus, but sufficiently so -to have confounded the æsthetic judgment of the present generation, -and spread the notion that Virgil and Horace are greater -poets than Ovid, whereas, from the point of view of originality and -imaginativeness, by far the greatest of the three is Ovid, who also -had much more influence on the great writers of the best period of -English literature than his rivals, as Professor W. Y. Sellar has -pointed out.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Both these circumstances are to be regretted—the undervaluation -of Ovid’s genius as well as his frequent frivolity on which it -is based. For Ovid was unquestionably the first poet who had -a conception of the higher possibilities of Love; in fact he was -the greatest, and the only great, Love-poet before Dante. His -rare genius enabled him to anticipate and depict the modern imaginative -side of Love, even while he seemed wholly devoted to the -ancient sensual side. And, in reading his poems, great caution is -necessary, lest these <em>emotional anticipations</em> of his quasi-modern -genius be supposed to have been common and prevalent among -less gifted Romans of his time.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ovid was a profound observer and psychologist, and had a -most subtle knowledge of contemporary feminine nature; Although -the principal object of his <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Ars Amoris</cite></span> is to teach men how to -out-trump the natural cunning of women, yet he does not forget -his feminine readers, but gives them numerous hints regarding -the best way of fascinating fickle men. In the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Remedia Amoris</cite></span> -he describes various remedies for healing Cupid’s wounds, most of -which are approved to the present day; and the <cite>Elegies</cite> and -<cite>Heroides</cite>, too, are full of pretty modern touches and flashes of -insight. A few of these points may be briefly alluded to.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coyness, although often manifested by the Roman women in -almost as crude a manner as among savages, does not appear to -have been appreciated by all of them at its full value; so the poet -frequently counsels them as to the more subtle ways of exercising -it; one of his rules for women being, that if they have offended -an admirer, the best way to make him forget it is to pretend to -be offended themselves, which will restore the equilibrium. How -the consciousness of being beautiful makes a woman courageous, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>coy, and cruel is shown in another place. That eyes have a -language plainer than speech is not a modern discovery; and that -a short absence favours, long absence kills, passion was also known -to Ovid. He warns men against the danger of feigning love, -because this may end in arousing genuine passion. Men are -informed that courage and confidence in one’s ability to win a -woman are half the battle. And disappointed lovers are assured -that failure sometimes turns into an advantage, for it may arouse -pity, and love enter in the guise of friendship.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The emotional hyperbole and mixed feelings of Love are not -strangers to Ovid. He compares the tortures of Love to the -berries on the trees in number, to the shells on the sea-beach; for -true Love, he says, always creates anguish and pain; and “the -sweetest torment on earth is woman.” Among the companions of -Cupid are “flattery and illusion.” But “even if the beloved -deceives me with false words, hope itself will yield me great -enjoyment,” could only have been written by one who realised -the imaginative side of love. And in another passage the poet -directly enjoins the necessity of intellectual culture to take the -place of the faded charms of youth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hero’s Letter to Leander in the <cite>Heroides</cite> contains some pretty -touches. Leander has informed his love that when the storm -prevents him from swimming over to her, his mind yet hastens to -meet her. But Hero is in great trouble at his prolonged absence, -and her deepest anguish is Jealousy of a possible rival: in the -absence of real grounds of apprehension, her imagination invents -them, as in a modern lover’s mind. She suspects that his passion -has lost the ardour which sustained him in his difficult feat; and, -too weak to quite swim over to him and back again, and anxious -to save him the double journey, she suggests that they should -meet in the middle of the sea, exchange a kiss, and each return to -the shore whence they came.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is there anything more exquisitely romantic or pathetic in all -modern Love-poetry—in Shakspere, Heine, Burns, or Byron?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>BIRTH OF GALLANTRY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Becker says of the Greeks that “The men were very careful as -to their behaviour in the presence of women, but they were <em>quite -strangers to those minute attentions which constitute the gallantry -of the moderns</em>.” This holds true apparently of all other nations of -antiquity; and to a student of the history of Love it is therefore -of exceeding interest to find in Ovid’s poetry the first evidences -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>of the existence of Gallantry—a disposition on the part of the men -to sacrifice their own comfort to the pleasures and whims of women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. G. A. Simcox was the first writer, so far as I know, who -pointed out Ovid’s priority in this matter (in his <cite>History of Latin -Literature</cite>). In Ovid, he says, “The whole description of gallantry -implies that the idea was a novelty, and that the lover would -require a great deal of encouragement to enable him to make the -sacrifice of paying such attentions as could be commanded from a -servant. This throws a new light on the habit the Augustan -poets have of calling their mistress <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>domina</i></span>, which is more noteworthy, -for they call no man <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>dominus</i></span>. One does not trace the -idea at all in Latin comedy, where the heroines are for the most -part <em>only too thankful to be caressed and protected</em>. One finds the -word in Lucilius, but even in Catullus it is hardly established.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Instances of gallant behaviour are not rare in Ovid’s poetry; -but the didactic tone in which they are detailed makes it almost -appear as if the poet were recommending to his countrymen the -value of a nice little discovery of his own which would convert -crude love-making into a fine art. Never be so ungallant—he -says in effect, though he does not use the word—as to refer to a -woman’s faults or shortcomings. Compliment her, on the contrary, -on her good points—her face, her hair, her tapering fingers, -her pretty foot. At the circus applaud whatever she applauds. -Adjust her cushion, put the footstool where it ought to be, and -keep her comfortable by fanning her. And at dinner, when she -has tasted the wine, quickly seize the cup and put your lips to the -place where she has sipped.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Unfortunately this morning dawn of Romantic Love, as depicted -in the pages of Ovid, was soon hidden beneath the dark -clouds of mediæval barbarism, not to emerge again till a thousand -years later.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>MEDIÆVAL LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>CELIBACY <i>VERSUS</i> MARRIAGE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Were I asked to name the four most refining influences in -modern civilisation I would answer: Women, Beauty, Love, and -Marriage. Were I asked to name the essence of the early -mediæval spirit I would say: Deadly Enmity toward Women, -Beauty, Love, and Marriage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This pathologic attitude of the mediæval mind was at first a -natural reaction against the incredible depravity and licentiousness -that prevailed under the Roman Empire. But the reaction went -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>to such preposterous extremes that the resulting state of affairs -was even more degrading and deplorable than the original evil. -It was like inoculating a man with leprosy to cure him of smallpox. -It was bad enough to treat marriage as a <em>farce</em>, as did the -later Romans, among whom there were women who had their -eighth and tenth husband, while one case is related of a woman -“who was married to her twenty-third husband, she herself being -his twenty-first wife”; while the public looked upon this case as -a “match” in a double sense, the survivor being publicly crowned -and feted as champion. But a thousand times worse was the -mediæval notion that marriage is a <em>crime</em>. And this preposterous -notion—that a relation on which all civilisation is based, which is -sanctioned even by many animals and ignored by only the very -lowest of the savages—this criminal notion was foisted on the -world by the fanatical priesthood in whose hands unfortunately -Christianity was placed for centuries, to be distorted, vitiated, and -utilised for political, criminal, and selfish purposes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The services rendered,” says Mr. Lecky, “by the ascetics in -imprinting on the minds of men a profound and enduring conviction -of the importance of chastity, though extremely great, were -seriously counterbalanced by their noxious influence upon marriage. -Two or three beautiful descriptions of this institution have been -culled out of the immense mass of patristic writings; but in -general it would be difficult to conceive anything more coarse and -more repulsive than the manner in which they regarded it.... -The tender love which it elicits, the holy and beautiful domestic -qualities that follow in its train, were almost absolutely omitted -from consideration. The object of the ascetic was to attract men -to a life of virginity, and, as a necessary consequence, marriage -was treated as an inferior state.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The days of Chivalry were not yet,” we read in Smith’s -<cite>Dictionary of Christian Antiquities</cite>, “and we cannot but notice -even in the greatest of the Christian fathers a lamentably low estimate -of woman, and, consequently, of the marriage relationship.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What an inexhaustible source of mediæval immorality this -contemptuous treatment of marriage by the most influential class -of society proved, has been so often depicted in glaring colours -that these pages need not be tainted with illustrations.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>WOMAN’S LOWEST DEGRADATION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Woman was represented by the Fathers “as the door of hell, -as the mother of all human ills. She should be ashamed at the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>very thought that she is a woman; she should live in continual -penance on account of the curses she has brought upon the world. -Women were even forbidden by a provincial council in the -sixth century, on account of their impurity, to receive the -Eucharist into their naked hands. Their essentially subordinate -position was continually maintained” (Lecky).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Not even the Koran took such a degrading view of woman as -these early “Christian Fathers.” For the current notion that the -existence of a soul in woman is denied by the Mahometan faith is -contradicted by several passages in the Koran.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The lowest depths of feminine degradation and the sublimest -heights of fanatical folly and crime, however, were not reached in -this early period, but some centuries later, when the incredible -brutalities of the witchcraft trials began. The vast majority of -the victims were women; and Professor Scherr, in his <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Geschichte -der Deutschen Frauenwelt</cite></span>, estimates that <em>in Germany alone</em> at -least one hundred thousand “witches” were burnt at the stake. -No one on reading the accounts of these trials can help feeling -that Shakspere made a mistake when he wrote that</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'>“All the world’s a stage,</div> - <div class='line'>And all the men and women merely players.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>He should have said,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'>“All the world’s a madhouse,</div> - <div class='line'>And all the men are fools and demons.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>More demons than fools, however. Superstition was, indeed, -epidemic during the Middle Ages; but those who superintended -the witches’ trials—the rulers and the clergy—were not the -persons affected by it. If they did execute 100,000 victims in -Germany; if they did murder girls of twelve, ten, eight, and even -seven years, on the accusation of having borne children whose -father was Satan, or of having murdered persons who in some -cases were actually present at the trial—the reason of this was -not because the authorities believed this cruel nonsense. The real -reason is given by Scherr: “The circumstance that the property -of those who were burnt at the stake was confiscated, two-thirds -of it getting into the hands of the landowner (Grundherr), the -other third into those of the <em>judges, clergy, accusers, and executioners</em>, -has beyond doubt kindled countless witch-fires.... During -the Thirty Years’ War, especially, the trials for witchcraft became -a greedily-utilised source of profit to many a country nobleman in -reduced circumstances, and no less to bishops, abbots, and -councillors, who were in financial straits. Indeed, as early as the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>sixteenth century, one of the opponents of witches’ trials, Cornelius -Loos, justly observed that the whole proceeding was simply ‘a -newly-invented alchemy for converting human blood into gold.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What difference is there between these civilised savages and -the Australian who eats his wife when he gets tired of her? Let -those who are fond of seeking needles in haystacks search for -traces of Romantic Love under such circumstances.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>NEGATION OF FEMININE CHOICE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Feudal legislation combined with clerical contempt and criminal -persecution in lowering woman’s position. There were numerous -and stringent enactments which “rendered it impossible for -women to succeed to any considerable amount of property, and -which almost reduced them to the alternative of marriage or a -nunnery. The complete inferiority of the sex was continually -maintained by the law; and that generous public opinion which -in Rome had frequently revolted against the injustice done to -girls, in depriving them of the greater part of the inheritance of -their fathers, totally disappeared.” Beaumanoir says that “Every -husband may beat his wife if she refuses to obey his orders, or if -she speaks ill of him or tells an untruth, provided he does so with -moderation.” Early German law permitted the father, and -subsequently the husband, to sell, punish, or even kill the wife; -and in England wife-beating has not yet died out.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If, in the times of St. Louis,” says Legouvé, “a young vassal -of some royal fief was sought in marriage, it was necessary for her -father to get his seigneur’s permission for her marriage; the -seigneur asked the king’s consent to his permission, and not till -after all these agreements (father, seigneur, king) was <em>she</em> consulted -regarding this contract which affected her whole life.” How -beautifully such a law must have fostered the sentiment of Love -which depends on Individual Preference and Special Sympathy!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such laws no doubt were simply echoes of clerical teachings. -“The girl,” says St. Ambrose of Rebecca, whom he holds up -herein as an example, “is not consulted about her espousals, for -she awaits the judgment of her parents; inasmuch as a girl’s -modesty will not allow her to choose a husband” (!). Irish -“bulls” appear to have crept even into ecclesiastic enactments, -for we read in Smith’s <cite>Dictionary of Christian Antiquities</cite> that -“An Irish council in the time of St. Patrick, about the year 450 -lays it down that the will of the girl is to be inquired of the -father, and that the girl is to do what her father chooses, inasmuch -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>as man is the head of the woman.” “Even widows,” we -read further, “under the age of twenty-five were forbidden by a -law of Valentinian and Gratian to marry without their parents’ -consent; and St. Ambrose desires young widows to leave the -choice of their second husbands to their parents.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Compayré states in his <cite>History of Pedagogy</cite> that in the -seventeenth century “woman was still regarded as the inferior of -man, in the lower classes as a drudge, in the higher as an ornament. -In her case intellectual culture was regarded as either -useless or dangerous; and the education that was given her was -to fit her for a life of devotion or a life of seclusion from society.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Still more, of course, was this the case in the times of St. -Jerome, who in his letter to Læta on the education of her -daughter Paula, tells her that the girl must never eat in public, -or eat meat. “Never let Paula listen to musical instruments.” -Even her affections must be suppressed—all except the devotional -sentiments. She must not be “in the gatherings and in the -company of her kindred; let her be found only in retirement.” -“Do not allow Paula to feel more affection for one of her -companions than for others.” And this ascetic moralist even -recommends uncleanliness as a virtue: “I entirely forbid a young -girl to bathe;” which may be matched with the following, also -cited from Compayré: “The first preceptors of Gargantua said -that it sufficed to comb one’s hair with the four fingers and the -thumb; and that whoever combed, washed, and cleansed himself -otherwise was losing his time in this world.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In such a rough atmosphere of masculine ignorance, fanaticism, -and cruelty the feminine virtues of sympathy, tenderness, grace, -and sweetness could not have flourished very luxuriantly. Consequently -there is doubtless more than a grain of truth in mediæval -proverbs about women, cynical and brutal as some of them are. -Here are a few specimens:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Women and horses must be beaten.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Women and money are the cause of all evil in the world.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Women only keep those secrets which they don’t know.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Trust no woman, and were she dead.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Between a woman’s yes and no there isn’t room for the point -of a needle.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If you are too happy, take a wife.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>When we read that “Montaigne is of that number, who, -through false gallantry, would keep woman in a state of ignorance, -on the pretext that instruction would mar her natural charms;” -and that the same author recommends poetry to women, because -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>it is “a wanton, crafty art, disguised, all for pleasure, all for -show, just as they are”; we recall with a smile John Stuart -Mill’s sarcastic reference to the time, “Some generations ago, -when satires on women were in vogue, and men thought it a -clever thing to insult women for being what men made them.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>CHRISTIANITY AND LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Christianity claims to be pre-eminently the religion of love, -in the widest sense of that term, including, especially, religious -veneration of a personal Deity and love of one’s enemy. It has -been asserted by Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others that -Christianity has done little or nothing in aid of woman’s elevation; -and it cannot be denied that much good would have resulted if -more emphasis had been placed by the Apostles on certain phases -of the domestic relations. That Romantic Love is not alluded to -in the New Testament need not cause any surprise, for that -sentiment cannot have existed in those days when Courtship and -Individual Choice were unknown. But there are passages in St. -Paul’s writings which were probably the seeds from which grew -the mediæval contempt for marriage and women. And although -marriage is now zealously guarded by the Church, Love of the -romantic sort is no doubt looked upon even to-day by many an -austere clergyman as a harmless youthful epidemic—a sort of -emotional measles—rather than as a new æsthetico-moral sentiment -destined to become the strongest of all agencies working -for the improvement of the personal appearance, social condition, -and happiness of mankind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, even agnostics must admit on reflection -that Christianity contained elements which, despite the vicious -fanaticism of many of its early teachers, slowly helped to -ameliorate woman’s lot. In the first place, Protestantism, as -embodied in Luther, performed an invaluable service by restoring -and enforcing universal respect for the marriage-tie. He set a -good example by not only defying the degrading custom of obligatory -celibacy, but by marrying a most sensible woman—a nun -who had escaped with eight others from a convent at Nimtsch.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mariolatry, or the cult of the Virgin Mary, is the second -avenue through which Christianity influenced the development of -the tender emotions. The halo of sanctity which it spread at the -same time over virginity and motherhood has been of incalculable -value in raising woman in the estimation of the masses.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A third way in which Christianity influenced woman’s position -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>is suggested by the following remarks of Mr. Lecky, who has -done valuable service to philosophy, in showing how emotions as -well as ideas change with time: “In antiquity,” he says, “the -virtues that were most admired were almost exclusively those -which were distinctively masculine. Courage, self-assertion, magnanimity, -and, above all, patriotism, were the leading features of -the ideal type; and chastity, modesty, and charity, the gentler and -the domestic virtues, which are especially feminine, were greatly -undervalued. With the single exception of conjugal fidelity, none -of the virtues that were highly prized were virtues distinctively or -pre-eminently feminine.” Now the “religion of love,” by especially -insisting on these “feminine virtues,” became a powerful agent -in undermining the coarse mediæval spirit with its masculine, -military “virtues,” <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>alias</i></span> barbarisms.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'>CHIVALRY—MILITANT AND COMIC</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In the howling wilderness of mediæval masculine brutality and -feminine degradation there was one sunny oasis in which the -flowers of Love were allowed to grow undisturbed for a few generations,—until -military ambition trod them again underfoot. This -brief episode of gentler manners is known as the period of -Chivalry.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ever since the fifth century the worship of the Virgin Mary -had increased in ardour, and it was to be expected that at some -favourable moment this adoration would be extended to the whole -female sex, or at least its nobler representatives. This was the -mission taken upon themselves by the knights and poets of -chivalrous times.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Chivalry, it is true, was so often a mixture of clownishness and -licentiousness, its practice was so much less refined than its theory, -that in opposition to those historians who have sung its praises -others have doubted whether its influence was on the whole for -good or for evil. For, although the knights vowed especially to -protect widows and orphans, and respect and honour ladies, yet it -was precisely under their <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>régime</i></span> that, when cities were taken -and castles stormed, women were subjected to the most brutal -treatment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The difficulty is best solved by distinguishing between two -kinds of Chivalry—the Militant and the Poetic. The militant -type of knight-errantry was less inspired by the desire to benefit -womankind than by ambition to gratify silly masculine vanity. So -thoroughly was the mediæval mind imbued with ideas of war that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>these knights could not conceive even of love except in a military -guise. So they rode about the country in quest of adventure, -ostensibly in the service of an adored mistress, but really to find -an outlet, in times of peace, for pent-up military energy and -ambition.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Spain and Southern France were the principal home of Chivalry -Militant, because there a warm climate and smiling nature offered -most favourable conditions to wandering knights in quest of -adventure. Fortunately the world possesses, in <cite>Don Quixote</cite>, a -lifelike picture of knight-errantry; for although the aim of Cervantes -was to make fun, not so much of Chivalry as of trashy -contemporaneous romances of Chivalry, yet in doing this he could -not avoid depicting the comic side of the institution itself, concerning -which it is indeed <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>difficile satiram non scribere</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It appears to have been the custom of these knights to wander -about the country interfering in every quarrel, and, in default of a -disturbance, creating one.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Each knight had a Dulcinea, whom he had perhaps never seen, -but in whose honour and for whose love he engages in all these -combats. And whenever he meets another knight he forthwith -challenges him to admit that this Dulcinea, whom the other has -of course never seen, is the most beautiful lady in the world. The -other knight echoes the challenge in behalf of <em>his</em> Dulcinea; and -the result is a combat in which the victor, by the inexorable -logic of superior strength, proves the superior beauty of his chosen -lady-love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The vanquished knight is then sent as prisoner to the victor’s -mistress with a message of love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Germans do not often originate anything; but if they -take up an idea or institution they work it more thoroughly -than any other nation. So with the fantastic side of Chivalry, -which was introduced after the second crusade, during which -German knights had come into close contact with French knights.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Spain,” says Professor Scherr, “has imagined a Don Quixote, -but Germany has really produced one.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>His name was Ulrich von Lichtenstein, and he was born in the -year 1200. “From his boyhood, Herr Ulrich’s thoughts were -directed towards woman-worship, and as a youth he chose a high-born -and, be it well understood, a married lady as his patroness, -in whose service he infused method into his knightly madness. -The circumstance that meanwhile he himself gets married does not -abate his folly. He greedily drinks water in which his patroness -has washed herself; he has an operation performed on his thick -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>double underlip, because she informs him that it is not inviting for -kisses; he amputates one of his fingers which had become stiff in -an encounter, and sends it to his mistress as a proof of his capacity -of endurance for her sake. Masked as Frau Venus, he wanders -about the country and engages in encounters, in this costume, in -honour of his mistress; at her command he goes among the lepers -and eats with them from one bowl.... The most remarkable -circumstance, however, is that Ulrich’s own spouse, while her -husband and master masquerades about the land as a knight in -his beloved’s service, remains aside in his castle, and is only mentioned -(in his poetic autobiography) whenever he returns home, -tired and dilapidated, to be restored by her nursing.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>When a German knight had chosen a Dulcinea, he adopted and -wore her colour, for he was now her <em>love-servant</em>, and stood to his -mistress in the same relation as a vassal to his master. “The beloved,” -Scherr continues, “gave her lover a love-token—a girdle -or veil, a ribbon, or even a sleeve of her dress; this token he -fastened to his helmet or shield, and great was the lady’s pride if -he brought it back to her from battle thoroughly cut and hewn to -pieces. Thus (in <cite>Parzival</cite>) Gawan had fastened on his shield -a sleeve of the beautiful Olibet, and when he returned it to her, -torn and speared, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Da ward des Mägdlein’s Freude gross; ihr -blanker Arm war noch bloss, darüber schob sie ihn zuhand.’</span>”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The attitude of the knight-errants may be briefly described as -<em>Gallantry gone mad</em>. We have seen that a few traces of Gallantry -are found in the pages of Ovid; but it was during the age of -Chivalry that this overtone of Love made itself heard for the first -time distinctly and loudly. And as, when a new popular melody -appears, everybody takes it up and sings and whistles it <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ad nauseam</i></span>; -so these knights, intoxicated with the novel idea of gallant -behaviour toward women, took it up and carried it to the most -ridiculous extremes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The women, naturally enough, unused to such devotion, became -as extravagantly coy as the men were gallant. They subjected -this Gallantry to the most absurd and even cruel tests. The -knights were sent to war, to the crusades, into the dens of wild -animals, to test their devotion; and few were so manly as the -knight in Schiller’s ballad, who, after fetching his lady’s glove from -the lion’s den, threw it in her face, instead of accepting her willing -favours.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is with reference to these coy and cruel tests of Gallantry -that Wolfram von Eschenbach bitterly accuses Love of having -caused the death of many a noble knight.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>Yet, despite these absurdities, the trials and procrastinations to -which the knights were subjected had one good result: they helped -to give Love a supersensual, imaginative basis. This fact is brought -out clearly in the following statement made by Dr. Bötticher in his -learned work on <cite>Parzival</cite>. When, he says, after the middle of the -twelfth century, the Troubadour love-poetry became known in -Austria, “it was especially the idea of Minnedienst (love-service) -that was seized upon with avidity: the knight wooes and labours -for a woman’s love, but she holds back and grants no favours until -after a long trial-service. The final object of this service, the -possession of the beloved, is regarded as <em>quite subordinate to the -pangs and pleasures of wooing and waiting</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here was a novelty in Love, indeed! And, as good luck -would have it, fashion lent its powerful aid to the innovation. -The sentiment was that “Whoever is not in the service of love is -unworthy to be a courtier”; and thus many a boor who would -have very much preferred to continue treating women as servants, -had to put his head into the yoke of Gallantry, in order to be -“fashionable.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>CHIVALRY—POETIC</h3> - -<p class='c013'>If these knights of Chivalry bestrode their warlike Rosinantes -to show an astonished world for the first time what could be done -in the way of Gallantry, the peaceful poets of Chivalry—the -Troubadours and Minnesingers—in turn mounted their winged -Pegasus, and soared for the first time to the dizzy heights of -Ecstatic Adoration or Emotional Hyperbole.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Woman was regarded,” says Mr. Symonds, “as an ideal -being, to be approached with worship bordering on adoration. -The lover derived personal force, virtue, elevation, energy from -his enthusiastic passion. Honour, justice, courage, <em>self-sacrifice</em>, -contempt of worldly goods flowed from that one sentiment, and -love united two wills in a single ecstasy. Love was the consummation -of spiritual felicity, which surpassed all other modes -of happiness in its beatitude. Thus, Bernard de Ventadour -and Jacopo da Lentino were ready to forego Paradise, unless they -might behold their lady’s face before the throne of God. For a -certain period in modern history this mysticism of the amorous -emotion was no affectation. It formulated a genuine impulse of -manly hearts, influenced by beauty, and touched with the sense -of moral superiority in woman, perfected through weakness, and -demanding physical protection. By bringing the tender passions -into accord with gentle manners and unselfish aspirations, it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>served to temper the rudeness of primitive society; and no little -of its attraction was due to the conviction that <em>only refined -natures could experience it</em>. This new aspect of love was due to -chivalry, to Christianity, to the Teutonic reverence for woman, in -which religious awe seems to have blended with the service of -the weaker by the stronger.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>These remarks, though applicable to Chivalrous poetry in -general, refer especially to the Italian species. The most important -varieties of Chivalrous poetry, however, are those of the -Provençal, or French, Troubadours, and the German Minnesingers. -These must be briefly considered in turn, as they present national -differences of importance to the history and psychology of Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>a</i>) <em>French Troubadours.</em>—As we live in a period in which -the newspaper has become the greatest of moral forces, we can -most easily realise the social influence of the Troubadours on -reading, in Thierry, that “In the twelfth century the songs of the -troubadours, circulating rapidly from castle to castle, and from -town to town, supplied the place of periodical gazettes in all the -country between the rivers Isère and Vienne, the mountains of -Auvergne and the two seas.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The wandering minstrels who wielded this poetic power were -recruited from all classes—nobility, artisans, and clergy. But, as -Dr. F. Hueffer remarks in his entertaining work on Provençal -life and poetry, “By far the largest number of the Troubadours -known to us—fifty-seven in number—belong to the nobility, not -to the highest nobility in most cases, it is true. In several instances, -poverty is distinctly mentioned as the cause for adopting -the profession of a troubadour. It almost appears, indeed, as if -this profession, like that of the churchman, and sometimes in -connection with it, had been regarded by Provençal families as a -convenient mode of providing for their younger sons.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In a time when distinctions of rank were so closely observed, -it was perhaps of special importance that these singers should be -chiefly persons of noble blood. Women, it is true, have at all -times shown a disposition to ignore rank in favour of bards and -tenors; but the mediæval nobles might have hesitated, frequently, -to extend to commoners the unlimited hospitality of their castles, -and the privilege of adoring their wives in verse and action. -These husbands, in fact, appear to have shown remarkable forbearance -towards their poetic guests. No doubt it flattered their -vanity (overtone of <em>Pride</em>) to have the charms of their spouse -sung by a famous poet in person; and on account of the social -influence wielded by the Troubadours, owing to their successive -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>appearance at all the castles in the land, it was, moreover, wise -not to forfeit their goodwill. Sometimes, however, Jealousy held -high carnival, as, in the case of Guillem, the hero of Hueffer and -Mackenzie’s opera, <cite>The Troubadour</cite>, who was murdered by the -injured husband, and the faithless wife compelled to drink of the -wine called “the poet’s blood,” adulterated in a horribly realistic -manner. The women, likewise, were frequently moved by Jealousy—not -in behalf of their husbands but of the Troubadours, of -whose art and adoration they desired a Monopoly, whereas these -bards were very apt to transfer their fickle affections to other -women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fickleness, however, was not the greatest fault of these Troubadours. -Their great moral shortcoming was that they paid no -attention to the borderline between conjugal and romantic love. -Dr. Hueffer does not recollect a single instance amongst the -numerous love-stories told in connection with the Troubadours, in -which the object of passion was not a married lady—a strange -point of affinity with the modern French novel to which he calls -the attention of those interested in national psychology. A case -in point is that of Guirant (1260), one of whose pastorals is -analysed by Hueffer: “The idea is simple enough: an amorous -knight, whose importunate offers to an unprotected girl are kept -in check by mere dint of graceful, witty, sometimes tart reply.” -These offers of love are repeated at intervals of two, three, seven, -and six years, and finally transferred to the woman’s daughter, -always with the same bad luck. His own wife, meanwhile, is -never considered a proper object for his poetic effusions. Concerning -the German imitator of foreign customs—Ulrich von -Lichtenstein, mentioned a few pages back—we have likewise seen -that his wife never entered his mind except when he came home -“tired and dilapidated, to be restored by her nursing.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Besides pastorals of the kind just referred to, the Troubadours -had several other classes of songs, among them the tensons, or -contentions which were “metrical dialogues of lively repartee on -some disputed points of gallantry.” These may have given -ground for the myth that aristocratic ladies of this period “instituted -Courts of Love, in which questions of gallantry were gravely -discussed and determined by their suffrages,” as, <i>e.g.</i> whether a -husband could really love his wife. The question whether any -such debating clubs for considering the ethics and etiquette of -love existed is still debated by scholars; but the best evidence -appears to be negative.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>b</i>) <em>German Minnesingers.</em>—The German wandering minstrels -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>also belonged mainly to the aristocracy, and imitated their French -colleagues in paying their addresses chiefly to married women—a -fact for which, in both cases, the rigid chaperonage of the young -must be held responsible; for man <em>will</em> make love, and if not -allowed to do so properly he will do it improperly. Yet on the -whole the Minnesingers, at least in their verse, were less amorous -than the Troubadours. As Mr. L. C. Elson remarks in his -<cite>History of German Song</cite>: “The Troubadour praised the eyes, -the hair, the lips, the form of his chosen one; the Minnesinger -praised the sweetness, the grace, the modesty, the tenderness of -the entire sex. The one was concrete, the other abstract.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Abstractness, however, is not a desirable quality in poetry, the -very essence of which is concrete imagery. Accordingly we find -that with few exceptions the German Minnesingers are not as -poets equal to their French prototypes. It was Schiller himself -who passed the severest judgment on these early colleagues of his. -“If the sparrows on the roof,” he once remarked to a friend, -“should ever undertake to write, or to issue an almanac of love -and friendship, I would wager ten to one it would be just like -these songs of love. What a poverty of ideas in these songs! -A garden, a tree, a hedge, a forest, and a sweetheart—these are -about all the objects that are to be found in a sparrow’s head. -Then we have flowers which are fragrant, fruits which grow -mellow, twigs on which a bird sits in the sunshine and sings, and -spring which comes, and winter which goes, and nothing that -remains except—<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>ennui</i></span>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Schiller’s criticism, however, is too sweeping, for there were -notable exceptions to these sparrow-poets, concerning one of whom, -Hadlaub, the late Professor Scherer gives the following fascinating -information in his <cite>History of German Literature</cite>: "He introduces -human figures into his descriptions of scenery, and shows us, for -instance, in the summer a group of beautiful ladies walking in an -orchard, and blushing with womanly modesty when gazed at by -young men. He compares the troubles of love with the troubles -of hard-working men, like charcoal-burners and carters.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Hadlaub tells us more of his personal experiences than any -other Minnesinger. Even as a child, we learn, he had loved a -little girl, who, however, would have nothing to say to him, but -continually flouted him, to his great distress. Once she bit his -hand, but her bite, he says, was so tender, womanly, and gentle, -that he was <em>sorry the feeling of it passed away so soon</em>. Another -time, being urged to give him a keepsake, she threw her needle-case -at him, and he seized it with sweet eagerness, but it was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>taken from him and returned to her, and she was made to give it -him in a friendly manner. In later years his pains still remained -unrewarded; when his lady perceived him, she would get up and -go away. Once, he tells us, he saw her fondling and kissing a -child, and when she had gone he drew the child towards him and -embraced it as she had embraced it, and kissed it in the place -where she had kissed it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The gradual change in woman’s position, social and amorous, is -indicated by the differences between the earlier and the later -Minnesongs. In the early poems Professor Scherer remarks, "The -social supremacy of noble woman is not yet recognised, and the -man wooes with proud self-respect.... Another refuses himself -to a woman who desired his love.... A fourth boasts of his -triumphs. ‘<em>Women</em>,’ says he, ‘<em>are as easily tamed as falcons</em>.’ -In another song a woman tells how she tamed a falcon, but he -flew away from her, and now wears other chains....</p> - -<p class='c001'>“In the later Minnesongs it is <em>the women who are proud, and -the men who must languish</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A still more remarkable change is noticed in the German Folk-songs -which followed the periods of Minnesong proper. “The -women of these popular love-songs are not mostly married women; -<em>they are, as a rule, young maidens</em>” [at last, pure Romantic Love!] -“who are not only praised but also turned to ridicule and blamed. -The woes of love do not here arise from the capricious coyness of -the fair one, but are called forth by parting, jealousy, or faithlessness. -Feeling is stronger than in the Minnesong, and seeks -accordingly for stronger modes of expression.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is not a mere accident that true Romantic Love should have -first appeared in these Folk-songs. For these were the products -of gifted individuals in the lower classes, where chaperonage—arch -enemy of Love—was less strict than among the higher classes.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FEMALE CULTURE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>That the women were not ungrateful to the mediæval bards -who first discovered in them the possibilities of higher charms and -virtues, is shown by their treatment of Heinrich von Meissen, -Minnesinger, who was called Frauenlob, because he constantly -sang the “praise of woman.” When he died at Mainz in 1317 -they carried his bier to church with their own hands, and then, in -accordance with the custom of the time, poured libations of wine -on his bier so freely that the whole floor of the church was covered.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And there is every reason to believe that the women of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>Frauenlob’s period deserved his praises, because they were in -æsthetic, moral, and intellectual culture far superior to the women -before or directly after their time. We read in Gottfried von -Strassburg’s poem how Tristan, while Isolde healed his wound, -instructed her in the arts and manners of court life. Isolde knew -French and Latin besides her own language. She played the -violin and the harp, and sang; she wrote letters and poems, and -would indeed have been a model of culture even at the present day. -The twelfth century even had a genuine blue-stocking, the nun -Herrad von Landsberg, who wrote a cyclopædia of all human -knowledge, in the Latin tongue, called the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Hortus Deliciarum</cite></span>. -Learning throughout the mediæval ages was all concentrated in the -monasteries; but at the period in question the monks did not -retain everything for themselves, but aided the knights and the -poets in instructing the women of the court and nobility.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor did these women neglect their domestic affairs or physical -exercise. They accompanied the men on their falcon-hunting -parties, and at home learned to spin, weave, sew, and make clothing -for themselves and their husbands and children. At the tournaments -and other games they appeared as Queens of Beauty to -distribute prizes and inspire their admirers to heroic deeds; and -at banquets and other social gatherings they seem to have supplied -more of the wit and entertainment than the men, whose military -occupations left them less time for the cultivation of the arts.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time one cannot help smiling at the elementary -rules of conduct which had to be given even to women of the -nobility. You must not stare at a man long, or refuse to return -his salutation, young ladies were told; nor must you in walking -take too long or too short steps. A poet of the middle of the -thirteenth century (quoted by Mr. Hueffer) gives this advice to a -girl: “If a gentleman takes you aside and wishes to talk of courtship -to you, do not show a strange or sullen behaviour, but defend -yourself with pleasant and pretty repartees. And if his talk annoys -you and makes you uneasy, I advise you to ask him questions,” -and contradict his statements, in order “to give a harmless turn -to the conversation.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Like Greek and Roman civilisation, like the palmy days of -Persian and Arabian culture, this mediæval period of feminine -ascendancy and refinement unfortunately did not last many generations. -Although, undoubtedly, chivalry accomplished real good -for the time being, most of what went by that name was, after -all, too much of a sham—less a matter of actuality than of poetic -fancy. “Sincere and beautiful as the chivalrous ideal may have -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>been,” says Mr. Symonds, “it speedily degenerated. Chivalry, -though a vital element of feudalism, existed, even among the -nations of its origin, more as an aspiration than a reality. In -Italy it never penetrated the life or subdued the imagination of -the people. For the Italo-Provençal poets that code of love was -almost wholly formal.” Petrarch, like Alberti and Boccaccio, -indulges again in abuse of women as coarse and brutal as that of -the early “Christian Fathers”; and when we come to the sixteenth -century, the scholar Cornelius Agrippa complains of the old state -of affairs—woman’s complete subjection: “Unjust laws,” he says, -“do their worst to repress women; custom and education combine -to make them nonentities. From her childhood a girl is brought -up in idleness at home, and confined to needle and thread for sole -employment. When she reaches marriageable years, she has this -alternative: the jealousy of a husband, or the custody of a convent. -All public duties, all legal functions, all active ministrations of -religion are closed against her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The manner in which a great English poet, much later still, -treated the women of his household was quite in consonance with -the customs of preceding times. As an English author wrote, forty -years ago, “Milton taught his daughters to pronounce Greek and -Latin, so that they might read the classics aloud for his pleasure, -but forbade their understanding the meaning of a word for their -own—for which he deserved to be blind.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Regarding France we read in Compayré that “Even in the -higher classes, woman held herself aloof from instruction, and from -things intellectual. Madame Racine had never seen played, and -had probably never read, the tragedies of her husband.” Mme. de -Lambert “reproaches Molière for having excluded women from -recreation, pastime, and pleasure.” Fénelon advised girls to learn -to read and write correctly and to learn grammar, which “surpassed -in the time of Fénelon the received custom.” “No one knew -better than Fénelon the faults that come to woman through -ignorance—unrest, unemployed time, inability to apply herself to -solid and serious duties, frivolity, indolence, lawless imagination, -indiscreet curiosity concerning trifles, levity, and talkativeness, -sentimentalism, and ... a mania for theology: women are too -much inclined to speak decisively on religious questions.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PERSONAL BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Rarer even than feminine culture, Personal Beauty appears to -have been throughout the Middle Ages. Most of the portraits of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>women and men, as well as the ideal heads and figures in paintings -and sculpture, are repulsively ugly and inexpressive of higher traits. -The general causes of mediæval ugliness—neglect of personal -hygiene and sanitary measures, hard manual labour, prevention -of love-matches, etc.—will be considered elsewhere. In this place -only one cause need be alluded to. The old Church Fathers, it is -well known, were not only unæsthetic but positively anti-æsthetic. -Everything pleasing to the senses was denounced by them, especially -the physical beauty of women, which they looked upon as a -special gift of the devil. Such an attitude on the part of the -leading social class could hardly tend to encourage the cultivation -of personal charms; and during the trials for witchcraft special -efforts appear to have even been made to eliminate beauty forcibly; -for the mere possession of unusual beauty sometimes sufficed to -bring a poor girl to trial, outrage, torture, and death.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It may have been due partly to a natural reaction against asceticism, -partly to the rarity of spiritual beauty, that the mediæval poets -in enumerating the charms of their mistresses, confine themselves -almost exclusively to their physical features. Professor Scherr, -after quoting Ariosto’s description of his heroine Alcina in <cite>Orlando -Furioso</cite> (vii. 11, <i>seq.</i>), for comparison with similar efforts of -German poets, observes: “It is very remarkable that, as in this -female portrait sketched by Ariosto, so with mediæval poets in -general, including those of Germany, the principal accent is placed -on the bodily charms of the women. Almost all sketches of this -kind are purely material. Intellectual beauty, as expressed in the -features, is barely mentioned. These old romanticists were much -more sensual than modern writers would have us believe.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>SPENSER ON LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>That Love, too, continued to be looked at from a material point -of view, long after the chivalric efforts to idealise it, is shown -strikingly by the way in which Spenser compares love with friendship -and family affection. In the fifth book of the <cite>Faery Queene</cite> -he asks—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Whither shall weigh the balance down; to wit,</div> - <div class='line'>The dear affection unto kindred sweet,</div> - <div class='line'>Or raging fire of love to womankind,</div> - <div class='line'>Or zeal of friends, combined by virtues meet?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Like an ancient Greek he decides in favour of friendship—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“For natural affection soon doth cease,</div> - <div class='line'>And quenched is with Cupid’s greater flame,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>But faithful friendship doth them both suppress,”</div> - <div class='line in18'>(for)</div> - <div class='line'>“<em>Love of soul doth love of body pass.</em>”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Could anything attest better than this the general mediæval -ignorance of the psychic traits or “overtones” which constitute -Romantic Love?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>DANTE AND SHAKSPERE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Long before the day of Spenser there lived, however, in Florence, -a poet whose transcendent genius enabled him to feel and describe -for the first time the real romantic sentiment of Love. It is true -that some of the poets of Chivalry had before him attempted to -depict the supersensual, æthereal side of the passion. But their -portraits lacked the touch of realism: they described what they -imagined; Dante what he felt.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dante was born in 1265: Modern Love was born nine years -later—613 years ago. “Nine times already since my birth,” -says Dante, “had the heaven of light returned to the self-same -point almost, as concerns its own revolution, when first the -glorious lady of my mind was made manifest to mine eyes; even -she who was called Beatrice (she who confers blessing) by many -who knew not wherefore.... From that time onward, Love -quite governed my soul.... But seeing that were I to dwell -overmuch on the passions and doings of such early youth, my -words might be counted something fabulous, I will therefore put -them aside,” etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These are the opening lines of the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Vita Nuova</cite></span>, in which -Modern Love is for the first time portrayed with an air of sincerity, -and concerning which Professor C. E. Norton justly remarks that -“so long as there are lovers in the world, and so long as lovers are -poets, will this first and tenderest love-story of modern literature -be read with appreciation and responsive sympathy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What a privilege to describe First Love not only in an -individual but a <em>historic</em> sense, as Dante did in this poem, which -Rossetti calls “the auto-biography or auto-psychology of Dante’s -youth, till his twenty-seventh year.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>After that first sight of Beatrice one of her sweet smiles was -the highest goal of his desires; but so powerful was the spell of -her presence that he was obliged to avoid her. “From that night -forth the natural functions of my body began to be vexed and -impeded, for I was given up wholly to thinking of this most -gracious creature; whereby in short space I became so weak and -so reduced that it was irksome to many of my friends to look upon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>me ... the thing was so plainly to be discerned in my countenance -that there was no longer any means of concealing it.” Such -words as “trembling,” “confusion,” “weeping,” constantly occur -as the narrative proceeds. Love, he says, “bred in me such -overpowering sweetness that my body, being all subjected thereto, -remained many times helpless and passive.” When for the first -time Beatrice denied him her smile, “I became possessed with -such grief that, parting myself from others, <em>I went into a lonely -place</em> to bathe the ground with most bitter tears.” And in one -of the sonnets interspersed he says—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“My face shows my heart’s colour,</div> - <div class='line'>No sooner do I lift mine eyes to look</div> - <div class='line'>Than the blood seems as shaken from my heart,</div> - <div class='line'>And all my pulses beat at once and stop.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>But by far the most remarkable thing in the <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>Vita Nuova</cite></span>, is -Dante’s own indirect testimony that such Love as he felt, such -supersensual, æsthetic Love, <em>was a novelty and a puzzle to his -contemporaries</em>. For he tells how he met some ladies who gazed -at him and laughed till one of them asked: “To what end lovest -thou this lady, seeing that thou canst not support her presence? -Now tell us this thing that we may know it: for certainly the -end of such a love must be worthy of knowledge.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt it was worth knowing; for, as the author of the -admirable article on “Poetry,” in the eighth edition of the <cite>Encyclopædia -Britannica</cite> (1859), remarks: “When in modern times -the attempt was made to revive tragedy, it proved totally -unsuccessful until this principle (of romantic love) was admitted -into the drama to give it warmth and life. Of that species of -composition which in its proper sense is peculiar to the moderns, -viz. the novel and romance, it forms, as we all know, the moving -power. In short, it influences, more or less, every department in -which the imagination has exerted itself with success since the -revival of literature.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Once more it is well to state that there are geniuses in the -emotional as in the intellectual world. Dante was both; and the -realistic descriptions he has given of the effects of Romantic Love -have helped to sustain the notion that Love is immutable, and has -existed at all times. But the indirect testimony to the contrary -just quoted, and the whole argument of this chapter on Mediæval -Love, make it apparent that Dante’s Love was the exception -which proves that among the others Love did not exist. And -even Dante was not entirely modern in his Love. A modern -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>lover would not have attempted to conceal the object of his Love, -but would have made it apparent to all by his foolish actions that -he was in Love with this particular girl and no other; he would -perhaps have wooed more persistently, and his feelings would not -have remained unchanged after her marriage to another. Like -Petrarch, moreover, Dante cannot be quite acquitted of the -suspicion that, after the first flush of excitement, the excessive -and persistent purification and idealisation of his passion was -based not so much on real amorous feelings and motives, as on an -author’s craving for an object on which to lavish his literary art -of embellishment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dante, in a word, hyper-idealised his passion. He became -quite deaf to the fundamental tone of Love, and heard only its -overtones. And herein lies his inferiority to Shakspere. It is in -the works of Shakspere that the various motives and emotions -which constitute Love—sensuous, æsthetic, intellectual—are for -the first time mingled in proper proportions. Shakspere’s Love is -Modern Love, full-fledged, and therefore calls for no separate -analysis. It is a primitive passion, purified and refined by -intellectual, moral, and æsthetic culture. And though by no -means universal, or even common, at the present day, it is yet of -frequent occurrence, and will become more and more prevalent as -time rolls on. To facilitate its progress by pointing out its -characteristics, its evolution, and the measures that must be taken -to foster it, is one of the principal objects of this monograph.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>MODERN LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>A BIOLOGIC TEST</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Writers on evolution have a very simple and convenient way -of verifying their inferences, by applying the rule—which seems -to hold true universally—that the different stages through which -an individual passes in his development—physical and mental—correspond -to the periods of development through which the whole -race has passed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This principle, applied to our present problem, fits exactly, and -proves that the account given in the preceding pages of the -development of Love is correct.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Historically we have seen that of all affections Maternal Love -is the earliest and (until after Romantic Love appears) the -strongest. Then paternal, filial, and fraternal love are gradually -developed, followed by friendship (Greek), and finally by Love proper.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>Just so with the individual. The baby’s first love is for its -mother, whose tender expression and beaming eyes throw the first -reflected smile on its face, and touch the first cord of sympathetic -attachment. Then the father comes in for his share of attention, -followed by sisters and brothers. At school begins the era of -friendship, representing “classical” love, and often as ardent and -Love-like as among the ancient Greeks. Finally Romantic Love -appears on the scene, eclipsing every other emotion. And, like -historic Love, it generally passes through a blind, silly, chivalric -stage, known as “calf-love,” which at last is succeeded by real, -intense romantic passion, that leads to monogamous marriage, the -central pillar of modern civilisation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Not only have we seen that Romantic Love is the latest and -the strongest of all affections, but the causes which retarded its -development have been indicated. Chief among these were the -negation of Individual Preference, and the absence of opportunities -for Courtship, already deplored by Plato. As long as women -were captured, or bought, or disposed of by father or mother -without any reference to their own will, Sexual Selection on the -female’s part was of course out of the question; and on the man’s -part it was rendered impossible by the absence of Courtship. -Wooing a woman was not winning <em>her</em> favour, but impressing her -father with a display of wealth or social power. Thus there were -no opportunities on her part for the display of personal charms or -the cunning art of Coyness, or for inflaming and feeding his -passion through Jealousy by bestowing an occasional mischief-making -smile on his rivals; there were no lover’s quarrels -followed by sweet reconciliations and an increase of Love; no -short absences fanning Love with sighs; no alternate feelings of -hope and despair, inspired by his or her fickle or uncertain actions; -no chance for displays of Gallantry and mutual Self-sacrifice and -assistance; no sympathetic exchange and consequent doubling of -pleasures, real or anticipated; none, in fact, of the more subtle -traits and emotions which make Romantic Love what it is.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>VENUS, PLUTUS, AND MINERVA</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It cannot be said that these obstacles to Love have been as -radically removed as they ought to be. Oriental chaperonage is -still rampant in France, to the extinction of all true romantic -sentiment. In other countries Parental Tyranny has considerably -abated, but the Goddess of Love still has formidable rivals in -Plutus, the god of wealth, and Minerva, the goddess of “wisdom” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>or expediency. Thus it happens that even in the case of persons -who are refined enough to experience Love, it is too often absent -when they marry; and, as a German pessimist sneeringly points -out, no one has yet dared to tempt bride and bridegroom to -perjury, by asking when the knot is tied, “Do you <em>love</em> this -woman?” “Do you <em>love</em> this man?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevertheless public sentiment is continually making war on -Plutus and Minerva, and siding with Venus. Probably the -mercantile element in marriage will not die out till a few weeks -before the millennium, although Herbert Spencer is optimistic -enough to believe it will sooner. “After wife-stealing,” he says, -“came wife-purchase; and then followed the usages which made, -and continue to make, considerations of property predominate over -considerations of personal preference. Clearly, wife-purchase and -husband-purchase (which exists in some semi-civilised societies), -though they have lost their original gross form, persist in disguised -forms. Already some disapproval of those who marry for money -or position is expressed; and this growing stronger may be -expected to purify the monogamic union, by making it in all cases -real instead of being in some cases nominal.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is indeed a most hopeful sign of progress, this strong and -growing modern sentiment in favour of Romantic Love as against -rival motives matrimonial. Novelists, when the wills of the -lovers and the parents clash, invariably and unconsciously side -with the lovers; and should a novelist make an exception, many -of his readers would close the book, and the others would finish it -under protest and disappointedly. Even when we read a newspaper -reporter’s thrilling and dramatic narrative of the elopement -of a foolish young couple, fresh from the high-school, our hearts -throb with sympathetic anxiety lest the irate parent should -succeed in capturing the runaway couple.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt this instinctive modern prejudice in favour of -Romantic Love will ultimately throw a halo of sacredness around -it, which will raise Cupid’s will to the dignity of an Eleventh -Commandment—a consummation devoutedly to be wished; for -although the conjugal affection which grows out of Romantic Love -is not always deeper than that which results from unions not -based on Love, the physical and mental qualities of the children -commonly show at a glance whether or not the parents were -brought together by Sexual Selection.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span> - <h3 class='c014'>LEADING MOTIVES</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The psychic elements of Love which thus far have been -compared to overtones, might also be regarded from a Wagnerian -point of view as <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Leitmotive</i></span> or leading motives in the Drama of -Historic Love. In the first scenes, where the actors are animals -and savages, followed by Egyptians, Hebrews, Hindoos, Greeks, -and Romans, and mediæval clowns and fanatics, these leading -motives are heard only as short melodic phrases, and at long -intervals, pregnant, indeed, with future possibilities, but isolated -and never combined into a symphony of Love. In the last act, -however, which we have now reached, all these motives appear in -various combinations, in the gorgeous and glowing instrumentation -of modern poets, with all possible figurative, harmonic, and -dynamic nuances; and at the same time so intertwined and interwoven -that no one apparently has ever succeeded in unravelling -the poetic woof and distinguishing the separate threads. For us, -however, who have followed these motives from the moment when -they first appeared in a primitive form, it will be easy to distinguish -them and subject each one to a separate analysis. We -shall first consider those which, like Coyness and Jealousy, are -already familiar and need only be considered in their modern -forms, and then pass on to those which are more and more -exclusively modern.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MODERN COYNESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>At least five sources or causes of modern female Coyness may -be suggested:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) <em>An Echo of Capture.</em>—Why are modern city-folks so fond -of picnics? It was Mr. Spencer, I believe, who suggested somewhere -that it is because picnics awaken in civilised men and -women a vague and agreeable reminiscence of the time when their -ancestors habitually took their meals on meadows in the shade of -a tree. If it is possible for such experiences to re-echo, as it were, -in our nervous system through so many generations, thanks to the -conservatism of oft-repeated cerebral impressions, then it does not -seem so very fantastic to suggest that one cause of female Coyness -may be a similar echo, or reminiscence, of the time when the -primitive ancestresses of modern women were “courted” by -Capture or Purchase, and so badly treated as wives that in course -of time an instinctive impulse was formed in their minds to shrink -back and say No to man’s proposals.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>(2) <em>Maiden</em> versus <em>Wife</em>.—It is hardly necessary, however, to -rely upon such a remote sociological echo, so to speak, for an -explanation of a girl’s hesitation to become a wife even if her -suitor pleases her. The thought of exchanging her maiden freedom -for conjugal restrictions and duties; of giving up the homage -and admiration of all men for the possible neglect of one; of -probably soon losing her youthful beauty, etc.—such thoughts -would make many girls even more coy than they now are, did not -the fear of becoming an old maid act as a counterbalancing motive -in favour of marriage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) <em>Modesty.</em>—Esquimaux girls, as we have seen, “affect the -utmost bashfulness and aversion to any proposal of marriage, lest -they should lose their reputation for modesty.” And the greatest -analyst of the human heart puts the same philosophy into the -mouth of Juliet in a passage which, although everybody knows it -by heart, must yet be quoted here—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22'>“O gentle Romeo,</div> - <div class='line'>If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:</div> - <div class='line'>Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won,</div> - <div class='line'>I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay,</div> - <div class='line'>So thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world.</div> - <div class='line'>In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,</div> - <div class='line'>And therefore thou may’st think my ’haviour light:</div> - <div class='line'>But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true</div> - <div class='line'>Than those that have more <em>cunning to be strange</em>.</div> - <div class='line'>I should have been more strange, I must confess,</div> - <div class='line'>But that thou overheard’st, ere I was ware,</div> - <div class='line'>My true love’s passion: therefore pardon me,</div> - <div class='line'>And <em>not impute this yielding to light love</em>,</div> - <div class='line'>Which the dark night hath so discovered.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>(4) <em>Cunning to be Strange.</em>—No huntsman (except a monarch) -would care to go to an enclosure and shoot the deer confined -therein, nor a fisherman to catch trout conveniently placed in a -pond. But to wade up a mountain brook all day long, climbing -over slippery rocks, and enduring the discomforts of a hot sun and -wet clothes, with nothing to eat, and only a few speckled trifles -to reward him—that is what he considers “glorious sport.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The instinctive perception that a thing is valued in proportion -to the difficulty of its attainment is what taught women the -“cunning to be strange.” Seeing that they could not compete -with man in brute force, they acquired the arts of Beauty and of -Coyness, as their best weapons against his superior strength—the -Beauty to fascinate him, the Coyness to teach him that in Love, -as in fishing, the <em>pleasure of pursuit</em> is the main thing.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>At first this Coyness was manifested in a very crude manner, -as among the primitive maidens who hid in the forest; or among -the Roman women celebrated by Ovid, who locked their door and -compelled the lover to beg and whine for admission by the hour; -or among the mediæval women who, to gratify their caprices and -enjoy the sense of a newly-acquired power, sent their admirers to -participate in bloody wars before recognising their addresses. -And so coarse-grained were the men that as soon as the women -ceased to tease they ceased to woo; as, for instance, in mediæval -France, about the time of the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Chansons de Geste</cite></span>, “the man who -desires a woman yet does not appear as a wooer; for he knows he -is certain of her favour,” as we read in Ploss. Hence Cleopatra’s -brief and pointed rejoinder to Charmian when he advises her, in -order to win Antony’s love, to give him way in everything, cross -him in nothing: “Thou teachest like a fool; the way to lose -him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(5) <em>Procrastination.</em>—Love at first sight is frequent at the -present day, but in ancient Greece and Rome marriage at first -sight appears to have been more common. The classical suitor’s -wooing was generally comprised in three words: <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Veni, Vidi, -Vici</i></span>; <i>i.e.</i> I Came, Saw the girl’s father, Conquered his scruples -by proving my wealth or social position. Sufficient brevity in -this, no doubt: but <em>brevity is not the soul of Love</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Tant plus le chemin est long dans l’amour, tant plus un -esprit délicat sent de plaisir,” says Pascal, announcing a truth of -which ancient and mediæval nations had no conception until -female Coyness taught it them. Goethe evidently had the same -truth in mind when he mentioned as a phase of ancient love -(Roman <cite>Elegies</cite>)—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“In der heroischen zeit, da Götter und Göttinen liebten</div> - <div class='line'>Folgte Begierde dem Blick folgte Genuss der Begier.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>That is, in prose, there were no preliminaries in the love-drama, -which had only one act, the fifth, in which the marriage is -celebrated.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Goldsmith on Love.</em>—In Goldsmith’s <cite>Citizen of the World</cite> there -is a chapter on “Whether Love be a Natural or Fictitious Passion,” -in which reference is likewise made to the value of procrastination. -As this passage shows Goldsmith to have been the first author who -had an approximate conception of the development and psychology -of Love, I will quote it almost entire. It is in the form of a -dialogue, and one of the speakers remarks: "Whether love be -natural or no ... it contributes to the happiness of every society -<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>in which it is introduced. All our pleasures are short and can -only charm at intervals; love is a method of protracting our -greatest pleasure; and surely that gamester who plays the greatest -stake to the best advantage will, at the end of life, rise victorious. -This was the opinion of Vanini, who affirmed that ‘every hour -was lost which was not spent in love.’ His accusers were unable -to comprehend his meaning; and the poor advocate for love was -burned in flames; alas! no way metaphorical. But whatever -advantages the individual may reap from this passion, society will -certainly be refined and improved by its introduction; all laws -calculated to discourage it tend to embrute the species, and weaken -the state. Though it cannot plant morals in the human breast, -it cultivates them when there: pity, generosity, and honour receive -a brighter polish from its assistance; and a single <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>amour</i></span> is sufficient -entirely to brush off the clown.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But it is an exotic of the most delicate constitution: it -requires the greatest art to introduce it into a state, and the -smallest discouragement is sufficient to repress it again. Let us -only consider with what ease it was formerly <em>extinguished in -Rome</em>, and with what difficulty it was <em>lately revived in Europe</em>: -it seemed to sleep for ages, and at last fought its way among us -through tilts, tournaments, dragons, and all the dreams of chivalry. -The rest of the world, <em>China only excepted</em>, are, and have ever -been, utter strangers to its delights and advantages. In other -countries, as men find themselves stronger than women, they lay -a claim to rigorous superiority: this is natural, and love, which -gives up this natural advantage, must certainly be the effect of art—an -art calculated to lengthen out our happier moments, and add -new graces to society.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To this conclusion the lady interlocutor in the dialogue objects -on the ground that “the effects of love are too violent to be -the result of an artificial passion”; and suggests, by way of -accounting for the absence of love, that “the same efforts that -are used in some places to suppress pity, and other natural -passions, may have been employed to extinguish love”; and -that “those nations where it is cultivated only make nearer -advances to nature.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Goldsmith thus leaves it in doubt whether he considers Love a -natural or an artificial passion. In the three passages which I -have italicised, he errs: first, in saying that Love was “extinguished” -in Rome, when in fact it never existed there, except -incompletely in the poetic intuition of Ovid and possibly one or -two other poets; secondly, he errs in remarking that it was lately -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>“revived” in Europe, when in fact it was newly-born; and his -excepting China, in speaking of the absence of Love, can only be -looked on in the light of a joke in view of the absolute subjection -of women to parental dictation, and the fact that, as one writer -remarks, “a union prompted solely by love would be a monstrous -infraction of the duty of filial obedience, and a predilection on the -part of the female as heinous a crime as infidelity.” But his -definition of Love as “the effect of art—an art calculated to -lengthen out our happier moments and add new graces to society” -is exceedingly good. The art in question is known as Courtship: -and it is the latest of the fine arts, which even now exists in its -perfection in two countries only—England and America. The -Italian language has no equivalent for Courtship, as Professor -Mantegazza tells us in his <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>Fisiologia dell’ Amore</cite></span>; and a German -commentator on this passage in Mantegazza comments dubiously: -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Das Eutsprechende deutsche Wort <em>dürfte wohl</em> Werbung sein;”</span> -“the corresponding German word is presumably <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Werbung</i></span>.” -“Presumably” is very suggestive. Yet the Germans have another -expression of mediæval origin apparently, namely, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Einem Mädchen -den Hof machen”</span>—"to pay court to a girl," which, though somewhat -conversational, has evidently the same historic origin as our -word Court-ship; implying that formerly it was the custom at -court alone to prolong the agony of Love by gallant attentions to -women, which enabled them to exercise the “cunning to be -strange.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Disadvantages of Coyness.</em>—Beneficial as are no doubt the -effects which have been brought about by female Coyness in -developing the art of Courtship, there are corresponding evils -inherent in that mental attitude which make it probable that -Coyness will gradually disappear and be succeeded by something -more modern, more natural, more refined.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are four serious objections to Coyness, one from a masculine, -three from a feminine point of view.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Men, in the first place, can hardly approve of Coyness; for it -certainly indicates a coarse mediæval fibre in a man if he is obliged -to confess that he can love a girl not for her beauty and amiability, -but only because she tantalises and maltreats him:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,</div> - <div class='line'>The more it grows and fawneth on her still.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>Or, in Heine’s delightful persiflage of this attitude—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Ueberall wo du auch wandelst,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Schaust du mich zu allen Stunden,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>Und jemehr du mich misshandelst,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Treuer bleib ich dir verbunden.</span></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Denn mich fesselt holde Bosheit</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Wie mich Güte stets vertrieben;</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Willst du sicher meiner los sein</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Musst du dich in mich verlieben.”</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>In one English sentence: Your amiability repels, your malice -attracts me; if you wish to get rid of my attentions, you must fall -in love with me.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If a refined man can feel ardent affection for an animal, a friend, -a relative, without being “spurned” and consequently “fawning,” -why should not the same be true of his love for a beautiful girl? -It is true; and hence the cleverest women of the period, feeling -this change in the masculine heart, have adopted a different -method of fascinating men and bringing them to their feet, as we -shall presently see.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women, in turn, are injured by Coyness; first, because it makes -them act foolishly. French and German girls are systematically -taught to take immediate alarm at sight of a horrid man (whom -they secretly consider a darling creature, with <em>such</em> a moustache) -and conceal themselves behind their mamma or chaperon, like -spring chickens creeping under the old hen at sight of a hawk. -This sort of <em>spring-chicken coyness</em> does infinitely more harm than -good; it makes the girls weak and frivolous, and as for the men, -if they are systematically treated as birds of prey, how can they -avoid falling in with their <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>rôle</i></span>? If men are to behave like gentlemen -they must be treated as gentlemen, as they are in England -and America.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coyness, again, makes women deceitful and insincere. -“Amongst her other feminine qualities,” says Thackeray of one of -his characters, “she had that of being a perfect dissembler.” And -in another place, “I think women have an instinct of dissimulation; -they know by nature how to disguise their emotions far -better than the most consummate courtiers can do.” It cannot -be said that dissimulation is a virtue, though it may be a useful -weapon against coarse and selfish men. If not the same thing as -hypocrisy, it is next door to it; and it cannot have a beneficial -effect on a woman’s general moral instincts if she is compelled constantly -to act a part contrary to her convictions and feelings. -Though as deeply in love as her suitor, she is commanded to treat -him with indifference, coldness, even cruelty,—in a word, to do -constant violence to her and his feelings, and to lacerate her own -heart perhaps even more than the unhappy lover’s. Thus instead -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>of mutually enjoying the period of Courtship, and indulging in -harmless banter, “they gaze at each other fiercely, though ready -to die for love”; or, as Heine puts it—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Sie sahen sich an so feindlich,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Und wollten vor Liebe vergehen.”</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>And why all this perverseness, this unnaturalness, this emotional -torture? Simply because—once more be it said—the men of -former days, the men who lived on pork and port, who delighted -in bear-baiting, cock-fights, and similar æsthetic amusements, had -nerves so coarse and callous that to make any impression on them -the women had to play with them as a cat does with a mouse to -make it tender and sweet.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Coyness lessens Woman’s Love.</em>—One more charge, the gravest -of all, remains to be piled on top, as a last crushing argument -against crude Coyness. An emotion, like a plant, requires for its -growth sunshine, light, and open air; if kept in a dark cellar and -stifled, it soon becomes weak and pale and languishes. Man’s -superior strength and selfish exercise of it have compelled women -to cultivate Coyness as an art of dissembling, hiding, and repressing -their real feelings. But to repress the manifestations of anger, of -pity, of Love, is to suppress them; hence Coyness has necessarily -had the effect of weakening woman’s Love. It weakens it in the -same proportion as it strengthens man’s. And hence, as I have -said before, the current notion that women love more ardently, -more deeply, than men is an absurd myth. The poets have always -shown a predilection for this, as for all other myths; and as it is -still served up as a self-evident truth in a thousand books every -year, it is worth while to clear away the underbrush and let in -some daylight on the subject.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Masculine</em> versus <em>Feminine Love</em>.—One thing may be conceded -at the outset: that woman’s Love, when once kindled, is apt to -endure longer than man’s. Shakspere’s “’Tis brief, my Lord, as -woman’s love” is therefore a libel on the sex. The difficulty is -to get it under way. It takes so much of the small kindling -wood of courtship (“sparking” it is called) to set a female heart -aflame, that many men give it up in despair and remain bachelors; -or else, like the young man in <cite>Fidelio</cite>, they finally tell their girl, -“If you will not love me, at least marry me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It may also be conceded that Rousseau exaggerates when he -says that “Women are a hundred times sooner reasonable than -passionate: they are as unable to describe love as to feel it.” -This may have been true in his day; but that there have since -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>been some female authors who have correctly described Love, and -thousands of women who have been deeply in Love, it would be -absurd to deny. All that is here maintained is that Love is of -less frequent occurrence in women than in men; and when it -does occur in women it is not usually so deep, so passionate, so -maddening. The average woman knows little of Romantic Love. -She has read about it in novels, in poems, and thinks how delightful -it must be. The faintest symptom is taken for an attack, just -as in perusing a medical book people commonly fancy they have -symptoms of the disease they chance to be reading about. Thus -it happens that young girls so easily “fall in love,” as they -imagine, and are ready to elope with the first music teacher or -circus rider that comes along—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A blockhead with melodious voice</div> - <div class='line'>In boarding-school may have his choice,</div> - <div class='line'>And oft the dancing-master’s art</div> - <div class='line'>Climbs from the toe to touch the heart.”—<span class='sc'>Swift.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>It is quite probable that Coleridge was right when he wrote—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“For maids as well as youths have perished</div> - <div class='line'>From fruitless love too fondly cherished;”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>although this does not seem to agree with the opinion of Shakspere -and Thackeray regarding the rarity of broken lovers’ hearts. -Morselli’s work on Suicide does not contain any definite statistics -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>à propos</i></span>; but I have seen the statement in a newspaper that in -Italy, during 1883, thirty-six men and nine women committed -suicide—four to one; and the proportion will appear larger still if -it is remembered that girls often commit suicide from an anguish -deeper than a refusal.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The myth that woman’s passion is deeper than man’s is commonly -expressed in the form given to it by Byron: that in man’s -life love is only an episode, whereas to a woman it is all in all. -Allowing for poetic exaggeration, it does not at all follow that -because a man does not brood all his life over Love, he therefore -loves less. The fact that Goethe, the poet, also wrote treatises on -botany and physics, and made landscape sketches, did not decrease -the depth of his poetic feeling but added to it. For it is a fundamental -law of psychology—except in pathologic cases—that -continuous brooding over an emotion weakens and exhausts it; -but after intervals of rest it emerges more fresh than ever. The -various objects and ambitions that occupy man only serve to -strengthen his feelings, his capacity for Love. That women are -more easily swamped and carried away by emotions does not prove -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>their feelings to be deeper, but themselves to be weaker. One -lake may be entirely full, and yet not contain half as much water -as a larger lake which is only half-full.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was evidently with a vague desire to justify or excuse -woman’s comparative weakness in Love that Ninon de L’Enclos -wrote “Women and flowers are made to be loved for their beauty -and sweetness, rather than themselves to love.” And that intelligent -observer Mrs. Childs adds the weight of her feminine testimony -by confessing her belief “That men more frequently marry -for love than women.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To remove all lingering doubt, consider the “overtones” of -Love separately. Is woman ordinarily as absurdly or ferociously -Jealous as man, or quite so Proud of her conquest? Is she so -deeply absorbed in Admiration of his Personal Beauty? Is she as -Gallant, and as ready for Sacrifices? or does she not rather take -his devoted services for granted, and consider them rewarded by a -smile or some other trifle? Indeed, the only element of Love -which in woman is stronger than in man is Coyness; and Coyness, -as has been shown, weakens woman’s Love in the same degree as -it increases man’s.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of course it would be unjust to attribute to the effects of -Coyness all the difference between man’s and woman’s Love. -Much is due to the physiologic law that emotional capacity—amorous -included—depends on brain capacity (<em>not</em> on the “heart”); -and man’s brain is more powerful than woman’s. But crude -mediæval Coyness must bear a large share of the blame; and it is -probable that now, having played its <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> of bringing men to terms -and making them gallant and polite towards women, it will disappear -gradually.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Der Mohr hat seine Schuldigkeit gethan, Der Mohr kann -gehen.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Already, however, there is, especially in America and England, -a superior class of women who, despising Coyness as crude, artificial, -and silly, have adopted in its place a much more refined -method of making men fall in love with them. In one word, -they have substituted Flirtation for Coyness. As this statement -will to many appear paradoxical, if not absurd, it is necessary -first to distinguish between Flirtation and Coquetry before trying -to justify it.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Flirtation and Coquetry.</em>—These two words are so constantly -confused by careless or ignorant writers that some girls are almost -as much offended if accused of Flirtation as of Coquetry. It was -bad enough for Winthrop to say that “A woman without coquetry -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>is as insipid as a rose without scent, champagne without sparkle, -or corned beef without mustard” (!), but there is no excuse whatever -for “Ik Marvel’s” saying that “Coquetry whets the appetite; -flirtation depraves it. Coquetry is the thorn that guards the -rose (!), easily trimmed off when once plucked. Flirtation is like -the slime on water-plants, making them hard to handle, and when -caught only to be cherished in slimy waters.” No excuse, I say, -because the dictionaries on our table tell us the very reverse. -Flirtation, in Webster, is simply “playing at courtship,” without -any cruel intentions; while Coquetry is an attempt “to attract -admiration, and gain matrimonial offers, from a desire to gratify -vanity, and with the intention to reject the suitor.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>That this is the correct definition is shown beyond question -by the adjectives which are commonly coupled with those nouns: -a “harmless Flirtation,” a “heartless Coquette.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A Coquette seeks to fascinate for the sake of fascinating. Like -a miser, she mistakes the means for the end, and feeds on one-sided -passion and admiration, until one morning she wakes up and -finds her beauty gone, and herself the most disappointed and -unamiable of old maids. Or again, she might be compared to a -bank clerk who refused his salary because he was satisfied with -the tinkling of the money which he heard all day long. The Flirt, -on the other hand, displays her accomplishments, her wit, and -personal charms, for the sake of enlarging the facilities of Courtship, -the possibilities of rational Choice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One reason why Flirtation and Coquetry are so apt to be confounded -is because the English peoples alone have the word -Flirtation—naturally enough, as they alone allow their young -people the blessings of Courtship and rational choice promoted by -it. Foreigners, not appreciating exactly what is meant by the -word, are apt to translate it as Coquetry. One Frenchman, who -has lived long in England, has tried to define Flirtation for his -countrymen by saying it consisted of “attentions without intentions.” -This definition was widely welcomed as very clever. -Clever it may be, but it is a definition of Coquetry not of Flirtation. -For Flirtation never excludes <em>possible</em> intentions.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Flirtation</em> versus <em>Coyness</em>.—Flirtation, from the feminine point -of view, may be defined as <em>the art of fascinating a man and leaving -him in doubt whether he is loved or not</em>. There is no reason -why a beautiful and bright girl should not charm, <i>i.e.</i> flirt with, -every man who interests her, and to whom she has been properly -introduced. No reason why she should not dispense her sweet -smiles with complete impartiality, until she has made up her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>mind whom she wishes to marry. In so far as Coyness simply -means reserve and dignity, she will of course still be coy; but she -will not run away to conceal herself in the forest, or lock the -front door, or hide behind a chaperon’s back, or affect to be cynically -indifferent to men, or treat the one she likes best with -affected cruelty. With refined men of the period Flirting, <i>i.e.</i> -fascinating and leaving in doubt, is quite as effective in kindling -adoration to ecstasy as crude Coyness was with the coarse-fibred -men of the past. Flirtation, indeed, is much more tantalising -than Coyness, and therefore a complete modern substitute for it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is a passage in Hume’s <cite>Dissertation on the Passions</cite> -which, though occurring in a different connection, strikes home -the truth of the last sentence most forcibly. “Uncertainty,” he -says, “has the same effect as opposition. The agitation of the -thought, the quick turns which it makes from one view to another, -the variety of passions which succeed each other, according to the -different views: all these produce an agitation in the mind; and -this agitation transfuses itself into the predominant passion. -Security, on the other hand, diminishes the passions. The mind, -when left to itself, immediately languishes; and in order to preserve -its ardour, must be supported every moment by a new flow -of passion.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of course to those of a girl’s admirers who are for a while left -in doubt and finally “get left” altogether, female flirtation may -seem a cruel pastime. But there is a sort of <em>historic justice</em> in -this torture which, indeed, almost amounts to an excuse for -<em>Coquetry</em>; it is a species of feminine revenge for the long centuries -of slavery in which muscular man held weak woman. -Besides, no man has ever died of a broken heart, except in novels. -And, again, who is to blame a pretty girl for having fascinated an -unsuccessful lover? A rose yields its fragrance and beauty to all -who wish to admire it. If a conceited young man comes along, -imagines that all its beauty is for him alone, and tries to pluck it, -he has only himself to blame if he feels the thorn of disappointment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When Lord Chesterfield wrote, “I assisted at the birth of that -most significant word ‘flirtation,’ which dropped from the most -beautiful mouth in the world,” he perhaps hardly realised how -very significant a factor of social life Flirtation was destined to -become. Mr. Galton wrote, not long ago, that without female -Coyness “there would be no more call for competition among the -males for the favour of the females; no more fighting for love in -which the strongest male conquers; no more rival display of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>personal charms in which the best-looking or best-mannered prevails. -The drama of courtship, with its prolonged strivings and -doubtful success, would be cut quite short, and the race would -degenerate through the absence of that sexual selection for which -the protracted preliminaries for love-making give opportunity.” -When Mr. Galton wrote this, he did not apparently realise the -social revolution that is going on, or understand that frank and -natural Flirtation, which recognises every man as a gentleman -until he has proved the contrary, affords much better opportunity -for Sexual Selection and “protracted preliminaries of love-making” -than crude, hypocritical, unnatural Coyness, which regards every -gentleman as a beast of prey and a libertine.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Flirtation being the modern art of widening the field of amorous -competition and prolonging the duration of Courtship, it follows -that there cannot be too much of it—quantitatively speaking. -Qualitatively it easily degenerates into frivolity, as in the case of -those girls who get engaged repeatedly before marriage, which -shows a lack of judgment, of tact, and especially of delicacy, -because a peach should never be touched on the tree but allowed -to retain its first blush for the man who is to eat it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Refined flirtation, in truth, requires much more wit, more tact -and culture, than Coyness, or than Prudery, which is the north-pole -of Coyness. Prudery bears much resemblance to the artificial -dignity of a certain class of young men who, by means of persistent -reticence, gain a reputation for aristocratic and cynical -superiority. Coquetry even is preferable to Prudery, for it is at -any rate entertaining.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To sum up this matter in one sentence: The coy Prude says -No, even when she means Yes; the cold Coquette says Yes and -always means No; the modest and refined Flirt says neither Yes -nor No, but looks and smiles a sweet “Perhaps—if you can win -my Love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Modern Courtship.</em>—What a grotesque and topsy-turvy parody -of history it is, this modern comedy of Courtship, in which the -man is the slave and walks on his knees! And how gracefully -the newly-crowned girl-queen plays her <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span>, little suspecting that -in the next act the husband will probably throw away his self-assumed -mask, and insist again on his historic rights as lord and -master of the household!</p> - -<p class='c001'>The shock which follows this transition from the romance of -Courtship to the realism of conjugal life is much the greatest in -the case of the Prude. The Coquette need not be considered; -she was born without a heart, and marriage will not give her one. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>But the Prude often owes her unnaturalness solely to an absurd -educational system, and may be at heart the best of women. -Previous to marriage she is taught to rely on passive Coyness to -arouse the desires of man. After marriage, when she yields herself -up, body and soul, she loses this weapon, the lover recovers -his courage and lowers the pitch of his devotional ecstasy. This -alarms the girl, who eagerly endeavours to recover the romantic -Adoration by trying to please and coax and caress. But pleasing—or -<em>active</em> fascination—being an art which she never has practised, -she does it in a bungling way—overdoes it, in fact—thus -increasing the husband’s indifference. Had she learned the art of -refined Flirtation, <i>i.e.</i> active fascination with wit and accomplishments, -this domestic tragedy would never have been enacted. -Her skill and tact would then have enabled her to preserve her -husband’s Gallantry, by supplying a constant variety and novelty -in those feminine charms and graces in which a superior woman is -as fertile as a man of genius in ideas.</p> - -<p class='c001'>By her extremely reserved and passive attitude during Courtship -the Prude not only mars the probabilities of conjugal happiness, -she also weakens her own Love directly, through Coyness, -and indirectly, by making the man too servile and over-anxious to -worship. For if a man immediately yields up his sword and proclaims -himself fatally stabbed by a white wench’s black eye, there -can be in her mind none of those small obstacles and doubts -which, like short absences, increase Love. Love-making should -be a duel of wit and mutual fascination. The Flirt does her part -of the fencing; the Prude simply hides behind her shield and -waits to see if the man can break it, or coax her to throw it away. -With a Flirt a man need not be a servile worshipper, but he may -be a Flirt likewise: which is a much more desirable attitude, -not only because male flirtation will fan the woman’s Love into a -brighter flame through the stimulus of uncertainty, but also -because it enables the man to preserve his dignity. Hence -Beatrix’s pointed advice to Henry Esmond: “Shall I be frank -with you, Harry, and say that if you had not been down on your -knees, and so humble, you might have fared better with me? -A woman of my spirit, cousin, is to be won by gallantry and not -by sighs and rueful faces. All the time you are worshipping -I know very well I am no goddess, and grow weary of the -incense.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The girl of the period is the girl who flirts, and who expects -every eligible man to take up her challenge for a tournament of -wit and playing at Courtship. The reason why there is much -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>more Romantic Love in America and England than in other -countries is because there is more Flirtation, more opportunity for -Courtship. On the Continent young folks are too constantly -regarded from the marriage point of view. In Italy and France, -when a young lady comes back from boarding-school, she is -married as quickly as possible before she has had a chance to fall -in love with a man of her choice. Consequence: she falls in love -<em>after</em> marriage, and not always with her husband. In Germany a -young lady is allowed to see young men and even to walk with -them in the street, in the daytime or in the evening, if properly -chaperoned; but under no circumstances will she take a young -man’s arm, for that would imply an engagement. In America it -is otherwise; but even there, in the South, it is taken for granted -that if a young man calls on a young lady three or four times he -can have no other object than to marry her. His object may be -to marry, but not necessarily <em>her</em>. What he wants is to become -acquainted, and if acquaintance “by summer’s ripening breath” -blossoms into Love, so much the better; if not, it is a thousand -times better he should be allowed to depart in peace than that -two beings should be mated who do not feel really sympathetic -and companionable. How is a young man to find his Juliet if he -is not allowed to see a number of women, without being called -fickle? And how is Juliet to find her Romeo, if mothers frighten -young men into bachelorhood by such absurd customs?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The word Courtship, in fact, should have a wider meaning -than it has now. It should be almost synonymous with Flirtation, -which provides the means of bringing together, from a wide -circle of acquaintances, two beings who are really suited to each -other, instead of two whom blind chance, a few “calls,” or the -advantages of intimacy resulting from cousinship, have fortuitously -mated for a life of probable conjugal misery.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Plato’s advice that opportunity should be given to the sexes to -become acquainted before marriage is much more followed to-day -than at any previous time in the world’s history; but there is -still vast room for improvement.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MODERN JEALOUSY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Jealousy may be defined as a painful emotion on noticing, or -imagining, that some one dear to us loves another more than us. -Unlike affection in general, and like sympathy, it therefore necessarily -refers to a sentient being and a possible reciprocation of -affection. It is a form of rivalry, of which there are two kinds: -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>rivalry for the possession of an object or a position; and rivalry -for the first place in a person’s affections. The first is not incompatible -with friendship, for two rival candidates for a political -office or a college fellowship are not necessarily personal enemies. -But the second kind, which, when allied with doubt is called -Jealousy, is a deadly enemy of good-will; and there is probably no -cause that has broken so many friendships as the “green-eyed -monster,” among women no less than among men.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Modern psychology agrees with St. Augustine that “he that -is not jealous, is not in love.” There can be no love without -Jealousy—potential at any rate, for in the absence of provocation -it may perhaps never manifest itself. But there can be Jealousy -without love, <i>i.e</i> without sexual love; for that passion is often -aroused in connection with other kinds of affection—parental, -filial, etc. Stories are told of dogs practically committing suicide -by disappearing or pining away if displaced by a younger pet in -the affection of a family; and those who have seen specimens of -canine jealousy find nothing improbable in these stories. Yet as -a rule all these general forms of jealousy—as when a husband is -jealous of his wife if the children show her special favour, or as -when a mother is jealous of a visitor loved by her children—are -mere trifles compared with sexual Jealousy, romantic and conjugal. -It is in painting this form of Jealousy that poets have exhausted -the strength of language. “Of all the passions in the mind thou -vilest art,” says Spenser of this “king of torments,” “the injured -lover’s hell.” With this, when once the lover’s mind is affected—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“’Tis then delightful misery no more,</div> - <div class='line'>But agony unmixt, incessant gall.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“But, O, what damnéd minutes tells he o’er</div> - <div class='line'>Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>In the animal kingdom sexual Jealousy and rivalry play so -important a part that Darwin attributes to their agency the -superior size and strength (in most classes) of the male over the -female. Among savages, as has been pointed out, we see sometimes -a curious absence of Jealousy, both as regards brides and -wives; whereas in other cases, the passion manifests itself with -brutal ferocity. Thus among the American Indians infidelity is -sometimes punished by cutting off the nose, sometimes by the -shearing of the hair, which is considered a great disgrace. On the -Fiji Islands, Waitz tells us, the wives of a polygamist “lead a life -of bitter strife and commit ... the most atrocious cruelties -against one another from hate and Jealousy; biting or cutting off -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>the nose is quite a common occurrence.” Stanley, in his work on -the Congo, remarks that the Langa-Langa women scar their faces -and busts in a hideous manner, probably because compelled to do -so by the Jealousy of the men. In Hebrew literature the case of -Jacob’s two wives urging him of their own accord to become still -further polygamous, presents a strange example of this passion -being neutralised by other motives. What prompted the ancient -Greeks, and what prompts Oriental nations to this day, to keep -their women under lock and key, was, and is, of course, simply a -perverse and ignorant feeling of Jealousy. In this feeling also, no -doubt, originated the Chinese custom compelling women to mutilate -their feet to prevent them from going about; as well as the custom -indulged in until recently by Japanese ladies of shaving off their -eyebrows and blackening their teeth after marriage—a custom -which shows how much stronger Jealousy must be than Admiration -of Personal Beauty in the affection of these nations. No doubt, -however, all these excesses and cruelties of Jealousy are counter-balanced -by the good it has done in enforcing the laws of morality.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Civilisation does not weaken sexual Jealousy, but only gives it -a less brutal form of manifesting itself. Conjugal Jealousy still -produces the greatest number of domestic tragedies, of which -<cite>Othello</cite> is the immortal type. It is already typified in Hera, for, as -Zeus says in Homer, “She is always meddling, whatever I may be -about.” But then she had good cause to meddle in the affairs of -this Olympian Don Juan.</p> - -<p class='c001'><cite>Lovers’ Jealousy.</cite>—As for Lovers’ Jealousy proper, there is -reason to believe that it will grow stronger and more common as -general culture advances. For the men who are most ahead of our -century emotionally, the men of genius, are usually very jealous. -Heine’s Jealousy went so far that he even poisoned a poor parrot -of whom his Mathilde was extravagantly fond; and it is probable -that Byron’s savage attack on the Waltz was dictated by a sort of -wholesale Jealousy in regard to all pretty girls. For in Love -Byron was omnivorous.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The lover’s and the husband’s Jealousy are alike in their -extreme sensitiveness—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in14'>“Trifles light as air</div> - <div class='line'>Are to the jealous confirmations strong</div> - <div class='line'>As proofs of holy writ;”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>nor is there probably any difference in the intenseness of their agony.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To the lover Jealousy is not only his greatest torture, but also -his deadliest enemy. With this fever in his blood even the man -of the world who knows his “Ars Amoris” by heart, is apt to ruin -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>his cause by excess of blind rivalry and clumsy passion: which -perhaps explains why so many great men have been refused by -their best loves. To endure and ignore a rival is, as Ovid already -declared, the highest and most difficult achievement in the Art of -Love; as for himself, he frankly admits, he was unequal to it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are several ways in which lovers ruin their chances by -awkward excess of passion. It makes them appear selfish and -unamiable; and the pallor which Jealousy inspires is not that -which makes a girl consider a man “interesting,” and leads her -through pity to Love. If the lover is not yet accepted, his -Jealousy arouses her opposition, because he seems to take it for -granted that he has a right to be jealous, and that she will necessarily -accept him. Again, his attitude repels her by suggesting -that he would indulge in impertinent supervision and tyrannical -dictation after marriage. Even if he has successfully proposed, -she does not like to have him make his victory and prospective -ownership so conspicuous by his jealous glances and manœuvres. -Besides, a fascinating girl likes to preserve her apparent freedom -as long as possible, and let others admire her beauty while it lasts.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Most fatal is it for a man to assume a jealous attitude towards -a woman before he has been able to inspire her with interest in -him. Her indifference will thus be inevitably changed into positive -dislike. For, as Madame de Coulanges says, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“L’on ne veut -de la jalousie que de ceux dont on pourrait être jalouse”</span>—We do -not desire any jealousy except from those for whom we could ourselves -feel jealousy. Stendhal, who quotes this aphorism, adds a -reason why women may be gratified by a display of Jealousy: -“Jealousy may please proud women, as a new way of showing -them their power.” And to a woman in love and in doubt, the -man’s Jealousy, which is so easily detected, is of course a most -welcome symptom of conquest.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For Jealousy is the first sign of Love, as it is also the last. If -a man is in doubt whether he is really in Love with a girl or only -admires her beauty, let him observe her when talking or dancing -with another man: if he then feels “queer”—from a mere uneasiness -to a desire to pulverise the other fellow—he may be assured -that his emotion has passed the borderline which separates disinterested -æsthetic admiration from the desire for exclusive possession -which is popularly known as Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Conversely, if a man who has been repeatedly refused, or who -for some other reason endeavours to suppress his passion, feels in -doubt whether the cure is complete, he need only imagine his -former love in the arms of another man, or before the altar with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>him: if that does not make him turn pale and frown and bite his -lips, he is cured. This test, however, is not so certain as the -other, for sometimes Jealousy outlives Love; and Longfellow -believed that every true passion leaves an eternal scar.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Like Coyness, Jealousy is a discord in the harmony of Love. -A little of it is piquant and rouses desire. “Jealousy,” says -Hume, “is a painful passion, yet without some share of it the -agreeable affection of love has difficulty to subsist in all its force -and violence.... Jealousy and absence in love compose the <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><i>dolce -piccante</i></span> of the Italians, which they suppose so essential to all -pleasure.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Unfortunately, Jealousy is rarely content to remain “agreeably -piquant,” but is apt to grow into a tornado of passion which -devastates body and soul, and makes it the keenest agony known -to mankind. It is often said that the agony inspired by a refusal -is the only thing that excuses tears in a man. This agony is a -mixed emotion, including wounded Pride and the sense of having -lost all that makes life worth living. But its keenest sting comes -from the green-eyed monster, who hisses into the lover’s ears that -now a rival will enjoy her sweetness and beauty. Dante did not -correctly describe the lowest depth of hell: it is this thought in -the lover’s mind that “now another will marry her.” It is <em>that</em> -thought which drives lovers to lunatic asylums and suicide.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Some lines I read the other day,” Keats wrote to Fanny -Brawne, "are continually ringing a peal in my ears—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“To see those eyes I prize above mine own</div> - <div class='line'>Dart Favours on another—</div> - <div class='line'>And those sweet lips (yielding immortal nectar)</div> - <div class='line'>Be gently press’d by any but myself—</div> - <div class='line'>Think, think, Francesca, what a cursed thing</div> - <div class='line'>It were beyond expression.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>“Get thee to a nunnery,” would be every lover’s advice to the -girl who rejected him. If she obeyed, his agony would be -diminished one-half.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But why, if he cannot have her, should she not make some one -else happy? Because Jealousy is the one absolutely selfish trait -of Love. The lover who in other respects is the very model of -altruism and Self-Sacrifice is in point of jealous rivalry for possession -an absolute egotist to whom even <em>her</em> happiness is torture if -he cannot share it. Is this an aberration of Lovers’ Sympathy, or -does it mark its climax? The answer will be found in the chapter -on Sympathy.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Retrospective and Prospective Jealousy.</em>—There are three kinds -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>of modern Jealousy—Retrospective, Present, and Prospective. -The rejected lover’s Jealousy is of the third kind; it refers not to -what is, but to what will or may be. Another variety of Prospective -Jealousy is illustrated by a story told in a Moscow journal -of an old peasant who married a young girl of whom he was very -jealous. On his deathbed he expressed a desire to give her a last -kiss. But hardly had she touched him, when he seized her under -lip and fastened his teeth so tightly in it that a knife had to be -used to pry them open. With his dying breath he confessed that -his object had been to mutilate her, so that no one else might -marry her.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is it not possible that the custom of burning widows in India -was at first an outcome of the Jealousy of some influential ruler -who set the fashion?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Present Jealousy does not call for any special remarks, but -Retrospective Jealousy has some curious features. It is entirely -non-existent not only among those savage tribes who scorn virgin -brides, but among some semi-civilised peoples in Africa and Asia -where the men prefer to marry women with a dowry, no matter -how they may have earned it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In modern love Retrospective Jealousy is often very strong, -especially in men who, though they do not hesitate to marry a girl -who has been engaged before, would not care to dwell on the -details of the previous engagement. Women, too, have been -known to indulge in this futile form of Jealousy. Thus Heine -relates in one of his letters that at the special request of his -Mathilde, he got her a copy of the French edition of his <cite>Pictures -of Travel</cite>. “But hardly had she read a few pages, when she -turned deadly pale, trembled in all her limbs, and begged me for -heaven’s sake to close the book. She had come upon a love-scene -in it, and jealous as she is, she does not even want me to have -adored another <em>before</em> her <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>régime</i></span>; indeed, I had to promise her -that in future I would not address any language of love even to -the imaginary ideal personages in my books.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The trouble with Heine is that one never knows exactly when -he is relating facts and when indulging in fun and fiction. As a -rule, certainly women are not much troubled by Jealousy regarding -the past. If the lover promises to be a good boy in future and -give them a monopoly of his adoration, they are rarely disquieted -by the question, “Has he been in love before?” Indeed, there is -a current notion that women admire a man all the more for being -a Don Juan or professional lady-killer. Perhaps, however, this is -putting the cart before the horse: for, instead of admiring him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>because he is a lady-killer, is it not possible that he is a lady-killer -because they all admire him?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet some truth there seems to be in that old notion regarding -gay Lotharios; for the average woman’s ideal man still wears a -certain mediæval military cast: he is conceived as a muscular -dare-devil, reckless, irresistible, a universal conqueror of female -hearts as well as of other fortresses.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Jealousy and Beauty.</em>—As Love becomes more and more -idealised, <i>i.e.</i> transferred to the imagination, its overtones combine -and produce various new emotional clang-tints—sometimes -agreeable, sometimes harsh and dissonant. Among the Japanese -and Chinese, as just stated, Jealousy neutralises the Admiration -of Personal Beauty to such an extent as to breed indifference to -shaved eyebrows, black teeth, deformed feet, and a consequent -utter absence of grace in gait. But there is a more subtle way in -which Jealousy may cast a cloud on Personal Admiration, even in -a refined Western imagination. Once in a while it happens to a -sensitive man, a worshipper of Beauty, that he beholds a vision of -grace and loveliness—perhaps in a ballroom, perhaps in a theatre -or the street. But this sight instead of delighting him, gives him -a painful sting in the heart. Partly, this paradoxical sadness of a -discoverer may be due to the sudden fancy that this fairylike -being perhaps will never again cross his field of vision. Yet it -seems more likely that the tinge of pain which o’ercasts the rosy -feelings of Admiration is due to Jealousy, especially if she is seen -in company with a man. For a moment the Beauty-worshipper -fancies himself in that man’s place; the next moment the consciousness -of isolation flashes on his mind, and the reaction brings -out the painful contrast between what is and what might be. -For man, as Mr. Howells has remarked, is still imperfectly monogamous. -He has occasional visions of a Mahometan heaven -peopled with black-eyed Houris; or envies the knight in Heine’s -poem, who lies on the beach and enjoys the caresses of the mermaids, -who come and kiss him because they know not that he only -pretends to be asleep.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the Beauty-worshipper’s sadness is due to a vague Jealousy -seems the more probable from the fact that the same feeling never -tinges his admiration of a living Apollo of masculine perfection. -Whether women ever have the same emotions remains for them -to tell.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MONOPOLY OR EXCLUSIVENESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In the case of this trait of Love, <a id='corr133.44'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Prior-ity'>Priority</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_133.44'><ins class='correction' title='Prior-ity'>Priority</ins></a></span> of discovery obviously -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>belongs to the author of these lines—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Love, well thou knowest, no partnership allows,</div> - <div class='line'>Cupid averse rejects divided vows.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Monopoly, the imperious desire for exclusive devotion and -possession, is the mother of Jealousy. Though less grim and -melancholy than her son, she is equally presumptuous and -meddlesome, and woe to the man who will so much as breathe or -smile upon what she claims as hers. Monopoly, like Jealousy, is -one of the selfish elements of Love. All lovers join hands and -declaim in unison the words of Jean Paul: “What pleases us is -to see her shrink from everybody else, growing hard and frozen to -them on our account, handing <em>them</em> nothing but ices and cold -pudding, but serving <em>us</em> with the glowing goblet of love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Historically, Monopoly is of the utmost significance, since in it -is rooted monogamy, which, as previously explained, probably -originated in exogamous Capture giving a man the right to exclusive -possession of one woman in communities where, as one -writer puts it, every man might claim “a thousand miles of -wives.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The desire for exclusiveness, for undivided worship, sometimes -enters into non-sexual affections; and an anonymous writer has -suggested that the main reason why Byron was so devoted to his -dog was because the dog was “a creature exclusively devoted to -himself, and hostile to every one else.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet all this is child’s play compared with the imperious form -Monopoly assumes in Modern Romantic Love. In the fever-heat -of his passion the lover’s chief desire is to be cast on a desert -island, and remain there all alone with her. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“On ne se soucie -plus de ce que dit le monde,”</span> says Pascal; public opinion is -scorned; all social feelings annihilated. Relatives and friends -exist no longer—what are they to him? his pet occupations bore -him; and there is only one thought which fascinates—the picture -of a small and cosy house, all his own, a small parlour with one -sofa, barely large enough for two, a book of poems in very fine -print, compelling two heads to touch in reading from it, and a -breakfast-table with only two chairs; all visitors excluded from -the unsocial atmosphere, because “three are a crowd.” ’Tis a -“double selfishness,” doubly as strong as single selfishness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Surely Emerson—as the German professor did with the camel—evolved -his idea of a lover from his inner consciousness. “All -mankind love a lover,” he exclaims. Obviously he had never -seen a lover. The fact is that all the world thinks a lover a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>tremendous and ridiculous bore—a man whose whole mind is -monopolised by one unvarying topic—<em>her</em> perfections and <em>his</em> -chances of winning her; and who stubbornly insists on monopolising -<em>your</em> attention, too, with that everlasting exclusive topic. -Like every other lunatic he has one fixed idea; and it’s no wonder -the poets always paint him blind, like Cupid; for on the wide, -wide ocean of humanity, he sees nothing with his two big eyes -but one little solitary transient bubble.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this matter, it must be admitted, woman’s Love is superior -to man’s. “Oh, Arthur,” says Ella, in the <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Fliegende Blätter</cite></span>, -“how happy I would be alone with you on a quiet island in the -distant ocean!” “Have you any other desire, dearest Ella?” -“Oh yes, do get me a season ticket for the opera.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>True Love is transient.</em>—Boswell tells us that Johnson “laughed -at the notion that a man can never be really in love but once, -and considered it a mere romantic fancy.” And though this -romantic fancy is as current as ever in society and literature, -Johnson was right in his verdict, as usual.</p> - -<p class='c001'>True Love, indeed, is absolutely exclusive of every other Love -<em>while it lasts</em>; but it rarely lasts more than two or three years; -and then the heart, freed from one monopoly, is ready for another, -perhaps even more tyrannical, <em>while it lasts</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That Love is transient is most fortunate, for it is, in its truest -and most ardent form, such a consuming fever, that the strongest -man would not be able to endure its mingled ecstasies and anguish -more than a few years. The lover’s fancies are his only food; -coarser nourishment he scorns; he loses his appetite, and becomes -“pale and interesting”—to women, who like to see a powerful -man thus wincing under their superior might, and melting away -before their radiant beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet its transitoriness detracts not in the least from the magic -and the charm of Love. It is in the life of man what the flowering -period is in the life of a plant. As, for the sake of its fragrant -blossoms, a plant is tenderly nursed and watered weeks and -months though it flowers but a week; so, even if brief Love were -the only flower of life, yet would life be worth living for its sake alone.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How long Love may last depends on individuals and circumstances. -Sainte-Beuve, I believe, has said that it never can outlive -five years. Favouring circumstances are slight obstacles, -rivalries and jealousies, short absences, etc.; while long absences, -the distractions of travel, professional occupations, etc., tend to -shorten it. In uninterrupted absence, without epistolary encouragement, -the most ardent Love would hardly survive a year, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>unless the lover lived on a desert island, with no other woman to -engross his attention. Return, however, is apt to bring on a -relapse, as with Henry Esmond, who “went away from his mistress, -and was cured a half-dozen times; he came back to her side, -and instantly fell ill again of the fever.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus it is the fate of all unrequited Love to die for want of -food; or, if successful, to leave the stormy ocean of passion and -sail into the more tranquil haven of conjugal affection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Woman’s Love is less transient than man’s, because there are -fewer ambitions to neutralise it.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Is First Love best?</em>—If Love’s Monopoly lasted for life, if -passion were not transient, it would follow that most men would -marry, or endeavour to marry, the schoolgirls who were the first -object of their amorous attentions. But is there one man in a -hundred, is there one in three hundred, who marries his first -Love? Cases are known of men of genius who fell in love at an -age varying from six to nine years; and there are few lads, in -America at any rate, and if they have an artistic temperament, -who do not have their cases of “calf-love,” beginning with their -tenth or twelfth year.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A boy’s first Love is a girl of about his own age, towards -whom he shyly makes his way by offering her an apple, a bunch -of wild strawberries, or a large hailstone picked up during a storm -before her eyes, to impress her with his reckless Gallantry and -courage. The second and third loves—for schoolboys are fickle, -and schoolgirls more so—are probably not different in character -from the first. At fifteen and sixteen, boys scorn girls of their own -age, and fall in love with young married women, Troubadour-like. -Perhaps the Dulcinea is a Spanish beauty, with large thrilling -black eyes, who, seeing the poor cub’s infatuation, teases and tortures -him to distraction with her unfathomable wealth of fascination.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And let no one imagine that these cases of early passion are -anything short of true Romantic Love. For follow that poor boy -enamoured of the Spanish brunette; see him hiding himself in a -lonely forest, gazing with rapture on her photograph—perhaps only -with his mind’s eye—throwing himself on the ground in an anguish -of tears, wishing that either <em>he</em> was dead ... or her husband -... and behaving altogether like a premature Werther.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such is calf—beg pardon—first Love. And is this first Love -best of all? Perhaps, in one respect, and in one only: it believes -in its own unchangeableness. Goethe remarks in his autobiography -that nothing is so calculated to make us disgusted with life “as -a return of Love.... The notion of the eternal and infinite, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>which forms its basis and support, is destroyed; it appears to us -transitory, like everything that recurs.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Heine on First Love.</em>—Heinrich Heine, whose poetry is next to -Shakspere’s the most valuable depository of Modern Love, enlarges -on this question in his fragmentary but admirable Analysis of -Shakspere’s Female Characters: "Love is a flickering flame between -two darknesses ... [the dots are in the original]. Whence -comes it?... From sparks incredibly small.... How does it -end?... In nothingness equally incredible.... The more -raging the flame, the sooner it is burnt out.... Yet that does -not prevent it from abandoning itself entirely to its fiery impulses, -as if this flame were to burn eternally....</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Alas, when we are seized a second time in life by the grand -passion, we lack this faith in its immortality, and painful memories -tell us that in the end it will consume itself. Hence the melancholy -by which second differs from first love.... In first love -we fancy our passion can only end with death; and indeed, if the -threatening difficulties in our way cannot be removed in any other -manner, we readily make up our mind to accompany our beloved -to the grave.... But in second love the thought occurs to us -that time will change our wildest and most ecstatic feelings to a -tame, apathetic state; that these eyes, these lips, these contours, -which now throw us into transports of rapture, will some day be -regarded with indifference. This thought, alas! is more melancholy -than a presentiment of death.... It is a disconsolate -feeling, in the midst of intoxication, to think of the sober, frigid -moments that will follow, and to know from experience that these -ultra-poetic, heroic passions will have such a lamentably prosaic -ending....</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I do not, in the least, presume to find fault with Shakspere, -yet cannot but express my surprise that he makes Romeo enamoured -of Rosaline before he brings him face to face with Juliet. Though -absolutely devoted to his second love, there yet dwells in his soul -a certain scepticism, which finds utterance in ironic expressions, -and not rarely reminds one of Hamlet. Or is second love the -stronger in a man for the very reason that it is paired with lucid -self-consciousness? A woman cannot love twice, her nature is too -tender to endure a second time the terrific emotional earthquake. -Look at Juliet! Would she be able a second time to endure those -ecstatic delights and horrors, a second time suppress her fear and -empty the dreadful cup? In my opinion once is enough for this -poor, blessed creature, this pure martyr to a great passion.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>First Love is not best.</em>—Thus even Heine, while lamenting the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>transitoriness of Love, cannot help suggesting that in man, at any -rate, second Love may be stronger than first. On this point it is -curious to note the difference of opinion among thoughtful writers. -La Bruyère declares that “we can love well once only—the first -time; the loves which follow are less involuntary.” Another -French author, Letourneau, on the contrary, thinks that one love-affair -only whets the appetite for more: <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“on a besoin de vivre -fort;”</span> and hence “an expiring passion ordinarily leaves the ground -admirably prepared for the germination of another passion.” -Stendhal held that a young girl of eighteen, “owing to her inadequate -experience of life, is not comprehensive enough in her desires -to be able to love with as much passion as a woman of <a id='corr138.12'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='twenty-eight;'>twenty-eight;”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_138.12'><ins class='correction' title='twenty-eight;'>twenty-eight;”</ins></a></span> -and a lady-friend having objected to this on the ground -that in her first love a girl must love more ardently because her -feelings are not distracted by doubt and distrust, as they are subsequently, -he replied that this very <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>méfiance</i></span>, in its struggle with -love, will make it come out a thousand times more brilliant and -substantial than the gay and thoughtless first <a id='corr138.18'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='love.'>love.”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_138.18'><ins class='correction' title='love.'>love.”</ins></a></span> Mr. P. G. -Hamerton seems to cast his vote in the same urn, for he thinks, -“it is, indeed, one of the signs of a healthy nature to retain for -many years the freshness of the heart which makes one liable to -fall in love, as a healthy palate retains the natural early taste for -delicious fruits.” And, finally, George Eliot asks: “How is it -that the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, -so few about our later love? Are their first poems their best? or -are not those the best which come from their fuller thought, their -larger experience, their deeper-rooted affections? The boy’s flute-like -voice has its own spring charm; but the man should yield a -richer, deeper music.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So doctors evidently disagree. But the facts that Heine is in -doubt, that the greatest authority makes Romeo’s unparalleled -passion his second love, and that even Werther’s famous love, notwithstanding -Goethe’s theory, is not his first, certainly make the -scale incline in favour of a second or later passion.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,</div> - <div class='line'>And young affection gapes to be his heir;</div> - <div class='line'>That fair for which love groaned for, and would die,</div> - <div class='line'>With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>These last two lines suggest the whole psychology of First Love. -Romeo’s first Love was not his best Love. When his soul had -reached manly maturity, and looked about for a proper object of -affection, he did not at once have the good luck to encounter his -Juliet. Rosaline was the <em>nearest approach</em> to his ideal; so he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>worked himself into a semi-fictitious passion and groaned for her, -and would die, until suddenly he saw his real ideal, and found that -his first passion was a fragile soap-bubble in comparison to his true -Love for Juliet, which no rival could have altered one speck.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In his first Love, in a word, he had <em>fallen in love with the -species</em>, rather than with an individual. Sexual Selection, or -Individual Preference, had come in more as a matter of chance -than of decisive, final choice. And so it is with most cases of first -love. Man falls in Love with woman, woman with man, not with a -particular man or woman. Thus it is that at an early age thousands -of impatient youths marry their Rosalines before they have had -time or opportunity to meet their Juliets. Doubtless there is a -Juliet for every man in the world; but it generally happens that -she does not attend the same school, work in the same manufactory, -or live in the same village, or belong to the same city-clique as he -does; so, being less adventurous than Romeo, who went outside of -his clique for a sort of exogamous marriage by Capture, he weds -his first Love, <i>i.e.</i> his Rosaline; and this is one of the reasons why -so few cases of true Romantic Love are encountered even to-day, -outside of novels.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Most marriages, in truth, are brought about through accidental -acquaintance or companionship, not through Love. Suppose that -a score of young men who have never loved were cast on a desert -island with one pretty girl. Though she were as unamiable as -Juno, cold and coy as Diana, in less than a month nineteen of the -twenty youths would be in love with her and bitter personal -enemies. Here the man would fall in love with the woman; the -fundamental tone of passion would prevail; whereas if there had -been a choice, eighteen of those men perhaps would never have -dreamed of proposing to that girl. Now second Love is much -more apt to be thus influenced by Individual Preference than first; -and the more Love is individualised the deeper it is. Failure to -find lasting satisfaction in the first choice makes a man more slow -and cautious in his second choice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time the mind expands and grows, and age -strengthens not only the intellect but the emotions as well. <em>For -his size</em>, a boy may love as ardently as a man; but the man is bigger.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The history of the race agrees with that of the individual in -showing that Love at first is a general passion, only slightly discriminative, -but becomes more and more so as time goes on.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even the objection urged against second Love by Goethe and -Heine appears of no special significance when brought face to face -with facts. Very few men, if any, who are in Love a second or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>third time, sit in a corner to muse over the transitoriness of passion -till they become “disgusted with life.” On the contrary, they -feel convinced that the preceding infatuation was, after all, not real -indomitable Love, such as they now experience towards Daisy -No. 2; which second infatuation they absolutely <em>know</em> is the -genuine article; just as they <em>know</em> that no one ever before loved so -deeply and devotedly. This naïve self-confidence of the lover in -the unprecedented ardour and uniqueness of his passion is one of -the most sublime <em>and</em> ridiculous aspects of Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And here it may be said, for the benefit of timid souls who -may possibly fear that harm may result to the cause of Love from -exposing its perishableness, that the only persons who could be -injured by the destruction of this illusion—those who happen to -be in Love—will positively and absolutely refuse to believe that -<em>their</em> particular passion is fugitive. They will simply laugh in the -face of any one who questions the immortality of their Love; and -a year or two later, perhaps, they will laugh again—for a different -reason.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Indeed, the notion that true Love never dies and will for ever -monopolise the soul, may actually do harm, and sometimes does -so. The disappointed lover commits suicide not because his -torments seem intolerable for the moment, but because he is convinced -they will last for ever, and thus make life not worth living.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A review of the situation brings out the truth that the only -apparent advantage which First Love has over later passions is -Novelty. Yet even this advantage proves to be illusory; for -though the Second Love may not be a novelty, the Girl is; and -does not Moore, the modern Anakreon, sing—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Enough for me that she’s a new one”?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>One more consideration. There is an adage, not entirely unknown, -that practice makes perfect; and psychology teaches that -feelings tend to become deeper by repetition. Why should Love -be an exception? The channels worn in the brain by the first -emotions will be reopened and widened by the new flood of passion; -and thus <em>remembered emotion</em> will add its force to that of the -present moment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Has the reader ever heard Wagner’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Nibelung Tetralogy</cite></span>? If -so, he will remember with what a thrill of delight he recognised -in the later dramas some of the motives and melodies he had -heard in the preceding ones. In the later dramas these melodies -are appreciated not only for their own intrinsic beauty, but because -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>they come laden with the sad and joyous associations and -memories of the preceding scenes which they illustrated.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Wagner was not only a great musician and dramatist, he was -also a most subtle psychologist. He <em>doubled</em> the power of music -by adding to the enjoyment of the moment the strong current of -<em>remembered emotion</em>. And this is precisely what a later passion -of manhood adds to the naïve delights of First Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is remarkable how many analogies there are between Music -and Love—the youngest art and the youngest sentiment; and how -the love of the divine art enables one to understand and feel more -deeply the music of the divine passion.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PRIDE AND VANITY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Jealousy and Monopoly are the two selfish features of Love -which urge an enamoured couple to flee society and friends, and -take refuge on a desert island. Fortunately there is in the -chemistry of Love a third selfish element—the Pride of successful -wooing, which commonly is strong enough to neutralise the antisocial -tendencies of the other two. If a lover’s passion has not -yet risen to fever-heat, nothing (except Jealousy) will so suddenly -raise it as the Pride and conceit inspired by noticing that people -in general admire his chosen girl; the more of the admirers, the -greater his Pride. And if, in addition, sympathising friends -directly approve his choice and laud her merits in detail, then his -transports of ecstasy become celestial.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as in moments of elation over success of any kind a -man feels as if nothing were beyond his power, an accepted lover -is as proud (I suppose) as if he had conquered not only one girl, -but the whole feminine kingdom—or queendom: for surely the -one chosen by him is the cleverest and most beautiful of all; -whence it follows that all the inferior ones would of course have -been only too proud if he had condescended to pay his addresses -to them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why do great men so often marry women who are not especially -attractive as to personal appearance, when often they might have -had their choice among a group of beauties? Because the spoiled -beauties did not understand the art of flattery, sincere or otherwise. -Every man wishes to be considered either a creative genius or a -hero. The woman who knows how to touch the sympathetic -chord, to make each one’s particular kind of Pride vibrate, has him -at her feet in an instant.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In conjugal life the most ludicrous of all sights is the royal self-complacency -with which a man accepts the eager worship of his wife.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>Conversely, a rejected lover’s heart bleeds from so many wounds -that it is difficult to count them; but of all these wounds the one -inflicted by the jealous thought that she will now marry another -is alone deep as that of his offended Pride. The sense of superiority -which every man feels over every other man is crushed, and -cannot be laid as a flattering unction to the soul. Hence a girl -who refuses a proposal and does not at least keep it a secret, is not -only quite as mean, but a thousand times more cruel than a man -who will “kiss and tell.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Coquetry.</em>—Yet of all secrets the compliment of an offer is the -hardest for a woman to keep; so, in strictest confidence, she tells -it to only one solitary person, who ditto, who ditto, who ditto, etc. -etc. etc. etc. and so on.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is a class of women whose sole pleasure in life appears to -be derived from vanity gratified by offers of Love and Marriage. -Of all the elements of Love—and there are at least eleven—her -soul is affected by one alone—the overtone of Pride. The Coquette -has already been superficially examined, and distinguished from -the Flirt. But this is the place where she must be placed under -the microscope and more closely examined. A great many distinguished -observers have dissected her, and here are a few of -their discoveries.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Congreve lets her off easily—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“’Tis not to wound a wanton boy,</div> - <div class='line'>Or amorous youth, that gives the joy;</div> - <div class='line'>But ’tis the glory to have pierced the swain</div> - <div class='line'>For whom inferior beauties sighed in vain.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>Fielding is less lenient: “The life of a coquette is one constant -lie.” “The coquette,” says Mr. T. B. Aldrich—"all’s one to her; -above her fan she’d make sweet eyes at Caliban." According to -Victor Hugo, “God created the coquette as soon as He had made -the fool;” and Byron asks, “What careth she for hearts when -once possessed?” When Moore wrote—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“More joy it gives to woman’s breast</div> - <div class='line'>To make ten frigid coxcombs vain,</div> - <div class='line'>Than one true manly lover blest;”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>he had evidently just left the chill atmosphere of a coquette. “A -coquette,” says A. Duprey, “is more occupied with the homage -we withhold than with that which we bestow upon her.” -“Coquettes are the quacks of love,” says Rochefoucauld. “Heartlessness -and fascination, in about equal proportions, constitute,” -according to Mme. Deluzy, “the receipt for forming the character -of a coquette.” And Poincelot caps the climax: “An asp would -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>render its sting more venomous by dipping it into the heart of a -coquette.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are masculine as well as feminine Coquettes; but there -is one striking difference between them. To the female Coquette -all is game that gets into her net; she will turn away from a man -of genius, an Apollo, already at her feet, to fascinate a rough and -freckled country lad at first sight; whereas a male Coquette rarely -wastes his powder on a girl who isn’t pretty. And even herein is -seen the superiority of man’s Love to woman’s. The male Coquette -is actuated by Admiration of Beauty as well as by Pride; the -female Coquette by Pride alone.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Cannibals have a quaint old custom of eating certain parts of -a formidable enemy’s body, in the belief that they will thus inherit -his qualities,—as by eating his tongue, his eloquence; his heart, -his courage. What a delicious gastronomic morsel a Coquette’s heart -would be to these savages, whose principal amusement is cruelty!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the best description ever given of a Coquette is Thackeray’s -portraiture of Beatrix—"A woman who has listened to" -her admirers, “and played with them and laughed with them,—who, -beckoning them with lures and caresses, and with Yes smiling -from her eyes, has tricked them on to their knees, and turned her -back and left them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Love and Rank.</em>—Not so many years ago the newspapers of a -certain European country made a great deal of ado about a forthcoming -marriage between a blue-blooded youth and a ditto maiden, -for the reason that it was “a real Love-match.” Poor princes! -so rarely are they allowed to choose their own Juliet, they who -are supposed to be the rulers of the land. Until quite recently, it -is true, public opinion on the Continent sanctioned a Love-marriage -between an aristocrat and a non-aristocrat <em>provided it was unlawful</em>, -<i>i.e.</i> morganatic, a special royal euphemy for bigamy; but now -even this privilege is abolished, and princes can marry one of equal -rank only, in pursuance of a custom more tyrannical, more restrictive -than the parental command on which marriage-unions depended -in ancient and mediæval times.</p> - -<p class='c001'>German novelists have made considerable progress in their art -in recent years, but in one respect it seems to be very difficult for -them to substitute realism for romance. In every love story, -almost, one of the leading characters must be either a prince or a -princess. As if it were not the very essence of a prince and a -princess that they shall not be allowed to love and marry for Love—unless -they are clever enough to fall in Love with the partner -singled out for them, which happens once in a hundred times, perhaps.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>But it is not only in the highest circles that aristocratic Pride -is opposed to free Sexual Selection. It extends through a hundred -scales of the social ladder. Germany presents a remarkable -example. The metaphysician Eduard von Hartmann credits the -government of that country with great astuteness. Not having -much money to pay its officials, it has established a legion of distinctions -of rank and titles, for the sake of which the officials are -quite willing to forego a larger salary. Of the ludicrous conceit -inspired by this distinction of having even the slightest kind of a -“handle” to their name, I can give an amusing instance from my -own experience. Some years ago, desiring to see the Intendant, -or Manager, of the Munich Opera-house, I entered a little room, -marked Portier, and found that gentleman comfortably seated, <em>with -his cap on</em>. He took my card, on which there was no “handle” -of any sort, and replied sternly, “The Intendant is in; I will send -up your card;” adding, more severely still, “And, young man, let -me tell you, that when you come into the presence of <em>a royal official</em>, -it behoves you to remove your hat!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Harmless as such childish vanity may seem, it is yet one of the -reasons why there are fewer good-looking women in Germany than -in most European countries—France always excepted. For a girl, -whose father wears on his coat the order of the black eagle, to -marry a young man whose father only has the order of the green -eagle, would be considered an unpardonable <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>mésalliance</i></span>, and would -scandalise the whole neighbourhood. Of course it does not make -much difference in a woman’s own looks whether she marries a -man she loves or one whom she can barely tolerate, and who is -forced on her by parental desire and public opinion, but it does -make a difference with her children; and even in her own case, is -it not self-evident that the smile of pleasure at being happily married -is a better preservative of youthful beauty than the constant frown -of disappointment, perhaps of disgust?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The highest treason against Cupid, however, is committed by -those American women, who, without the excuse of inherited custom, -come to Europe with their money to marry a baron. Fortunately -such marriages have almost always ended so wretchedly that the -fashion has somewhat lost its popularity. What is a baron? Perhaps -a man whose great-great-great-grandfather “lent” some duke -or king a few thousand gold pieces, in return for which he was allowed -to place “von” or “de” before his name. And on the strength -of this little word the family Pride has gone on steadily increasing -through various generations—or rather, degenerations.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Physiology is not usually considered an ironic science, but it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>cannot help writing a satire when it teaches that “blue” blood is -venous blood, charged with the waste products of the bodily tissues. -How much better than this irony would iron be, <i>i.e.</i> some fresh, -<em>red</em>, arterial blood infused in the bodies of the Continental aristocracy. -The English aristocracy, on the other hand, presents one -of the finest types of manhood and womanhood; and the reason is -suggested by Darwin: “Many persons are convinced, as appears -to me with justice, that our aristocracy, including under this term -all wealthy families in which primogeniture has long prevailed, from -having chosen during many generations <em>from all classes</em> the more -beautiful women as their wives, have become handsomer, according -to the European standard, than the middle classes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Vivid as the feeling of pride must be in a man of humble origin -who has succeeded in winning the Love of a woman of a higher -social grade; and greatly as a Coquette must be tickled in counting -off the number of hearts offered to her, on her fingers if she has -enough to go round: yet the climax of Lover’s Pride, it seems to -me, must be reached by a man of noble birth who, scorning -mediæval puerilities, marries the girl who has won his heart, and -were she but a plump, rosy-cheeked peasant girl. This vivid feeling -was doubtless realised by the Grand Duke of Austria when he -married Philippine Welser, by the Duke of Bavaria when he -married Maria Pettenbeck.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>SPECIAL SYMPATHY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Thanks to the social instinct, our pains are halved, our pleasures -doubled, if we can share them with others. The proverb that -misery loves company expresses only half the truth; happiness, -too, loves company. The late King of Bavaria used to enjoy an -opera most if he was the sole spectator in the house; but most -persons would lose half their pleasure in this way. Nor is this a -purely imaginary feeling; for in a successful performance there are -moments when the intensely-silent and universal absorption seems -to raise a magnetic wave, which crosses the house and makes all -nerves vibrate and thrill in unison. Again, if a man whom constant -attendance at places of amusement has rendered <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>blasé</i></span>, happens to -sit next to a young girl who visits the theatre for the first time, -the emotional play of her features, by reviving the memory of his -first experiences, enables him to share her feelings sympathetically, -and thus to enjoy the performance doubly. And is it not a universal -experience that if we witness sublime or beautiful scenes—if -we approach the Niagara Falls in a small boat from below, or if, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>standing on the top of the Breithorn near Zermatt, we see almost -the whole of Switzerland and the Tyrol, parts of France and Italy, -down to Lago Maggiore, at the same moment—almost our first -thought is, “Oh, if So-and-so could only see me now and share -this wondrous sight with me!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is this instinctive craving for Sympathy absent in the mind -of the poet who <em>prefers</em> to be alone with Nature; on the contrary, -it is even deeper in his case. For to him Nature is personal; he</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,</div> - <div class='line'>Sermons in stones;”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>nor does Nature refuse her sympathy; for does she not harmonise -with all his moods, looking gloomy if he is sad, bright if he is -cheerful?</p> - -<p class='c001'>From these general manifestations of emotional partnership -Lover’s Sympathy differs in being omnipresent and more exclusively -concentrated on one person. There is an association of emotions -as well as of ideas: and as every idea of excellence recalls <em>her</em> -Perfection, so every emotion inspired by a beautiful object calls up -the image of <em>the</em> Beauty <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>par excellence</i></span>. Thus Love gets the benefit -of all these associated emotions—waggon-loads of kindling wood.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>How Love intensifies Emotions.</em>—But is it literally true that -in Love, as Mr. Spencer puts it, “purely personal pleasures are -doubled by being shared with another?” It is true; though the -way in which this is done is difficult to explain. No psychologist, -so far as I am aware, has cracked the nut. I have given considerable -thought to the subject, and venture to offer the following -three suggestions as to the method by which Love doubles our -pleasures:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) The lover’s pleasures are increased by the simple process of -<em>emotional addition</em>. That is, supposing him to be reading a poem -or story to his beloved, he will experience at one and the same -moment not only the emotions inspired by the poem or novel he is -reading, but those due to the sense of her presence. As the mind -does not stop to analyse its feelings at such moments, all these -various pleasurable emotions will coalesce into one seemingly -homogeneous feeling of happiness; just as two complementary -colours, or all the colours of the rainbow, if mixed, will produce -the simple sensation called white.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(2) The second way in which sympathetic companionship intensifies -a lover’s feelings is through what may be called <em>emotional -resonance</em>. If you take a violin-string in your hands, stretch it -tightly, and then get some one to pluck it, a very faint sound only -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>will be heard. But put it in its proper place, over the resonant -surface of the instrument, and it will produce a full, loud, mellow -tone. A human countenance is such an instrument—a sort of -emotional sounding-board. Every man feels more or less pleased -with himself if he gets off at table what he considers a wise or -witty remark. If the sounding-boards of his neighbours vibrate -responsively to his jokes, he feels proud and is doubly pleased; but -if they only grin politely, the tone of his self-satisfaction is immediately -lowered an octave and dies away pianissimo. Now between -lovers such a fiasco is absolutely impossible. <em>They</em> never grin at -one another’s sayings for the sake of politeness merely. His -most platitudinous remarks are sure to start a symphony of smiles -on her countenance, where another man’s wittiest epigrams would -be barely rewarded with a slight curl of the lips; and as for him, -she may say anything she pleases, he never knows what she says -but hears only the music of her voice—as if her words were the -text, the rising and falling of her voice the melody, of an Italian -opera. No wonder lovers are so exclusively interesting to each -other, and such unmitigated bores to other people.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Unfortunately lovers’ sympathy is rarely complete or durable. -Sooner or later some difference of taste or opinion is discovered -which has the same effect as a crack in the sounding-board—the -resonance is destroyed. Yet it can be restored by using glue; and -violin-builders will tell you that a glued instrument is often better -than one which has never had a crack.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) Thirdly, Love intensifies human feelings by producing a -state of <em>emotional hyperæsthesia</em>, or supersensitiveness, which has -the effect of a microphone in multiplying the loudness of every -impression. Music teachers whose acoustic nerves are rendered -excessively irritable by overwork; students whose eyes, from -reading late at night, are in the same condition, are annoyed by -sights and sounds which ordinary mortals barely notice. But -Love with its sleepless night daily fevers, and prolonged fastings -is more potent than any other cause in producing such a state of -extreme sensitiveness to every impression. Lovers’ souls may -therefore be aptly compared to Æolian harps. If you leave the -strings of such an instrument in a state of very loose tension, they -resemble the souls of ordinary mortals not in Love: for it takes -a very strong breeze to elicit any sound from them. But raise -them to a higher state of tension, like the souls of lovers, and the -faintest breath of air will cause them to sound in sympathetic -unison all their harmonics—which is another name for <em>overtones</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Development of Sympathy.</em>—Not only does Love thus owe -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>much of its unique intenseness to Sympathy, but there are weighty -reasons for believing that Love has already played an important -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span>, and is destined to play a still more important one, in -modifying the meaning of Sympathy and in extending its influence -to society in general.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When the absence of true Romantic Love among savages was -being pointed out more emphasis should have been placed on the -fact that they seem to be utter strangers to sympathy. Far from -sharing another’s delights and sorrows, a savage takes an intense -delight in witnessing a man enduring the agonies of deliberate -torture. Cruelty seems to give him the same thrill of joy that -sympathetic assistance gives to a refined person.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How are we to account for this strange delight in another’s -sufferings? By noting the extreme coarseness and callousness of -the primitive man’s nerves. Just as some savages are known to -have such hardened hides and lungs that they can sleep naked in -a snowstorm with impunity, where a white man would be sure to -perish of cold or subsequent pneumonia; so the savage requires -the coarsest of stimulants to make any impression on his sluggish -emotions. The sight of an enemy tied to a tree and being flayed -alive tickles his nerves by suggesting his own comfortable freedom -in comparison, and by showing him an enemy absolutely in his -power; while his imagination is not sufficiently vivid to enable -him to put himself in the other’s place to feel his contortions and -suppressed moans re-echoing in his own soul.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And have we not in our very midst thousands of so-called -civilised beings who require stimulants almost as coarse as the -savage to amuse their dull imaginations?—people who would -hesitate to pay silver for a book, a concert, or an art exhibition, -but gladly give gold to witness the execution of a criminal or an -exhibition of animals torturing one another to death. To suppose -that such people can ever fall in Love—Romantic Love—is more -than absurd.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Children represent this savage stage of the evolution of -sympathy; as their imagination, like all their mental powers, is -still in embryo. Nothing delights the average boy so much as a -chance to torture a beetle, a cat, or a dog. And Mr. Galton -somewhere refers to the sense of blood-curdling produced on him -and other sensitive persons in the London Zoological Gardens at -the sight of snakes devouring living animals. “Yet,” he adds, -“I have often seen people—nurses, for instance, and children of -all ages—looking unconcernedly and amusedly at the scene.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To substitute Sympathy for this delight in torture—to arouse -<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>the sluggish imagination from its thousand years’ sleep, and -quicken its sense of suffering in man and animals—is one of the -greatest problems of moral culture, and—so far as man is -concerned—forms one of the keynotes of Christianity. St. Paul -bids us both to bear one another’s burdens and to rejoice with -one another. The second part of his injunction, however, has -been comparatively neglected, as is best shown by the circumstance -that we have several terms to express the sharing of sorrow -(compassion, pity, sympathy), whereas for the sharing of joy there -is no special noun in the English language. The Germans have a -word for it—<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Mitfreude</i></span>—yet it rarely occurs out of philosophical -treatises. The word Sympathy, which literally means “suffering -with,” has also been most commonly used in that sense. But it -is now frequently being used in the sense of sharing joy too, and -perhaps, despite its etymology, it will, for lack of another word, -be chiefly used in this sense in future. Even at present, when -persons are spoken of as sympathetic or antipathetic, much less -regard is paid to their willingness to bear our burdens or share -our sorrows than to the chances of their sharing in our pleasures -by having similar tastes and opinions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For this change in the meaning of Sympathy, Romantic Love -must, I believe, be held chiefly responsible. To some extent, no -doubt, friends and relatives shared one another’s joys before the -advent of Love. Yet even the mother—taking the most favourable -case—cannot enter into all her child’s feelings, while to the -child most of her mature emotions are utterly incomprehensible; -so that we miss here that reciprocation which is the very essence -of Sympathy; whereas a lover cannot even conceive a pleasure -unless the other shares it—another point in the psychology of -Modern Love to which Shakspere has given the most poetic -expression—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Except I be by Sylvia in the night,</div> - <div class='line'>There is no music in the nightingale.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Thus we see that there are three stages in the evolution of -Sympathy: the first, in which cruelty neutralises it; the second, -in which this universal enjoyment of cruelty, with its attendant -lack of imagination and altruistic feeling, compelled moralists to -lay more stress on the virtue of compassion than on the refining -pleasures of mutual enjoyment; the third, the epoch of Romantic -Love, in which the positive side of the emotional partnership is -specially emphasised, so that a lover cannot pour forth a song of -happiness except in the form of a duo.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>And this brings us back again to a question left unanswered -in the section on Jealousy. A rejected lover’s deepest anguish is -the thought that “She will now be happy in another’s arms.” -To hear that she has entered a convent and will never enjoy the -pleasures of Love denied him would be his only consolation. Is -this an aberration of Sympathy, or does it mark its climax—its -remorseless logical consistency? The answer lies in the second -suggestion. Were Love an altruistic passion, it would be otherwise. -<em>He</em> would delight in <em>her</em> happiness under all circumstances. -But Love is selfish—a double selfishness; and its sense of justice -demands that each side be considered. “If I cannot be happy -without her, how can she without me?” The lover does not -consider that the passion is one-sided—he cannot fathom that -mystery—cannot understand why his flame, which reduces him to -ashes, is not strong enough to set her on fire, and were she a -stone image.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Pity and Love.</em>—According to Darwin, one of the chief mental -differences between man and woman is woman’s greater tenderness. -Of this feminine tenderness the world has been able to -judge on a vast scale during the last two or three years.</p> - -<p class='c001'>According to a statement in <cite>Nature</cite>, 30,000 ruby and topaz -humming-birds were sold in London some years ago in the course -of one afternoon, “and the number of West Indian and Brazilian -birds sold by one auction-room in London during the four months -ending April 1885, was 404,464, besides 356,389 Indian birds, -without counting thousands of Impeyan pheasants, birds of -paradise,” etc. A writer in <cite>Forest and Stream</cite> mentioned a -dealer in South Carolina who handled 30,000 bird-skins per -annum. “During four months 70,000 birds were supplied to -New York dealers from a single village on Long Island, and an -enterprising woman from New York contracted with a Paris -millinery firm to deliver during this summer 40,000 or more skins -of birds at 40 cents a piece. From Cape Cod, one of the haunts -of terns and gulls, 40,000 of the former birds were killed in a -single season, so that at points where a few years since these -beautiful birds filled the air with their graceful forms and snowy -plumage, only a few pairs now remain.” “It is estimated that -not less than 5,000,000 birds of all sorts were killed last year for -purposes of ornamentation,” wrote Mr. E. P. Powell in the New -York <cite>Independent</cite>. A correspondent of the New York <cite>Evening -Post</cite> saw at an art exhibition a young lady, with “nothing in her -face to denote excessive cruelty,” who wore a hat trimmed with -“the heads of <em>over twenty little birds</em>”; and the same paper -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>remarked editorially: “No one can tell how large a bird can be -worn on a woman’s head, by walking in Fifth Avenue. It is -necessary to take a ride in a Second Avenue car to get the full -effect of the prevailing fashion. There one may see on the head-gear -of poorer classes, and especially of coloured women, every -species of the feathered kingdom smaller than a prairie chicken or -a canvas-back duck and every colour of the rainbow.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Think of women!” exclaims Diderot; “they are miles -beyond us in sensibility.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was <cite>Science</cite>, edited by men, that started the agitation -against woman’s cruel and tasteless fashion—a fashion which not -one woman in a hundred apparently refused to conform to. It -was Messrs. J. A. Allen, W. Dutcher, G. B. Sennett, and other -ornithologists, who raised their voices in behalf of the murdered -birds, for whom no woman seemed to have a thought except Mrs. -Celia Thaxter—all honour to her—and a small circle of ladies in -England. It was Oliver Wendell Holmes who wrote how he felt -“the shame of the wanton destruction of our singing-birds to feed -the demands of a barbaric vanity;” another man, Charles Dudley -Warner, who pertinently suggested that “a dead bird does not -help the appearance of an ugly woman, and a pretty woman needs -no such adornment.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the average woman’s imagination is not sufficiently refined -and quick to feel for these winged poems of the air is historically -proven by this fashion, which, characteristically enough, was first -introduced by a member of the Paris <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>demi-monde</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It has disappeared for the moment, but is almost absolutely -certain to reappear within five years.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But who, after all, is responsible for this sluggish condition of -the feminine imagination, this lack of sympathy for the fate of -harmless happy birds, who in their domestic affections and love-affairs -so closely resemble man? Is it not the men who, till -within a few years, have refused to give their daughters a rational -education? It must be so, for in that sphere where woman has -been able to educate herself, and where she is queen—in the -domestic circle, she <em>does</em> possess that tender sympathy which she -withholds from lower beings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Within the range of human affections woman manifests more -pity, is stirred to nobler needs of self-sacrifice, than man. Is -Love included in this category? Dryden tells us that “pity -melts the heart to love,” and novelists delight to make their -heroines first refuse their suitors and subsequently accept them -from real Love born of pity. For my part, I doubt this assumed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>relationship between Pity and Love; and I do not believe that a -girl who has refused a lover ordinarily feels any more pity for him -than a cat does for a mouse, or a person who is all right on a -steamer does for another who is sea-sick—though he be his best -friend. There is an instinctive belief in the human mind that -love-sickness and sea-sickness are never fatal.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It does, indeed, very often happen—perhaps in half the cases; -it would be interesting to have approximate statistics on the -subject—that a girl first refuses the man whose second or third -offer she accepts; for, as an anonymous writer remarks, “women -are so made (happily for men) that gratitude, pity, the exquisite -pleasure of pleasing, the sweet surprise at finding themselves -necessary to another’s happiness ... altogether obscure and confuse -the judgment.” But in such cases there are other factors -which probably influence the girl much more than Pity does. -She is, in the first place, largely influenced by this “exquisite -pleasure of pleasing”—another name for Pride. Then there is a -certain advantage to a man in having proposed, even unsuccessfully; -for whenever subsequently the girl reads about Love she -will involuntarily think of him; and thus his image will become -associated with all the pleasure she derives from Love stories—which -may prove the first step for her—and a long one—into the -romantic passion. Besides, to propose to a girl is the greatest -compliment a man can pay a girl; and this cannot be without -influence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus it is possible that Pity, allied with Pride, association, and -flattery, may work a change of feeling in a feminine mind; but -Pity alone will rarely lead her into the realms of Cupid. A man -certainly would never dream of marrying from Pity, on seeing that -she loves him deeply, a woman for whom he does not otherwise -care. Nor should either man or woman ever marry from Pity, -any more than for money or rank. Love should ever be the sole -guide to matrimony.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Love at First Sight.</em>—La Bruyère gives his opinion that “the -love which arises suddenly takes longest to cure;” and that -“love which grows slowly and by degrees resembles friendship too -much to be an ardent passion.” Schopenhauer, too, asserts that -“great passions, as a rule, arise at first sight.” He refers to -Shakspere’s</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Who ever lov’d that lov’d not at first sight?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>and then cites Mateo Aleman’s old Spanish romance, <span lang="es" xml:lang="es"><cite>Guzman de -Alfarache</cite></span>, in which, three centuries ago, the following observation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>was made: “To fall in love one does not require much time or -reflection and choice; all that is needed is that in that first and -only sight there should be a mutual suitability and harmony, or -what in common life we call a sympathy of the blood, and which -is due to a special influence of the stars.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>As it is not permissible, in these degenerate days of positive -science, to explain a thing by a vague reference to poetic astrology, -an attempt must be made to account for the possibility of Love at -first sight on more prosaic grounds.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Physiognomy furnishes a simple solution of the problem. In -every man’s face is painted his personal history, as well as his -favourite and customary sphere of thoughts and feelings. As Sir -Charles Bell remarks, “Expression is to passion what language is -to thought.” The gift of reading correctly this facial language of -passion is given to different persons in different degrees, though -all have some share of it: and on their more or less accurate -and subtle interpretation of the “lines and frowns and wrinkles -strange” in another’s features depends the art of reading character -and being sympathetically attracted or repulsed, as the case may -be. A young man who has unconsciously associated certain peculiarities -of facial expression in his sisters or female friends with -habitual cheerfulness, amiability, and brightness will, on recognising -similar features in a new acquaintance, take for granted -similar charms of character: this, which is the work of a second, -may result in sympathy at first sight, which very often is the -beginning of Romantic Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love at First Sight may be inspired by this instinctive perception -of beauty of character, <i>i.e.</i> amiability; or by the sight of -mere physical beauty; or, thirdly, by Personal Beauty in the -highest sense of the word, uniting intellectual fascination with -bodily charms.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as there are not a few men whose æsthetic taste is -so weak that they would rather marry a useful, companionable -girl and imagine her beautiful, than take a beauty and imagine -her useful; and inasmuch as there are a great many more amiable -and vivacious girls in the world than pretty ones, it happens that -in a large number of cases Love is inspired by the physiognomic -interpretation of sympathetic traits of character just referred to. -Hence plain girls need never despair of finding husbands. There -is even a current notion that the deepest passions are commonly -inspired by plain women who are otherwise attractive. But what -inspires the Love in these cases is not so much the woman’s -amiability—and certainly not her plainness—as the fact that the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>style of her homeliness is of an opposite kind from the faults of -the lover, and promises to neutralise them in the offspring.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Plain and homely, moreover, are terms often applied to women -whose faces only are so, while their figures are sometimes superb. -But a fine figure is quite as essential a part of Personal Beauty as -a fine face, and is, in the opinion of Schopenhauer, even more -potent as a love-inspirer. If the figure is disregarded in favour of -the face, Romantic Love is apt to become hyper-romantic, as in -the days of Dante.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the largest number of cases of Love at First Sight, so -called, are inspired by mere <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>beauté du diable</i></span>—a female “bud” -whose sole charm apparent is sparkling health and fragrant, -dew-bejewelled freshness. That this kind of Love at sight, -which consists in being dazzled for the moment by a set of -regular features and a pair of bright eyes, is often of brief duration, -does not militate against the statement that the deepest -Love is also born of such a flash of æsthetic admiration. An -incipient passion may be crushed by the discovery of some disagreeable -trait in the person who inspired it; but when, owing -to want of early opportunity to discover unsympathetic traits, -Love has been allowed to make some progress, the subsequent -discovery of a flaw is not nearly so serious a matter, for then -Master Cupid simply puts a daub of whitewash on it and calls it -a beauty-spot.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Intellect and Love.</em>—But, after all, the deepest Love at Sight, -and that which gives promise of greatest permanence, is that -inspired by a handsome woman in whose face Intellect has written -its autograph. Goethe, indeed, has remarked that “intellect -cannot warm us, or inspire us with passion;” but the view he -takes here of the relations between intellect and passion is obviously -very crude and superficial. No man, of course, would ever -fall in Love with a woman who showed her intellectuality—as not -a few do—by a parrotlike repetition of encyclopædic reading or -magazine epitomes of knowledge. This gives evidence of only -one form of intellect, the lowest, namely, Memory. It is the -higher forms—imagination, wit, clever reasoning, that constitute -the essence of intellectual culture; and though woman may never -quite equal man in this sphere, such cases as Mme. de Staël, -George Sand, and George Eliot show how much she <em>can</em> accomplish -by means of application.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now this higher kind of intellectual culture is able to influence -the amorous feelings in two ways: first, by refining and vivifying -the features; secondly, by enabling a woman to appreciate her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>lover’s ambitions and afford him sympathetic assistance, thereby -awakening a responsive echo in his grateful mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Look at Miss Marbleface in yonder corner, surrounded by a -group of admirers. Everybody wonders why she, whose features -might inspire a sculptor, remains unmarried at twenty-six. Her -friends, indeed, whisper that she never even got an offer. Yet all -the men to whom she is introduced admire her immensely—the -first evening; but strange to say, after they have seen her a few -times, they are not a bit jealous to leave her to a new group of -admirers; who, in turn, cede her to another. Her beauty, in -truth, is but skin-deep, <em>literally</em>; the muscles under the skin are -never vivified by an electric flash of wit from the brain; there is -nothing but marble features and a stereotyped smile; no animation, -no change of expression, no Intellect. Were her intellect as -carefully cultivated as her features are chiselled, she would inspire -<em>Love</em>, not mere momentary admiration; and she would have been -married six years ago to a man chosen at will from the whole -circle of her acquaintances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is easy to explain how the absurd and fatal notion that intellectual -application mars women’s peculiar beauty and lessens the -feminine graces in general must have arisen. The inference seems -to follow logically from the two undeniable premises that pretty -girls very often <em>are</em> insipid, and intellectual women commonly <em>are</em> -plain. But this is only another case of putting the cart before the -horse. Pretty girls, on the one hand, are so rare that they are -almost sure to be spoiled by flattery. They receive so much attention -that they have no time for study; and ambitious mothers -take them into society prematurely, where they get married before -their intellectual capacities—which sometimes are excellent—have -had time to unfold. Ugly girls, on the other hand, being -neglected by the men, have to while away their time with books, -music, art, etc., and thus they become bright and entertaining. -Therefore it is not the intellect that makes them ugly, but the -ugliness that makes them intellectual.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The culture that can be compressed into a single lifetime unfortunately -does not suffice to modify the bony and cartilaginous -parts of the human face sufficiently to change homeliness into -beauty; but the muscles can be mobilised, the expression quickened -and beautified by an individual’s efforts at culture; hence some of -these reputed plain intellectual women, in moments when they are -excited, become more truly fascinating, with all their badly-chiselled -features, than any number of cold marble faces. If men only knew -it!—but they are afraid of them—the average men are—because -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>they do not constantly wish to be reminded of their own mental -shortcomings in a tournament of wit, pleasantry, or erudition.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even Schopenhauer, who was convinced that women are too -stupid to appreciate a man’s intellect, if abnormal, held that -women, on the contrary, gain an advantage in Love by cultivating -their minds; adding that it is owing to the appreciation of this -fact that mothers teach their daughters music, languages, etc.; -thus artificially padding out their minds, as on occasion they do -parts of the body.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt, as a rule, women are more influenced in love-affairs -by a man who excels in athletic qualities of manly energy than by -one of intellectual supereminence. But the adoration of women -for a Liszt, a Rubinstein, and other men of genius, whose eminence -lies in a department that has been made accessible to women for -centuries, shows what might be if women were trained in other -spheres of human activity and knowledge.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Regarding the mental padding, however, we might continue in -the old pessimist’s vein by saying that it is a trick which has had -its day. Men do not marry girls quite so blindly as in the days -when Romantic Love was a novelty. They keep their eyes open; -and when they find that their girl’s musical “culture” consists in -the mechanical drumming of three pieces, and that her other -“accomplishments” are similar shams, they are apt to take their -throbbing hearts and put them into a refrigerator until the young -lady has become a faded, harmless old maid, still drumming her -three pieces on the piano. The fact that so many mothers persist -in thus “padding” their daughters’ minds, instead of educating -them properly, is largely responsible for the ever-increasing number -of self-conscious and disgusted bachelors in the world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The example of Aspasia illustrates both the physical advantages -beauty derives from intellectual culture—through the refinement -of expression—and the emotional advantages a woman secures by -being able to sympathise intelligently with her lover’s or husband’s -enterprises. Nothing more irresistibly fascinates a man than -genuine questioning interest shown by a woman in his life-work. -Or, as Mr. Hamerton puts it, “the most exquisite pleasure the -masculine mind can ever know, is that of being looked upon by a -feminine intelligence with clear sight and affection at the same -time.” But on this topic Mr. Mill has discoursed so enthusiastically -in his <cite>Subjection of Women</cite> that anything that might be -added here could be little more than a faint echo of his persuasive -eloquence, tinged though it be with true lovers’ exaggeration.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Goethe illustrated his maxim that “intellect cannot warm us -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>or inspire us with passion” by marrying a pretty, brainless doll of -whom he soon got heartily tired. Heine followed his example by -marrying a Parisian labouring girl who, like Madame Racine, probably -never read her husband’s writings. And in his <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Unterwelt</cite></span> he -laments his <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“verfehlte Liebe, verfehltes Leben”</span>—his mistaken -love and wasted life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why did the ancient Greeks neglect their women? Why did -they remain strangers to Love and seek refuge in Friendship? -Their women were modest, domestic, good mothers and wives; but -they lacked one thing, and that was Intellect.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>GALLANTRY AND SELF-SACRIFICE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Primitive tribes have a delightfully simple way of arranging -their division of labour. The men do the hunting and carry on -wars, the women do everything else. If a warrior on “moving -day” should say to his wife and daughters: “See here, this will -never do for me to have nothing but my weapons and my pipe, -while you carry the babies, the cooking utensils, the remnants of -the game, and the tent: let me help you!”—if he should say this, -his comrades would consider him crazy, or rather, possessed of a -demon, and would burn two or three persons at the stake for -having bewitched him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Gallantry, in other words, is unknown to savages either between -lovers, or, in a general sense, towards all women. Nor is it known -to semi-civilised peoples. Among the nomadic Arab tribes of the -Sahara the wife has to do all the work unless her husband is rich -enough to own a slave; and among the poorer Bedouins the husband -traverses the desert comfortably seated on his camel, while -his wife plods along behind on foot, loaded with her bed, her -kitchen utensils, and her child on top.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The ancient Greeks were not so ungallant as these peoples -towards their women, as they had slaves to do their hard work; -but the constant devoted attention and desire to please which constitute -modern Gallantry did not, as we have seen, exist among -them. Among the Romans we find traces—but traces only—of -this virtue. Mediæval Gallantry reached its extremes in the -witches’ fires on the one side, and the grotesque performances of -the knight-errants on the other. The intermediate ground apparently -remained uncultivated, except during the brief period of -chivalrous poetry, and then only in the highest classes. Wherever, -in short, Romantic Love was absent, Gallantry, as one of its -ingredients, was unknown.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>Coming to modern times, we see the same parallelism between -general Gallantry and the freedom granted to the young to form -Love-matches.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In France, Germany, Italy, the women still have to do the -hardest field work, though the men assist. The French, indeed, -who systematically suppress Romantic Love, are apparently the -most gallant nation in the world. But there is a general agreement -among tourists that in <em>real</em> Gallantry, which calls for self-sacrificing -actions and not mere polite words and bows, the French -are inferior to all other European nations. It is in England and -America that true general Gallantry, like true Romantic Love, -flourishes most. In America, indeed, owing to the former scarcity -of women, Gallantry was for a time carried to a ludicrous excess, -almost reminding one of the days of Don Quixote; as in that story -of the Western miners who surrounded an emigrant’s waggon and -insisted on his “trotting out” his wife; which being done by the -trembling man, who feared the worst, the “roughs” passed round -the hat and collected a large sum of gold for the woman. Perhaps -American women still are, as we read in <cite>Daisy Miller</cite>, “the most -exacting in the world and the least endowed with a sense of -indebtedness.” But the constant sight in New York and elsewhere -of street-cars in which every man has a seat while every -woman is standing, seems to indicate that there is a reaction -which may go to the opposite extreme. But after a while the -pendulum will doubtless swing back to the middle and remain -stationary; and this will be in the new golden age when men -will always give up their seats to old and infirm women, to pretty -girls, and to all the others who display truly refined instincts -and good taste by abjuring crinolines, bustles, high heels, stuffed -birds on their hats, and other “ornaments” fatal to Personal -Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>From the facts thus hastily sketched we may safely infer that, -as we saw in the case of Sympathy with another’s joys, so again -with Gallantry, what was born as a trait of Romantic Love was -subsequently transferred to the social and domestic relations -of men and women in general. Had Romantic Love done nothing -more than this, it would deserve to rank among the most refining -influences in modern civilisation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the most remarkable existing illustration of the way in -which Lovers’ Gallantry may assume a general form, is to be found -in Mr. Ruskin’s recent confession regarding girls: “My primary -thought is how to serve <em>them</em> and make them happy; or if they -could use me for a plank-bridge over a stream, or set me up for a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>post to tie a swing to, or anything of the sort not requiring me to -talk, I should be always quite happy in such a promotion.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This reads precisely like Heine’s poem in which the lover wishes -he were his mistress’s footstool, or again her needle-cushion, that -he might experience the delights of pain inflicted by her foot or -hand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such excess of amorous Gallantry is a favourite theme for -poetic hyperbole, and it hardly can be exaggerated; for the lover -really <em>does</em> entertain such wishes. With him, <em>romance is realism</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No slave could be so meek and humble, no well-trained dog so -obedient as the amorous swain. Again and again will he, without -a moment’s hesitation, plunge into a wintry stream and triumphantly -snap up and bring back to her the chip she has thrown in to amuse -herself.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Active and Passive Desire to Please.</em>—"Love, studious how to -please" (Dryden), has two ways of accomplishing its purpose—one -passive, one active. Women, owing to their prescribed Coyness, -are not allowed to indulge in actions that would imply a desire to -please a suitor, except in the later stages of Courtship, when all is -settled or understood. Hence their desire to please can only show -itself passively in their efforts to make their personal appearance -attractive to the lover. Nor are men indifferent to this passive -phase of Gallantry. As nothing so fills a man with Pride as the -thought that She, a paragon of beauty, adorns herself so carefully -all for his delight; so in turn he feels it incumbent on him to -follow her example. Even the habitually slovenly become dandies -for the moment, brush their hair, buy a new hat and clothes; the -lazy become industrious, the cowards assume heroic airs and strut -about like tragedians—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>“I was the laziest creature,</div> - <div class='line'>The most unprofitable sign of nothing,</div> - <div class='line'>The veriest drone, and slept away my life</div> - <div class='line'>Beyond the dormouse, till I was in love!</div> - <div class='line'>And now I can outwake the nightingale,</div> - <div class='line'>Outwatch an usurer, and out-walk him too,</div> - <div class='line'>Stalk like a ghost that haunted ’bout a treasure,</div> - <div class='line'>And all that fancied treasure, it is love.”—<span class='sc'>Ben Jonson.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Active Gallantry has been sufficiently characterised in the foregoing -pages. It is that form of the Desire to Please which readily -merges into Self-Sacrifice. A man who would never dream of -exposing himself to the slightest danger in his own behalf will, if -his sweetheart expresses admiration of a flower growing near a -dangerous precipice, rush to pluck it with an audacity which may -<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>cost him his life. A fatal case of this sort occurred not long ago on -the Hudson River near New York. A man’s life thrown away for -the slight æsthetic gratification to be derived by his love from the -sight and fragrance of a flower!</p> - -<p class='c001'>How frequently, again, do lovers sacrifice their family bonds, -the love of parents and relatives, as well as rank and fortune, for -the sake of the romantic passion!</p> - -<p class='c001'>A mother willingly dies in defence of her offspring’s life. But -will she, like Romeo, drink the apothecary’s poisonous draught over -the corpse of her dead darling? No, herein again Romantic Love -is the deepest of the passions.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Feminine Devotion.</em>—Self-Sacrifice is one of the traits of -Romantic Love which may remain unaltered and unweakened in -conjugal affection. “Those who have traced the course of the -wives of the poor,” says Mr. Lecky, “and of many who, though in -narrowed circumstances, can hardly be called poor, will probably -admit that in no other class do we so often find entire lives spent -in daily persistent self-denial, in the patient endurance of countless -trials, in the ceaseless and deliberate sacrifice of their own enjoyments -to the wellbeing or the prospects of others.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is in Wagner’s music-dramas that the modern ideal of feminine -devotion unto death has found its most stirring embodiment. -Elizabeth, having lost her Tannhäuser, thanks to the allurements -of Venus, dies of a broken heart; Senta, realising that only by her -self-sacrifice can the unhappy Dutchman be released from his terrible -doom of eternally sailing the stormy seas until he should find -a woman faithful to him unto death, tears herself away from her -family and plunges into the ocean. Isolde sings her death-song -over the body of Tristan; and Brünnhilde immolates herself on -Siegfried’s funeral pyre. Wagner’s theory of the music-drama was -a theory of Love in which each lover sacrifices selfish idiosyncrasies -in order to produce a happy union in marriage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Mill, forgetting the difference between masculine maltreatment -of women, and voluntary female self-denial, thought it -expedient to sneer at the exaggerated self-abnegation which is the -present artificial ideal of feminine character; and those unsexed -viragoes who wish to “reform” women by robbing them of all -womanly attributes and converting them into caricatures of masculinity, -re-echo Mill’s sneer in shrill chorus. Women, they shout, -must no longer waste their best years in staying at home, educating -their children and taking care of their husbands. These brutes -have been caressed and fondled long enough; the time has come -for women to be manly and independent. Let them take away -<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>from men the employments, of which even now there are not -enough for three-fourths of the men; let them thus drive another -20 per cent of men and women into celibacy because the men -cannot afford any longer to marry. Let the women strip off their -artificial air of domestic refinement by mingling with the foul-mouthed, -tobacco-reeking crowds and making political stump -speeches; or by visiting the loathsome criminals in prisons, treating -them to cakes and flowers and other methods of feminine reform, -so that when set free they may be eager to do something which -will bring them back to their cakes and flowers! The children -meanwhile being left at home in charge of coarse, ignorant, careless -servants, copying their manners, and the husband compelled to -seek companionship at the club, or much worse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How the selfish husband will wince under this cold neglect and -retaliation—he who never does anything but amuse himself while -his wife toils at home; who never risks his life in war for his wife -and children; who never toils at his desk from morn to night, to -earn the daily bread of all by the sweat of his brow; who never -goes to lunatic asylums from overwork and worry! How sly in -man to set up his “artificial ideal of woman’s self-abnegation,” -while he is having such a good time! But why try to paint in -weak prose the hideousness of man’s selfish conduct, when -Shakspere has done it in immortal verse?</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,</div> - <div class='line'>Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,</div> - <div class='line'>And for thy maintenance commits his body</div> - <div class='line'>To painful labour both by sea and land,</div> - <div class='line'>To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,</div> - <div class='line'>Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;</div> - <div class='line'>And craves no other tribute at thy hands</div> - <div class='line'>But love, fair looks and true obedience;</div> - <div class='line'>Too little payment for so great a debt.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>There is another very curious aspect of Self-Sacrifice which will -be fully discussed in the chapter on Schopenhauer’s Theory of Love, -but which may be stated here, without comment, that the reader -may reflect on the pessimist’s paradox. Schopenhauer held that -Love is based on the possession by the lovers of traits which -mutually complement each other. In the children these incongruous -traits will so neutralise each other as to produce a harmonious -result; but in the life of the parents they will produce -only discords. True love, therefore, as he claims, rarely results in -a happy conjugal life: Love causes the parents to sacrifice their -mutual happiness to the welfare of their offspring.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>Meanwhile it may be stated that France offers a curious -confirmation of Schopenhauer’s theory, not noted by himself. -Romantic Love, it is well known, hardly exists in France <em>as a -motive to marriage</em>, being systematically suppressed and craftily -annihilated. Nevertheless, as many observers attest, the French -commonly lead a happy family life. But look at the offspring, -at the birth-rate, the lowest in Europe; look at the puny men, -at the women, among whom there is hardly a single beauty -in all the land. In a word, whereas Love sacrifices, according to -Schopenhauer, the parents to the children, the French sacrifice the -offspring, and Love itself, to the happiness of the individuals, -married according to motives of personal expediency.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>EMOTIONAL HYPERBOLE</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers</div> - <div class='line'>Could not, with all their quantity of love,</div> - <div class='line'>Make up my sum.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>“It is a strange thing,” says Bacon, “to note the excess of this -passion, and how it braves the nature and value of things by this, -that the <em>speaking in a perpetual hyperbole</em> is comely in nothing -but in love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is the nature of all passions to exaggerate: and Love, being -of all passions the most violent, exaggerates the most—more even -than Hate, which alone competes with Love in the power to tinge -every object with the colour of its own spectacles. The lover’s -constant sigh is for something stronger than a superlative; and to -the limit between the sublime and the ridiculous he is absolutely -blind. Like Schumann, every lover calls his Clara “Clarissima,” -and of two superlative facts he is quite certain: That <em>she</em> is the -most wonderful being ever created; and that <em>his</em> passion is the -deepest ever felt by mortal.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!</div> - <div class='line'>One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun</div> - <div class='line'>Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.”</div> - <div class='line in38'><span class='sc'>Shakspere.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>If you try to convince him that others have loved as ardently—and -ceased to love, he will smile a cynical smile and then close his -eyes and declaim melodramatically—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And I will luve thee still, my dear,</div> - <div class='line'>Till a’ the seas gang dry—</div> - <div class='line'>Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,</div> - <div class='line'>And the rocks melt wi’ the sun.”—<span class='sc'>Burns.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'><span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>In such hyperbolic effusions a lover sees no exaggeration, for -they describe his feelings and convictions precisely as they are.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“What we mortals call romantic,</div> - <div class='line'>And always envy though we deem it frantic” (<span class='sc'>Byron</span>)</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>is to him bare reality, nothing more. Romeo expresses his real -wish for the moment when he says—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O that I were a glove upon that hand</div> - <div class='line'>That I might touch that cheek;”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><a id='corr163.9'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Biron'>Byron</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_163.9'><ins class='correction' title='Biron'>Byron</ins></a></span> really feels that</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes</div> - <div class='line'>Her feet were much too dainty for such tread.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>And every lover would agree with Coleridge that</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Her very frowns are fairer far</div> - <div class='line'>Than smiles of other maidens are.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>“The air I breathe in a room empty of you is unhealthy,” -wrote Keats to his sweetheart; and Burns, in the sketch of his -first love, thus describes the emotional hyperæsthesia produced by -Love: “I didn’t know myself why the tones of her voice made -my heart-strings thrill like an Æolian harp, and particularly why -my pulse beat such a furious rattan when I looked and fingered -over her little hand to pick out the cruel nettle-stings and -thistles.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This is the true ecstasy of Love—the most delicious and -thrilling emotion of which the human soul is capable. Nor is it -necessary to be a poet to feel it. While in Love even a coarser-grained -man “feels the blood of the violet, the clover, and the -lily in his veins” (Emerson). But if Jealousy rouses him, it is -flower-blood no longer that courses in his veins, nor human blood, -but vengeful Spanish wine. It is then that Love’s intoxication -reaches its climax: delirious ecstasy followed by angry waves of -dire despair, rocking and tossing the unhappy victim till he is pale -and sick as death.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Like other drunkards, the Love-intoxicated youth sees and -feels everything double. His darling seems doubly beautiful, and -all his joys and sorrows are doubled in intensity. And, like other -drunkards, he imagines that all the world is drunk and reeling; -whereas the rapid oscillation of surrounding objects between the -rosy hue of hope and the gray cloud of doubt, is all in his own -mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How this erotic intoxication multiplies the lover’s courage and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>confidence in his success! The most insignificant smile raises -him over all obstacles to the summit of his hopes, as easily as a -cloud-shadow climbs a mountain side o’er treetops, rocks, and -snowy walls.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How, on her part, it magnifies his heroism, his genius, -converting the most insipid commonplace into an immortal -epigram, full of wit and wisdom!</p> - -<p class='c001'>That Lovers’ Hyperbole is nothing but Love-intoxication -shows itself also in the ludicrous tasks they undertake when under -the spell. Who but a lover would ever attempt to gild refined -gold, to paint the lily white, the sky blue? Who mix up physiology, -astronomy, gastronomy, in such an absurd way as in -“sweet-heart,” “honey-moon,” etc.?</p> - -<p class='c001'>And when, during the “honey-moon,” the lover recovers from -his intoxication, how surprised he looks, how he rubs his eyes and -wonders where the deuce he has been! He remembers Ovid’s -caution that after wine every woman seems beautiful; he -remembers something about seeing “Helen’s beauty in a brow of -Egypt.” And the girl by his side—he thought she <em>was</em> Helen; -but now, “really—this is most extraordinary: just look at that -large mouth, and that snub-nose—well, I knew she had it, and -thought I loved her all the more for this imperfection, which -proved her human and not a goddess: yet, by Jove, I almost -wish ... in fact, I <em>quite</em> wish, her mouth was smaller and her -nose larger.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Poor deluded youth! He was taken in by Cupid’s favourite -trick of dazzling a lover with a pair of brown or blue orbs, till he -can see nothing else. For this girl, beyond question, has a pair -of eyes which Venus might envy—mid-ocean-blue, with a dewdrop -sparkle, and a mischievous expression that is more commonly -found in brown eyes; and these deep-blue eyes are framed in -with black brows and long black lashes, without which no eyes -are ever perfect, whatever their colour. It was these expressive -orbs, this visible music of the spheres, that ravished all his senses -and made him blind to every other feature of her countenance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we see how Love comes to be blind. One feature—most -commonly the eyes—dazes the victim so completely that all the -other features are seen but vaguely as in a dream; while the -imagination is ever busy in chiselling them into harmony with the -fine eyes. And it is only after marriage, or assured possession, -that the other features emerge from their blurred vagueness, and -are found less perfect than the fond imagination had painted them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this eagerness of Love to see only superlative excellence, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>its disposition to imagine a thing perfect if it is not, we get a -deep insight into the mission and <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>raison d’être</i></span> of this passion. -If women and men would only try to live up to Love’s exalted -ideal of personal perfection—and most persons <em>could</em> be 50 per -cent more beautiful, if they attended to the laws of hygiene and -cultivated their minds—what a lovely planet this would be!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why have so many of the greatest men of genius been unhappy -in their Love and Marriage? Because they had in their minds -the loveliest visions of possible feminine perfection, but did not -find them realised in life. For a while their pre-eminently strong -imaginations helped them to keep up the illusion; but the truth -would out at last; and in the pangs of disappointment they threw -themselves upon the poetic device of Hyperbole, and tried to -console themselves by painting the images of perfection which did -not exist in life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love, it is true, is not the only theme which they have -embellished with the ornaments of Hyperbole. A wonderful -example of non-erotic Hyperbole occurs in Macbeth—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood</div> - <div class='line'>Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather</div> - <div class='line'>The multitudinous seas incarnadine,</div> - <div class='line'>Making the green one red.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>But as a rule the finest specimens of poetic imagery are to be -found in erotic Hyperbole; and it seems most strange that Goldsmith, -who had so deep an insight into Love, does not mention -this variety at all in his essay on Hyperbole.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love, says Emerson, is “the deification of persons”; and -though the poet, like every other lover, “beholding his maiden, -half-knows that she is not verily that which he worships,” this -does not prevent him from idealising her portrait, and sketching -her as he would like to have her. A few additional specimens of -such poetic Hyperbole may fitly close this chapter—</p> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Shakspere</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'>“She is mine own,</div> - <div class='line'>And I as rich in having such a jewel</div> - <div class='line'>As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,</div> - <div class='line'>The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Southwell</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A honey shower rains from her lips.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Marlowe</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O, thou art fairer than the evening air</div> - <div class='line'>Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>And again—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Many would praise the sweet smell as she past,</div> - <div class='line'>When ’twas the odour which her breath forth cast;</div> - <div class='line'>And there for honey bees have sought in vain,</div> - <div class='line'>And, beat from thence, have lighted there again.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>Or, as Lamb puts it, lovers sometimes</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'>“borrow language of dislike;</div> - <div class='line'>And instead of ‘dearest Miss,’</div> - <div class='line'>Jewel, honey, sweetheart, bliss,</div> - <div class='line'>And those forms of old admiring.</div> - <div class='line'>Call her cockatrice and siren,</div> - <div class='line'>Basilisk and all that’s evil,</div> - <div class='line'>Witch, hyena, mermaid, devil,</div> - <div class='line'>Ethiop, wench, and blackamoor,</div> - <div class='line'>Monkey, ape, and twenty more;</div> - <div class='line'>Friendly traitress, loving foe,—</div> - <div class='line'>Not that she is truly so,</div> - <div class='line'>But no other way they know</div> - <div class='line'>A contentment to express,</div> - <div class='line'><em>Borders so upon excess</em>,</div> - <div class='line'>That they do not rightly wot,</div> - <div class='line'><em>Whether it be pain or not</em>.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>MIXED MOODS AND PARADOXES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>“That they do not rightly wot, whether it be pain or not.” -That is the keynote of Modern Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To a superficial Anakreon, who knows but its rapturous phase, -Love is all honey and moonshine. The celibate Spinoza, too, -ignorant of the agonies of Love, defined it as <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>lætitia concomitante -idea causæ externæ</i></span>—a pleasure accompanied by the idea of its -external cause. Burton, on the other hand, claims Love as “a -species of melancholy”; and Cowley sings—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A mighty pain to love it is,</div> - <div class='line'>And ’tis a pain that pain to miss;</div> - <div class='line'>But of all pains the greatest pain</div> - <div class='line'>It is to love, but love in vain.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The poets generally have taken a less one-sided view of the -matter by depicting Love under a thousand images, as a mysterious -<em>mixture</em> of joy and sadness, of agony and delight.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So Bailey—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Dryden</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Pains of love be sweeter far</div> - <div class='line'>Than all other pleasures are.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span><span class='sc'>Fletcher</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Thou bitter sweet, easing disease</div> - <div class='line'>How dost thou by displeasing please?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Middleton</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Love is ever sick, and yet is never dying;</div> - <div class='line'>Love is ever true, and yet is ever lying;</div> - <div class='line'>Love does doat in liking, and is mad in loathing,</div> - <div class='line'>Love, indeed, is anything, yet indeed is nothing.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Drayton</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>“Amidst an ocean of delight</div> - <div class='line in5'>For pleasure to be starved.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“’Tis nothing to be plagued in hell</div> - <div class='line in1'>But thus in heaven tormented.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Constable</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“To live in hell, and heaven to behold,</div> - <div class='line'>To welcome life, and die a living death,</div> - <div class='line'>To sweat with heat, and yet be freezing cold,</div> - <div class='line'>To grasp at stars, and lie the earth beneath.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Southwell</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in1'>“She offereth joy, but bringeth grief;</div> - <div class='line in2'>A kiss——where she doth kill.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>“Tears kindle sparks.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Her loving looks are murdering darts.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>“Like winter rose and summer ice.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>“May never was the month of love,</div> - <div class='line in3'>For May is full of flowers;</div> - <div class='line in3'>But rather April, wet by kind,</div> - <div class='line in3'>For love is full of showers.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Shakspere</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Good-night, good-night, parting is such sweet sorrow,</div> - <div class='line'>That I shall say good-night till it be morrow.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;</div> - <div class='line in3'>Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;</div> - <div class='line in3'>Being vex’d, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears;</div> - <div class='line in3'>What is it else? a madness most discreet,</div> - <div class='line in3'>A choking gall and a preserving sweet.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Petrarch’s poems, says Shelley, “are as spells which unseal the -inmost enchanted fountains of the delight which is the grief of -love.” In that part of the <cite>Romance of the Rose</cite> which was -written by Jean de Meung, and translated by Chaucer, occur many -similar phrases depicting Love as an <em>emotional paradox</em>: “Also a -sweet hell it is, and a sorrowful paradise;” “delight right full of -heaviness, and drearihood full of gladness;” “a heavy burden light -to bear;” “wise madness,” “despairing hope,” etc. Mr. Ruskin, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>who quotes the whole passage in his <cite>Fors Clavigera</cite>, declares: -“I know of no such lovely love-poem as his since Dante.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>As for Dante, he fully realised the “sweet pain” of Love, as he -called it. As far back as Plato’s <cite>Timæus</cite> we find that love, as -then understood, was regarded as “a mixture of pleasure and -pain.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“’Tis the pest of love,” sings Keats, “that fairest joys bring -most unrest.” Thackeray speaks of “the delights and tortures, -the jealousy and wakefulness, the longing and raptures, the frantic -despair and elation, attendant upon the passion of love.” But it -is superfluous to cite modern authors, for volumes might be filled -with quotations attesting that Love is neither a simple “lætitia,” -as Spinoza defined it, nor “a species of melancholy,” but a mixture -of joy and sadness, of rapture and woe.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Shakspere’s “<em>violent sorrow seems a modern ecstasy</em>” might be -adopted as a general motto for a book on the psychology and -history of Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love, it is true, is not the only passion characterised by such a -paradoxical mixture of moods. Thus in <cite>Macbeth</cite> the sentence, “on -the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy,” does not refer to -Love; and John Fletcher, too, sings in a general way—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“There’s naught in this life sweet</div> - <div class='line'>If man were wise to see’t,</div> - <div class='line'>But only melancholy,</div> - <div class='line'>O sweetest Melancholy!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>A German author, Oswald Zimmermann, has even written a -volume of almost two hundred pages, wherein he endeavours to -analyse various emotions and historic phenomena, in which pleasure -and pain are intimately associated. He has chapters on the -Beautiful in Art and in Nature, on Death, on Mysticism, on the -ancient festivals of Dionysus and Aphrodite, on the mediæval -flagellants, on lust and cruelty, on various epochs of modern -literature, etc. His book bears the curious title <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die Wonne des -Leids</cite></span>, because he holds that there is in these phenomena an -“Ecstasy of Woe,” distinct from pleasure and pain, pure and -simple, and superior to them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hartmann, the pessimist philosopher, goes a step farther, and -claims that “there is <em>no</em> pleasure which does not contain an element -of grief; and no pain without a tinge of pleasure.” This is -obviously an exaggeration; for what is the element of anguish that -enters into the feelings of a successful lover when he imprints the -first kiss on the lips of the girl who has just promised to be his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>wife? or what the element of pleasure in the feelings of a jealous -lover the moment he hears that his rival has won the prize?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet, if we except a pleasurable or painful climax, like these, -Hartmann’s maxim may be accepted as approximating the truth, -especially in the case of Love, which, more than any other passion, -constantly changes its moods, so that, from their close proximity, -each one cannot fail to rub off some of its colour on the others. -Who but a lover can experience in one brief second both the thrill -of heavenly delight and the sting of deadly anguish—<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Himmelhoch -jauchzend zum Tode betrübt,”</span> as Schiller puts it? A whole -lifetime of emotion is crowded into the one night preceding a -lover’s proposal: hope and fear chasing one another across his weary -brain like a Witches’ Sabbath on the Brocken.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One would imagine that the moment when an admirer calls on -his girl, to be fascinated by her smiles and graceful manners, and -to be thrilled by her melodious voice, must be one of unmixed -delight and ecstasy. But if the slightest doubt as to her feelings -lurks in his mind, he is much more apt to be harassed by a -peculiar bitter-sweet feeling. Will he make a good impression on -her this time? he will ask himself; has she perhaps changed, or -found another more acceptable admirer, and is she going to hint as -much by her altered manner? These and a hundred other apprehensions -will torture and depress him; so that he will more than -probably lose that “easy manner and gay address” which are such -mighty weapons in winning a woman’s heart.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is the girl, on her part, free from the anguish of doubt. -Though her admirer seems to be truly devoted to her, she has -read in the song that “all men are not gay deceivers,” which -somehow seems to imply logically that most men <em>are</em> gay deceivers. -Perhaps, she will muse, he will only worship me as long as I leave -him in absolute doubt as to my feelings; and subsequently, having -gratified his vanity and secured my photograph, he will place it in -his album to show to all his friends as his latest conquest, and -then flit to another flower.</p> - -<p class='c001'>After all, Schopenhauer was right in saying that when we have -no great sorrows the imagination invents small ones which torment -us quite as much as the others. When one sees the peculiar -delight lovers take in teasing and torturing each other, one feels -tempted to believe with Zimmermann that there <em>is</em> <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“eine Lust am -Schmerze”</span>—that pain in itself contains a gratification, an “ecstasy -of woe,” distinct from positive pleasure itself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet it is hardly necessary to take refuge in such an emotional -paradox in order to account for the value and luxury of Lovers’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>Quarrels and all the various mixed moods of Love. A sufficient -explanation is afforded by the principles of <em>Contrast</em> and emotional -<em>Persistence</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Owing to the fact that feeling seems to have a regular pulsation -or rhythm, our hours of anguish are always interrupted by intervals -of hope and happy retrospection—as in Chopin’s funeral march, -where the gloomy dirge is interrupted for a time by a delicious -melody of happy reminiscence, like a heavenly voice of consolation. -When the nervous tension has become too great the string breaks -and the bow resumes its straightness and elasticity. Hence it is -that an uncertain lover actually gloats over the anguish of doubt -and jealousy: for he has an instinctive fore-feeling that when the -reaction of hope and confidence will come, he will enjoy an ecstasy -of the imagination of which an always confident love has no conception.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Uninterrupted enjoyment of lovers’ bliss would soon dull the -edge of pleasure, as an unbroken succession of sweet concords in -music would cloy the æsthetic sense. The introduction of discords -raises a longing for their resolution which, if gratified, restores to -the concords their original charm and freshness, and thus prolongs -the pleasures of music. A tourist after spending a month on the -top of a Swiss mountain becomes comparatively indifferent to the -scene of which he knows every detail by heart; but let his peak -be hidden in dense clouds for a few days, and he cannot fail, on -emerging again into sunlight, to greet the view with the same -thrill of delight as on the day of his arrival.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is their constant and unexpected changes from joy to sadness, -from tears to smiles, that constitute the greatest charm of Heine -and Chopin and make them the lyric poet and musician <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>par -excellence</i></span> for lovers. Either a gladsome rainbow suddenly appears -to illumine their lurid landscape; or, again, “their plenteous joys, -wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves in drops of sorrow.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even the famous</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“For ought that I could ever read,</div> - <div class='line'>Could ever hear by tale or history,</div> - <div class='line'>The course of true love never did run smooth”—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>what is it but another way of stating that that Love which has -met with no impediments, in which anguish and delight have not -warmed one another by mutual friction, has never broken out into -a conflagration sufficiently brilliant to be recorded “by tale or -history” as a remarkable specimen of “true love.” It is the -plot-interest that fascinates the reader as well as the lover himself; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>it is the impediments and emotional conflicts, the <em>coyness of -fate</em>, that constitute the principal charm in a tale of love; and it -would take a very clever novelist to attract readers by an account -of a courtship of which the happy result was a foregone conclusion -at every stage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus the magic effect of contrasted emotions suggests why -pleasure alternating with woe in Love is more intense than -pleasure uninterrupted. A mountaineer who has been wading -through snowfields all day up to his knees enjoys the comforts of -his slippers, a bright fire, and a cup of tea in the evening, twice as -much as a man who has been all day at home.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On reflection, however, it seems as if Contrast, far from reducing -things to their first principles, itself needed an explanation. -<em>Why</em> is it that by contrasting two emotions we heighten their -colour? A partial explanation was, indeed, suggested in speaking -of discords: anguish begets desire, and the more intense desire -has been, the more lively is its gratification. A more profound -solution of the problem, however, is found in the fact that feelings -have their <em>echoes</em>, which continue sometimes long after the original -tone has ceased; and if meantime a new tone is sounded, it blends -with the echo and produces a mixed feeling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The sense of Temperature affords a simple illustration of this -“echo.” Place two basins before you, one filled with tepid, the -other with ice-cold, water. Put your right hand in the ice-water -one minute, leaving the left in your pocket. Then put both -hands into the tepid water. It will seem still tepid to the left, -but quite warm to the right hand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Some psychologists, however, deny that pleasures and pains -ever coalesce into one feeling—that there is such a thing as a -mixed feeling. They contend that the attention can be fixed on -only one feeling at a time, that the stronger crowds out the -weaker, and that it is only their rapid succession that makes two -feelings appear simultaneous, just as a firebrand swung around -rapidly <em>seems</em> to form a fiery circle.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now it is quite true that the <em>attention</em> can be fixed on only -one feeling at any given moment, and that the stronger crowds -out the weaker so far as the attention is concerned: yet this does -not prevent the prevailing feeling from being affected by the echo -of the one which preceded it. If a man, buried in the labyrinths -of a big hotel, is waked up in the night by cries of fire; though it -may prove a false alarm, yet the effect of the fright will remain -with him and cast a gloom over his whole day’s doings, however -pleasant in themselves. And a doubtful lover’s enjoyment of his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>sweetheart’s sweetest smiles is often galled by the remembrance -that on the preceding day she smiled just as sweetly on his odious -rival. “For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done,” says -Shakspere.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In his admirable <cite>Dissertation on the Passions</cite>, Hume cleverly -makes use of a musical analogy to explain how different emotions -may be mixed: “If we consider the human mind, we shall -observe that, with regard to the passions, it is not like a wind-instrument -of music, which, in running over all the notes, immediately -loses the sound when the breath ceases; but rather resembles -a string-instrument, where, after each stroke, the vibrations still -retain some sound which gradually and insensibly decays. The -imagination is extremely quick and agile, but the passions in -comparison are slow and restive; for which reason, when any -object is presented which affords a variety of views to the one and -emotions to the other, though the fancy may change its views -with great celerity, each stroke will not produce a clear and distinct -note of passion, but the one passion will always be mixt and -confounded with the other.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Lunatic, Lover, and Poet.</em>—A still better analogy of the manner -in which one feeling may be modified by another is furnished by -the optical phenomenon of after-images. If we gaze very steadily -for half a minute at a green wafer and then at a sheet of white -paper, we see on it a <em>purple</em> image of the wafer; purple being the -complementary colour of green, <i>i.e.</i> the colour which, if mixed -with green, produces white. The reason of this phenomenon is -that, after looking at the green wafer, the nervous fibres in the -eye which perceive that colour have become so fatigued that the -fainter green waves in the white paper fail to make any perceptible -impression on them; so that purple alone prevails for the -moment. So to the infatuated swain who has been tortured by -the green-eyed monster, Jealousy, the moment of remission, which -would else be one of neutral indifference, assumes the hue of rosy -hope and positive delight. Hours which to sober mortals would -seem perfect blanks are thus to him full of intense feeling, simply -because they are rebounds from a state of extreme tension in the -opposite direction. He might be likened to a schoolboy whose -sleigh is carried across the frozen river by its downward impetus -and even ascends the hill on the other side some distance before it -stops. Hence, like the madman and the man of genius, the -amorous swain is always either down in a fit of melancholy, or in -an exalted ecstasy of joy, rapidly alternating and weirdly intermingled—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,</div> - <div class='line'>Are of imagination all compact.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Now poets are proverbially melancholy; and madmen, as -Professor Krafft-Ebing tells us, are also more commonly tortured -by depressing delusions than elated by pleasant ones. Hence, if -the poet’s maxim, just quoted, be true, we should expect the -lover’s prevailing cast of mind to be melancholy too; and so it is. -Though he enjoys moments of delirious rapture, to which sober -mortals are utter strangers, yet his misgivings are incessant, even -when he is almost certain of success: and it takes but little to -poison his cup; for, as Professor Volkmann remarks, “one drop -of anguish suffices to gall a whole ocean of joy.” So the lover -becomes “pale and interesting,” loses weight and appetite, and -sighs away his soul. Were this emotional fermenting process -allowed to last too long, his health would suffer seriously: but -fortunately it ordinarily ceases in a year or so, yielding a wine -which, though less sparkling and ebullient, is more mellow and -less intoxicating. Romantic Love, in other words, is metamorphosed -into conjugal affection which, among other attributes of -Love, strips off its characteristic trait of melancholy, whereby it -is easily distinguished from all other forms of affection. Before, -however, we can pass on to consider in detail the differences -between Romantic and Conjugal Love, the two remaining ingredients -of Romantic Love—Individual Preference and Personal -Beauty—must be briefly considered.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It happens occasionally, in the Western regions of the United -States, that an Indian brave casts his eyes on a buxom pale-face -girl and desires her in marriage. He offers her parents two -ponies for her; he offers three, five, and even seven ponies; and -when still refused he is the most mystified man in the world: -cannot understand how any man can be so egregiously stupid or -avaricious as to refuse his daughter for <em>seven</em> ponies! Ugh!!</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is needless to recapitulate the numerous instances cited in -preceding pages, showing that throughout the world, until within -a few centuries, Romantic Love could not exist because the girl’s -choice, on the one hand, was utterly ignored, while the man, on -the other, was equally prevented, by the lack of opportunities for -courtship, from basing his choice on a real knowledge of the -selected bride. The parents who did the selecting, always for the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>bride, and sometimes even for the bridegroom, were guided in their -choice by money and rank and not by Health and Beauty, which -inspire Love and follow as its fruits. The history of Love, till -within three or four centuries ago, might, in short, be summed up -in six words: No Choice, no Love, no Beauty—except in those -rare cases where special hygienic advantages prevailed, or where -lucky chance brought together a youth and a maiden who in the -ordinary course of events would have fallen in Love with one -another.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is reason to believe, however, that even if in the early -ages of the world the young had been allowed greater freedom in -choosing a lover, Romantic Love, in its more ardent phases, would -not have flourished to any great extent among primitive, ancient, -and mediæval nations: for the reason that Love depends on -Individualisation, and our remote ancestors were not so diversely -individualised as we are.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Sexual Divergence.</em>—Comparative ethnology, psychology, and -biology show that specialisation is a product of higher evolution, -<i>i.e.</i> that individual traits are developed in proportion as we proceed -higher in the scale of life, physical and intellectual. It is -true there are no two flowers in the fields, no two leaves in a -forest, exactly alike in every detail: but the differences are -infinitesimal, and almost require a microscope to see them. It is -also true that the sheep in a flock, which appear almost alike to a -casual observer, are individually known to the shepherd. <em>Possibly</em> -a sharp-sighted and patient naturalist might live to distinguish -himself by distinguishing the individuals in a swarm of bees, or a -caravan of ants: but this would be counted little short of a -miracle.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Furthermore, ordinary observers find it almost as difficult to -distinguish individuals in a crowd of Chinese, Negroes, or Indians, -as in a bee-hive. Closer acquaintance does reveal differences: -but they are rarely so great as those between individuals in civilised -communities. And in these civilised communities themselves -we find greater differences, sexual differences pre-eminently, the -higher we ascend. Between a peasant and his wife the difference, -both physical and mental, is surely not half so great as that -between a lawyer and his wife, a physician or professor and his -wife. “The lower the state of culture,” says Professor Carl Vogt, -“the more similar are the occupations of the two sexes;” and -similarity of occupation entails similarity of attitude, expression, -and mental habits. Mr. Higginson’s notion that civilisation tends -to make the sexes more and more alike is true only as regards -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>legal rights and social privileges; regarding their mental traits -and physical appearance exactly the reverse is true. The peasant’s -wife may have a tender heart for him and her children, but her -domestic drudgery and hard labour in the fields make her features, -her voice, and manners harsh and masculine. And who has not -read a hundred times that the Indian squaws look quite as stern, -stolid, unemotional, and masculine as their husbands?</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the ancient Greeks, though they may have possessed it, -had but little regard for Individuality is shown especially in their -sculpture, and in the fact that with them even marriage was considered -less a private than a social matter. Lycurgus, Solon, and -Plato agreed in viewing marriage as “a matter in which the state -had a right to interfere;” and for the purpose of providing the -state with legitimate citizens, it was therefore regarded as obligatory. -The absence of emotional expression in Greek statues equally -shows their indifference to Individualisation and their ignorance of -Love: for Love is inspired not so much by regularity of features -as by fascinating variety of emotional expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus the absence or disregard of individual traits among ancient -nations helps, like the absence of individual Choice, to account for -the absence of Romantic Love, the very essence of which—as distinguished -from mere sexual passion—is the insistance on individual -traits and the mutual adaptation of the lovers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What sublime—or ridiculous—extremes, this absorption in -individual traits reaches in Modern Love, no one need be told. -Not only does the lover consider his maiden’s frowns more beautiful -than other maidens’ smiles, but he longs to kiss the floor on -which she has walked; and every ribbon that has clasped her -waist, every jewel that has touched her ear or neck, becomes -charged with a subtle and mysterious electric current that would -shock him with a thrill of recognition should his fingers come in -contact with them on a table, even in a dark room.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Making Women Masculine.</em>—Nothing proves so irrefutably the -hopelessness of the task undertaken by a few “strong-minded” -women—namely, to equalise the sexes by making women more -masculine—than the fact thus revealed by anthropology and history: -that the tendency of civilisation has been to make men and -women more and more unlike, physically and emotionally. Whatever -approximation there may have been has been entirely on the -part of the men, who have become less coarse or “manly,” in the -old acceptation of that term, and more femininely refined; while -women have endeavoured to maintain the old distance by a corresponding -increase of refinement on their part. Should the Woman’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>Rights viragoes ever succeed in establishing their social ideal, when -women will share all the men’s privileges, make stump speeches, -and—of course—go back to the harvest fields and to war with -them—then good-bye, Romantic Love! But there is no danger -that these Amazons will ever carry their point. They might as -well try to convince women to wear beards; or men, crinolines.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Were any further proof needed that the sexes have been continually -diverging instead of converging, it would be found in the -fact that the young of both sexes are more alike than adults: in -accordance with the law that the individual goes through the same -stages of development as the race. And there are embryological -facts which indicate even that there is some truth in the Platonic -myth that the sexes at first were not separated; but that such -separation took place probably for three reasons: to secure a -division of labour; to prevent the full hereditary transmission of -injurious qualities; and, thirdly, to secure the benefits of cross-fertilisation,—a -result which in the higher spheres of human life -is attained through Love, which is based on opposite or complementary -qualities, and scorns near relationship.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Love and Culture.</em>—The dependence of Love on Individualisation, -and the dependence of Individualisation, in turn, on Culture, -help us also to explain an apparent difficulty regarding the non-existence -of Love among the lower classes in ancient Greece and -elsewhere. For these classes were not subjected to the same -chaperonage as the higher circles: and it might be inferred therefore -that the possibility of free Choice must have led to real love-matches. -Perhaps it did in those rare cases where culture had -sent a rootlet down into a lower social stratum. But as a rule one -would have looked in vain among the lower classes—as one does -to-day, despite poetic fiction—for minds sufficiently refined to -comprehend and feel the highly-complex and idealised group of -emotions which constitute Romantic Love. Of course it would be -absurd to include in this statement people of refinement who -through misfortune have been plunged into abject poverty. They -do not belong to the “Great Unwashed”—ὁἱ πολλοί.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When Stendhal asserts that in France Love exists only in the -lower classes, while Max Nordau states that in Germany it is to -be found in the higher classes only, they are probably both right—allowance -being made for rare exceptions. What Love <em>does</em> -exist in France—and it is preciously scarce—cannot possibly prevail -except among the working people; and in Germany among the -corresponding class it must be equally scarce, whereas in the middle -and higher classes, where chaperonage is not nearly so strict and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>idiotic as in France, Cupid does contrive to find an occasional -target for his arrows.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PERSONAL BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Fanny Brawne having complained to Keats that he seemed to -ignore all her other qualities and have eyes for her beauty alone, -Keats thus justified himself: “Why may I not speak of your -beauty, since without that I could never have loved you? I cannot -conceive any beginning of such love as I have for you but -beauty. There may be a sort of love for which, without the least -sneer at it, I have the highest respect, and can admire it in -others: but it has not the richness, the bloom, the full form, the -enchantment of love after my own heart.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fanny Brawne is not the only girl who has thus complained to -her lover about his exclusive emphasising of her Personal Beauty. -But all such complaints are useless. In Modern Love the Admiration -of Personal Beauty is by far the strongest of all ingredients, -and is becoming more so every year: fortunately, for thereby -Romantic Love is becoming more and more idealised and converted -into a pure æsthetic sentiment. Goldsmith, indeed, laid stress on -the virtue of choosing a wife on the same principle that guided her -in choosing a wedding-ring—for qualities that will wear. But -Personal Beauty <em>does</em> wear, with proper hygienic care.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Feminine Beauty in Masculine Eyes.</em>—In masculine Love, -regard for youthful feminine Beauty has always played a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> more -or less important. But the effects of this kind of sexual selection -in the lower races in increasing the amount of physical beauty in -the world, have been commonly neutralised by the crude æsthetic -notions prevailing among men as to what constituted feminine -beauty. The weakness of the æsthetic overtone in Love, moreover, -has hitherto prevented it from competing successfully with -other marriage-motives. On the continent of Europe, to this day, -the ugliest girl with a dowry of a few thousands is sure to find a -husband and transmit her bodily and his mental ugliness to her -offspring; while girls who could transmit a considerable amount of -beauty, physical and mental, to their children, are left to fade away -as old maids, because they have no money.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this respect America sets a noble example to most parts of -Europe. Thousands of young Americans marry penniless beauties -every year, although they might have rich ugly girls for the asking. -This is one of the things Frenchmen and Germans cannot understand, -and class as “Americanisms.” And then they wonder why -<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>it is that there are so many pretty girls in Canada and the United -States. Another “Americanism,” gentlemen. These pretty girls -are the issue of Love-matches. Their mothers were selected for -their Beauty, not for money or rank.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Not but that there are numerous exceptions to this golden rule -of Love. Were there not, ugly women would be scarcer than they -are, even in America.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Masculine Beauty in Feminine Eyes.</em>—In woman’s Love the -admiration of Personal Beauty has played a much less significant -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> than in man’s Love. If, nevertheless, the average man in -most countries is perhaps a better specimen of masculine Beauty -than the average woman of feminine Beauty, this is owing to the -facts that sons as well as daughters may inherit their mother’s -beauty, and that men, leading a more active and athletic life, are -more beautiful than women in proportion as they are more -healthy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the past barbarous times the constant wars and the unsettled -state of social affairs made it important for women to select men -not for their beauty, but for their <a id='corr178.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='energy'>energy,</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_178.19'><ins class='correction' title='energy'>energy,</ins></a></span> courage, and manly -prowess. Desdemona falls in Love with the Moor despite his -colour and ugliness; and why? Othello himself tells us—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“She loved me for the dangers I had passed,</div> - <div class='line'>And I loved her that she did pity them.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>And it is on beholding Orlando vanquishing the Duke’s wrestler -that Rosalind falls in Love with him. As Celia remarks: “Young -Orlando, that tripped up the wrestler’s heels and your heart, both -in an instant.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women are conservative; and in the ludicrous feminine eagerness -to make immortal heroes of the ephemeral victors in a boat-race -or baseball match, we see an echo, in these peaceful days, of a -feminine trait imprinted on them in warlike times.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Intellectual supereminence, in the meantime, was ignored by -women. Petrarch’s verses made no impression on Laura, and -Dante could not even win Beatrice with such poetic beauties as -these lines—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Whatever her sweet eyes are turned upon,</div> - <div class='line'>Spirits of Love do issue thence in flame,</div> - <div class='line'>Which through their eyes who then may look on them</div> - <div class='line'>Pierce to the heart’s deep chamber every one.</div> - <div class='line'>And in her smile Love’s image you may see</div> - <div class='line'>Whence none can gaze upon her steadfastly.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>There is, however, already a large class of superior women who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>have discovered that brains have displaced muscle in the successful -struggle for existence, and that strong nerves are the true storage-batteries -of courage and vigour in modern life. Hence the homage -paid to men of genius.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In regard to masculine Beauty a change likewise has come over -the feminine mind. Fashionable young ladies appear, indeed, to -be as exacting in the matter of what they consider Personal Beauty -as their beaux are. A barber’s pet is their pet, even as the fashionable -man’s ideal of femininity is a milliner’s model. There can be -hardly any doubt that this is an improvement on the taste of those -savages who prefer their women black, with thick lips, flat noses, -and tattooed, or smeared with a half-inch coat of paint.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Says a writer in the <cite>London Magazine</cite> (1823): “The pale -poet, whose works enchant us all, is nobody in the park: with his -shrunk cheeks and spindle legs, he sneaks along as little noticed -as a fly; while a thousand fond eyes are fixed on the gay and -handsome apprentice there, with just enough intellect to make the -clothes which make him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Serves the pale poet quite right. His genius does not give -him any right to neglect his health, or to allow the tailor’s apprentice -to surpass him in attention to his personal appearance. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>Génie -oblige.</i></span> And whether geniuses or not, men should pay just as -much attention to their dress and personal attractiveness as women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A convincing illustration of my thesis that Personal Beauty is -to-day a more important factor in woman’s Love than formerly, is -afforded by the circumstance that formerly Love had the effect of -making a man neglect his beard, and hands, and clothes, and indulge -in general slovenliness, as we see in Rosalind’s summary of -the symptoms of masculine Love, as well as in various passages in -Cervantes and other authors; whereas to-day it is just the reverse, -as noted under the head of Gallantry. It is most amusing to -watch a man smitten with sudden passion: how carefully he adjusts -his cravat, curls his moustache, brushes his hat and boots, polishes -his finger-nails, removes spots from his coat, regards himself in the -mirror, and—wishes he were a millionaire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So much for the general relations between Love and Beauty. -It now remains to consider in detail what peculiarities of personal -appearance are and have been specially favoured by Love. This -involves an æsthetico-anatomical analysis of every part of the human -body from toe to top. To this analysis almost one half of this -work will be devoted—showing the preponderating importance of -Personal Beauty over the other factors in Modern Love. But -before proceeding to this pleasant task it will be well, for the sake -<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>of continuity, to discuss the remaining aspects of Modern Love: -how it differs from conjugal affection; how men of genius behave -when in Love; what are the peculiarities of the physical expression -of Love in features and actions; how Love maybe won and cured; -and how the leading modern nations differ in their amorous peculiarities. -A consideration of Schopenhauer’s theory of Love will -then naturally lead us to the second part of this treatise, in which -Personal Beauty alone will form our theme.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>CONJUGAL AFFECTION AND ROMANTIC LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Perhaps the main reason why no one has anticipated me in -writing a book showing that Love is an exclusively modern sentiment, -and tracing its gradual development, is because no distinction -has been commonly made between Romantic Love and Conjugal -Affection, though they differ as widely as maternal love and friendship. -The occurrence of noble examples of conjugal attachment -as far back as Homer has obscured the fact that pre-nuptial or -Romantic Love is almost as modern as the telegraph, the railway, -and the electric light.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Two thousand and four hundred years ago the Greek philosopher -Empedokles taught that there are four elements—fire, air, water, -earth—which remain unchanged amid all combinations. Chemistry -has long since shown that these supposed elements are compounds, -and that the number of real elements is much larger.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In a similar way the tender or family emotions have been gradually -distinguished from one another. Among the ancient Greeks -φιλότης meant both friendship and sexual love, which, as we have -seen, they strangely confounded, both in theory and in practice. -To-day we distinguish not only between friendship and sexual love, -but between the two phases of sexual love—Romantic and Conjugal -Affection—the former of which was unknown to the Greeks. -We do this not only because, as in the case of the chemical -elements, our knowledge has become more precise and subtle, but -because these emotions have been gradually developed, and have -assumed different characteristics, so that it would be difficult at -present to mistake one for the other.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As regards the difference between Conjugal and Romantic Love, -however, the current conceptions are not yet so clear and definite; -many good folks being, in fact, inclined to frown upon the suggestion -that there is any such difference. Yet it is useless for them -to endeavour, with well-meant hypocrisy, to impress upon the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>young the notion that Love is unchangeable, since no one who -keeps his eyes open can help noticing how differently married -couples behave from lovers. In marriage the dazzling blue flame -of Romantic Love gradually grows smaller and dies away. But -the coals may retain their glow and perchance keep the heart -warmer than the former flickering flames of Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is, indeed, a great moral advantage to be gained by -frankly acknowledging that Love undergoes a metamorphosis in -wedlock. It <em>breaks the sting of cynicism</em>. For if we are told that -“marriage is the sunset of love,” or that “the only sure cure for -love is marriage,” we may calmly retort, “What of it?” When -the romantic passion subsides, its place is taken by another group -of emotions, equally noble and conducive to the welfare of society. -It is not an annihilation of anything, but simply a change: losing -some pleasures, but gaining others in their place; getting rid of -some pains to be burdened with others. Love’s metamorphosis -into conjugal affection is like that of a wild rose into its red berry. -Though less fragrant and lovely than the rose, the berry is almost -as warm in colour, endures longer, and brings forth fresh plants to -adorn future seasons.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Similes, however, are not arguments; and it behoves us therefore, -for the benefit of bachelors and old maids, and of married folks -who never were in love, to point out definitely wherein conjugal -differs from Romantic Love; which at the same time will explain -why conjugal affection was able to exist so many centuries before -Romantic Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In preceding pages a fragmentary attempt has been made to -characterise Love, and to show how its growth was impeded through -the inferior social and intellectual status of women and the absolute -chaperonage of the young. Maidens and youths had no opportunity -to meet and become acquainted. Barter, and considerations -of rank and expediency, took the place of affection, and parental -authority that of individual choice. There was no prolonged -courtship, hence no jealousy of rivals, no female coyness and -coquetry, no alternating hopes and doubts, no monopoly of mutual -admiration, no ecstatic adoration, sympathetic sharing of lovers’ -joys and griefs, or pride of conquest and possession.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Conjugal affection, on the other hand, was much less retarded -in its growth by such artificial arrangements, the outcome of -strong man’s brutal selfishness. Polygamy was the chief impediment; -but as soon as woman became sufficiently “emancipated” -to claim a husband of her own, the soil was ready for the growth -of conjugal affection. In its early stages this form of affection -<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>must have been much more crude and simple than it is in modern -society. In most instances it was probably little more than a -mere superficial attachment, growing out of the habit of living -together for some time; the husband being attached to his wife -on account of the domestic comforts and ease she provided for -him, and the wife to the husband very much as a dog is to his -master, who, though cruel, yet takes care of and feeds him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How crudely utilitarian the conjugal bond is among primitive -men may be inferred from Mr. Wallace’s remarks already quoted -as to the motives which guide the maidens of certain Amazon-valley -tribes in choosing their husbands. There is, he says, “a -trial of skill at shooting with the bow and arrow, and if the -young man does not show himself a good marksman, the girl -refuses him, on the ground that he will not be able to shoot fish -and game enough for the family.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>With the ancient “classical” nations there were, unless the -poets have strongly idealised their characters, examples of conjugal -affection hardly differing from the most refined modern instances. -Owing to the then prevalent contempt for the female mind, however, -such cases cannot be accepted as fair samples of the “general -article”; and they only allow us to infer that, as with Love and -with genius, so with conjugal affection, there were some early -perfect instances anticipating by many centuries the general course -of emotional evolution.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the dark and warlike mediæval ages Conjugal Love, on the -woman’s side, was apparently little more, as a rule, than a sense -of devotion to her husband based on her need of protection against -barbarous enemies; and what it was on the husband’s side may be -inferred from his stern and often tyrannic rule in his own house, -which was calculated to breed in his wife and children fear but -neither conjugal nor filial affection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In modern Conjugal Affection the elements are as diverse and -as variously intermingled as in Love, if not more so; and it -would be as difficult to find two cases of conjugal love exactly -alike as two human faces, or two leaves in a forest. One man -cherishes his wife chiefly on account of the home comfort she -provides—the neat and tasteful domestic interior, the well-cooked -dinners, the economic attention to household affairs, etc. Another -man’s pride in his spouse is based on her conversational skill, her -diplomatic art of asserting her place among the upper ten in -society, and of adorning her drawing-rooms with the presence of -prominent people of the day. A third husband loves his wife -for her artistic accomplishments or her personal charms. Still -<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>another, an author, is devoted to his spouse because she cleverly -assists his labours by criticism and suggestion, and still more -because she takes such a sympathetic interest in his creations, and -<em>really</em> thinks that no one since Shakspere has written like her -own dear Adolphus.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These and a thousand like circumstances, with their attendant -feelings, enter into the highly complex group of emotions subsumed -under the name of Conjugal Love. Yet, since any one of these -feelings may be absent without extinguishing Conjugal Affection, -they cannot be regarded as its essentials or framework, but only -as colouring material.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is that which is commonly regarded as the strongest of all -cements between husband and wife—the common love of their -children—to be accepted as the essence of conjugal love. For -childless couples present many of the most remarkable cases of -devotion, while in many other cases the children not only fail to -rekindle the torch of love, but even arouse jealousies and ill-feeling -between their parents by showing a special preference for one or -the other. Nevertheless, though not absolutely essential to -conjugal love, the common parental feeling is one of its most -important and constant ingredients; and there is none of its -tributaries which adds more to the deep current of connubial bliss. -It enables the parents to enjoy once more the simple pleasures of -life, to which they had grown callous; it brings back the -peculiarly delicious memories of their own childhood and youth; -enables the father to discover his former sweetheart renewed in -his daughter, and the mother her former lover in her son; while -their common pride in the beauty or accomplishments of the -children supplies them with a never-failing topic of conversation -and source of sympathy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And this suggests what must be regarded as the real kernel of -conjugal attachment—a perennial mutual sympathy regarding not -only the affairs of their children but every other domestic affair—in -other words, a complete and <em>necessary</em> harmony of feelings and -interests. The accent rests on the word <em>necessary</em>; for it is this -feeling of necessary communion of interests that distinguishes -conjugal affection from Love and from friendship, in both of -which there is a mutual sympathy, but not so far-reaching and -inevitable. A lover’s fame or disgrace may be keenly felt by his -sweetheart or his friend, yet society does not associate them with -the other’s reputation or disgrace; and if the infamy is too great, -they can easily sever their bond, without leaving a spot on their -own good name. Not so with husband and wife. His promotion -<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>is her honour, and his fall her humiliation; for they are inseparably -associated in the public mind, and cannot be parted except -through divorce, which is equivalent to social suicide. Therefore -theirs is “one glory an’ one shame,” and their destiny to “share -each other’s gladness and weep each other’s tears.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To make this matrimonial harmony complete, it is necessary -that there should be a real sense of companionship, <i>i.e.</i> common -tastes and topics of conversation. “Unlikeness may attract,” -says Mill, “but it is likeness which retains; and in proportion to -the likeness is the suitability of the individuals to give each other -a happy life.” The opposite qualities by which lovers are often -attracted are chiefly of a physical nature. Where the mental -differences are great—where he, for instance, is fond of books and -music, while she wishes his books and his piano in Siberia; or -she fond of parties, pictures, and theatres, and he bored to death -by them: in such cases genuine Romantic Love cannot survive a -few weeks of constant companionship, and hopes of nuptial bliss -must end in disappointment.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>ROMANCE IN CONJUGAL LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Horwicz places the essence of Conjugal Love in the feeling of -being indissolubly united; and this agrees substantially with our -conclusion that it lies in a necessary mutual Sympathy concerning -every affair of vital interest. Now if this <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>obligato</i></span> Sympathy is -facilitated by a communion of tastes, as just suggested, there is -no reason why conjugal life should not retain some of the other -elements which constitute the charm of Romantic Love. Novelists -and dramatists will perhaps continue to avoid wedded life as a -theme because it lacks the plot-interest, the uncertainty, and the -consequent Mixed Moods of pre-nuptial Love. Emotional Hyperbole, -too, will rarely survive the honeymoon, for, as Addison -remarks, “When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she -quickly sinks into a woman.” Yet a woman, too, is not such a -bad thing after all, if you know how to manage her. Jealousy is -a trait of Romantic Love that is only too apt to survive in -marriage. By a judicious use of its sting a neglected wife can -bring her husband back to her feet. But it is a double-edged -tool, dangerous to toy with. The Pride of Conquest becomes -changed into Pride of Possession or a vain feeling of Proprietorship, -which will continue so long as the husband or the wife -retains those self-sacrificing qualities which distinguished them -during Courtship—which, however, rarely happens. Where -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>possession is assured and sanctioned by law, Coyness is of course -out of the question; yet a clever woman can by a judicious -adaptation of the arts of Flirtation do much to keep alive the -glowing coals of former romantic passion. All she has to do is -to devise some novel methods of fascinating the husband, and -then keep him at a distance till he resumes the tricks of devoted -Gallantry which had once made him such an acceptable lover.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is the growing indifference to Gallantry, to the Desire to -Please, active and passive, that is responsible for the usual -absence of romance in conjugal life. And there seems to be a -general ungallant consensus among writers, masculine and -feminine, that women are more responsible for this state of affairs -than men. “The reason,” says Swift, “why so few marriages -are happy, is because young ladies spend their time in making -nets, not in making cages.” Young ladies have, no doubt, greatly -improved since the days of Swift; but in the vast majority of -cases their device still is to learn a few superficial tricks of -“culture,” and to practise the art of personal adornment, until -they have caught a husband, and then to bid good-bye to all -music, and art, and study, and improvement of the mind, as well -as to the “bother” of attending to Personal Beauty while the -husband <em>only</em> is about. As if it were not a thousand times more -important to retain the husband’s romantic adoration and -Gallantry, originally based on that beauty, than to enjoy the -momentary admiration of a third person!</p> - -<p class='c001'>On this topic the German poet Bodenstedt has some remarks -which show that, after all, the excessive Oriental Jealousy which -forbids women to appear unveiled in public rests on a basis of -common sense:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Just as it is possible to trace most absurdities to an originally -quite reasonable idea, so not a few things may be said in favour of -the Oriental custom which allows women to adorn themselves only -for their husband, and to unveil their face only before him, while -outside of the house it is their duty to appear veiled and in as unattractive -a costume as possible. With us, it is well known, the -opposite is true: at home the women devote little attention to -their toilet, and only adorn themselves when they have company -or go out visiting; in one word, they display their charms and -their finery more to please others than their own husband,” etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Surely no one wishes our women to reserve their charms exclusively -for their husbands. On the contrary, such a proceeding -would be considered quite as unreasonable and selfish as to lock up -a Titian or a Murillo in a room accessible to a single person only; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>but certainly the husband should not be entirely overlooked in his -wife’s Desire to Please by her Personal Beauty. His Pride on -seeing others admire her does not alone suffice to prolong his -romantic adoration. Don’t be too sure, Amanda, that your -husband is yours because you are married. He is yours in Law, -but not in Love, unless you preserve your personal charms in his -presence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fact that, whereas in Romantic Love men are superior to -women; in conjugal life, on the other hand, woman’s love is commonly -much deeper and more lasting than man’s, indicates in itself -that marriages are made or marred by women. (For the sake of -the lovely alliteration some writers would have said—against their -conscience—that “marriages are made or marred by men;” but -alliteration will have to be ignored in this place in favour of -facts.) Before marriage, women are more beautiful and fascinating -than men, wherefore men love them more ardently than <em>they</em> love -the men. After marriage, it is the men who grow more beautiful, -more manly, in body as well as in mind; hence it is but natural -that their wives should love them more and more. So would -wives be loved more and more if they did not so soon after thirty -lose their physical charms, without trying, by reading books or at -least the newspapers, to make themselves intellectual companions -of their husbands, able to converse interestingly on various topics.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The old excuse that motherhood inevitably lessens woman’s -charms is all nonsense. Married women at thirty are almost -always handsomer than old maids of thirty. Women grow stout -and clumsy, or thin and faded so soon, not because they are -mothers, but because they are indifferent to the laws of health; -because they refuse to go out to get fresh air and exercise, which -would preserve the freshness of their complexion, the graceful contours -of their bodies, and the elasticity of their gait. The morbid -fondness for a hot-house atmosphere, and the horror of fresh air, -draughts, and vigorous exercise, have done more to shorten man’s -Love and woman’s Beauty than all other causes combined. <em>The -road to lasting Love is paved with lasting Beauty.</em></p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as Conjugal Affection was not—as might be naturally -supposed—historically developed from Romantic Love, since it -existed long before Romantic Love, the peculiarities of this later -passion are not normally present in Conjugal Love. To what extent, -however, they can be smuggled in, has just been shown; -and it is one of the great social tasks of the future to make Conjugal -and Romantic Love as much alike as possible: not by making -the poetry of romance more prosaic, but by making the prose of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>conjugal life more poetic. But so long as Romantic Love is -discouraged, Conjugal Affection, too, will of course be unable to -borrow its unique charms. Hence an additional reason for facilitating -the opportunities for Courtship and prolonging its duration.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MARRIAGES OF REASON OR LOVE-MATCHES?</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The number of parents who believe that their infallible wisdom -is a better guide matrimonial than their daughters’ choice inspired -by Love, is still so large that it is worth while to add a few words -in the hope of removing this obstacle to the universal rule of -Cupid. Let Mrs. Lynn-Linton be their spokeswoman. “If it -seems a horrible thing,” she says, in <cite>The Girl of the Period</cite>, -“to marry a young girl without her consent, or without any -more knowledge of the man with whom she is to pass her life -than can be got by seeing him once or twice in formal family -conclave, it seems quite as bad to let our women roam about -the world at the age when their instincts are strongest and their -reason weakest—open to the flatteries of fools and fops—the -prey of professed lady-killers—objects of loverlike attentions by -men who mean absolutely nothing but the amusement of making -love—the subjects for erotic anatomists to study at their pleasure. -Who among our girls after twenty carries an absolutely untouched -heart to the man she marries?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt there is force in these remarks: but they do not -apply to the Girl of the Period. They apply only to the girl -brought up on the old system of being left in complete ignorance -regarding man and his wicked ways of heartless and meaningless -flattery. But modern girls are not such fools as some people -would think them. <em>Tell them</em> that men are only amusing themselves; -a hint will suffice: and the man who imagines himself a -“lady-killer” will suddenly find himself a victim of counter-flirtation -and a butt of feminine sarcasm.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell girls, furthermore, not that every man loves his wife, but -that many hate and maltreat their unfortunate spouse. This will -make them cautious. Tell them that Love is not an absolute but -a <em>tentative</em> passion, and that they must not yield to the first apparent -symptoms and throw their hearts away frivolously. Tell -them, above all, that men who are extremely gallant and complimentary, -<em>without being in the least embarrassed</em>, are always -insincere and sometimes dangerous: because a man who is truly -in Love is always embarrassed. Tell them a few more such -pessimistic truths about men, instead of allowing them to perish -<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>through optimistic ignorance, and the objections against free -choice urged by Mrs. Lynn-Linton will vanish like vapour in sunlight. -English and American girls are quite able to take care of -themselves, because they are allowed to read all sorts of books, -and therefore to know the world as it is. And if any one says -that such knowledge has rendered English and American girls less -delicate, less sweet and pure, than French and German hothouse -buds, he utters an unmitigated falsehood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Advocates of so-called “wisdom” marriages are fond of pointing -out cases of unhappy married life, based originally on free -Choice. But free Choice by no means always implies Love. Its -motives are often pecuniary, or social; and in these cases the -marriage actually comes under the head of “wisdom marriages,” -whose champions are thus boxing their own ears. Besides, we must -remember Byron’s words, that “many a man thinks he marries by -choice who only marries by accident.” If a man marries his -Rosaline before he has met his Juliet, he has only himself or his -bad luck to blame, not Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The frequency with which runaway “love-matches” end unhappily, -is adduced as another argument in favour of wisdom -marriages. Two things are here forgotten: that in nineteen -runaway matches out of twenty, the predominant passion is -frivolity, not Love; and that quite a considerable proportion of -unions not preceded by an elopement end unhappily; but being -less romantic they are not so much talked about.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Wisdom” marriages based on parental choice are those which -have prevailed in the past: and we have seen how beautifully -they coincided with woman’s degradation, ignorance, and social -debasement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Wisdom marriages are incompatible with Courtship, which -becomes a superfluous preliminary to marriage. Modern methods -of Courtship and engagement ordinarily prolong this period to -about a year or two. This is the honeymoon, not of marriage, -but of life itself, the time when earth is a paradise. During -these two years the soul makes more progress in refinement, -maturity, and insight than during any other <em>decade</em> of life. Shall -all this happiness, all this refining influence, be thrown away with -Love?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Compatibility of temper is the most important of all prerequisites -to a happy marriage. Should Love be allowed to find -out during Courtship if there is such a compatibility, before it -is too late, or shall the inadequate judgment of parents unite -two souls with as much mutual affinity as oil and water?</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>Self-sacrifice for their children is considered the noblest of -parental traits. Were Schopenhauer right in claiming that in -Love-matches the parents sacrifice their individual happiness to -the wellbeing of their children—would not this be an additional -motive for abhorring wisdom marriages, in which the interests of -the parents alone are consulted?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MARRIAGE HINTS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It would be foolish to deny, on the other hand, that Reason -should be consulted as much as possible as long as Love allows -it to have the floor for a moment. Thus men might, before it -is too late, have an eye to Benjamin Franklin’s advice in regard -to large families and the age of marriage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. F. W. Holland of Boston has collected some statistics concerning -which Mr. Galton says, “One of his conclusions was that -morality is more often found among members of large families than -among those of small ones. It is reasonable to expect this would -be the case, owing to the internal discipline among members of -large families, and to the wholesome sustaining and restraining -effects of family pride and family criticism. Members of small -families are apt to be selfish, and when the smallness of the family -is due to the deaths of many of its members at early ages, it is -some evidence either of weakness of the family constitution, or of -deficiency of common sense or of affection on the part of the parents -in not taking better care of them. Mr. Holland quotes in his letter -to me a piece of advice by Franklin to a young man in search of -a wife, ‘to take one out of a bunch of sisters,’ and a popular saying -that kittens brought up with others make the best pets, because -they have learned to play without scratching. Sir W. Gull has -remarked that those candidates for the Indian Civil Service who -are members of large families are on the whole the strongest.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A second bit of advice given by Franklin is perhaps less unquestionable: -“From the marriages that have fallen under my -observation,” he says, "I am rather inclined to think that early -ones stand the best chances of happiness. The temper and habits -of the young are not become so stiff and uncomplying as when -more advanced in life: they form more easily to each other, and -hence many occasions of disgust are removed.... ‘Late -children,’ says the Spanish proverb, ‘are early orphans.’ With us -in America (1768) marriages are generally in the morning of life; -our children are therefore educated and settled in the world by -noon; and thus, our business being done, we have an afternoon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>and evening of cheerful leisure to ourselves.... By these early -marriages we are blessed with more children; and from the mode -among us founded by nature, every mother suckling and nursing -her own child [1768], more of them are raised. Thence the swift -progress of population among us, unparalleled in Europe."</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Marriages,” says Theodore Parker, “are best of dissimilar -materials;” and Coleridge remarks, similarly: “You may depend -upon it that a slight contrast of character is very material to -happiness in marriage.” But would it be possible to find two -individuals who did not present “a slight contrast of character”? -Coleridge apparently did not think much of the average conjugal -union of his day: “To the many of both sexes I am well aware,” -he says, “this Eden of matrimony is but a kitchen-garden, a thing -of profit and convenience, in an even temperature between indifference -and liking.” What a married person wants is “a soul-mate -as well as a house or yoke-mate.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Young men are often warned not to marry for beauty, because -it is but skin-deep. But surely a millimetre of beauty is worth -more than a yard of ugliness, though whitewashed with rank, -money, or general utility. “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>OLD MAIDS</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>One way in which Romantic Love fulfils its mission of increasing -the amount of Personal Beauty in the world, is by <em>eliminating -ugly and masculine women as Old Maids</em>, and thus preventing -them from transmitting their characteristics to the next generation. -Were it not for the fact that the average man is quite devoid of -æsthetic taste and incapable of ardent Romantic Love, and that -therefore considerations of wealth and social advantages guide him -in his choice of a wife, <em>ugly</em> women would rarely be found outside -the ranks of Old Maids. As it is, it happens only too often that -dowerless beautiful women are condemned to live and die in single -blessedness, while the ugly people fill the world with photographic -copies of themselves.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why is it that every refined man feels an instinctive aversion -to <em>masculine</em> women? Because a masculine woman is an exception -to the laws of nature, a <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>lusus naturæ</i></span>, a monstrosity. We find even -among the lower animals that the females differ widely, as a rule, -in traits and appearance from the males—sometimes so much so -that there are instances on record of females and males having been -for a time supposed to belong to different species; and the differences -<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>grow greater the more the sexual functions are developed -and specialised. Yet Amazons occur even among animals. -“Characters common to the male,” says Darwin, “are occasionally -developed in the female <em>when she grows old or becomes diseased</em>, -as, for instance, when the common hen assumes the flowing tail-feathers, -hackles, combs, spurs, voice, and even <em>pugnacity</em> of the -cock.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the warlike Greeks, who knew only masculine or mono-sexual -love, Amazons were naturally esteemed, as they did not -clash with their feminine ideal. “How popular a subject the -Amazons were for sculptors,” says Grote, “we learn from the statement -of Pliny that the most distinguished sculptors executed -Amazons, and that this subject was the only one upon which a -direct comparison could be made between them.” But the progress -of time, as we have seen, has more and more differentiated men -and women, in appearance and traits of character; and the modern -ideal of woman is exclusively feminine, <i>i.e.</i> devoid of hackles, spurs, -cock-a-doodle-doo, and pugnacity. Hence the political Virago -movement is an evil which will never make any progress, thanks -to the constant elimination of masculine women through that -adorable process of Sexual Selection known as Modern Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Masculine women are always condemned to bury their unwomanly -proclivities with their spinster-selves, unless they are very -rich, or unless they can find a correspondingly effeminate man who -wishes to neutralise his abnormalities in his children by marrying -a spouse whose faults are an excess in the opposite direction. In -such a case a virago may possibly even inspire Romantic Love, -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>mirabile dictu!</i></span></p> - -<p class='c001'>An ugly woman, on the other hand, need never despair of finding -a husband; she has at least eight chances of getting married. -In the first place, she may, like a masculine woman, inspire true -Love in a man whose faults are the opposite of hers; secondly, she -may fall in love with a man of faultless proportions, and while in -Love her features will be so transfigured and beautified that he -cannot help returning her Love; thirdly, she may meet a man who, -from want of æsthetic taste, prefers a chromo to a Titian; or a -fourth, who would rather marry an amiable and useful ugly girl than -a spoiled beauty. Wealth and social position supply two more -resources. Accident may favour her, through the absence of -prettier rivals, giving no opportunities for odious comparisons; -and, finally, she may meet an elderly bachelor who has wearied of -his single blessedness and longs for double strife.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As for those Old Maids who are neither ugly nor masculine, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>some of them are quondam coquettes who practised their arts just -one season too long and “got left” in consequence; others are -girls whom silly methods of chaperonage or ill-luck have prevented -from making the acquaintance of men whom they could have -respected and loved; so that it is often the most refined and intelligent -women who are thus doomed to remain single because -they are unwilling to marry beneath their station, socially or intellectually. -They form that class of whom De Quincey says, that -they “combine more intelligence, cultivation, and thoughtfulness -than any other in Europe—the class of unmarried women above -twenty-five—an increasing class, women who, from mere dignity -of character, have renounced all prospects of conjugal and parental -life rather than descend into habits unsuitable to their birth.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women who are too ugly to inspire Love may nevertheless feel -proud of being a class of Vestal Virgins who serve the cause of -Love by abstaining from adding to the number of unattractive -people in the world by hereditary transmission. On the other -hand, Old Maids who are blessed with beauty, owe it to the cause -of Love to make every effort, consistent with feminine modesty, to -get married. Not only because their children will be beautiful, -but because a woman who never marries can never experience the -two emotions which do more than any others to ennoble and -mature the feminine mind—conjugal and maternal love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Those Old Maids, however, who have not yet passed their -thirtieth year, may even claim that they represent the most perfect -and advanced type of maidenhood, and look down on girls who -marry before twenty-five as little better than savages. For it is -well known that the age of marriage advances with civilisation. -Among Australians and other savages girls marry at eleven, ten, or -even nine years; among semi-civilised Egyptians, Hindoos, etc., -the age is from twelve to fourteen; southern European peoples -marry their girls between the ages of fifteen and eighteen; while -with those nations who lead modern civilisation, the average age -of marriage for a woman is now twenty-one, with a tendency to -rise. Does it not follow from this, by inexorable logic, that girls -who remain single at twenty-five or twenty-nine are forerunners of -a still higher type of civilisation? and that the only trouble with -them is that they are so far in advance of their age and civilisation? -True, ungrateful man does not look upon them in that -light; but herein they share the fate of all true greatness. There -is one difference, however, between undervalued men of genius and -Old Maids: the men of genius admit they are in advance of their -age, and are proud of it; the Old Maids never, at least, hardly ever.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>In one of his most fascinating essays on <cite>The Main Currents of -Modern Literature</cite>, the Danish critic, Dr. Georg Brandes, discusses -the proper age of feminine Love in a manner which Old Maids will -especially appreciate. He points out that Eleonore, the heroine of -Benjamin Constant’s novel <cite>Adolphe</cite>, is the first specimen of a -modern type subsequently made fashionable by Balzac and George -Sand, namely, <em>the woman of thirty in Love</em>. Formerly, as Jules -Janin remarks, the woman between thirty and forty years of age -was lost for passion, for romance, and the drama; now she rules -alone. The girl of sixteen, as adored by Racine, Shakspere, -Molière, Voltaire, Ariosto, Byron, Lesage, Scott, is no more to be -found. And Mme. Emile de Girardin thus attempts to defend -Balzac: “Is it Balzac’s fault that the age of thirty to-day is the -age of love? Balzac is compelled to depict passion where he finds -it, and at this day it is not to be found in the heart of a girl of -sixteen.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So far as these remarks are true they afford a new confirmation -of my assertions that true Romantic Love is dependent on a certain -amount of intellectual power and maturity, and that in consequence -man loves more deeply than woman at the age preceding -marriage. In England and America novelists still persist in -making women love at any age from eighteen, and they have a -right to do so, because in these two countries women are well -enough educated and experienced in life at eighteen to be able to -love. In France girls receive such a superficial education that -they are ordinarily quite impervious to any deep emotions before -they are either Old Maids or married. But in most cases they are -married before twenty without regard to their own wishes. And -then happens what is indicated in Fuller’s aphorism: “It is to be -feared that they who marry where they do not love, will love -where they do not marry.” And hence it is that the only love -depicted by French novelists and playwrights is the adulterous -love of a faithless wife. Could anything more vividly illustrate -the criminal absurdities of French education and the French system -of chaperonage?</p> - -<p class='c001'>In France a girl is not even allowed to cross the street alone -until she is willing to assume the name and with it the comparative -freedom of an Old Maid. In Spain, the author of <span lang="es" xml:lang="es"><cite>Cosas de -España</cite></span> tells us, Old Maids are rare because a girl generally -accepts her first offer; and there are probably not many girls who -do not receive at least one offer in their life—masculine women -always excepted. In Russia, where women, according to Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, -enjoy almost as much liberty as in America, a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>curious custom prevails by which a girl of uncertain age may -escape the appellation of Old Maid. She may leave home and -become lost for two or three years in Paris, London, or some other -howling wilderness of humanity. Then she may return to her -friends neither as maid nor wife, but as a widow. And it is -“good form” in Russian society to accept this myth without -asking for details.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Finally the important question remains: “What is an Old -Maid?” That depends very much on individuals and the care -they take of their Health and Beauty. Some women are Old -Maids at twenty, the majority at thirty, and some not before forty; -while those girls who will read the chapters on Personal Beauty in -the last part of this treatise, and follow all the advice there given, -will never become Old Maids at all, but will be gobbled up before -twenty-three by eager bachelors previously considered hopeless -cases of celibacy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even if it were possible to name a definite age as that when a -girl begins to be an Old Maid, it would be a bit of useless information, -because nobody ever knows how old a woman is. Often it is -easier to tell a woman’s age by her conversation than by her looks: -some incipient Old Maids constantly hint at their former numerous -flirtations, which they never did while they really had them.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>BACHELORS</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c019'> - <div><span class='small'>“Pirates of Love who know no duty.”</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Of all the brutes enumerated in the human branch of zoology -the deliberate bachelor is the most unreasonable and selfish. Unreasonable, -because he voluntarily deprives himself of connubial -bliss, domestic comforts, and the prospect of being cheered and -cared for in his old age by a family of loving children. Selfish, -because at present the bread-winning arrangements are almost -entirely framed for man’s convenience alone, wherefore it is his -duty to support a wife.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Masculine selfishness, however, is not exclusively responsible for -the rapid increase of bachelordom. The women themselves are -largely at fault—in two ways. The modern tendency of concentrating -population in large cities makes domestic life a much more -expensive affair than it is in smaller towns or in rural districts; -and at the same time women are gradually invading every sphere -of masculine employment, thus reducing wages by competition and -making it more and more difficult for a man to earn an income -<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>which allows him to marry. This aspect of the question, once -before alluded to, is one which the advocates of Woman’s Rights -are too apt to ignore. For the benefit of poor young girls, and -widows, and old maids, it is, indeed, but just that various employments -adapted to female hands should be thrown open to them and -properly remunerated; but if the effect of this is simply and constantly -to <em>increase</em> the number of single poor women, by making -marriage impossible, what is gained by the change? A certain -amount of misery is inevitable in the world; and it seems better -that it should be distributed where it will not imperil the popularity -and possibility of marriage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>After all, self-supporting women must always be the exception, -not the rule; for it is the destiny of the vast majority of women -to be wives; and regarding these even Mr. Mill admits “it is not -... a desirable custom that the wife should contribute by her -labour to the income of the family.” Now surely it would be most -absurd, as some “strong-minded” women are trying to do, to -arrange the educational scheme of all women so as to benefit the -exceptional women who are excluded from matrimony. A thousand -times more important is it to change woman’s education so as to -enable her to look after her household affairs. It is by neglecting -to do this that women supply the second cause for the increasing -prevalence of Bachelors. Every man is expected to learn his trade -properly before marriage; but woman’s proper occupation—the art -of taking care of home and making it a paradise, is commonly supposed -to be a thing that can be learned easily enough after marriage. -Even when a woman is so wealthy that she is not obliged -to do any housework at all, she should, like a ship’s captain, learn -all about the duties of subordinates, else she will be unable to -command them properly. A captain who displayed ignorance on -any point before his sailors would lose their respect and attitude of -prompt obedience; and it has been suggested that one reason why -American women, especially, have so much trouble with their -servants, is because they know so little about domestic economy -that the servants, ignorant as they are, become arrogant because -of their superior knowledge.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the subject of woman’s sphere, Herbert Spencer has written -words which should be hung in golden letters in every schoolroom: -“When we remember that up from the lowest savagery civilisation -has, among other results, brought about an increasing exemption -of women from bread-winning labour, and in the highest -societies they have become most restricted to domestic duties and the -rearing of children; we may be struck by the anomaly that at the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>present time restriction to indoor occupations has come to be -regarded as a grievance, and a claim is made to free competition -with men in all outdoor occupations.... Any extensive change -in the education of women, made with the view of fitting them -for business and professions, would be mischievous. <em>If women -comprehended all that is contained in the domestic sphere, they -would ask no other.</em> If they could see all that is implied in the -right education of children, to a full conception of which no man -has yet risen, much less any woman, they would seek no higher -function” (<cite>Principles of Sociology</cite>, vol. i. § 340).</p> - -<p class='c001'>When every woman has learned how to cultivate flowers and -vegetables in her domestic garden at the same time, the millennium -will have arrived, and the word Bachelor be found only in Dictionaries -of Antiquities.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women are sometimes held responsible in still another way for -the continuance of Bachelors in single boredom, viz. by refusing -their Love and breaking their hearts. But surely, as the shepherdess -in <cite>Don Quixote</cite> has so eloquently shown, it does not at all -follow that if a man falls in Love with a woman, she must necessarily -fall in Love with him; and if she does <em>not</em> love him, it is -her <em>duty</em> not to marry him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Besides, a broken heart is a very rare article in this world, and -every nation has discovered a peculiar local remedy for it: the -Spaniards by stabbing the girl who broke it; the Italians by -annihilating the rival; the Germans by soaking the fragments in -Rhine wine; the Englishmen by a change of air; and ultimately -they all follow the example of the Frenchman who, on the day -following the catastrophe, casts his eyes about for a new charmer; -or, if they do not, but like a snail withdraw into their shell for -the rest of their life, abusing all women as heartless, they are -bigger fools than they look. What would you say of a fisherman -who went out for a day’s sport and returned after an hour because -the first trout that nibbled at the bait escaped?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is the happy privilege of every Bachelor to have loved fully -and deeply once in his life; but if his passion is not appreciated, -it is his duty to try again; for, even as a stolen kiss is not a real -kiss because it lacks the thrill of mutuality, so Love is not Love</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Till heart with heart in concord beats,</div> - <div class='line'>And the lover is beloved.”—<span class='sc'>Wordsworth.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>True, La Rochefoucauld says that “The pleasure of love is -in loving;” and Shelley echoes the same sentiment in his -<cite>Prometheus</cite>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in20'><span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>“All love is sweet,</div> - <div class='line'>Given or returned....</div> - <div class='line'>They who inspire it most are fortunate</div> - <div class='line'>As I am now; but those who feel it most, are happier still.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>Yet neither the English poet nor the French essayist appears to -have fathomed the full depth of the problem. It is as incorrect -to say, “the pleasure of love is in loving,” as to say, the pleasure -of Love is in being loved. To be loved by one I do not love is a -matter of complete indifference, except so far as my Pride or Pity -may be involved. To love where I am not loved, or am left in -uncertainty, is more of anguish than of delight. To attain the -highest ecstacy of Love I must both be in Love and able to say at -the same time, “she loves me.” Reciprocity is not only “that -which alone gives stability to love,” as Coleridge remarks, but that -without which consummate Love is impossible.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Apparent exceptions occur only when the illusion of being loved -is so vividly kept up by the imagination as to counterfeit reality; -as in the case of Eleonore, who “became so intoxicated with her -Love that she saw it double and mistook her own feeling for that -of both” (Dr. Brandes).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Therefore a Bachelor who has been unsuccessful in his first or -second Love has never enjoyed the highest bliss a human soul can -attain, and is bound to try again. Nor need he ever despair. -There are a thousand Juliets in the world for every man, and all -he needs is the good luck to <em>meet</em> the one adapted to him: for she -is his as soon as found; though she may at first have the -“cunning to be strange.”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>GENIUS AND MARRIAGE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Though it is man’s duty and destiny to get married, yet the -concurrent testimony of several famous authors appears to indicate -that there is one thing which excuses celibacy, and may even make -it a virtue—and that thing is the possession of Genius. Bacon -claims that “certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for -the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men.” -A more modern philosopher, Schopenhauer, expresses himself to -the same effect: “For men of higher intellectual avocation, for -poets, philosophers, for all those, in general, who devote themselves -to science and art, celibacy is preferable to married life, because -the conjugal yoke prevents them from creating great works.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The same counsel is indirectly given in Moore’s <cite>Life of Byron</cite>, -where he argues that “In looking back through the lives of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>most illustrious poets—the class of intellect in which the characteristic -features of genius are, perhaps, most strongly marked—we -shall find that with scarcely one exception, from Homer down to -Lord Byron, they have been, in their several degrees, restless and -solitary spirits, with minds wrapped up, like silkworms, in their -own tasks, either strangers or rebels to domestic ties, and bearing -about with them a deposit for posterity in their souls, to the jealous -watching and enriching of which almost all other thoughts and -considerations have been sacrificed.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Either strangers or rebels to domestic ties.” Among the -strangers, Moore names Newton, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, -Bayle, Locke, Leibnitz, and Hume, to whom may be added Kant, -Schopenhauer, Handel, Beethoven, Schubert, Plato, and many -others.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Quite as large is the list of “rebels to domestic ties” among -men of poetic genius. Says Moore: “The coincidence is no -less striking than saddening that, on the list of married poets who -have been unhappy in their homes, there should already be found -four such illustrious names as Dante, Milton, Shakspere, and -Dryden.” “The poet Dante, a wanderer away from wife and -children, passed the whole of a restless life in nursing his immortal -dream of Beatrice.” “The dates of the birth of his [Shakspere’s] -children, compared with that of his removal from Stratford, the -total omission of his wife’s name in the first draft of his will, and -the bitter sarcasm of the bequest by which he remembers her -afterwards—all prove beyond a doubt his separation from the lady -early in life, and his unfriendly feeling towards her at the close.” -“Milton’s first wife, it is well known, ran away from him within -a month after their marriage, ‘disgusted,’ says Phillips, ‘with his -spare diet and hard study,’ and his later domestic misery is universally -known.” “The poet Young, with all his parade of domestic -sorrows, was, it appears, a neglectful husband and a harsh father.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sir Walter Scott remarks, in his <cite>Life of Dryden</cite>: “The wife -of one who is to gain his livelihood by poetry, or by any labour (if -any there be) equally exhausting, must either have taste enough to -relish her husband’s performances, or good-nature sufficiently to -pardon his infirmities. It was Dryden’s misfortune that Lady -Elizabeth had neither the one nor the other; and I dismiss the -disagreeable subject by observing, that on no one occasion when a -sarcasm against matrimony could be introduced, has our author -failed to season it with such bitterness, as spoke of an inward -consciousness of domestic misery.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Richard Wagner when a young man married an actress, “pretty -<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>as a picture”; but she appears to have had little sympathy with -his ambitions, so he lived apart from her. Subsequently he was -very happy with Cosima, the daughter of Liszt, who <em>did</em> appreciate -his genius. Liszt himself, after living some years with the -Countess D’Agoult in Italy, separated from her. The girl whom -Haydn married soon turned out a shrew, who had no sympathy -whatever with his musical genius. Berlioz was one of the most -passionate of lovers: “Oh, that I could find her, the Juliet, the -Ophelia that my heart calls to. That I could drink in the intoxication -of that mingled joy and sadness that only true love knows! -Could I but rest in her arms one autumn evening, rocked by the -north wind on some wild heath, and sleeping my last, sad sleep.” -A few years after these rapturous effusions he arranged a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>séparation -à l’aimable</i></span> from his wife, his former flame, and left her to die in -solitude and misery.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Handel, after all, was the wisest of the composers. He was -never in Love, and had an aversion to marriage. In 1707 he went -to Lübeck to compete for the place of successor to the famous -organist Buxtehude; but when he found that one of the conditions -of obtaining the place was the compulsory privilege of marrying -the daughter of his predecessor, he got alarmed and fled precipitately.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Besides the disposition to wrap up their minds, like silkworms, -in their own tasks, Poverty and the extreme difficulty of finding -congenial companions appear to be the principal causes that have -tended to make men of genius strangers or rebels to domestic ties.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is an old saying that if Poverty comes in by one window, -Love goes out by another. But Poverty, unfortunately, seems to -be an almost necessary companion of Genius, at least in the early -stages of its career, till the inertia natural to the human brain has -been overcome. It is so much easier for the richest soils to grow -a luxuriant crop of weeds than a useful crop which needs constant -care, that there can be no doubt that wealth is responsible for the -loss of much Genius to the world. There have been men of genius -in whom the creative impulse was so strong, and the pleasure of -creating so sweet—Goethe, Schopenhauer, Byron, etc.—that they -needed not the goad of hunger; but as a rule a well-filled pocketbook -does not encourage the habit of “infinite painstaking,” which -is essential to Genius. But if a genius marries while he is poor, -he will have to waste his time on rapid, ephemeral work to support -his family; which will leave him neither leisure nor energy for -work of enduring value. Hence he should either not marry at all -or wait till he has an assured income. If money-marriages are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>ever justifiable, they are in such cases; and rich girls should make -it the one object of life to capture a man of Genius, so as to give -him leisure for immortal work. It appears, indeed, as if a sort of -Conjugal Pride of this description were becoming fashionable; for -one hears every month of some author or artist marrying an heiress. -This is certainly the easiest way for a woman to become immortal; -and what is a coquette’s gratified ephemeral vanity, compared with -the proud consciousness of passing down to posterity linked with -an immortal name, and of having helped to make that name immortal -by removing the necessity for bread-winning drudgery!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Furthermore, there can be no doubt that the number of persons -able to read a work of genius <em>at sight</em>, as it were, is growing larger -every year. Great men do not have to wait for recognition so -long as formerly, and this enables them to neglect ephemeral -drudgery in favour of creative work.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As there has been an unparalleled unfolding and increase in -feminine charms, both of body and mind, within the last half-century, -it is not too optimistic to hope that the other source of -domestic difficulties among men of genius—the extreme difficulty -of finding a congenial companion—will also be removed, in course -of time. Men of genius, as Moore remarks, have such rich resources -of thinking within themselves, that “the society of those less -gifted than themselves becomes often a restraint and burden to -which not all the charms of friendship or even love can reconcile -them.” To be completely happy a Genius should accordingly have -a wife as remarkable among women for the womanly qualities of -receptivity, grace, and sympathy, as he is among men for the manly -quality of creative energy. Yet if it is so difficult for an ordinary -man to meet his ordinary Juliet, how much more so will it ever be -for an extraordinary man to find an extraordinary Juliet!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thanks to their passion for Beauty, men of Genius are too -prone to follow the impulse of the moment and marry a pretty -doll, in the hope of being able to educate her into an attractive -companion. Unluckily it rarely happens that the minds of these -beauties are “wax to receive and marble to retain.” Pretty girls -are commonly lazy—spoiled by the thought that their beauty atones -for everything, and regardless of the future when this apology for -indolence will have lost its persuasiveness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the objections to the celibacy of Genius, the strongest is -supplied by the laws of heredity—the desirability of having their -superior mental qualities—often associated with corresponding -physical beauty—transmitted to the next generation. Genius, it -is true, depends on so many fortuitous circumstances that cases of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>direct transmission from father to son are rare enough; and Mr. -Galton’s researches show that “the ablest child of one gifted pair -is not likely to be as gifted as the ablest of all the children of very -many mediocre pairs;” and that “the more exceptional the gift, -the more exceptional will be the good fortune of a parent who has -a son who equals, and still more if he has a son who overpasses -him.” Nevertheless, it remains true that “the children of a gifted -pair are much more likely to be gifted than the children of a -mediocre pair.” Just as a professor’s son is born with a brain -naturally more plastic and receptive than that of a young savage or -peasant, so the children of a Genius who has not shattered his -health by overwork or dissipation are likely to be of a mental -calibre superior to that of an ordinary professor’s son. So that it -is the duty of a man of genius to get married even at a sacrifice of -personal happiness—provided that sacrifice is not so great as to -interfere with his intellectual duties.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>GENIUS AND LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>If we take the word Genius in the Kantian, imaginative, or -æsthetic sense, it may be said that <em>all Geniuses are amorous</em>; and -that the degree of their greatness may as a rule be measured by -their susceptibility to feminine charms. The most poetic part of -the Scriptures is the Song of Solomon with its glowing pictures of -feminine charms. Homer, though he lived long before the age of -Romantic Love, spent his life in describing the mischief caused by -Helen’s beauty. Among the Roman poets the most original was -also the most amorous. As Professor Sellar remarks of Ovid, “In -the most creative periods of English literature he seems to have -been more read than any other ancient poet, not even excepting -Virgil; and it was on the most creative minds, such as those of -Marlowe, Spenser, Shakspere, Milton, and Dryden, that be acted -most powerfully ... and although the spirit of antiquity is better -understood now than it was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, -yet in the capacity of appreciating works of brilliant fancy -we can claim no superiority over the centuries which produced -Spenser, Shakspere, and Milton, nor over those which produced -the great Italian, French, and Flemish painters,” to whom Ovid -supplied such abundant material.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coming to more recent times, we have seen that Dante, the -first modern poet, was also the first modern lover, rarely if ever -surpassed in rapturous adoration. How the greatest of the Spanish -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>bards was influenced by feminine beauty may be inferred from the -glowing descriptions of it and its influence in <cite>Don Quixote</cite>; and -as for Shakspere, even had he not written <cite>Romeo and Juliet</cite>, his -early poems alone would prove him to have been in his youth every -inch a lover; for no one, not even with Shakspere’s imagination, -could have painted such unique feelings with his realistic and -infallible touch, unless he had felt them more than once and had -them indelibly branded on his heart’s memory.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the galaxy of German poets Goethe ranks first, owing to his -manysidedness. Yet he lacked the very highest of literary gifts—wit; -and in this respect as well as through his deeper insight into -Modern Love, Heine must be rated higher than Goethe. Heine’s -personal loves are but thinly covered over by the clear amber of -his lyrics, in which they are imbedded. Goethe’s loves have become -proverbial for their number—Kätchen, Friederike, Lili, Charlotte, -Christiane, etc. Schiller, Wieland, Bürger, Bodenstedt, and the -lesser lights might all have appended a D.L., or Doctor of Love, -to their names.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Shelley, Mr. Hamilton tells us, “had an irresistible natural -tendency to fall in love”; and Byron, speaking of one of his loves, -says, “I had and have been attached fifty times since, yet I recollect -all we said to each other, all our caresses, her features, my -restlessness, sleeplessness,” etc. And in the next chapter on -“Genius in Love,” we shall meet with numerous similar cases of -English, German, and French men of genius constantly in Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To account for this amorous propensity of Genius is easy enough. -Genius means creative power allied with a taste for the Beautiful. -This taste may be gratified by the contemplation of the beauties of -Nature—the creative power by reproducing them on canvas or -manuscript. But Nature’s masterpiece is lovely woman, who not -only yields the highest gratification of artistic taste, but inspires -Love: and what is Love but a creative impulse—a desire to link -one’s name and personality, in future generations, with this embodiment -of consummate human beauty?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Shakspere’s</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,</div> - <div class='line'>And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind,”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>suggests another reason why men of Genius are eternally involved -in Love-affairs. The lover becomes infatuated not with the girl he -sees but with the girl he imagines, using her features as a mere -sketch to be filled up <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ad libitum</i></span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>“Such tricks hath strong imagination,</div> - <div class='line'>That if it would but apprehend some joy,</div> - <div class='line'>It comprehends some bringer of that joy;</div> - <div class='line'>Or in the night, imagining some fear,</div> - <div class='line'>How easy is a bush supposed a bear!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>To imagine a feeling is to entertain it; for an imagined impression -revives the same cerebral processes that were aroused by -the original sense impression. In ordinary minds the remembered -image of a girl’s lovely features, the echo of her sweet voice, are -much fainter than the original sight and sound; whereas the -imagination of genius paints a face and recalls a voice as vividly as -if they were present: so that here <em>to think of Love is to be in -Love</em>—<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>pro tempore</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Besides his refined taste and vivid imagination—which retouches -every defective negative—it is the natural depth of his emotions -that urges a Genius to fall in Love with every lovely woman. -Passions are like dogs: the big ones need more food than the little -ones. A peasant cannot experience the subtle and multitudinous -emotions that fill the heart of an artist, a statesman, a scientific -discoverer; much less the complex group of ethereal emotions that -make up Romantic Love. The higher we rise in the intellectual -scale, the more varied, complex, and deep are the emotional groups -which delight and torment the soul. As Genius represents the -climax of intellectual power, Love the climax of emotional intensity, -is it wonderful that there should be an affinity between the two? -The higher a mountain peak the more does it attract every passing -cloud and clasp it to its breast—hoping—vainly hoping—to warm -a heart chilled by its isolation above the rest of the world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As men of genius are more prone to love than common sluggish -minds, it is a lucky fact, for the future growth of Romantic Love, -that Genius grows more and more abundant—<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>pace</i></span> the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>laudatores -temporis acti</i></span> who ignorantly compare the number of living geniuses -with all those that have ever been—as if they had all lived at one -epoch. It may even be granted that there have been epochs that -had more geniuses than we have at present; but of genius there is -more to-day than ever in the world’s history. We see almost daily -in ephemeral periodicals lines and epigrams worthy of the highest -genius, written by men whose names perhaps will never be known. -Shaksperes, indeed, will always tower Mont Blanc-like over all -other peaks; but if summits of the second magnitude seem less -imposing to-day than formerly, it is because the general level of -creativeness has been raised a few thousand feet. The mountains -that enclose the Engadine valley, though 10,000 to 12,000 feet in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>height, seem only half as high, because the valley from which -you see them lies at an altitude of 6000 feet.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>GENIUS IN LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Were there not a natural affinity between Genius and Love, -authors and artists would cultivate Love as the source of their -deepest inspiration. For if it makes a temporary poet of every -peasant, what must be its effect in exalting the poet’s inborn -power!</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind;”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>Love</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Which awakes the sleepy vigour of the soul;”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>and first</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Softened the fierce, and made the coward bold.”—<span class='sc'>Dryden.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'>“For indeed I knew</div> - <div class='line'>Of no more subtle master under heaven</div> - <div class='line'>Than is the maiden passion for a maid</div> - <div class='line'>Not only to keep down the base in man,</div> - <div class='line'>But teach high thought and amiable words,</div> - <div class='line'>And courtliness, and the desire of fame,</div> - <div class='line'>And love of truth, and all that makes a man.”—<span class='sc'>Tennyson.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The Love of men of Genius, as distinguished from that of -ordinary mortals, is characterised by five traits—Precocity, Extravagant -Ardour, Fickleness, Multiplicity, and Fictitiousness—which -must be briefly considered in succession.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>I.—PRECOCITY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Turgenieff makes the narrator of one of his novelettes speak of -his first Love as having been experienced at the age of six. That -this is not a poetic license is abundantly proved by historic facts. -“Dante, we know, was but nine years old,” says Moore, “when, -at a May-day festival, he saw and fell in love with Beatrice; and -Alfieri, who was himself a precocious lover, considers such early -sensibility to be an unerring sign of a soul formed for the fine arts.... -Canova used to say that he perfectly well remembered having -been in love when but five years old.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Byron’s first Love was at the age of eight. Concerning this he -wrote at twenty-five: “How the deuce did all this occur so early? -Where could it originate? I certainly had no sexual ideas for -years afterwards; and yet my misery, my love for that girl [Mary -Duff] were so violent that I sometimes wonder if I have ever been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>really attached <a id='corr205.1'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='since.’'>since.’”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_205.1'><ins class='correction' title='since.’'>since.’”</ins></a></span> Of his second Love-affair Byron says: -“My first dash into poetry was as early as 1800. It was the -ebullition of a passion for my first cousin, Margaret Parker, one of -the most beautiful of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten -the verses, but it would be difficult for me to forget her—her dark -eyes [Byron had a passion for black eyes]—her long eyelashes—her -completely Greek cast of face and figure. I was then about -twelve—she rather older, perhaps a year. She died about a year -or two afterwards.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Burns was somewhat older when Love and poetry were born in -his soul simultaneously: “You know our country custom,” he -writes, “of coupling a man and woman together as partners in -the labours of the harvest. In my fifteenth summer my partner -was a bewitching creature, a year younger than myself. My -scarcity of English denies me the power of doing her justice in -that language, but you know the Scottish idiom. She was a -bonnie, sweet, sonsie lass. In short, she, altogether unwittingly -to herself, initiated me in that delicious passion, which, in spite of -acid disappointment, gin-horse prudence, and bookworm philosophy, -I hold to be the first of human joys here below.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Heine’s first boyish love appears to have been a girl who died -as a child, and is alluded to in his <cite>Pictures of Travel</cite> as the -“little Veronica.” His second love was a most extraordinary case -of Love at Sight. It was at a school examination, Robert Proelsz -relates, “and Harry was just declaiming Schiller’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Taucher</cite></span>, when -the lovely girl entered the room by the side of her father, who -was one of the inspectors. The boy stuttered, gazed with large -eyes on the beautiful figure, mechanically repeated the verse he -had just recited—‘And the King his lovely daughter beckoned’—and -was unable to proceed. In vain the teacher prompted him, -the poor fellow’s senses failed him, and he fell on the floor in a -swoon.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of another early visitation of sudden Love he gives an account -in his posthumous memoirs. The girl on this occasion was the -red-haired Sefchen, the sheriff’s daughter, who, when she was only -eight years old, had witnessed the mysterious burial of her grandfather’s -sword, which had done its duty a hundred times, and -which some years later her aunt had dug out and secreted in the -garret. “One day, when we were alone, I begged Sefchen to -show me that curiosity. She willingly complied, went into the -room, and soon came out with an enormous sword, which she -swung vigorously despite her weak arms, while with a roguish, -threatening tone she sang—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>“‘Will you kiss the naked sword</div> - <div class='line'>Which the Lord has given us?’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>I replied in the same tone, ‘I will not kiss the naked sword, I will -kiss the red-haired Sefchen;’ and as she could not defend herself, -for fear of hurting me with the fatal steel, she had to let me boldly -put my arms round her slender waist and kiss her defiant lips.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Berlioz had his first passion at twelve, Rousseau at eleven. -“When I saw Mlle. Goton,” writes Rousseau, “I could see -nothing else, all my senses were in confusion.... In her presence -I was agitated, and trembled.... If Mlle. Goton had ordered -me to throw myself into the fire, I believe I would have obeyed -her instantly.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>As old age is in many respects a second childhood, it seems -natural that men of genius should appear “precocious” in this -belated sense too. The case of Berlioz is one of the most extraordinary -on record. The girl who was his first love at twelve he -saw again at sixty-one: “I recognised the divine stateliness of her -step; but, oh heavens! how changed she was! her complexion -faded, her hair gray. And yet at the sight of her my heart did -not feel one moment’s indecision; my whole soul went out to its -idol, as though she were still in her dazzling loveliness.... -Balzac, nay, Shakspere himself, the great painter of the passions, -never dreamt of such a thing.” And in a letter to her he writes, -“I have loved you, I still love you, I shall always love you. And -yet I am sixty-one years of age.... Oh, madame, madame, I -have but one aim left in the world—that of obtaining your -affection.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another composer who had a passion at sixty was “Papa” -Haydn—poor Haydn, whose wife led him such a terrible life, and -used his manuscripts for curl-papers. Concerning her he wrote, -“She is always in a bad temper, and does not care whether I am -a shoemaker or an artist.” Indeed, she had never been his true -Love, but was only taken in lieu of her younger sister, whom -Haydn adored, but who refused him and became a nun. At sixty, -however, in London, he had the fortune, or misfortune, to fall in -Love again, with a widow named Schrolter, concerning whom he -wrote, “She was a very attractive woman, and still handsome, -though over sixty; and had I been free I should certainly have -married her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Goethe, in his old days, fell in Love with Minna Herzlieb, a -bookseller’s daughter. “In the sonnets addressed to her,” says -Lewes, “and in the novel of <cite>Elective Affinities</cite>, may be read the -fervour of his passion, and the strength with which he resisted.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>Rousseau’s last Love forms one of the most romantic episodes -in his life, concerning which nothing was known until a few years -ago when the French historian, R. Chantslauze, discovered in a -bookstall the MS. of a letter by Rousseau to Lady Cecile Hobart, -dated 1770, when Rousseau was almost sixty years of age. He -appears to have met this lady in England at the time when he was -writing his <cite>Confessions</cite>. She had first won his affection by her -admiration of his works; and in course of his long and hyper-sentimental -letter he remarks, “Why is it that I have never felt -any other true love but that for the products of my own fancy? -Wherein lies the reason, Cecile? In these fancied beings themselves; -they made me dissatisfied with everything else. For forty -years I have carried in my mind the image of her I adore. I love -her with a constancy, an ecstasy inexpressible.... I had no -hope of ever meeting her, had given up the eager search for her, -when you appeared before me. It was folly, infatuation, if you -like, that made me surrender myself for a moment to the magic of -your sight; but I could not but say to myself: There she is! -No other woman ever inspired that thought in me. And stranger -still is it that I could hear you speak without changing my opinion. -What the ideal of my heart thought, you spoke it to my ears.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>II.—ARDOUR</h3> - -<p class='c013'>If Bacon did not write the plays of Shakspere, it was the -biggest mistake of his life. Second among his mistakes must -rank the opinion expressed in the following sentence: “You may -observe that amongst all the great and worthy persons (whereof -the memory remaineth, either ancient or modern), there is not one -that hath been transported to the mad degree of love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>If the advocates of the Baconian theory had as much sense of -humour as they stimulate in other people, they would see that -such a sentence—and there are others like it in Bacon—could not -by any possibility have been penned by the author of <cite>As You Like -It</cite>, <cite>Venus and Adonis</cite>, or <cite>Romeo and Juliet</cite>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dante was by no means the only “great and worthy person” -before Bacon’s day who had been “transported to the mad degree -of love”; and since Bacon’s day the word Genius has become -almost synonymous with the capacity for lovers’ madness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet there is a grain of truth in Bacon’s sentence as it stands. -He evidently had in mind chiefly the <em>ancient</em> “great and worthy -persons”; and of these, as we have seen, but one or two had even -a vague presentiment of what was to be some day the moral lever -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>of the universe. Bacon probably had a dim perception of the fact -that the ancients knew nothing of passionate Love, of the imaginative -type; but he did not quite succeed in grasping the idea.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As regards Modern Genius, Bacon’s assertion is so far from the -truth, that it is quite safe to reverse it and say that it is doubtful -whether any one but a man of genius is capable of that intense -ardour of feeling which marks the climax of Love; doubtful -whether even Romeo at his age could have felt a passion such as -Shakspere’s glowing imagination painted. Love is based, not on -what a man sees with his eyes, but on the mental image retouched -by the imagination; and a man of genius, being a <em>virtuoso of the -imagination</em>, can adorn his ideal of love with ornaments unknown -to ordinary mortals; whence it follows that the passion inspired -by his more vivid and beautiful image must be more intense than -the passion inspired by less perfect visions in common, sluggish -brains. And since artistic thought can no more crystallise into -verse or epigram without the warm glow of emotion than a flower -can grow into a thing of beauty without its daily bath of warm -sunshine, it is fortunate that Genius implies a natural susceptibility -to the æsthetic passion of Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fortunate also for the prospects of Romantic Love is the fact -that Genius is king in its realms. Had not the sacred mysteries -of Love been revealed to the world in the glowing language of -poetry, it would probably have remained a thing unknown to -ordinary mortals for centuries to come; even as the beauties of -Nature, for which common minds have no eyes, would have -remained undetected, had not the poets and artists disclosed the -bonds that connect them with human sympathies.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As all the quotations from poets given in this chapter (and in -that on Hyperbole) practically bear witness to the exceptional -ardour of Love in men of genius, only two cases need be cited as -specimens—those of Burns and Heine. Gilbert Burns, the brother -of the poet, writes that the latter “was constantly the victim of -some fair enslaver. The symptoms of his passion were often such -as nearly to equal those of the celebrated Sappho. I never, -indeed, knew that he ‘fainted, sunk, and died away’; but the -agitations of his mind and body exceeded anything of the kind I -ever knew in real life.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Heine has given evidence in his letters as well as his poems -that few even of his equals have ever felt the power of love so -profoundly. It is well to emphasise this fact; for there are not a -few who fancy that, like Petrarch, Heine embodied in his songs -not the real feelings of his heart but fictitious emotions depicted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>to gratify poetic ambition. He did no such thing. His Love-poetry -is the echo of real passion, of his first and only true Love, -which cast a shadow over his whole life, and goaded him into -bitter reflections more than a decade after its sad ending. He -loved his cousin Molly, and writes to a friend, after an absence -from home: “Rejoice with me! rejoice with me! in four weeks I -shall see Molly. With her my muse will also return.” The -muse did return, but in a different way from that which he had -anticipated; with a smile in her face of cynicism, mockery, -melancholy, which never again left her. “She loves me <em>not</em>!” he -writes, in 1816. “Softly, dear Christian, pronounce that last -word softly. In the first words lies the eternal living heaven, but -in the last lies eternal living hell. If you could only see your -friend’s countenance, how pale he looks, how bewildered, how -insane, your righteous indignation at my long silence would vanish -soon; better still were it if you could have one glance at my soul—then -would you really learn to love me.” “I have seen her again—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘The devil take my soul,</div> - <div class='line'>My body be the sheriff’s,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet I for me alone</div> - <div class='line'>Select the loveliest woman.’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>Hui! do you not shudder, Christian! Well may you shudder -even as I do. Burn the letter, the Lord have mercy on my soul. -I did not write these words. There on my chair sits a pale man; -he wrote them. And this because it is midnight. Oh heavens! -Madness cannot sin!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There, there, do not breathe so heavily, there I have just -built a lovely card-house, and on the top of it I stand and hold -her in my arms!... But indeed you can hardly fancy, dear -Christian, how delightful, how lovely my ruin appears. Far from -her, to carry burning desires in my heart for years, is torture -infernal; but to be near her and yet oft sigh in vain, whole endless -weeks, for my only delight, the sight of her and—and—O! -O! O! Christian! that is enough to make the purest, most pious -soul flare up in wild, delirious ungodliness!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>And the object of this passion, who might have saved a poet’s -soul and changed him from a negative ferment into a positive -agent of culture? She was the daughter of a millionaire, who, of -course, in German fashion, had to marry into another rich family. -To marry a poor poet would have been deemed a terrible <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>mésalliance</i></span>. -Yet was he not a millionaire too—of ideas, as she was in -beauty, her father in money? But that is reasoning <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>à la</i></span> Millennium.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>What a comedy it will be to future generations, entirely -emancipated from mediæval puerilities, to read that two such -<em>Kings</em> in the realm of Genius as Schubert and Beethoven, could -not marry their true loves on account of differences in social -position—rank and money!</p> - -<p class='c001'>We are accustomed to look down on China and Chinese culture. -But China anticipated Europe by several centuries in the discovery -of gunpowder; and there is another thing in which that country -is centuries ahead of Europe. “In China there is no aristocracy -of birth or money. The aristocracy which here ranks socially -above the other classes is solely and only that of the <em>Intellect</em>.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>III.—FICKLENESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Love is a tissue of paradoxes. The very ardour of their -passion inclines men of genius to fickleness. “Love me little love -me long” is a short way of saying that whereas a blazing, roaring -fire consumes itself in an hour, the quiet, glowing coals covered -with ashes will outlast the night.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Lamartine’s <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“heureuse la beauté que le poète adore”</span>—happy -the beauty whom the poet adores—may be endorsed by a maiden -who is willing to become the secondary wife of a poetic polygamist -already wedded to a muse, for the sake of having it said in his -biography that she inspired him with some of his prettiest conceits—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">“Cynthia, facundi carmen juvenile Properti,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Accepit famam nec minus ilia dedit,”</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>as Martial says of a Roman beauty. Others will hesitate on -reading the following, from <cite>London Society</cite>:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Lord Byron has said that nothing can inflict greater torture -upon a woman than the mere fact of loving a poet; and though -Lamartine calls it a glory to be the object of immortal songs, we -half-suspect that the English bard is right, and that it would be -impossible to describe the moral sufferings of those frail beings -who seem to be the mere toys of an hour. The world may be -indebted to them for some great poem which their love has had -the power to inspire, but they themselves were probably no more -thought of by the poet than the daisy he might tread on as he -passed by.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here is a case in point: “Swift,” says Byron, “when neither -young nor handsome, nor rich nor even amiable, inspired two of -the most extraordinary passions on record—Vanessa’s and Stella’s.... -He requited them bitterly, for he seems to have broken the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>heart of the one and worn out that of the other; and he had his -reward, for he died a solitary idiot in the hands of servants.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It would be unjust, however, in all cases to trace poetic fickleness -to heartless or deliberate cruelty. May not the poet and the -artist be regarded as martyrs to art and science—students of -beauty, obliged to take a purely æsthetic, <em>disinterested interest</em> in -feminine charms—as they do in a picture or a landscape—without -any desire of exclusive possession? They flirt, apparently, not to -break hearts, but merely to educate their sense of beauty. For is -not a woman’s face the compendium of all beauty in the world? -and a woman’s eyes, expressing incipient Love, are they not so -exquisitely beautiful that an epicure of Love could for ever be -contented with that expression alone, feeling that marriage, which -might alter it, if ever so little, would be a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>bétise</i></span>? Perhaps some -similar thought was in Heine’s mind when he wrote his famous</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">"Du bist wie eine Blume</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">So hold und schön und rein;</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Ich schau’ dich an, und Wehmuth</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.</span></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Mir ist, als ob ich die Hände</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Aufs Haupt dir legen sollt‘,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Betend, dass Gott dich erhalte</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">So rein und schön und hold.”</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>In quite a different kind of a poem Heine bluntly announces to -his “Queen Mary IV.” his declaration of independence, and -informs her that not a few who ruled before her have been -unceremoniously deposed—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Manche die vor dir regierte</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Wurde schmählich abgesetzt.”</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>And in his narrative of the sheriff’s daughter he says, “I shall not -describe my love for Josepha in detail. This, however, I will confess, -that it was after all only a prelude to the great tragedies of -my riper years. Thus does Romeo become infatuated with Rosaline -before he finds his Juliet.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Byron’s confession, in speaking of an early love, that he had -been “attached fifty times since” has been referred to already; -and although Byron loved to exaggerate his foibles, his record in -this case does not belie his words. Of Burns, Principal Shairp -writes that “There was not a comely girl in Tarbolton on whom -he did not compose a song, and then he made one which included -them all.” Burns himself confesses, “In my conscience, I believe -that my heart has been so often on fire that it has been vitrified.” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>And Washington Irving remarks on Goldsmith’s first love as “a -passion of that transient kind which grows up in idleness and -exhales itself in poetry.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of this kind were two passions of Lamb, concerning which a -biographer says, “A youthful passion, which lasted only a few -months, and which he afterwards attempted to regard lightly as a -folly past, inspired a few sonnets of very delicate feeling and -exquisite music.” And of his second flame, “His stay at Pentonville -is remarkable for the fugitive passion conceived by Lamb for -a young Quakeress named Hester Savory, which he has enshrined -and immortalised in the little poem of <cite>Hester</cite>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Goethe has the reputation of having been of all famous lovers -the most fickle. Like Byron, Goethe appears to have endeavoured -to make himself appear more frivolous than he was. His amorous -Roman <cite>Elegies</cite>, which have given so much offence, were in reality -written in Thuringia, after his return from Italy; and their heroine -was no one but the girl who subsequently became his wife.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It remained for a Scotchman to write the best apology for -Goethe’s love-affairs. “To Goethe,” says Professor Blackie, “the -sight of any beautiful object was like delicate music to the ear of -a cunning musician; he was carried away by it, and floated in its -element joyously, as a swallow in the summer air, or a sea-mew on -the buoyant wave. Hence the rich story of Goethe’s loves, with -which scandal, of course, and prudery have made their market, -but which, when looked into carefully, were just as much part of -his genius as <cite>Faust</cite> or <cite>Iphigenia</cite>—a part, indeed, without which -neither <cite>Faust</cite> nor <cite>Iphigenia</cite> could have been written.... Let no -one, therefore, take offence when I say that Goethe was always -falling in love, and that I consider this a great virtue in his -character.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>One more case: “Beethoven constantly had his love-affairs,” -says Wegeler. His first love was a Cologne beauty, who coquetted -with him and another man till both discovered she was engaged -to a <em>third</em>! Several times Beethoven made up his mind to marry; -he made two definite proposals, both of which were refused. One -fatal objection was his habit of falling in love with women above -him in “rank.” “It is a frightful thing,” he once wrote, “to -make the acquaintance of such a sweet creature and to lose her -immediately; and nothing is more insupportable than thus to have -to confess one’s own foolishness.” One of his flames, an opera -singer, gave as a reason why she refused him that he was “so ugly -and half-cracked!”</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span> - <h3 class='c014'>IV.—MULTIPLICITY</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Perhaps the most unique trait in the love of men of genius is -the apparent occasional absence of the element of Monopoly. It -was Ovid who first discussed the question whether a man could -love two women at once. His friend Græcinus denied the possibility -of such a thing; but in one of his <cite>Elegies</cite> Ovid refutes him -by citing his own case of a double simultaneous infatuation. He -hesitates which of the two to choose, chides Venus for torturing -him with double love—for adding leaves to the trees, stars to the -heavens, water to the ocean.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of modern authors not a few appear to have followed in -Ovid’s footsteps. We have seen how madly Heine was in love -for a long time with his cousin Amalie. Yet, as one of his biographers, -Robert Proelsz, remarks, this ardent though hopeless -infatuation saved him neither at Hamburg nor at Bonn, nor at -Hanover or Berlin, from a number of love-affairs, some of which -are vaguely commemorated in his writings. Another German -poet, Wieland, after various romantic adventures, fell in love with -Julia Bondeli, a pupil of Rousseau’s, and asked for her heart and -hand; but she mistrusted him, and asked the pertinent question, -“Tell me, will you never be able to love another besides me?” -“Never!” he replied, “that is impossible.... Yet it might be -possible for a moment, if I should chance to see a more beautiful -woman than you who is at the same time very unhappy and very -virtuous.” “Poor Wieland,” Scherr continues, “who subsequently -understood the anatomy of the female heart so well, appears not -to have known then that <em>no</em> woman pardons in her lover the -thought that he might find another more beautiful than her. Julia -knew what she had to do, and with deeply-wounded heart allowed -the poet to depart.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of Burns his brother Gilbert says, “When he selected any one -out of the sovereignty of his good pleasure, to whom he should pay -his particular attention, she was instantly invested with a sufficient -stock of charms out of the plentiful stores of his own imagination; -and there was often a great disparity between his fair captivator -and her attributes. One generally reigned paramount in his -affections; but as Yorick’s affections flowed out toward Madame -de L—— at the remise door, while the eternal vows of Eliza -were upon him, so Robert was frequently encountering other -attractions, which formed <em>so many under-plots in the drama of -his love</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In Goethe’s life these “under-plots” played a like prominent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>part. “He always needed a number of feminine hearts of more or -less personal interest, in which to mirror himself,” we read; and -he himself told his Charlotte (in 1777) that her love was “the -thread by which all his other little passions, pastimes, and flirtations -hung.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So that, after all, it seems possible to love two at a time; but -it <em>takes genius to do it</em>!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet even with men of genius it is only possible in ordinary -love-affairs. A supreme love-affair allows but one goddess under -any circumstances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Schumann was one of the most multitudinous lovers on record. -Apparently his first love was Nanni, his “guardian angel,” who -saved him from the perils of the world, and hovered before his -vision like a saint. “I feel that I could kneel before her and -adore her like a Madonna,” he says in a letter. But Nanni had a -dangerous rival in Liddy. Not long, however, for he found Liddy -silly, cold as marble, and—fatal defect! she could not sympathise -with him regarding Jean Paul. “The exalted image of my ideal -disappears when I think of the remarks she made about Jean -Paul. Let the dead rest in peace.” Curiously enough, there are -references to both these girls at various dates, showing that, like -Ovid, he vacillated between the two. He had a number of other -flames, and after his engagement to Clara Wieck gave her warning -that he had the “very mischievous habit” of being a great admirer -of lovely women. “They make me positively smirk, and I -swim in panegyrics on your sex. Consequently, if at some future -time we walk along the streets of Vienna and meet a beauty, and -I exclaim, ‘Oh Clara! see this heavenly vision!’ or something of -the sort, you must not be alarmed nor scold me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the most enterprising lover ever known to the world was -Alfieri; for his first Love seems to have <em>embraced a whole female -seminary</em>! In his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Mémoires</cite></span>, at any rate, he uses the plural in -speaking of the object of his first passion. He was indeed only -nine years old, which may excuse this amorous anomaly. He had -seen in church a number of young novices, and thus describes his -feelings (the italics are mine): “My innocent attraction towards -<em>these</em> novices became so strong that I thought of them and their -doings incessantly. At one moment my imagination painted <em>them</em> -holding their candles in their hands, serving mass with an air of -angelic submission, and again raising the smoke of incense at the -foot of the altar; and, entirely absorbed in these images, I -neglected my studies; every occupation and all companionship -bored me.”</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span> - <h3 class='c014'>V.—FICTITIOUSNESS</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>If Shakspere could identify woman with frailty, one might with -equal propriety exclaim, Vanity, thy name is man! Clever men -have a habit of paying pretty girls neat compliments, less to please -the girls than to show off their wit. And clever women, though -they may not accept these remarks literally, still have cause to be -gratified with them, in proportion to the excellence of the wit; for -ugliness or inferior beauty never inspires a happy thought in a -clever man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Poets represent the climax of masculine vanity. Though their -first Love-poems may be the embodiment of real passion, in subsequent -efforts the purely literary origin is too often apparent. Since -poetic composition is in itself a mingled agony and delight, very -like Love itself, nothing so facilitates its progress as exciting Love-memories. -Hence poets are for ever urged on to compose Love -ditties in which they endeavour to out-Romeo Romeo, to out-hyperbolise -one another, as women try to out-dress one another. -This is one aspect of their vanity; the other lies in their desire -for sympathetic admiration. So, whenever a poet meets a damsel -who comes within half a mile of his ideal, he forthwith unfolds -before her eyes his gaudy dithyrambs and sonnets, and indulges -in various Love-antics, very much like an infatuated peacock.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even the great Dante is not free from the reproach of having -used his true love for mere literary purposes. Beatrice became to -him gradually an abstraction, an allegory, a name for woman in -general. But it is in his countryman Petrarch that the tendency -to use a sweetheart for purely ornamental purposes, as if she were -a feather to be stuck in one’s hat, is most vividly illustrated. -Petrarch is a conspicuous illustration of the fact that a poetic -reputation once established will live on for ever, for the simple -reason that very few people ever take the trouble to read and -judge for themselves; so that an undeserved reputation, like a -disease, is inherited by generation after generation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No one, of course, can question Petrarch’s learning and his -influence on the progress of modern culture. I speak of him only -as a love-poet; and as such he occupies a wofully low rank. I -have read and reread his sonnets, and have found them one of the -dreariest deserts the quest for information has ever driven me into. -To say with Mr. Symonds, in the <cite>Encyclopædia Britannica</cite>, that -“he was far from approaching the analysis of emotion with the -directness of a Heine or De Musset,” is putting it very mildly indeed. -Professor Scherr points out his lack of poetic imagination -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>in these words: “Though he took so much trouble to hand down -the beauty of his Laura to posterity, yet (he) never gets beyond -a tedious enumeration of her charms. Petrarch never gives us a -clear portrait of his lady.” “The poems of her lover,” says Mr. -Symonds, “demonstrate that she was a <em>married woman</em>, with -whom he enjoyed a respectful and not very intimate friendship.” -Moore refers to Petrarch as one “who would not suffer his only -daughter to reside beneath his roof, [but] expended thirty-two -years of poetry and passion on an idealised love.” Schopenhauer -naïvely accepted the reality of Petrarch’s passion, which the poor -fellow had to drag through life “like a prisoner’s chain,” because -the case suited his argument; but Mr. Macaulay more justly remarks -that “to readers of our time, the love of Petrarch seems to -have been of that kind which breaks no hearts.” Finally Professor -Scherr’s opinion may be cited, which agrees with the view here taken.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In 1327 Petrarch “made the acquaintance of Laura, the wife -of Hugo de Sade, who has become famous through him, and whom -during twenty-one years he continued to love, or at least to celebrate -in song; for one feels somewhat uncertain regarding this -love, and is very much tempted to regard it more as a matter of -the head than of the heart and the senses—more as a welcome -theme for his troubadour art and Provençal amorous subtlety than -as a genuine, true passion. Petrarch’s qualities in general, both -as a man and as a poet, are tainted by an appearance of hollowness, -a want of substance and character. He lacked genuine originality, -the power of spontaneous creation.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Petrarch, it is true, was an extreme case of the poet’s inclination -to give Love a fictitious permanence and depth; and he lived, moreover, -at a time when the novelty of the spiritual aspect of Love -naturally inclined the mind to exaggeration in that direction. In -the case of modern poets, much less allowance has to be commonly -made for motives of purely poetic or literary origin.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such being the leading characteristics of Love in men of genius, -and such men being emotionally a few centuries ahead of others, -the questions arise, “Is it likely that the Love of ordinary mortals -will gradually assume those traits? and is it desirable that it should?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There seems no immediate danger that the world will be -peopled largely by geniuses, though there is a rapid and steady -advance in culture, which in a thousand years may greatly lessen -the difference between men of genius and average men of the future -as compared with those of to-day. When that millennium arrives -the man of genius may have advanced another step, but not so -great, perhaps, as that which now raises him above the common -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>herd. He will not then be so great an anomaly, and will find -society less willing than in the past to make allowance for his -irregularities, such as his fickleness and multiplicity of Love-affairs.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet, after all, these great men are only partly to blame for -their fickleness. Beethoven once boasted of having loved one -woman for <em>seven months</em> as something unusual. But had Beethoven -been so fortunate as to meet and marry a woman having those -qualities which Sir Walter Scott says the wife of a genius should -have—either “taste enough to relish her husband’s performances, -or good nature enough to pardon his infirmities,”—he might have -been blessed with a love not of seven months, but of seven times -seven years. Of Shelley, Mr. Symonds tells us that, “In his own -words, he had loved Antigone before he visited this earth: and no -one woman could probably have made him happy, because he was -for ever demanding more from love than it can give in the mixed -circumstances of mortal life.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Galton, who has made such a careful study of the phenomena -of genius and marriage (<cite>Hereditary Genius</cite>), remarks on the -“great fact ... that able men take pleasure in the society of -intelligent women, and, if they can find such as would in other -respects be suitable, they will marry them in preference to mediocrities.” -Unfortunately, as before dwelt on, great beauty and -great intellect, or amiability, do not always coincide, owing to the -fact that pretty girls do not feel the necessity of cultivating their -minds. But in men of genius their own store of intellect is so great, -and their admiration for Beauty so intense, that they are constantly -liable to marry silly girls; or before marriage to flirt with one -beauty after another without finding satisfaction. In a few generations, -however, there will doubtless be many more women than -now or in the past who will be intelligent, amiable, and beautiful -at the same time; and such women will be able to fetter even the -erratic love of geniuses with adamantine chains, impervious to rust -and alteration, and thus cure them of their Fickleness and their -constant effort to love more than one at a time.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Poetic Fictitiousness, of course, is a trait which does no one any -harm, and often enriches literature with charming fancies. And -as for the two remaining characters of genius-Love—Ardour and -Precocity—it is evident that there cannot be too much of them in -the world. The dawn of Love is always the dawn of so much -refinement of the soul, the awakening of so much ambition, that it -cannot be too precocious; and the more ardent it is the more -thoroughgoing will be its results. Nor need a big fire go out -sooner than a small one, provided there is a constant supply of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>fresh fuel—a point which Balzac has discussed with much eloquence -in his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Physiologie du Mariage</cite></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coleridge says “It is the business of virtue to give a feeling -and a passion to our purer intellect, and to intellectualise our -feelings and passions.” Now this is precisely what is done by -Romantic Love, which first originated in the minds of men of -genius.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The might of one fair face sublimes my love,</div> - <div class='line'>For it hath weaned my heart from low desires.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>“Sublimes my love.” These three words of Michael Angelo contain -the whole philosophy of our subject. And what is it that -sublimes Love chiefly? “The might of one fair face”—the magic -effect of Personal Beauty. Perhaps, after all, the greatest difference -between the Love of a genius and an ordinary mortal is that -in the former the æsthetic element—the Admiration of Beauty—is -so much stronger, making up two-thirds of the whole passion. -And as a taste for the beautiful in art and nature becomes more -common, the Love of common mortals, in approaching that of -genius, will more and more partake of this æsthetic refinement—this -worship of Personal Beauty for the sake of the higher gratifications -it yields to the imagination.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>INSANITY AND LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>ANALOGIES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The poets, who have in all ages insisted on the analogies between -genius and insanity, have also long since discovered a -general resemblance between Love and Insanity. Indeed, the -notion that Love is a sort of madness is as old as Plato. Love, -as understood by him—that is, man’s “worship of youthful masculine -beauty”—is, he says, mad, irrational, superseding reason -and prudence in the individual mind. And the Stoics, who regarded -all affections as maladies, looked upon the severest of the -passions as a grave mental disease.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Modern poetry is full of allusions to the fatuous folly of Love. -Thus Thomson—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A lover is the very fool of nature.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>Shakspere—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in7'>“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet</div> - <div class='line in8'>Are of imagination all compact.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,</div> - <div class='line'>That they behold and see not what they see?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>And the mischievous Rosalind informs us that “Love is merely a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip -as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punished and -cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in -love too.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>All this is mere poetic banter; but there is a substratum of -truth which the poets must have dimly felt. Modern alienists do -not treat their patients to dark rooms and whips, as their predecessors -did. They regard the maladies of their patients as brain -diseases, which have been studied and classified, and are treated on -general hygienic and therapeutic principles. A comparison of the -classifications adopted in psychiatry with the symptoms of Love -shows that Insanity and Love resemble each other especially in three -common traits,—the presence of Illusions, a sort of Delirium of -Persecution, and the Desire for Solitude.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are two ways in which madmen people the outside world -with phantoms of their own imaginations—by means of illusions -and of hallucinations.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hallucinations are pure figments of the imagination, without -any object corresponding to them or suggesting them in the outer -world. A patient suffering from them will stare into vacancy and -see a friend, or perhaps the devil with horns, tail, and hoofs; and -he sees him as vividly as if he were really there to be touched; -the reason being that in that part of the brain where impressions -of sight are localised a diseased action is set up which suggests a -picture that is forthwith projected into outward space—as usual -with all sense-impressions. In a word, the patient paints the devil -in his mind’s eye, and there he is.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Illusions, on the other hand, have real external objects for their -cause; but the diseased imagination so falsifies the objects that -there is little or no resemblance between the mental vision and -the outside reality. A patient suffering from illusions sees a candle -and thinks it is the sun, hears a footstep and thinks it thunder.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is not this precisely what Shakspere chides Cupid for—that he -makes our eyes “behold and see not what they see?” or makes -them “see Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt?” Concerning -Burns we have just read that “there was often a great disparity -between his fair captivator and her attributes”—that is, the attributes -with which she was invested by her lover.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The lover, like the lunatic, has had moments when, “beholding -his maiden, he half-knows she is not that which he worships”; -but such intervals are rare. Take a madman who believes his -body is made of glass, and throw him downstairs: none the less -will he believe in his vitreous constitution. Show a lover the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>most beautiful woman in the world, still will he believe his own -Dulcinea a hundred times more charming.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is, in the second place, a very common form of insanity, -called the Delirium of Persecution. The sufferer imagines that -everybody he passes notices him, suspects him of something, or -even intends him some harm. Dr. Hammond speaks of a patient -of this class “who was sure that all the clergymen had entered -into a conspiracy to ‘pray him into hell’! He went to the -churches to hear what they had to say, and discovered adroit -allusions to himself, and hidden invocations to God for his eternal -damnation, in the most harmless and platitudinous expressions. -He wrote letters to various pastors of churches, denouncing them -for their uncharitable conduct toward him, and threatening them -with bodily damage if they persisted in their efforts to secure the -destruction of his soul.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Quand nous aimons,”</span> says Pascal, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“nous nous imaginons que -tout le monde s’en aperçoit”</span>—when we are in love we imagine -that everybody perceives it. The lover feels so awkward and -embarrassed that he thinks every one about him must discover his -secret; and this constant apprehension doubles his awkwardness, -and in most cases does lead to his detection. And the jealous -lover to whom “trifles light as air” are confirmations of infidelity, -who sees dangerous rivalry in the most superficial attentions, and -inconstancy in the most harmless smile she bestows on another—how -does he differ from the man who thought the clergy were -trying to pray him into hell, except that in the one case the disordered -imagination is more easily restored to its normal functions -than in the other?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thirdly, the lunatic and the lover, in their melancholy stages, -have a common fondness for Solitude. For days and weeks -a patient will sit motionless, indifferent to everybody and everything -in the world except the one idea that has fixed on his brain -like a leech, and is sucking its life-blood. Nothing, says an -observer, is so noticeable on visiting an asylum where the patients -are allowed some liberty, as the way in which each one seeks -a solitary place regardless of his fellows.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Are not, in the same way—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Fountain-heads and pathless groves</div> - <div class='line'>Places which pale passion loves?”—<span class='sc'>Fletcher.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>But what madman in his wildest flights ever conceived anything -quite so sublimely solitary as the flight which Burns projected for -himself and Clarinda (in lovers’ arithmetic twice one are one) in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>the following epistle: "Imagine ... that we were set free from -the laws of gravitation which bind us to this globe, and could at -pleasure fly, without inconvenience, through all the yet unconjectured -bounds of creation, what a life of bliss would we lead, in our -mutual pursuit of virtue and knowledge, and our mutual enjoyment -of love and friendship!</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I see you laughing at my fairy fancies, and calling me a -voluptuous Mahometan; but I am certain I would be a happy -creature beyond anything we call bliss here below; nay, it would -be a paradise congenial to you too. Don’t you see us, hand in -hand, or rather, my arm about your lovely waist, making our -remarks on Sirius, the nearest of the fixed stars; or, surveying a -comet flaming innoxious by us, as we just now would mark -the passing pomp of a travelling monarch; or, in a shady bower of -Mercury or Venus, dedicating the hour to love, in mutual converse, -relying honour, and revelling endearment, while the most exalted -strains of poesy and harmony would be the ready, spontaneous -language of our souls.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we have in the madman’s Illusions an analogy with Love’s -Hyperbolising tendency; in the Delirium of Persecution a suggestion -of Jealousy; in the Desire for Solitude a reminder of Love’s -Exclusiveness, and desire to be cast on a desert island.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Gallantry, again, has in the past frequently assumed an extravagant -form bordering on madness. Thus, with reference to -a Greek girl to whom Byron made love in Athens, Moore says, -“It was, if I recollect right, in making love to one of these girls -that he had recourse to an act of courtship often practised in that -country—namely, giving himself a wound across the breast with -his dagger. The young Athenian, by his own account, looked on -very coolly during the operation, considering it a fit tribute to her -beauty, but in no wise moved to gratitude.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In Spain, toward the beginning of the last century, Gallantry -appears to have assumed a form of mad extravagance. As Mme. -d’Aunoy relates in her <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Mémoires sur l’Espagne</cite></span>, no man who -accompanied a lady was so rude as to give her his hand or to take -her arm under his. He only wrapped his cloak around his arm, -and then allowed her to rest her arm on the elbow. Nor was even -a lover permitted to kiss his love or caress her otherwise than by -tenderly grasping her arm with his hands.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of mediæval lovers’ madness cases have been cited elsewhere, -showing to what crazy excess the Knight-errants and Troubadours -sometimes carried their gallant devotion. One more amusing -illustration may here be added: the oft-cited cases of Peire Vidal, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>a Troubadour of the twelfth century, who, to please his beloved, -whose name was Loba (wolf), had himself sewed up in a wolf’s -hide and went about the mountains howling until his manœuvres -were brought to a sad end by some shepherd dogs, who, having no -sense of humour, gave him such a shaking that he was only too -glad to resume his normal attitude.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is, in fact, hardly a feature of Love which, in its exalted -manifestations, does not occasionally suggest a madhouse. The -extravagant Pride shown by a commonplace man in his more commonplace -bride, is quite as ludicrous as a lunatic’s delusion that he -is a millionaire or emperor of the five continents. The sham -capture of a bride still practised among many nations when all -parties are willing, illustrates a form of Coyness which would appear -as pure lunacy to one unfamiliar with the origin of that custom.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>EROTOMANIA, OR REAL LOVE-SICKNESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Besides these general analogies there is a form of mental disease -which is genuine love-sickness, the outcome of brain disease, and -which often seems, for all the world, like a deliberate caricature of -Coquetry.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It often happens,” says Dr. Hammond, “that the subjects of -emotional monomania of the variety under consideration do not -restrict their love to any one person. They adore the whole male -sex, and will make advances to any man with whom they are -brought into even the slightest association. If confined in an -asylum they simper and clasp their hands, and roll their eyes to -the attendants, especially the physicians, and even the male -patients are not below their affections. There is very little -constancy in their love. They change from one man to another -with the utmost facility and upon the slightest pretext. ‘I am -very much in love with Dr. ——,’ said a woman to me in an -asylum that I was visiting, ‘but he was late yesterday in coming -to the ward, and now I love you. You will come often to see me, -won’t you?’ While she was speaking the superintendent entered -the ward. ‘Oh, here comes my first and only love!’ she exclaimed. -’Why have you stayed away so long from your -Eliza?‘”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Professor von Krafft-Ebing, in his admirable <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Lehrbuch der -Psychiatrie</cite></span>, thus characterises Erotomania in general: "The -kernel of the whole matter is the delusion of being singled out and -loved by a person of the other sex, who regularly belongs to a -higher social sphere. And it deserves to be noted that the love -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>felt by the patient towards this person is a romantic, ecstatic, but -entirely ‘Platonic’ affection. In this respect these patients remind -one of the knight-errants and minstrels of bygone times, whom -Cervantes has so incisively lashed in his <cite>Don Quixote</cite>....</p> - -<p class='c001'>"From the looks and gestures of the beloved individual they -draw the inference that they in return are not regarded with indifference. -With astonishing rapidity they lose their self-possession. -The most harmless incidents are regarded by them as signs of love, -and an encouragement to draw near. Even newspaper advertisements -relating to others are supposed to come from the person in -question. Finally, hallucinations make their appearance, by the -aid of which the patients begin to be conversant with the object of -their love. Illusions also supervene; in the conversations of others -the patient fancies he hears references to his love-affairs. He feels -happy, exalted in his estimate of himself....</p> - -<p class='c001'>“At last the patient compromises himself by acting in consonance -with his delusion, thus making himself ridiculous and -impossible in society, and necessitating his confinement in an -asylum.”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The insane freaks of erotomaniacs, and the analogous, ludicrous -exaggerations in the expression and conduct of lovers, may be -regarded as the pathologic and the comic sides of Love’s Language.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Normally, Romantic Love has no fewer than three languages:—Words, -Facial Expression, and Caresses, including Kisses. It will -at once be seen that this classification involves a crescendo <, from -the weakest form of expression to its climax in kissing. Kissing, -indeed, though it comes under the head of Caresses, is of so much -significance that it may be regarded, if not as a separate language -of Love, at least as a special dialect—perhaps the long-sought -world-language intelligible to all?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>I.—WORDS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Though the greatest poets have striven to become virtuosi in -the art of expressing Love in written language, yet words are the -weakest and least trustworthy mode of expressing the amorous -emotions. Least trustworthy, because the male flatterer, as well -as the female coquette, constantly use language to conceal their -thoughts and real emotions. Weakest, because words are less -eloquent even than silence. For—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>“They that are rich in words must needs discover</div> - <div class='line'>They are but poor in that which makes a lover;”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>And</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Silence in Love bewrays more woe</div> - <div class='line'>Than words though ne’er so witty.”—<span class='sc'>Raleigh.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Cordelia’s love was deeper than that of her sisters—too deep to -be expressed in formal words. And King Lear scorned her and -favoured her sisters; even as shallow maidens constantly look down -on silent, awkward adorers of deep affections, and throw themselves -away on shallow, fickle, loquacious Lotharios, because they do not -understand the real Language of Love, which, according to a stupid -old myth, every woman is supposed to know by intuition or -instinct.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>II.-FACIAL EXPRESSION,</h3> - -<p class='c018'>although more trustworthy than written or spoken words, may -sometimes prove deceptive too; for the cunning coquette who daily -feigns Love to attract poor moths by her brilliant fascinations, -becomes in time so perfect an actress that the coldest of cynics -may be deceived by her wiles.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In his great work on the <cite>Expression of the Emotions</cite>, Darwin -remarks that although, “when lovers meet, we know that their -hearts beat quickly, their breathing is hurried, and their faces -flush;” yet “love can hardly be said to have any proper or peculiar -means of expression; and this is intelligible, as it has not habitually -led to any special line of action. No doubt, as affection is a pleasurable -sensation, it generally causes a gentle smile and some -brightening of the eyes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as a flushed face and transient blushes, a gentle smile -and brightening of the eyes, are characteristic of other emotions -besides Love, Darwin is right; yet he ignores two peculiarities of -expression by which a person in Love may be instantaneously -recognised.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“A lover,” says Chamfort, “is a man who endeavours to be -more amiable than it is possible for him to be; and this is the -reason that almost all lovers appear ridiculous.” Who has not -seen this unmistakable, ludicrous expression of masculine Love—head -slightly inclined to the left; face as near her face as possible, -echoing every expression of hers; a saccharine, beseeching smile on -the kiss-hungry lips, producing on the spectator an uneasy sense of -unstable equilibrium—as if in one more moment the force of -amorous gravitation would draw down his face to hers?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Add to this his embarrassed gestures, the over-sweet falsetto of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>his voice—an octave higher than when he speaks to others,—and -the peculiar lover’s pallor, and the picture is complete—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Why so pale and wan, fond lover?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Prithee, why so pale?</div> - <div class='line'>Will, when looking well can’t move her,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Looking ill prevail?”—<span class='sc'>Suckling.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>To women Cupid is kinder. Instead of making them appear -ludicrous, Love has the power of transforming even a homely -feminine face into a vision of loveliness by throwing a halo of -tender expression around it. This wondrous transformation effected -by Love is one of its greatest miracles; and to one who has seen -the girl previously it immediately betrays her infatuation. It is a -kind of <em>emotional calligraphy</em> in which the merest tyro can read, -“I love him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>And this temporary transformation of homely into beautiful -faces, this fusing and moulding of the features into forms of voluptuous -expression, is of extreme psychologic interest; for it shows -that, after all, the exalted, extravagant image of Her perfections -in the lover’s mind is not purely imaginary. It is not so much -owing to a difference of “taste” that he loves her more than others -do, as because she actually <em>does</em> look more beautiful when her eyes -are fastened on him than when looking at any other man.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>III.—CARESSES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>“Tenderness,” says Professor Bain, “is a pleasurable emotion, -variously stimulated, whose effort is to draw human beings into -mutual embrace.” Darwin finds the peculiarity of love in the same -desire for contact; and, as usual, he seeks for the origin of this -desire, and endeavours to trace it to analogous peculiarities of the -animals most closely related to us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“With the lower animals,” he says, “we see the same principle -of pleasure derived from contact in association with love. Dogs -and cats manifestly take pleasure in rubbing against their masters -and mistresses, and in being rubbed or patted by them. Many -kinds of monkeys, as I am assured by the keepers in the Zoological -Gardens, delight in fondling and being fondled by each other, and -by persons to whom they are attached. Mr. Bartlett has described -to me the behaviour of two Chimpanzees, rather older animals than -those generally imported into this country, when they were first -brought together. They sat opposite, <em>touching each other with their -much-protruded lips</em>, and the one put his hand on the shoulder of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>the other. Then they mutually folded each other in their arms. -Afterwards they stood up, each with one arm on the shoulder of -the other, lifted up their heads, opened their mouths and yelled -with delight.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning human beings Darwin remarks: “A strong desire -to touch the beloved person is commonly felt; and love is expressed -by this means more plainly than by any other. Hence we -long to clasp in our arms those we tenderly love. We probably -owe this desire to <em>inherited habit</em>, in association with the nursing -and tending of our children, and with the mutual caresses of -lovers.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>When love first dawns on the mind, the faintest superficial contact -flashes along the nerves as a thrill of delicious emotion. To -walk along the beach in a stiff breeze, and have her veil accidentally -flutter in his face, is a romantic incident on which a youthful -lover’s memory feasts for a month. If allowed to carry her shawl -on his arm, he would not feel the cold of a Siberian winter. And -later, what a variety of tell-tale caresses are there by which mutual -Love may be revealed! It is not the voice alone that can say “I -love you”; nor the speaking eyes. Confessions of Love, proposals -and acceptance—complete dramas of Love—have been enacted by -the language of two pairs of feet that have accidentally touched -under the table. A slight pressure of the hand in the ballroom -has told thousands of lovers, before a word was spoken, that now -they may soon put their arms round that lovely waist without the -excuse of a waltz or polka.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One form of hand-caress, dear alike to mothers and lovers, is -thus described by Professor Mantegazza: “In a caress we give -and receive at the same time. The hand which distributes love, -as by a magnetic effusion, receives it in return from the skin of -the beloved person. Hence it is that one of the most common -and most thrilling of the expressions of love consists in passing -the hand through the hair. The hand finds, in this labyrinth of -supple, living threads, the means of multiplying infinitely the -points of amorous contact. It appears as if each hair were an -electric wire, putting us into direct connection with the senses, -with the heart, and even with the thoughts, of those we love. It -is not without reason that woman’s hair has long been given as a -token of love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What a clumsy thing is language, what an awkward thing a -formal proposal stuttered out by a lover more embarrassed than if -he were an amateur actor appearing on the stage for the first time, -as Romeo before an international audience of actors and critics! -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>How much less natural, less poetic, it is to hear the confession of -Love than to feel it—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“When panting sighs the bosom fill,</div> - <div class='line'>And hands, by chance united, thrill</div> - <div class='line'>At once with one delicious pain.”—<span class='sc'>Clough.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>What poet, and were he a genius in condensation, could -compress into a line, a page, a volume, such an ocean of emotion -as is contained in a momentary caress of the hand? Not even the -moment when the lovers are “imparadised in one another’s arms” -surpasses this in ecstasy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet there is a more delicious rapture still in the drama of -Courtship. “Love’s sweetest language is,” as Herrick says, “a -kiss.” All other caresses are valueless without a kiss; for is not -a kiss the very autograph of Love?</p> - -<p class='c001'>But labial contact is a subject of such supreme importance in -the philosophy and history of Love that it cannot be disposed of -briefly as one form of caressing, but demands a chapter by itself.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>KISSING—PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>“The lips,” says Sir Charles Bell, “are of all the features the -most susceptible of action, and the most direct index of the -feelings.” No wonder that Cupid selected them as his private -seal, without which no passion can be stamped as genuine.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For the expression of all other emotions, by words or signs, one -pair of lips suffices. Love alone requires for its expression two -pairs of lips. Could anything more eloquently demonstrate the -superiority of the romantic passion over all others?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Steele said of kissing that “Nature was its author, and it began -with the first courtship.” Steele evidently evolved this theory out -of his “inner consciousness,” for the facts do not agree with it. The -art of Kissing has, like Love itself, been gradually developed in -connection with the higher stages of culture. Traces of it are -found among animals and savages; the ancients often misunderstood -its purport and object, as did our mediæval ancestors; and -it is only in recent times that Kissing has tended to become -what it should be—the special and exclusive language of romantic -and conjugal love.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>AMONG ANIMALS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Honour to whom honour is due. The Chimpanzee seems to -have been the first who discovered the charm of mutual labial -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>contact. In the description by Mr. Bartlett just referred to, the -two Chimpanzees “sat opposite, touching each other with their -much-protruded lips.” And in some notes on the Chimpanzee in -Central Park, New York, by Dr. C. Pitfield Mitchell, published in -the <cite>Journal of Comparative Medicine and Surgery</cite>, January 1885, -we find the following: “That tender emotions are experienced -may be inferred from the fact that he pressed the kitten to his -breast and kissed it, holding it very gently in both hands. In -kissing, the lips are pouted and the tongue protruded, and both -are pressed upon the object of affection. The act is not accompanied -by any sound, thus differing from ordinary human -osculation.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dogs, especially when young, may be seen occasionally exchanging -a sort of tongue-kiss; and who has not seen dogs innumerable -times make a sudden sly dash at the lips of master or mistress and -try to <em>steal</em> a kiss? The affectionate manner in which a cow and -calf eagerly lick one another in succession may be regarded as quite -as genuine a kiss as a human kiss on hand, forehead, or cheek; and -it is probable that even in the billing of doves the motive is a -vague pleasure of contact.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>AMONG SAVAGES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>we meet once more with the anomalous fact that they seem -ignorant, on the whole, of a clever invention known even to some -animals. Sir John Lubbock, after referring to Steele’s opinion -that kissing is coeval with courtship, remarks: “It was, on the -contrary, entirely unknown to the Tahitians, the New Zealanders, -the Papuas, and the aborigines of Australia, nor was it in use -among the Somals or the Esquimaux.” Jemmy Button, the Fuegian, -told Darwin that kissing was unknown in his land; and another -writer gives an amusing account of an attempt he made to kiss a -young negro girl. She was greatly terrified, probably imagining -him a new species of cannibal who had made up his mind to eat -her on the spot, raw, and without salt and pepper.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Monteiro, in a passage previously quoted, says that in all the -long years he has been in Africa he has “never seen a negro put -his arm round a woman’s waist, or give or receive any caress -whatever that would indicate the slightest loving regard or affection -on either side.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Considering the general obtuseness of a savage’s nerves, it is no -wonder that the subtle thrill of a kiss should be unknown to him. -In many cases, moreover, Kissing is rendered physically impossible -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>by the habit indulged in of mutilating and enlarging the lips. For -instance, Schweinfurth, in his <cite>Heart of Africa</cite>, says that among -the Bongo women “the lower lip is extended horizontally till it -projects far beyond the upper, which is also bored and fitted with -a copper plate or nail, and now and then by a little ring, and sometimes -by a bit of straw, about as thick as a lucifer match.” Many -other similar cases could be cited.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Evidently, under these circumstances, kissing would prove a -snare and a delusion.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>THE ORIGIN OF KISSING</h3> - -<p class='c018'>is a topic on which doctors disagree, the opinions of Darwin and -Mr. Spencer in particular differing as widely as their views regarding -the origin of music. Mr. Spencer traces the primitive delight in -osculation to the gustatory sense, Darwin to contact.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Obviously,” says Mr. Spencer, "the billing of doves or pigeons, -and the like action of love-birds, indicates an affection which is -gratified by the gustatory sensation. No act of this kind on the -part of an inferior creature, as of a cow licking a calf, can have any -other origin than the direct prompting of a desire which gains by -the act satisfaction; and in such a case the satisfaction is that -which vivid perception of offspring gives to the maternal yearning. -In some animals like acts arise from other forms of affection. Licking -the hand, or, where it is accessible, the face, is a common display -of attachment on a dog’s part; and when we remember how keen -must be the olfactory sense by which a dog traces his master, we -cannot doubt that to his gustatory sense, too, there is yielded some -impression—an impression associated with those pleasures of -affection which his master’s presence gives.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The inference that kissing, as a mark of fondness in the human -race, has a kindred origin, is sufficiently probable. Though kissing -is not universal—though the negro races do not understand it, -and though, as we have seen, there are cases where sniffing replaces -it—yet, being common to unlikely and widely-dispersed peoples, -we may conclude that it originated in the same manner as the -analogous action among lower creatures.... From kissing as a -natural sign of affection, there is derived the kissing which, as a -means of simulating affection, gratifies those who are kissed; and, -by gratifying them, propitiates them. Hence an obvious root for -the kissing of feet, hands, garments, as a part of ceremonial.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Darwin, on the other hand, holds that kissing “is so far innate -or natural that it apparently depends on pleasure from close -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>contact with a beloved person; and it is replaced in various parts -of the world, by the rubbing of noses, as with the New Zealanders -and Laplanders, by the rubbing or patting of the arms, breasts, or -stomachs, or by one man striking his own face with the hands or -feet of another. Perhaps the practice of blowing, as a mark of -affection, on various parts of the body may depend on the same -principle.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Has Mr. Spencer ever kissed a girl? Certainly, to one who has, -his theory of the gustatory origin of Kissing would seem like a joke -were it not stated with so much scientific pomp and circumstance. -The billing of doves and love-birds, in the first place, cannot be -regarded as a matter of taste, literally, because in birds the sense -of taste is commonly very rudimentary or quite absent, as their -habit of swallowing seeds and other food whole and dry would -make a sense which can only judge of things in a state of solution -quite useless. The sense of touch, on the other hand, is exceedingly -delicate in the bill of birds, which is, as it were, their feeler -or hand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the motive which prompts cows and calves to lick one -another is likewise tactile rather than gustatory, I had occasion -to observe only a few days ago in a place worthy of so romantic a -subject as the experimental study of kissing. Scene: a green -mountain-meadow above Mürren, Switzerland. Frame of the -picture, a semicircle of snow-giants, including Wetterhorn, Eiger, -Mönch, Jungfrau, Breithorn, etc. Cows and calves in the meadow, -not in the least disturbed by the avalanches thundering down the -side of the Jungfrau every twenty minutes. Cow licks calf, and -calf retaliates by licking the cow’s neck. Cow enjoys it immensely, -holding her head up as high as possible, with an expression of -intense enjoyment, just like a dog when you rub and pat his neck. -Ergo, as cow was not licking but being licked, her enjoyment -must have been tactile, not gustatory. To the cow her tongue -is what the bill is to a bird—her most mobile organ, her feeler, -and hand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Possibly Mr. Spencer was misled into his gustatory theory by -a too literal interpretation of a habit poets have always had of -calling a kiss sweet. Among the Romans a love-kiss was distinguished -from other kisses by being called a <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>suavium</i></span> or sweet -thing; and a modern German poet boldly compares the flavour of -kisses to wild strawberries (perhaps she had just been eating some). -Yet all this belongs to fancy’s fairyland. Kisses are called sweet -for the same reason that we speak of the sweet concords of music, -<i>i.e.</i> because the language of æsthetics is so scantily developed that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>we are constantly compelled to borrow terms from one sense and -apply them to another, when their only resemblance is that they -are both agreeable or otherwise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is a very prevalent impression that the senses of savages -are more delicate than ours. In one way they are. A savage can -often see an object at a greater distance, and hear a fainter sound, -than a white man. But in what may be called æsthetic as distinguished -from physical refinement, savages are vastly our inferiors. -A savage can hardly tell the difference between two adjacent notes -in the musical scale, while a musician can distinguish the sixtieth -part of a semitone. And why would the wondrous harmonies of -a Chopin nocturne seem a mere chaos of sound to a savage? Because -his ears have not been trained through his imagination and -intellect to discriminate sounds and sound-combinations, or to -follow the plot or development of a musical narrative or “theme.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Just so with the sense of touch. A sweetheart’s veil fluttering -in a Hottentot’s face would only annoy him. A squeeze of the -hand would leave him cold; and would he refrain from putting -his arm round her waist if that gave him any pleasure? Obviously, -then, the reason why the art of kissing is unknown to him is because -his senses are too callous, his imagination too sluggish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kissing, like every other fine art, has its sensuous and its -imaginative or intellectual side. Of all parts of the visible body -the lips are the most sensitive to contact. Here the layer in -which the nerves and blood-vessels are contained is not covered -over, as elsewhere on the skin, by a thick leathery epidermis, but -only thinly veiled by a transparent epithelium; so that when lips -are applied to lips, the blood-vessels which carry the vital fluid -straight from the two loving hearts, and the soul-fibres, called -nerves, are brought into almost immediate contact: whence that -interchange of soul-magnetism—that electric shock which makes -the first mutual kiss of Love the sweetest moment of life—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“What words can ever speak affection</div> - <div class='line'>So thrilling and sincere as thine?”—<span class='sc'>Burns.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Yet herein the imagination plays a much more prominent <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> -than it appears to do at first sight. The real reason why a savage -cannot enjoy a kiss is not so much because his lips are deficient in -tactile sensibility, as because he has no imagination to invest labial -contact with the romance of individualised passion. If a lover’s -pleasure lay in the mere labial contact, he would as soon exchange -a kiss with any other girl. But should a sweetheart, on being -asked for a kiss, refer him, say, to his sister or her sister; though -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>the latter be a hundred times more beautiful, he would chide his -love for offering a stone where bread was wanted. His imagination -has so long painted to him the superior ecstasy of a kiss from -her that, when he finally gets it, the long-deferred gratification -ensures the unparalleled rapture anticipated.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>ANCIENT KISSES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>As the ancient civilised nations were much more addicted than -we are to gesture language, it seems natural that so expressive a -sign as kissing should have been used for a variety of purposes—for -indicating not only family affection, sexual passion and friendship, -but general respect, reverence, humility, condescension, etc. -Among idolatrous nations, as M‘Clintock and Strong remark, “it -was the custom to throw kisses towards the images of the gods, -and towards the sun and moon.” Kissing the hand appears to be -a modern custom, but many other parts of the body were thus -saluted by the ancients: “Kissing the feet of princes was a token -of subjection and obedience, which was sometimes carried so far -that the print of the foot received the kiss, so as to give the impression -that the very dust had become sacred by the royal tread, -or that the subject was not worthy to salute even the prince’s -foot, but was content to kiss the earth itself near or on which he -trod.” A similar observance is the kissing of the Pope’s toe, or -rather, the cross on his slipper—a custom in vogue since the year -710. Among the Arabs the women and children kiss the beards -of their husbands or fathers. Among the ancient Hebrews, “kissing -the lips by way of affectionate salutation was not only permitted, -but customary among near relatives of both sexes, both in -patriarchal and in later times.” The kiss on the cheek “has at -all times been customary in the East, and can hardly be said to be -extinct even in Europe.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the ancient Greeks, Jealousy prompted the husbands to -“make their wives eat onions whenever they were going from -home.” And in the Roman Republic, “Among the safeguards of -female purity,” says Mr. Lecky, “was an enactment forbidding -women even to taste wine.... Cato said that the ancient Romans -were accustomed to kiss their wives for the purpose of discovering -whether they had been drinking wine.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Breath-sweetening cloves and cachous were evidently unknown -in the good old times.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Romans had special names for three kinds of kisses—<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>basium</i></span>, -a kiss of politeness; <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>osculum</i></span>, between friends; <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>suavium</i></span>, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>between lovers. If a man kissed his betrothed, she gained thereby -the half of his effects in the event of his dying before the celebration -of the marriage; and if the lady herself died, under the same -circumstances, her heirs or nearest of kin took the half due to -her, a kiss among the ancients being a sign of plighted faith. -So seriously, indeed, was a kiss regarded by the ancient Romans, -that a husband would not even kiss his wife in presence of his -daughters.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was on account of this strict feeling regarding kisses exchanged -by man and woman that the early Christians subjected -themselves to fierce attacks and slander, because of the kisses that -were exchanged as a symbol of religious union at the Love-Feasts -of the first disciples. “But, in 397, the Council of Carthage -thought fit to forbid all religious kissing between the sexes, notwithstanding -St. Paul’s exhortation, ‘Greet ye one another with -a kiss of charity.’”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MEDIÆVAL KISSES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Among many other refinements of the ancients, the mediæval -nations lost the sense of the sacredness of kissing between the -sexes. England was apparently the greatest sinner in this respect; -for it appears to have been customary on visiting to kiss the host’s -wife and daughters. Indeed, up to a comparatively recent time, -kissing on every occasion was almost as prevalent and permissible -as handshaking is at the present day. In the sixteenth century -it was customary in England for ladies to reward their partners -in the dance with a kiss; and for a long time the minister who -united a couple in the holy bonds of matrimony had the privilege -of kissing not only the bride but even the bridesmaids! No -wonder the ministry was the most popular profession in those -days.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is quite certain,” says a writer in the <cite>St. James’s Magazine</cite> -(1871), “that the custom of kissing was brought into England -from Friesland, as St. Pierius Wensemius, historiographer to their -High Mightinesses, the states of Friesland, in his <cite>Chronicle</cite>, 1622, -tells us that the pleasant practice of kissing was utterly ‘unpractised -and unknown in England till the fair Princess Romix -(Rowena), the daughter of King Hengist of Friesland, pressed the -beaker with her lippens, and saluted the amorous Vortigern with -a kusjen’ (little kiss).”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Having recovered this lost art, however, the English lost no -time in making up for neglected opportunities. Erasmus writes -in one of his epistles: “If you go to any place (in Britain) you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>are received with a <em>kiss</em> by all; if you depart on a journey, you -are dismissed with a kiss; you return, kisses are exchanged ... -wherever you move, nothing but kisses. And if you, Faustus, had -but once tasted them,—how soft they are, how fragrant! on my -honour, you would wish not to reside here for ten years only, but -for life!!!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bunyan, however, frowned on this practice, and inquired most -pertinently—and impertinently—why the men only “salute the -most handsome and let the ill-favoured alone?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pepys, in his <cite>Diary</cite> for 1660, gives this account of some -Portuguese ladies in London: “I find nothing in them that is -pleasing; and I see they have <em>learnt to kiss</em>, and look freely up and -down already, and I do believe will soon forget the recluse practice -of their own country.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the luckiest of mortals was Bulstrode Whitelock, who -at the Court of Christine of Sweden was asked to teach her ladies -“the English mode of salutation; which, after some pretty -defences, their lips obeyed, and <em>Whitelock most readily</em>!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following extraordinary kissing story is told in <cite>Chambers’s -Journal</cite> for 1861:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“When the gallant cardinal, Count of Lorraine, was presented -to the Duchess of Savoy, she gave him her hand to kiss, greatly -to the indignation of the irate churchman. ‘How, madame,’ -exclaimed he, ‘am I to be treated in this manner? I kiss the -queen, my mistress, who is the greatest queen in the world, and -shall I not kiss you, a <em>dirty little duchess</em>? I would have you -know I have kissed as handsome ladies, and of as great or greater -family than you.’ Without more ado he made for the lips of the -proud Portuguese princess, and, despite her resistance, kissed her -thrice on her mouth before he released her with an exultant -laugh.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fashion of universal kissing appears to have gone out about -the time of the Restoration.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MODERN KISSES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The history of kissing, thus briefly sketched, shows that among -primitive men this art is unknown because they are incapable of -appreciating it. To the ancient civilised nations its charms were -revealed; but as usual in the intoxication of a new discovery, they -hardly knew what to do with it, and applied it to all sorts of -stupid ceremonial purposes. The tendency of civilisation, however, -has been to eliminate promiscuous kissing, and restrict it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>more and more to its proper function as an expression of the -affections. And even within this sphere the circle becomes gradually -smaller. Although in some parts of Europe men still kiss -one another as a token of relationship, friendship, or esteem, yet the -habit is slowly dying out, the example having been set in England, -where it was abandoned toward the close of the seventeenth -century. The senseless custom which women to-day indulge in of -kissing each other on the slightest provocation, often when they -would rather slap one another in the face, is also doomed to -extinction. The witticism that women kiss one another because -they cannot find anything better to kiss, differing herein from -men, was not perpetrated by a woman. The practice of kissing -little children has been often enough condemned on medical -grounds, which also hold good in the case of adults. That contagious -diseases are thus often conveyed from one person to -another was already known to the ancient Romans, one of whose -emperors issued a special proclamation in consequence against promiscuous -kissing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>From a sentimental point of view, the most objectionable of -modern kisses are those which are allowed between cousins. As -long as a man may become a suitor for the hand of his cousin he -should, both for the sake of his own love-drama and in justice to -a possible rival, be debarred from this privilege. Imagine the -feelings of a lover who knows that his rival has been permitted to -steal the virgin kiss from the lips of his adored one simply because -his father happens to be her uncle! Family kisses should, therefore, -be allowed only within that degree of relationship which -precludes the idea of Love and marriage. Cousins will have to be -satisfied in future with a warmer grasp of the hand and an extra -lump of sugar in a maiden’s smile.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>LOVE-KISSES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The happiest moment in the life of the happiest man is that -when he is allowed for the first time to “steal immortal blessing” -from the lips of her who has just promised to be his for ever. -No wonder the poets have grown eloquent over this supreme -moment of pre-heavenly rapture—</p> - -<p class='c020'><span class='sc'>Tennyson</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><a id='corr285.38'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='O love'>“O love</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_285.38'><ins class='correction' title='O love'>“O love</ins></a></span>, O fire! once he drew</div> - <div class='line'>With one long kiss my whole soul through</div> - <div class='line'>My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Moore</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Grow to my lips thou sacred kiss.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span><span class='sc'>Shakspere</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“As if he plucked up kisses by the root</div> - <div class='line'>That grew upon my lips.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='sc'>Rückert</span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Meine Liebste, mit den frommen treuen</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Braunen Rehesaugen, sagt, sie habe</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Blaue einst als Kind gehabt. Ich glaub’es.</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Neulich da ich, seliges Vergessen</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Trinkend hing an ihren Lippen,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Meine Augen unterm langen Kusse</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Oeffnend, schaut’ ich in die nahen ihren,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Und sie kamen mir in solcher Nähe</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Tiefblau wie ein Himmel vor. Was ist das</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Wer gibt dir der Kindheit Augen wieder?</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Deine Liebe, sprach sie, deine Liebe,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Die mich hat zum Kind gemacht, die alle</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Liebesunschuldsträume meiner Kindheit</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Hat gereift zu sel’ger Erfüllung.</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Soll der Himmel nicht, der mir im Herzen</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Steht durch dich, mir blau durch’s Auge blicken?”</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Love-kisses are silent like deep affection—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Passions are likened best to floods and streams:</div> - <div class='line'>The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.”—<span class='sc'>Raleigh.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>True, Petruchio kissed Katrina “with such a clamorous smack, -that at the parting all the church did echo”; but his object was -not to express his Love, but to tease and tame the shrew. Loud -kisses, moreover, might betray the lovers to profane ears, and -bring on a fatal attack of Coyness on the girl’s part—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The greatest sin ’twixt heaven and hell</div> - <div class='line'>Is first to kiss and then to tell.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Love-kisses are passionate and long; for Love is Cupid’s lip-cement—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Oh, a kiss, long as my exile,</div> - <div class='line'>Sweet as my revenge.”—<span class='sc'>Shakspere.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth and love.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'>“For a kiss’s strength</div> - <div class='line'>I think it must be measured by its length.”—<span class='sc'>Byron.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A kiss now that will hang upon my lip</div> - <div class='line'>As sweet as morning dew upon a rose,</div> - <div class='line'>And full as long.”—<span class='sc'>Thomas Middleton.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Perhaps the longest kiss on record is that which Siegfried gives -Brünnhilde in the drama of <cite>Siegfried</cite>. But this is not an ordinary -kiss, for the hero has to wake with it the Valkyrie from the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>twenty years’ sleep into which old Wotan had plunged her for disobeying -his orders. Thanks to Wagner’s art, the thrill of this -Love-kiss, magically transmuted into tones, is felt by a thousand -spectators simultaneously with the lover.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love-kisses are innumerable. Thus sings the Italian poet, -Cecco Angiolieri, in the thirteenth century—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Because the stars are fewer in heaven’s span</div> - <div class='line'>Than all those kisses wherewith I kept time</div> - <div class='line'>All in an instant (I who now have none!)</div> - <div class='line'>Upon her mouth (I and no other man!)</div> - <div class='line'>So sweetly on the twentieth day of June</div> - <div class='line'>On the New Year twelve hundred ninety-one.”</div> - <div class='line in28'><span class='sc'>Rossetti’s Transl.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Novelists and poets have exhausted their ingenuity in finding -adjectives descriptive of Love-kisses and others. An anonymous -essayist has compiled the following list:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kisses are forced, unwilling, cold, comfortless, frigid, and -frozen, chaste, timid, rosy, balmy, humid, dewy, trembling, soft, -gentle, tender, tempting, fragrant, sacred, hallowed, divine, soothing, -joyful, affectionate, delicious, rapturous, deep-drawn, impressive, -quick, and nervous, warm, burning, impassioned, inebriating, -ardent, flaming, and akin to fire, ravishing, lingering, long. One -also hears of parting, tear-dewed, savoury, loathsome, poisonous, -treacherous, false, rude, stolen, and great fat, noisy kisses.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>HOW TO KISS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Kissing comes by instinct, and yet it is an art which few understand -properly. A lover should not hold his bride by the ears in -kissing her, as appears to have been customary at Scotch weddings -of the last century. A more graceful way, and quite effective -in preventing the bride from “getting away,” is to put your right -arm round her neck, your fingers under her chin, raise the chin, -and then gently but firmly press your lips on hers. After a few -repetitions she will find out it doesn’t hurt, and become as gentle -as a lamb.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The word adoration is derived from kissing. It means literally -to apply to the mouth. Therefore girls should beware of philologists -who may ask them with seemingly harmless intent, “May I -adore you?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In kissing, as in everything else, honesty is the best policy. -Stolen kisses are not the sweetest, as Leigh Hunt would have us -believe. A kiss to be a kiss must be mutual, voluntary, simultaneous. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>“The kiss snatched hasty from the sidelong maid” is -not worth having. A stolen kiss is only half a kiss.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“These poor half-kisses kill me quite;</div> - <div class='line'>Was ever man thus served?</div> - <div class='line'>Amidst an ocean of delight,</div> - <div class='line'>For pleasure to be starved?”—<span class='sc'>Marlowe.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>HOW TO WIN LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>BRASS BUTTONS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Inasmuch as language is the least eloquent and effective mode -of expressing Love, and inasmuch as Love is commonly inspired in -woman by the possession of qualities which she lacks, it is obvious -that Shakspere did not show his usual insight into human nature -when he wrote—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“That man that hath a tongue is, I say, no man,</div> - <div class='line'>If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>It seems, indeed, quite probable that Bacon wrote those two -lines; if Shakspere had written them he would have said—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“That man that hath a uniform is, I say, no man,</div> - <div class='line'>If with his uniform he cannot win a woman.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The extraordinary infatuation for military uniforms shown by -women of all times and countries is one of the most obscure -problems in mental and social philosophy. Whenever an officer, -though ever so humble in rank, is present at a ball or other social -gathering, all other men, be they merchants, politicians, lawyers, -physicians, artists, students, ministers, are simply “nowhere.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What is the cause of this singular infatuation? Is it the -colour-harmony formed by the complementary blue cloth and -yellow buttons? No, for various officials, as well as messenger -boys, wear similar uniforms without making any special impression -on the feminine heart. Is it the beauty or the wit of the soldier? -No, for he may be as stupid as a log, and red-nosed and smallpox-pitted, -without losing a jot of his popularity. Nor can it be his -valour, for he has perhaps never yet been opposite the “business -end” of a rifle, as they say out West. Nor, again, is it likely -that women admire soldiers from an inherited sense of gratitude -for the services they rendered in former warlike times in protecting -their great-great-grandmothers from the enemy’s barbarity; for -woman’s gratitude is not apt to be so very retrospective, while -gratitude itself is less apt to inspire Love than aversion.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>Whatever may be the cause of this mysterious phenomenon, -the fact remains that officers are woman’s ideals. Hence the first -and most important hint to those who would win a woman’s Love -is: Put brass buttons on your coat, have it dyed blue, and wear -epaulettes and a waxed moustache. This love-charm has never -been known to fail.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>CONFIDENCE AND BOLDNESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Women secretly detest bashful men. It is their own duty, -prescribed by etiquette, to be passive, shy, and diffident; hence if -men were shy and diffident too, no advances would be made, and -all progress in Love-making would be retarded.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women love courage. He who robs lions of their hearts can -easily win a woman’s.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>“Our doubts are traitors,</div> - <div class='line'>And make us lose the good we oft might win</div> - <div class='line'>By fearing to attempt,”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>says Shakspere; and Chesterfield remarks <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>à propos</i></span>, that “that -silly sanguine notion which is firmly entertained here, that one -Englishman can beat three Frenchmen, encourages and has sometimes -enabled one Englishman in reality to beat two.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ovid knew the value of boldness. And although his object -was not to teach how to win permanent Love, but how to get -honey without taking care of the bees, yet his psychology is -correct, and agrees with Goethe’s aphorism that “if thou approachest -women with tenderness thou winnest them with a word; -but he who is bold and saucy comes off better.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps this is one reason why officers are so successful in -Love, for several of them have been known to be bold and saucy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another reason may be that their pursuit is more distinctively -and exclusively masculine than any other profession.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What, for instance, could be more delightfully masculine, <i>i.e.</i> -mediæval, than the way in which, according to the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Chronicon -Turonense</cite></span>, William the Conqueror wooed and won Mathilde, the -daughter of Count Baldwin, Prince of Flanders. At first he was -unsuccessful, “for the young girl,” says Professor Scherr, “declared -proudly she would not marry a bastard. Then William -rode to Bruges, waylaid Mathilde, attacked her when she came -from church, pulled her long hair, and maltreated her with his -fists and with kicks, after which heroic performance he made his -escape. Strange to say, this peculiar mode of Love-making -imposed so greatly on the beauty that she declared with tears in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>her eyes that she would marry no one but the Norman Duke, -whom she actually did marry. A parallel case may be found in -the German <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Nibelungenlied</cite></span> (str. 870 and 901).”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since, according to the old philosophy, human nature, including -Love and Love-making, is the same at all times and in all -countries, it follows that a modern lover, after donning his brass -buttons, should administer his sweetheart a sound thrashing. -That will make her mellow and docile.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PLEASANT ASSOCIATIONS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The Germans, it is well known, are deficient in Gallantry, at -least in conjugal life, and often treat their wives more as upper -servants than as companions. Perhaps it was the unconscious -desire to justify this conjugal attitude that induced one of the -leading German psychologists, Horwicz, to pen these lines:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Love can only be excited by strong and vivid emotions, and -it is almost immaterial whether these emotions are agreeable or -disagreeable. The Cid wooed the proud heart of Donna Ximene, -whose father he had slain, by shooting one after another of her -pet pigeons. Such persons as arouse in us only weak emotions, -or none at all, are obviously least likely to incline us toward -them.... Our aversion is most apt to be bestowed on individuals -who, as the phrase goes, are ‘neither warm nor cold’; whereas -impulsive, choleric people, though they may readily offend us, are -just as capable of making us warmly attached to them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>How that modern genius, who lived two thousand years ago -and called himself Ovid, would have opened his eyes in wonder at -this German-mediæval Art of Love! He, queer fellow, believed -that a lover should never be otherwise than pleasantly associated -in his sweetheart’s mind. If she is spoiled by over-indulgence, -do not, he says in effect, take away her dainties with your own -hand. If she is unwell, do not hand her the bitter medicine in -person: “Let your rival mix the cup for her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So long as the professional manslayer is the highest ideal of -woman’s tender heart, lovers will do well to follow mediæval -methods of Courtship and make themselves as disagreeable as -possible. When the millennium arrives, and wholesale duels to -avenge offended national “honour” will, like private duels to -avenge individual “honour,” have become obsolete, then the -Ovidian psychology of Love will begin to prevail. Then will -the lover endeavour to avoid all harshness and to be only agreeably -associated in the mind of his goddess—through bright, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>cheerful conversation, harmless and sincere compliments, mutual -enjoyment of excursions and artistic entertainments, the avoidance -of disagreeable topics, of jealous suspicions and reproaches, etc.; -hoping thus to become the nucleus around which her dreams of -matrimonial happiness will gradually crystallise.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PERSEVERANCE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Persistence alone may win a woman where all other means fail. -She may dream of an ideal lover and vainly wait for his appearance -for several years; and in the meantime the image of her -ever-present suitor will become brighter and more inviting in her -mind. For is not perseverance, is not unflagging devotion to a -single aim, one of the noblest of manly attributes, a guarantee of -success in life and the highest test of genuine passion?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perseverance may neutralise more than one refusal.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Have you not heard it said full oft</div> - <div class='line'>A woman’s nay doth stand for naught?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>asks Shakspere; and Byron teaches that she</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Who listens once will listen <a id='corr241.18'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='twice'>twice;</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_241.18'><ins class='correction' title='twice'>twice;</ins></a></span></div> - <div class='line'>Her heart, be sure, is not of ice,</div> - <div class='line'>And one refusal no rebuff.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The fact that a proposal is the sincerest compliment a man can -pay a woman, contributes not a little to make a second proposal -more acceptable. A third should rarely be attempted. The first -proposal may have been refused more from momentary embarrassment -than from real indifference. The second, being weighted by -reflection, is generally final, though numerous exceptions have -occurred; yet in such cases it is probable that the woman gives -her hand without her heart, having at last discovered that her -heart is impervious to all Love. There are hundreds of thousands -of such women, and some of them are very sweet and pretty. The -fault lies in their shallow education.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FEIGNED INDIFFERENCE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Of every ten disappointed lovers seven might say: Had I been -a less submissive slave, I might have been a more successful suitor.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is a rule of manners,” says Emerson, “to avoid exaggeration.... -In man or woman the face and the person lose power -when they are on the strain to express admiration.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>In other words, one of the ways of winning Love is through -stolidity and indifference, real or feigned.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Were women the paragons of subtle insight they are painted, -they would favour those who are most visibly affected by their -charms, as being best able to appreciate and cherish them. There -are such women—a few; but the majority are partial coquettes, -to whom Love is known only as a form of Vanity, who neglect a -man already won, and reserve their sweetest smiles for those that -seem less submissive. The artificial dignity under which so many -young society men hide their mental vacuity has an irresistible -fascination for the average society girl. And the high collar, -which helps to keep the head in a dignified position, unswerved -by emotion, is responsible for innumerable conquests.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ergo, to win a society girl’s heart, wear a high collar, appear -awfully dignified and stolid, and show not the slightest interest in -anything. Above all, if you are of superior intelligence, carefully -conceal the fact. Brains are not “good form” in society; for -what’s the use of having flint where there is no steel to strike a -spark? “Stolidity,” says Schopenhauer, “does not injure a man -in a woman’s eye: rather will mental superiority, and still more -genius, as something abnormal, have an unfavourable influence.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A passage from Diderot’s <cite>Paradox of Acting</cite> (Pollock’s translation) -may be cited in illustration of Schopenhauer’s remark.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Take two lovers, both of whom have their declarations to -make. Who will come out of it best? Not I, I promise you. -I remember that I approached the beloved object with fear and -trembling; my heart beat, my ideas grew confused, my voice -failed me, I mangled all I said; I cried <em>yes</em> for <em>no</em>; I made a -thousand blunders; I was inimitably inept; I was absurd from -top to toe, and the more I saw it the more absurd I became. -Meanwhile, under my very eyes, a gay rival, light-hearted and -agreeable, master of himself, pleased with himself, losing no -opportunity for the finest flattery, made himself entertaining and -agreeable, enjoyed himself; he implored the touch of a hand -which was at once given him, he sometimes caught it without -asking leave, he kissed it once and again. I the while, alone in -a corner, avoided a sight which irritated me, stifling my sighs, -cracking my fingers with grasping my wrists, plunged in melancholy, -covered with a cold sweat, I could neither show nor conceal -my vexation. People say of love that it robs witty men of their -wit, and gives it to those who had none before: in other words, -makes some people sensitive and stupid, others cold and adventurous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>Another specialist in Love-lore, Lord Byron, discourses on this -text in five pithy lines—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Not much he kens, I ween, of woman’s breast</div> - <div class='line'>Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs,</div> - <div class='line'>Do proper homage to thine idol’s eyes,</div> - <div class='line'><em>But not too humbly or she will despise;</em></div> - <div class='line'><em>Disguise even tenderness, if thou art wise</em>.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>And even the king of German metaphysicians, old Kant, understood -this feminine foible, which may have been the reason why -he never found a wife: “An actor,” he says, “who remains unmoved, -but possesses a powerful intellect and imagination, may -succeed in producing a deeper impression by his feigned emotion -than he could by real emotion. One who is truly in love is, in -presence of his beloved, confused, awkward, and anything but -fascinating. But a clever man who merely plays the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> of a -lover may do it so naturally as to easily ensnare his poor victim; -simply because, his heart being unmoved, his head remains clear, -and he can, therefore, make the most of his wits and his cleverness -in presenting the counterfeit of a lover.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The counterfeit of a lover.” It is he, then, whom women, -according to these French, English, and German witnesses, encourage, -instead of the true lover. So that women are not only -less capable of deep Love than men, but they do not even promote -the growth and survival of Love by favouring the men most deeply -affected by it. And the fault, be it said once more, lies in the -superficial education not only of their intellect but of their emotions, -for the heart can only be reached and refined through the -brain. The average woman, being incapable of feeling Love, is -incapable of appreciating it when she finds it in a man. She sees -only its ridiculous side—and ridicule is fatal, even to Love. Ridicule -killed Love in France, which to-day is the most loveless -country in the civilised world, its women the most frivolous and -heartless,—and its population gradually diminishing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The ridiculous exaggerations of a lover are indeed harmless if -the girl is in love too, for then she does not see them; but to one -who has yet to win Love, as girls are now constituted, they are -fatal. Perhaps this is the reason why the list of men of genius -who failed in their truest Love is so extraordinarily large: for, -their Love being more ardent than that of others, they were unable -to restrain its excesses and feign indifference; while another way -in which they “lost power” was through their extravagant admiration -of Beauty, which put their faces “on the strain” to -express it.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>However this may be, lovers should keep in mind this paradoxical -rule, which follows as a corollary from the foregoing discussion:</p> - -<p class='c001'>In order to win a woman, first cure yourself of your passion, -then, having won her through feigned indifference (which is easy), -fall in love again and bag her before she has had time to discover -your change of feeling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The only difficulty herein lies in the cure. Should this be -found impossible, even with the aid of our next chapter, one last -resource is open to the lover. Says La Bruyère: <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Quand l’on a -assez fait auprès d’une femme pour devoir l’engager, il y a encore -une ressource, qui est de ne plus rien faire; <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>c’est alors qu’elle vous -rappelle</i></span>.”</span> In other words, if you have failed to win her love, with -all your attentions, change your policy: leave her alone, and she -will be sure to recall you.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This trait is not simply the outcome of feminine perverseness -or coquetry. The explanation lies deeper. Every sensible woman, -be she ever so vain and accustomed to flattery, is painfully conscious -of certain defects, physical or mental. “Has he discovered -them?” she will anxiously ask herself when the sly lover suddenly -withdraws; “I must recover his good opinion.” So she sets herself -the task of fascinating and pleasing him; and this desire to -please (Gallantry) being one of the constituent parts of Love, it -is apt to be soon joined by the other symptoms which make up -the romantic passion.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COMPLIMENTS</h3> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O flatter me, for love delights in praises,”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>exclaims one of Shakspere’s characters; and again—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Flatter and praise, commend, extol their graces;</div> - <div class='line'>Tho’ ne’er so black, say they have angels’ faces.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>There is one advantage in writing about the romantic passion. -Love is such a tissue of paradoxes, and exists in such an endless -variety of forms and shades that you may say almost anything -about it you please, and it is likely to be correct. So again here. -It is true, no doubt, that skill in the art of flattery helps a man -to win a woman’s goodwill, but how does this rhyme with the -doctrine that Feigned Indifference is the lover’s sharpest weapon?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Answer: A compliment is not so much an expression of Love -as of simple æsthetic admiration; or else it may spring from the -flatterer’s desire to show off his wit. A man may compliment a -woman for whom he does not feel the slightest Love; and women -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>know it. Therefore even a coquette does not despise and ignore -a man who flatters her, as she invariably does one whose <em>actions</em> -brand him as her captive and slave.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time, since the desire to be considered beautiful -is the strongest passion in a woman’s heart, the avenue to that -heart may often be found by a man who can convince her honestly -that she is considered beautiful by himself and others. For, as -every man of ability has moments when he doubts his genius, so -every woman has moments when she doubts her beauty and longs -to see it in the mirror of a masculine eye.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The most common mistake of lovers is to compliment a woman -on her most conspicuous points of beauty. This has very much -the same effect on her as telling Rubinstein he is a wonderful -pianist. He knows that better than you do, and has been told so -so many million times that he is sick and tired of hearing it again. -But show him that you have discovered some special subtle detail -of excellence in his performance or compositions that had escaped -general notice, and his heart is yours at once and for ever. A -lover can have no difficulty in discovering such subtle charms in -his sweetheart, for Cupid, while blinding him to her defects, places -her beauties under a microscope.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A man who attends a social gathering comes home pleased, -not at having heard a number of bright things, but in proportion -to his own success in amusing the company. On the same principle, -if you give a girl—especially one who mistrusts her conversational -ability—a chance to say a single bright thing, she will love -you more than if you said a hundred clever things to her.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sincerity in compliments is essential; else all is lost. It is -useless to try to convince a woman with an ugly mouth or nose -that those features are not ugly. She knows they are ugly, as -well as Rubinstein knows when he strikes a wrong note. “Very -ugly or very beautiful women,” says Chesterfield, “should be -flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their -beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A clever joke is never out of place. You may intimate to a -comparatively plain woman that she is good-looking, and if she -retorts with a sceptical answer, you may snub her and score ten -points in Love by telling her you pity her poor taste.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Indeed, the art of successful flattery, especially with modern -self-conscious girls, consists in the ability of giving “a heartfelt -compliment in the disguise of playful raillery,” as Coleridge puts -it. Conundrums are very useful. For instance, Angelina is -patting a dog. “Do you know why all dogs are so fond of you?” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>asks Adolphus. Angelina gives it up. “Because dogs are the -most intelligent of all animals.” Angelina goes to Paris, and -Adolphus enjoys his last walk with her. They pass a weeping -willow. “Why are we two like this tree?” She gives it up again. -“A weeping willow is graceful and melancholy; you are graceful, -I melancholy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How old am I?” asks Angelina. “I don’t know. Judging -by your conversation thirty-five, by your looks nineteen.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell a woman—casually, as it were—of the effect of her -charms on a third party, and it will please her more than a bushel -of your neatest compliments. As Lessing remarks, Homer gives -us a more vivid sense of Helen’s beauty by noting its effect even -on the Trojan elders, than he could have done by the most minute -enumeration of her charms. Put your flatteries into actions rather -than words—<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“mettre la flatterie dans les actions et non en paroles”</span>—is -Balzac’s advice. But “flattery in actions” is simply another -name for Gallantry.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is no danger that the subtlest compliment will ever -escape notice. In the discovery of praise the commonest mind has -the quickness of genius.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>LOVE-LETTERS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The great trouble with compliments is that they have an annoying -habit of occurring to the mind about ten or twenty minutes -after the natural opportunity for getting them off has passed -away. It is here that Love-letters come to the rescue. They -enable a man to excogitate the most excruciatingly subtle and -hyperbolic compliments, and then “lead up to them” most -naturally.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is an old superstition that Love-letters <em>must</em> be incoherent -trash to be genuine evidences of passion. When Keats’s -Love-letters to Fanny Brawne were sold at auction, a spicy journalist -commented as follows on the occasion:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is open to question whether, like so many of the letter-writers -of the age of which Keats inherited the traditions, the -singer of <cite>Endymion</cite> had not a shrewd eye to posterity when he -wrote the laboured compositions which the world regards as the -record of his wooing. The manuscript is painfully correct, the -punctuation worthy of a printer’s reader, the capitals much nicer -than fiery lovers usually form, and the periods rounded with painful -care. Like so many cultivators of the art of letter-writing, -the sensitive poet, ‘who was snuffed out by a review,’ seems to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>have copied the gush, which last week sold for ten times more -than <cite>Endymion</cite> fetched, before he committed it to the fourpenny -post. Hence the veriest scrawl, the most illegible postcard of -these times is, as an index to the writer’s character, infinitely more -valuable than the ponderous pieces of rhetoric which last century -passed for love-making between Strephon, who quotes the elegant -Tully, and Chloe, who makes free use of the ‘Elegant Extracts.’ -Duller fustian than such priggish love-letters it is hard to conceive. -They remind one of nothing so much as the epistles copied out of -<cite>The Complete Letter-Writer</cite>, and must recall to some middle-aged -men certain painful experiences of those salad days when their -young affections suffered a sudden blight by missives of so severely -correct an order that they suggest the idea of having undergone -maternal supervision.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet why, pray, should Keats <em>not</em> have written his Love-letters -so carefully and copied them so neatly? Is it not a fact that -when a man is in love he cares more to make a pleasing impression -on one particular person than on all the rest of the world combined? -and that even his ambition and fame, for which he labours -so hard, seem valuable in his eyes solely as a means of winning -Her Love? And if Love is a deeper passion, even in a poet, than -ambition, why should he not go to the extent even of <em>taking notes</em> -and utilising his very best conceits in his Love-letters? The -truth is, in the writing of Love-letters everything depends on -the man’s habits. If he is accustomed to writing carelessly, his -Love-letters will probably be hasty and slovenly enough to suit -orthodox notions on this subject. But if he is a literary artist, -he will probably polish his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>billets-doux</i></span> more than anything else -<span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><i>con amore</i></span>, considering the probable effect on her mind of every -sentence. And although the thought of future publication may -enter his mind, it will appear as the veriest trifle compared with -the more important object of winning a woman’s Love by a -display of complimentary wit and passionate protestations of undying -affection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sir Richard Steele evidently did not believe that Love-letters, -to be genuine, must be slovenly. In one of his letters to Miss -Scurlock he apologises for not having time to revise what he had -written. In another letter he exclaims: “How art thou, oh my -soul, stolen from thyself! how is all my attention broken! my -books are blank paper, and my friends intruders.” Again: “It -is the hardest thing in the world to be in love, and yet attend -business. As for me, all that speak to find me out, and I must -lock myself up, or other people will do it for me. A gentleman -<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>asked me this morning, ‘What news from Holland?’ and I -answered, ‘She is exquisitely handsome.’ Another desired to -know when I had been last at Windsor; I replied, ‘She designs -to go with me.’” And once more: “It is to my lovely charmer I -owe that many noble ideas are continually affixed to my words and -actions: it is the natural effect of that generous passion to create -in the admirers some similitude of the object admired; thus, my -dear, am I every day to improve from so sweet a companion.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first score or so of Keats’s Love-letters have the ring of -true gold. Here are a few specimens in which the thermometer -of endearments rises steadily from My Dearest Lady, through My -Sweet Girl, My Dear Girl, My Dearest Girl, My Sweet Fanny, -to My Sweet Love, Dearest Love and Sweetest Fanny. In the -very first letter he writes:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Ask yourself, my love, whether you are not very cruel to -have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you -confess this in the letter you must write immediately? and do all -you can to console me in it—make it rich as a draught of poppies -to intoxicate me—write the softest words and kiss them, that I -may at least touch my lips where yours have been. For myself, -if I do not know how to express my devotion to so fair a form, I -want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair. I -almost wish we were butterflies, and lived but three summer days—three -such days with you I could fill with more delight than -fifty common years could ever contain.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“All I can bring you is a swooning admiration of your -beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks—your loveliness -and the hour of my death. O that I could have possession -of them both in the same minute.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I hate the world: it batters too much the wings of my self-will, -and would I could take a sweet poison from your lips to send -me out of it. From no others would I take it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“At Winchester I shall get your letters more readily; and it -being a cathedral city, I shall have a pleasure, always a great one -to me when near a cathedral, of reading them during the service -up and down the aisle.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>All this is in the true Shaksperian key of Romantic Love, -as are the Love-letters of Burns, Byron, Moore, Heine, Bürger, -Lenau, and most other poets. Room must be made here for a -few extracts from Lenau’s letters to his love, which, in some -respects, resemble those of Keats—equally polished, poetic, deep, -and sincere:—</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>“It makes me melancholy to see how incapable I am of sympathizing -with the pleasures of my friends. My Love goes out afar -towards you; it hearkens and listens and stares in the distance for -you, and takes no note of all the love by which it is surrounded -here. I am truly ill. I constantly think of you alone and death. -It often seems to me as if my time had expired. I cannot write -poetry, I cannot rejoice in anything, cannot hope, can only think -of you and death. The other day I wrote to you to take good -care of your health—though I myself feel so little desire to live.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The whole evening I was unable to think of anything but of -you and the possibility of losing you. The large crowd of people -seemed to have assembled on purpose to show me most painfully -what a mere nothing the world would be to me if I had to part -from you. I constantly saw but your face, your lovely, divine -eye.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Alexander wishes me to go to the baths at Leuk with him. -He is quite ill. But I cannot go. If I have to see Switzerland -without you, I prefer not to see it at all.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“My poetic composition is in a bad way. Though a thought -sprouts in me here and there, it withers before it has reached -maturity. When I go to see you I shall bring along a dry wreath -of prematurely-faded poetic blossoms, and make them revive in -your presence, as there are warm fountains dipped into which faded -flowers blossom again.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have lost all pleasure in other people when you are absent. -If you had only been at Weinsberg! Even the Æolian harps did -not produce the usual impression on me.” It is noticeable how -the overtone of Monopoly is accented in all these plaints.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have found in your companionship more evidence of an -eternal life than in all my investigations and studies of nature. -Whenever, in a happy hour, I believed I had reached the climax -of Love and the proper moment for death, since a more delicious -moment could never follow: it was on each occasion an illusion, -for another hour followed in which I loved you still more deeply. -These ever new, ever deeper abysses of life convince me of its -immortality. To-day I saw in your eyes the full measure of the -divine. Most distinctly did I perceive to-day that the swelling and -sinking of the eye is the breathing of the soul. In an eye of such -beauty as yours we can see, as in a prophetic hieroglyphic, the -essence of which some day our immortal body will consist. If I -die, I shall depart rich, for I have seen what is most beautiful in -the world.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The rose you gave me at parting has a most delicious fragrance, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>as if it were a Good-Night from you! Sleep well, dearest -heart! Preserve the second rose as a memento. I love you -immeasurably.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt the average Love-letters read in courts of justice in -breach of promise cases, to the intense amusement of the audience, -are very different in character from these poetic effusions. But to -say that, because the average Love-letters are ludicrous, therefore -all Love-letters, to be genuine, must be ludicrous and incoherent, -is the very Bedlam of absurdity. What makes common Love-letters -so laughable is the fact that the writer, previously a paragon -of prosiness, suddenly gets some poetic fancies and tries to put -them into language. But as the writing of poetry—in verse or -prose—is a more difficult art than piano-playing, first attempts -cannot be otherwise than harrowing or amusing. On the other -hand, just as a pianist can never improvise so soulfully as when he -is in love, so a poet will write his best prose in the letters addressed -to his love; the only ludicrous feature being that extravagant and -exclusive admiration of one person which is the very essence of -Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Surely Hawthorne was neither “insincere” nor “thinking of -posterity” when he finished one of his Love-letters with this poetic -conceit, expressed in his best prose style:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“When we shall be endowed with spiritual bodies I think they -will be so constituted that we may send thoughts and feelings any -distance, in no time at all, and transfuse them warm and fresh into -the consciousness of those we love. Oh, what happiness it would -be, at this moment, if I could be conscious of some purer feeling, -some more delicate sentiment, some lovelier fantasy than could -possibly have had its birth in my own nature, and therefore be -aware that you were thinking through my mind and feeling through -my heart! Perhaps you possess this power already.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This is true epistolary Love-making—the sublimated essence of -complimentary Gallantry.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>LOVE-CHARMS FOR WOMEN</h3> - -<p class='c013'>As women are not allowed to make Love actively, they resort -to various cunning arts with which they indirectly reach the hard -hearts of men. Magic is the most potent of these arts, and always -has been so considered by women; for, curiously enough, one finds -on looking over the folklore of various nations, ancient and modern, -that in nineteen cases out of twenty where a Love-charm is spoken -of, it is one used by women to win the affection of men.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>Probably the real reason why the vast majority of women are -so curiously indifferent to the hygienic arts of increasing and preserving -Personal Beauty—as shown in their devotion to tight-lacing, -their aversion to fresh air, sunshine, and brisk exercise—is -because they know they can infallibly win a man’s Love by the use -of some simple powder or potion. It is well known that the -Roman poet Lucretius took his life in an amorous fit caused by a -love-potion; and Lucullus lost his reason in the same way. The -grandest musical work in existence would never have been written -had not Brangäne given to Tristan and Isolde a love-potion which -was so powerful that it made not only both the victims die of the -fever of Love, but united them even after death: "For from the -grave of Tristan sprang a plant which descended into the grave of -Yseult. Cut down thrice by order of the Cornish king, the irrepressible -vegetable bloomed verdant as ever next morning, and -even now casts its shadow over the tombs of the lovers—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘An ay it grew, an ay it threw,</div> - <div class='line'>As they would fain be one.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>In mediæval times Personal Beauty was such a rare thing, and -created such havoc among men, that the unhappy possessors of it -were frequently accused of using forbidden Love-charms, and burnt -at the stake as witches.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To-day, thanks to our superior sanitary and educational arrangements, -Beauty is such a common affair that it has lost all its effect -on the masculine heart; hence girls should carefully note a few of -the ways by which a man may be irresistibly fascinated.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Italian girls practise the following method: A lizard is caught, -drowned in wine, dried in the sun and reduced to powder, some of -which is thrown on the obdurate man, who thenceforth is theirs -for evermore.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A favourite Slavonic device is to cut the finger, let a few drops -of her blood run into a glass of beer, and make the adored man -drink it unknowingly. The same method is current in Hesse and -Oldenburg, according to Dr. Ploss. In Bohemia, the girl who is -afraid to wound her finger may substitute a few drops of bat’s -blood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Cases are known where invocations to the moon were followed -by the bestowal of true Love. And if a girl will address the new -moon as follows—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“All hail to thee, moon! All hail to thee!</div> - <div class='line'>Prithee, good moon, reveal to me,</div> - <div class='line'>This night who my husband shall be,”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>she will dream of him that very night.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>A four-leaved clover secretly placed in a man’s shoes will make -him the devoted lover of the woman who puts it in.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Inside a frog is a certain crooked bone, which, when cleaned -and dried over the fire on St. John’s Eve, and then ground fine -and given in food to the lover, will at once win his love for the -administerer.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>If a girl sees a man washing his hands—say at a picnic—and -lends him her apron or handkerchief to dry them, he will forthwith -declare himself her amorous slave to eternity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There <em>are</em> men, however, who, owing to some constitutional -defect or inherited anomaly, remain unaffected by these and similar -arts. Should any woman be so foolish as to crave such a man’s -Love, she will do well to bear in mind that <em>Vanity is the backdoor -by which every man’s heart may be entered</em>. Thus Byron says -of a Venetian flame of his: “But her great merit is finding out -mine—there is nothing so amiable as discernment.” “Let her be,” -says Thackeray, “if not a clever woman, an appreciator of cleverness -in others, which, perhaps, clever folks like better.” “Ne’er,” -says Scott,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘Was flattery lost on poet’s ears:</div> - <div class='line'>A simple race! they waste their toil</div> - <div class='line'>For the vain tribute of a smile.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Rousseau’s last love was inspired by a woman’s admiration of his -writings. Balzac, celibate for many years, was at last captured by -a woman who returned to a hotel room for a volume of his works -she had left there, informing him, without suspecting who he was, -that she never travelled without it and could not live without it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The story of the marriage of Lamartine,” says the author of -<cite>Salad for the Solitary</cite>, “is also one of romantic interest. The -lady, whose maiden name was Birch, was possessed of considerable -property, and when past the bloom of youth she became passionately -enamoured of the poet from the perusal of his <cite>Meditations</cite>. -For some time she nursed this sentiment in secret, and, being -apprised of the embarrassed state of his affairs, she wrote him, -tendering him the bulk of her fortune. Touched with this remarkable -proof of her generosity, and supposing it could only be -caused by a preference for himself, he at once made an offer of his -hand and heart. He judged rightly, and the poet was promptly -<a id='corr252.39'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='accepted.'>accepted.”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_252.39'><ins class='correction' title='accepted.'>accepted.”</ins></a></span></p> - -<p class='c001'>Sympathy, beauty, wit, elegant manners, amiability—these are -woman’s arrows of Love, ever sure of their aim. “She loved me -for the dangers I had passed,” says Othello, “and I loved her that -she did pity them.” Or, as Professor Dowden comments on this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>passage, “the beautiful Italian girl is fascinated by the regal -strength and grandeur, and tender protectiveness of the Moor. -<em>He</em> is charmed by the sweetness, the sympathy, the gentle disposition -the gracious womanliness of Desdemona.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The <em>gracious womanliness</em> of Desdemona.” There lies the -secret—the charm of charms. It is fortunate that the political -viragoes of to-day, who would remove woman from her domestic -sphere, have opposed to them the greatest force in the universe—<em>the -power of man’s Love!</em> When they have overcome that, they -will find it easy to dam the current of the Niagara River, and curb -the force of the ocean’s countless breakers.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PROPOSING</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Countless as the stars, and only too apposite, are the jokes -about lovers who evolve masterpieces of eloquence wherewith to -lay their hearts at their idol’s feet; but who, when the crucial -moment of the trial arrives, like Beckmesser in Wagner’s comic -opera, stutter out the veriest parody of their song of Love. And -no wonder, considering what is at stake; for the Yes or No decides -whether the lover is to be—literally—the happiest or the unhappiest -of all men for weeks or months to come.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ovid cautions a man not to select a sweetheart in the twilight -or lamplight, since “spots are invisible at night and every fault -is overlooked; at that time almost every woman is held to be -beautiful.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But proposing is a different matter from selecting. When once -the choice is made, and her choice alone remains to be decided, -twilight is the only proper time to “pop the question.” For a -maiden’s independence and Coyness are inversely related to the -degree of light. In the morning, in broad daylight, she can boldly -face even the terrible thought of being left an old maid; but in -the twilight she feels the need of a man’s protection, and it is at -that time that the imagination is least deaf to the whispered and -self-suggested fancies of Romantic Love and wedded bliss. A -man who proposes in the morning deserves, therefore, to be disappointed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nature herself has provided a safeguard against morning proposals. -No woman is so beautiful in the daytime as is in the evening; -and the moon’s romantic associations are largely due to its -magic effect of beautifying the complexion and features of women, -and thus urging the lover’s courage to the point of amorous confession.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>There is still another reason why a tender and considerate -lover should propose in the chiaroscuro of subdued light—to spare -her blushes—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“But ’neath yon crimson tree,</div> - <div class='line'>Lover to listening maid might breathe his flame,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor mark, within its roseate canopy,</div> - <div class='line'>Her blush of maiden shame.”—<span class='sc'>Bryant.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Not many years ago a plan was described in the newspapers by -which a number of Southern youths who had not the courage to -propose were happily mated and wedded. An elderly person was -selected, vowed to eternal secrecy, and to him each youth and -maiden who was in love confided in writing the name of the beloved. -Those couples that had chosen one another were informed -of the fact, and went away rejoicing, arm in arm.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A fairy story, on the face of it. A woman would sooner cut off -her hand than write with it the secret of her Love before she -knew it was returned; and that man that hath a tongue is, I say, -no man, if he is afraid to ask for a woman’s hand—or to take it -unasked, and let it respond to the touching question. “Love -sought is good, but given unsought is better,” says Shakspere. -The only true proposals are those where spoken words are dispensed -with; where the magnetic thrill of the hands, the eloquence -of the tell-tale eyes, draw the lovers into mutual embrace, and lips -become glued on lips in unpremeditated ecstasy.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>DIAGNOSIS OR SIGNS OF LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Though women may often feel in doubt concerning the intentions -of men who pay them attentions, they cannot help recognizing -deep Love in a man instantly; for the symptoms, as described -in a previous chapter, are absolutely unmistakable. A woman, -too, who loves deeply, can hardly help betraying herself, by the -sly opportunities she finds for meeting her lover (purely accidental, -of course), and by the special pains she takes to make it clear to -her friends that she does not care for <em>that</em> man certainly; often -also by the fact, pointed out by Jean Paul, that “Love increases -man’s delicacy and lessens woman’s”; tempting her occasionally -to throw away all prudence and regard for public opinion, in the -wild intoxication of her passion and her confidence in her lover.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But in cases of doubt—how is a lover to decide whether it is -safe and worth while to proceed? A woman’s Coyness, of course, -means nothing, and may have been brought on by an assumption -of excessive confidence and boldness on the man’s part. Girls are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>like wild colts. They may be safely approached to a certain distance, -whence one step more will cause them to stampede; but -stand still at that point, and before long they will cast away fear -and meet you half-way.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Trifles are the only safe tests of Love. For they are not so -apt as weighty words and actions to be the outcome of a deliberate -coquettish desire to deceive. To ascertain if you are loved—and -this holds true for both sexes—allude (with a careless assumption -of indifference) to some trifling details of previous conversation or -common experience. If she (or he) remembers them all, especially -if of remote occurrence, the chances are you are loved.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Shakspere evidently had this in mind when he wrote—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“If thou rememberest not the slightest folly</div> - <div class='line'>That ever love did make thee run into,</div> - <div class='line'>Thou hast not loved.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>HOW TO CURE LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>All hope abandon ye who enter here. It is a terrible haunt -of pessimism, for disappointed lovers only. All others will please -pass it by, for the object of this book is to advocate the cause of -Love, not to weaken it. Only when all hope of reciprocation is -abandoned, should the tender plant ever be crushed underfoot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>An exception must be made in favour of those hopeful lovers -who merely wish to cure themselves in order to improve their -chances of winning, as explained in the last chapter, under the -head of Feigned Indifference.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is useless to quote to a rejected lover Rosalind’s philosophy: -“Our poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all this -time there was not any man died in his own person, <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>videlicet</i></span>, in a -love cause.... Men have died from time to time, and worms -have eaten them, but not for love.” Useless to tell him, as -Emerson does, that it is not a disgrace to love unrequitedly: “It -never troubles the sun that some of his rays fall wide and vain -into ungrateful space, and only a small part on the reflecting -planet.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To all such efforts at consolation the poor wretch may retort -with Shakspere: “Every one may master a grief but he who -has it.” Yet he may, at any rate, endeavour to “patch his -grief” with the following reflections, based on the experience of -centuries.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span> - <h3 class='c014'>ABSENCE</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Two thousand years ago Ovid advised the readers of his -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Remedia Amoris</cite></span> who wished to cure themselves of an unwelcome -attachment to flee the capital, to travel, hunt, or till the soil till -all danger of a relapse should he averted. “Out of sight, out of -mind,” wrote Thomas à Kempis; and this theme has been varied -by a hundred writers in prose and verse. “Love is a local -anguish,” exclaims Coleridge; “I am fifty miles away and am not -half so miserable.” Carew puts it thus—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Then fly betimes, for only they</div> - <div class='line'>Conquer love, that run away.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Even the unspeakable Turk has a proverb advising a lover to fly -to the mountains. The Himalayas are probably meant, for no -other chain would be high enough to allay the anguish of a polygamist -rejected by a whole harem.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, “I find that absence still increases love,” -wrote Charles Hopkins in the seventeenth century; and Bayly -gave this paradox the familiar form of “absence makes the heart -grow fonder”—to which a modern realistic wag has added the -coda “of the other man.” “La Rochefoucauld has well remarked,” -says Hume, “that absence destroys weak passions, but increases -strong ones; as the wind extinguishes a candle but blows up a -fire.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This simile is not very appropriate, nor is the statement unquestionable. -It is more correct to say that short absence increases -Love, while long absence cures it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are two ways in which a short absence favours Love:</p> - -<p class='c001'>Like the thirst of a man who would wean himself of strong -liquor, the lovers ardour is at first increased when he is placed -where he can no longer drink in the intoxicating sight of her -beauty. Time is needed to annihilate the maddening memory of -that pleasure.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Secondly, short absence favours the idealising process in the -lover’s mind. Removed from the corrective influence of her actual -presence, his imagination may abandon itself to the delightful task -of painting a gloriously unreal counterfeit of her charms—which is -oil in the flames.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This idealising process is facilitated by the strange difficulty -which most people—and lovers in particular—experience in recalling -the features of those specially dear to them.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>Given sufficient time to fix the idealised image of the beloved -in the memory, and a cure may be effected through the shock subsequently -felt on comparing this image with the greatly inferior -reality.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>TRAVEL</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is safer, however, not to risk a return, but to avoid sight of -her altogether for several years. The advantages of travel are -twofold, not to mention the security from the danger of an -accidental meeting. At home the surrounding world is too familiar -to afford distraction, whereas in a strange place every object claims -the attention and diverts the mind from its amorous reveries. -More important still is the fact that in a foreign country the -strangeness of national physiognomy invests all women with a -heightened charm, so that it is easier to find an antidote by falling -in love anew.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>EMPLOYMENT</h3> - -<p class='c013'>“Great spirits and great business do keep out the weak passion -of love,” said Bacon; but long before him Ovid knew that Leisure -is Cupid’s chief ally. “If you desire to end your love, employ -yourself and you will conquer; for Amor flees business.” He -advises military service, agriculture, and hunting as excellent -diversions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Poetry and music, however, as the same poet tells us, and all -other occupations tending to stir up the tender feelings, are to be -carefully avoided. Novel-reading is particularly bad, for to -imagine another’s Love is to revive your own. “Lotte Hartmann -played some melodies of Bellini on the piano this evening,” writes -Lenau; “I ought to avoid music when I am away from you, for it -arouses in me a longing and an anguish of consuming violence. I -feel how my heart sadly shrinks within itself, and unwillingly -continues to beat.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MARRIED MISERY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Surely the thought that his romantic adoration will cease with -marriage ought to cure a rejected wooer. Unquestionably, marriage -is the best cure of Love. For though cynics are wrong in claiming -that wedlock changes Love to indifference, it does change it to -conjugal affection, which is an entirely different group of emotions. -To the rejected lover, unfortunately, matrimony is not available as -a cure of his Love. But he may give his overheated imagination -an ice-bath by reflecting on the dark side of conjugal life, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>promised bliss of which has been described as a mirage by so -many great minds.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Professor Jowett thus discourses on how a modern Sokrates -in a cynical mood might discourse on the seamy side of married -life:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How the inferior of the two drags the other down to his or -her level; how the cares of a family ‘breed meanness in their -souls.’... They cannot undertake any noble enterprise, such as -makes the names of men and women famous, from domestic considerations. -Too late their eyes are opened; they were taken -unawares, and desire to part company. Better, he would say, a -‘little love at the beginning,’ for heaven might have increased it; -but now their foolish fondness has changed into mutual dislike.... -How much nobler, in conclusion he will say, is friendship, -which does not receive unmeaning praises from novelists and -poets, is not exacting or exclusive, is not impaired by familiarity, -is much less expensive, is not so likely to take offence, seldom -changes, and may be dissolved from time to time without the -assistance of the courts.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dr. Johnson, in a letter to Baretti, points out the difference -between Love and Marriage:</p> - -<p class='c001'>“In love, as in every other passion of which hope is the -essence, we ought always to remember the uncertainty of events. -There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from -vigilance as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman; -and if all would happen that a lover fancies, I know not what -other terrestrial happiness would deserve pursuit. But love and -marriage are different states. Those who are to suffer the evils -together, and to suffer often for the sake of one another, <em>soon lose -that tenderness of look</em> and that benevolence of mind which arose -from the participation of unmingled pleasure and successive -amusement.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Lose that tenderness of look!” Have you reflected that it is -that exquisite tenderness of look which chiefly fascinated you, and -have you not noticed that, as Johnson implies, married people -rarely regard one another with that look which constantly intoxicated -them during Courtship? For “beauty soon grows familiar -to the lover, fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense,” says -Addison; or, as Hazlitt puts it, “though familiarity may not breed -contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“With most marriages,” says Goethe, “it is not long till things -assume a very piteous look.” Raleigh: “If thou marry beauty, -thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which, perchance, will -<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>neither last nor please thee one year.” Seneca: “Beauty is such -a fleeting blossom, how can wisdom rely upon its momentary -delight?” Howells: “Marian Butler was at that period full of -those airs of self-abnegation with which women adorn themselves -in the last days of betrothal and the first of marriage, and never -afterwards.” Alexander Walker: “It looks as if woman were in -possession of most enjoyments, and as if man had only an illusion -held out to him to make him labour for her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Montaigne: “As soon as women are ours we are no longer -theirs.” “The land of marriage has this peculiarity that strangers -are desirous of inhabiting it, while its natural inhabitants would -willingly be banished thence.” Boucicault: “I wish that Adam -had died with all his ribs in his body.” De Finod: “Marriage is -the sunset of love.” Goldsmith: “Many of the English marry in -order to have one happy month in their lives.” Hood: “You -can’t wive and thrive both in the same year.” Southey: “There -are three things a wise man will not trust,—the wind, the sunshine -of an April day, and a woman’s plighted faith.” Byron: -“I remarked in my illness the complete inertion, inaction, and -destruction of my chief mental faculties. I tried to rouse them, -and yet could not—and this is the <em>Soul</em>!!! I should believe -that it was married to the body if they did not sympathise so much -with each other.” Colley Cibber: “Oh, how many torments lie in -the small circle of a wedding-ring!” Alphonse Karr: “Women for -the most part do not love us. They do not choose a man because -they love him, but because it pleases them to be loved by him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Lady Montagu: “It goes far toward reconciling me to being a -woman, when I reflect that I am thus in no immediate danger of -ever marrying one.” Schopenhauer: “It is well known that -happy marriages are rare.” “The lover, contrary to expectation, -finds himself no happier than before.” Byron—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Think you if Laura had been Petrarch’s wife</div> - <div class='line'>He would have written sonnets all his life?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Burton: “Paul commended marriage, yet he preferred a single -life.” Buxton: “Juliet was a fool to kill herself, for in three -months she’d have married again, and been glad to be quit of -Romeo.” Heine: “The music at a marriage procession always -reminds me of the music which leads soldiers to battle.” Lessing—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Ein einzig böses Weib gibt’s höchstens in der Welt,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Nur schade dass ein jeder es für das seine hält.”</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Of shrewish women in the world there’s surely only one,</div> - <div class='line'>A pity, though, that every man says she’s the wife he won.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>Selden: “Marriage is a desperate thing. The frogs in Æsop were -extremely wise; they had a great mind to some water, but they -would not leap into the well, because they could not get out -again.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>When the Pope heard of Father Hyacinthe’s marriage, says -Cheales, he exclaimed: “The saints be praised! the renegade has -taken his punishment into his own hands. Truly the ways of -Providence are inscrutable!”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FEMININE INFERIORITY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Why are women so mysterious, so inscrutable? Cynics say -because you cannot calculate what they will do, as they have no -fixed compass by which they steer, <i>i.e.</i> no character. But Heine -takes up their defence. Far from having no character, he says, -they have a new one every day.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The world’s opinion of women is best revealed in the crystallised -wisdom, based on experience, called proverbs. It will soothe the -wounded lover’s heart to note the unanimity with which woman’s -foibles are dwelt on in the proverbs of all nations from ancient -Greece to modern China and France. To give only three instances -of a thousand that may be found in any collection of proverbs: -“Women,” says a French proverb, “have quicksilver in the brain, -wax in the heart.” The old Greek poet Xenarchus sang, “Happy -the cicadas live, since they all have voiceless wives.” “There is -no such poison in the green snake’s mouth or in the hornet’s sting -as in a woman’s heart,” says a Chinese maxim.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But it is not necessary to rely on such anonymous collections -of wisdom as proverbs to convince a man of the folly of linking -himself for life with such a miserable inferior being as a woman. -From Plato to Darwin there is a consensus of opinion as to woman’s -vast inferiority to man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>According to Plato, says Mr. Grote, “men are superior to -women in everything; in one occupation as well as in another.” -Cookery and weaving having been named as two apparent exceptions, -Plato denies woman’s superiority even in these.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two -sexes,” says Darwin, “is shown by man’s attaining to a higher -eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman—whether -requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use -of the senses and hands. If two lists were made of the most -eminent men and women in poetry, painting, sculpture, music -(inclusive both of composition and performance), history, science, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>and philosophy, with half a dozen names under each subject, the -two lists would not bear comparison.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I found, as a rule,” says Mr. Galton, "that men have more -delicate powers of discrimination than women, and the business of -life seems to confirm this view. The tuners of pianofortes are men, -and so, I understand, are the tasters of tea and wine, the sorters of -wool, and the like. These latter occupations are well salaried, -because it is of the first moment to the merchant that he should -be rightly advised on the real value of what he is about to purchase -or to sell. If the sensitivity of women were superior to that of -men, the self-interest of merchants would lead to their being -always employed; but as the reverse is the case, the opposite supposition -is likely to be the true one.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Ladies rarely distinguish the merits of wine at the dinner-table, -and though custom allows them to preside at the breakfast-table, -men think them, on the whole, to be far from successful -makers of tea and coffee.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This disposes of the old myth that women are more sensitive -than men. And De Quincy, in his essay on <cite>False Distinctions</cite>, -refutes the equally absurd notion that “women have more imagination -than men.” He comes to the conclusion that, “as to poetry -in its highest form, I never yet knew a woman, nor yet will believe -that any has existed, who could rise to an entire sympathy with -what is most excellent in that art.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>One proof of this statement lies in the fact that as a rule men -of genius have been refused by the women they loved most deeply.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Regarding the emotional sphere, we have seen that it is only in -parental and conjugal feeling that woman surpasses man. In -Romantic Love, in all the impersonal feelings for art and nature, -she is vastly his inferior. Her superficial education gives her no -intellectual interests, and that is the reason why so many married -men prefer the club and friendship to home and conjugal devotion—even -as did the ancient Greeks.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is in the seventh book of the <cite>Laws</cite>, p. 806, that Plato -remarks: “The legislator ought not to let the female sex live softly -and waste money and have no order of life, while he takes the -utmost care of the male sex, and leaves half of life only blest with -happiness, when he might have made the whole state happy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is it not humiliating to man, who loves to call himself a -“reasoning animal,” to find that, after so many centuries, one of -our greatest and most liberal thinkers, Professor Huxley, is obliged -to write in this same Platonic tone that “the present system of -female education stands self-condemned, as inherently absurd,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>because it fosters and exaggerates instead of removing woman’s -natural disadvantages? “With few insignificant exceptions,” -Professor Huxley continues, “girls have been educated either to -be drudges or toys beneath man, or a sort of angels above him; -the highest ideal aimed at oscillating between Clärchen and Beatrice. -The possibility that the ideal of womanhood lies neither in the fair -saint nor in the fair sinner; that women are meant neither to be -men’s guides nor their playthings, but their comrades, their fellows, -and their equals, so far as Nature puts no bar to their equality, -does not seem to have entered into the minds of those who have -had the conduct of the education of girls” (<cite>Lay Sermons</cite>, p. 25).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Woman, in short, is a failure; and let any disappointed lover -ask himself, Is it businesslike to begin life with a failure?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FOCUSSING HER FAULTS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Love being a magic emotional microscope which ignites passion -by magnifying the most beautiful features of the beloved, leaving -everything else indistinct and blurred, it follows that the simplest -way of arresting this flame is to <em>change the focus of this microscope</em>, -to fix the attention deliberately on her faults, while throwing her -merits and charms into an unfavourable light.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This method is too self-evident and effective not to have occurred -to the ingenious Ovid. He advises the lover who wishes to be -cured to study the girl’s charms in a hypercritical spirit. Call her -stout if she is plump, black if she is dark, lean if slender. Ask -her to sing if she has no talent for music, to talk if unskilled in -conversation, to dance if awkward, and if her teeth are bad, tell -her funny stories to make her laugh.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Her mental faults require no microscope to reveal them. Certainly -her taste is execrable, for does she not prefer that vulgar -fellow Jones to you, one of the cleverest fellows that ever condescended -to be born on this miserable planet?</p> - -<p class='c001'>What folly, indeed, to love such a girl! What fascinates you -is simply the mysterious brilliancy of her coal-black eyes—of which -you may find ten thousand duplicates in Italy or Spain. Don’t -you see that no flashes of wit are ever mirrored in those eyes? -that, though beautiful, they are soulless, like a black pansy? that -they look at one person as at another, incapable of expressing -shades and modulations of tender emotion, because the soul of -which they are the windows has never been, and never will be, -moved by Love?</p> - -<p class='c001'>She never thinks of anything but her own pleasure; does -<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>nothing but visit the dressmaker and the theatre and read novels; -never thinks it her duty to provide for her future husband’s comfort -and happiness by educating herself in domestic economy and -æsthetic accomplishments of real depth—as you have toiled and -studied in anticipation of providing for her comfort and happiness. -She takes no sympathetic interest in your affairs—how can you -expect to be happy with her? If she loves you not, you would be -more than a fool to try to get her consent to marriage, for is it not -the ecstasy of Love to be loved and worshipped alone and beyond -any other mortal?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The beauty of her eyes will not last,—it is nothing, anyway, -but sunlight mechanically reflected from a darkly-painted iris—and -when its youthful brilliancy vanishes there will be no soul-sparks -to take its place. And for this brief honeymoon mirage you are -willing to give up your bachelor comforts and pleasures, your -freedom to do what you please, go where you please, and travel -whenever you please; to exchange your refreshing sleep o’ nights -for domestic cares and the pleasure of trotting up and down the -room with a bawling baby at two o’clock in the morning? Bah! -Are you in your senses?</p> - -<p class='c001'>True, if you are rich some of these disadvantages may be -avoided. But if you are rich you will not be refused, for—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair,”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>as Byron remarks; and again: “For my own part, I am of the -opinion of Pausanias, that success in love depends upon <em>Fortune</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But of all her shortcomings the most galling and fatal is that -she loves you not. This thought alone, says Stendhal, may succeed -in curing a man of his passion. You will notice, he says, -that she whom you love favours others with little attentions which -she withholds from you. They may be mere trifles, such as not -giving you a chance to help her into her carriage, her box at the -opera. The thought of this, by “associating a sense of humiliation -with every thought of her, poisons the source of love and may -destroy it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus wounded Pride is the easiest way out of Love, as gratified -Pride is the straightest way in.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>REASON <i>VERSUS</i> PASSION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>According to Shakspere, though Love does not admit Reason as -his counsellor, he <em>does</em> use him as his physician. The most effective -way of using Reason to cure Love is by way of comparison. By -dwelling on the miseries of married life as just detailed, the disappointed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>lover may mitigate his pains somewhat, as did that Italian -mentioned by Schopenhauer, who resisted the agony of torture by -constantly keeping in his mind’s eye the picture of the gallows -that would have been the reward of confession.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, he may compare his present Love with a former infatuation -that seemed at the time equally deep and eternal, though now -he wonders how he could have <em>ever</em> loved that girl. History -repeats itself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Compare, moreover, your present idol with her stout and faded -mother. In a few years she will perhaps resemble her mother more -than her present self.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Compare her charms, feature by feature, with some recognised -paragon of beauty. Look at her in the glaring light of the sun, -which reveals every spot on the complexion.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>LOVE <i>VERSUS</i> LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Longfellow says it is folly to pretend that one ever wholly -recovers from a disappointed passion; and Mr. Hamerton believes -that “a wrinkled old maid may still preserve in the depths of her -own heart, quite unsuspected by the young and lively people about -her, the unextinguished embers of a passion that first made her -wretched fifty years before.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Occasionally this may be true, in the sense in which psychology -teaches that no impression made on the mind is ever completely -effaced, but may, though forgotten for years, be revived in moments -of great excitement, or in the delirium of fever; as, for example, -in the case mentioned by Duval, of a Pole in Germany, who had -not used his native language for thirty years, but who, under the -influence of anæsthetics, “spoke, prayed, and sang, using only the -Polish language.” The persistence of an old passion is the more -probable from the fact that in mental disease and age, as Ribot -points out, the emotional faculties are effaced much more slowly -than the intellectual. Feelings form the self; <em>amnesia</em> of feeling -is the destruction of self.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ordinarily, however, and for the time being, it may be possible -to practically obliterate a passion. “All love may be expelled by -love, as poisons are by other poisons,” says Dryden. And if the -allopathic remedies described in the preceding paragraphs should -fail to effect a cure, the lover may find the homœopathic principle -of <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>similia similibus</i></span> more successful.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Heine, in his posthumous Memoirs, thus refers to this principle -of curing like with like:—</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>“In love, as in the Roman Catholic religion, there is a -provisional purgatory in which mortals are allowed to get used -gradually to being roasted before they get into the real eternal -hell.... In all honesty, what a terrible thing is love for a -woman. Inoculation is herein of no use.... Very wise and -experienced physicians counsel a change of locality in the opinion -that removal from the presence of the enchantress will also break -the charm. Perhaps the homœopathic principle, by which woman -cures us of woman, is the best of all.... It was ordained that I -should be visited more severely than other mortals by this malady, -the heart-pox.... The most effective antidote to women are -women; true, this implies an attempt to expel Satan with Beelzebub; -and in such a case the medicine is often more noxious still -than the malady. But it is at any rate a change, and in a -disconsolate love-affair a change of the inamorata is unquestionably -the best policy.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PROGNOSIS OR CHANCES OF RECOVERY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>After carefully following all the foregoing rules regarding -absence, travel, employment, dwelling on the miseries of marriage, -the weaknesses of women in general and one woman in particular, -the disappointed lover may boldly return and face her again. -The chances are ten to one he will find himself—more in love -than ever!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women are magicians. No wonder they were burned as witches -in the Middle Ages.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>NATIONALITY AND LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Romantic love—commonly considered immutable—not only -displays countless individual variations in regard to duration and -degrees of intensity, but has a sort of “local colour” in each -country; or, to keep up our old metaphor, a varying clangtint, -depending on the greater or less prominence of certain “overtones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To describe all these varieties of Love would require a separate -volume. And since all the most interesting forms of the romantic -passion are to be met with in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, -England, and America, it will suffice to briefly characterise Love -in those countries.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span> - <h3 class='c014'>FRENCH LOVE</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>As literary luck would have it, the subject of French Love -follows naturally upon the subject of the last chapter, the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Remedia -Amoris</cite></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The French are too clever a nation to leave to individual effort -the difficult task of curing the mind of such an obstinate thing as -Love. All the papas and mammas in the land have put their -heads together and devised two methods of <em>killing Love wholesale</em>, -compared with which all the remedies named in the last chapter -are mere fly-bites.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These two methods are Chaperonage and Parental Choice, as -opposed to Courtship and Individual Sexual Selection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Paradoxical as it may seem, there is in the midst of modern -Europe a nation which, in the treatment of women, Love, and -marriage, stands on the same low level of evolution as the ancient, -mediæval, and Oriental nations.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This is not a theory, but a fact patent to all, and attested by -the best English, German, and French authors.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the deepest of French thinkers, whose eyes were opened -by travel and comparison, De Stendhal, in 1842, says in his book -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>De l’Amour</cite></span>: <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Pour comprendre cette passion, que depuis trente -ans la peur du ridicule cache avec tant de soin parmi nous, il faut -en parler comme d’une maladie”</span>—"To understand this passion, -which during the last thirty years has been concealed among us -with so much solicitude, from fear of ridicule, it is necessary to -speak of it as a malady."</p> - -<p class='c001'>But Stendhal greatly understates the case. It was not only -within thirty years from the time when he wrote, and by means -of ridicule, that the French had tried hard to kill Love. They -have never really emancipated themselves from mediæval barbarism. -Pure Romantic Love between two young unmarried persons has -never yet flourished in France—because it has never been allowed -to grow. To-day, as in the days of the Troubadours, the only -form of Love celebrated in French plays and romances is the form -which implies conjugal infidelity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Marriage, as treated in the old French epics,” says Ploss, “is -rarely based on love;” the woman marries for protection, the man -for her wealth or social affiliations. In the eighteenth century -girls were compelled from their earliest years to live only for -appearance sake: “The most harmless natural enjoyment, every -childish ebullition, is interdicted as improper. Her mother denies -<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>her the expression of tender emotion as too bourgeois, too common. -The little one grows up in a dreary, heartless vacuum; her deeper -feelings remain undeveloped.... Real love would be too ordinary -a motive of marriage, and therefore extremely ridiculous. It is not -offered her, accordingly, nor does she feel any.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Heine wrote from Paris in 1837 that “girls never fall in love -in this country.” "With us in Germany, as also in England and -other nations of Germanic origin, young girls are allowed the -utmost possible liberty, whereas married women become subjected -to the strict and anxious supervision of their husbands.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Here in France, as already stated, the reverse is the case: -young girls remain in the seclusion of a convent until they either -marry or are introduced to the world under the strict eye of a -relative. In the world, <i>i.e.</i> in the French salon, they always -remain silent and little noticed, for it is neither good form here nor -wise to make love to an unmarried girl.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There lies the difference. We Germans, as well as our -Germanic neighbours, bestow our love always on unmarried girls, -and these only are celebrated by our poets; among the French, on -the other hand, married women only are the object of love, in life -as well as in literature.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The difficulty of becoming acquainted with a young lady, -Mr. Hamerton tells us, is greatest “in what may be called the -‘respectable’ classes in country-towns and their vicinities. In -Parisian society young ladies go out into <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>le monde</i></span>, and may be -seen and even spoken to at evening-parties.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And even spoken to” is good, is very good. What a privilege -for the young men! The iron bars which formerly separated -them from the young ladies have actually been removed, and they -are allowed to speak to them—in presence of a heart-chilling, -conversation-killing dragon. No wonder Parisian society is so -corrupt!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Hamerton has given in <cite>Round My House</cite> the most realistic -and fascinating account of French courtship and marriage-customs -ever written. He is a great admirer of the French, always ready -to excuse their foibles, and his testimony is, therefore, doubly -valuable as that of an absolutely impartial witness. He had an -opportunity for many years of studying French provincial life with -an artist’s trained faculties; and here are a few sentences culled -from his descriptions:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is not merely difficult, in our neighbourhood, for a young -man in the respectable classes to get acquainted with a young lady, -but <em>every conceivable arrangement is devised to make it absolutely -<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>impossible</em>. Balls and evening-parties are hardly ever given, and -when they are given great care is taken to keep young men out of -them, and young marriageable girls either dance with each other -or with mere children.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Whereas in England “a young girl may go where she likes, -without much risk to her good name,” a French girl “may not -cross a street alone, nor open a book which has not been examined, -nor have an opinion about anything.” “The French ideal of a -well-brought-up young lady is that she should not know anything -whatever about love and marriage, that she should be both innocent -and ignorant, and both in the supreme degree—both to a degree -which no English person can imagine.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The young men are not to blame; they would be ready enough, -perhaps, to fall in love if they had the chance, like any Englishman -or German, but the respectable parents of the young lady take care -that they shall <em>not</em> have the chance of falling in love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The only opportunity a young man has of seeing a girl is at a -distance, at church or in a religious procession. Here he may see -her face; her character he can only ascertain through gossip, a -lady friend, or the parish priest. It is much more respectable, -however, to show no such curiosity, for its absence implies the -absence of such a ridiculous thing as Love. “<em>There is nothing -which good society in France disapproves of so much as the passion -of Love</em>, or anything resembling it.” “When Cœlebs asks for the -hand of a girl he has seen for a minute, he may just possibly be in -love with her, which is a degrading supposition; but if he has -never seen her, you cannot even suspect him of a sentiment so -unbecoming.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is but one way for the young man to gain admission to a -house where there is a marriageable young lady: “He must first, -through a third party, ask to marry the young lady, and, if her -<em>parents</em> consent, he will then be admitted to see her and speak to -her, but not otherwise. <em>The respectable order of affairs is that -the offer and acceptance should precede and not follow courtship.</em>”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Would it be possible to conceive a more diabolically ingenious -social machinery for massacring Romantic Love <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>en gros</i></span>?</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Marriages in France are generally arranged by the exercise of -reason and prudence, rather than by either passion or affection.” -Mr. Hamerton gives an amusing account of how he was asked to -be matrimonial ambassador by a young man who had never seen -the girl he wanted to marry. Mr. Hamerton obliged the young -man, but was told by the mother that if the young man would -<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>wait two years he might have a fair chance, provided a <em>richer</em> or -<em>nobler</em> suitor did not turn up in the meantime.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Money and Rank <i>versus</i> Love. French mammas have at least -one virtue. They are not hypocrites.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Countess von Bothmer, who lived in France a quarter of a -century, says in her <cite>French Home Life</cite>: “Where we so ordinarily -listen to what we understand by love—to the temptations of the -young heart in all their forms (however transitory), to our individual -impressions and our own opinions—the French consult fitness of -relative situation, reciprocities of fortune and position, and harmonies -of family intercourse.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To annihilate the last resource of Love—elopement—the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Code -Napoléon</cite></span> forbids all marriages without either the consent of the -father and mother, or proof that they are both dead. “It is very -troublesome to get married in France; the operation is surrounded -by difficulties and formalities which would make an Englishman -stamp with rage.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Social life, of course, suffers as much from this idiotic system -as Romantic Love. French hospitality “does not extend beyond -the family circle,” we are informed by M. Max O’Rell, who also -gives this amusing instance of the imbecility or mental slavery -(he does not use these words) produced by the French system of -education and chaperonage:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I remember I was one day sitting in the Champs Elysées -with two English ladies. Beside us was a young French girl with -her father and mother. The person on the right of papa rose and -went away, and we heard the young innocent say to her mother: -‘Mamma, may I go and sit by papa?’ It was a baby of about -eighteen or twenty. Those English ladies laugh over the affair -to this day.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Boys suffer as well as girls. As the author of an article on -“Parisian Psychology” remarks: “There are no mothers in -France; it is a nation of ‘mammas,’ who, in the most unlimited -sense of the word, spoil their boys, weaken them in body and -soul, dwarf their thought, dry their hearts, and lower them to -below even their own level, hoping thereby to rule over them -through life, as they too often do. Frenchwomen having been -at best but half-wives, regard their children as a sort of compensation -for what they have themselves not had; and after the -mischievous fashion of weak ‘mammas’ prolong babyhood till far -into mature life.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The French, in fact, are a nation of babies. Their puerile -conceit, which prevents them from learning to read any language -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>but their own, and thus finding out what other nations think of -them, is responsible in part for the mediæval barbarism of their -matrimonial arrangements. The Parisian is the most provincial -animal in the world. In any other metropolis—be it London, -New York, Vienna, or Berlin—people understand and relish -whatever is good in literature, art, and life, be it English, -American, French, German, or Italian. But the Parisian understands -only what is narrowly and exclusively French. And this -is the dictionary definition of Provincialism.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The consequences of this mediævalism and provincialism in -modern France are thus eloquently summed up by a writer in the -<cite>Westminster Review</cite> (1877):—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Such education as girls receive is not only not a preparation -for the wedded state, it is a positive disqualification for it. They -are not taught to read, they are not taught to reason; they are -<em>launched into life without a single intellectual interest</em>. The -whole effort of their early training goes to fill their mind with -puerilities and superstitions. As regards God, they are instructed -to believe in relics and old bones; as regards man, they are -instructed to believe in dress, in mannerisms, and coquetry. -Their love of appreciation, after being enormously developed, is -bottled up and tied down until a husband is found to draw the -cork. What else, then, can we look for but an explosion of -frivolity? Can we expect that such a provision of coquettishness -will be reserved for the husband’s exclusive use? He will be -tired of it in three months—unless it is tired of him before; and -then the pent-up waters will forsake their narrow bed and overflow -the country far and wide.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>No wonder Napoléon remarked that “Love does more harm -than good.” And right he was, most emphatically, for the only -kind of Love <em>possible</em> in France does infinite harm. It poisons -life and literature alike.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We can now understand the fierceness of Dumas’s attacks on -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>mariages de convenance</i></span>: “The manifest deterioration of the -race touches him; it does not touch us. Nor do we at all realise -the next to impossibility of a man ever marrying for love in -France. There are those who have tried to do it, but they can -never get on in life; they are reputed of ‘bad example’” (<cite>St. -James’s Gazette</cite>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>And now we come upon a paradox which has puzzled a great -many thinkers. The Countess von Bothmer, while deploring the -absence of Love in French courtship, endeavours to show that -domestic happiness and conjugal affection are, nevertheless, not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>rare in France. French husbands “are ordinarily with their -wives, accompany them wherever they can, and share their friendships -and distractions.” Mr. Hamerton likewise bears witness -that French girls “become excellent wives, faithful, orderly, -dutiful, contented, and economical. They all either love their -husbands, <em>or conduct themselves as if they did so</em>.” He says the -notion fostered by novels “that Frenchmen are always occupied -in making love to their neighbours’ wives” is nonsense; that -there is no more adultery than elsewhere. “There exists in -foreign countries, and especially in England, a belief that Frenchwomen -are very generally adulteresses. The origin of the belief -is this,— the manner in which marriages are generally managed -in France leaves no room for interesting love-stories. Novelists -and dramatists <em>must</em> find love-stories somewhere, and so they have -to seek for them in illicit intrigues.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This is all very ingenious, but the argument is not conclusive. -Even granted for a moment that Mr. Hamerton is right in his -defence of French conjugal life, is it not a more than sufficient -condemnation of the French system of “courtship” that one-half -of the nation are prevented from reading its literature because it -is so foul and filthy—because Love has been made synonymous -with adultery?</p> - -<p class='c001'>But Mr. Hamerton’s assertion loses its probability when viewed -in the light of the following considerations. He himself admits -that the French are anxious to read about Love, that the novelists -and dramatists <em>must</em> find stories of Love somewhere—mind you, -not of conjugal but of Romantic Love—and the Paris <cite>Figaro</cite> not -long ago denounced the French novelists of the period for devoting -their stories to Love almost exclusively, whereas Balzac, Dumas, -Thackeray, and Scott, at least introduced various other matters of -interest. Now French novels have the largest editions of any -books published; and if so vast an interest is displayed by the -French in reading about Love, is it likely that their interest is -purely literary? Certainly not. They will seek it in real life. -And in real life it can only be found in one sphere, which elsewhere -is protected against such invasions, by the young being -allowed to meet one another. “It is to be feared that they who -marry where they do not love, will love where they do not <a id='corr271.38'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='marry.’'>marry.’”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_271.38'><ins class='correction' title='marry.’'>marry.’”</ins></a></span> -In <em>this</em> respect human nature is the same the world over. The -testimony of scores of unprejudiced authors on this head cannot -be ignored.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This, however, is only one of the evils following from the -French suppression of pre-matrimonial Love. The parents may or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>may not suffer through conjugal jealousy and infidelity, one thing -is certain,—that the children suffer from it, in body and mind. -It is leading to the depopulation of France. It was M. Jules -Rochard who called attention to the fact that “France, which two -centuries ago included one-third of the total population of Europe, -now contains but one-tenth”; although the death-rate is smaller -in France than in most European countries, and although there -has been a gradual increase of wealth throughout the country.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the suppression of Romantic Love and of all opportunities -for courtship is the principal cause of the decline of France, is -apparent from the fact that the countries in which population -increases most rapidly—as America and Great Britain—are those -in which Romantic Love is the chief motive to marriage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Romantic Love goes by complementary qualities, the defects -of the parents neutralising one another in the offspring; so that -the children who are the issue of a love-match are commonly more -beautiful than their parents. In France there is no selection -whatever, except with reference to money and rank. Not even -Health is considered, the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>sine qua non</i></span> of Love as well as Beauty. -Hence the absence of Love in France has led to the almost -absolute absence of beauty. And it would be nothing short of a -miracle if the offspring of a young maiden, still in her teens, and -an old broken-down sinner, chosen by her parents for his wealth -or social position, were any different from the puny, hairy men and -coarse-featured, vulgar women that make up the bulk of the -French nation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In Paris one does occasionally see a fine figure and a rather -pretty face, but they almost always belong to the lower classes. -As the lower classes allow the young considerable freedom, it -would seem as if beauty in this class ought to be as common an -article as in England or the United States. But the incapacity -of the young women for feeling and reciprocating Love neutralises -these opportunities. For of what use is it for a man to feel Love -if the woman invariably bases her choice on money? This matter -is most clearly brought out by Mr. Hamerton:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Amongst the lower classes, the peasantry and workmen ... -girls have as much freedom as they have in England. The great -institution of the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>parlement</i></span> gives them ample opportunities for -becoming acquainted with their lovers; indeed the acquaintance, -in many cases, goes further than is altogether desirable. A -peasant girl requires no parental help in looking after her own -interests. She admits a lover to the happy state of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>parlement</i></span>, -which means that he has a right to talk with her when they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>meet, and to call upon her, dance with her, etc. The lover is -always eager to fix the wedding-day, the girl is not so eager. She -keeps him on indefinitely until a richer one appears, on which -No. 1 has the mortification of seeing himself excluded from <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>parlement</i></span>, -whilst another takes his place. In this way a clever girl -will go on for several years, amusing herself by torturing amorous -swains, until at length a sufficiently big fish nibbles at the bait, -when she hooks him at once, and takes good care that <em>he</em> shall -not escape. Nothing can be more pathetically ludicrous than the -condition of a young peasant who is really in love, especially if he -is able to write, for then he pours forth his feelings in innumerable -letters full of tenderness and complaint. On her part the -girl does not answer the letters, and has not the slightest pity for -the unhappy victim of her charms. After seeing a good deal of -such love-affairs I have come to the conclusion that in humble -life young men do really very often feel</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘The hope, the fear, the jealous care,</div> - <div class='line'>The exalted portion of the pain</div> - <div class='line'>And power of <a id='corr273.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='love.’'>love.’”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_273.19'><ins class='correction' title='love.’'>love.’”</ins></a></span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>And they ‘wear the chain’ too. Young women, on the other -hand, seem only to amuse themselves with all this simple-hearted -devotion—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘And mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Schopenhauer pointed out that the French lack the <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Gefühl -für das Innige</cite></span>—the tenderness and emotional depth which -characterise the Germans and Italians. It is this that accounts -for the inability of the French to appreciate Love, and for the fact -that even vice is coarser in France than elsewhere, as remarked by -Mr. Lecky, who, in his <cite>History of European Morals</cite>, contrasts “the -coarse, cynical, ostentatious sensuality, which forms the most -repulsive feature of the French character,” with “the dreamy, -languid, and æsthetical sensuality of the Spaniard or Italian.” -And it remained for the French to attempt to deify vice as in that -over-rated and repulsive story of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Manon Lescaut</cite></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mme. de Staël, who suffered so much from the provincialism -(<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>alias</i></span> patriotism) of her countrymen, saw clearly the immorality -of the French system of marrying girls without consulting their -choice. Brandes relates the following anecdote of her: “One -day, speaking of the unnaturalness of marriages arranged by the -parents, as distinguished from those in which the young girls -choose for themselves, she exclaimed, ‘I would <em>compel</em> my daughter -to marry the man of her choice!’”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>An attempt is being made at present in Paris to introduce the -Anglo-American feminine spirit into society. The word <em>flirter</em> has -been adopted, and the thing itself experimented with. But the -French girl does not know how to draw the line between coquetry -and flirtation. She needs a better education before she can flirt -properly. This education the Government is trying to give her at -present; but it meets with stubborn resistance from the priests, -and from the old notion that intellectual culture is fatal to feminine -charms and the capacity for affection. If this book should accomplish -nothing else than prove that without intellect there can be -no deep Love, it will not have been written in vain.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>ITALIAN LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In Italy, in the sixteenth century, women were kept in as -strict seclusion as to-day in France; and with the same results,—conjugal -infidelity and a great lack of Personal Beauty, as noted -by Montaigne, who remarks at the same time that it was regarded -as something quite extraordinary if a young lady was seen in -public.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Byron wrote in 1817 that “Jealousy is not the order of the -day in Venice”; and that the Italians “marry for their parents, -and love for themselves.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In Crowe and Cavalcaselle’s <cite>Life and Times of Titian</cite> we read -that “Though chroniclers have left us to guess what the state of -society may have been in Venice at the close of the fifteenth -century, they give us reason to believe that it was deeply influenced -by Oriental habit. The separation of men from women in -churches, the long seclusion of unmarried females in convents or in -the privacy of palaces, were but the precursors to marriages in -which husbands were first allowed to see their wives as they came -in state to dance round the wedding supper-table.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But even at this early period when women were still treated as -babies unable to take care of themselves, we find at least one -trace of the Gallantry which is so essential an element in modern -love. It was customary for the men, on festive occasions, to -stand behind their wives’ chairs at table and serve them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Extremely ungallant, on the other hand, are some of the Italian -proverbs about women of this and other periods. “A woman is -like a horse-chestnut—beautiful outside, worthless inside.” “Two -women and a goose make a market.” “Married man—bird in -cage.” “In buying a horse and taking a wife shut your eyes and -commend your soul to heaven.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>Her exuberant health makes an Italian woman naturally prone -to Love; but though she falls in love most readily, the passion is -apt to be fugitive and superficial. She rarely loves with the -passionate ardour of a Spanish woman. “What we notice especially -in Italian women,” says Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, “is the -absence of that alternation between those extremes of temperament -which are so conspicuous in other Southern women. Energy -is almost as unknown to her as the moral power of resignation -and sacrifice. Hence it can hardly surprise us that Italian history -records so few heroic women or pious female martyrs. Italy has -produced neither a Jeanne d’Arc nor an Elizabeth of Thuringia; -the crowns were too oppressive to be borne by these beauties, and -life too enchanting for them to invite to tragic self-sacrifice.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Probably the most realistic, and certainly the most fascinating, -account of Italian love-making ever given is to be found in Mr. -Howells’s <cite>Venetian Life</cite>. As it is too long to quote, I will -attempt to condense it, though at some sacrifice of that literary -“bouquet,” as an epicure would say, which constitutes the unique -charm of Mr. Howells’s style:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>"The Venetians have had a practical and strictly businesslike -way of arranging marriages from the earliest times. The shrewdest -provision has always been made for the dower and for the good of -the state; private and public interest being consulted, the small -matters of affection have been left to the chances of association.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Herodotus relates that the Assyrian Veneti sold their -daughters at auction to the highest bidder; and the fair being -thus comfortably placed in life, the hard-favoured were given to -whomsoever would take them, with such dower as might be considered -a reasonable compensation. The auction was discontinued -in Christian times, but marriage contracts still partook of the -form of a public and half-mercantile transaction.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“These passionate, headlong Italians look well to the main -chance before they leap into matrimony, and you may be sure -Todaro knows, in black and white, what the Biondina has to her -fortune before he weds her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“With the nobility and with the richest commoners marriage -is still greatly a matter of contract, and is arranged without much -reference to the principals, though it is now scarcely probable in -any case that they have not seen each other. But with all other -classes, except the poorest, who cannot or will not seclude the -youth of either sex from each other, and with whom, consequently, -romantic contrivance and subterfuge would be superfluous, love is -made to-day in Venice as in the <span lang="es" xml:lang="es"><i>Capa y espada</i></span> comedies of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>Spaniards, and the business is carried on with all the cumbrous -machinery of confidants, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>billets-doux</i></span>, and stolen interviews.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The “operatic method of courtship” thence resulting commonly -assumes this form:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“They follow that beautiful blonde, who, marching demurely -in front of the gray-moustached papa and the fat mamma, after -the fashion in Venice, is electrically conscious of pursuit. They -follow during the whole evening, and, at a distance, softly follow -her home, where the burning Todaro photographs the number of -the house upon the sensitised tablets of his soul. This is the first -step in love: he has seen his adored one, and she knows that he -loves her with an inextinguishable ardour.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The next step consists in his frequenting the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>caffé</i></span>, where she -goes with her parents, and feasting his eyes on her beauty. After -some time he may possibly get a chance to speak a few words to -her under her balcony; or, what is more likely, he will bribe her -servant-maid to bring her a love-letter. Or else he goes to church -to admire her at a convenient distance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It must be confessed that if the Biondina is not pleased with -his looks, his devotion must assume the character of an intolerable -bore to her; and that to see him everywhere at her heels—to -behold him leaning against the pillar near which she kneels at -church, the head of his stick in his mouth, and his attitude carefully -taken with a view to captivation—to be always in deadly -fear lest she shall meet him in promenade, or turning round at -the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>caffé</i></span> encounter his pleading gaze—that all this must drive the -Biondina to a state bordering upon blasphemy and finger-nails. -<span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><i>Ma, come si fa? Ci vuol pazienza?</i></span> This is the sole course open -to ingenuous youth in Venice, where confessed and unashamed -acquaintance between young people is extremely difficult; and so -this blind pursuit must go on till the Biondina’s inclinations are -at last laboriously ascertained.” Then follow the inquiries as to -her dowry, after which nothing remains but “to demand her in -marriage of her father, <em>and after that to make her acquaintance</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Topsy-turvy as this last arrangement may seem to Anglo-American -notions, here at least Love has some chance to bring -about real Sexual Selection, for a Southerner’s passions are momentarily -inflamed, and the Italian Cupid needs but a moment to fix -his choice. And what distinguishes Italy still more favourably -from France is that, whereas the French consider Love ridiculous, -and have made the most ingenious contrivances for annihilating it, -the Italians worship it, revel in it, and are inclined rather to make -too many concessions to it than to ignore it.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>The result is patent to all eyes. For every attractive Frenchwoman -there are to-day a hundred beautiful Italians. And were -Anglo-American methods of courtship introduced in Italy, beauty -would again be doubled in amount. It must not be forgotten, -however, that Love, as a beautifier of mankind, has in Italy very -strong allies in the balmy air and sunshine, tempting to constant -outdoor life, which mellows the complexion, brightens the eyes, -and fills out the figure to those full yet elegant proportions which -instantaneously arouse the romantic passion.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>SPANISH LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Spanish veins contain more Oriental blood than those of any -other European nation; and to the present day Eastern methods -of treating women cast their shadow on Spanish life. But the -shadow is so light, and so much mitigated by the rosy hue of -romance, that the “local colour” of Love in Spain presents an -unusually fascinating spectacle, which countless literary artists -have attempted to depict.</p> - -<p class='c001'>During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Oriental -shadow was much darker, and kept the women in extreme subjection -and ignorance. “Their life,” says Professor Scherr, speaking -even of the queens, “passed away in a luxurious tedium which -dulled the sentiments to the point of idiocy. They were only -crowned slaves. As an instance of their absolute deprivation of -liberty may be cited the case of Elizabeth, wife of Philip II., who, -when in 1565 she went to Bayonne to meet her mother, had to -wait three days before the gates of Burgos before it was possible -to ascertain the king’s decision whether the queen should pass -through the city or around it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Women of rank,” he continues, "lived in a seclusion bordering -on that of a convent, if not surpassing it. For nuns were -at least allowed to speak to male visitors behind bars, whereas -married women were strictly forbidden to receive the visit of a -man, except with the special permission of the husband. And -only during the first year of their wedded life were they allowed -to frequent public drives in open carriages by the side of their -husband; subsequently they were only allowed to go out in closed -carriages. Of cosy family life not a trace.... Even the table -did not unite the husband and wife; the master took his meal -alone, while his wife and children sat respectfully on the floor on -carpets, with their legs crossed in Oriental fashion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The poor women, excluded from every refined social diversion, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>were confined to manual work, gossip with their duennas, mechanical -praying, playing with their rosaries, and—intriguing. For the -greater the subjection of women, the more does their cunning -grow, the more passionate becomes their desire to avenge themselves -on their tyrants. The Spaniards found this out to their -cost. The most inexorable spirit of revenge, all the parade of -‘Spanish honour,’ bordering in its excess on clownishness, could -not prevent the Spanish dames from loving and being loved.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In course of time this Oriental despotism, with its fatal consequences -to conjugal fidelity—as in France—has been greatly -mitigated in Spain. In Pepys’s <cite>Diary</cite>, 1667, we read of an -informant who told the writer “of their wooing [in Spain] by -serenades at the window, and that their friends do always make -the match; but yet they have opportunities to meet at masse at -church, and there they make love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In an interesting book on Spain, written almost two and a -quarter centuries after Pepys’s <cite>Diary</cite>—Mr. Lathrop’s <cite>Spanish -Vistas</cite>—we still read concerning this ecclesiastic Love-making, in -the Seville Cathedral: “Every door was guarded by a squad of -the decrepit army, so that entrance there became a horror. These -sanctuary beggars serve a double purpose, however. The black-garbed -Sevillan ladies, who are perpetually stealing in and out -noiselessly under cover of their archly-draped lace veils—losing -themselves in the dark, incense-laden interior, or emerging from -confession into the daylight glare again—are careful to drop some -slight conscience-money into the palms that wait. Occasionally, -by pre-arrangement, one of these beggars will convey into the -hand that passes him a silver piece, a tightly-folded note from -some clandestine lover. It is a convenient underground mail, and -I am afraid the venerable church innocently shelters a good many -little transactions of this kind.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>How greatly the facilities for falling in love and for making -love have been increased in modern Spain is vividly brought out -in the following citation from Schweiger-Lerchenfeld regarding the -scenes to be witnessed every evening on the crowded promenade -or Rambla at Barcelona:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Are these elegantly-attired ramblers one and all suitors, since -they put no limit nor restraint on their whispered flatteries? No, -that is simply the custom in Barcelona. The women and girls -are beautiful, and though they are well aware of it, they nevertheless -allow their charms to be whispered in their ears hundreds of -times every evening—a freedom of intercourse which is only -possible on Spanish soil.... And thus one of these adored -<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>beauties walks up and down in the glare of the lamps, and sweet -music is wafted to her ears: ‘Your beauty dazzles me,’ whispers -one voice; and another, ‘Happiness and anguish your eyes are -burning into my soul.’ One compliments the chosen one on her -hair, another on her figure, a third on her graceful gait. Young -adorers feel a thrill running down their whole body if her mantilla -only touches them; while mature lovers are contented with nothing -less than a pressure of the hand. It is a picture that is possible, -conceivable only in Spain.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The same writer quotes some specimens of Spanish Love-songs, -one of which may be transferred to this page—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">“Échame, niña bonita,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">Lágrimas en tu pañuelo,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">Y los llevaré a Madrid</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">Que los engarce un platero.”</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>“Show me, my little charmer, the tear in your handkerchief; to -Madrid will I take it and have it set by a jeweller.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What a contrast between this modern complimentary and -poetic form of Gallantry and the form prevalent in the good old -times when lovers endeavoured to win a maiden’s favour by flagellating -themselves under her window until the blood ran down -their backs; and when, as Scherr adds, “it was regarded as the -surest sign of supreme gallantry if some of the blood bespattered -the clothes of the beauty to whom this crazy act of devotion was -addressed!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevertheless, the Spanish still have much to learn from England -and America regarding the proper methods of Courtship; for, -according to a writer in <cite>Macmillan’s Magazine</cite> (1874), the unmarried -maiden of the higher classes, “like her humbler sister, -can never have the privilege of seeing her lover in private, and -very rarely, indeed, if ever, is he admitted into the <span lang="es" xml:lang="es"><i>sala</i></span> where -she is sitting. He may contrive to get a few minutes’ chat with -her through the barred windows of her <span lang="es" xml:lang="es"><i>sala</i></span>; but when a Spaniard -leads his wife from the altar, he knows no more of her character, -attainments, and disposition than does the parish priest who -married them, and perhaps not so much.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In one respect Spanish lovers have a great advantage over their -unfortunate colleagues in France. There marriage is impossible -without parental consent, whereas in Spain a law exists concerning -which the writer just quoted says:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Should a Spanish lad and lassie become attached to one -another, and the parents absolutely forbid the match, and refuse -their daughter liberty and permission to marry, the lover has his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>remedy at law. He has but to make a statement of the facts -on paper, and deposit it, signed and attested, with the alcalde or -mayor of the township in which the lady’s parents dwell. The -alcalde then makes an order, giving the young man the right of -free entry into the house in question, within a certain number of -days, for the purpose of wooing and carrying off his idol. The -parents dare not interfere with the office of the alcalde, and the -lady is taken to her lover’s arms. From that moment he, and he -alone, is bound to provide for her: by his own act and deed she -has become his property.” Should he prove false “the law comes -upon him with all its force, and he is bound to maintain her, in -every way, as a wife, under pain of punishment.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus a Spanish girl is protected against perfidious lovers as -well as is an English and American girl through the possibility of -suing for breach of promise. If the short stories told in <cite>Don -Quixote</cite> may be taken as examples, faithless lovers were very -common in Spain at that time; which, doubtless, accounts for the -origin of this law. The girls on their part erred by yielding too -easily to the promises of the men; though they are partially -excused by the great strength of their passions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In his work on Suicide, Professor Morselli has statistics showing -that more women take their life in Spain than in any other -country; and he attributes this to the force of their passions, -which is greater than in Italy, where the number of female suicides -is considerably lower.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus Love has a more favourable ground in Spain than either -in Italy or in France, notwithstanding certain restrictions. And -the result shows itself in this, that all tourists unite in singing the -praises of Spanish Beauty. Spain, indeed, unites in itself all the -conditions favourable to Beauty: a climate tempting to outdoor -life; a considerable amount of intellectual culture and æsthetic -refinement; a mixture of nationalities, fusing <em>ethnic</em> peculiarities -into a harmonious whole; and Love, which fuses <em>individual</em> complementary -qualities into a harmonious ensemble of beautiful -features, graceful figure, amiable disposition, and refined manners.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>GERMAN LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>When Tacitus penned his famous certificate of good moral -character for the Germans of his time, he little suspected how -many thousand times it would be quoted by the grateful and -proud descendants of those early Teutons, and pinned to the lapels -of their coats as a sort of prize medal in the competition for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>ancestral virtue. The more candid historians, however, admit -that the Roman historian somewhat overdrew his picture in order -to teach his own profligate countrymen a sort of Sunday school -lesson, by the vivid contrast presented by these inhabitants of the -northern virgin forests.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is no question that women were held in considerable -honour among these early Germans. Many of them served as -priestesses, and adultery was punished with death. Polygamy -existed only among the chiefs, and even among them it was not -common. Yet the men did not treat the women as their equals. -“They had more duties than privileges,” says Schweiger-Lerchenfeld. -Their husbands were addicted to excessive drinking or -gambling when not engaged in war or the chase, leaving the hard -domestic and field labour to the women: and all this cannot have -tended to refine the women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Marriage in the old Germanic times,” says Ploss, “was mostly -an affair of expediency.... In the choice of a wife beauty was of -less moment than property and good social antecedents. Love -<em>before</em> the betrothal rarely occurs.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Gustav Freytag, in his <cite>Pictures of German Life</cite>, during the -fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, remarks: “Marriage -was considered by our ancestors less as a union of two lovers than -as an institution replete with duties and rights, not only of married -people towards one another, but also towards their relatives, as a -bond uniting two corporate bodies.... Therefore in the olden -time the choice of husband and wife was always an affair of importance -to the relatives on both sides, so that a German wooing -from the oldest times, <em>even until the last century</em>, had the appearance -of a business transaction, which was carried out with great -regard to suitability.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>And a business transaction it is, unfortunately, to the present -day, in the vast majority of cases. A certain amount of dower or -property on the bride’s part is the first and most essential requisite. -Second in importance is the desirability of not descending even a -step in the social ladder, though an extra lump of gold commonly -suffices to pull down social Pride to a lower level. Health, temper, -Personal Beauty, and mutual suitability—these are the trifles -which, other things being equal, come in as a third consideration. -And thus is the order of Sexual Selection, as ordained by Love, -commonly reversed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What would an English or American youth of twenty-two say -to his father if the latter should undertake to write to all his -relatives, asking them to look about for an eligible partner for his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>son, and capping the climax by starting himself on a trip in search -of a bride for his son? Would he accept without a murmur the -girl thus found, and would an English or American girl thus allow -herself to be given away like a cat in a bag, not knowing <a id='corr272.4'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='whether'>whither</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_272.4'><ins class='correction' title='whether'>whither</ins></a></span> -she was going? I have seen several such cases with my own eyes. -One of them was most pathetic. For when the blooming bride, a -sweet and refined girl, was introduced to the bridegroom selected -for her by her parents—a repulsive-looking brute, twice her age—she -conceived a perfect loathing for him, and almost wept out her -eyes before the wedding-day. But the man was rich, and that -settled the matter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What aggravated this outrage was the fact that the bride’s -father also was rich. And herein, in fact, lies the canker of the -German system. Money is such a comfortable thing to have that -it is useless to preach against it. There are money-marriages -enough in England and America. But in these countries it is -generally considered sufficient if one party has the money. Not -so in Germany. It is not so much the comfort ensured by a -certain amount of money that is aimed at as the superior social -influence ensured by a large amount of wealth. Hence the rich -marry the rich, regardless of other consequences, and poor -Cupid is left shivering in the cold. So that, after all, the silly -pride of social position is a greater enemy of Romantic Love than -money.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And the consequences of such a matrimonial system? They -have been most eloquently set forth by the blind old philosopher, -Dr. Dühring:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The amalgamation of fortunes, and the resulting enervating -luxury of living, are the ruling matrimonial motives; and the want -of mutual adaptation of the individuals becomes the cause of the -degenerate appearance of the offspring. The loathsome products -of such marriages then walk about as ugly embodiments and -witnesses of such a degraded system of legalised prostitution -(<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Kuppelwirthschaft</cite></span>). They bear the stamp of incongruity on body -and mind; for their appearance shows them to be the offspring of -disharmonious parents, blindly associated, or even, in many cases, -of parents who themselves are already products of this new matrimonial -method. This degeneracy necessarily continues from one -generation to another, and in this manner maltreated Nature -avenges herself by leading to personal decrepitude and the formation -of a new sort of idiocy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is true,” he adds, “that love is not an infallible sign of -mutual suitability; but when it is absent, or even replaced by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>aversion, it is certain that it is useless to expect a specially -harmonious composition of the offspring.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is this one of the reasons why Personal Beauty is so rare, -comparatively, in Germany?</p> - -<p class='c001'>But Individual Preference is not the only element of Love -which thus suffers in Germany through false Pride and parental -tyranny. Gallantry is another factor which needs mending. -German women are sweet and amiable. In fact, they are <em>too</em> -sweet and good-natured. They have spoiled the men, who in consequence -are excessively selfish in their relations to women—the -most selfish men in the world, outside of Turkey or China. True, -the German officer in a ballroom seems to be the very essence of -officious Gallantry. But his motives are too transparently -Ovidian: it is not true Anglo-American politeness of the heart -that inspires his conduct. He is either after forbidden sweets or -parading his uniform and his vanity. Take the same man and -watch him at home. His wife has to get him his chair, move it -up to the fire, bring him his slippers, put the coffee in his hand, -and do errands for him. When he goes out she puts on his overcoat -and buttons it up carefully for him as if he were a helpless -big baby. This would be all very well—for why should not -women be gallant too?—if he would only retaliate. But he never -dreams of it. Even if it comes to a task which calls for masculine -muscular power—the carrying of bundles, etc.—he makes the -wife do it. He is, in fact, matrimonially considered, not only a -big baby but also a big brute, the very incarnation of masculine -selfishness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In former centuries it was customary in Germany, as it is now -with us, for women to bow first to men. The modern German -has reversed this. Woman has no right to bow until her lord -and superior has invited her to do so by doffing his hat.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The German girl, says the Countess von Bothmer in <cite>German -Home Life</cite>, “is taught that to be womanly she must be helpless, -to be feminine she must be feeble, to endear herself she must be -dependent, to charm she must cling.” “To keep carefully to the -sheep-walk, to applaud in concert and condemn in chorus, is the -only behaviour that can be tolerated.” “They have one bugbear -and one object of idolatry, these monotonous ladies,—a fetish -which they worship under the name of Mode; a monster between -public opinion and Mrs. Grundy. To say a thing is not ‘Mode’ -here, is to condemn it as if by all the laws of Media and Persia. -It is not her centre [<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>sic</i></span>], but the system of her social education, -that renders the German woman so hopelessly provincial.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>Of course it is the men who are responsible for this social education -and this feminine ideal of absolute dependence. It suits -their selfish pleasure to be worshipped and obeyed by the women -without any efforts at gallant retaliation on their part.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A native writer tells us that “a true German philosophises -occasionally while he embraces his sweetheart; while kissing even, -theories will sprout in his mind.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>No wonder, therefore, that one of the German metaphysicians, -Fichte, should have made a sophistic attempt to reduce masculine -selfishness to a system. He proves to his own satisfaction that it -is woman’s duty to sacrifice herself in man’s behalf; while man, -on his part, has no such obligations. His reasoning is too elaborate -to quote in full; but is too amusingly naïve to be omitted, so I -will translate the summary of it given by Kuno Fischer in his -<cite>History of Philosophy</cite>:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What woman’s natural instincts demand is self-abandonment -to a man; she desires this abandonment not for her own sake, -but for the man’s sake; she gives herself to him, for him. Now -abandoning oneself for another is self-sacrifice, and self-sacrifice -from an instinctive impulse is <span class='sc'>Love</span>. Therefore love is a kind of -instinctive impulse which the sexual instinct in woman necessarily -and involuntarily assumes. She feels the necessity of loving.... -This impulse is peculiar to woman alone; woman alone loves [!!!]; -only through woman does love appear among mankind.... The -woman’s life should disappear in the man’s without a remnant, and -it is this relation that is so beautifully and correctly indicated in -the fact that the wife no longer uses her own name, but that -of her husband [!].”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The latest (and it is to be hoped the last) of the German metaphysicians, -the pessimist Hartmann, goes even a step beyond -Fichte in arrogating for man special privileges in Love. If Fichte -makes Love synonymous with Self-Sacrifice—feminine, mind you, -not masculine—Hartmann tries to prove that man may love as -often as he pleases, but woman only once. And what aggravates -the offence, he does it in such a poetic manner. “Though it may -be doubtful,” he says, “whether a man can truly love two women -at the same time, it is beyond all doubt that he can love several in -succession with all the depth of his heart; and the assertion that -there is only one true love is an unwarranted generalisation to all -mankind of a maxim which is true of woman alone.... Woman -can learn but once by experience what love is, and it is painful for -the lover not to be the one who teaches her first. True it is that -a tree nipped by a spring frost brings forth a second crown of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>leaves, but so rich and luxuriant as the first it will not be; thus -does a maiden-heart produce a second bloom, if the first had -to wither before maturity, but its full and complete floral glory is -unfolded only where love, aroused for the first time, passes in full -vigour through all its phases.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet it is not ungallant selfishness alone that prompts German -men to bring up their women so that they shall be mere playthings -at first and drudges after marriage, never real soul-mates. They -have the same old stupid continental fear that culture of the -intellect weakens the feelings. This fear is based on slovenly -reasoning—on the inference that because a few blue-stockings have -at all ages made themselves ridiculous by assuming masculine -attributes and parading their lack of tenderness and feminine -delicacy, therefore intellectual training must be fatal to feminine -charms. As if there were not plenty of masculine blue-stockings, -or pedants, without disproving the fact that the men of the greatest -intellectual power—men of genius—are also the most emotional -and refined of all men; or the fact proved by this whole monograph, -that Love and general emotional refinement grow with the -general intellectual culture of women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A typical illustration of German feeling on the subject of female -education is to be found in Schweiger-Lerchenfeld’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Frauenleben -der Erde</cite></span>, p. 530. Referring to the attempts now being made in -France to give young girls a rational education, he quotes the -opinion of a French legislator that a girl thus brought up would -not love less deeply than heretofore, while she would love more -intelligently; and then comments as follows: “How far this -anticipation may be realised cannot be decided now or in the near -future. At any rate we must leave to the French themselves the -task of getting along with this classical female generation of the -future. Certain it is that their experiment will hardly be imitated, -and that the old Romans and Greeks may eventually become more -dangerous to masculine supremacy (Autorität) than the pilgrimage -stories of Lourdes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is time for German woman to rise in revolt against this -mediæval masculine selfishness. Not in active revolt, for a warlike -woman is an abomination. But in passive revolt. Let them -cease to spoil the men, and these bears will become more gallant. -Germany is later in almost every phase of literary and social -culture than England. It was not an accident that Shakspere -came before Heine, the English before the German poet of Love; -for Love is much less advanced in Germany than in England. It -has not even passed the stage where a harsh sort of Coyness is still -<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>in place. German women want to learn the cunning to be strange, -They are too deferential to the men, too easily won. They want -to learn to indulge in harmless flirtation, and they want the education -which will give them wit enough to flirt cleverly and make -the men mellow.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It must be admitted, however, notwithstanding all these -strictures, that there is much genuine Romantic Love in Germany, -often differing in no wise from Anglo-American Love. At first -sight it seems, indeed, as if chaperonage were as strict as in -France; and no doubt many German girls are brought up on the -spring-chicken-coyness system which regards every man as a hawk, -and a signal for hiding away in a corner. But in general German -girls have much more freedom than French girls. They -may walk alone in the street in the daytime, go alone to -the conservatory to attend a music-lesson. They meet the young -men freely at evening parties, dances, musical entertainments, -etc.; and the chaperons are not nearly so obtrusive and offensive -as in France. The mothers appear to have taken to heart -Jean Paul’s saying that “in the mother’s presence it is impossible -to carry on an edifying conversation with the daughter.” -So that there is plenty of opportunity for falling in love; and -were it not for parental dictation, Love-matches would perhaps -be as common as in England. But the girls lack independence -of spirit to defy parental tyranny, which it is their <em>moral duty</em> -to defy where money or rank are pitted against Love. For the -health and happiness of the next generation are at stake.</p> - -<p class='c001'>German girls also enjoy an advantage over the French in -having a literature which is pure and wholesome; and by reading -about Romantic Love they train and deepen their feelings. It is -often said that Heine’s influence has been chiefly negative. The -truth is, <em>Heine is the greatest emotional educator Germany has -ever had</em>. More young men and girls have wept over his pathetic -lyrics than over any other poetry. His <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Buch der Lieder</cite></span> has done -more to foster the growth of Romantic Love in Germany than all -other collections of verse combined; not only by their own -unadorned beauty, but through the soulful music wedded to these -poems by Schubert, Schumann, and other magicians of the heart. -The fact that the copyright on Heine’s works was soon to expire, -and the country to be flooded with cheap editions, has long caused -Master Cupid to rub his hands in gleeful anticipation of brisk business; -and he has just given orders in his arsenal for one -hundred thousand new golden arrows.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Heine indeed fathomed the secrets of Love much more deeply -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>than Goethe. Whereas Heine sang of Love in every major and -minor key, Goethe appears to have emphasised chiefly its transitoriness. -“Love, as Goethe knows it,” says Professor Seeley, “is -very tender, and has a lyric note as fresh as that of a song-bird. -In his <cite>Autobiography</cite> one love-passage succeeds another, but each -comes speedily to an end. How far in each case he was to blame -is a matter of controversy. But he seems to betray a way of -thinking about women such as might be natural to an Oriental -sultan. ‘I was in that agreeable phase,’ he writes, ‘when a new -passion had begun to spring up in me before the old one had quite -disappeared.’ About Frederika he blames himself without reserve, -and uses strong expressions of contrition; but he forgets the -matter strangely soon. In his distress of mind he says he found -riding, and especially skating, bring much relief. This reminds us -of the famous letter to the Frau von Stein about coffee. He is -always ready in a moment to shake off the deepest impressions and -receive new ones; and he never looks back.... Goethe was a -man of the old <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>régime</i></span>.... Had he entered into the reforming -movement of his age, he might have striven to elevate women.... -He certainly felt at times that all was not right in the status of -women (‘woman’s fate is pitiable’), and how narrowly confined was -their happiness (<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">wie enggebunden ist des Weibes Glück</span>) ... but -he was not a reformer of institutions.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A reformer of institutions, however, has apparently just arisen -in Berlin. For we read that at a private female seminary the girls -received the following subject for an essay: “There is from the -Ideas of Plato, the atoms of Democritus, the Substance of Spinoza, -the monads of Leibnitz, and from the subjective mental forms of -Kant, the proof to bring, that the philosophy it never neglected -has the to-be-calculated results of their hypotheses with their into-perception-falling -effects to compare.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such subjects, so elegantly expressed, are no doubt eminently -calculated to bring out the latent possibilities of feminine feeling -and culture.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To close this chapter with a sweet, soothing concord—major -triad, horns and ’cellos, <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><i>smorzando</i></span>—it must be admitted that the -Germans have one ingredient of Romantic Love which all other -nations must envy them. They have one more thrill in the drama -of Love, in the ascending scale of familiarities, than we have, namely, -the word <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Du</i></span>, which is something very different from the stilted -<em>Thou</em>, because still a part of everyday language. The second -person singular is used in Germany towards pet animals and -children, between students, intimate friends, relatives, and lovers. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>French “lovers” do not say <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>tu</i></span> to each other till after marriage, and -even then they do not use it in public. But the German lover has -the privilege, as soon as he is engaged, of exchanging the formal <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Sie</i></span> -for the affectionate <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Du</i></span>; and the first <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Du</i></span> that comes from her lips -can hardly be less sweet than the first kiss.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is a game of cards, popular among young folks in Germany, -during which you have to address every one with <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Du</i></span> whom you -otherwise would have to call <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Sie</i></span>, and <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>vice versâ</i></span>; cards have to be -called spoons, white black, etc. If there is a young man in the -company secretly in love with a young lady, you can always -“spot” him by the eagerness he shows to speak to her, and the -fact that he always gets the <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Du</i></span> right and everything else wrong; -while she, strange to say, appears to have never heard of such a -thing at all as a personal pronoun.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>ENGLISH LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Concerning Romantic Love in England and America, there is -less to be said under the head of National Peculiarities than in -case of the continental nations of Europe, for the simple reason -that almost everything said in the pages on Modern Love refers -especially to these two countries. Anglo-American Love is -Romantic Love, pure and simple, as first depicted by Shakspere, -and after him, with more or less accuracy, by a hundred other -poets and novelists. There is no lack of colour in this Love—colour -warm and glowing—but it is no longer a mere local colour, a -national or provincial peculiarity, but Love in its essence, its -cosmopolitan aspect; Love such as will in course of time prevail -throughout the world, when the Anglisation of this planet—which -is only a question of time—shall have been completed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>England has many a bright jewel in the crown of her achievements -in behalf of civilisation, but the <a id='corr288.30'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='brighest'>brightest</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_288.30'><ins class='correction' title='brighest'>brightest</ins></a></span> of all is this, that -she was the first country in the world—ancient, mediæval, or -modern—that removed the bars from woman’s prison-windows, -opened every door to Cupid, and made him thoroughly welcome -and comfortable. And grateful Cupid has retaliated by setting up -English manners and customs as a model which all other nations -are slowly but surely copying. Eighteen million souls in the -United States, or almost two persons in every five, are not of -English origin; yet of these there are not one million who have -not given up their old country methods of courtship as antiquated, -and adopted the Anglo-American style. The Germans in America -make love not after the German but after the English fashion. So -<span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>do the French, though somewhat more reluctantly and tardily. In -San Francisco and Chicago it is said that but one name in ten -is of English origin; yet who ever heard of a San Franciscan -or Chicagoan making love in foreign style? During the -last hundred years the majority of the immigrants to America -have come from non-English countries; yet, though the parents -enter the country as adults with all their national traditions -stamped on their memories, they invariably allow their sons and -daughters to court and be courted in American style. And now -that England is gradually extending her influence to every one of -the five continents, Romantic Love—to whose sway, quite as much -as to their outdoor active life, the English owe the fact that they are -to-day the handsomest and most energetic race in the world—is -also rapidly extending its sphere, and will finally oust the last -vestiges of Oriental despotism, feminine suppression, and mediæval -masculine barbarism.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For some centuries woman has been more favoured by law, and -especially by national custom, in England than in any other -European state. It is true that the Englishman who beats his -wife is the most brutal savage on the face of the globe, but he is -to be found only among the lowest classes. Nor has wife-selling -ever been quite such a universal custom in England as foreigners -imagine; although cases are on record as far back as 1302 and as -late as 1884. In an article in <cite>All the Year Round</cite> (Dec. 20, 1884) -more than twenty cases are enumerated with full details, the price -of a wife varying from twenty-five guineas to a pint or half a pint -of beer, or a penny and a dinner; and the <cite>Times</cite> of July 22, 1797, -remarks sarcastically: “By some mistake or omission, in the report -of the Smithfield market, we have not learned the average price of -wives for the week. The increasing value of the fair sex is esteemed -by several eminent writers the certain criterion of increasing -civilisation. Smithfield has, on this ground, strong pretensions to -refined improvement, as the price of wives has risen in that market -from half a guinea to three guineas and a half.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>That these cases occurred only among the lowest classes is self-evident; -yet even the lowest classes often resented the brutal -transaction by pelting the offenders with stones and mud; whereas, -as far as the women were concerned, the offence was mitigated by -the fact that in all cases on record they appear to have been only -too glad to be sold, so as to get rid of their tyrants.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It cannot be said that English women are all exempt from the -hardest manual labour even to-day; but the tendency to relieve -them of tasks unsuited to feminine muscular development has -<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>existed longer in England than elsewhere. The difference can be -best observed with regard to agricultural labour. Any one who -travels through Italy, Switzerland, France, or Germany in the -autumn, gets the impression that most of the harvesting is done by -the women; whereas in England, as shown by statistics, there are -twenty-two men to every woman engaged as field-labourers. Yet -even at that rate there are still 64,840 women in England engaged -in agricultural labour unsuited to their sex.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, English women, like American women, are -manifesting a great disposition at present to try their hand or -brain at almost every employment heretofore considered exclusively -masculine. The census enumerates 349 different classes of work, -and of these all but about 70 have been invaded by women; including -5 horse-dealers, 14 bicycle makers and dealers, 16 sculptors, -18 fence makers, 19 fossil diggers, etc.; whereas there are as yet no -female pilots, dentists, police officers, shepherds, law students, -architects, cab-drivers, commercial travellers, barristers, etc. [Full -list in <cite>Pall Mall Gazette</cite>, Oct. 3, 1884.]</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as there are almost a million more women than men -in England, it is not surprising that women should thus seek to -extend their sphere of usefulness. We live in an experimental -epoch, when it is to be ascertained what is and what is not becoming -to woman regarded as a labourer. It is therefore of the utmost -importance that there should be some standard by which each employment -is to be judged. And this standard, fortunately, is -supplied by Romantic Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We have seen that the tendency of civilisation has been to -differentiate the sexes more and more in appearance, character, and -emotional susceptibilities, and that on this differentiation depends -the existence and power of Love, because it <em>individualises</em> man and -woman, and Love is the more intense the more it is individualised.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hence every employment which tends to make woman masculine -in appearance or habits is to be tabooed by her because antagonistic -to Love. If she, nevertheless, persists in it, Love will have its -revenge by eliminating her through Sexual Selection. No man -will marry a masculine woman, or fall in love with her, so that -her unnatural temperament will not be transmitted to the next -generation and multiplied.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But what is to be accepted as the standard of femininity? The -answer is given us by Nature. Throughout the animal world, with -a few insignificant exceptions, the sexes are differentiated distinctly; -and the female is the more tender and gentle of the two, -the more devoted to domestic affection and the care and education -<span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>of the young, the more amiable, and, above all, less aggressive, bold, -and pugnacious than the male. “Any education which women -undergo,” says the <cite>Spectator</cite>, “should be an education not for the -militant life of war against evil but for the spiritual life inspiring -a persuasive or patient charity.... Even in a field properly -suited to them—the field of charitable institutions, of poor-law -work, of educational representation—women no sooner take up the -cudgels than they lose their appropriate influence, and are either -unsexed or paralysed.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>According to Mr. Ruskin, “woman’s work is—(1) To please -people. (2) To feed them in dainty ways. (3) To clothe them. -(4) To keep them orderly. (5) To teach them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Statistics concerning the employments instinctively sought by -the majority of women bear out Mr. Ruskin’s table quite well. -Woman’s first duty is to please people by being beautiful, amiable, -and fascinating in conversation and manners. No man would -marry a woman unless she pleased him in one way or another; -hence matrimony is the most successful female profession, which -in England includes 4,437,962 women. But there are other ways -in which women seek to please and prosper; hence there are in -England 2368 actresses as against 2197 actors, and 11,376 women -whose profession is music, as against 14,170 men.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Domestic service, which includes the “feeding in dainty ways” -(though too often the “dainty” must be omitted), employs -1,230,406 women in England—about 30,000 fewer than industrial -employments, which are somewhat more popular owing to the -greater individual liberty they allow the employed. Yet domestic -service is a much better preparation for married life than labour in -a manufactory; so that, other things being equal, a labouring man -looking for a wife would be apt to select one who has learned how -to take care of his home. This thought ought to help to render -domestic service more popular.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To clothe them.” Dressmaking, staymaking (alas!), and -millinery, employ 357,995 women in England.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To keep them orderly.” Bathing and washing service employ -176,670 women; medicine and nursing, almost 50,000; missions, -1660.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To teach them.” This, one of woman’s special vocations, -eminently suited to her capacity, employs 123,995 females.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If I have failed in correctly interpreting Mr. Ruskin’s oracle, I -stand subject to correction from that earnest labourer in the task -of finding for woman her proper sphere—a work for which he has -not yet received the recognition and thanks he deserves.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>That marriage, and not miscellaneous employment, is woman’s -true destiny, is shown by the way in which Cupid influences statistics. -Thus there are in England about 29,000 school-mistresses -aged 15-20, and 28,500 aged 25-45; but the time from 20-25, -the period of courtship and marriage, has only 21,000. In the -case of dressmakers this fact is brought out still more strikingly: -15-20—84,000; 20-25—76,000; 25-45—129,000, in round -numbers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although, therefore, as Emerson remarks, “the circumstances -may be easily imagined in which woman may speak, vote, argue -cases, legislate, and drive coaches, if only it comes by degrees,” -facts show that there is more philosophy of the future in Mrs. -Hawthorne’s remark that “Home, I think, is the great arena for -women, and there, I am sure, she can wield a power which no king -or emperor can cope with.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A consideration of all the foregoing facts shows that Love may -be safely accepted as a guiding-star in making a proper division of -the world’s labour between men and women. And the reason why -England and America have made so much more progress than -other nations in ascertaining woman’s true capacity and sphere, -is because she has been educated to a point where she can assert -her independence, and where she can inspire as well as feel Love—thus -making man humble, gallant, gentle, ready to make concessions -and remove restrictions. It is in England and America -alone that Love plays a more important <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> in marriage than -money and social position; that the young are generally permitted -to consult their own heart instead of parental command; and that -the opportunities for courtship are so liberal and numerous that -the young are enabled to fall in love with one another not only for -dazzling qualities of Personal Beauty, viewed for a moment, but for -traits of character, emotional refinement, and a cultured intellect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These two nations alone have fully taken to heart and heeded -Addison’s maxim that “Those marriages generally abound most -with love and constancy that are <em>preceded by a long courtship</em>. -The passion should strike root and gather strength before marriage -be grafted on it. A long course of hopes and expectations fixes -the idea in our minds, and habituates us to a fondness of the person -beloved.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is, however, a difference between English and American -Love which shows that we have learned Addison’s lesson even -better than his own countrymen. As Mr. Robert Laird Collier -remarks in <cite>English Home Life</cite>: “The American custom, among -the mass of the people, of leaving young men and young women -<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>free to associate together and to keep company with each other -for an indefinite length of time, without declaring their intentions, -is almost unknown in any country of Europe. It is not long -after a young man begins to show the daughter attentions before -the father gives intimation that he wishes to know what it means, -and either the youth declares his intentions or is notified to ‘cut -sticks.’” “Courtships in England are short, and engagements are -long.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The London <cite>Standard</cite> doubtless exaggerates the difference -between English and American girls and their attitude toward -men in the course of an article, part of which may, nevertheless, -be cited: “American girls offer a bright example to their English -sisters of a happy, unclouded youth, and instances seem to be few -of their abusing the liberty which is accorded to them. Perhaps -their immunity from sentimental troubles arises from the fact that -from earliest childhood they have been comrades of the other sex, -and are therefore not disposed to turn a man into a demi-god because -they only see one at rare intervals under the eagle eye of a -mother or aunt. A great revolution in public opinion would be -required ere English girls could be emancipated to the extent -which prevails on the other side of the Atlantic, and even then -it is doubtful whether the system would work well. The -daughters of Albion, with but few exceptions, are single-hearted, -earnest, and prone to look upon everything seriously. They often -make the mistake of imagining that a man is in love because he -is decently civil.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet in <cite>German Home Life</cite>, written from an English point -of view, we read that “There is no such thing as country life, as -we understand it, in Germany; no cosy sociability, smiling snugness, -pleasant bounties and hospitalities; and, above all, for the -young folk, no freedom, flirtation, boatings, sketchings, high teas, -scamperings, and merriments generally.” And again: “The sort -of frank ‘flirtation,’ beginning openly in fun and ending in amusement, -which is common amongst healthy, high-spirited boys and -girls in England, and has no latent element of intrigue or vanity -in it, but is born of exuberant animal spirits, youthful frolics, and -healthy pastimes shared together, is forbidden to her” (the German -girl).</p> - -<p class='c001'>The <cite>Standard</cite> itself apparently contradicts itself in another -article on “Flirtation,” concerning which it says: “It is usually -so innocent that it has become part of the education most of our -young women pass through in their training for society. The -British matron smiles contentedly when she sees that her daughter, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>just entered on her teens, exhibits a partiality for long walks and -soft-toned confabulations with her cousin Fred or her brother’s -favourite schoolmate. Three or four such juvenile attachments -will do the girl no harm, if they are gently watched over by the -parental eye. They serve to evolve the sexually social instincts in -a gradual way. Through them the bashful maiden learns the -nature of man in the same fashion as she takes lessons on the -piano. In a word, she is ‘getting her hand in’ for the real game -of matrimony that is to be played in a few years. Her youthful -swains, of course, derive their own instructions from these innocent -amours.... Chivalrous feeling is developed which it takes -a deal of worldly wisdom to smother in after years.... When -we observe this sentimentality in a boy, we derive great amusement -from it, but it should raise the lad in our estimation. He -has something in him to which ideals appeal, and his early-developed -susceptibility will—to use a beautiful but forgotten -word—engentle his nature.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the difference between English and American courtship -and flirtation is not so great as often painted, and is becoming -less every year, owing to the Americanisation of Europe.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>AMERICAN LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is in the United States of America that Plato’s ideal—so -completely ignored by his countrymen—that young men and -women should have ample opportunity to meet and get acquainted -with one another before marriage, is most perfectly realised; as -well as Addison’s supplementary advice that marriage should be -preceded by a long courtship.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As boys and girls in America are commonly educated in the -same schools, they are initiated at an early age into the sweets -and sorrows of Calf-love Courtship, which has such a refining -influence on the boys, and renders the girls more easy and natural -in society when they get older; destroying among other puerilities -that spring-chicken Coyness which makes many of their -European sisters appear so silly. In the Western country-schools -each girl has her “beau”—a boy of fourteen to seventeen—who -brings her flowers, apples, or other presents, accompanies her -home, and performs various other gallant services; nor has any -harm ever been known to result from this juvenile Courtship—except -an occasional elopement, in case of a prematurely frivolous -couple, whom it was just as well to get rid of in that way as any -other.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>When they get a little older, the young folks go to picnics -without a chaperon, or they enjoy a drive or sleigh-ride, or go a-skating -together; and after a party, dance, church fair, or other -social gathering, where the elders commonly keep out of the way -considerately, each young man accompanies a young lady home. -Were you to insinuate to him the advisability of having a chaperon -for the young lady, he would inform you pointedly that the young -lady needed no protection inasmuch as he was a <em>gentleman</em> and not -a tramp. It is this high sense of gentlemanly honour that protects -women in America—a hundred times better than all the -barred windows of the Orient and the dragons of Europe. Thanks -to this feeling of modern chivalry, a young lady may travel all -alone from New York to Chicago, or even to San Francisco, and, -if her manners are modest and refined, she will not once be insulted -by word or look, not even in passing through the roughest -mining regions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is the consciousness of this chivalrous code of honour among -the men that gives an American girl the frank and natural gaze -which is one of her greatest charms, and that allows her to talk -to a man just introduced as if they were old acquaintances. It is -a knowledge of this gentlemanly code that makes parents feel -perfectly at ease in leaving their daughter alone in the parlour all -the evening with a visitor. In a word, American customs prove -that if you treat a man as a gentleman he will behave like a -gentleman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Unquestionably there are girls who abuse the liberty allowed -them, and encourage the men to encourage them in their freedom. -Mr. Henry James has done a most valuable service in holding up -the mirror to one of these girls, to serve as a warning to all Daisy -Millers and semi-Daisy Millers. There are not a few of the latter -kind, and I have myself met three full-fledged specimens of the -real “Daisy” in Europe—girls who would not have hesitated to -go out rowing on a lake at eleven o’clock in the evening with a -man known to them only a few hours, or to go next day with him -to visit an old tower, or to say that mamma “always makes a fuss -if I introduce a gentleman. But I <em>do</em> introduce them—almost -always. If I didn’t introduce my gentlemen friends to mother, I -shouldn’t think I was natural.” It is this class of American -tourists that have, unfortunately, given foreigners a caricatured -notion of the American girl’s deportment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Etiquette differs somewhat in various American cities and -among the different classes. For instance, a young lady of the -“upper circles,” who in Chicago is permitted to drive to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>theatre in a carriage with a young man, is not allowed the same -privilege in New York.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The New York <cite>Sun</cite>, an excellent authority in social matters, -gives the whole philosophy of American Courtship and Love in -answering a young man’s question as to whether, in asking a young -lady of the highest circles to accompany him to a place of amusement, -it is necessary to invite a chaperon at the same time. He -is told that he must,—in those circles:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>"But these people are only a few among the many. What is -called society more exclusively in New York comprises, all told, no -more than a hundred or two hundred families. Outside of them, -of course, there are larger circles, to which they give the law to a -greater or less extent, but the whole number of men and women -in this great town of a million and a half of inhabitants who pay -obedience to that law is not over a few thousand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Nine girls out of ten in New York, with the full consent of -their parents and as a matter of course, accompany young men to -amusements without taking a chaperon along. They feel, and -they are, entirely able to look out for themselves, and they would -regard the whole fun as spoiled if a third person was on hand to -watch over them. A large part of the audience at every theatre is -always made up of young men and young women who have come -out in pairs, and who have no thought of violating any rule of -propriety. Very many of these girls would never be invited to the -theatre by their male acquaintances if they were under the dominion -of such a usage, for the men want them to themselves, else they -would not ask their company, and besides do not feel able to pay -for an extra ticket for an obnoxious third person; or, if they have -a little more money to spare, they prefer to expend it at an ice-cream -saloon after the play.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Nor can it be said that the morals of these less formal young -people are any worse than those of the more exacting society. -Probably they are better on the average, and if the laws of Murray -Hill prevailed throughout this city, the marriage-rate of New York -would be likely to decline, for nothing discourages the passion of -the average young man so much as his inability to meet the -charmer except in the presence of a third person, who acts as a -buffer between him and her. He feels that he has no show, and -cannot appear to good advantage under the eyes of a cool critic, -whereas if he could walk with the girl alone in the shades of the -balmy evening, the courage to declare his affection would come -to him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Therefore it is that engagements, even in the most fashionable -<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>society, are commonly made in the country during the summer, -where the young people come together more freely and more -constantly than in the town.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The attempt made in certain corners of New York “Society” -to introduce the foreign system of chaperonage is one of the most -absurd and incongruous efforts at aping foreign fashions (which are -on the decline even in Europe) ever witnessed in our midst. In -Europe Chaperonage is in so far excusable, as it is a modified -survival from barbarous times when men were mostly brutes, being -drunk half the time and on military expeditions the other half. -To treat American men, who are brought up as gentlemen, and -commonly behave as such, as mediæval ruffians, is a gratuitous -insult, which they ought to resent by avoiding those houses where -Oriental experiments are being tried with the daughters. That -would bring the “mammas” to reason very soon.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet it would seem as if New York “Society” had already had -enough of the Oriental experiment; for the same high authority -just quoted asserted last autumn that “A regular stampede in -favour of the liberty of the young unmarried female is to be undertaken -this winter by a number of ‘three-years-in-society’ veterans, -supported and encouraged by nearly all this seasons <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>débutantes</i></span>. -The first step is to be the establishment of a right on the part of -young girls to form parties for theatre <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>matinées</i></span> and afternoon -concerts, untrammelled by the presence of even a matron of their -own age, and to which all ‘reliable and well-behaved young men -are to be eligible.’... Rule No. 2 establishes beyond all dispute -the often-mooted question whether the presence of a brother and -sister in a party of young people going to any place of evening -amusement throws a shield of respectability over the others of the -party. Society long ago frowned upon this mongrel kind of -chaperonage; but upon the principle that no young man would -permit indiscretions or improprieties in a party of which his sister -made one, the ‘veterans’ have voted in favour of it. The young -man with a sister is therefore to enact the part of dragon on these -occasions, and will be largely in demand. Failing a convenient -sister, he may get a cousin, perhaps, to take her place.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>When it comes to the cousin, the reversion to Americanism, -pure and simple, will be complete.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The gentlemanliness and Gallantry of Americans have at all -times been acknowledged by observers of all nationalities; and it -is indeed hardly too much to say that the average American is -disposed to treat the whole female sex with a studied Gallantry, -which in most European countries is reserved by men for the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>one girl with whom they happen to be in love. Even the irate -and vituperative Anthony Trollope in his book on North America -was obliged to admit that “It must be borne in mind that in that -country material wellbeing and education are more extended than -with us, and that therefore men there have learned to be chivalrous -who with us have hardly progressed so far. The conduct of the -men to the women throughout the states is always gracious.... -But it seems to me that the women have not advanced as far as -the men have done.... In America the spirit of chivalry has -sunk deeper among men than it has among women.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Anthony Trollope is by no means the only writer who has put -his finger on the greatest foible of American women. No doubt -they have, as a class, been spoiled by excessive masculine Gallantry. -They do not, like the women of the Troubadour period, who were -similarly spoilt, go quite so far as to send their knights on crusades -and among lepers, but they often shroud themselves in an atmosphere -of selfishness which is very unfeminine—to choose a complimentary -adjective.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the East, where there is already a large excess of women -over men, this evil is less marked than in the West, where women -are still in a minority. Thus the Denver <cite>Tribune</cite>, in an article on -“The Impoliteness of Women,” remarks: “If there is any characteristic -of Americans of which they are more proud than any other, -it is the courtesy which the men who are natives of this country -exhibit towards women, and the respect which the gentler sex -receives in public. This is a trait of the American character of -which Americans are justly proud, and in which they doubtless -excel the people of any other country. But while this is true of -the men, it is a matter to be deeply regretted that as much cannot -be said of the women of this country.” After praising American -women for their beauty, vivacity, high moral character, and other -charms, the <cite>Tribune</cite> adds that they “seem very generally to be -prompted in their conduct in public by a spirit of selfishness which -very often finds expression in acts of positive rudeness.” They -are ungrateful, it continues, to the men who give up their seats in -street-cars; they compel men to step into a muddy street, instead -of walking one behind the other at a crossing; and at such places -as the stamp-window of the post-office they do not wait for their -turn, but force the men to stand aside.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another Western paper, the Chicago <cite>Tribune</cite>, complains that -in that city there are 10,000 homes in which the daughters are -ignorant of the simplest kind of household duties. It adds “That -they do not desire to learn; that, having been brought up to do -<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>nothing except appear gracefully in society, their object in life is -to marry husbands who can support them in idle luxury; that this -state of things has substituted for marriages founded on love and -respect a market in which the men have quoted money-values, and -where a young man, however great his talents, has no chance of -winning a wife from the charmed circle.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So that the pendulum has apparently swung to the other -extreme. In mediæval times the women were married for their -money by the lazy, selfish men; now the women are lazy and -selfish, while the men toil and are married for their money.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet there is much exaggeration in this view, which applies to -only a small portion of the American people. We are far from the -times when Miss Martineau complained of the feeble health of -American women, and attributed it to the vacuity of their minds. -Their health is still, on the average, inferior to that of English and -German damsels, from whom they could also learn useful lessons in -domestic matters; but intellectually the American woman has no -equal in the world; while her sweetness, grace, and proverbial -beauty combine into an ensemble which makes Cupid chuckle -whenever he looks at a susceptible young man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Goldsmith says somewhere that “the English love with violence, -and expect violent love in return.” Certainly this holds -true no less of the Americans. There are indeed several favourable -circumstances which combine to make Romantic Love more -ardent and more prevalent in the United States than in any other -part of the world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) The first is the intellectual culture of women just referred -to, which they owe partly to the leisure they enjoy, partly to the -fact that America has the best elementary schools in the world, so -that their minds are aroused early from their dormant state. As -Bishop Spalding remarks: “Woman here in the United States is -more religious, more moral, and more intelligent than man; more -intelligent in the sense of greater openness to ideas, greater flexibility -of mind, and a wider acquaintance with literature.” Now -the whole argument of this book tends to show that the capacity -for feeling Romantic Love is dependent on intellectual culture, and -increases with it; hence we might infer that there is more Love -among the women of America than among those of any other country, -even if this were not so patent from the greater number of Love-matches -and various subtle signs known to international observers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And as the sweetest pleasure and goad of Love lies in the conviction -that it is really returned, man’s Love is thus doubled in -ardour through woman’s responsive sympathy.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>(2) That Courtship proper is longer than in England, and -engagement shorter, is a circumstance in favour of America. For -nothing adds so much to the ardour of Love as the uncertainty -which prevails during Courtship; whereas, after engagement, all -these alternate hopes and doubts, confidences and jealousies, are -quieted, and the ship approaches the still waters of the harbour of -matrimony, which may be quite as deep but are less sublime and -romantic than mid-ocean, with its possibilities of storm and shipwreck.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Moreover, the longer the time of tentative Courtship, the fewer -are the chances of a mistake being made in selecting a sympathetic -spouse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In Germany an engagement is so conclusive an affair that it is -announced in the papers, and cards are sent out as at a wedding. -In America we meet with the other extreme, for it is not very -unusual for a couple to be engaged some time before even the -parents know it. Though there is such a thing as breach of -promise suits against fickle young men, such engagements, if -unsatisfactory to either side, are commonly broken off amicably. -And, as one of Mr. Howells’s characters remarks in <cite>Indian Summer</cite>: -“A broken engagement <em>may</em> be a bad thing in some cases, but I -am inclined to think it is the very best thing that could happen -in most cases where it happens. The evil is done long before; the -broken engagement is merely sanative, and so far beneficent.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Were engagements less readily dissolved, divorces would be -more frequent even than they are now.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) Parental dictation is almost unknown in America; nowhere -else have young men and women such absolute freedom to choose -their own soul-mate. Hence Individual Preference, on which the -ardour of Love depends in the highest degree, has full sway. The -comparative absence of barriers of rank and social grade also makes -it easier for a man to find and claim his real <em>Juliet</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(4) This dependence of Love on Individualisation gives it -another advantage in America. For nowhere is there so great a -mixture of nationalities as here; and, <em>away from home</em>, a national -peculiarity of feature or manners has a sort of individualising effect. -Till we get used to such national peculiarities through their constant -recurrence we are apt to judge almost every woman in a new -city attractive. From this point of view Love may be defined as -an instinctive longing to absorb national traits, and blend them all -in the one cosmopolitan type of perfect Personal Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(5) There are beautiful women in all countries of the world, -but no country has so many pretty girls as America. Money and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>rank find it hard to compete with such loveliness, hence Love has -its own way. Here alone is it possible to find heiresses who have -failed to get married through lack of Beauty. Personal Beauty is -the great matchmaker in America; and thus it comes that Beauty -is ever inherited and multiplied. For Love is the cause of Beauty -as Beauty is the cause of Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One more characteristic of American Love remains to be noted—the -most unique of all. American women are of all women in the -world the most self-conscious, and have the keenest sense of humour. -To these quick-witted damsels the sentimental sublimities of amorous -Hyperbole, which may touch the heart of a naïve German or -Italian girl, are apt to appear dangerously near the ludicrous; -hence an American lover, if he is clever enough, deliberately covers -the step which separates the sublime from the ridiculous. He -gilds the gold of his compliments by using the form of playful -exaggeration, which is the more easy to him because exaggeration -is a national form of American humour. Mr. Howells’s heroes -often make love in this fashion. The lover in <cite>The Lady of the -Aroostook</cite> spices his flatteries with open burlesque, and succeeds -admirably with this new <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Ars Amoris</cite></span>; and Colville in <cite>Indian -Summer</cite> says to Imogene: “Come, I’ll go, of course, Imogene. A -fancy-ball to please you is a very different thing from a fancy-ball -in the abstract.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, what nice things you say! Do you know, I always -admired your compliments? I think they’re the most charming -compliments in the world.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t think they’re half so pretty as yours; but they’re -more sincere.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, honestly. They flatter, and at the same time they make -fun of the flattery a little; they make a person feel that you like -them even while you laugh at them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perfect success in this form of flattery requires a talent for -epigram. Not many, unfortunately, even in America, are poets -and wits at the same time, like Mr. Howells; but there is an -abundance of clever compliments nevertheless, and they are apt to -assume the form of playful exaggeration.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>SCHOPENHAUER’S THEORY OF LOVE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>A first hasty perusal of Schopenhauer’s brilliant essay on the -“Metaphysics of Sexual Love” (in the second volume of his -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Welt als Wille und Vorstellung</cite></span>) will dispose most readers to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>agree with Dühring that the great pessimist “makes war on love.” -But a more careful consideration of his profound thoughts shows -that this is not the case, notwithstanding his habitual cynical -tone.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the first place, his theory can do no possible harm, because, -as he himself admits, no lover will ever believe in it. Secondly, -the gist of Schopenhauer’s theory is to show that a lover is the -most noble and unselfish martyr in the world, because his usual -attitude and fate is self-sacrifice.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>LOVE IS AN ILLUSION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The fundamental truth which Schopenhauer claims to have -discovered is that love is an illusion—an <em>instinctive</em> belief on the -lover’s part that his life’s happiness absolutely depends on his -union with his beloved; whereas, in truth, a love-match commonly -leads to lifelong conjugal misery. The lover, on reaching the goal -so eagerly striven for, finds himself disappointed, and realises, to -his consternation, that he has been the dupe of a blind instinct. -<span lang="es" xml:lang="es">Quien se casa por amores, ha de vivir con dolores</span>, says a Spanish -proverb (“to marry for love is to live in misery”): and this -doctrine Schopenhauer re-echoes in a dozen different forms: “It -is not only disappointed love-passion that occasionally has a tragic -end; successful love likewise leads more commonly to misery than -to happiness.” “Marriages based on love commonly end unhappily,” -etc.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>INDIVIDUALS SACRIFICED TO THE SPECIES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The reason of this curious fact is given in this sentence: -“Love-marriages are formed in the interest of the species, not of -the individuals. True, the parties concerned imagine that they -are providing for their own happiness; but their real [unconscious] -aim is something foreign to their own selves—namely, the procreation -of an individual whose existence becomes possible only -through their marriage.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What urges a man on to this sacrifice of individual happiness -to the welfare of his offspring is, as already intimated, a blind -instinct known as Love. The universal <em>Will</em> (Schopenhauer’s -fetish, or name for an impersonal deity underlying all phenomena) -has implanted this blind instinct in man, for the same reason that -it implants so many other instincts in various animals—to induce -the parents to undergo any amount of labour, and even danger to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>life, for the sake of benefiting the offspring, and thus preserving -the species. All these animals, like the lovers, are urged on -blindly to sacrifice themselves in the belief that they are doing it -for their own pleasure and benefit; whereas it is all in the -interest of their offspring.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why was the <em>Will</em> compelled to implant this blind instinct in -man? Because man is so selfish wherever guided by reason, that -it would have been unwise to entrust so important a matter as -the welfare of coming generations to his intellect and prudence. -Prudence would tell young people to choose not the most attractive -and healthy partners, who would be able to transmit their -excellence to the next generation, but the ones who are most -liberally supplied with money and useful friends. That is, they -would invariably look out first for “Number One,” indifferent to -the deluge that might come after them. It was to neutralise this -selfishness that the <em>Will</em> created the instinct of Love, which -impels a man to marry not the woman who will make <em>him</em> the -most happy and comfortable, but whose qualities, combined with -his own, will be likely to produce a harmonious, well-made group -of children.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Schopenhauer’s <em>Will</em>, it must be understood, is an æsthetic -sort of a chap. He has his hobbies, and one of these hobbies is -the desire to preserve the species in its typical purity and beauty. -There are a thousand accidents of climate, vice, disease, etc., that -tend to vitiate the type of each species; but Love strives for ever -to restore a harmonious balance, by producing a mutual infatuation -in two beings whose combined (and opposite) defects will -neutralise one another in the offspring.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>SOURCES OF LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>More definitely speaking, there are three ways in which the -<em>Will</em> preserves the purity of its types—three ways in which it -inspires the Love whose duty it is to achieve this result. Physical -Beauty is the first thing desired by the lover, because that is the -expression of typical perfection. Secondly, he may be influenced -by such Psychic Traits as will blend well with his own; and -thirdly, he will be attracted by perfections (or imperfections) -which are the opposite of his own. These three sources must be -considered briefly in detail.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) <em>Physical Beauty.</em>—The most important attribute of -Beauty, in the lover’s eye, is Youth. Men prefer the age from -eighteen to twenty-eight in a woman; while women give the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>preference to a man aged from thirty to thirty-five, which -represents the acme of his virility. Youth without Beauty may -still inspire Love; not so Beauty without Youth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Health ranks next in importance. Acute disease is only a -temporary disadvantage, whereas chronic disease repels the -amorous affections, for the reason that it is likely to be transmitted -to the next generation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A fine framework or skeleton is the third desideratum. Besides -age and disease, nothing proves so fatal to the chances of -inspiring Love as deformity: “The most charming face does not -atone for it; on the contrary, even the ugliest face is preferred if -allied with a straight growth of the body.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A certain plumpness or fulness of flesh is the next thing -considered in sexual selection; for this is an indication of Health, -and promises a sound progeny. Excessive leanness is repulsive, -and so is excessive stoutness, which is often an indication of -sterility. “A well-developed bust has a magic effect on a man.” -What attracts women to men is especially muscular development, -because that is a quality in which they are commonly deficient, -and for which the children will accordingly have to rely on the -father. Women may marry an ugly man, but never one who is -unmanly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Facial beauty ranks last in importance, according to Schopenhauer. -Here too the skeleton is first considered in sexual -selection. The mouth must be small, the chin projecting, “a -slight curve of the nose, upwards or downwards, has decided the -fate of innumerable girls; and justly, for the type of the species -is at stake.” The eyes and the forehead, finally, are closely -associated with intellectual qualities.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(2) <em>Psychic Traits.</em>—What charms women in men is preeminently -courage and energy, besides frankness and amiability. -“Stupidity is no disadvantage with women: indeed, it is more -likely that superior intellectual power, and especially genius, as -being an abnormal trait, may make an unfavourable impression on -them. Hence we so often see an ugly, stupid, and coarse man -preferred by women to a refined, clever, and amiable man.” -When women claim to have fallen in love with a man’s intellect, -it is either affectation or vanity. Wedlock is a union of hearts, -not of heads; and its object is not entertaining conversation, but -providing for the next generation. This part of Schopenhauer’s -theory is evidently an outcome of his doctrine that children inherit -their intellectual qualities from the mother, and their character -from the father. Hence the feeling that they are capable of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>supplying their children with sufficient intellect is part of the -feminine Love-instinct, and makes women indifferent to the -presence or absence of those qualities in men.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It does not follow from all this that a sensible man may not -reflect on his chosen one’s character, or she on his intellectual -abilities, before marriage. Such reflection leads to marriages of -reason, but not to Love-marriages, which alone are here under -consideration.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) <em>Complementary Qualities.</em>—The physical and mental attributes -considered under (1) and (2) are those which commonly -inspire Love. But there are cases where perfect Beauty is less -potent to inflame the passions than deviations from the normal -type.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Ordinarily it is not the regular perfect beauties that inspire -the great passions,” says Schopenhauer; and this seems to be -borne out by the experience of Byron, who says: “I believe there -are few men who, in the course of their observations on life, have -not perceived that it is not the greatest female beauty who forms -[inspires] the longest and the strongest passions.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>How is this to be accounted for? By the anxiety of Nature -(or the <em>Will</em>) to neutralise imperfections in one individual by wedding -them to another’s excesses in the opposite direction; as an -acid is neutralised by combining it with an alkali. The greater -the shortcoming the more ardent will be the infatuation if a person -is found exactly adapted for its neutralisation. The weaker a -woman is, for example, in her muscular system, the more apt will -she be to fall violently in love with an athlete. Short men have -a decided partiality for tall women, and <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>vice versâ</i></span>. Blondes -almost always desire brunettes; and if the reverse does not hold -true, this is owing to the fact, he says, that the original colour -of the human complexion was not light but dark. A light complexion -has indeed become second nature to us, but less so the -other features; and “in love nature strives to return to dark hair -and brown eyes, as the primitive type.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, persons afflicted with a pug-nose take a special delight -in falcon-noses and parrot-faces; and those who are excessively -long and slim admire those who are abnormally short and even -stumpy. So with temperaments; each one preferring the opposite -to his or her own. True, if a person is quite perfect in any one -respect, he does not exactly prefer the corresponding imperfection -in another, but he is more readily reconciled to it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Throughout his essay, Schopenhauer tacitly assumes that the -parental peculiarities are fused or blended equally in the offspring, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>and that this blending is what the <em>Will</em> aims at. But on this -point Mr. Herbert Spencer has some remarks, in his essay on -“Personal Beauty,” which directly contradict Schopenhauer, of -whose theory, however, he does not seem to have been cognisant:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The fact,” he says, "that the forms and qualities of any -offspring are not a mean between the forms and qualities of its -parents, but a mixture of them, is illustrated in every family. -The features and peculiarities of a child are separately referred by -observers to father and mother respectively—nose and mouth to -this side; colour of the hair and eyes to that; this moral peculiarity -to the first; this intellectual one to the second—and so with -contour and idiosyncrasies of body. Manifestly, if each organ or -faculty in a child was an average of the two developments of such -organ or faculty in the parents, it would follow that all brothers -and sisters should be alike; or should, at any rate, differ no more -than their parents differed from year to year. So far, however, -from finding that this is the case, we find not only that great -irregularities are produced by intermixture of traits, but that there -is no constancy in the mode of intermixture, or the extent of variations -produced by it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“This imperfect union of parental constitutions in the constitution -of offspring is yet more clearly illustrated by the reappearance -of peculiarities traceable to bygone generations. Forms, dispositions, -and diseases, possessed by distant progenitors, habitually -come out from time to time in descendants. Some single feature, -or some solitary tendency, will again and again show itself after -being apparently lost. It is notoriously thus with gout, scrofula, -and insanity.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, unite a pure race “with another equally pure, but -adapted to different conditions and having a correspondingly different -physique, face, and morale, and there will occur in the -descendants not a homogeneous mean between the two constitutions, -but a seemingly irregular combination of characteristics of -the one with characteristics of the other—one feature traceable to -this race, a second to that, and a third uniting the attributes of -both; while in disposition and intellect there will be found a like -medley of the two originals.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fact that the more remote ancestry must be taken into -account besides the parents, in considering the traits of the offspring, -is one which Mr. Galton has done much to emphasise, and -which Schopenhauer completely ignores. It tells against the -metaphysical part of his theory; for all the efforts of the <em>Will</em> -to merge opposite characters into homogeneous traits must prove -<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>futile if a blue-eyed man, for instance, who marries a black-eyed -girl, finds that their children have neither the father’s blue nor the -mother’s black, but the grandmother’s gray eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet in the long run diverse traits of figure and physiognomy -do tend to a harmonious fusion. Though a man with a prominent -nose, which he inherited from his father, is likely to transmit it -to his son, though his wife may have a snub-nose, yet there will -be a slight modification even in the son’s organ; and if the son -keeps up the tradition of marrying a snub-nosed girl, and his -children follow his example, the chances are that in a few generations -the nose of that family will be a feature of moderate size and -classic proportions. The very fact emphasised by Mr. Galton that -all the ancestral influences count, will here aid the ultimate fusion. -Conspicuous instances of the long-continued prevalence of a particular -nose—or other feature—may be accounted for by the fact -that other kinds of that organ were rare in the vicinity, or that -marriage was decided by so many other considerations that the -dimensions of one organ could not come into consideration, much -as the bride or groom might have preferred an improvement in -that respect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So far as Schopenhauer’s theory concerns only the fact that -Love is apt to be based on complementary qualities, he is doubtless -correct; but it needs no erratic metaphysical fetish, as a <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>deus -ex machina</i></span>, to account for that fact. A simple application of -psychologic principles explains the whole mystery.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the first place, nothing could be more remote from the truth -than the cynical notion that every woman considers herself a -Venus. She may, on the whole, consider herself equal to the -average of Beauty; but if she has any special fault—a mouth too -large or too small, an upper lip too high, a nose too flat or too -prominent, too much or too little flesh, excessive height or shortness—she -is not only conscious of the defect, but morbidly conscious -of it, and uses every possible device to conceal it. Thus -constantly brooding over her misfortune her mind, by a natural -reaction, will conceive a special admiration for an organ that -exceeds the line of Beauty in the opposite direction. Every day -one hears a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>petite</i></span> girl admiring a specially tall woman; and this -admiration will prompt her, other things being equal, to fall in -love with a tall man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Secondly, familiarity breeds indifference to one’s own charms, -and a disposition to admire what we lack ourselves.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Novelty comes into play. A Northern blonde among a nation -of brunettes cannot fail to slay hearts by the hundred, while the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>mystic flashes of a Spanish woman’s black eyes are fatal to every -Northern visitor.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nations, like individuals, admire and desire what they lack. -The Germans and the English are deficient in grace—hence that -quality is what chiefly charms them in the French, who have -much more of it than of Beauty, and in the Spanish. Byron was -so much smitten with the sun-mellowed complexions and the -graceful proportions and gait of the Spanish maidens, that he -became quite unjust to his own lovely countrywomen—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Who round the North for paler dames would seek?</div> - <div class='line'>How poor their forms appear! How languid, wan, and weak!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Were savages susceptible to Love, it might be suggested that -their practice of exogamy, or marrying a woman from another -tribe, had something to do with their admiration of novelty and -complementary qualities; but we know that they do not admire -such qualities, but only such typical traits as prevail among their -own women, and these, moreover, in an exaggerated form. This -is one reason why savages are so ugly. They have no Romantic -Love to improve their Personal Beauty by fusing heterogeneous -defects into homogeneous perfections.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we may freely endorse Schopenhauer’s doctrine regarding -the benefits derived by the offspring (ultimately, in several generations) -from marriages based on complementary Love, without -bowing down before his fetish—a fetish which appears doubly -objectionable because it is old-fashioned; <i>i.e.</i> it strives to “maintain -the type of the species in its primitive purity,” whereas -modern science teaches that this “primitive type” of human -beauty had a very simian aspect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor need we at all accept the pessimistic aspect of his theory—the -notion that Love is an illusion, and that Love-marriages -commonly end unhappily, the lover sacrificing himself for his -progeny.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his <cite>Sociology</cite>, elaborates an idea which -so curiously leads up to this phase of Schopenhauer’s doctrine that -it must be briefly referred to for its evolutionary suggestiveness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the lowest animals—the microscopic protozoa—the -individual, as he remarks, is sacrificed after a few hours of life, -by breaking up into two new individuals, or into a number of -germs which produce a new generation. The parents are here -entirely sacrificed to the interests of the young and the species. -As we ascend in the scale of life this sacrifice of parents to the -young and the species becomes less and less prevalent. Among -<span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span>birds, for instance, “The lives of the parents are but partially -subordinated at times when the young are being reared. And -then there are long intervals between breeding-seasons, during -which the lives of parents are carried on for their own sakes.... -In proportion as organisms become higher in their structures and -powers, they are individually less sacrificed to the maintenance of -the species; and the implication is that in the highest type of -man this sacrifice is reduced to a minimum.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here is the point where Schopenhauer, had he been an evolutionist, -might have dovetailed his theory with Spencer’s, by saying -that in man it is no longer the life of the individual, or most of -his time, that is sacrificed, but merely his conjugal happiness, -which the Love-instinct induces him unconsciously to barter for -the superior physical and mental beauty of his offspring.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Unfortunately, Schopenhauer did not take any pains to verify -his theory by testing it by vulgar facts. There are plenty of -unhappy marriages, but no one who will search his memory can -fail to come to the conclusion that the vast majority of them are -cases where money or rank and not Love supplied the motive of -an unsympathetic union. Though Conjugal Affection consists of -a different group of emotions from Romantic Love, yet there is an -affinity between them; and it is not likely that Conjugal Love -will ever supervene where before marriage there was an entire -absence of sympathy and adoration. Even an imprudent Love-match -which leads to poverty—is it not preferable to a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>mariage -de convenance</i></span>, which leads to lifelong indifference and <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>ennui</i></span>? -Is it not better to have one month of ecstatic bliss in life than to -live and die without ever knowing life’s highest rapture?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, the French marry for money and social convenience, -and their children are ugly; the Americans marry for Love, and -have the most beautiful children in the world. Is it not more -conducive to conjugal happiness to know that one has lovely -children and that the race is increasing, than to have ugly children -and to know that the race is dying out?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love-matches would never end unhappily if the lovers would -take proper care of their own happiness by transfusing the habits -of Courtship into conjugal life, as elsewhere explained in this -book.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Schopenhauer’s whole argument is vitiated by the fact that it -is chiefly the physical complementary qualities that inspire Love, -not the mental—the latter, in fact, being barely noticed by him. -Mental divergence might indeed occasionally lead to an unhappy -marriage, but physical divergence—the fact that he is large and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>blond, she small and a brunette—cannot possibly lead to matrimonial -discord. This knocks the whole bottom out of Schopenhauer’s -erotic pessimism. The only sense in which Love is an -illusion is in its Hyperbolic phase—the notion that the beloved is -superior to all other mortals; and that is a very harmless illusion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Schopenhauer’s pessimism, it should be added, is greatly mitigated -by the poetic halo of martyrdom with which he invests the -lover’s head. Society and public opinion, he points out, applaud -him for instinctively preferring the welfare of the next generation -to his own comfort. “For is not the exact determination of the -individualities of the next generation a much higher and nobler -object than those ecstatic feelings of the lovers, and their super-sensual -soap-bubbles?” It is this that invests Love with its -poetic character. There is one thing only that justifies tears in a -man, and that is the loss of his Love, for in that he bewails not -his own loss but the loss of the species.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Apart from the suggestive details of his essay, Schopenhauer’s -merit and originality lies, first, in his having pointed out that -Love becomes more intense the more it is individualised; secondly, -in emphasising the fact that in match-making it is not the happiness -of the to-be-married couple that should be chiefly consulted, but -the consequences of their union to the offspring; thirdly, in -dwelling on the important truth that Love is a cause of Beauty, -because its aim always is either to perpetuate existing Beauty -through hereditary transmission, or to create new Beauty by -fusing two imperfect individuals into a being in whom their short-comings -mutually neutralise one another.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Love, however, is only one source of Personal Beauty. Personal -Beauty has four sources; and these must now be considered -in succession, in the order which roughly indicates their successive -evolution—Health, Crossing, Love, and Mental Refinement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The remainder of this work will be devoted exclusively to the -subject of Personal Beauty, as it influences and is influenced by -Romantic Love. And here, as in the preceding pages, I shall -always cite the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ipsissima verba</i></span> of the greatest specialists who -have written on any particular branch of this subject.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>FOUR SOURCES OF BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>I.—HEALTH</h3> - -<p class='c013'><em>Plants, Animals, Savages.</em>—In two of the most exquisite -passages, not only in his own works, but in all English literature, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>Mr. Ruskin has emphasised the dependence of physical beauty in -plants on their healthy appearance, and the independence of this -beauty on any idea of direct utility to man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is a matter of easy demonstration,” he says, “that, setting -the characters of typical beauty aside, the pleasure afforded by -every organic form is in proportion to its appearance of healthy -vital energy; as in a rose-bush, setting aside all considerations of -gradated flushing of colour and fair folding of line, which it shares -with the cloud or the snow-wreath, we find in and through all this -certain signs pleasant and acceptable as signs of life and enjoyment -in the particular individual plant itself. Every leaf and stalk is -seen to have a function, to be constantly exercising that function, -and, as it seems, <em>solely</em> for the good and enjoyment of the plant. -It is true that reflection will show us that the plant is not living -for itself alone, that its life is one of benefaction, that it gives as -well as receives, but no sense of this whatever mingles with our -perception of physical beauty in its forms. Those forms which -appear to be necessary to its health, the symmetry of its leaflets, -the smoothness of its stalks, the vivid green of its shoots, are -looked upon by us as signs of the plant’s own happiness and perfection; -they are useless to us, except as they give us pleasure in -our sympathising with that of the plant, and if we see a leaf -withered or shrunk or worm-eaten, we say it is ugly, and feel it -to be most painful, not because it hurts <em>us</em>, but because it seems -to hurt the plant, and conveys to us an idea of pain and disease -and failure of life in <em>it</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The bending tree, waving to and fro in the wind above the -waterfall, is beautiful because it is happy, though it is perfectly -useless to us. The same trunk, hewn down and thrown across the -stream, has lost its beauty. It serves as a bridge,—it has become -useful; it lives not for itself, and its beauty is gone, or what it -retains is purely typical, dependent on its lines and colours, not its -functions. Saw it into planks, and though now adapted to become -permanently useful, its whole beauty is lost for ever, or to be -regained only in part when decay and ruin shall have withdrawn -it again from use, and left it to receive from the hand of Nature -the velvet moss and varied lichen, which may again suggest ideas -of inherent happiness, and tint its mouldering sides with hues of -life.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the animal world we find the same dependence of Beauty -upon Health. As Mr. Wallace has shown, “colour and ornament -are strictly correlated with health, vigour, and general fitness to -survive.” It is the superior vitality, vigour, and vivacity of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>certain male animals that leads the choicest females to prefer them -to others less favoured; and thus it happens that, thanks to the -dependence of Beauty on Health, animals have become more and -more beautiful. Moreover, it is Love in its primitive form that -urges animals to prefer those that are most healthy. And thus -we have the three great agents acting and reacting upon one -another. Health produces Beauty, and together they inspire Love; -while Love selects Health, and thus preserves and multiplies -Beauty. But this whole subject has been so fully discussed in the -chapter on Love among Animals that it is needless to recapitulate -the facts here.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning savages, there is a prevalent notion that, owing to -their free and easy life in the forests, they are healthier on the -average than civilised mankind. As a matter of fact, however, -they are as inferior to us in Health as in Beauty. Their constant -exposure and irregular feeding habits, their neglect and ignorance -of every hygienic law, in conjunction with their vicious lives, their -arbitrary mutilations of various parts, and their selection of inferior -forms, prevent their bodies from assuming the regular and delicate -proportions which we regard as essential to Beauty. They arrive -at maturity at an earlier age, and lose their vitality sooner than -we do. “Decrepitude,” says Dr. Topinard, “shows itself sooner -in some races than in others. The Australians and Bosjesmans -are old men at a period when the European is in the full enjoyment -of his faculties, both physical and intellectual. The Japanese -the same, according to Dr. Krishaber, physician to the Japanese -embassy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women everywhere pay less attention to the laws of Health -than men. They have less exercise, less fresh air and sunshine -than men. Hence, although the most beautiful women are more -beautiful than the handsomest men, yet in probably every country -of the world the average man is a more perfect specimen of -masculine than the average woman of feminine Beauty. Concerning -savages, Mr. Spencer says: “Very generally among the lower -races the females are even more unattractive in aspect than the -males. It is remarked of the Puttooahs, whose men are diminutive -and whose women are still more so, that ‘the men are far from -being handsome, but the palm of ugliness must be awarded to the -women.’ The latter are <em>hard-worked</em> and apparently <em>ill-fed</em>.” -Again, of the inhabitants of the Corea Gutzlaff says: “The females -are very ugly, whilst the male sex is one of the best formed of -Asia.... Women are <em>treated like beasts of burden</em>.” Many -similar cases are cited by Dr. Ploss in <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Das Weib</cite></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span>Concerning modern civilised nations a well-known art-critic has -given his testimony to the effect that “Possibly owing to the fact -that men are freer to follow their normal lives, I have found that -in a majority of the countries I have visited there are more handsome -men than beautiful women. This is peculiarly the case with -the modern Greek, and was, if antique sculpture could be accepted -as witness, with the ancient.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Greek Beauty.</em>—In the preceding chapters of this work an -attempt has been made to show that there is a general connection -between the growth of Love and the growth of Beauty throughout -the world. To some readers, no doubt, the thought has suggested -itself, “How, if this be true, did the loveless Greeks succeed in -reaching such uncommon physical beauty—beauty which artists of -all times have admired?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It must be borne in mind, however, that we are very liable to -exaggerate in our notions of Greek Beauty, because we are apt to -generalise from the fine statues that have come down to us, and -to imagine that they represent the common type of Greek Beauty. -But it is well known that the Greeks idealised their statues -according to certain physiognomic rules; and, moreover, as -Winckelmann remarks, “Beauty was not a general quality even -among the Greeks, and Cotta in <cite>Cicero</cite> says that, among the great -numbers of young persons at Athens, there were only a few possessing -true beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Besides, it has not been claimed that Love is the <em>only</em> cause of -Beauty. Taking into consideration the other sources of Beauty, it -is easy enough to account for such physical attractiveness as the -Greeks did possess. The intellectual culture which the men -enjoyed gave them a great advantage over the women; and equally -important, if not more so, was the attention which the men (and -in some cases the women too) paid to Health. Their habitual life -in the open air, while the women were locked up at home, combined -with their daily gymnastic exercises in making their complexion -healthy, their eyes sparkling, their limbs supple, vigorous, and -graceful.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Other causes that tended to keep up an average of healthy -bodily development were the refusal to bring up sickly and deformed -infants, and the existence of numerous slaves, who did all the -drudgery for the Greeks.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is most characteristic that the author of a very old Greek -ode formulates his wishes in this order: First, health; then, -beauty; thirdly, wealth honestly got; fourth, the privilege of -being gay and merry with his friends.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span>First, Health; then, Beauty. There lies the secret, for they -always go together; and in aiming at one the Greeks got the -other too.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There was every reason why Greek parents should have striven -eagerly to follow those laws of Health which ensure beautiful -children. In ancient Greece Beauty was a possession which led -to national fame. Some persons, Winckelmann informs us, were -even characterised by a particular name, borrowed from some -specially fine feature. Thus Demetrius Poliorketes was named, -from the beauty of his eyelids, χαριτοβλέφαρος <i>i.e.</i> on whose lids -the graces dwell.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It appears, indeed,” the same writer continues, "to have -been a belief that the procreation of beautiful children might be -promoted by the distribution of prizes for beauty, as there is reason -to infer from the contests of beauty which were instituted in the -remotest ages by Cypselus, King of Arcadia, in the time of the -Heraclidæ, on the banks of the river Alpheus, in Elis; and also -from the fact that at the festival of the Philesian Apollo, a prize -for the most exquisite kiss was conferred on the youthful. Its -assignment was subject to the decision of a judge, as was probably -also the case at Megara, at the tomb of Diocles.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“At Sparta, and at Lesbos, in the temple of Juno, and among -the citizens of Parrhasia, the women contended for the prize of -beauty. The regard for this quality was so strong that, as Oppian -declares, the Spartan women placed in their sleeping-rooms an -Apollo, or Bacchus, or Nereus, or Narcissus, or Hyacinthus, or -Castor and Pollux, in order that they might bear beautiful -children.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Some hint as to what the Greeks regarded as beautiful is given -by the epithets Homer bestows on Helen—"the well-rounded" -“the white-armed,” “fair-haired,” “of the beautiful cheeks.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Mediæval Ugliness.</em>—This is a topic which might as well be -introduced under any of the other Sources of Beauty, for it is -difficult to say which of these sources was most completely and -deliberately choked up during the Dark Ages.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is a curious irony of language that makes asceticism almost -identical with æstheticism, of which it is the deadly enemy. As -diseases are transmitted from generation to generation, so it seems -that the fear of Beauty born of mediæval asceticism has not yet -died out completely; for it is related that some years ago a pious -dame in Boston seriously meditated the duty of having some of -her daughter’s sound teeth pulled out, so as to mitigate her sinful -Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>If this worthy lady had followed St. Jerome’s injunction—"I -entirely forbid a young lady to bathe"; if she had taught her that -it is unladylike to have a healthy appetite; if she had locked her -up in a house rendered pestilential by defective drainage; allowed -her mind to rot in fallow idleness; taught her that to be really -saintly and virtuous she must be pale and hysterical; or imitated -the lady who was praised by a bishop in the fourth century for -“having brought upon herself a swarm of diseases which defied all -medical skill to cure,”—if the worthy Boston lady had but followed -this mediæval system, she would have succeeded in a short time -in overcoming her daughter’s sinful Beauty, and making her “ugly -as a mud-fence,” as they say out West.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That Personal Beauty cannot flourish where Health is regarded -as a vice and Disease as a virtue is self-evident. And one needs -only to look at mediæval pictures to note how coarse and void -of refined expression are the men, how hard and masculine the -women. The faces of the numerous mediæval women in Planché’s -<cite>Cyclopædia of Costume</cite> have almost all an expression approaching -imbecility, and features as if they had been chiselled by a small -boy trying his hand at sculpture for the first time. Thackeray -does not hesitate to speak even of “those simpering Madonnas of -Rafael.” Mr. G. A. Simcox remarks that in manuscripts of the -twelfth and thirteenth centuries (like the Harleian Gospels and -Maccabees) we meet with “short, thickset figures, mostly with -the long, square, horsey face, moving stiffly in small groups, in -heavy dresses; and even the daughter of Herodias dances upon -her head [<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>sic</i></span>] in a gown that might have stood alone. On the -other hand, the faces are more set, more articulate, less flabby, -though they are all mean, or almost all, and look askance out of -the corners of their eyes” (<cite>Art Journal</cite>, 1874, p. 58).</p> - -<p class='c001'>There may be Oriental countries where woman is kept more -closely under lock and key than she was in Europe during the -Dark Ages; but nowhere else has man so well succeeded in reducing -the pursuit of unhappiness to a science, in snubbing, scorning, -abusing, maltreating woman. How all this must have tended to -increase Personal Beauty is well brought out in the following -advice given by Mr. Ruskin: “Do not think you can make a girl -lovely if you do not make her happy. There is not one restraint -you put on a good girl’s nature—there is not one check you give -to her instincts of affection or of effort—which will not be indelibly -written on her features, with a hardness which is all the -more painful because it takes away the brightness from the eyes -of innocence, and the charm from the brow of virtue.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span><em>Modern Hygiene.</em>—Disease is Beauty’s deadliest enemy. Yet -for the sake of gratifying a silly vanity—for the sake of being -distinguished from ordinary mortals—a certain pallor and <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>blasé</i></span> -languor have long been considered in certain influential circles as -more <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>distingué</i></span> than ruddy cheeks and robust health. Yet even -if pale cheeks were more beautiful than rosy cheeks, would it be -worth while to purchase them at the cost of premature decay—of -the certainty that a <em>few</em> years of pale cheeks will be followed by -<em>many</em> years of sallow cheeks and lack-lustre eyes, deeply sunk into -their orbits?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Though beauty is still of lamentably rare occurrence in every -country, there is infinitely more of it than during the Middle -Ages; and certainly not the least cause of this is the increased -attention paid to Hygiene—public and personal. The difference -in this respect between us and our ancestors is well brought out -by the statistics regarding the average length of life. In ancient -Rome, it is stated, "the average longevity among the most favoured -classes was but thirty years, whereas to-day the average longevity -among the corresponding class of people is fifty years. In the -sixteenth century the average longevity in Geneva was 21·21 -years. Between 1814 and 1833 it was 40·68, and as large a -proportion now live to seventy as lived to forty-three three -hundred years ago." Dr. Corfield, comparing the statistics of -1842 with those of 1884, states that the mean duration of life in -London has increased from twenty-nine to thirty-eight years. “In -the reign of Queen Elizabeth the death-rate of the metropolis as it -then was amounted to 40 per thousand. In the reign of Queen -Victoria, almost entirely by the reduction of mortality by means -of improved drainage, ventilation, and water, it has often touched -15 and 14, and even fallen as low as 13 in the thousand,” while -“in many of the suburban districts, and in the fashionable region -about Hyde Park it ranges from 11 to 12.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In France, according to M. Topinard, the mean duration of -life, which was twenty-nine at the close of the eighteenth century, -and thirty-nine from 1817 to 1831, increased to forty from 1840 -to 1859, thanks to the progress of sanitary science and civilisation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As Hygiene is receiving more and more attention every year, it is -possible that in course of time Dr. W. B. Richardson’s ideal will -be realised—a town ideally perfect in sanitary matters, having a -death-rate of 9 per 1000, and 105 years the duration of a man’s life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As decrepitude and premature old age means a premature loss -of Beauty, personal attractiveness would be correspondingly prolonged -and increased with life itself.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span>Even at the present time not one house in a thousand is so -constructed that every room has good ventilation. Architects -are, however, less to blame than the people who will persist in -their absurd old superstition that draughts and night air are injurious. -Professor Reclam, the distinguished hygienist, not long -ago opened a crusade against the horror of night air and draughts -which is especially prevalent among his countrymen. “Sleeping -with open windows,” he says, “is most unjustly decried among the -people, as well as night air in general. But night air is injurious -only in swampy regions, whereas on dry soil, in the mountains, and -everywhere in the upper stories of a house it is <em>more salubrious -than day air</em>.... Draughts are not injurious unless we are in a -glow. To healthy persons they <em>cannot possibly do so much harm -as the stagnant air in a close room</em>. The fear of draughts is entirely -groundless, though it affects most people in a manner which -is simply ludicrous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Electricity, no doubt, will in less than a decade abolish horses -from our cities, and with them the dust, foul odours, and sleep-murdering -noise. The gain to Health, and through it to Beauty, -from this alone, will be enormous. Doubtless one of the reasons -why there is so much Beauty, so many fresh and sparkling eyes, in -Venice, is because there are no horses in that city, and the inhabitants -are not roused and half-roused from sleep every fifteen minutes -during the night by a waggon rattling down the street.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is not sufficiently known that street-noise may injure the -Health even of those whom it does not entirely wake up. The -restorative value of sleep lies in its depth and the absence of dreams. -A noisy waggon interferes with the depth of sleep and starts a -current of dreams, thus depriving it of half its potency.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“<em>Beauty sleep</em>” is an expression which rests on a real physiological -truth. Sleep before midnight really is more health-giving and -beautifying than after midnight, for the reason that in all towns -and cities there is less noise in the early hours of the night than -after four in the morning, wherefore sleep is deeper between ten -and twelve than between six and eight o’clock. The reason why -so many more proposals (by city folks) are made in the country -than in the city is not only because there are more frequent opportunities -of meeting at a summer hotel, but because the young folks -retire early, and appear in the morning with an exuberance of -Health, born of fresh air and sound sleep, which cannot fail to -inspire Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Other matters of Hygiene will be discussed in connection with -the organs which they specially concern.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span> - <h3 class='c014'>II.—CROSSING</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Darwin has proved experimentally that in the vegetable kingdom -“cross-fertilisation is generally beneficial, and self-fertilisation -injurious. This is shown by the difference in height, weight, constitutional -vigour, and fertility of the offspring from crossed and -self-fertilised flowers, and in the number of seeds produced by the -parent plants.” He also showed that “the benefit from cross-fertilisation -depends on the plants which are crossed having been -subjected during previous generations to somewhat different conditions.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Similarly, concerning animals, we read in Topinard, that -“breeders who select their subjects with a definite object to breed -<em>in and in</em>, that is to say, between near relations, rapidly obtain -excellent results. They know, however, that fertility then diminishes, -and that it will cease altogether if they do not have recourse -from time to time to crossing, in order to <em>strengthen the race</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But both in the vegetable and the animal kingdom, as we have -seen, superior Health also implies superior Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The inference is natural that the human race also must be -benefited by marriages of individuals of different races, or of the -same race, but brought up under different conditions of life. And -the facts are entirely in favour of this supposition, as are the best -authorities in Anthropology. Dr. Topinard gives the following -instances among many others: “Immigration into the United -States, which has taken so considerable a flight during the last -thirty years, has already been enormous. Every variety of cross -has been going on between English, Irish, Germans, Italians, -French, etc., with the greatest possible success. We may also -mention numberless Spaniards from the Peninsula, among whom -are found the features of the Saracen invaders of the ninth century; -then that population on the Barbary coast, called Moors, -and which is a medley of races of every description, the Arab and -Berber blood predominating. On tracing back the yellow races, -we also discover a perfect eugenesis.... De Mas speaks in the -highest terms of mixed breeds of Chinese and Mongolians, and -MM. Mondières and Morice of those of Chinese and Annamites -under the name of Minuongs. Dr. Bowring describes a race in -the Philippine Islands, intermediate between the Malays and -Chinese, as the principal agent of civilisation in these latitudes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, “it is undeniable that in Africa the Negro -races do not cross to any great extent.” Nor has any one ever -<span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>accused the Negroes of an excessive amount of Beauty. Whereas -in Lima, which has the finest women in South America, “there -are twenty-three different names to designate the varieties of -mixed breeds of Spaniards, Peruvians, and Negroes.” “The number -of mongrels on the face of the globe has been estimated at -twelve millions, of whom no fewer than eleven millions are in -South America.” South American women are already famous for -their Beauty, and there is reason to believe that when the fusion -of all these elements is complete the race will be one of the finest -in the world. What Beauty it has now seems to be owing chiefly -to the magic of Crossing; for attention to Health there is little -but what comes from life in the open air; while Romantic Love is -perhaps as rare as Mental Refinement, inasmuch as Courtship is -not so free and easy a matter as in North America. All the more -honour to the potency of Crossing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Take a few more cases. The African Negroes, as just stated, -do not mix much, and are an ugly type. Among the Polynesians, -on the other hand, there are many very fine types of human -beauty; and it is therefore not surprising to read that to-day in -Polynesia, “mixed breeds are so numerous that it would be difficult -to find among them any individuals of pure race.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, concerning the Magyars or Hungarians, Schweiger-Lerchenfeld -remarks that “they are a splendid race, physically -and intellectually.... The girls and young women are of most -piquant charm, models of health in mind and body.” But these -Magyars, when they first came to Europe, were, as Waitz states, -“of a repulsive ugliness in the eyes of all their neighbours.” That -they have mixed with the Indo-Germanic type is shown by their -appearance, as well as by peculiarities of their language. “Where -they have probably remained less mixed,” Waitz continues, “and -at the same time less cultivated, in some remote regions, especially -in the mountains, the ugly primitive type may be found to the -present day; in the plains may be found every transitional form -from this to the nobler type; at Szegedin both are found face to -face.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Magyars, in turn, have, like the Slavo-Italians, Czechs, -etc., assisted the Austrians in evolving a superior type of Beauty -by fusing with them. That there is very much more Beauty in -Vienna than in any purely German city is an almost proverbial -commonplace; and the reason why may be found in the statistics: -in Germany 31·80 per cent are blond, 14·05 brunet, 54·15 mixed; -in Austria 19·59 per cent are blond, 23·17 brunet, and 68·04 -mixed.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>The European Turks have much nobler forms of the head and -features than their Asiatic relatives; and the inference seems inevitable -that they owe these improvements to intermarriage with -Circassian women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A negative instance, showing the disadvantages of abstaining -from Crossing, is given by the Jews. There are handsome Jews -and, up to a certain age, very beautiful Jewesses. But the typical -Jew is certainly not a thing of beauty. The disadvantages of -Jewish separatism are shown not only in the long, thick, crooked -nose, the bloated lips, almost suggesting a negro, and the heavy -lower eyelid, but in the fact that the Jews “have proportionately -more insane, deaf mutes, blind, and colour-blind” than other -Europeans. From an intellectual and industrial point of view, the -Jews are one of the finest races in the world, and their absorption -by the natives of the countries in which they have settled could -not but benefit both parties concerned. From this point of view -there may be something said even in favour of the money-marriages, -which are now so frequent between extravagant German officers -and Jewish heiresses. Unfortunately, the Jews have kept apart -so long from the rest of the world that they do not readily mix -with non-Jews. Contrary to the general rule, mixed marriages of -Jews and Christians are less fertile than pure Jewish unions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The precise manner in which a mixture of races improves physical -appearance is a question still open to debate. Professor -Kollmann (<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Plastische Anatomie</cite></span>) thinks “the result of the crossing -of two forms is comparable, not to a chemical, but to a mechanical -mixture”; and this agrees with the view of Mr. Herbert Spencer, -who endeavours to trace to this fact the frequent want of correspondence -between intellectual and physical beauty. He believes, -however, the time will come “when the present causes of incongruity -will have worked themselves out,” and intellectual beauty -emerge in harmony with physical, in all details, as it no doubt -exists in general.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is no lack of facts supporting the view that sexual fusion -is a mere mechanical mixture. The “Bourbon nose” seems to -defy mitigating circumstances for generations; and “M. de Quatrefages -knew a great-grandson of the bailiff of Suffren who was -a striking likeness of his ancestor after four generations, and who, -nevertheless, bore no resemblance either to his father or his mother.” -A child may resemble its father, mother, aunt, uncle, grand-parents, -or several of them at once; and the resemblance may vary -at different ages.</p> - -<p class='c001'>More extraordinary are the following cases cited by Topinard: -<span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span>“Sometimes the child possesses altogether the character of one -or other parent: for example, the child of a European father and -a Chinese mother, Dr. Scherzer says, is altogether a European or -altogether a Chinese. A Berber with blue eyes and with the lobule -of the ear absent, married to a dark Arab woman with a well-formed -ear, had two children, one like himself, the other like his -wife. An English officer, fair, with blue eyes and florid complexion, -had several children by an Indian negress. Some were the -image of the father, others exactly like the mother.... A -decided negro, having had a white among his ancestors, has unexpectedly -a child with a white skin by a negress.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet all these are exceptional cases, which, like the winning -number in a lottery, get a disproportionate amount of attention. -Moreover, this “mechanical” form of assimilation seems to occur -chiefly where very unrelated races are fused, and then especially in -the first generation. In subsequent generations the union doubtless -tends to become more and more chemical—no longer a negro -character floating on a white one, like oil on water, but a mixture, -as of wine and water.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Take the American quadroons, for instance, famous for their -beauty of form and features. They are mongrels of the third -generation, having one-eighth black, seven-eighths white blood in -their veins. Surely these characters are not “mechanically” -mixed in such a woman, but “chemically.” That is, you do not -find her with the eyes and nose of a negro, the lips and ears of a -white, one part of her skin dark the other light: but in everything -there is a fusion of the ancestral elements. Her nose is not flat -like that of her ancestress, nor her lips swollen, but both are -intermediate between those of her white and black ancestors. -Her lip is still thicker than that of the whites, and that gives her -a sensuous aspect, kiss-inviting. Her eyes, again, have lost the -fierce glare and opaque blackness of the negro-grandmother, and -assumed a more crystalline, tender lustre; while their form and -surroundings have become more refined and expressive. All this -is homogeneous fusion, not “heterogeneous mixture.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Finally, it is hardly correct to state dogmatically that a certain -person resembles this or that ancestor. In nothing else do opinions -vary so constantly and so ludicrously. No one who has ever been -“trotted around” among his relatives in the “old country,” can -have failed to be amused at the countless resemblances to this and -that uncle, aunt, or grand-parent discovered in him, until he came -to the conclusion that he must be a veritable epitome of the whole -genealogy. A man who at home is supposed to be absolutely unlike -<span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span>his brother, is elsewhere mistaken for him and addressed as -such; while another man finds a friend who knew his father in -his youth, and declares he is exactly like him; though a second -friend who knew only the mother, claims a similar hereditary -influence for her. All of which tends to show that there is more -of both parents in each person than is commonly supposed; and -that the reason why opinions differ so, is because the fusion -is chemical rather than mechanical, which makes it difficult to put -the finger on distinct points of resemblance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is in the more closely allied races, like the English and German, -or Italian and Spanish, that “chemical” fusion is most -readily attained, and Beauty most rapidly evolved. Such are the -unions which take place on such a large scale in the United States -and Canada; and this may account for the fact that there is more -Beauty in North America than in South America, where the races -that intermingle are less related. There is a golden mean here as -in everything else.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>III.—ROMANTIC LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>What Crossing does on a national scale, Love continues with -individuals, by fusing dissonant, but complementary, parental -qualities into a harmonious progeny. How this is done is sufficiently -shown in the chapter on Schopenhauer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This, however, is only one of the ways in which Love increases -the amount of Beauty in the world. There are several others.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The second is that—apart from complementary considerations—Romantic -Love always urges the choice of a mate who approaches -nearest to the ideal type of Beauty. As Beauty is hereditary, and -as a beautiful father and mother may have six or more beautiful -children, this predilection for Beauty shown by Love necessarily -preserves and multiplies it—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“From fairest creatures we desire increase,</div> - <div class='line'>That thereby Beauty’s rose might never die,”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>says Shakspere, anticipating the modern theory of heredity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On this particular topic nothing more need be said here, because -all the remainder of this book will be taken up with a consideration -of those features of Personal Beauty for which the æsthetic -taste which forms part of Romantic Love shows a decided preference.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The third way in which Love promotes the cause of Beauty is -by the great attention it pays to Health in its choice. For though -<span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span>Health is not always synonymous with Beauty, it is the soil on -which alone Beauty can germinate and flourish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fourth way is through the elimination of ugliness. Love, -says Plato, is devotion to Beauty: <a id='corr323.4'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='‘with'>“with</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_323.4'><ins class='correction' title='‘with'>“with</ins></a></span> the ugly Eros has no -concern.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>From the æsthetic point of view, ugliness is disease. Now -there is a cast-iron Lykurgean law prevailing throughout Nature -which eliminates the diseased and the ugly. It is a cruel agency, -called Natural Selection, and has not the slightest regard for individuals, -but provides only for the weal of the species, as Schopenhauer -erroneously says is the case with Love. In a bed of plants, -if there are more than can find sustenance, the stronger crowd out -the weaker. Among animals, wherever there is competition, the -best-developed, handsomest lion survives in combat, and the most -fleet-footed, and consequently most graceful, deer escapes, while the -clumsy, the ugly, and diseased perish miserably, inexorably. -Savages leave the old and feeble to die, and weak or deformed -children are either deliberately put out of the way or perish from -want of proper care. Nor among the ancient civilised nations were -such methods unknown. Plato and Aristotle, says Mr. Grote, -agree in this point: “Both of them command that no child born -crippled or deformed shall be brought up—a practice actually -adopted at Sparta under the Lykurgean Institutions, and even -carried further, since no child was allowed to be brought up until -it had been inspected and approved by the public nurses.” The -Romans, too, were legally permitted to expose deformed children.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Christianity, the religion of pity and charity, abhors such -practices. Christianity is antagonistic to Natural Selection. One -of its chief functions is the building of hospitals in which the -cripples, the insane, the incurably diseased, are gratuitously and -tenderly cared for, instead of being allowed to perish, as they -would under the sway of Natural Selection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This artificial preservation of disease and deformity, in and out -of hospitals, due to Christian charity, might in the long run prove -injurious to the welfare of the human race, were it not for the -stepping in of Modern Love as a preserver of Health and Beauty. -What formerly was left to the agency of Natural Selection is now -done by Love, through Sexual Selection, on a vast scale.</p> - -<p class='c001'>From a moral point of view, the substitution of Sexual for -Natural Selection is a great gain, in harmony with the spirit of -Christianity. For Cupid does not <em>kill</em> those who do not come up -to his standard of Health and Beauty, but simply ignores and -condemns them to a life of single-blessedness.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_324'>324</span> - <h3 class='c014'>IV.—MENTAL REFINEMENT</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>“After all,” says Washington Irving, speaking of Spanish -women, “it is the divinity <em>within</em> which makes the divinity <em>without</em>; -and I have been more fascinated by a woman of talent and -intelligence, though deficient in personal charms, than I have been -by the most regular beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is one of the commonest commonplaces of conversation that -in moments of intellectual or emotional excitement the features of -plain people assume an aspect of exquisite beauty. Love transfuses -a homely girl’s countenance with a glow of angelic loveliness; -and biographies are full of statements concerning the countenances -of men of genius, which, ordinarily unattractive, assumed an expression -of unearthly beauty while their minds were active and -electrified the facial muscles.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There is not any virtue the exercise of which, even momentarily, -will not impress a new fairness upon the features,” says Mr. -Ruskin; and again, he speaks of “the operation of the intellectual -powers upon the features, in the fine cutting and chiselling of -them, and removal from them of signs of sensuality and sloth, by -which they are blunted and deadened, and substitution of energy -and intensity for vacancy and insipidity (by which wants alone the -faces of many fair women are utterly spoiled and rendered valueless); -and by the keenness given to the eye and fine moulding and -development to the brow, of which effects Sir Charles Bell has well -noted the desirableness and opposition to brutal types.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>An English clergyman, the Rev. F. P. Lawson, diocesan inspector -for Northamptonshire, issued a report not long ago concerning the -results of his observations in 325 urban and rural schools during -several years, regarding the effects of good education in improving -the appearance of the children. “A school, thoroughly well -taught, seldom failed to exhibit a considerable number of interesting -little faces, and a striking absence of such faces might invariably -be associated with poverty of tone and superficial instruction. -Nothing struck him more forcibly in a school that has been -suddenly lifted out of the mire by a firstrate teacher than the -bright and thoughtful look which the children soon acquire.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Negative evidence to the same effect might also be cited by the -volume, but one case may suffice. “It is unhappily a fact,” says -Mr. Galton, “that fairly distinct types of criminals <em>breeding true -to their kind</em> have become established, and are one of the saddest -disfigurements of modern civilisation.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_325'>325</span>The connection between culture and a superior type of Beauty -is strikingly revealed in the following remarks on the far-famed -Georgian women of the Caucasus, made by a great connoisseur of -feminine beauty, the poet Bodenstedt: "In Europe the notion -prevails that a Georgian woman is a tall, graceful being, of luscious -form, clothed in wide, rich garments, with dense black hair, long -enough to enchain all masculine hearts, an open, noble forehead, -and a pair of eyes which contain within their dark, mysterious, -magic circle all the secrets of human delight that come through -the soul or the senses. Her gait is rapture. Joy precedes, and -admiration follows her.... With such notions in their heads, -strangers generally arrive in Georgia, and find themselves wofully -disappointed. The tourists who come with such great expectations -to visit this country, invested with the atmosphere of a fairyland -by history and legend, either adhere stubbornly to their preconceived -notions, or else they instantly go over to the opposite -extreme, and find everything dirty, ugly, disgusting, dreadful.</p> - -<p class='c001'>"The truth lies between these extremes. The Georgians are, -all in all, one of the handsomest nations on the earth. But -although I am a great admirer of women, I am compelled in this -case to award the prize to the men instead of the women. This -opinion is endorsed by all educated inhabitants of Georgia who -have eyes, taste, and an impartial judgment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I must add that of that higher beauty where heart and -intellect and soul are mirrored in the eye, I found few traces in -the whole Caucasus, either among men or women. I have seen -the greater number of the beauties which Georgia boasts, but not -one face have I seen that satisfied me completely, though the -picturesque native costume does much to heighten the charms of -the women. The face entirely lacks that refined mental expression -which makes a beautiful European woman such a unique enchantress. -Such a woman may still inspire love and win hearts long -after the time of her bloom; whereas in a Georgian <em>everything</em> -fades with youth. The eyes, which, notwithstanding their apparent -fire, never expressed anything but calm and voluptuous indolence, -lose their lustre; the nose, which even in its normal relations -exceeds the limits of beauty, assumes, in consequence of the -premature hollowness of the cheeks, such abnormal dimensions -that many people imagine that it actually continues to grow; and -the bosom, which the national costume makes no effort to conceal, -prematurely loses its natural firmness—all of which phenomena -are observed in European women much less frequently, and in a -less exaggerated form. If you add to this the habit, so prevalent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_326'>326</span>among Georgians, young and old, of using white and red cosmetics, -you will understand that such rude and inartistic arts of the toilet -can only add to the observer’s sense of dissatisfaction.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>America affords many illustrations of the manner in which -refinement of mind and manners increases Beauty in a single -generation. There are in every city thousands of parents who -began life as ordinary labourers, but soon got rich through industry -or good luck. They bring up their children in houses where every -attention is paid to sanitary rules; they send them to school and -college; and when they come back you would hardly believe that -those coarse-featured, clumsy-limbed, ungraceful persons could be -their father and mother. The discrepancy is sometimes so great -that when the young folks invite people of “their set” to their -house, the old birds keep out of the way discreetly, either of their -own accord or by filial dictation, which in America appears to be -displacing parental authority.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if there is such an intimate connection between culture and -Beauty, how is it that we so often find plain features joined with -a noble mind and fine features with a mean mind? Mr. Spencer -has endeavoured to explain this apparent discrepancy by assuming -that in such cases plain features are inherited severally and separately -from ancestors of diverse physiognomies, which being merely -mechanically mixed, not fused, fail to harmonise. There may be -something in this, but a simpler explanation is at hand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Noble minds are often the result of individual effort, and -persistence in it. Many men of genius have had humble parents -not specially gifted. From these parents and their ancestors they -inherited their plain faces. Now individual effort, in the short -period of a lifetime, is insufficient to alter the <em>proportions</em> of a -face, which depend on its bony parts; but it does suffice to alter -the <em>expression</em>, which depends on the movements of the soft, -muscular parts. Hence every person, however plain-featured, -may acquire a beautiful expression by cultivating his mind and -refining his manners and temper. Whenever, therefore, we meet -a man or woman whose features are less attractive at rest than -when moved to expression of emotion, we may feel sure that they -owe their mental refinement more to individual effort than to -inherited capacity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The children of such persons will be more beautiful than they -are themselves, because they will inherit the parents’ habit of -expressive muscular action of the features. And owing to the -fact that all the bony parts of the body are modified in accordance -with the action of the muscles attached to them, the bony parts, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_327'>327</span>the proportions, of the face will also be gradually modified and -moulded into nobler shapes, through the continuance of refined -emotional expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is in this manner that intellectual growth and emotional -refinement have gradually differentiated our features from those of -our savage ancestors. Our lips have become more delicate, our -mouths smaller, our jaws less gigantic, ponderous, and projecting, -because civilisation has taught us to use the hands in preparing -food, and to cut it instead of tearing it off the bone with the -teeth, as savages and other wild animals do.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Use increases, disuse diminishes the size of an organ. Hence -for the same reason that our jaws have become less projecting and -heavy, our forehead has lost its backward slope and become -straight and noble, owing to the growth of the brain. And -similarly with other peculiarities of the face, indicating the connection -between mental refinement and physical beauty. “Thus -is it,” says Mr. Spencer, “with depression of the bridge of the -nose, which is a characteristic both of barbarians and of our -babes, possessed by them in common with our higher quadrumana. -Thus, also, is it with that forward opening of the nostrils, which -renders them conspicuous in a front view of the face,—a trait -alike of infants, savages, and apes. And the same may be said -of widespread alæ to the nose, of great width between the eyes, of -long mouth, of large mouth—indeed of all those leading peculiarities -of feature which are by general consent called ugly.”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>EVOLUTION OF TASTE</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>SAVAGE NOTIONS OF BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In all the preceding remarks concerning the connection between -mental and physical beauty, the assumption has been made tacitly -that what <em>we</em> consider beautiful is so in reality; and that our -taste is a safe guide to follow. Yet this assumption may be -challenged, and has, indeed, been often challenged. Every nation, -every savage tribe, has its own standard of Beauty; what right, -therefore, have <em>we</em> to claim dogmatically that we are infallible -judges?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ask the devil, says Voltaire, what is the meaning of το -καλὸν—the Beautiful—and he will tell you <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Le beau est une -paire de comes, quatre griffes, et une queue”</span>—a couple of horns, -four claws, and a tail. Ask a North American Indian, says -<span class='pageno' id='Page_328'>328</span>Hearne, what is Beauty, he will answer: “A broad, flat face, -small eyes, high cheek-bones, three or four broad black lines -across each cheek, a low forehead, a large, broad chin, a clumsy -hook-nose, a tawny hide, and breasts hanging down to the belt.” -In the Chinese empire “those women are preferred who have ... -a broad face, high cheek-bones, very broad noses, and enormous -ears.” “One of the titles of the Zulu king,” says Darwin (who -gives many other instances <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>à propos</i></span> in chapter xix. of the <cite>Descent of -Man</cite>), “is ‘You who are black.’ Mr. Galton, in speaking to me -about the natives of South Africa, remarked that their ideas of -beauty seem very different from ours; for in one tribe two slim, -slight, and pretty girls were not admired by the natives.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Darwin himself appears to have been staggered and puzzled by -this diversity of taste, and to have partly inclined to the theory -that Beauty is relative to the human mind (though elsewhere he -repudiates it)—a theory which Jeffrey has so boldly formulated in -the assertion that “All tastes are equally just and true, in as far -as concerns the individual whose taste is in question; and what a -man feels distinctly to be beautiful <em>is beautiful</em> to him, whatever -other people may think of it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fiddlesticks! The Alison-Jeffrey school of Scotch æstheticians, -having been among the first in the field, have done more to -confuse the English mind on the subject of Beauty than several -generations of other clever writers will be able to clear up again.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are about half a dozen sound, square, solid, scientific -reasons why we have a better right to our opinion concerning the -nature of Beauty than a Hottentot or a North American Indian.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>NON-ÆSTHETIC ORNAMENTATION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>One of the things most commonly forgotten by those who -wonder at the strange “taste” of savages is that many of their -customs have nothing whatever to do with the sense of beauty. -The habit of putting on “war-paint” originated not in a desire -for ornamentation, but in the wish to make themselves frightful -in appearance to the enemy. For the same reason heads are -mutilated. As Waitz notes in speaking of Tahiti: “A very ugly -mutilation is that to which most of the boys had to subject themselves. -Immediately after birth their mothers compressed their -forehead and the back of the head, so that the former became -narrow and high, the latter flat; this was done to make their -aspect more terrible, and thus turn them into more formidable -warriors.” Tattooing, likewise, was originally intended to be an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_329'>329</span>easy sign of recognition, or of social or religious distinction, rather -than an ornament of the body. And when we consider how prone -the mind of our own fashionable ladies is to violate every canon -of good taste in their wild effort to surpass one another in some -novel extravagance just from Paris; when we note that if a Fifth -Avenue lady wears a gull on her hat, her coloured cook will invest -in a turkey or ostrich for hers, we understand at once that many -of the mutilations approved by savages are the outcome of vanity -and emulation, not of æsthetic taste.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PERSONAL BEAUTY AS A FINE ART</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Yet there are undoubtedly a number of physiognomic and other -peculiarities which savages admire while we consider them ugly; -and some, again, which we admire and they dislike. Have we a -right to consider them inferior to us in taste because they fail to -admire what we adore?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Certainly; beyond the shadow of a doubt. It takes genius to -fully appreciate genius; it takes a refined taste to appreciate -refined beauty. This is what the savage lacks.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Look at any one of the fine arts. Why does the savage prefer -his monotonous drumming and ear-piercing war-songs to a soft, -beautiful, dreamy Chopin nocturne? Because he <em>cannot understand</em> -the nocturne.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why does he prefer his painted, clumsy, coarse-featured squaw -to a civilised woman with delicate contours, refined features, -graceful gait? Because he <em>does not understand</em> the beauty of the -latter. It is too subtle for his coarse nerves, his feeble imagination. -The smiles and manifold expressions that chase one another -across her lovely features, like the subtly-interwoven melodies in -a symphonic poem, are the visible signs of thoughts and emotions -which he has never experienced, and therefore cannot understand. -It is like giving him a page of Sanskrit to read.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is for this reason that a negro never falls in love with a -white woman, and that a peasant prefers his plump, crude -country-girl to the fair, delicate city visitor. He requires more -vigorous arms, broader features, than the city girl possesses, to -make an impression on his callous nerves of touch and sight. -And it is fortunate for the peasant girl that her lover does lack -taste, else she would soon find him a fickle deserter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The savage, in a word, prefers his style of “beauty” to ours for -the same reason that he prefers a piece of raw liver and a glass of -oil to the subtle flavours of French cookery and French wines. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_330'>330</span>His senses are too coarse, his mind too vulgar, to perceive -the poetry of refined features. Everything must be loud and -exaggerated to make an impression on him—loud music, loud -and glaring red and yellow colours, loud and coarse features.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This doctrine that differences of taste are merely due to differences -in the degree of æsthetic culture, and that there is such a -thing as an absolute standard of human beauty, derives further -support from the facts (1) that the ideal of beauty set up by the -æsthetic Greeks two thousand years ago corresponds so remarkably -with that of modern artistic minds; (2) that <i>e.g.</i> a Japanese -student in the United States soon learns to prefer American female -beauty to the Japanese variety; (3) that an English, Italian, or -American audience who at first admire <cite>Norma</cite> and find <cite>Lohengrin</cite> -tiresome, can in a few seasons be so educated as to prefer -<cite>Lohengrin</cite> and actually scorn <cite>Norma</cite>; but not <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>vice versâ</i></span>, in either -case (2) or (3).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Ruskin takes a similar view regarding differences of taste -when he says that “respecting what has been asserted of negro -nations looking with disgust on the white face, no importance whatever -is to be attached to the opinions of races who have never -received any ideas of beauty whatsoever (these ideas being only -received by minds under some certain degree of cultivation), and -whose disgust arises naturally from what they suppose to be a sign -of weakness or ill-health.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>That this consideration of health does affect the negro’s judgment -regarding the beauty of the white complexion, is also shown -by what Mr. Winwood Reade told Mr. Darwin, namely, that the -negro’s “horror of whiteness may be attributed ... partly to the -belief held by most negroes that demons and spirits are white, and -partly to their thinking it a sign of ill-health.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But of all the theoretical truths emphasised in the <cite>Modern -Painters</cite> none is so important as this: “That not only changes of -opinion take place in consequence of experience, but that those -changes are from <em>variation</em> of opinion to <em>unity</em> of opinion,—that -whatever may be the difference of estimate among unpractised or -uncultivated tastes, there will be unity of taste among the -experienced; and that, therefore, the result of repeated trial and -experience is to arrive at principles of preference in some sort common -to all, and which are part of our nature.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let us now see what are those principles of Beauty that may -be considered independent of a more or less crude and undeveloped -taste. Some are negative, some positive.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_331'>331</span> - <h3 class='c014'>NEGATIVE TESTS OF BEAUTY</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>(<i>a</i>) <em>Animals.</em>—"It has been argued," says Darwin (by Schaffhausen), -“that ugliness consists in an approach to the structure of -the lower animals, and no doubt this is partly true with the more -civilised nations, in which intellect is highly appreciated; but -this explanation will hardly apply to all forms of ugliness.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Curiously enough, savages themselves use animals as a negative -test of beauty. Thus we read that “the Indians of Paraguay -eradicate their eyebrows and eyelashes, saying that they do not -wish to be like horses.” “On the Eastern coast, the negro boys, -when they saw Burton, cried out, ‘Look at the white man; does -he not look like a white ape?’” “A man of Cochin China ‘spoke -with contempt of the wife of the English ambassador—that she -had white teeth like a dog, and a rosy colour like that of potato-flowers.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A few centuries ago it was a favourite pastime of physiognomists -to draw elaborate parallels between men and animals. Thus, in -1593, there appeared a work, <cite>De Humana Physiognomia</cite>, with -numerous illustrations, in which always a human face was matched -with some animal’s head. Professor Wundt thus sums up the -essence of this book: “A broad forehead, we are told, indicates -fearfulness, because the ox with his broad head lacks courage. A -long forehead, on the other hand, indicates erudition, as is shown -by means of an intelligent dog who has the honour of serving as a -pendant to Plato’s profile. Persons with shaggy hair are good-natured, -as they resemble the lion. He whose eyebrows are -turned inwards, towards the nose, is uncleanly like the pig, which -this resembles. The narrow chin of the ape signifies malice and -envy. Long ears and thick lips, such as the donkey possesses, are -signs of stupidity. A person who has a nose crooked from the -forehead inclines, like the raven, to theft, etc. These animal-physiognomists -appear to have favoured a thoroughly pessimistic -view of man’s capacities, inasmuch as for every creditable resemblance -they find at least ten discreditable ones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Apart from these puerilities, it is in most cases simply absurd -to compare man with animals. Except in the case of apes there -are no proper terms of comparison, because the types are so distinct; -and, moreover, from the point of view of its own type, the average -animal of any species is more beautiful than the average man or -woman from the human point of view. This assertion is indirectly -corroborated by Mr. Galton’s testimony, that “our human civilised -<span class='pageno' id='Page_332'>332</span>stock is far more weakly through congenital imperfection than that -of any other species of animals, whether wild or domestic.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Schopenhauer considered animals beautiful in every way, and -suggested that whenever we do find an animal ugly it is due to -some irrelevant, inevitable association of ideas, as when a monkey -suggests a man, or a toad mud. And Mr. Ruskin pertinently -suggests that “That mind only is fully disciplined in its theoretic -power which, when it chooses, throwing off the sympathies and -repugnancies with which the ideas of destructiveness or of innocence -accustom us to regard the animal tribes, as well as those -meaner likes and dislikes which arise, I think, from the greater or -less resemblance of animal powers to our own, can pursue the -pleasures of typical beauty down to the scales of the alligator, the -coils of the serpent, and the joints of the beetle.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>When Sir Charles Bell intimated that in Greek sculpture the -guiding principle was remoteness from the animal type, he stated -only one side of the truth, of which the other is thus noted by -Winckelmann: among the Greeks, he says, “The study of artists -in producing ideal beauties was directed to the nature of the nobler -beasts, so that they not only instituted comparisons between the -forms of the human countenance and the shape of the head of -certain animals, but they even undertook to adopt from animals -the means of imparting greater majesty and elevation to their -statues ... especially in the heads of Hercules.” Jupiter’s head -“has the complete aspect of the lion, the king of beasts, not only -in the large, round eyes, in the fulness of the prominent, and, as it -were, swollen forehead, and in the nose, but also in the hair, which -hangs from his head like the mane of the lion, first rising upward -from the forehead, and then, parting on each side into a bow, again -falling downward.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So that we may safely reject the theory that ugliness consists -in an approach to the structure of the lower animals, whatever -savages and Chinamen may think on this subject. Coarse minds -little suspect what exquisite beauty is to be found in the head of a -cow or a donkey, a puppy or a lamb—beauty which, like a lovely -melody, may bring tears to the eyes of one who is sensitive to -æsthetic impressions. Objectively considered, even the destructive -emotions do not appear ugly in an animal. The ferocity of a lion -does not make him appear vicious, because ferocity is his nature. -He knows no better; can only live by fighting. But a man is -disfigured by ferocity because he does know better; he <em>can</em> live -without fighting; and it is <em>the consciousness of his selfish meanness</em> -that puts the stamp of ugliness on his distorted features.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_333'>333</span>In apes alone does fierceness seem ugly and brutal instead of -sublime. For apes bear so much resemblance to us, and have a -brain so superior in structure to that of other animals, that we feel -justified in applying the human standard. Hence apes alone afford -us a negative test of beauty. Their heads and faces are cast in -our mould, and therefore afford the means of direct comparison. -In looking at their massive, brutal jaws, their receding foreheads, -their undifferentiated hands and feet, their coarse, hairy skin, their -clumsy, inexpressive, gigantic mouths, their flat noses and nostrils -open to the view, we are justified in calling them ugly, compared -with ourselves, and in feeling proud that civilisation has gradually -raised us so far above our country cousins, in beauty as in everything -else, except the art of climbing trees.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>b</i>) <em>Savages</em> are valuable as negative tests of beauty for the -same reason: they enable us to see what progress we have made -in refining our features into harmonious proportions, and making -them susceptible of diverse emotional expression. It should be -noted that Nature constantly endeavours to make primitive mankind -beautiful, as it does with all other animals. Tourists constantly -note the occurrence of remarkable instances of Personal -Beauty among the young in most tribes. But this natural Beauty -is not appreciated by the vulgar taste of savages, as we saw a few -pages back in a case mentioned by Mr. Galton. Beauty must be -distorted and exaggerated before it pleases the savage’s taste. -Paint must be laid on an inch thick, the nose perforated and -“adorned” with a ring, and ditto the abnormally lengthened lips. -This corrects the notion that savage hideousness is a product of -Nature. Nature may blunder, but never so sadly as in the appearance -of a savage belle or warrior; and in scorning these we do not -therefore scorn Nature, but merely the artificial products of the -vulgar taste of primitive man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>c</i>) <em>Degraded Classes.</em>—Poverty, suffering, want of leisure for -mental culture, want of money for sanitary modes of living, have, -unfortunately, produced in all countries a large class in whom -Personal Beauty occurs only as an accident. That such unhappy -mortals afford a negative test of Beauty is seen by the fact that, -just as savages are intermediate between monkeys and them, so -they stand between savages and refined men in features and expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Poverty alone does not produce this vulgar type of personal -appearance; it is intellectual indolence, moral vice, and hygienic -indifference that are responsible for it. Hence this third negative -teat of Beauty is not at all difficult to find in any sphere of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_334'>334</span>society, from the hod-carrier to the aristocrat with a pedigree of a -hundred generations. In every scale of the social ladder may be -found “features seamed by sickness, dimmed by sensuality, convulsed -by passion, pinched by poverty, shadowed by sorrow, -branded with remorse; bodies consumed with sloth, broken down -by labour, tortured by disease, dishonoured in foul uses; intellects -without power, hearts without hope, minds earthly and devilish” -(Ruskin).</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>d</i>) <em>Age and Decrepitude.</em>—It is not true, as a famous -Frenchwoman has remarked, that age and beauty are incompatible -terms. Even age and Love are not incompatible, as we saw in -the chapter on Genius in Love; and Byron has remarked that -Love, like the measles, is most dangerous when it comes late in -life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is a special variety of Beauty for every period of life, -and the Beauty of old age certainly is not the least attractive of -these varieties. What could be more majestic, more admirable, -than the head of a Longfellow in his last days? Provided health -of mind and body has been maintained, even the folds in the -cheeks, the wrinkles on the forehead of old age, are not unbeautiful. -But when senility means decrepitude, brought on by a -neglectful or otherwise vicious life, then it is positively ugly. The -loveliest thing in the world is a fair and amiable maiden; the -ugliest a vicious old hag—savages and apes <em>not</em> excepted.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>e</i>) <em>Disease.</em>—Temperance preachers and other hygienic reformers -commonly dwell too exclusively on the dangers to health, -domestic peace, moral progress, and refinement which the indulgence -in various vices entails. If they would insist with equal, -or even greater, emphasis on the havoc which diseases brought on -by intemperance and neglect of the laws of Health make on -Personal Beauty, they would double their influence on their audiences -or readers. For in woman’s heart the desire to be beautiful -is and always will be the strongest motive to action or nonaction; -nor are men, as a rule, much less interested in the matter -of preserving a handsome appearance. It may make <em>some</em> impression -on a man to tell him that if he takes ice-water before -breakfast, or “cock-tails” at various odd hours on an empty -stomach, he will ruin his digestion; but the impression will be six -times as deep if you can convince him that he will ere long look -like that confirmed dyspeptic Jones, with lack-lustre eyes, sallow -complexion, and a general expression of premature senility, which -accounts for the fact that he has been twice already refused by the -girl he adores.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_335'>335</span>Or take that girl over there who never takes a walk, always -sleeps with her windows hermetically closed, and never allows a -ray of sunshine to touch any part of her body. Tell her she is -ruining her health and she may be momentarily alarmed by this -vague warning, and walk half a mile for a week or so, until she -has forgotten it. But make it clear to her what is the exact consequence -of such neglect of the primal laws of health—namely, -the premature loss of every trace of Personal Beauty and youthful -charm, with old-maidenhood inevitably staring her in the face, -owing to her apathetic appearance and gait, her sickly complexion, -her features distorted by frequent headaches, brought on by lack -of fresh, cool air—each of which leaves its permanent trace in -the form of an addition to a wrinkle or subtraction from the -plumpness of her cheeks,—tell her all this, and that her eyes -will soon sink into their sockets and have blue rings like -those of an invalid, and a ghastly stare—and she will, perhaps, -be sufficiently roused to save her Health for the sake of her -Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We are now confronted with the question, Why is it that disease -is a mark of ugliness, health a mark of Beauty? The old -Scotch school of æstheticians think it is all a matter of association. -We consider certain forms characteristic of health as -beautiful simply because we associate with them various emotions -of affection, the pleasures of love, etc., and conversely with -disease and vice. According to Stendhal, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“La beauté n’est que -la promesse du bonheur,”</span> or, in American, Beauty is simply the -promise of a “good time.” But it is Lord Jeffrey who, to use -another appropriate American expression, “goes the whole hog” -in this matter, by practically denying the existence of such a -thing as a pure, disinterested, æsthetic sense. Suppose, he says, -"that the smooth forehead, the firm cheek, and the full lip, which -are now so distinctly expressive to us of the gay and vigorous -periods of youth—and the clear and blooming complexion, which -indicates health and activity—had been, in fact, the forms and -colours by which old age and sickness were characterised; and -that, instead of being found united to those sources and seasons of -enjoyment, they had been the badges by which Nature pointed -out that state of suffering and decay which is now signified to us -by the livid and emaciated face of sickness, or the wrinkled front, -the quivering lip, and hollow cheek of age; if this were the -familiar law of our nature, can it be doubted that we should look -upon these appearances, not with rapture, but with aversion, and -consider it as absolutely ludicrous or disgusting to speak of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_336'>336</span>beauty of what was interpreted by every one as the lamented sign -of pain and decrepitude?</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Mr. Knight himself, though a firm believer in the intrinsic -beauty of colours, is so much of this opinion that he thinks it -entirely owing to those associations that we prefer the tame -smoothness and comparatively poor colours of a youthful face -to the richly fretted and variegated countenance of a pimpled -drunkard.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bosh! and a hundred times bosh! One feels that these men -lived at a time when port was drunk by the bottle, like claret, -and when variegated noses were to a certain extent fashionable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Though every reader feels the sophistry and absurdity of the -above argumentation, it is not easy to refute it. Professor Blackie -declaims against it, Ruskin sneers at it, but nowhere have I been -able to find a definite direct refutation of the thesis. The following -suggestions may, therefore, be of some value.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the first place, Jeffrey’s supposition is equivalent to saying -that if black were white, white would be black. For if all the -phenomena of human nature were reversed, our taste, being also -a “phenomenon,” would be reversed too. If health meant emaciation, -then a lover would not be happy unless he could kiss a -pair of leathery lips and embrace a skeleton. Hence his sense of -touch, like his sight, would have to be the reverse of what they -are now; and that being the case, æsthetic taste, which is based -on the senses, would of course be reversed too. But that is -simply saying that if you stand a man on his head his feet will be -in the air.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Secondly, Lord Jeffrey’s argument involves the old fallacy that -the useful and the beautiful are identical—that we only consider -those things beautiful which afford us some utilitarian gratification. -If this theory were correct, a coal-boat would be more beautiful -than a yacht; a savage’s big jaw-bone more beautiful than our -delicate ones; a clumsy, dirty, coarse-featured labourer more -beautiful than a society belle.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No; we have, thank heaven, an æsthetic sense which enables -us to see and admire beauty quite independently of any “associations” -which it may have with our utilitarian cravings. It is -possible, however, and even probable, that the æsthetic sense was -originally <em>developed</em> from utilitarian associations. On this subject -Mr. Grant Allen has some exceedingly valuable remarks in his -interesting work on the Colour-Sense. He there eloquently sets -forth the view that it was the bright tints of luscious fruits that -first taught primitive man to derive pleasure from the sight of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_337'>337</span>coloured objects. This gradually led to a “predilection for brilliant -dyes and glistening pebbles; till at last the whole series -culminates in that intense and unselfish enjoyment of rich and -pure tints which make civilised man linger so lovingly over the -hues of sunset and the myriad shades of autumn.... The <em>disinterested</em> -affection can only be reached by many previous steps of -utilitarian progress.” But—and here lies the kernel of the argument—"fruit-eaters -and flower-feeders derive pleasure from brilliant -colours ... not because those colours have mental associations -with their food, but because the structures which perceive -them have been continually exercised and strengthened by hereditary -use," until at last they formed a special nervous or cerebral -apparatus which presides over impressions of beauty, and takes a -special pleasure in its own activity, apart from all utilitarian -considerations.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Lord Jeffrey apparently lacked this special æsthetic sense, as -shown by his whole argument, and by his inability, which he -shared with Alison, of finding beauty in Nature, unless it was in -some way associated with man’s presence and man’s mean utilities.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How different this from the feelings of the man who of all -writers on Beauty has the most highly developed æsthetic sense—Mr. -Ruskin, who has just told us in his <cite>Autobiography</cite> that his -love of Nature, ardent as it is, depends entirely on the <em>wildness</em> -of the scenery, its remoteness from human influences and associations.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is this specially-developed æsthetic taste that would prevent -man from calling flabby cheeks, sallow complexions, pimpled noses, -and sunken eyes beautiful, if by some miracle they should be -changed into signs of health. For this sense of beauty was first -educated not by the sight of human beauty, but of beauty in -Nature—fruits, pebbles, shells, lustrous metals, etc.; and the -notions of beauty thus obtained have been gradually transferred -to human beings as standards of attractiveness. It can be shown -that what the best judges pronounce the highest human beauty, -is so because it partakes of certain characteristics which we find -beautiful throughout Nature. And conversely, what we consider -ugly in the human form and features would also be called ugly in -external objects; in both cases, be it distinctly understood, without -any direct reference to utilitarian considerations, and sometimes -even in opposition to them, as in our admiration of a -beautiful poisonous plant or snake, or a tiger.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is these universal characteristics of Beauty, found in man as -in animals, that we now have to consider. They are the <em>positive</em> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_338'>338</span>criteria of Beauty, and may be regarded as a new set of “overtones” -or leading motives for the remainder of this volume, -although the old ones will occasionally reappear and combine with -them.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>POSITIVE TESTS OF BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Of these there are at least eight—Symmetry, Curvature, -Gradation, Smoothness, Delicacy, Colour, Lustre, Expression, -including Variety and Individuality.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>a</i>) <em>Symmetry.</em>—"In all perfectly beautiful objects," says Mr. -Ruskin, “there is found the opposition of one part to another, -and a reciprocal balance obtained; in animals the balance being -commonly between opposite sides (note the disagreeableness occasioned -by the exception in flat fish, having the eyes on one side of -the head); but in vegetables the opposition is less distinct, as in -the boughs on opposite sides of trees, and the leaves and sprays -on each side of the boughs, and in dead matter less perfect still, -often amounting only to a certain tendency towards a balance, as in -the opposite sides of valleys and alternate windings of streams. -In things in which perfect symmetry is, from their nature, impossible -or improper, a balance must be at least in some measure -expressed before they can be beheld with pleasure.... Symmetry -is the <em>opposition</em> of <em>equal</em> quantities to each other. Proportion -the <em>connection</em> of <em>unequal</em> quantities with each other. The property -of a tree in sending out equal boughs on opposite sides is -symmetrical. Its sending out shorter and smaller towards the -top, proportional. In the human face its balance of opposite sides -is symmetry, its division upwards, proportion.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Darwin thus gives his testimony as to the prevalence of -symmetry in Nature: “If beautiful objects had been created -solely for man’s gratification, it ought to be shown that before -man appeared there was less beauty on the face of the earth than -since he came on the stage. Were the beautiful volute and cone -shells of the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites -of the Secondary period, created that man might ages afterwards -admire them in his cabinet? Few objects are more beautiful -than the minute silicious cases of the diatomaceæ: were they -created that they might be examined and admired under the -higher powers of the microscope? The beauty in this latter case, -and in many others, is apparently wholly due to symmetry of -growth” (<cite>Origin of Species</cite>, chap. vi.)</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the floral world, again, the natural tendency is always -towards symmetry. Wind-fertilised flowers are symmetrical in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_339'>339</span>form; and “as Mr. Darwin has observed, there does not appeal -to be a single instance of an irregular flower which is not fertilised -by insects or birds” (Lubbock), and therefore modified in form in -the effort to adapt itself to useful insects and to exclude pirates.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Throughout the animal kingdom, including man, this law of -symmetry is true. Hence it is not likely that we should ever -admire a lame leg, a crooked nose, bent on one side, eyes that are -not mates, or a face several inches longer on one side than the -other, owing to paralysis—as <em>beautiful</em>, even if, as Jeffrey would -have it, Madame Nature should suddenly take it into her head to -associate such abnormalities with health instead of with disease.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>b</i>) <cite>Gradation.</cite>—On this law of Nature Mr. Ruskin again has -spoken at once more scientifically and poetically than any other -writer on æsthetics: "What curvature is to lines, gradation is to -shades and colours.... For instances of the complete <em>absence</em> of -gradation we must look to man’s work, or to his <em>disease</em> and -<em>decrepitude</em>. Compare the gradated colours of the rainbow with -the stripes of a target, and the gradual concentration of the youthful -blood in the cheek with an abrupt patch of rouge, or with the -sharply-drawn veining of old age.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Gradation is so inseparable a quality of all natural shade and -colour that the eye refuses in art to understand anything as either -which appears without it; while, on the other hand, nearly all -the gradations of nature are so subtile, and between degrees of -tint so slightly separated, that no human hand can in any wise -equal, or do anything more than suggest the idea of them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following remarks which the same writer makes in another -place concerning Gradation show at the same time how asinine it -is for a savage or any other person of uncultivated taste to set -himself up as a judge of Personal Beauty, as good as any one else, -on the plea that it is all “a matter of taste” and <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>de gustibus non -est disputandum</i></span>:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“When the eye is quite uncultivated, it sees that a man is a -man, and a face is a face, but has no idea what shadows or lights -fall upon the form or features. Cultivate it to some degree of -artistic power, and it will then see shadows distinctly, but only -the more vigorous of them. Cultivate it still further, and it will -see light within light, and shadow within shadow, and will continually -refuse to rest in what it has already discovered, that it -may pursue what is more removed and more subtle, until at last -it comes to give its chief attention and display its chief power on -<em>gradations which to an untrained faculty are partly matters of -indifference and partly imperceptible</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_340'>340</span>The words italicised enable us to appreciate what Sokrates -must have had in his mind when he distinguished between that -which <em>is</em> beautiful and that which only <em>appears</em> beautiful. -Æsthetic training enables us to see things as they are, instead of -as they appear through inattention, through ignorance, or through -clouds of national prejudice, or individual utilitarianism.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The way in which æsthetic training enables us to see gradations -of beauty previously imperceptible can be most strikingly illustrated -in the case of music. There are thousands of intelligent -folks who cannot tell the difference between a superb Steinway -Grand, just timed for a concert, and a harsh, clangy, mountain-hotel -piano that has not been tuned for two years. But give -these persons a thorough musical education, and they will soon be -able to smile at Jeffrey’s notion that the tone of the hotel-piano -was quite as beautiful as that of the Steinway, because it <em>seemed</em> -so to them. It is not only the imagination but the senses themselves -that require training. A Hottentot or any unmusical -person cannot tell the difference between two consecutive tones on -the piano, whereas a skilled musician can detect all the gradations -from one tone to another, down to the sixty-fourth part of a -semitone!</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is all a matter of taste!” Precisely. Of good taste and -bad taste.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Examples of gradation in the human form are the gradual -tapering of the limbs and the fingers, the exquisite line from the -female neck to the shoulders and the bosom, the blushes on the -cheeks, so long as they do not assume the form of a hectic flush, -and the delicate tints of the complexion in general, varying with -emotional states, according as the veins and arteries are more or -less filled with the vital fluid.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is it then “entirely owing to their associations” with health -or disease that we prefer the complexion of a youthful face to the -hideous daubs of red which Knight refers to as the “richly fretted -and variegated countenance of a pimpled drunkard”? Is it owing -to such associations that we prefer the delicately gradated blushes -of coloured marble to the richly bedaubed countenance of a pimpled -brickbat? But it would be a waste of time to refer again to the -crude anti-æsthetic notions of Messrs. Knight, Alison, and Jeffrey.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One more exquisite illustration of subtle gradation in the -human form divine may be cited from Winckelmann:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The soul, though a simple existence, brings forth at once, -and in an instant, many different ideas; so it is with the beautiful -youthful outline, which appears simple, and yet at the same time has -<span class='pageno' id='Page_341'>341</span>infinitely different variations, and that soft tapering which is -difficult of attainment in a column, is still more so in the diverse -forms of the youthful body. Among the innumerable kinds of -columns in Rome some appear pre-eminently elegant on account -of this very tapering; of these I have particularly noted two of -granite, which I am always studying anew: just so rare is a -perfect form, even in the most beautiful youth, which has a -stationary point in our sex still less than in the female.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>c</i>) <em>Curvature.</em>—"That all forms of acknowledged beauty are -composed exclusively of curves will," Mr. Ruskin believes, “be at -once allowed; but that which there will be need more especially -to prove, is the subtility and constancy of curvature in all natural -forms whatsoever. I believe that, except in crystals, in certain -mountain forms admitted for the sake of sublimity or contrast (as -in the slope of debris), in rays of light, in the levels of calm water -and alluvial land, and in some few organic developments, there are -no lines or surfaces of nature without curvature, though, as we -before saw in clouds, more especially in their under lines towards -the horizon, and in vast and extended plains, right lines are often -suggested which are not actual. Without these we should not be -sensible of the value of contrasting curves; and while, therefore, -for the most part, the eye is fed in natural forms with a grace of -curvature which no hand nor instrument can follow, other means -are provided to give beauty to those surfaces which are admitted -for contrast, <em>as in water by its reflection of the gradations which -it possesses not itself</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In a footnote to the last edition of the <cite>Modern Painters</cite> he -adds regarding the apparent exceptions named: “Crystals are -indeed subject to rectilinear limitations, but their real surfaces are -continually curved; the level of calm water is only right lined -when it is shoreless.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, “Generally in all ruin and disease, and -interference of one order of being with another (as in the cattle -line of park trees), the curves vanish, and violently opposed or -broken and unmeaning lines take their place.” I feel tempted to -cite another most admirable passage on curvature throughout -Nature—even where it is least looked for, and the untrained eye -cannot see it—in the shattered walls and crests of mountains -which “seem to rise in a gloomy contrast with the soft waves of -bank and wood beneath.” But it is too long to quote, and I can -only advise the reader most earnestly to look it up in chapter -xiv. vol. iv.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Straight lines,” Professor Bain observes, “are rendered artistic -<span class='pageno' id='Page_342'>342</span>only by associations of power, regularity, fitness, etc.” “In some -situations straight lines are æsthetic.... In the human figure -there underlies the curved outline a certain element of rigidity -and straightness, indicating strength in the supporting limbs and -spine. Whenever firmness is required, there must be a solid -structure, and straightness of form is a frequent accompaniment -of solidity. The straight nose and the flat brow are subsidiary to -the movement and the stability of the face.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet even our straight limbs follow in their motions the law -of curvature. And to this fact that they move more easily and -naturally in a curved than in a straight line, which requires -laborious adjustment, Bain traces part of our superior pleasure in -rounded lines.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What infinite subtlety and variety Curvature is capable of is -vividly brought before the eyes by Winckelmann: “The forms of -a beautiful body are determined by lines the centre of which is -constantly changing, and which, if continued, would never describe -circles. They are, consequently, more simple, but also more complex, -than a circle, which, however large or small it may be, -always has the same centre, and either includes others or is included -in others. This diversity was sought after by the Greeks -in works of all kinds; and their discernment of its beauty led -them to introduce the same system even into the form of their -utensils and vases, whose easy and elegant outline is drawn after -the same rule, that is, by a line which must be found by means of -several circles, for all these works have an elliptical figure, and -herein consists their beauty. The greater unity there is in the -junction of the forms, and in the flowing of one out of another, so -much the greater is the beauty of the whole.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Masculine and Feminine Beauty.</em>—The universality of curvature -as a form of beautiful objects throughout nature and art is -of importance in helping us to determine the question which is the -more beautiful form, a perfect man or a perfect woman—an Apollo -or a Venus? A Venus, no doubt. In those qualities which are -subsumed under the terms of the sublime or the characteristic—in -strength, manly dignity, intellectual power, majesty—the masculine -type, no doubt, is superior to the feminine. But in Beauty -proper—in the roundness and delicacy of contours, in the smoothness -of complexion and its subtle gradations of colour, in the -symmetrical roundness and lustrous expressiveness of the eyes—the -feminine type is pre-eminent.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Woman,” says Professor Kollmann, “is smaller, more delicate, -but also softer and more graceful (<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>schwungvoller</i></span>) in form, in her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_343'>343</span>breasts, hips, thighs, and calves. No line on her body is short -and sharply angular; they all swell, or vault themselves in a -gentle curve.... The neck and the rounded shoulders are connected -by gracefully curved lines, whereas a man’s neck is placed -more at a right angle to the more straight and angular shoulders.... -The hair is softer, the skin more tender and transparent. -All the forms are more covered over with adipose tissue, and -connected by those gradual transitions which produce the gently -rounded outlines; whereas in a man everything—muscles, sinews, -blood-vessels, bones—is more conspicuous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Schopenhauer, accordingly, was clearly in the wrong when he -endeavoured to make out that man is vastly superior to woman in -physical beauty,—a notion which Professor Huxley, too, does not -appear to disapprove of very violently. At the same time it is, -no doubt, true that there are more good specimens of masculine -beauty in most countries than of feminine beauty; true also that -man’s beauty lasts much longer than woman’s. A boy is more -beautiful than a girl under sixteen, for the very reason that his -form is more like that of an adult woman than a girl’s is. From -eighteen to twenty-five woman is more beautiful than man; while -after thirty, owing to the almost universal neglect of the laws of -health—women are apt to become either too rotund, which ruins -their grace and delicacy, or too angular—more angular than a man -under fifty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>d</i>) <em>Delicacy and Grace.</em>—The difference between masculine -and feminine beauty and the superiority of the latter is also indirectly -brought out in Burke’s remarks on Delicacy, which, -though open to criticism in one or two points, are on the whole -admirable and exhaustive:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>"An air of robustness and strength is very prejudicial to beauty. -An appearance of delicacy, and even of fragility, is almost essential -to it. Whoever examines the vegetable or animal creation will -find this observation to be founded in nature. It is not the oak, -the ash, or the elm, or any of the robust trees of the forest which -we consider as beautiful; they are awful and majestic, they inspire -a sort of reverence. It is the delicate myrtle, it is the orange, it -is the almond, it is the jasmine, it is the vine, which we look on -as vegetable beauties. It is the flowery species, so remarkable for -its weakness and momentary duration, that gives us the liveliest -idea of beauty and elegance. Among animals the greyhound is -more beautiful than the mastiff, and the delicacy of a jennet, a -barb, or an Arabian horse is much more amiable than the strength -and stability of some horses of war or carriage.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_344'>344</span>“I need here say little of the fair sex, where I believe the -point will be easily allowed me. The beauty of women is considerably -owing to their weakness or delicacy, and is even enhanced -by their timidity, a quality of mind analogous to it. I would not -here be understood to say that weakness betraying very bad health -has any share in beauty; but the ill effect of this is not because -it is weakness, but because the ill state of health, which produces -such weakness, alters the other conditions of beauty; the parts in -such a case collapse, the bright colour, the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>lumen purpureum -juventæ</i></span> is gone, and the fine variation is lost in wrinkles, sudden -breaks, and right lines.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Delicacy is a quality closely related to grace, or beauty in -motion and attitude. “Grace,” says Dr. J. A. Symonds, “is a -striking illustration of the union of the two principles of similarity -and variety. For the secret of graceful action is that the symmetry -is preserved through all the varieties of position.” This is -well put; but the <em>first</em> condition and essence of grace is that there -must be an exact correspondence between the work done and the -limb which does it. The attitude of an oak-trunk, with nothing -on the top but a geranium bush, however symmetrical, would -always be ungraceful, owing to the ludicrous disproportion between -the support and the thing supported. Conversely, a weak fern-stalk, -trying to support a branch of heavy cactus leaves, would be -equally ungraceful; for there must be neither a waste of energy -nor a sense of effort. Part of this feeling may perhaps be traced -to sympathy—thus showing how various emotions enter into our -æsthetic judgments, sometimes weakening, sometimes strengthening -them. As Professor Bain remarks, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>à propos</i></span>: “We love to have -removed from our sight every aspect of suffering, and none more -so than the suffering of toil.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Grace is almost as powerful to inspire Love as Beauty itself. -Women know this instinctively, and in order to acquire the -Delicacy which leads to grace, they deprive their bodies of air and -sunshine and strengthening sleep, hoping thereby to acquire artificially, -through ill-health, what Nature has denied them. Fortunately -such violations of the laws of health always frustrate their -object. Delicacy conjoined with Health inspires Love, but delicacy -born of disease inspires only pity—a feeling which may inspire in -a woman what she imagines is Love, but in a man <em>never</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>e</i>) <em>Smoothness</em> is another attribute of Beauty on which Burke -was the first to place proper emphasis: It is, he says, “a -quality so essential to beauty that I do not recollect anything -beautiful that is not smooth. In trees and flowers, smooth leaves -<span class='pageno' id='Page_345'>345</span>are beautiful; smooth slopes of earth in gardens; smooth streams -in the landscape; smooth coats of birds and beasts in animal -beauties; in fine women, smooth skins; and in several sorts of -ornamental furniture, smooth and polished surfaces.... Any -ruggedness, any sudden projection, any sharp angle, is in the -highest degree contrary to the idea of beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Though there are exceptions to this rule of smoothness—including -such a marvel of beauty as the moss-rose, as well as various -leaves covered with down, etc.—yet, on the whole, Burke is right. -Certainly the smooth white hand of a delicate lady is more beautiful -than the rough, horny “paws” of a bricklayer; and the inferior -beauty of a man’s arm is owing as much to its rough scattered -hairs as to the prominence of the muscles, in contrast to the smooth -and rounded arm of woman. In animals, however, hairs on the -limbs are not unbeautiful, because they are dense enough to overlap, -and thus form a hairy surface admirable alike for its soft -smoothness, its gloss, and its colour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>f</i>) <em>Lustre and Colour.</em>—Lustrous, sparkling eyes, glossy hair, -pearly teeth,—where would human beauty be without them -without the delicate tints and blushes of the skin, the brown or blue -iris, the golden or chestnut locks, the ebony eyebrows and lashes?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet the greatest art-critics incline to the opinion that, on the -whole, colour is a less essential ingredient of beauty than form. -“Colour assists beauty,” says Winckelmann, but “the essence of -beauty consists not in colour but in shape.” “A negro might be -called handsome when the conformation of his face is handsome.” -“The colour of bronze and of the black and greenish basalt does not -detract from the beauty of the antique heads,” hence “we possess -a knowledge of the beautiful, although in an unreal dress and of -a disagreeable colour.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Similarly Mr. Ruskin, who remarks of colour that it “is richly -bestowed on the highest works of creation, and the eminent <em>sign -and seal of perfection in them</em>; being associated with <em>life</em> in the -human form, with <em>light</em> in the sky, with purity and hardness in -the earth,—death, night, and pollution of all kinds being colourless. -And although if form and colour be brought into complete -opposition, so that it should be put to us as a stern choice whether -we should have a work of art all of form, without colour (as an -Albert Dürer’s engraving), or all of colour, without form (as an -imitation of mother-of-pearl), form is beyond all comparison the -more precious of the two ... yet if colour be introduced at all, -it is necessary that, whatever else may be wrong, <em>that</em> should be -right,” etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_346'>346</span>Again: “An oak is an oak, whether green with spring or red -with winter; a dahlia is a dahlia, whether it be yellow or crimson; -and if some monster-hunting botanist should ever frighten the -flower blue, still it will be a dahlia; but let one curve of the -petals—one groove of the stamens—be wanting, and the flower -ceases to be the same. Let the roughness of the bark and the -angles of the boughs be smoothed or diminished, and the oak ceases -to be an oak; but let it retain its inward structure and outward -form, and though its leaves grew white, or pink, or blue, or tricolour, -it would be a white oak, or a pink oak, or a republican oak, -but an oak still.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If we look at Nature carefully, we shall find that her colours -are in a state of perpetual confusion and indistinctness, while her -forms, as told by light and shade, are invariably clear, distinct, -and speaking. The stones and gravel of the bank catch green -reflections from the boughs above; the bushes receive grays and -yellows from the ground; every hairbreadth of polished surface -gives a little bit of the blue of the sky, or the gold of the sun, like -a star upon the local colour; this local colour, changeful and -uncertain in itself, is again disguised and modified by the hue of -the light or quenched in the gray of the shadow; and the confusion -and blending of tint is altogether so great that were we left to find -out what objects were by their colours only, we would scarcely in -place distinguish the boughs of a tree from the air beyond them or -the ground beneath them. I know that people unpractised in -art will not believe this at first; but if they have accurate powers -of observation, they may soon ascertain it for themselves; they -will find that, while they can scarcely ever determine the <em>exact</em> hue -of anything, except when it occurs in large masses, as in a green -field or the blue sky, the form, as told by light and shade, is -always decided and evident, and the source of the chief character -of every object.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Professor Bain remarks on this topic that “Among the several -kinds of beauty, the eye takes most delight in colour.... For -this reason we find the poets borrowing more of their epithets from -colours than from any other topic.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This view seems to be confirmed by the fact that lovers in -expatiating on the beauty of their Dulcineas seem to have much -more to say about their brown or golden locks, their light or dark -complexion, their blue or black eyes, than about the shape of their -features. This, however, partly finds its explanation in the fact -that colour, being a sensuous quality, is more easily and more -directly appreciated than form, the perception of which is a much -<span class='pageno' id='Page_347'>347</span>more complicated matter, being a translation into intellectual terms -of remembered impressions of touch, associated with certain colours, -lights, and shades which recall them; and partly in the greater -ease with which peculiarities of colour are referred to than peculiarities -of form. In the days of ancient Greece the nomenclature -of colours was equally undeveloped, and is so vague in Homer that -Gladstone and Geiger actually set up the theory that Homer’s -colour-sense was imperfect, and that that sense has been gradually -developed within historic times,—a theory which I have confuted -on anatomical grounds in <cite>Macmillan’s Magazine</cite>, Dec. 1879.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That as regards human beauty colour is of less importance than -form is shown, moreover, in this, that a girl with regular features -and a freckled complexion will much sooner find a lover than one -with the most delicately-coloured complexion, conjoined with a big -mouth, irregular nose, or sunken cheeks. And a beautifully-shaped -eye is sure to be admired by all, no matter whether blue, gray, or -brown; whereas an eye that is too small or otherwise defective in -form can never be redeemed by the most beautiful colour or -brilliancy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, there are several things to be said in favour -of colour that will mitigate our judgment on this point. In the -first place, colour is more perfect in its way than form, so that it -is impossible ever to improve on it by idealising, as it is often with -form. As Mr. Ruskin remarks, “Form may be attained in perfection -by painters, who, in their course of study, are continually -altering or idealising it; but only the sternest fidelity will reach -colouring. Idealise or alter in that, and you are lost. Whether -you alter by debasing or exaggerating, by glare or by decline, one fate -is for you—ruin.... Colour is sacred in that you must keep to -facts. Hence the apparent anomaly that the only schools of colour -are the schools of realism.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, looking at Nature with an artist’s eye, Ruskin discovered -and frequently alludes to the “apparent connection of brilliancy -of colour with vigour of life,” and Mr. Wallace, looking at Nature -with a naturalist’s eye, established this “apparent connection” as -a scientific fact. The passage in which he sums up his views has -been once already quoted; but it is of such extreme importance in -enforcing the lesson that beauty is impossible without health, that -it may be quoted again:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The colours of an animal usually fade during disease or weakness, -while robust health and vigour adds to its intensity.... In -all quadrupeds a ‘dull coat’ is indicative of ill-health or low condition; -while a glossy coat and sparkling eye are the invariable -<span class='pageno' id='Page_348'>348</span>accompaniments of health and energy. The same rule applies to -the feathers of birds, whose colours are only seen in their purity -during perfect health; and a similar phenomenon occurs even -among insects, for the bright hues of caterpillars begin to fade as -soon as they become inactive, preparatory to their undergoing -transformation. Even in the Vegetable Kingdom we see the same -thing; for the tints of foliage are deepest, and the colours of -flowers and fruits richest, on those plants which are in the most -healthy and vigorous condition.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>g</i>) <em>Expression, Variety, Individuality.</em>—Besides the circumstances -that colour is more uniformly perfect in Nature than form, -and that it is always associated with Health, without which Beauty -is impossible, another peculiarity may be mentioned in its favour. -The complexion is a kaleidoscope whose delicate blushes and -constant changes of tint, from the ashen pallor of despair to the -rosy flush of delight, are the fascinating signs of emotional expression. -And herein lies the superior beauty of the human complexion -over all other tinted objects: it reflects not only the hues of -surrounding external bodies, but all the moods of the soul within.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Form without colour is form without expression. But form -without expression soon ceases to fascinate, for we constantly crave -novelty and variety; and form is one, while expression is infinitely -varied and ever new. Herein lies the extreme importance of expression -as a test of Beauty. Colour, of course, is only one phase -of expression. The soul not only changes the tints of the complexion, -but liquifies the facial muscles so that they can be readily -moulded into forms characteristic of joy, sadness, hope, fear, adoration, -hatred, anger, affection, etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why is the portrait-painter so infinitely superior to the photographer? -Because the photographer—paradoxical as this may -seem—gives you a less realistic picture of yourself than the artist. -He only gives you the fixed form, or at most a transient expression -which, being fixed permanently, loses its essence, which is motion—and -thus becomes a caricature—an exaggeration in duration. -But the artist studies you by the hour, makes you talk, notes the -habitual forms of expression most characteristic of your individuality; -and, blending these into a sort of “typical portrait” of your -various individual traits, makes a picture which reveals all the -advantages of art over mere solar mechanism or photography.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This explains why some of the most charming persons we know -never appear well in a photograph, while others much less charming -do. The beauty of the latter lies in form, of the former in -expression. But expression is much more potent to inspire admiration -<span class='pageno' id='Page_349'>349</span>and Love than mere beauty of features; and not without -reason, for beautiful features, being a lucky inheritance, may be -conjoined with unamiable individual traits, whereas beautiful expression -is the infallible index of a beautiful mind and character; -and promises, moreover, beautiful sons and daughters, because -“expression is feature in the making.” It is by such subtle signs -and promises that Love is unconsciously and instinctively guided -in its choice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Formal Beauty alone is external and cold. It is those slight -variations in Beauty and expression which we call individuality -and character that excite emotion: so much so that Love, as we -have seen, is dependent on individuality, and a man who warmly -admires all beautiful women is in love with none.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Speaking of the Greeks, Sir Charles Bell says: “In high art -it appears to have been the rule of the sculptor to divest the form -of expression.... In the Venus, the form is exquisite and the -face perfect, but there is <em>no expression</em> there; it has no human -softness, <em>nothing to love</em>.” “All individuality was studiously -avoided by the ancient sculptors in the representation of divinity; -they maintained the beauty of form and proportion, but without expression, -which, in their system, belonged exclusively to humanity.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But inasmuch as the Greeks attributed to their deities all the -various emotions which agitate man, why did they refuse them the -signs of expression? One cannot but suspect that the Greeks did -not sufficiently appreciate the beauty of expression. Had they -valued it more they would not have allowed their women to vegetate -in ignorance like flowers, one like the other, but would have -educated them and given them the individuality and expression -which alone can inspire Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, if the Greeks had been susceptible to the superior charms -of emotional expression, is it likely that they would have been so -completely absorbed in the two least expressive and emotional of -the arts—architecture and sculpture?</p> - -<p class='c001'>We cannot avoid the conclusion that the Greeks were as indifferent -to the charms of individual expression as to Romantic Love, -which is dependent on it. In their statues, as Dr. Max Schasler -remarks, a mouth or eye has no more significance as a mark of -beauty than a well-shaped leg. Whereas in modern, and even -sometimes in mediæval art, what a world of expression in a mouth, -a pair of eyes!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Leaving individual exceptions (like Homer) aside, it may be -said that the arts have been successively developed to a climax in -the order of their capacity for emotional expression, viz.—Architecture, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_350'>350</span>Sculpture, Painting, Poetry, and Music. Poetry precedes -music, because though its emotional scope is wider, it is less -intense. To-day music is the most popular and universal of all -the arts because it stirs most deeply our feelings. And just as the -discovery of harmony, by individualising the melodies, has increased -the power and variety of music a thousandfold; so the individualisation -of Beauty and character through modern culture has made -Romantic Love a blessing accessible to all—the most prevalent -form of modern affection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Individuality is of such extreme importance in Love that a -slight blemish is not only pardoned but actually adored if it increases -the individuality. Bacon evidently had this in his mind -when he said that “there is no excellent beauty which has not some -strangeness in its proportion.” Seneca, as well as Ovid, noted the -attractiveness of slight short-comings; and the following anecdote -shows that though the Persians, as a nation, have ever been -strangers to Romantic Love, their greatest poet, Háfiz, understood -the psychology of the subject in its subtlest details:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“One day Timur (fourteenth century) sent for Háfiz and asked -angrily: ‘Art thou he who was so bold as to offer my two great -cities Samarkand and Bokhara for the black mole on thy mistress’s -cheek?’ alluding to a well-known verse in one of his odes. ‘Yes, -sire,’ replied Háfiz, ‘and it is by such acts of generosity that I -have brought myself to such a state of destitution that I have now -to solicit your bounty.’ Timur was so pleased with the ready wit -displayed in this answer that he dismissed the poet with a handsome -present.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To sum up: the reason why</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The rose that lives its little hour</div> - <div class='line'>Is prized beyond the sculptured flower”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>is not, as Bryant implies, the transitoriness of the rose, but the fact -that the marble flower, like the wax-flower, is dead and unchangeable, -while the short-lived rose beams with the expression of happy -vitality after a shower, or sadly droops and hangs its head in a -drouth. It has life and expression, subtle gradations of colour, -and light and shade, which are the signs of its vitality and moods, -varying every day, every hour. And so with all the higher forms -of life, those always being most beautiful and highly prized which -are most capable of expressing subtle variations of health, happiness, -and mental refinement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is no part of the human body which does not serve as a -mark of expression—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_351'>351</span>“In many’s looks the false heart’s history</div> - <div class='line'>Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,</div> - <div class='line'><em>Nay, her foot speaks</em>.”—<span class='sc'>Shakspere.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>It will not do, therefore, to neglect any part of the body. As it -is the last straw which breaks the camel’s back, so Cupid’s capricious -choice is often determined by some minor point of perfection, -when the balance is otherwise equal. Suppose there are two sisters -whose faces, figures, and mental attractions are about equal; then -it is possible that one of them will die an old maid simply because -the other had a smaller foot, a more graceful gait, or longer eyelashes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But though every organ has its own beauty, there is an æsthetic -scale of lower and higher which corresponds pretty accurately with -the physical scale from down upwards—from the foot to the eye and -forehead. It is in this order, accordingly, that we shall now proceed -to consider the various parts of the human form, and those -peculiarities in them which are considered most beautiful and most -liable to inspire Romantic Love.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE FEET</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>SIZE</h3> - -<p class='c011'>There is hardly anything concerning which vain people are so -sensitive as their feet. To have large feet is considered one of the -greatest misfortunes that can befall a woman. Mathematically -stated, the length of a woman’s skirts is directly proportional to -the size of her feet; and women with large feet are always shocked -at the frivolity of those who have neat ankles and coquettishly -allow them to be seen on occasion; nor do they see any beauty in -Sir John Suckling’s lines—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Her feet beneath her petticoat</div> - <div class='line'>Like little mice stole in and out,</div> - <div class='line'>As if they feared the light.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>Nor are men, as a rule, sufficiently free from pedal vanity to pose -as satirists. Byron found a mark of aristocracy in small feet, and -he was rendered almost as miserable by the morbid consciousness -of his own defects as Mme. de Staël (who had very ugly feet, yet -once ventured to assume the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span>, in private theatricals, of a statue) -was offended by Talleyrand’s witticism, that he recognised her by -the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>pied de Staël</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_352'>352</span>There is a <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><i>ben trovato</i></span>, if not true, story of a clever wife who -objected to her husband’s habit of spending his evenings away from -home, and who reformed him by utilising his vanity. By insisting -that his boots were too large, she repeatedly induced him to buy -smaller ones, which finally tortured him so much that he was only -too glad to stay at home and wear his slippers.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FASHIONABLE UGLINESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>How universal is the desire to have, or appear to have, small -feet is shown by the fact that everybody blackens his shoes or -boots; for, owing to a peculiar optical delusion, black objects -always appear smaller than white ones; which is also the reason -why too slim and delicate ladies never appear to such advantage in -winter as they do in summer, when they exchange their dark for -light dresses.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To a certain point the admiration of small feet is in accordance -with the canons of good Taste, as will be presently shown. But -Taste has a disease which is called Fashion. It is a sort of -microbe which has the effect of distorting and <em>exaggerating</em> everything -it takes hold of. Fashion is not satisfied with small feet; -it wants them <em>very</em> small, unnaturally small, at the cost of beauty, -health, grace, comfort, and happiness. Hence for many generations -shoemakers have been compelled to manufacture instruments -of torture so ruinous to the constitution of man and woman, that -an Austrian military surgeon has seriously counselled the enactment -of legal fines to be imposed on the makers of noxiously-shaped -shoes, similar to those imposed on food-adulterators.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Most ugly and vulgar fashions come from France; but as regards -crippled feet the first prize has to be yielded to the Chinese, -even by the Parisians. The normal size of the human foot varies, -for men, from 9½ to 13; for women, from 5½ to 9 inches, man’s -feet being longer proportionately to the greater length of his lower -limbs. In China the men value the normal healthy condition of -their own feet enough to have introduced certain features of elasticity -in their shoes which we might copy with advantage; but the -women are treated very differently. “The fashionable length for -a Chinese foot,” says Dr. Jamieson, “is between 3½ and 4 inches, -but comparatively few parents succeed in arresting growth so completely.” -When girls are five years old their feet are tightly -wrapped up in bandages, which on successive occasions are tightened -more and more, till the surface ulcerates, and some of the flesh, -skin, and sometimes even a toe or two come off. “During the first -<span class='pageno' id='Page_353'>353</span>year,” says Professor Flower, “the pain is so intense that the -sufferer can do nothing but lie and cry and moan. For about two -years the foot aches continually, and is subject to a constant pain, -like the pricking of sharp needles.” Finally the foot becomes -reduced to a shapeless mass, void of sensibility, which “has now -the appearance of the hoof of some animal rather than a human -foot, and affords a very insufficient organ of support, as the peculiar -tottering gait of those possessing it clearly shows.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The difference between the Chinese belle and the Parisian is -one of degree merely. The former has her torturing done once -for all while a child, whereas the latter allows her tight, high-heeled -shoes to torture her throughout life. The English are the -only nation that have recognised the injuriousness and vulgarity of -the French shoe, and substituted one made on hygienic principles; -and as England has in almost everything else displaced France as -the leader in modern fashion, it is reasonable to hope that ere -long other nations will follow her in this reform. American girls -are, as a rule, much less sensible in this matter than their English -sisters; one need only ask a clerk in a shoe store to find out -how most of them endeavour to squeeze their small feet into -shoes too small by a number.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fashions are always followed blindly, without deliberation. -But would it not be worth while for French, American, and German -women—and many men too—to ask themselves what they -gain and what they lose by trying to make their feet appear -smaller than they are? The disadvantages outweigh the advantages -to an almost ludicrous extent.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the one side there is absolutely nothing but the gratification -of vanity derived from the fact that a few acquaintances -admire one’s “pretty feet”; and even this advantage is problematical, -because a person who wears too tight shoes can hardly -conceal them from an observer, and is therefore apt to get pity -for her vain weakness in place of admiration.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand are the following disadvantages:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) The constant torture of pressure (not to mention the resulting -corns and bunions), which alone must surely outweigh a hundred -times the pleasure of gratified vanity at having a Chinese foot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(2) The unconscious distortion of the features and furrowing of -the forehead in the effort to endure and repress the pain,—and -wrinkles, be it remembered, when once formed are ineradicable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) The discouragement of walking and other exercise, involving -a general lowering of vitality, sickly pallor and premature loss -of the bloom of youth.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_354'>354</span>(4) The wasting of the calf of the leg to dimensions characteristic -of savagedom, disease, and old age, not to speak of the -numerous maladies resulting to women from the use of hard high -heels of fashionable shoes, every contact of which with the ground -sends a shock through the spinal column to the brain and produces -obscure disorders in various parts of the organism.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(5) The mutilation of one of the most beautiful and characteristically -human parts of the body. As the author of Harper’s -<cite>Ugly Girl Papers</cite> remarks: “One’s foot is as proper an object of -pride and complacency as a shapely hand. But where in a -thousand would a sculptor find one that was a pleasure to contemplate -like that of the Princess Pauline Bonaparte, whose lovely foot -was modelled in marble for the delight of all the world who have -seen it?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(6) Finally, and most important of all, the loss of a graceful -gait, of the poetry of motion, which is a thousand times more -calculated to inspire admiration—æsthetic or erotic—than a small -foot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Man is said to be a reasoning animal; and man embraces -woman. But surely in matters of fashion woman is not a reasoning -being. Very large feet being properly regarded as ugly, she -draws the inference that the smaller they can be made the more -will they be beautiful; forgetting that Beauty is a matter of proportion, -not of absolute size. A foot may, like a waist, as easily -appear ugly from being too small as from being too large. A large -woman with very small feet cannot but make a disagreeable impression, -like a bust on an insecure pedestal or a leaning tower.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>TESTS OF BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>According to Schopenhauer, the great value which all attach to -small feet “depends on the fact that small feet are an essentially -human characteristic, since in no animal are the tarsus and metatarsus -together so small as in man, which peculiarity is connected -with his erect attitude: he is a plantigrade.” But it is difficult to -see any force in this reasoning, since not one person in a hundred -thousand knows what the bones called tarsus and metatarsus are, -nor cares whether they are larger in man or in animals; while, as -regards the upright position, large feet would appear more suitable -for maintaining it than small ones.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If smallness were the test of beauty in man, why should we -not feel ashamed to have larger heads than animals, or envy the -elephant, who, for his size, has the smallest foot of all animals?</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_355'>355</span>Those who believe that human beauty consists in the degree -of remoteness from animal types, will derive satisfaction from the -fact that apes have feet that are larger than ours. Topinard gives -these figures showing the relative sizes: man, 16·96; gorilla, -20·69; chimpanzee, 21·00; orang, 25. But why should man -feel a special pride in the fact that his feet are somewhat smaller -than those of his nearest relatives, whom, until recently, he did -not even acknowledge as such?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is, moreover, unscientific to compare man’s foot with the ape’s -too closely, because they have different functions—being used by -man for walking, by the ape for climbing—and therefore require -different characteristics. It is only in those organs that have a -like function—as the jaws, teeth, nose, eyes, and forehead—that a -direct comparison is permissible, and a progress noted in our -favour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, as M. Topinard tells us, “The hand and the foot of -man, although shorter than those of the anthropoid ape, do not -vary among races according to their order of superiority, as we -should have supposed. <em>A long hand or foot is not a characteristic -of inferiority.</em>”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The same is true among individuals of the same race. Mme. -de Staël was one of the most intelligent women the world has ever -seen, yet her feet were very large; and conversely, some of our -silliest girls have the smallest feet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since, then, there is no obvious connection between small feet -and superior culture, it follows that the beauty of a foot is not to -be determined by so simple a matter as its length. There are other -peculiarities, of greater importance, in which the laws of Beauty -manifest themselves. First, in the arched instep, which is not -only attractive because it introduces the beauty-curve in place of -the straight, flat line of the sole, but which is of the utmost importance -in increasing the foot’s capacity for carrying its burden, -just as architects build arches under bridges, etc., for the sake of -the greater strength and more equable distribution of pressure thus -obtained. Secondly, in the symmetrical correspondence of the toes -and contours of one foot with those of its partner; in the gradation -of the regularly shortened toes, from the first to the fifth; in the -delicate tints of the skin which, moreover, is smooth and not (as -in apes) covered with straggling hairs and deep furrows, which -would have concealed the delicate veins that variegate the surface, -and give it the colour of life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Professor Carl Vogt, in his <cite>Lectures on Man</cite>, vividly illustrates -the principles on which our judgment regarding beauty in feet is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_356'>356</span>based, by comparing a negro’s foot with that of civilised man: -“The foot of the negro, says Burmeister, produces a disagreeable -impression. Everything in it is ugly; the flatness, the projecting -heel, the thick, fatty cushion in the inner cavity, the spreading -toes.... The character of the human foot lies mainly in its -arched structure, in the predominance of the metatarsus, the -shortening and equal direction of the toes, among which the great -toe is remarkably long, but not, like the thumb, opposable.... -The toes in standing leave no mark, but do so in progression. -The whole middle part of the foot does not touch the ground. -Persons with flat feet, in whom the middle of the sole touches -ground, are bad pedestrians, and are rejected as recruits.... -The negro is a decided flat foot ... the fat cushion on the sole -not only fills up the whole cavity, but projects beyond the surface.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as it is the custom among all civilised peoples to -cover the foot entirely, many of its aspects of beauty are rendered -invisible permanently, so that it is perhaps not to be wondered at -that in their absence Fashion should have so eagerly fixed on the -two visible features—size and arched instep—and endeavoured to -exaggerate them by Procrustean dimensions and stilt-like high -heels. Yet in this matter even modern Parisians represent a -progress over the mediæval Venetian ladies, who, according to -Marinello, at one time wore soles and heels over a foot in height, -so that on going out they had to be accompanied by several -servants to prevent them from falling. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>Mais que voulez vous?</i></span> -Fashion is fashion, and women are women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>By the ancient Greeks the feet were frequently exposed to -view; hence, says Winckelmann, “in descriptions of beautiful -persons, as Polyxena and Aspasia, even their beautiful feet are -mentioned.” Possibly in some future age, when Health and -Beauty will be more worshipped than vulgar Fashion fetishes, a -clever Yankee will invent an elastic, tough, and leathery, but -transparent substance that will protect the foot while fitting it -like a glove and showing its outlines. This would put an end to -the mutilations resorted to from vanity, guided by bad taste, and -would add one more feature to Personal Beauty. And the foot, -as Burmeister insists, has one advantage over every other part of -the body. Beauty in all these other features depends on health -and a certain muscular roundness. But the foot’s beauty is -independent of such variations, as it lies mainly in its permanent -bony contours and in its fat cushion, which alone of all adipose -layers resists the ravages of disease and old age. Hence a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_357'>357</span>beautiful foot is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever, long after -all other youthful charms have faded and fled.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>A GRACEFUL GAIT</h3> - -<p class='c013'>So long as the foot remains entirely covered, its beauty is, on -the whole, of less importance than the grace of its movements. -Grace, under all circumstances, is as potent a love-charm as -Beauty itself—of which, in fact, it is only a phase; and if young -men and women could be made to realise how much they could -add to their fascinations by cultivating a graceful gait and -attitudes, hygienic shoemakers, dancing-masters, and gymnasiums -would enjoy as great and sudden a popularity as skating-rinks, -and a much more permanent popularity too.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is the laws of Grace that chiefly determine the most admirable -characteristics of the foot. The arched instep is beautiful -because of its curved outlines; but its greatest value lies in the -superior elasticity and grace it imparts to the gait. The habitual -carrying of heavy loads tends to make the feet flat and to ruin -Grace; hence the clumsy gait of most working people, and, on -the other hand, the graceful walk of the “aristocratic” classes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The proper size of the foot, again, is most easily determined -with reference to the principles of Grace. Motion is graceful -when it does not involve any waste of energy, and when it is in -accordance with the lines of Beauty. There must be no disproportion -between the machinery and the work done—no locomotive -to pull a baby-carriage. Too large feet are ugly because they -appear to have been made for carrying a giant; too small ones -are ugly because seemingly belonging to a dwarf. What are the -exact proportions lying between “too large” and “too small” can -only be determined by those who have educated their taste by the -study of the laws of Beauty and Grace throughout Nature.</p> - -<p class='c001'>From this point of view Grace is synonymous with <em>functional -fitness</em>. A monkey’s foot is less beautiful than a man’s, but in -<em>climbing</em> it is more graceful; whereas in <em>walking</em> man’s is -infinitely more graceful. Apes rarely assume an erect position, -and when they do so they never walk on the flat sole. “When -the orang-outang takes to the ground,” says Mr. E. B. Tylor, “he -shambles <em>clumsily</em> along, generally putting down the outer edge of -the foot and the bent knuckles of the hand.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have italicised the word “clumsily” because it touches the -vital point of the question. Man owes his intellectual superiority -largely to the fact that he does not need his hands for walking or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_358'>358</span>climbing, but uses them as organs of delicate touch and as tools. -To acquire this independence of the hands he needed feet, which -enabled him to stand erect and walk along, not “clumsily,” but -firmly, naturally, and therefore gracefully. Hence in course of -time, through the effects of constant use, there was developed the -callous cushion of the heel and toes; while, through discontinuance -of the habit of climbing, the toes became reduced in size. -In the ape’s foot, it is well known, the toes are almost as long as -the fingers of the hand: a fact which led Blumenbach and Cuvier -to classify apes as quadrumana or four-<em>handed</em> animals. But -Professor Huxley showed that this classification was based on -erroneous reasoning. The resemblance between the hands and -feet of apes is merely <em>physiological</em> or functional—because hands -and feet are used alike for climbing. But <em>anatomically</em>, in its -bones and muscles, etc., the monkey’s apparent hind “hand” is a -true foot no less than man’s. If the <em>physiological</em> function, <i>i.e.</i> -the opposability of the thumb to the other fingers, were taken as -a ground of classification, then birds, who have such toes, would -have no feet at all but only wings and hands.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is a limit, however, beyond which the size of man’s toe’s -cannot be reduced without injuring the foot’s usefulness and the -grace of gait. The front part of the foot is distinguished for its -yielding or elastic character. Hence, says Professor Humphrey, -“in descending from a height, as from a chair or in walking -downstairs, we alight upon the balls of the toes. If we alight -upon the heels—for instance, if we walk downstairs on the heels—we -find it an uncomfortable and rather jarring procedure. In -walking and jumping, it is true, the heels come first in contact -with the ground, but the weight then falls obliquely upon them, -and is not fully borne by the foot till the toes also are upon the -ground.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the reasons why Grace is more rare even than Beauty -on this planet is that the toes are cramped or even turned out of -their natural position by tight, pointed, fashionable shoes, and -are thus prevented from giving elasticity to the step. Instances -are not rare (and by no means only in China) where the great toe -is almost at right angles to the length of the foot. In walking, -says Professor Flower, “the heel is first lifted from the ground, -and the weight of the body gradually transferred through the -middle to the anterior end of the foot, and the final push or -impulse given with the great toe. It is necessary then that all -these parts should be in a straight line with one another.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is a mooted question whether the toes should be slightly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_359'>359</span>turned outward, as dancing-masters insist, or placed in straight -parallel lines, as some physiologists hold. For the reason -indicated in the last paragraph, physiologists are clearly right. -With parallel or almost parallel great toes, a graceful walk is -more easily attained than by turning out the toes. Even in -standing, Dr. T. S. Ellis argues, the parallel position is preferable: -“When a body stands on four points I know of no reason why it -should stand more firmly if those points be unequally disposed. -The tendency to fall forwards would seem to be even increased by -widening the distance between the points in front, and it is in -this direction that falls most commonly occur.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>EVOLUTION OF THE GREAT TOE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Perhaps the most striking difference between the feet of men -and apes lies in the relative size of the first and second toes. In -the ape’s foot the second toe is longer than the first, whereas in -modern civilised man’s foot the first or great toe is almost always -the longer. Not so, however, with savages, who are intermediate -in this as in other respects between man and ape; and there are -various other facts which seem to indicate that the evolution of -the great toe, like that of the other extreme of the body—the -head and brain—is still in progress.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is a notion very prevalent among artists that the second -toe should be longer than the first. This idea, Professor Flower -thinks, is derived from the Greek canon, which in its turn was -copied from the Egyptian, and probably originally derived from -the negro. It certainly does not represent what is most usual in -our race and time. “Among hundreds of bare, and therefore -undeformed, feet of children I lately examined in Perthshire, I -was not able to find one in which the second toe was the longest. -Since in all apes—in fact, in all other animals—the first toe is -considerably shorter than the second, a long first toe is a specially -human attribute; and instead of being despised by artists, it -should be looked upon as a mark of elevation in the scale of -organised beings.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. J. P. Harrison, after a careful examination of the unrestored -feet of Greek and Roman statues in various museums and art -galleries, wrote an article in the <cite>Journal of the Anthropological -Institute of Great Britain</cite> (vol. xiii. 1884), in which he states that -he was “led to the conviction that it was from Italy and not -Greece that the long second toe affected by many English artists -had been imported.” Among the Italians a longer second toe is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_360'>360</span>common, as also among Alsatians; in England so rarely that its -occurrence probably indicates foreign blood. Professor Flower, as -we have seen, found no cases at all; Paget examined twenty-seven -English males, in twenty-four of whom the great toe was the longer. -“In the case of the female feet, in ten out of twenty-three subjects -the first or great toe was longest, and <em>in ten females it was -shorter</em> than the second toe. In the remaining three instances the -first and second toes were of equal length.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bear these last sentences in mind a moment, till we have seen -what is the case with savages. Says Dr. Bruner: “A slight -shortening of the great toe undoubtedly exists, not merely amongst -the Negro tribes, but also in ancient and modern Egyptians, and even -in some of the most beautiful races of Caucasian <em>females</em>.” And Mr. -Harrison found this to be, with a few exceptions, a general trait of -savages. The great toe was shorter than the second in skeletons -of Peruvians, Tahitians, New Hebrideans, Savage islanders, Ainos, -New Caledonians.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Must we therefore agree with Carl Vogt when he says, “We -may be sure that, whenever we perceive an approach to the animal -type, the female is nearer to it than the male”?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps, however, we can find a solution of the problem <em>somewhat</em> -less insulting to women than this statement of the ungallant -German professor.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is <em>Fashion</em>, the handmaid of ugliness, that has thus apparently -caused almost half the women to approximate the simian -type of the foot; <em>Fashion</em>, which, by inducing women for centuries -to thrust their tender feet into Spanish boots of torture, has taken -from their toes the freedom of action requisite for that free development -and growth which is to be noticed in almost all the men.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Considering the great difference between the left and the right -foot, it appears almost incredible, but is a sober fact, that until -about half a century ago “rights and lefts” were not made even -for the men, who now always wear them. But even to-day “they -are not, it is believed, made use of by women, except in a shape -that is little efficacious,” says Mr. Harrison; and concerning the -Austrians Dr. Schaffer remarks, similarly, that “the like shoe for -the left and right foot is still in use in the vast majority of cases.” -No wonder women are so averse to taking exercise, and therefore -lose their beauty at a time when it ought to be still in full bloom. -For to walk in such shoes must be a torture forbidding all unnecessary -movement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Once more be it said—it is Fashion, the handmaid of ugliness, -that is responsible for the inferior beauty of the average female -<span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span>foot, by preventing the free development and play of the toes -which are absolutely necessary for a graceful walk.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To what an extent the woful rarity of a graceful gait is due to -the shape of “fashionable” shoes is vividly brought out in a passage -concerning the natives of Martinique, which appeared in a letter in -the New York <cite>Evening Post</cite>: “Many of the quadroons are handsome, -even beautiful, in their youth, and all the women of pure -black and mixed blood walk with a lightness of step and a graceful -freedom of motion that is very noticeable and pleasant to see. I -say all the women; but I must confine this description to those -who go shoeless, for when a negress crams her feet into even the -best-fitting pair of shoes her gait becomes as awkward as the -waddle of an Indian squaw, or of a black swan on dry land, and she -minces and totters in such danger of falling forward that one feels -constrained to go to her and say, ‘Mam’selle Ebène or Noirette, do, -I beseech you, put your shoes where you carry everything else, -namely, on the top of your well-balanced head, and do let me see -you walk barefoot again, for I do assure you that neither your -Chinese cousins nor your European mistresses can ever hope to -imitate your goddess-like gait until they practise the art of walking -with their high-heeled, tiny boots nicely balanced on <em>their</em> -heads, as you so often are pleased to do.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is another lesson to be learned from this discussion, -namely, that in trying to establish the principles of Beauty, it is -better to follow one’s own taste than adhere blindly to Greek -canons, and what are supposed to be Greek canons. The -longer second toe, as we have seen, is not a characteristic of -Greek art, but due apparently to restorations made in Italy -where this peculiarity prevails. The Greeks, indeed, never -hesitated to idealise and improve Nature if caught napping; -and there can be little doubt that if in their own feet the first toe -had been shorter than the second, they would have made it longer -all the same in their statues, following the laws of gradation and -curvature which a longer second toe would interrupt. For it is -undeniable that, as Mr. Harrison remarks, “a model foot, according -to Flaxman, is one in which the toes follow each other imperceptibly -in a graceful curve from the first or great toe to the fifth.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>NATIONAL DIFFERENCES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The statement made above regarding the prevalence among -Italians of a longer second toe enables us also to qualify the -remark made in the <cite>Westminster Review</cite> (1884), that “Even -at the present day it is a fact well known to all sculptors that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span>Italy possesses the finest models as regards the female hands and -feet in any part of Europe; and that to the eye of an Italian the -wrists and ankles of most English women would not serve as a -study even for those revivalisms of the antique which are to be -purchased in our streets for a few shillings.” Whatever may be -true of wrists and ankles, the toes must be excepted, at least if a -larger percentage of Italian than of English women have the second -toe longer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although in matters where so many individual differences exist -it is hazardous to generalise, the following remarks on national -peculiarities in feet, made by a reviewer of Zachariae’s <cite>Diseases of -the Human Foot</cite>, may be cited for what they are worth: “The -French foot is meagre, narrow, and bony; the Spanish foot is -small and elegantly curved, thanks to its Moorish blood.... The -Arab foot is proverbial for its high arch; ‘a stream can run under -his foot,’ is a description of its form. The foot of the Scotch is -large and thick—that of the Irish flat and square—the English -short and fleshy. The American foot is apt to be disproportionately -small.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>BEAUTIFYING HYGIENE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Walking, running, and dancing are the most potent cosmetics -for producing a foot beautiful in form and graceful in movement. -It is possible that much walking does slightly increase the size of -the foot, but not enough to become perceptible in the life of an -individual; and it has been sufficiently shown that the standard of -Beauty in a foot is not smallness but curved outlines, litheness, and -grace of gait, these qualities being a thousand times more powerful -“love-charms” than the smallest Chinese foot. Moreover, it is -probable that <em>graceful</em> walking has no tendency to enlarge the foot -as a whole, but only the great toe; and a well-developed great toe -is a distinctive sign of higher evolution.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is useless for any one to try to walk or dance gracefully in -shoes which do not allow the toes to spread and act like two sets -of elastic springs. One of the most curious aberrations of modern -taste is the notion that the shape of the natural foot is not beautiful—that -it will look better if made narrowest in front instead -of widest. Even were this so, it would not pay to sacrifice all -grace to a slight gain in Beauty. But it is not so. It is only -habit, which blunts perception, that makes us indifferent to the -ugliness of the pointed shoes in our shop-windows, or even in many -cases prefer them to naturally-shaped shoes. Were we once accustomed -to properly-shaped hygienic boots, in which no part of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span>foot is cramped, our present shoes, with their unnatural curves -where there should be none, and the absence of curves where they -should be (“rights and lefts”), would seem as “awful” and -“horrid” as the old crinoline does to the eyes of the present -generation. As Professor Flower remarks: “The fact that the -excessively pointed, elongated toes of the time of Richard II., for -instance, were superseded by the broad, round-toed, almost elephantine, -but most comfortable shoes seen in the portraits of Henry -VIII. and his contemporaries, shows that there is nothing in the -former essential to the gratification of the æsthetic instincts of -mankind. Each form was, doubtless, equally admired in the time -of its prevalence.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Germans claim that it was one of their countrymen, Petrus -Camper, who first called attention, about a hundred years ago, to -another objectionable peculiarity of the modern shoe—its high -heels—ruinous alike to comfort, grace, and health (a number of -female diseases being caused by them); yet they admit that Camper’s -advice was hardly heeded by the Germans, and that it therefore -serves them right that quite recently the modern hygienic -shoe, with low, broad heels, has been introduced in Germany as -the “English form,” the English having proved themselves less -obtuse and conservative in this matter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The heel is, however, capable of still further improvement. It -is not elastic like the cushion of the heel, after which it should be -modelled; and Dr. Schaffer’s suggestion that an elastic mechanism -should be introduced in the heel is certainly worthy of trial. -Everybody knows how much more lightly, gracefully, as well as -noiselessly, he can walk in rubbers than in leather shoes; and this -gain is owing to the superior elasticity of the heel and the middle -part of the shoe, covering the arch, which should be especially -elastic. It is pleasanter to walk in a meadow than on a stone -pavement; but if we wear soles that are both soft and elastic we -need never walk on a hard surface; for then, as Dr. Schaffer -remarks, “we have the meadow in our boots.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>As the left foot always differs considerably from the right, it is -not sufficient to have one measure taken. The fact that shoemakers -do take but one measure shows what clumsy bunglers most of -them are. As a rule, it is easier to get a fit from a large stock of -ready-made boots than at a shoemaker’s.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The stockings, as well as the shoes, often cramp and deform -the foot; and Professor Flower suggests that they should never -be made with pointed toes, or similar forms for both sides. -Digitated stockings, however, are a nuisance, for they hamper the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span>free and elastic action of the toes. Woollen stockings are the best -both for summer and winter use. No one who has ever experienced -the comfort of wearing woollen socks (and underclothes in -general), will ever dream of reverting to silk, cotton, or any other -material.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Soaking the feet in water in which a handful of salt has been -dissolved, several times a week, is an excellent way of keeping the -skin in sound condition. For perfect cleanliness it does not suffice -to change the socks frequently. As the author of the <cite>Ugly Girl -Papers</cite> remarks, “The time will come when we will find it as -shocking to our ideas to wear out a pair of boots without putting -in new lining as we think the habits of George the First’s time, -when maids of honour went without washing their faces for a -week, and people wore out their linen without the aid of a -laundress.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>DANCING AND GRACE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Among the ancients dancing included graceful gestures and -poses of all parts of the body, as well as facial expression. In -Oriental dancing of the present day, likewise, graceful movements -of the arms and upper part of the body play a more important <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> -than the lower limbs. Modern dancing, on the contrary, is chiefly -an affair of the lower extremities. It is pre-eminently an exercise -of the toes; and herein lies its hygienic and beautifying value, for, -as we have seen, grace of gait depends chiefly on the firm litheness -and springiness of the toes, especially the great toe. By their -grace of gait one can almost always distinguish persons who have -enjoyed the privilege of dancing-lessons, which have strengthened -their toes and, by implication, many other muscles, not forgetting -those of the arm, which has to hold the partner.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are thousands of young women who have no opportunities -for prolonged and exhilarating exercise except in ballrooms. In -the majority of cases, unfortunately, Fashion, the handmaid of -Ugliness and Disease, frustrates the advantages which would -result from dancing by prescribing for ballrooms not only the -smallest shoes, but the tightest corsets and the lowest dresses, -which render it impossible or imprudent to breathe fresh air, -without which exercise is of no hygienic value, and may even be -injurious. But what are such trifling sacrifices as Health, -Beauty, and Grace compared to the glorious consciousness of -being fashionable!</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span> - <h3 class='c014'>DANCING AND COURTSHIP</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The ballroom is Cupid’s camping ground, not only because it -facilitates the acquisition of that grace by which he is so easily -enamoured, but because it affords such excellent opportunities for -Courtship and Sexual Selection. And this applies not only to the -era of modern Romantic Love, but, from its most primitive manifestations -in the animal world, dancing, like song, has been -connected with love and courtship.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Darwin devotes several pages to a description of the love-antics -and dances of birds. Some of them, as the black African weaver, -perform their love-antics on the wing, “gliding through the air -with quivering wings, which make a rapid whirring sound like a -child’s rattle;” others remain on the ground, like the English -white-throat, which “flutters with a fitful and fantastic motion;” -or the English bustard, who “throws himself into indescribably -odd attitudes whilst courting the female;” and a third class, the -famous Bower-birds, perform their love-antics in bowers specially -constructed and adorned with leaves, shells, and feathers. These -are the earliest <em>ballrooms</em> known in natural history; and it is -quite proper to call them so, for, as Darwin remarks, they “are -built on the ground for the sole purpose of courtship, for their -nests are formed in trees.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Passing on to primitive man, we again find him inferior to -animals in not knowing that the sole proper function of dancing is -in the service of Love, courtship, and grace. Savages have three -classes of dance, two being performed by the men alone, the third -by men and women. First come the war-dances, in which the -grotesquely-painted warriors brandish their spears and utter unearthly -howls, to excite themselves for an approaching contest. -Second, the Hunter’s Dances, in which the game is impersonated -by some of the men and chased about, which leads to many comic -scenes; though there is a serious undercurrent of superstition, for -they believe that such dances—a sort of saltatorial prayer—bring -on good luck in the subsequent real chase. Third, the dance of -Love, practised <i>e.g.</i> by the Brazilian Indians, with whom “men -and women dance a rude courting dance, advancing in lines with -a kind of primitive polka step” (Tylor.) That there is as little -refinement and idealism in the savage’s dances as in his love-affairs -in general is self-evident.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The civilised nations of antiquity, as we have seen, had no -prolonged Courtship, and therefore no Romantic Love. Since -<span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span>young men and women were not allowed to meet freely, dancing -was of course not esteemed as a high social accomplishment. It -was therefore commonly relegated to a special class of women (or -slaves), such as the Bayaderes of India and the Greek flute girls. -Notwithstanding that even the Greek gods are sometimes represented -as dancing, yet this art came to be considered a sign of -effeminacy in men who indulged in it; and as for the Romans, their -view is indicated in Cicero’s anathema: “No man who is sober -dances, unless he is out of his mind, either when alone or in decent -society, for dancing is the companion of wanton conviviality, -dissoluteness, and luxury.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In ancient Egypt, too, the upper classes were not allowed to -learn dancing. And herein, as in so many things in which women -are concerned, the modern Oriental is the direct descendant of the -ancients. “In the eyes of the Chinese,” says M. Letourneau, -“dancing is a ridiculous amusement by which a man compromises -his dignity.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Plato appears to have been the first who recognised the importance -of dancing as affording opportunities for Courtship and -pre-matrimonial acquaintance. But his advice remained unheeded -by his countrymen. A view regarding dancing similar to Plato’s -was announced by an uncommonly liberal theologian of the sixteenth -century in the words, as quoted by Scherr, that “Dancing had -been originally arranged and permitted with the respectable -purpose of teaching manners to the young in the presence of many -people, and enabling young men and maidens to form honest -attachments. For in the dance it was easy to observe and note -the habits and peculiarities of the young.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we see that, with the exception of the savage’s war-dances -and hunting pantomimes, the art of dancing has at all times and -everywhere been born of love; even the ancient religious dances -having commonly been but a veil concealing other purposes, as -among the Greeks. But all ceremonial dancing, like ceremonial -kissing, has been from the beginning doomed to be absorbed and -annihilated by the all-engrossing modern passion of Romantic Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>True, as a miser mistakes the means for the end and loves gold -for its own sake, so we sometimes see girls dance alone—possibly -with a vaguely coy intention of giving the men to understand that -they can get along without them. But their heart is not in it, and -they never do it when there are men enough to go round. As for -the men, they are too open and frank ever to veil their sentiments. -They never dance except with a woman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To-day our fashion and society papers are eternally complaining -<span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span>of the fact that the young men—especially the <em>desirable</em> young -men—seem to have lost all interest in dancing. But who is to -blame for this? Certainly not the men. It is <em>Fashion</em> again, -and the mothers who sacrifice the matrimonial prospects of their -daughters—as well as their Health, Beauty, and Individuality—to -this hideous fetish. It is the late hours of the dance, prescribed -by Fashion, that are responsible for the apparent loss of masculine -interest in this art. Formerly, when aristocracy meant laziness -and stupidity, the habit of turning night into day was harmless -or even useful, because it helped to rid the world prematurely of a -lot of fools. But to-day the leading men of the community are -also the busiest. Aristocracy implies activity, intellectual and -otherwise. Hence there are few men in the higher ranks who -have not their regular work to do during the day. To ask them -after a day’s hard labour to go to a dance beginning at midnight -and ending at four or five is to ask them to commit suicide. -Sensible men do not believe in slow suicide, hence they avoid -dancing-parties as if such parties were held in small-pox hospitals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let society women throw their stupid conservatism to the -winds. Let them arrange balls to begin at eight or nine and end -at midnight or one, and “desirable” men will be only too eager -to flock to assemblies which they now shun. The result will be a -sudden and startling diminution in the number of old maids and -bachelors.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is the <em>moral duty</em> of mothers who have marriageable daughters -to encourage this reform. Maternal love does not merely -imply solicitude for the first twenty years of a daughter’s life, but -careful provision for the remainder of her life, covering twice that -period, by enabling her to meet and choose a husband after her -own heart</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>EVOLUTION OF DANCE MUSIC</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Did space permit, it would be interesting to study in detail the -dances of various epochs and countries, coloured, like the Love -which originated them, by national peculiarities—the Polish -mazourka and polonaise, the Spanish fandango, the Viennese -waltz, the Parisian cancan, etc. Suffice it to note the great -difference between the dances of a few generations ago and those -of to-day, as shown most vividly in the evolution of dance-music.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The earliest dance-tunes are vocal, and were sung by the (professional) -dancers themselves, in the days when the young were -not yet allowed to meet, converse, and flirt and dance. Subsequently, -the transference of dance-music to instruments played by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span>others gave the dancers opportunity to perform more complicated -figures, and made it possible to converse. But even as late as the -eighteenth century dancing and dance-music were characterised by -a stately reserve, slowness, and pompous dignity which showed at -once that they had nothing to do with Romantic Love. It was -not the fiery, passionate youths who danced these solemnly stupid -minuets, gavottes, sarabandes, and allemandes, but the older folks, -whose perruques, and collars, and frills, and bloated clothes would -not have enabled them to execute rapid movements even if the -warm blood of youth had coursed in their veins.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How all this artificiality and snail-like pomp has been brushed -away by triumphant Romantic Love, which has secured for modern -lovers the privilege of dancing together before they are married -and cease to care for it! True, we still have the monotonous -soporific quadrille, as if to remind us of bygone times; but the -true modern dance is the round dance, which differs from the -stately mediæval dance as a jolly rural picnic does from a formal -morning call.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The difference between the mediæval and the modern dance is -thus indicated by F. Bremer:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Peculiar to modern dance-music is the round dance, especially -the waltz; and it is in consequence warmer than the older dance-music, -more passionate in expression, in rhythm and modulation -more sharply accented. As its creator we must regard Carl Maria -von Weber, who, in his <cite>Invitation to Dance</cite>, struck the keynote -through which subsequently, in the music of Chopin, Lanner, -Strauss, Musard, etc., utterance was given to the whole gamut -of dreamy, languishing, sentimental, ardent passion. The consequence -was the displacement of the stately, measured dances -by impetuous, chivalrous forms; and in place of the former naïve -sentimentality and childish mirth, it is the <em>rapture of Love</em> that -constitutes the spirit of modern dance-music.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Not to speak of more primitive dance-tunes, what a difference -there is between the slow and dreary monotony of eighteenth century -dances and a Viennese waltz of to-day! The vast superiority -of a Strauss waltz lies in this—that it is no longer a mere rhythmic -noise calculated to guide the steps, and skips, and bows, and evolutions -of the dancers, but <em>the symphonic accompaniment to the first -act in the drama of Romantic Love</em>. It recognises the fact that -Courtship is the prime object of the dance. Hence, though still -bound by the inevitable dance rhythm, Strauss is ever trying to -break loose from it, to secure that freedom and variety of rhythm -which is needed to give full utterance to passion. Note the slow, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span>pathetic introductions; the signs in the score indicating an accelerated -or retarded tempo when the waltz is played at a concert, -where the uniformity of ballroom movement is not called for; note -what subtle use he makes of all the other means of expressing -amorous feeling—the wide melodic intervals, the piquant, stirring -harmonies, the exquisitely melancholy flashes of instrumental -colouring, alternating with cheerful moments, showing a subtle -psychologic art of translating the Mixed Moods of Love into the -language of tones.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the waltzes, mazourkas, and polonaises of Chopin we see still -more strikingly that the true function of dance-music is amorous. -Even as Dante’s Love for Beatrice was too super-sensual, too -ethereal for this world, so Chopin’s dance-pieces are too subtle, -too full of delicate <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>nuances</i></span> of <em>tempo</em> and Love episodes, to be -adapted to a ballroom with ordinary mortals. Graceful fairies -alone could dance a Chopin waltz; mortals are too heavy, too -clumsy. They can follow an amorous Chopin waltz with the -imagination alone, which is the abode of Romantic Love. To a -Strauss waltz a hundred couples may make love at once, hence he -writes for the orchestra; but Chopin wrote for the parlour piano, -because the feelings he utters are too deep to be realised by more -than two at a time—one who plays and one who listens, till their -souls dance together in an ecstatic embrace of Mutual Sympathy.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>THE DANCE OF LOVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is at Vienna, which has more feminine grace and beauty to -the square mile than any other city in the world, that the art of -dancing is to be seen in its greatest perfection. No wonder that -it is the home of the Waltz-King, Johann Strauss; and that a -Viennese feuilletonist has shown the deepest insight into the -psychology of the dance in an article from which the following -excerpts are taken:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>"The waltz has a creative, a rejuvenating power, which no -other dance possesses. The skipping polka is characterised by a -certain stiffness and angularity, a rhythm rather sober and old-fashioned. -The galop is a wild hurricane, which moves along -rudely and threatens to blow over everything that comes in its -way; it is the most brutal of all dances, an enemy of all tender -and refined feelings, a bacchanalian rushing up and down....</p> - -<p class='c001'>"The waltz, therefore, remains as the only true and real dance. -Waltzing is not walking, skipping, jumping, rushing, raving; it is -a gentle floating and flying; from the heaviest men it seems to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>take away some of their materiality, to raise the most massive -women from the ground into the air. True, the Viennese alone -know how to dance it, as they alone know how to play it....</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The waltz insists on a personal monopoly, on being loved for -its own sake, and permits no vapid side-remarks regarding the fine -weather, the hot room, the toilets of the ladies; the couple glide -along hardly speaking a word; except that she may beg for a -pause, or he, indefatigable, insatiable, intoxicated by the music -and motion, the fragrance of flowers and ladies, invites her to a -new flight around the hall. And yet is this mute dance the most -eloquent, the most expressive and emotional, the most sensuous -that could be imagined; and if the dancer has anything to say to -his partner, let him mutely confide it to her in the sweet whirl -of a waltz, for then the music is his advocate, then every bar -pleads for him, every note is a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>billet-doux</i></span>, every breath a declaration -of love. Jealous husbands do not allow their wives to waltz -with another man. They are right, for the waltz is the Dance of -Love.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>BALLET-DANCING</h3> - -<p class='c013'>There is one more form of dancing which may be briefly alluded -to, because it illustrates the hypocrisy of the average mortal as -well as the rarity of true æsthetic taste. Solo ballet-dancing is -admired not only by the bald-headed old men in the parquet, but -there are critics who seriously discuss such dancing as if it were a -fine art; generally lamenting the good old times of the great and -graceful ballet-dancers. The truth is that ballet-dancing <em>never -can be graceful</em>, as now practised. To secure graceful movement -it is absolutely necessary to make use of the elasticity of the toes—to -touch the ground at the place where the toes articulate with -the middle foot, and to give the last push with the yielding great -toe. Ballet-dancers, however, walk on the tips of their stiffened -toes, the result of which is, as the anatomist, Professor Kollmann, -remarks, that “their gait is deprived of all elasticity and becomes -stiff, as in going on stilts.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It speaks well for the growing sensibility of mankind that this -form of dancing is gradually losing favour. Like the vocal tight-rope -dancing of the operatic <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>prime donne</i></span> with whom ballet-dancers -are associated, their art is a mere circus-trick, gaped at -as a difficult <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>tour de force</i></span>, but appealing in no sense to æsthetic -sentiments.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These strictures, of course, apply merely to solo-dancing on -tiptoe. The spectacular ballet, which delights the eye with kaleidoscopic -<span class='pageno' id='Page_371'>371</span>colours and groupings, is quite another thing, and may be -made highly artistic.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE LOWER LIMBS</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The assumption by man of an erect attitude has modified and -improved the appearance of his leg and thigh quite as marvellously -as his feet. “In walking,” says Professor Kollmann, “the weight -of the body is alternately transferred from one foot to the other. -Each one is obliged in locomotion to take its turn in supporting -the whole body, which explains the great size of the muscles which -make up man’s calf. The ape’s calf is smaller for the reason that -these animals commonly go on all fours.” Professor Carl Vogt -gives these details: “No ape has such a cylindrical, <em>gradually -diminishing</em> thigh; and we are justified in saying that man alone -possesses thighs. The muscles of the leg are in man so accumulated -as to form a calf, while in the ape they are more equally distributed; -still, transitions are not wanting, since one of the greatest -characteristics of the negro consists in his calfless leg.” And -again: “Man possesses, as contrasted with the ape, a distinctive -character in the strength, <em>rotundity</em>, and length of the lower limb; -especially in the thighs, which in most animals are shortened in -proportion to the leg.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The words here italicised call attention to two of the qualities -of Beauty—gradation and the curve of rotundity—which the lower -limbs in their evolution are thus seen to be gradually approximating. -Other improvements are seen in the greater smoothness, the -more graceful and expressive gait resulting from the rounded but -straight knee, etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The implication that savages are in the muscular development -of their limbs intermediate between apes and civilised men calls -for further testimony and explanation. Waitz states that “in -regard to muscular power Indians are commonly inferior to -Europeans”; and Mr. Herbert Spencer has collected much evidence -of a similar nature. The Ostyaks have “thin and slender -legs”; the Kamtchadales “short and slender legs”; those of the -Chinooks are “small and crooked”; and the African Akka have -“short and bandy legs.” The legs of Australians are “inferior in -mass of muscle”; the gigantic Patagonians have limbs “neither -so muscular nor so large-boned as their height and apparent bulk -would induce one to suppose.” Spencer likewise calls attention to -the fact that relatively-inferior legs are “a trait which, remotely -<span class='pageno' id='Page_372'>372</span>simian, is also repeated by the child of the civilised man”—which -thus individually passes through the several stages of development -that have successively characterised its ancestors.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Numerous exceptions are of course to be found to the rule that -the muscular rotundity and plumpness of the limbs increases with -civilisation. The lank shins which may be seen by the hundred -among the bathers at our sea-coast resorts contrast disadvantageously -with many photographs of savages; and tourists in Africa -and among South American Indians and elsewhere have often -enough noted the occurrence of individuals and tribes who would -have furnished admirable models for sculptors. But this only -proves, on the one hand, that “civilised” persons who are uncivilised -in their neglect of the laws of Health, inevitably lose certain -traits of Beauty which exercise alone can give; while, on the other -hand, those “savages” who lead an active and healthy life are <em>in -so far</em> civilised, and therefore enjoy the superior attractions bestowed -by civilisation. Moreover, as Mr. Spencer suggests, “In combat, -the power exercised by arm and trunk is limited by the power of -the legs to withstand the strain thrown on them. Hence, apart -from advantages in locomotion, the stronger-legged nations have -tended to become, other things equal, dominant races.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Rengger,” says Darwin, “attributes the thin legs and thick -arms of the Payaguas Indians to successive generations having -passed nearly their whole lives in canoes, with their lower extremities -motionless. Other writers have come to a similar conclusion -in analogous cases.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although savages have to hunt for a living and occasionally go -to war, they are essentially a lazy crew, taking no more exercise -than necessary; which accounts for the fact that, with the exceptions -noted, their muscular development is inferior to that of higher -races.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>BEAUTIFYING EXERCISE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>One of the most discouraging aspects of modern life is the -growing tendency toward concentration of the population in large -cities. Not only is the air less salubrious in cities than in the -country, but the numerous cheap facilities for riding discourage the -habit of walking. London is one of the healthiest cities, and the -English the most vigorous race, in the world; yet it is said that it -is difficult to trace a London family down through five generations. -Few Paris families can, it is said, be traced even through three -generations. Without constant rural accessions cities would tend -to become depopulated.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_373'>373</span>The enormous importance of exercise for Health and Beauty, -which are impossible without it, is vividly brought out in this -statement of Kollmann’s: “Muscles which are thoroughly exercised -do not only retain their strength, but increase in circumference -and power, in man as in animals. The flesh is then firm, and -coloured intensely red. In a paralysed arm the muscles are -degenerated, and have lost a portion of one of their most important -constituents—albumen. Repeated contractions strengthen a muscle, -because motion accelerates the circulation of the blood and the -nutrition of the tissues. What a great influence this has on the -whole body may be inferred from the fact that the organs of -locomotion—the skeleton and muscles—make up more than 82 -per cent of the substance of the body. With this enormous proportion -of bone and muscle, it is obvious that exercise is essential -to bodily health.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Exercise in a gymnasium is useful but monotonous; and too -often the benefits are neutralised by the insufficient provision for -fresh air, without which exercise is worse than useless. Hence the -superiority of open-air games—base-ball, tennis, rowing, riding, -swimming, etc., to the addiction to which the English owe so much -of their superior physique. Tourists in Canada invariably notice -the wonderful figures of the women, which they owe largely to -their fondness for skating. “Beyond question,” says the <cite>Lancet</cite>, -“skating is one of the finest sports, especially for ladies. It is -graceful, healthy, stimulating to the muscles, and it develops in a -very high degree the important faculty of balancing the body and -preserving perfect control over the whole of the muscular system, -while bringing certain muscles into action at will. Moreover, there -is this about it which is of especial value: it trains by exercise the -power of intentionally inducing and maintaining a continuous contraction -of the muscles of the lower extremity. The joints, hip, -knee, and ankle are firmly fixed or rather kept steadily under -control, while the limbs are so set by their muscular apparatus -that they form, as it were, part of the skate that glides over the -smooth surface. To skate well and gracefully is a very high -accomplishment indeed, and perhaps one of the very best exercises -in which young women and girls can engage with a view to healthful -development.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>For the acquisition of a graceful gait women need such exercise -more even than men; and while engaged in it they should pay -especial attention to exercising the left side of the body. On this -point Sir Charles Bell has made the following suggestive remarks:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We see that opera-dancers execute their more difficult feats -<span class='pageno' id='Page_374'>374</span>on the right foot, but their preparatory exercises better evince the -natural weakness of the left limb; in order to avoid awkwardness -in the public exhibitions, they are obliged to give double practice -to the left leg; and if they neglect to do so an ungraceful preference -to the right side will be remarked. In walking behind a -person we seldom see an equalised motion of the body; the tread -is not so firm upon the left foot, the toe is not so much turned out, -and a greater push is made with the right. From the peculiar -form of woman, and from the elasticity of her step, resulting from -the motion of the ankle rather than of the haunches, the defect of -the left foot, when it exists, is more apparent in her gait.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Those who wish to acquire a graceful gait will find several -useful hints in this extract from Professor Kollmann’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Plastische -Anatomie</cite></span>, p. 506:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Human gait, it is well known, is subject to individual variations. -Differences are to be noted not only in rapidity of motion, -but as regards the position of the trunk and the movements of the -limbs, within certain limits. For instance, the gait of very fat -persons is somewhat vacillating; other persons acquire a certain -dignity of gait by bending and stretching their limbs as little as -possible while taking long steps; and others still bend their knees -very much, which gives a slovenly character to their gait. And -as regards the attitude of the trunk, a different effect is given -according as it is inclined backwards or forwards, or executes -superfluous movements in the same direction or to the sides. All -these peculiarities make an impression on our eyes, while our ears -are impressed at the same time by the differences in rapidity of -movement, so that we learn to recognise our friends by the sound -of their walk as we do by the quality of their voice.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bell states that “upwards of fifty muscles of the arm and -hand may be demonstrated, which must all consent to the -simplest action.” Walking is a no less complicated affair, to -which the attention of men of science has been only quite recently -directed. The new process of instantaneous photography has -been found very useful, but much remains to be done before the -mystery of a graceful gait can be considered solved. If some -skilled photographer would go to Spain and take a number of -instantaneous pictures of Andalusian girls, the most graceful -beings in the world, in every variety of attitude and motion, he -might render most valuable service to the cause of personal -æsthetics.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The time will come, no doubt, when dancing masters and -mistresses will consider the teaching of the waltz and the lancers -<span class='pageno' id='Page_375'>375</span>only the crudest and easiest part of their work, and when they -will have advanced classes who will be instructed in the refinements -of movement as carefully and as intelligently as professors -of music teach their pupils the proper use of the parts and muscles -of the hand, to attain a delicate and varied touch. The majority -of women might make much more progress in the art of gracefulness -than they ever will in music; and is not the poetry of -motion as noble and desirable an object of study as any other -fine art?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FASHIONABLE UGLINESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is the essence of fashion to exaggerate everything to the -point of ugliness. Instead of trying to remedy the disadvantages -to their gait resulting from anatomical peculiarities (just referred -to in a quotation from Bell), women frequently take pains to -deliberately exaggerate them. As Alexander Walker remarks: -“The largeness of the pelvis and the approximation of the knees -influence the gait of woman, and render it vacillating and unsteady. -Conscious of this, women, in countries where the nutritive system -in general and the pelvis in particular are large, affect a greater -degree of this vacillating unsteadiness. An example of this is -seen in the lateral and rotatory motion which is given to the -pelvis in walking by certain classes of the women in London.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Egyptians and Arabians consider this ludicrous rotatory -motion a great fascination, and have a special name for it—Ghung.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But Fashion, the handmaid of ugliness, is not content with -aping the bad taste of Arabians and Egyptians. It goes several -steps lower than that, down to the Hottentots. The latest hideous -craze of Fashion, against which not one woman in a hundred -had taste or courage enough to revolt—the bustle or “dress-improver” (!)—was -simply the milliner’s substitute for an anatomical -peculiarity natural to some African savages.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is well known,” says Darwin, “that with many Hottentot -women the posterior part of the body projects in a wonderful -manner; they are steatopygous; and Sir Andrew Smith is certain -that this peculiarity is greatly admired by the men. He once -saw a woman who was considered a beauty, and she was so -immensely developed behind, that when seated on level ground -she could not rise, and had to push herself along until she came to -a slope. Some of the women in various negro tribes have the -same peculiarity; and, according to Burton, the Somal men ‘are -said to choose their wives by ranging them in a line, and by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_376'>376</span>picking her out who projects farthest <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><i>a tergo</i></span>. Nothing can be -more hateful to a negro than the opposite form.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Evidently “civilised” and savage women do not differ as -regards Fashion, the handmaid of ugliness. But the men do. -While the male Hottentots admire the natural steatopyga of their -women, civilised men, without exception, detest the artificial -imitation of it, which makes a woman look and walk like a -deformed dromedary.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>THE CRINOLINE CRAZE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The bustle is not only objectionable in itself as a hideous -deformity and a revival of Hottentot taste, but still more as a -probable forerunner of that most unutterably vulgar article of -dress ever invented by Fashion—the crinoline. For we read that -when, in 1856, the crinoline came in again, it was preceded by -the “inelegant bustle in the upper part of the skirt”; and it is a -notorious fact that cunning milliners are making strenuous efforts -every year to reintroduce the crinoline.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In their abhorrence of the crinoline men do not stand alone. -There are several refined women to-day who would absolutely -refuse to submit to the tyranny of Fashion if it should again -prescribe the crinoline. One of these is evidently Mrs. Haweis, -who in <cite>The Art of Beauty</cite> remarks that “The crinoline superseded -all our <em>attention to posture</em>; whilst our long trains, which can -hardly look inelegant [?] even on clumsy persons, make small -ankles or thick ones a matter of little moment. We have become -inexpressibly slovenly. We no longer study how to walk, perhaps -the most difficult of all actions to do gracefully. Our fashionable -women stride and loll in open defiance of elegance,” etc. And -again: “This gown in outline simply looks <em>like a very ill-shaped -wine-glass upside down</em>. The wide crinoline entirely <em>conceals -every natural grace of attitude</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another lady, writing in the <cite>Atlantic Monthly</cite> (1859), remarks -concerning the crinoline: “A woman in this rig hangs in her -skirts <em>like a clapper in a bell</em>; and I never meet one without -being tempted to take her by the neck and ring her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>About 1710, says a writer in the <cite>Encyclopædia Britannica</cite>, -“as if resolved that their figures should rival their heads in -extravagance, they introduced the hooped petticoat, at first worn -in such a manner as to give to the person of the wearer below her -very tightly-laced waist a contour <em>resembling the letter V inverted</em>—<span class='large'>ʌ</span>. -The hooped dresses, thus introduced, about 1740 attained -to an enormous expansion; and being worn at their full circumference -<span class='pageno' id='Page_377'>377</span>immediately below the waist, they in many ways emulated -the most outrageous of the fardingales of the Elizabethan period.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“About 1744 hoops are mentioned as so extravagant,” says -Chambers’s <cite>Encyclopædia</cite>, “that <em>a woman occupied the space of -six men</em>.” George IV. had the good taste to abolish them by -royal command, but they were revived in 1856. The newspapers -of two decades ago daily contained accounts of accidents due to -the idiotic crinoline. “The <cite>Spectator</cite> dealt out much cutting, -though playful, raillery at the hoops of his day, but apparently -with little effect; and equally unavailing are the satires of <cite>Punch</cite> -and other caricaturists of the present time against the hideous -fashion of crinoline.... Owing to its prevalence, church-pews -that formerly held seven are now let for six, and yet feel rather -crowded. The hoops are sometimes made with a <em>circumference of -four or even five yards</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is universally admitted that the human form, in its perfection, -is Nature’s <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>chef d’œuvre</i></span>—the most finished specimen of her -workmanship. Yet the accounts of savage taste given by travellers -and anthropologists show that the savage is never satisfied with -the human outlines as God made them, but constantly mars and -mutilates them by altering the shape of the head, piercing the -nose, filing or colouring the teeth, enlarging the lips to enormous -dimensions, favouring an adipose bustle, etc. This is precisely -what modern Fashion, the handmaid of ugliness, does. We have -just seen how fashionable women, unable to comprehend the -beauty of the human form, have for several generations endeavoured -to give it the shape of “a very ill-shaped wine-glass, -upside down,” “a clapper in a bell,” or “the letter V inverted.” -And concerning Queen Elizabeth the <cite>Atlantic</cite> writer already -quoted says very pithily: “What with stomachers and pointed -waist and fardingale, and sticking in here and sticking out there, -and ruffs and cuffs, and ouches and jewels and puckers, she looks -<em>like a hideous flying insect</em> with expanded wings, seen through a -microscope—not at all like a woman.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fortunately, for the moment, the crinoline, like the fardingale, -is not “in fashion.” But, as already stated, there is considerable -danger of a new invasion every year; and, should Fashion proclaim -its edict, no doubt the vast majority of women would follow, -as they did a decade or two ago. In the interest of good taste, -as of common sense, it is therefore necessary to speak with brutal -frankness on this subject. There is good evidence to show that -the crinoline originated in the desire of an aristocratic dame of -low moral principles to conceal the evidences of a crime. Hence -<span class='pageno' id='Page_378'>378</span>the original French name for the crinoline—<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>Cache-Bâtard</i></span>. Will -respectable and refined women consent once more to have the -fashion set for them by a courtesan?</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE WAIST</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>THE BEAUTY CURVE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In a well-shaped waist, as in every other part of the body, the -curved line of Beauty, with its delicate gradations, exercises a -great charm. Examination of a Greek statue of the best period, -male or female, or of the goddess of beauty in the Pagoda at -Bangalur, India, shows a slight inward curve at the waist, whereas -in early Greek and Egyptian art this curve is absent. The waist, -therefore, like the feet and limbs, appears to have been gradually -moulded into accordance with the line of Beauty—a notion which -is also supported by the following remarks in Tylor’s <cite>Anthropology</cite>: -“If fairly chosen photographs of Kaffirs be compared with a -classic model such as the Apollo, it will be noticed that the trunk -of the African has a somewhat wall-sided straightness, wanting in -the inward slope which gives fineness to the waist, and in the -expansion below, which gives breadth across the hips, these being -two of the most noticeable points in the classic model which our -painters recognise as an ideal of manly beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In woman, owing to the greater dimensions of her pelvis, this -curvature is more pronounced than in man; yet even in woman it -must be slight if the laws of Health and Beauty are to suffer no -violation. “<em>Moderation</em>” is the one word which Mr. Buskin says -he would have inscribed in golden letters over the door of every -school of art. For “the least appearance of violence or extravagance, -of the want of moderation and restraint, is,” as he remarks, -“destructive of all beauty whatsoever in everything—colour, form, -motion, language, or thought—giving rise to that which in colour -we call glaring, in form inelegant, in motion ungraceful, in language -coarse, in thought undisciplined, in all unchastened; which qualities -are in everything most painful, because the signs of disobedient -and irregular operation. And herein we at last find the reason of -that which has been so often noted respecting the subtility and -almost invisibility of natural curves and colours, and why it is that -we look on those lines as least beautiful which fall into wide and -far license of curvature, and as most beautiful which approach -nearest (so that the curvilinear character be distinctly asserted) to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_379'>379</span>the government of the right line, as in the pure and severe curves -of the draperies of the religious painters,” etc.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>THE WASP-WAIST MANIA</h3> - -<p class='c013'>But Fashion, the handmaid of ugliness, too vulgar to appreciate -the exquisite beauty of slight and subtle curvature, makes woman’s -waist the most maltreated and deformed part of her body. There -is not one woman in a hundred who does not deliberately destroy -twenty per cent of her Personal Beauty by the way in which she -reduces the natural dimensions of her waist. There is, indeed, -ground to believe that the main reason why the bustle, and even -the crinoline, are not looked on with abhorrence by all women is -because they aid the corset in making the waist look smaller by -contrast. The Wasp-waist Mania is therefore the disease which -most imperatively calls for cure. But the task seems almost -hopeless; for, as a female writer remarks, it is almost as difficult -to cure a woman of the corset habit as a man of intemperance in -drink.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The injurious custom of tight lacing,” says Planché in his -<cite>Cyclopædia of Costumes</cite>, “‘a custom fertile in disease and death,’ -appears to have been introduced by the Normans as early as the -twelfth century; and the romances of the Middle Ages teem with -allusions to and laudations of the wasplike waists of the dames -and demoiselles of the period.... Chaucer, describing the carpenter’s -wife, says her body was ‘gentyll and small as a weasel’; -and the depraved taste extended to Scotland. Dunbar, in <cite>The -Thistle and the Rose</cite>, describing some beautiful women, observes—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘Their middles were as small as wands.’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>And to make their middles as small as possible has been ever -since an unfortunate mania with the generality of the fair sex, to -the detriment of their health and the distortion of their forms.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ever since 1602, when Felix Plater raised his voice against the -corset, physicians have written against tight lacing. But not only -has it been found impossible to cure this mania, even its causes -have remained a mystery to the present day. Certainly no man -can understand the problem. Is it simply the average woman’s -lack of taste that urges her thus to mutilate her Personal Beauty? -Is it the admiration of a few vulgar “mashers” and barber’s pets—since -educated men detest wasp-waists? Or is it simply the -proverbial feminine craze for emulating one another and arousing -envy by excelling in some extravagance of dress, no matter at what -<span class='pageno' id='Page_380'>380</span>cost? This last suggestion is probably the true solution of the -problem. The only satisfaction a woman can get from having a -wasp-waist is the envy of other silly women. What a glorious -recompense for her æsthetic suicide, her invalidism, and her humiliating -confession that she considers the natural shape of God’s -masterwork—the female body—inferior in beauty to the contours -of the lowly wasp!</p> - -<p class='c001'>With this ignoble pleasure derived from the envy of silly women -and the admiration of vulgar men, compare a few of the disadvantages -resulting from tight lacing. They are of two kinds—hygienic -and æsthetic.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Hygienic Disadvantages.</em>—Surely no woman can look without a -shudder at a fashionable Parisian figure placed side by side with -the Venus of Milo in Professor Flower’s <cite>Fashion in Deformity</cite>, in -Mrs. Haweis’s <cite>Art of Beauty</cite>, or in Behnke and Brown’s <cite>Voice, -Song, and Speech</cite>; or look without horror at the skeletons showing -the excessive compression of the lower ribs brought about by -fashionable lacing, and the injurious displacement, in consequence, -of some of the most important vital organs. Nor can any young -man who does not desire to marry a foredoomed invalid, and raise -sickly children, fail to be cured for ever of his love for any wasp-waisted -girl if he will take the trouble to read the account of the -terrible female maladies resulting from lacing, given in Dr. Gaillard -Thomas’s famous treatise on the <cite>Diseases of Women</cite>, in the chapter -on “Improprieties in Dress.” To cite only one sentence: Women, -he says, subject their waist to a “constriction which, in autopsy, -will sometimes be found to have <em>left the impress of the ribs upon -the liver, producing depressions corresponding to them</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Says Dr. J. J. Pope: “The German physiologist, Sömmering, -has enumerated no fewer than <em>ninety-two diseases</em> resulting from -tight lacing.... ‘But I do not lace tightly,’ every lady is ready -to answer. No woman ever did, if we accept her own statement. -Yet stay. Why does your corset unclasp with a snap? <em>And why -do you involuntarily take a deep breath directly it is loosened?</em>” -Young ladies who imagine they do not wear too tight stays, inasmuch -as they can still insert their hand, will find the fallacy and -danger of this reasoning exposed in Mr. B. Roth’s <cite>Dress: its -Sanitary Aspect</cite>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The last line which I have italicised is of extreme significance. -Perhaps the greatest of all evils resulting from tight lacing is that it -discourages or <em>prevents deep breathing</em>, which is so absolutely essential -to the maintenance of health and beauty. The “heaving -bosom” of a maiden may be a fine poetic expression, but it indicates -<span class='pageno' id='Page_381'>381</span>that the maiden wears stays and breathes at the wrong (upper) -end of her lungs. “The fact of a patient breathing in this manner -is noted by a physician as a grave symptom, because it indicates -mischief of a vital nature in lungs, heart, or other important organ.” -Healthy breathing should be chiefly costal or abdominal; but this -is made impossible by the corset, which compresses the lower ribs, -till, instead of being widely apart below, they meet in the middle, -and thus prevent the lungs from expanding and receiving the -normal share of oxygen, the only true elixir of life, youth, and -beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This wrong breathing, due to tight lacing, also causes “congestion -of the vessels of the neck and throat ... gasping, jerking, -and fatigue in inspiration, and unevenness, trembling, and undue -vibration in the production and emission of vocal tone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Further, as the <cite>Lancet</cite> points out, “tight stays are a common -cause of so-called ‘weak’ spine, due to weakness of muscles of the -back.” Lacing prevents the abdominal muscles from exercising -their natural functions—alternate relaxation and contraction: “A -tight-laced pair of stays acts precisely as a splint to the trunk, and -prevents or greatly impedes the action of the chief back muscles, -which therefore become weakened. The unfortunate wearer feels -her spine weaken, thinks she wants more support, so laces herself -still tighter; she no doubt does get some support in this way, but -at what a terrible cost!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In regard to tight corsets, as another physician has aptly remarked, -women are like the victims of the opium habit, who also -daily feel the need of a larger dose of their stimulant, every increment -of which adds a year to their age, and brings them a few -steps nearer disease and ugly decrepitude.</p> - -<p class='c001'><em>Æsthetic Disadvantages.</em>—Among the æsthetic disadvantages -resulting from the Wasp-waist Mania, the following may be mentioned, -besides the loss of a clear, mellow, musical voice already -referred to:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) A stiff, inflexible waist, with a coarsely exaggerated contour, -in place of the slight and subtle curvature so becoming to woman. -In other words, a violation of the first law of personal æsthetics—imposing -the shape of a vulgar garment on the human form, instead -of making the dress follow the outlines of the body.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(2) A sickly, sallow complexion, pale lips, a red nose, lack of -buoyancy, general feebleness, lassitude, apathy, and stupidity, -resulting from the fact that the compression of the waist induces -an oxygen-famine. The eyes lose their sparkle and love-inspiring -magic, the features are perceptibly distorted, the brow is prematurely -<span class='pageno' id='Page_382'>382</span>wrinkled, and the expression and temper are soured by the -constant discomfort that has to be silently endured.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) Ugly shoulders. A woman’s shoulders should be sloping -and well rounded, like every other part of her body. Regarding -the common feminine deformity of square shoulders, Drs. Brinton -and Napheys remark, in their work on <cite>Personal Beauty</cite>, that “in -four cases out of five it has been brought about by too close-fitting -corsets, which press the shoulder-blades behind, and collar-bones in -front, too far upwards, and thus ruin the appearance of the -shoulders.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(4) An ugly bust. Tight lacing “flattens and displaces the -breasts.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(5) Clumsiness. The corset is ruinous to grace. “Almost -daily,” says Dr. Alice B. Stockham (<cite>Tokology</cite>), “women come to -my office [in Chicago] burdened with bands and heavy clothing, -every vital organ restricted by dress. It is not unusual to count -from <em>sixteen to eighteen thicknesses of cloth</em> worn tightly about the -pliable structure of the waist.” And Dr. Lennox Browne advances -the following crushing <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>argumentum ad feminam</i></span>:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is impossible for the stiffly-corseted girl to be other than -inelegant and ungraceful in her movements. Her imprisoned -waist, with its flabby muscles, has no chance of performing beautiful -undulatory movements. In the ballroom the ungraceful motions -of our stiff-figured ladies are bad enough; there is no possibility for -poetry of motion; but nowhere is this more ludicrously and, to the -thoughtful, painfully manifest than in the tennis court. Let any -one watch the movements of ladies as compared with those of male -players, and the absolute ugliness of the female figure, with its -stiff, unyielding, deformed, round waist, will at once be seen. -Ladies can only bend the body from the hip-joint. All that wonderfully -contrived set of hinges, with their connected muscles, in -the elastic column of the spine, is unable to act from the shoulders -downwards; and their figures remind one of the old-fashioned -modern Dutch doll.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>CORPULENCE AND LEANNESS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Many women consider the corset necessary as a figure-improver, -especially if they suffer from excessive fatness. They will be surprised -to hear that the corset is one of the principal causes of their -corpulence. Says Professor M. Williams: “There is one horror -which no lady can bear to contemplate, viz. fat. What is fat? -It is an accumulation of unburnt body-fuse. How can we get rid -<span class='pageno' id='Page_383'>383</span>of it when accumulated in excess? Simply by burning it away—this -burning being done by means of the oxygen inhaled by the -lungs. If, as Mr. Lennox Browne has shown, a lady with normal -lung capacity of 125 cubic inches, reduces this to 78 inches by -means of her stays, and attains 118 inches all at once on leaving -them off, it is certain that her prospects of becoming fat and flabby -as she advances towards middle age are greatly increased by tight -lacing, and the consequent suppression of natural respiration.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus corpulence may be put down as a sixth—or rather -seventh—æsthetic disadvantage resulting from the use of -corsets.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The reason why women, although inferior to men in muscular -development, have softer and rounder forms, is because there is a -greater natural tendency in women than in men towards the accumulation -of fatty tissue under the skin. The least excess of this -adipose tissue is, however, as fatal as emaciation to that admiration -of Personal Beauty which constitutes the essence of Love. Leanness -repels the æsthetico-amorous sense because it obliterates the -round contours of beauty, exposes the sinews and bones, and thus -suggests old age and disease. Corpulence repels it because it -destroys all delicacy of form, all grace of movement, and in its -exaggerated forms may indeed be looked upon as a real disease -imperatively calling for medical treatment; as Dr. Oscar Maas -shows most clearly and concisely in his pamphlet on the “Schwenninger -Cure,” which should be read by all who suffer from obesity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although the very “father of medicine,” Hippokrates, studied -the subject of corpulence, and formulated rules for curing it, doctors -still disagree regarding some of the details of its treatment. Some -forbid all fatty food, others prescribe it in small quantities, and Dr. -Ebstein specially recommends fat viands and sauces as preventives; -but the preponderance of the best medical opinion is against him. -Dr. Say recommends the drinking of very large quantities of tea, -while Professor Oertel urges the diminution of fluids in the body, -first by drinking little, and secondly by inducing copious perspiration, -either artificially (by hot air and steam baths, etc.), or, what -is much better, by brisk daily exercise. Dr. Schwenninger, who -secured so much fame by reducing Bismarck’s weight about 40 -pounds, forbids the taking of liquids during or within an hour or -two of meal-time; in other words, he counsels his patients not to -eat and drink at the same time.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the two most important points all authorities are practically -agreed. They are that the patient must avoid food which contains -large quantities of starch and sugar (such as cake, pastry, potatoes, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_384'>384</span>bread, pudding, honey, syrup, etc.); and secondly, that he must take -as much exercise as possible in the open air, because during walking -the bodily fat is consumed as fuel, to keep the machine going.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The notorious Mr. Banting, who reduced his weight in a year -from 202 to 150 pounds, “lived on beef, mutton, fish, bacon, dry -toast and biscuit, poultry, game, tea, coffee, claret, and sherry in -small quantities, and a night-cap of gin, whisky, brandy, or wine. -He <em>abstained</em> from the following articles: pork, veal, salmon, eels, -herrings, sugar, milk, and all sorts of vegetables grown underground, -and nearly all fatty and farinaceous substances. He daily -drank 43 ounces of liquids. On this diet he kept himself for seven -years at 150 pounds. He found, what other experience confirms, -that <em>sugar was the most powerful of all fatteners</em>” (Dr. G. M. -Beard, in <cite>Eating and Drinking</cite>, a most entertaining and useful -little volume).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Lean persons wishing to increase their weight need only reverse -the directions here given as regards the choice or avoidance of -certain articles of food. Not so, however, with regard to exercise. -If you wish to reduce your corpulence, take exercise; if you wish -to increase your weight, again take exercise. The apparent paradox -lurking in this rule is easily explained. If you are too fat and -walk a great deal, you burn up the superfluous <em>fat</em> and lose weight. -If you are too lean and walk a great deal you increase the bulk of -your <em>muscles</em>, and thus gain weight. Moreover, you greatly stimulate -your appetite, and become able to eat larger quantities of -sweet and starchy food—more than enough to counteract the wear -and tear caused by the exercise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Muscle is the plastic material of beauty. Fat should only be -present in sufficient quantity to prevent the irregular outlines of -the muscles from being too conspicuously indicated, at the expense -of rounded smoothness. What the ancient Greeks thought on this -subject is vividly shown in the following remarks by Dr. Maas: -“According to the unanimous testimony of Thukydides, Plato, -Xenophon, the gymnastic exercises to which the Greeks were so -passionately addicted, and which constituted, as is well known, a -very essential part of the public education of the young, had for -their avowed object the prevention of undue corpulence, since an -excessive paunch did not only offend the highly-developed æsthetic -sense of this talented nation, but was justly regarded as an impediment -to bodily activity. In order, therefore, to make the youths -not only beautiful, but also vigorous and able to resist hardship, -and thus more capable of serving their country, they were, from -their childhood, and uninterruptedly, exercised daily in running, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span>wrestling, throwing the discus, etc.; so that the prevention of corpulence -was practically raised to a formal state-maxim, and as such -enforced occasionally with unyielding persistence.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The ruinous consequences of an exaggerated abdomen to the -harmonious proportions of the body, and to grace of attitude and -gait, are so universally known that it would be superfluous to -apply any of our negative tests of Beauty—such as the facts that -apes and savages are commonly characterised by protuberant -bellies, and that intemperance and gluttony have the same disastrous -effect on Personal Beauty. In civilised communities, indolence -and beer-drinking are the chief causes predisposing to corpulence. -In Bavaria, where enormous quantities of beer are consumed, -almost all the men are deformed by obesity; but in other countries, -as a rule, women suffer more from this anomaly than men, -because they lead a less active life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It may be stated as a general rule that girls under eighteen are -too slight and women over thirty too heavy—"fat and forty." -This calamity is commonly looked on as one of the inevitable -dispensations of Providence, whereas it is simply a result of -indolence and ignorance. With a little care in dieting, and two or -three hours a day devoted to walking, rowing, tennis, swimming, -dancing, etc., any young lady can add ten to fifteen pounds to her -weight in one summer, or reduce it by that amount, as may be -desired. But as the consumption of enormous quantities of fresh -air by the unimprisoned lungs is the absolute condition of success -in this beautifying process, it is useless to attempt it without -laying aside the corset.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The plea that corsets are needed to hold up the heavy clothing -is of no moment. Women, like men, should wear their clothing -suspended from the shoulder, which is a great deal more conducive -to health, comfort, and gracefulness than the clumsy fashion of -attaching everything to the waist.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Still less weight can be attached to the monstrous argument -that women need stays for support. What an insulting proposition -to assert that civilised woman is so imperfectly constructed -that she alone of all created beings needs artificial surgical support -to keep her body in position! If there are any women so very -corpulent or so very lean that they need a corset as a figure-improver -or a support, then let them have it for heaven’s sake, and -look upon themselves as subjects ripe for medical treatment. -What is objected to here is that strong, healthy, well-shaped girls -should deform themselves deliberately by wearing tight, unshapely -corsets, rankly offensive to the æsthetic sense.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_386'>386</span> - <h3 class='c014'>THE FASHION FETISH ANALYSED</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Once more the question must be asked, “Why do women wear -such hideous things as crinolines, bustles, and corsets, so universally -abhorred by men?” Is it because they are inferior to men -in æsthetic taste? Is Schopenhauer right when he says that -“women are and remain, on the whole, the most absolute and incurable -Philistines?” They are deficient in objectivity, he adds: -“hence they have no real intelligence or appreciation for music or -poetry, or the plastic arts; and if they make any pretences of -this sort, it is only apish affectation to gratify their vanity. Hence -it would be more correct to call them the <em>unæsthetic</em> than the -beautiful sex.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The pessimistic woman-hater no doubt exaggerates. Yet—without -alluding to the paucity of women who have distinguished -themselves in the fine arts—is it credible that the average woman -would so readily submit to a repulsive fashion like the bustle, or a -hat “adorned” with the corpse of a murdered bird, if she had -even a trace of æsthetic feeling? If women had the refined -æsthetic taste with which they are commonly credited, is it conceivable -that they would voluntarily adopt the African bustle, -because fashionable, in preference to a more becoming style? -Have you ever heard that a person of acknowledged musical taste, -for example, gave up his violin or piano to learn the African -banjo, because that happened to be the fashionable instrument?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet there are, no doubt, many women whose eyes even custom -cannot blind to the hideousness of most Parisian fashions. But -they have not the courage to show their superior taste in their -dresses, being overawed and paralysed in presence of a monstrous -idol, the Fashion Fetish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Never has a stone image, consecrated by cunning priests, exercised -a more magic influence on a superstitious heathen’s mind -than the invisible Fashion Fetish on the modern feminine intellect. -It is both amusing and pathetic to hear a woman exclaim: “Our -women are most blind and thoughtless followers of fashions still -imposed upon them, <em>Heaven knows wherefore and by whom</em>” (Mrs. -Haweis).</p> - -<p class='c001'>So great is the awe in which this Fetish is held that no one -has yet dared to lay violent hands on it. Yet if we now knock it -on the head, we shall find it hollow inside; and the fragments, -subjected to chemical analysis, show that they consist of the -following five elements:—</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_387'>387</span>(1) <em>Vulgar Display of Wealth.</em>—A certain number of rich -people, being unable to distinguish themselves from poorer mortals -in any other way, make a parade of their money by constantly -introducing changes in the fashion of their apparel which those -who have less income are unable to adopt at once. This, and not -the love of novelty, is the real cause of the minute variations in -styles constantly introduced. Of course it is generally understood -that to boast of your wealth is as vulgar as to boast of your wit -or wisdom; but this makes no difference, for Fashion in its very -essence is vulgar.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(2) <em>Milliners’ Cunning.</em>—Milliners grow fat on fashionable -extravagance. Hence it is the one object of their life to encourage -this extravagance. So they constantly invent new styles, to -prevent women from wearing the same dress more than one -season. And every customer is slyly flattered into the belief that -nothing was ever so becoming to her as the latest style, though it -probably makes her look like a fright. As a little flattery goes a -great way with most women, the milliner’s hypocrisy escapes detection. -“The persons who devise fashions are not artists in -the best sense of the word, nor are they persons of culture or -taste,” as Mr. E. L. Godkin remarks: “their business is not to -provide beautiful costumes but new ones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is to such scheming and unscrupulous artisans that women -entrust the care of their personal appearance. And they will continue -doing so until they are more generally taught the elements -of the fine arts and a love of beauty in Nature.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To make sure of a rich harvest, milliners, when a new fashion -has appeared, manufacture all their goods in that style, so that -it is almost impossible to buy any others, all of which are declared -“bad form.” And their poor victims meekly submit to this -tyranny!</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) <em>Tyranny of the Ugly Majority.</em>—This is another form -of tyranny from which ladies suffer. Most women are ugly and -ungraceful, and resent the contrast which beautiful women, naturally -and becomingly attired, would present to their own persons: -hence they favour the crinolette, the bustle, the corset, the long, -trailing dresses, the sleeve-puffs at the shoulders, etc., because such -fashionable devices make all women look equally ugly and ungraceful.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mrs. Armytage throws light on the origin of some absurd -fashions when she refers to the cases of “the patches first applied -to hide an ugly wen: of cushions carried to equalise strangely-deformed -hips; of long skirts to cover ugly feet; and long shoes -to hide an excrescence on the toe.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_388'>388</span>Surely it is sufficient to expose the origin of such fashions to -make sensible women turn away from them in disgust. There -are indeed indications that the handsome women have at last -begun to find out the trick which the ugly majority have been -playing on them; and many are now dressing in such a way as to -show their personal beauty to advantage, undaunted by the fact -that ugly women pretend to be shocked at short dresses which -allow a pretty ankle to be seen, and jerseys which reveal the outlines -of a beautiful bust and waist.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(4) <em>Cowardice.</em>—Many women adopt a fashion which they -dislike simply because they do not dare to face the remark of a -rival that they are not in fashion. As one of them frankly confesses: -“We women dress not to be simple, genuine, and harmonious, -or even to please you men, but <em>to brave each other’s criticism</em>.” -A noble motive, truly!</p> - -<p class='c001'>One is often tempted to doubt the old saying that the first -desire of women is to be considered beautiful, on observing how -ready they are to sacrifice fifty per cent or more of their beauty -for the sake of being in fashion. Last summer, for instance, the -edict seems to have gone forth that the hair was no longer to be -allowed to form a graceful fringe over the forehead, but was to be -combed back tightly. So back it was combed, and beautiful -faces became rarer than ever. Leigh Hunt had written in vain -that the hair should be brought over large bare foreheads “as -vines are trailed over a wall.” Théophile Gautier, “the most -perfect poet in respect of poetical form that France has ever produced” -(Saintsbury), agreed with Schopenhauer regarding woman’s -æsthetic sense: “Women,” he says, “have only the sense of -fashion and not that of beauty. A woman will always find -beautiful the most abominable fashion if it is the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>genre suprême</i></span> -to wear that style.” He commends the women of Granada for -their good taste in preferring their lovely mantillas to the hideous -French hats, and hopes Spain may never be invaded by French -fashions and milliners.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(5) <em>Sheepishness.</em>—It may seem ungallant to apply this term -to the conduct of a woman who imitates the habits of a sheep; -but, after all, which is the more gallant action: to applaud a -woman’s self-chosen ugliness, or, at least, to ignore it for fear of -offending her; or, on the other hand, to restore her beauty by -boldly holding up the mirror and allowing her to see herself as -others see her? It is the nature of a flock of sheep to jump -into the sea without a moment’s hesitation if their leader does -so. It is the nature of fashionable women to commit æsthetic -<span class='pageno' id='Page_389'>389</span>suicide if their leader sets the example. Where is the -difference?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is surprising that Darwin did not refer to Fashion as furnishing -a most convincing proof of his theory that men are -descended from apelike ancestors. One of the ape’s most conspicuous -traits is imitativeness—blind, silly, slavish imitation: -hence the verb “to ape.” Blind, silly, slavish imitation is also -the essence of Fashion. Imitativeness implies a low order of -mind, a lack of originality. The more a man is intellectually -removed from the ape, the less is he inclined to imitate blindly. -Men of genius are a law unto themselves, while inferior minds can -only re-echo or plagiarise. Just so the prevalent anxiety to be in -fashion is a tacit confession of mental inferiority, of insufficient -independence of taste and originality to choose a style suited to -one’s individual requirements.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>INDIVIDUALISM <em>VERSUS</em> FASHION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Fashion is a deadly enemy of Romantic Love, not only because -it makes women sacrifice their Beauty to unhealthful garments and -habits, but because it obliterates <em>individuality</em>, on which the -ardour of Love depends. “Why don’t girls marry?” asks Mrs. -Haweis. “Because the press is great, and girls are undistinguishable -in the crowd. The distinguishable ones marry—those who -are beautiful or magnetic in some way, whose characters have -some definite colouring, and who can make their <em>individuality</em> -felt. I would have said—who can make themselves in any way -conspicuous, but that the word has been too long associated with -an <em>undesirable</em> prominence. Yet after all, prominence is the thing -needed—prominence of character, or <em>individuality</em>. Men, so to -speak, pitch upon the girls they can see: those who are completely -negative, unnoticeable, colourless, formless, invisible, are -left behind.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women, in their eagerness to sacrifice their individuality to -Fashion, forget that <em>fashion leaders are never in fashion</em>, <i>i.e.</i> that -<em>they</em> always adopt a new style as soon as the crowd has aped -them: wherefore it is doubly silly to join the apes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mlle. Sarah Bernhardt never allows a corset to deform her -figure and mar her movements: and who has not had occasion -to admire the inimitable grace of this actress? But how many -women have the courage thus to sacrifice Fashion to Grace and -Beauty?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet, notwithstanding the continuance of the corset and the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_390'>390</span>bustle mania and Parisian hats, it may be asserted that women are -just at present more sensibly dressed than they have been for some -generations, and there is <em>some</em> disposition to listen to the artistic -and hygienic advice of reformers. Unfortunately, the history of -Fashion does not tend to confirm any optimistic hopes that may -be based on this fact. There have been periods heretofore when -women became comparatively sensible, only to relapse again into -utter barbarism. Thus we read that “after the straight gown -came the fardingale, which in turn developed into the hoop with -its concomitants of patches, paint, and high-heeled shoes.” Then -came the reaction: “Short waists and limp, clinging draperies -came in to expose every contour; stays and corsets were for a -time discredited, only to be reintroduced, and with them the -whole cycle of fashions which had once already had their day.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Experience shows that argumentation, ridicule, malicious or -good-natured, and satire, are equally powerless against Fashion. -Progress can only be hoped for in two ways—by instructing -women in the elementary laws of beauty in nature and mankind, -and by destroying the superstitious halo around the word <em>Fashion</em>. -It has just been shown that a disposition to imitate a fashion set -by others is always a sign of inferior intellect and rudimentary -taste; and the time no doubt will come when this fact will be -generally recognised, and when it will be considered anything but -a compliment to have it said that one follows the flock of fashionable -imitators.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The progress of democratic institutions and sentiments will aid -in emancipating women from the slavery of Fashion. Empresses -who can set the fashion for two continents are becoming scarce; -and the woman of the future will no doubt open her eyes wide -in astonishment on reading that in the nineteenth century most -women allowed some mysterious personage to prescribe what they -should wear. “Can it be <em>possible</em>,” she will exclaim, "that my -poor dear grandmothers did not know that what is food for one -person is poison for another, and that any fashion universally -followed means æsthetic suicide for nine-tenths of the women who -adopt it? <em>I</em> am <em>my own fashion-leader</em>, and wear only what is -becoming to my <em>individual</em> style of beauty. What a preposterous -notion to proclaim that any particular colour or cut is to be exclusively -fashionable this year for all women, for blondes and -brunettes, for the tall and the short, the stout and the slim alike! -What <em>could</em> have induced those women thus to annihilate their -own beauty deliberately? And not only their beauty, but their -comfort as well. For I see that in New York, Fashion used to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_391'>391</span>decree that women must exchange their light, comfortable summer -clothes for heavier autumn fabrics exactly in the middle of September, -although the last two weeks of September are often the -hottest part of the year. And the women, almost without exception, -obeyed this decree!</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And then those long trailing dresses! How they must have -added to their ease and grace of movement in the ballroom, tucked -up clumsily or held in the hand! And it seems that these trails -were even worn in the dirty streets, for I see that at one time the -Dresden authorities forbade women to sweep the streets with their -dresses; and in one of Mr. Ruskin’s works I find this advice to -girls: ‘Your walking dress must never touch the ground at all. -I have lost much of the faith I once had in the common sense, -and even in the personal delicacy, of the present race of average -English women, by seeing how they will allow their dresses to -sweep the streets if it is <em>the fashion to be scavengers</em>.’”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MASCULINE FASHIONS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>In his emancipation from Fashion man has made much more -progress than woman. There is still a considerable number of -shallow-brained young “society men” who naïvely and minutely -accept the slight variations introduced every year in the cut and -style of cravats, shirts, and evening-dress by cunning tailors, in -order to compel men to throw away last season’s suits and order -new ones. But much larger is the number of men who disregard -such innovations, and laugh at the silly persons who meekly accept -them, even when their taste is offended by such new fashions as -the hideous collars and hats with which the market is occasionally -flooded.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There was a time when men spent as much time and money on -dress in a week as they now do in a year; a time when men were -as strictly ruled by capricious, cunning Fashion as women are to-day. -Lord March, we read, “laid a wager that he would make -fashionable the most humiliating dress he could think of. Accordingly, -he wore a blue coat with crimson collar and cuffs—a livery, -and not a tasteful livery—but he won his bet.” After the battle -of Agincourt, it is said, “the Duc de Bourbon, in order to ransom -King John, sold his overcoat to a London Jew, who gave no more -than its value, we may be pretty sure, but nevertheless gave 5200 -crowns of gold for it. It seems to have been a mass of the most -precious gems.” The Duke of Buckingham “had twenty-seven -suits of clothes made, the richest that embroidery, lace, silk, velvet, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_392'>392</span>silver, gold, and gems could contribute; one of which was a white -uncut velvet, set all over, both suit and cloak, with diamonds -valued at fourscore thousand pounds, besides a great feather stuck -all over with diamonds, as were also his sword, girdle, hat, and -spurs.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Spencer cites two amusing instances of masculine subjection -to fashion in Africa and mediæval Europe. Among the Darfurs -in Africa, “If the sultan, being on horseback, happens to fall off, -all his followers must fall off likewise; and should any one omit -this formality, however great he may be, he is laid down and -beaten.” “In 1461, Duke Philip of Burgundy, having had his -hair cut during an illness, issued an edict that all the nobles of -his states should be shorn also. More than five hundred persons -sacrificed their hair.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So far as men are still subject to the influence of ugly fashions, -they differ from women in at least frankly acknowledging the -ugliness of these fashions. Whereas most women admire, or pretend -to admire, corsets, high-heeled boots, crinolettes, bustles, etc., -there are few men who do not detest <i>e.g.</i> the unshapely, baggy -trousers, which were so greatly abhorred by the æsthetic sense of -the ancient Greeks; and most men to-day (except those who have -ugly legs) would gladly wear knee-breeches, if they could do so -without making themselves too conspicuous. Herein lies the -greatest impediment to dress reform. To make oneself very conspicuous -is justly considered a breach of good manners; and few -have the courage, like Mr. Oscar Wilde, to make martyrs and -butts of ridicule of themselves.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if individuals are comparatively powerless, clubs of acknowledged -standing might make themselves very useful to the cause -of Personal Beauty, as affected by dress, if they would vote to -adopt in a body certain reforms as regards trousers, hats, and -evening-dress. Then it would no longer be said of a man rationally -dressed that he is eccentric, but that he belongs to the X—— -Club; and many outsiders would immediately follow suit for the -coveted distinction of being taken for members of that club. Thus -both the wise and the foolish would be gratified.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As showing how invariably and consistently Fashion is the -handmaid of ugliness, it is curious to note that the several styles -of dress worn by men are fashionable in proportion to their ugliness. -For the greatest occasions the swallow-tail or evening-dress -is prescribed. Next in rank is the ugly frock-coat, for morning -calls. Of late, it is true, the more becoming “cut-away” has -been tolerated in place of the frock-coat; but the sack-coat, which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_393'>393</span>alone follows the natural outlines of the body, and neither has a -caudal appendage, like the evening-dress, nor, like the frock-coat, -gives the impression that a man’s waist extends down to his knees, -is altogether tabooed at social gatherings, except those of the most -informal kind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Man’s evening-dress is so uniquely unæsthetic and ugly that -fashionable women have of course long been eyeing it with envy -and have gradually adopted some of its features. One of these is -the chimney-pot hat, the cause of so much premature baldness and -discomfort. But women are not quite so foolish as men in this -matter; for they do not wear tall hats at evening-parties and the -opera, but only when out riding, where the necessity of dodging -about to keep them on against the force of the wind and the blows -of overhanging boughs, compels them to go through all sorts of -grotesque gymnastics with neck and head. If they wore a more -rational and becoming head-dress on horseback they might easily -look pretty and graceful, which would be fatal to their chances of -being considered <a id='corr393.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='fashionable'>fashionable.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_393.19'><ins class='correction' title='fashionable'>fashionable.</ins></a></span></p> - -<p class='c001'>In comparing masculine and feminine fashions, we must note -that trousers and swallow-tailed coats, though ugly, are harmless; -while high-heeled shoes, corsets, chignons, etc., are as fatal to -health as to Personal Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is sometimes claimed in behalf of Fashion that, though it -often favours ugliness, it establishes a rule and model for all; -whereas, if everything were left to individual taste, the result -might be still more disastrous. Nonsense. Rare as good taste is -among women, a modicum is commonly present; and there are -extremely few who, if not overawed by the Fashion Fetish, would -ever invent or adopt such hideous irrepressible monstrosities as -bustles, crinolines, chignons, trailing dresses, Chinese boots, bird-corpse -hats, etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A protest must, finally, be made against the horrible figures -which in our fashion papers are constantly offered as models of -style and appearance. Even in the best of them, such as Harper’s -<cite>Bazar</cite>, which frequently points out the injuriousness of tight -lacing, female figures are printed every week with hideously -narrow waists, such as no woman could possibly possess unless she -were in the last stages of consumption, or some other wasting -disease.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_394'>394</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHEST AND BOSOM</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>FEMININE BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Burke, in his chapter on “Gradual Variation” as a characteristic -of Beauty, begs us to “observe that part of a beautiful woman -where she is perhaps the most beautiful, about the neck and -breasts; the smoothness, the softness, the easy and insensible -swell; the variety of the surface, which is never for the smallest -space the same; the deceitful maze through which the unsteady -eye slides giddily, without knowing where to fix, or whither it is -carried. Is not this a demonstration of that change of surface, -continual, and yet hardly perceptible at any point, which forms -one of the greatest constituents of beauty?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is reason to believe that the beautifully-rounded form of -the female bosom is a result of æsthetico-sexual selection; for -primitive human tribes resemble in this respect the lower animals. -Says the famous anatomist Hyrtl: “It is only among the white -and yellow races that the breasts, in their compact virginal condition, -have a hemispheric form, while those of negresses of a -corresponding age and physique are more elongated, pointed, -turned outwards and downwards; in a word, more like the teats -of animals.” Even the Arabian poets sing of the charms of a -goatlike breast. In the Soudan older women, when at work, -sometimes throw their breasts over the shoulder to prevent them -from being in the way; and “the women of the Basutos, a Kaffir -tribe, carry their children on the back, and pass the breast to them -under the <a id='corr394.26'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='arm.'>arm.”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_394.26'><ins class='correction' title='arm.'>arm.”</ins></a></span></p> - -<p class='c001'>It is a very interesting and important fact that not only do we -find more beauty among the higher than among the lower races of -mankind, but the superior beauty of civilised races is also <em>of a -more permanent kind</em>. This truth is admirably illustrated in the -following remarks by Dr. Peschuel Lœschke: The breasts of the -Loango negress, he says, “approach the conic rather than the -hemispheric form; they often have a too small and insufficiently -gradated basis, and in rare extreme cases have almost the appearance -of teats, besides being unequally developed. Breasts of such -a shape are naturally much more easily affected by the law of -gravitation, and soon become changed into the pendent bags which -we find so ugly, especially among Africans, although they also occur -among other tribes, and are not unknown among civilised peoples. -The superior form, with a broad basis, is naturally the more -<span class='pageno' id='Page_395'>395</span>enduring, and remains in many cases an ornament of women of a -more advanced age.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Savages and Orientals, being deficient in æsthetic taste, admire -an excessively-developed bust. Europeans, on the other hand, -long ago recognised the connection between such a bust and -clumsy, unhealthy corpulence, suggesting advanced age. The -same appears to have been true of the most refined nations of -antiquity. Says Professor Kollmann: “The ancient as well as -the modern inhabitants of the Nile region appear, in the majority -of cases, like those of India, to possess hemispheric breasts, for -neither in the sphinxes or other superhuman beings, nor in the -images of human beauties, do we come across pointed breasts.... -The Romans did not consider large bosoms a mark of beauty. -Among European women the Portuguese are said to have the -largest busts, the Castilians the smallest. To judge by Rubens’s -nude figures, the Netherland women appear to rival the Portuguese -in exuberant bosoms.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In Greek works of art, says Winckelmann, “the breast or -bosom of female figures is never exuberant.” “Among ideal -figures, the Amazons alone have large and fully-developed breasts.” -“The form of the breasts in the figures of divinities is virginal in -the extreme, since their beauty was made to consist in the -moderateness of their size. A stone, found in the Island of Naxos, -was smoothly polished and placed upon them for the purpose of -repressing an undue development.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Modern Fashion, for a wonder, endorses the Greek standard of -beauty as regards a moderately-developed bust. But it was not -always thus. It is Fashion that induces some savages whose -breasts are naturally long and hanging to use bandages which -make them still more hanging and elongated in form. In Spain, -during the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and in other parts -of Europe, on the contrary, Fashion prescribed flat chests. Plates -of lead were tied on the breasts of young girls with such force -that sometimes the natural form was replaced by an actual depression -where “love’s pillows” should have been. In some parts of -South Germany and the Tyrol a similar fashion prevails to the -present day among the lower classes, the result being not only a -sacrifice of beauty, but a great mortality among the children, that -have to be reared artificially in consequence of it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if modern Fashion has a correct standard of taste in this -matter, it nevertheless encourages practices which lead to as -disastrous results as the Spanish fashions of three centuries ago. -“The horrible custom of wearing pads,” says the author of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_396'>396</span><cite>Ugly Girl Papers</cite> “is the ruin of natural figures, by heating and -pressing down the bosom.... A low, deep bosom, rather than a -bold one, is a sign of grace in a full-grown woman, and a full bust -is hardly admirable in an unmarried girl. Her figure should be -all curves, but slender, promising a fuller beauty when maturity -is reached. One is not fond of over-ripe years.... Due attention -to the general laws of health always has its effect in restoring -the bust to its roundness.... Weakness of any kind affects the -contour of the figure, and it is useless to try to improve it in any -other way than by restoring the strength where it is wanting.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The same author, whose book is brimful of useful advice, not -only to “ugly girls,” but to those who have beauty and wish to -preserve it, also recommends battledore, swinging the skipping-rope -over the shoulder, swinging by the hand from a rope, as well as -playing ball, “bean bags,” pillow fights, and especially daily vocal -exercises with corset off and lungs deeply inflated—as excellent -means of improving the bust.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If women could be made to realise how rarely they succeed, -even with the aid of the cleverest milliner, in counterfeiting a -properly developed chest, they would, perhaps, be more willing to -submit to the exercise or regimen requisite for the acquirement -and preservation of Personal Beauty. Flat chests are a consequence -of insufficient muscular exercise, insufficient fresh air, and -insufficient food. The main reason why the majority of girls in -the world are over-delicate and fragile is because they do not get -enough properly-cooked food in which <em>fat is introduced in such a -way as to be palatable and digestible</em>. The adipose layer between -the skin and the muscles contributes so much to the undulating -roundness of contour peculiar to feminine beauty, that Kollmann -places it among the differentiating sexual characteristics.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Too exuberant busts, on the other hand, are the result of too -much indulgence in fattening food, combined with lack of exercise -in the open air, which would consume the fat. Maternity, with -proper hygienic precautions, is never fatal to a fine bust.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That savages, like their civilised brethren and sisters, owe their -deformed chests entirely to their indolence and neglect of the laws -of health, is shown by the fact that there are notable exceptions—energetic -tribes living healthy lives, and therefore blessed with -beautiful figures. Thus Mr. A. R. Wallace tells us regarding some -of the Amazon valley Indians that “their figures are generally -superb; and I have never felt so much pleasure in gazing at the -finest statue as at these living illustrations of the beauty of the -human form. The development of the bust is such as I believe -<span class='pageno' id='Page_397'>397</span>never exists in the best-formed European, exhibiting <em>a splendid -series of convex undulations, without a hollow in any part of it</em>.” -And what he says in another place regarding a neighbouring tribe -explains the secret of this Beauty: “Though some of them were -too fat, most of them had splendid figures, and many of them were -very pretty. Before daylight in the morning all were astir and -came to the river to wash. It is the chilliest hour of the twenty-four, -and when we were wrapping our sheet or blanket more -closely around us, we could hear the plunges and splashings of -these early bathers. Rain or wind is all alike to them: their -morning bath is never dispensed with.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MASCULINE BEAUTY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Wincklemann remarks that, among the ancient Greeks, “a -proudly-arched chest was regarded as a universal attribute of -beauty in male figures. The father of the poets describes Neptune -with such a chest, and Agamemnon as resembling him; and such -a one Anakreon desired to see in the image of the youth whom he -loved.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“A prominent, <em>arched</em> chest,” says Professor Kollmann, “is an -infallible sign of a vigorous, <em>healthy</em> skeleton; whereas a narrow, -<em>flat</em>, and, still more, a bent thorax is a physical index of bodily -weakness and inherited <em>decrepitude</em>. An arched chest imparts to -a man’s whole figure an aspect of physical perfection, not to say -sublimity, as may be seen in the ancient statues of gods, in which -the chest is intentionally made more prominent than it ever can be -in a man, presumably in order to weaken the impression of the -chest’s more <em>animal</em> neighbour, the abdomen. There is a deep -meaning in our phraseology which localises courage, boldness, -martial valour, in a man’s vigorous breast.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have italicised several words in this quotation, because they -tersely show how writers on art are guided both by the positive -and negative tests of Beauty formulated in another part of this -volume.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MAGIC EFFECT OF DEEP BREATHING</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Indolence is the mother of ugliness. No one who realises the -absolute necessity to Health of a sufficient supply of fresh air can -wonder at the rarity of Beauty in the world, if he considers that -nineteen people out of every twenty are <em>too lazy to breathe properly</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is estimated that there are from 75 to 100 cubic inches of -air which always remain in a man’s lungs. About an equal amount -<span class='pageno' id='Page_398'>398</span>of “supplemental” air remains after an <em>ordinary</em> expiration; and -only 20 to 30 inches of what Professor Huxley calls “tidal air” -passes in and out. But this “tidal air” can be largely increased -in amount by the habit of breathing deeply and <em>slowly</em>, whereby -an additional supply of oxygen is supplied to the lungs, which is -a thousand times better for the health than quinine, iron pills, or -any other tonic. There are few persons whose health and personal -appearance would not be improved vastly if they would take <em>several -daily meals</em> of fresh air—consisting of 20-50 deep inspirations in a -park or some other place where the air is pure and bracing. Slowly -inhale as much air as you can get into the lungs without discomfort -(avoiding a strain), and then exhale again just as slowly. After a -while the habit will be formed of <em>constantly</em> breathing more deeply -than formerly, both awake and asleep; thus bringing into regular -use a larger part of the lungs’ surface. It is the slight sense of -fatigue at first accompanying deep breathing which prevents most -people from enjoying its benefits; but when once this natural -indolence is overcome the reward of deep breathing is analogous -to the delicious exhilaration which follows a brisk walk or a cold -bath.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is important to note that all breathing, whether deep or -ordinary, should be done through the nose, as thus the air is -warmed before it reaches the delicate lungs, and the mucous -membranes remain moist, thus preventing those disagreeable -enemies of refreshing sleep—a dry mouth and snoring.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Habitual deep breathing adds to Personal Beauty not only by -exercising the muscles of the chest, which thus becomes more -arched and prominent relatively to the abdomen, but also by -throwing back the neck and head and compelling the whole body -to assume a straight, military attitude. We are all taught as -children, says Professor Kollmann, to hold ourselves straight; but -rarely is the information added that the best way to secure an -erect, manly bearing and a dignified gait is by cultivating the habit -of deep breathing. “It is worthy of notice that forcible breathing, -such as results from a correct bearing, from prolonged sojourn and -exercise in the open air, in hunting, gymnastic exercises, riding, -etc., not only increases the chest for the moment, but permanently.... -There are proofs in abundance that even with young persons -of eighteen to twenty years, the whole circumference of the chest -is capable of considerable widening under such circumstances.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A medical writer, referring to the fact that children frequently -become round-shouldered from sitting for hours and bending over -a desk, makes these very sensible suggestions:—</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_399'>399</span>“In the first place, the lungs should be fully expanded by -drawing in all the air that is possible; this process will be aided -by throwing the shoulders well back, and you should encourage your -children to do this frequently in the open air when going to and -coming from school. Children are easily bribed, and we would -suggest to school teachers a simple and effective way of accomplishing -this desirable end. This forcible expansion of the lungs -will enlarge the chest and increase its circumference. Then let the -teacher, at the beginning of the session, measure each child’s chest -and record the circumference, then explain and demonstrate to them -how to forcibly fill the lungs, and offer a premium at the end of -the session to the child who shall have most increased the -circumference of his chest; make it worth their while to expand -their lungs, as much so as we now do for them to expand their -minds, and the result will be wonderful.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>A MORAL QUESTION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>An eminent authority on the physiology of the vocal organs, -Dr. Lennox Browne, remarks (in <cite>Voice, Song, and Speech</cite>), that -“respiratory exercises, and subsequently lessons in reading, reciting, -and singing, are oftentimes of the greatest use in strengthening -a weak chest; and, indeed, it is not too much to say, <em>in -arresting consumption</em>.” Another excellent authority, Mr. A. B. -Bach, points out (in his <cite>Musical Education and Vocal Culture</cite>, -which should be consulted by all who wish to learn the art of -Deep Breathing) that “very few vocalists die of consumption,” -owing to the fact that they properly exercise their lungs and -chests.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This brings us face to face with a moral question of enormous -importance, to which writers on ethics have by no means as yet -given the attention it loudly clamours for. Consumption, we read, -“is a disease of great frequency and severity, which, in the civilised -nations of Europe, produces from <em>one-sixth to one-tenth of the total -mortality</em>, in ordinary times.” Now if, as we have just seen, -consumption can be arrested and cured by proper exercise of the -lungs and chest in pure air, does it not follow that the neglect of -such exercises makes certain parties criminally responsible for the -greater number of deaths from consumption? It is “proved by -careful inquiries that the workshops of tailors, printers, and other -businesses carried on in close, ill-ventilated apartments, by large -numbers of workmen, are, in a very aggravated sense, <em>nurseries of -consumption</em>. Cotton and linen factories have also been shown, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_400'>400</span>when ill-regulated, to be largely responsible for the death of their -inmates from this disease.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why should not the owners of factories who refuse to ventilate -their buildings be held responsible for the ill-health, the early -decrepitude and death of many of the workers, and the workers’ -weakly, consumptive children who die young? As England alone -has over three hundred thousand women engaged in cotton manufacture, -the amount of ill-health, early senility, ugliness, consumption, -etc., bred by criminal neglect of hygienic precautions, is -appalling to the imagination. A case was mentioned in the -American papers a few years ago, where the windows in a factory -were <em>nailed fast</em> to prevent the poor, suffocating girls from opening -them. And, strange to say, the owner of that factory was not -immediately lynched. Surely, if ever a monster deserved to be -hanged to the nearest tree, it was the man who ordered those -windows to be nailed down.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But factory owners are by no means the only persons who are -thus responsible for indirect manslaughter by foul-air poisoning. -Thousands of loving mothers and fathers blaspheme their Creator -in attributing the early death of their children to a “dispensation -of Providence,” when the plain truth, brutally expressed, is that -they killed them with the poisoned air, indigestible food, and -insufficient exercise that brought on the fatal consumption. To -say that the disease was hereditary is only to shift the hygienic -crime on the shoulders of the grand-parents.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In human courts of justice ignorance of the law is not considered -an excuse for the commission of crime. If the same principle -holds true in some future world where human actions will be -judged, what terrible indictments will be brought against some -parents for crimes committed against the health and life of their -children and grandchildren, for neglecting to learn the laws of -health, as laid down in physiological and hygienic textbooks!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as Personal Beauty is the flower and symbol of perfect -Health, it might be shown, by following out this argument, that -<em>ugliness is a sin, and man’s first duty the cultivation of Beauty</em>.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>NECK AND SHOULDER</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Nowhere are the æsthetic laws of Gradation and gentle Curvature -more beautifully illustrated than in the neck—the column of -the head. Note how a lovely woman’s neck repeats on a small -scale the delicate contours of the trunk—widened at the base and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_401'>401</span>at the top, with a subtle inward slope towards the middle. Note, -also, how imperceptibly it passes into the shoulders, which continue -the gentle curve in a downward slope, unless prevented by the -deforming corset.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Man’s neck is less cylindrical than woman’s, and presents four -slightly flattened surfaces; while his shoulders are not sloping, but -square. We not only pardon, but even admire and demand this -conformation in man; because in judging masculine beauty we are -guided by dynamic as much as by æsthetic considerations, while -the fair sex is judged by the laws of beauty alone. A masculine -neck is in good form if it shows traces of the sinews and muscles -which give it strength; but in a woman’s neck the feminine -adipose layer under the skin must obliterate all such traces of -masculinity,—especially the bones at the junction of neck and -breast, the prominence of which suggests emaciation and disease.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the face of such considerations, how can any one maintain -that man is more beautiful than woman? He may show more -character, more individuality, more originality than a fine woman, -but more beauty <em>never</em>. And the fact that in Sexual Selection -women have always been chiefly guided by dynamic considerations—<i>i.e.</i> -vigour, boldness, “manliness”—whereas men have been -fascinated by beauty alone, explains why, as Schopenhauer asserts, -women are the “unæsthetic sex,” and why their taste for Personal -Beauty, not being exercised, like that of man, in the selection of a -mate, is so lamentably callous to the deformities resulting from -corsets and other instruments of torture.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The neck being the pivot on which the head executes its movements, -it is evident that it requires attention from the point of -view of Grace as well as of Beauty. To how many women has it -ever occurred that as the feet are taught to dance lithely, the arms -to execute eloquent gestures, so the neck should be trained to -naturally assume graceful attitudes? Great paintings and famous -actresses should be studied from this point of view. Always bear -in mind that grace of movement often excels beauty of form in the -power of inspiring Romantic Love. And remember that any pains -you take to acquire grace will not only multiply your own charms, -but will establish a habit of graceful movement in your muscles -which will be inherited by your children. It is owing to this circumstance -that the children of truly refined families are born with -an ease, grace, and dignity of movement and mien which it is -impossible for “self-made” persons to acquire in a lifetime, -because they are not born with an inherited <em>talent</em> for graceful -movement.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_402'>402</span> - <h2 class='c005'>ARM AND HAND</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL DIFFERENCES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>One of the redeeming features of what is ironically called “full-dress” -is the opportunity it gives of admiring a woman’s shapely -neck, shoulders, and arms—if she has such. No healthy woman -of the well-to-do classes need have an ill-favoured arm if she has -a sensible mother, who compels her from her childhood to exercise -her muscles. The great preponderance of leathery, angular, bony -arms at ballrooms shows, therefore, how shamefully the hygienic -arts of personal adornment are neglected in our best society. The -stifling heat which commonly prevails at social gatherings suggests -the thought that many ladies are indifferent to the display of their -bony arms on the grounds given in Sydney Smith’s exclamation: -“Heat, ma’am! it was so dreadful here that I found there was -nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A meagre, skinny arm is objectionable not only because it offends -against all the conditions of Beauty—plump roundness, softness, -fresh colour, smoothness, gradual tapering to the wrist—but -because it is associated with the aspect of old age and disease; -and again, because it suggests man’s lowly origin by its approximation -to the appearance of the arms in our simian country cousins.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Man’s arm has become differentiated from the ape’s not only in -the matter of greater muscular rotundity and smoothness, <i>i.e.</i> loss -of hair, but also in regard to length. An ape’s arms are much -longer than a white man’s, the negro’s being intermediate. Says -Mr. Tylor: “In an upright position and reaching down with the -middle finger, the gibbon can touch its foot, the orang its ankle, -the chimpanzee its knee, while man only reaches partly down his -thigh.... Negro soldiers standing at drill bring the middle -finger-tip an inch or two nearer the knee than white men can do, -and some have been even known to touch the knee-pan.” Taking -this in connection with the fact that the arms of sailors, -who use them constantly in climbing, are longer than those of -soldiers, we may safely infer that man’s arms have gradually -become shorter because he has ceased to climb trees; while the -greater muscular rotundity, especially of the forearm, has been -acquired through the varied activity and movements of the hand -and fingers: a circumstance almost self-evident on physiological -principles, and furthermore corroborated by the fact that negroes, -unskilled in trades which call for manipulation of the separate -fingers, again occupy an intermediate position. “Even in muscular -<span class='pageno' id='Page_403'>403</span>negroes the arms are less rotund,” says Professor Carl Vogt; and, -according to Van der Hœven, the skin between the fingers reaches -up higher in the negro, which must impede activity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The peculiar arrangement of the hair on man’s arm has been -referred to by Wallace and Darwin as one of the countless signs -arguing our descent from apelike ancestors. On the arm of man, -as of most anthropoid apes, the hair “tends to converge from above -and below to a point at the elbow.” Now it is known that the -gorilla, as well as the orang, “sits in pelting rain with his hands -over his head”; and Mr. Wallace, therefore, suggests that the -present inclination of the hair on man’s arms is simply a survival -of the time when his arboreal ancestors used to sit in that fashion, -the hair having gradually assumed the direction which would most -easily allow the rain to run off.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The evolution theory that the hair on the arm, as on the body -in general, was lost through Sexual Selection, is corroborated by -the fact that woman’s arm has made more progress toward complete -smoothness than man’s, owing to the circumstance that man is -in Sexual Selection more guided by æsthetic, woman by dynamic, -considerations. Yet there can be no doubt that a hairy arm and -hand are always ugly, in man as in woman, not only on account of -their simian suggestiveness, but because they cover the smooth -skin and its delicate tints, and, moreover, especially if black, are -very apt to make the arm and hand look as if they needed a good -scrubbing. Hair on the hand may sometimes be permanently -removed by passing the hand quickly and repeatedly through a -large flame—a much less painful process than the use of pincers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The <em>muscular</em> deviations from the lines of beauty are much -more pardonable in a man’s arm than the hair, although it is -evident that a professional athlete’s excessively muscular arm is -æsthetically objectionable, however much it may be admired on -other grounds. To feminine beauty, and the chances of inspiring -Love, an arm which is so muscular as to obliterate the lines of -beauty is absolutely fatal. Among the labouring classes there are -many women whose arms are so hard and sinewy that the very -bones to which they are attached have become heavy and masculine, -so that it becomes difficult to tell a woman’s from a man’s skeleton, -which ordinarily is very easy.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>CALISTHENICS AND MASSAGE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is, however, hardly necessary to refer to these facts as a -warning to girls not to use their arms too much. The danger -<span class='pageno' id='Page_404'>404</span>almost always lies the other way, and what girls need is a set of -intelligent directions for securing a shapely arm. If the arm is too -plump the method discussed in preceding pages for the general -reduction of corpulence will also affect the arm. If too thin, which -is much more frequently the case in young women, don’t be afraid -that exercise will make them thinner—on the ground that hard -labourers are commonly meagre. It is only <em>excessive</em> exercise that -produces leanness, by burning away all the fat. Moderate exercise -develops the muscles—the plastic material of beauty—and stimulates -the appetite, so that the fat-cushion under the skin also -increases in depth, covering up the angular outlines of bones, -muscles, and sinews.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is a suggestive fact that the word calisthenics—"the art of -promoting the health of the body by exercise"—comes from two -Greek words meaning “beautiful” and “strength.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So many books have been written on calisthenics that it is -needless to repeat here minute directions for training the muscles -of the arm or any other part of the body. One bit of sensible -advice may, however, be quoted from the <cite>Ugly Girl Papers</cite>: -“Throwing quoits and sweeping are good exercises to develop the -arms. There is nothing like three hours of housework a day for -giving a woman a good figure, and if she sleep in tight cosmetic -gloves, she need not fear that her hands will be spoiled. The time -to form the hand is in youth, and with thimbles for the finger-tips, -and close gloves lined with cold cream, every mother might secure -a good hand for her daughter.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is an ill wind that blows no man good. The incessant piano-banging -and violin-scraping of thousands of unmusical young ladies -has at least one thing to be said in its favour: it helps to round -and beautify the arms of these young players.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Active exercise is the surest and quickest way of securing muscular -rotundity. But in cases where, owing to some infirmity, -long-continued spontaneous exertion is out of the question, <em>massage</em>, -which has been defined as “passive exercise,” may be resorted to as -of calisthenic value. It should only be performed by an expert, and -always centripetally, <i>i.e.</i> in the direction of the heart. It facilitates -the flow of the venous current, which in the arms and lower limbs -has to struggle upwards against the force of gravitation; and to this -is partly due its refreshing effect. As Americans are the most -nervous and sensitive people in the world, it seems probable that -the feeling of ease following the facilitating of the venous flow has -taught them instinctively to assume that peculiar position, with the -feet on a chair or table, which has been so often ridiculed by Europeans.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_405'>405</span> - <h3 class='c014'>THE “SECOND FACE”</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>“The beauty of a youthful hand,” says Winckelmann “consists -in a moderate degree of plumpness, and a scarcely observable depression, -resembling a soft shadow, over the articulations of the -fingers, where, if the hand is plump, there is a dimple. The fingers -taper gently towards their extremities, like finely-shaped columns; -and, in art, the articulations are not expressed. The fore part of -the terminating joint is not bent over, nor are the nails very long, -though both are common in the works of modern sculptors.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Balzac pointed out that “men of superior intellect almost always -have beautiful hands, the perfection of which is the distinctive -indication of a high destination.... The hand is the despair of -sculptors and painters when they wish to express the changing -labyrinth of its mysterious lineaments.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A fine hand is, indeed, a sign of superior intelligence in a much -more comprehensive sense than that which Balzac had in mind. -The difference between the simian and human faces is hardly -greater than the progress from an ape’s hand to a man’s in beauty -of outline, smoothness of surface, grace of movement, and varied -utility. The ape’s hand is hairy on the upper surface, hard and -callous on the lower. Except in climbing, its movements are -clumsy. The fingers have adapted themselves to the need of -climbing, and have become permanently bent in front, so that when -the animal goes on all fours it cannot walk on the palm, but only -on the bent knuckles.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A step higher we have the negro’s hands, in which the fingers -are less independent and nimble, and the palmar fat-cushions less -developed and sensitive, than in our hands. These fat-cushions -serve to protect the blood-vessels as well as the delicate nerves, -which make the hand the principal organ of touch. The muscles -of the hand are more easily and instantaneously obedient to the -will than those of any other part of the body, except those of the -mouth and eyes; and hence it is that the hands are almost as good -an index of a man’s character, habits, and profession as his face, -and have been aptly called his “second face.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Division of labour is the index of progress in the evolution of -organs. To the fact that his feet have become exclusively adapted -to locomotion, leaving the hands free to serve as tools, man chiefly -owes his superiority to other animals. For what would superior -intellect avail him without the implements needed to carry out its -schemes? Feeling, grasping, handling, writing, sewing, playing an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_406'>406</span>instrument, squeezing, caressing,—these are a few of the innumerable -functions of the human hand; while the ape’s is good for little -but climbing. The finger language of deaf mutes shows to what -subtle intellectual uses the hands can be put; and as for emotional -expression, are there any facial muscles which can indicate finer -shades of feeling than the infinitely varied touch with which a -pianist or violinist gives utterance to every mood and phase of -human passion?</p> - -<p class='c001'>No wonder that, just as the face has had its physiognomists and -phrenologists, so the hand its chiromancers, who pretended, by -looking at its lines, not only to read character, but even to foretell -one’s fate. Books on this subject are indeed still published, which -shows that the race of fools is in no immediate danger of extinction. -Wrinkles in the face do bear some relation to character and experience; -but surely no one needs to be told that the palmar lines are -purely accidental—caused by the manner in which the skin is folded -when we close the hand.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FINGER-NAILS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Our nails are modified claws—modified to their <a id='corr406.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='advantage'>advantage.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_406.19'><ins class='correction' title='advantage'>advantage.</ins></a></span> -When properly cared for, they are one of the greatest personal -ornaments—beginning and ending as they do with a delicate curve, -rounded on the surface, suffused with a gentle blush, and smooth -as ivory. They may also serve as a mode of expression and index -of nationality, as seen in these remarks by Mr. E. B. Tylor: “In -the Southern United States, till slavery was done away a few years -ago, the traces of Negro descent were noted with the utmost nicety. -Not only were the mixed breeds regularly classed as mulattos, -quadroons, and down to octoroons, but even where the mixture was -so slight that the untrained eye noticed nothing beyond a brunette -complexion, the intruder, who had ventured to sit down at a public -dinner-table, was called upon to show his hands, and the African -taint detected by the dark tinge at the root of the finger-nails.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Becker remarks that among the ancient Greeks “it was considered -very unseemly to appear with nails unpared”; nor did the -Greeks consider it beneath their dignity, like the Romans, to pare -their own nails.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Greeks, being an æsthetic nation, were guided in the treatment -of their nails by the sense of beauty. Elsewhere, however, -the idiotic notion that laziness is aristocratic led to a different -treatment of the nails. Mr. Tylor, in his <cite>Anthropology</cite>, gives an -illustration of the hand of a Chinese ascetic whose finger-nails are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_407'>407</span>five or six times as long as his fingers. “Long finger-nails,” he -remarks, “are noticed even among ourselves as showing that the -owner does no manual labour, and in China and neighbouring -countries they are allowed to grow to a monstrous length as a -symbol of nobility, ladies wearing silver cases to protect them, or -at least as a pretence that they are there.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Useless hands, with elongated nails, reverting to a clawlike -character, as “symbols of nobility!” The study of evolution -throws much sarcastic light on the fashionable follies of mankind.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>MANICURE SECRETS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>According to the New York <cite>Analyst</cite>: “There are not nearly -as many secrets in manicure as people imagine. A little ammonia -or borax in the water you wash your hands with, and that water -just lukewarm, will keep the skin clean and soft. A little oatmeal -mixed with the water will whiten the hands. Many people use -glycerine on their hands when they go to bed, wearing gloves to -keep the bedding clean; but glycerine <a id='corr407.17'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='sic'>don’t</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_407.17'><ins class='correction' title='sic'>don’t</ins></a></span> agree with every one. -It makes some skins harsh and red. These people should rub -their hands with dry oatmeal and wear gloves in bed. The best -preparation for the hands at night is white of egg, with a grain of -alum dissolved in it.... The roughest and hardest hands can be -made soft and white in a month’s time by doctoring them a little -at bedtime, and all the tools you need are a nail-brush (avoid -metal), a bottle of ammonia, a box of powdered borax, and a little -fine white sand to rub the stains off, or a cut of lemon. Manicures -use acids in their shops, but the lemon is quite as good, and isn’t -poisonous, while the acids are.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the <cite>Ugly Girl Papers</cite> the following recipes are given:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To give a fine colour to the nails, the hands and fingers must -be well lathered and washed with scented soap; then the nails -must be rubbed with equal parts of cinnabar and emery, followed -by oil of bitter almonds. To take white specks from the nails, -melt equal parts of pitch and turpentine in a small cup; add to it -vinegar and powdered sulphur. Rub this on the nails and the -specks will soon disappear. Pitch and myrrh melted together may -be used with the same results.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But, after all, what is the use of beautifying one’s hands as long -as ladies bow to the Fashion Fetish, which compels them to conceal -them in the skins of animals? To wear gloves on going out, as a -protection against rough weather and for the sake of cleanliness, is -rational enough; but to wear them at social gatherings is almost -<span class='pageno' id='Page_408'>408</span>as absurd as the compulsory impenetrable veils of Turkish women; -for does not the hand rank next to the face as an index of -character?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another stupidity of fashion is our enforced and cultivated -right-handedness. Despite the force of inherited habit, children -show a natural inclination toward using both their hands equally; -but they are constantly scolded and punished, until they have -succeeded, like their parents, in reducing one hand to a state of -imbecility, so to speak, which is constantly betrayed in awkward, -ungraceful action. Practising on a musical instrument, with -special attention to the left hand, has a tendency to correct this -awkwardness. Indeed, is there any part of the body that music -does not benefit? Dancing to a Strauss waltz gives elasticity to -the limbs and grace to the gait; singing is the most useful kind of -lung-gymnastics, and develops the chest; a musically-trained ear -modulates the voice to sweeter expression; while equally skilled -and graceful hands are acquired by practice on a musical instrument. -So that the word music, though much less comprehensive -than among the ancient Greeks, has lost none of the magic, beautifying -power they ascribed to it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Much of the ugliness in the world is due to the neglect of -parents in properly supervising the actions of their children, to -prevent the formation of bad habits, which ruin beauty irretrievably. -As an instance of what can be done in this direction may be cited -the following remark by a Philadelphia surgeon: “The school-girl -habit of biting the nails must be broken up at once. If in children, -rub a little extract of quassia on the finger-tips. This is so -bitter that they are careful not to taste it twice. Not only the -nails, but the whole finger and hand is often forfeited by neglect -in this respect.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>By travelling from the shoulder down to the finger-tips we have -apparently interrupted our steady progress from toe to tip of the -body. But we shall see in a moment that the interruption is only -apparent, for our subject leads naturally “from Hand to Mouth.”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>JAW, CHIN, AND MOUTH</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>HANDS <i>VERSUS</i> JAWS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Just as among some male ruminants the growth of horns as a -means of defence has apparently led to the disappearance of the -canine teeth, so man’s erect attitude, by leaving his hands free to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_409'>409</span>do much of the work which inferior animals do with their jaws -and teeth, has gradually modified the appearance of his face, -greatly to its advantage. “The early male forefathers of man,” -says Darwin, “were probably furnished with great canine teeth; -but as they gradually acquired the habit of using stones, clubs, or -other weapons, for fighting with their enemies or rivals, they -would use their jaws and teeth less and less. In this case the -jaws, together with the teeth, would become reduced in size, as we -may feel almost sure from innumerable analogous cases.” And in -another place he remarks: “As the prodigious difference between -the skulls of the two sexes in the orang and gorilla stands in close -relation with the development of the immense canine teeth in the -males, we may infer that the reduction of the jaws and teeth in -the early progenitors of man must have led to a most striking and -favourable change in his appearance.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why a “favourable” change? No doubt a male gorilla, if it -could be taught to pronounce an æsthetic judgment, would indignantly -scout the notion that our weak, delicate jaw is preferable -to its own massive bones; nor would a prognathous or “forward-jawed” -African or Australian admit that he is less beautiful than -the orthognathous or “upright-jawed” European. What right, -then, have we to claim that we alone have beautiful faces? Must -we not admit, with the Jeffrey Alison school, that it is all “a -matter of taste,” and that in so far as a heavy, projecting jaw -<em>appears</em> beautiful to a gorilla or a savage, it <em>is</em> beautiful to -them?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The general answer to such questions as these has already been -given in another part of this volume. We need therefore only say -in brief <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>résumé</i></span> that a heavy, projecting, clumsy, brutal jaw probably -appears to a gorilla or a Hottentot <em>neither ugly nor beautiful</em>. -The æsthetic sense—as we can see among ourselves—is the last -and highest product of civilisation. Monkeys are apparently -excited by brilliant <em>colours</em>, but to beauty of <em>form</em> neither apes nor -the lower races and classes of man appear to be susceptible.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Should a negro, however, on having his attention called to this -matter, claim that his prognathous face is more beautiful than our -orthognathous face, the retort simple would be that his imagination -is not sufficiently educated to understand our more refined and -delicate beauty; just as an Esquimaux prefers a rotten egg to a -fresh one, a working man a glass of fusil oil to one of tokay—simply -because their senses of taste and smell are not sufficiently -refined to appreciate <em>or even detect</em> the delicate flavour of a fresh -egg and the subtle bouquet of wine.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_410'>410</span>Of the positive tests of beauty, Delicacy is the one which most -emphatically condemns the heavy, prognathous jaw and the accompanying -big mouth. Massive bones and clumsy movements are -everywhere the signs of excessive toil, fatal to beauty, as may be -seen on comparing the angular and almost masculine skeleton of a -labouring woman with the delicately-articulated joints of a “society -woman”; or the heavy structure of a dray-horse with the fine -contours of a race-horse; showing that Delicacy is always associated -with the other elements of beauty—Curvature, Gradation, Expression, -etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the manner in which the beauty of the mouth is proportioned -to its capability for Expression, Mr. Ruskin has made the following -interesting observations: “Taking the mouth, another source -of expression, we find it ugliest where it has none, as mostly in -fish; or perhaps where, without gaining much in expression of any -kind, it becomes a formidable destructive instrument, as again in -the alligator; and then, by some increase of expression, we arrive -at birds’ beaks, wherein there is much obtained by the different -ways of setting on the mandibles (compare the bills of the duck -and the eagle); and thence we reach the finely-developed lips of -the carnivora (which nevertheless lose their beauty in the actions -of snarling and biting); and from these we pass to the nobler, -because gentler and more sensitive, of the horse, camel, and fawn, -and so again up to man: only the principle is less traceable in the -mouths of the lower animals, because they are only in slight -measure capable of expression, and chiefly used as instruments, and -that of low function; whereas in man the mouth is given most -definitely as a means of expression, beyond and above its lower -functions.... The beauty of the animal form is in exact proportion -to the amount of moral or intellectual virtue expressed -by it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Shakspere, by the way, seems to differ from Ruskin’s theory -implied in this last sentence. According to Ruskin, animals “lose -their beauty in the actions of snarling and biting.” But man has -an action similar to snarling, namely, what Bell calls “that arching -of the lips so expressive of contempt, hatred, and jealousy.” It -is to this that Shakspere refers in these lines—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O what a deal of scorn looks beautiful</div> - <div class='line'>In the contempt and anger of his lip.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>But the word “beautiful” is here evidently taken by Shakspere in -the wider sense of interesting and characteristic, and not in the -special æsthetic sense of formal and emotional beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_411'>411</span>Delicacy and the capacity for varied and subtle Expression—these, -we may conclude, are the chief criteria of beauty in the -lower part of the face. Anatomically, it may be well to state here, -the word “face” does not include the forehead, but only extends -from the chin to the eyebrows. The upper and posterior part is -called the cranium or skull. It seems odd at first not to include -the forehead in the face, but there are scientific grounds for making -such a division, for a discussion of which the reader must be -referred to some anatomical text-book (<i>vide</i> Kollmann, pp. 82-85).</p> - -<p class='c001'>To a certain extent the face and the cranium are independent -of one another in development and physiognomic significance. -And it should be noted that, contrary to the general impression, in -estimating the degree of intelligence and refinement, the face is a -safer guide than the cranium; for there are many powerful brains -in low and even receding foreheads, whereas a large projecting jaw -is almost invariably a sign of vulgarity or lack of delicate feeling. -We do not find a dog ugly because of his receding forehead; but -we do find that the most infallible way of giving a man’s picture a -brutal expression is by enlarging the jaw and mouth. It is the -deadliest weapon of the caricaturist.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What makes a gorilla so frightfully ugly is the prominence and -massive preponderance of his face over his cranium. It is his -monstrous jaws, with their “simply brutal armature” of teeth, -that give him such a repulsive appearance. The gorilla’s mouth, -as Professor Kollmann remarks, is a caricature even from the -animal point of view. How much more delicate and refined are a -dog’s or cat’s jaws and teeth in comparison! Unfortunately, while -man is a savage, or when he relapses into brutal habits, it is the -gorilla’s mouth and teeth that his resemble, and not the cat’s or -the dog’s.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A small face being therefore a test of refined beauty, we have -here another proof of the superiority of feminine over masculine -beauty. For although woman has a smaller cranium than man, it -is larger than man’s relatively to the face. In other words, women -have smaller and less massive faces than men, both absolutely and -relatively to their size. Kollmann, who is not an evolutionist, -endeavours to account for this difference on the ground that men -are more addicted to the pleasures of the table than women. But -surely, though women eat less than men, they do not make much -less use of their teeth; and for any deficiency in this respect they -more than make up by the constant wagging of their jaws in small-talk. -It is infinitely more probable that Darwin is right in -attributing the massiveness of the masculine jaws to the accumulated, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_412'>412</span>inherited effects of constant use in fighting with enemies and -rivals—contests from which the passive females have as a rule -been exempt.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is the assumption by the hands of many of the former -functions of the teeth that has led to the decrease in the size of -the teeth, and, in consequence, of the jaw-bones to which they are -attached. Some writers have even claimed that the wisdom-teeth -are becoming rudimentary, and will ultimately disappear, because -there will be no room for them in our gradually diminishing jaws. -We may feel confident, however, that if this reduction in the size -of the jaws tended to go <em>too</em> far, the sense of beauty and Sexual -Selection, <i>i.e.</i> Love, would step in to arrest the process, by favouring -the survival of those who gave their teeth sufficient exercise to -prevent the lower part of the face from becoming too much reduced -in size. Our sense of beauty demands that the distance from tip of -chin to nose should be about the same as the length of the nose -and the height of the forehead. Should these proportions be -violated, Love will restore the balance; for no lover would ever -select a face in which the chin almost touches the nose, as in -infants, whose teeth and jaws are not yet developed, or as in old -men and women, in whom the loss of the teeth has led to a -collapse of the jaws, resulting in a loss of proportion, clumsy movements, -and prognathism.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>DIMPLES IN THE CHIN</h3> - -<p class='c013'>An oval, well-rounded chin is one of the most important elements -of formal beauty, and is a characteristic trait of humanity; -for man is the only animal that has a chin. Lavater distinguishes -three principal varieties of chin: the receding chin, which is -peculiar to lower races and types; the chin which does not project -beyond a line dropped from the lips; and the chin which does -project beyond that line. Of all parts of the face the chin has the -least variety of form and capability of emotional expression. -Physiognomists have expended much ingenuity in attempting to -trace a connection between various forms of the chin and traits of -character; but their generalisations have no scientific value. It is -probable that often a very small, weak chin indicates weak desires -and a vacillating character, while an energetic chin, like Richard -Wagner’s, indicates the iron will of a reformer. But the connection -between the development of the brain and special modifications -of the bones of the chin is too remote to permit a safe inference in -individual cases.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_413'>413</span>In ancient Egyptian art, as Winckelmann points out, “the chin -is always somewhat small and receding, whereby the oval of the -face becomes imperfect.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the most essential conditions of beauty in a chin, if we -may judge by the descriptions of novelists, is a dimple. Yet it is -doubtful whether a dimple can ever be accepted as a special mark -of beauty. Temporary dimples (for the production of which there -seems to be a special muscle) are interesting as a mode of transient -emotional expression. But permanent dimples interrupt the -regular gradation of the beauty-curve, and too often indicate that -the plump roundness, so fascinating in a woman’s face, has passed -the line which indicates corpulence and obliterates the delicate -lines of expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dimples occur not only in the chin, but also in the cheek, at -the elbow-joints, on the back, and in plump female hands at the -knuckles. They are caused by a dense tissue of fibres, blood-vessels, -and nerves holding down the skin tightly in one place, and -thus preventing such an accumulation of fat between the skin and -muscles as is seen in the surrounding parts.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tommaseo (quoted by Mantegazza) probably had in mind the -connection between corpulence and mental indolence when he said -that “a dimple in the chin indicates more physical than mental -grace.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“As a dimple—by the Greeks termed νύμφη—is an isolated -and somewhat accidental adjunct to the chin, it was not,” says -Winckelmann, “regarded by the Greek artists as an attribute of -abstract and pure beauty, though it is so considered by modern -writers.” With a few unimportant exceptions, it is not found in -“any beautiful ideal figure which has come down to us.” And -although Varro prettily calls a dimple in a statue of Bathyllus an -impress from the finger of Cupid, Winckelmann thinks that when -dimples do occur in Greek art works they must be attributed to a -conscious deviation from the highest principles of art for the sake -of personal portraiture. “In images whose beauties were of a -lofty cast, the Greek artists never allowed a dimple to break the -uniformity of the chin’s surface. Its beauty, indeed, consists in -the rounded fulness of its arched form, to which the lower lip, -when full, imparts additional size.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>REFINED LIPS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Whereas the beauty of the chin is purely physical, its neighbour, -the mouth, has the emotional charm of expression besides the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_414'>414</span>formal beauty of outline. When we come to speak of the ears we -shall find that some animals have five times as many muscles as -man, wherewith they can execute expressive movements with those -organs. But in the number and delicacy of the muscles of the -mouth no animal approaches man, in whom they are more numerous -even than those which serve for the varied expression of the -eyes. Great as is the difference between an animal’s forefoot and -man’s hand, it is not so great as the difference between an animal’s -and a man’s mouth. Chewing and sucking are almost the only -functions of the animal’s mouth, while man moulds his lips into a -thousand shapes in singing, whistling, pouting, blowing, speaking, -smiling, kissing, etc. From being a mere mechanism for masticating -food, it has become the most delicate instrument for intellectual -and emotional expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sir Charles Bell’s testimony that “the lips are, of all the -features, the most susceptible of action, and the most direct index of -the feelings,” has already been quoted in the chapter on Kissing. -Could Rubinstein himself express a wider range of emotions, by -subtle variations of pianistic touch, than our lips can express -degrees and varieties of affection in the family, friendly, conjugal, -and love kisses? And can we find, even in the music of Chopin -and Wagner, harmonic changes more infinitely varied than the -countless subtle modulations of the human lips, as revealed in the -fact that deaf mutes can be taught to understand what we say to -them merely by watching the movements of our lips?</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The mouth, which is the end of love” (Dante), is also the -seat of Love’s smiles; “and in her smile Love’s image you may -see.” We often read of smiling eyes, and the eyes <em>do</em> partake in -the expression of smiling, by increased brightness and the wrinkling -of the surrounding muscles. But that the mouth is a more -important factor in this expression can be shown by painting the -face of a man with a sad expression, and then pasting on a smiling -mouth, which will give the man at once a happy expression, notwithstanding -the unchanged eyes. In life the muscles of the -mouth and eyes execute certain movements in harmony. “In all -exhilarating emotions,” says Bell, “the eyebrows, the eyelids, the -nostril, and the angle of the mouth are raised. In the depressing -emotions it is the reverse.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>For the execution of these diverse movements, which make it -the most expressive organ of the body, the mouth employs more -than a dozen important groups of muscles, some of which originate -in the chin, some in the cheeks, some in the lips themselves, -enabling them to execute independent movements.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_415'>415</span>While surpassing the eyes in expressiveness, the mouth rivals -them in beauty of form and colour. “The lips answer the purpose -of displaying a more brilliant red than is to be seen elsewhere,” -says Winckelmann. “The under lips should be fuller than the -upper.” In Greek divinities the lips are not always closed: “and -this is especially the case with Venus, in order that her countenance -may express the languishing softness of desire and love.” At the -same time, “very few of the figures which have been represented -laughing, as some Satyrs or Fauns are, show the teeth.” This is -natural enough, for the long-continued exposure of the teeth would -only result in a grimace. It is only in the transient smile that -the teeth may peep forth; and then what a charming contrast -their ivory curve and lustrous colour presents to the full-blooded, -soft, pink lips!</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'>“Lilies married to the rose,</div> - <div class='line'>Have made her cheek the nuptial bed;</div> - <div class='line'>Her lips betray their virgin red,</div> - <div class='line'>As they only blushed for this,</div> - <div class='line'>That they one another kiss.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Health, Beauty, and Love—everywhere we see them inseparably -associated. Who could ever fall in love with a pair of thin, -pallid lips that have lost their pink and plump loveliness through -anæmic indolence, or disease, or tight lacing? The very teeth, -though the hardest substance of the body, lose their natural colour -and beauty in ill-health. Not only do they decay and become -blackish, but “in bilious people they become yellow, and in consumptive -patients they show occasionally an unnaturally pearly -and translucent whiteness” (Brinton and Napheys).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Negroes have, normally, teeth of a dazzling whiteness, which -is often regarded as a racial peculiarity, but is due, according to -Waitz, to the use of chalk or vegetal fibres. But various savages -are dissatisfied with the natural form and colour of their teeth, -and disfigure them in various ways. “In different countries the -teeth are stained black, red, blue, etc., and in the Malay Archipelago -it is thought shameful to have teeth like those of a dog” -(Darwin).</p> - -<p class='c001'>“In Macassar the women spend a part of the day in painting -their teeth red and yellow, in such a way that a red tooth follows -a yellow one, and alternately.” In Japan, Fashion compels -married women to blacken their teeth, not, however, as an ornament, -but to make them ugly and save them from temptation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Some African tribes knock out two or more of their front -teeth, on the ground that they do not wish to look like brutes. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_416'>416</span>The Batokas “think the presence of incisors most unsightly, and on -beholding some Europeans, cried out, ‘Look at the great teeth!’... -In various parts of Africa, and in the Malay Archipelago, the -natives file the incisors into points like those of a saw, or pierce -them with holes, into which they insert studs.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In case of the lips, primitive Fashion prescribes still more -atrocious mutilations. One would think that a negro’s swollen -lips were ugly enough to suit even a devotee of African Fashion; -but no! Her lips being naturally large, the fashionable negro -belle considers it incumbent on her to exaggerate them into -additional hideousness, just as European and American fashionable -women exaggerate the slight and beautiful natural curve of their -waist into the atrocious hour-glass shape.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Among the Babines, who live north of the Columbia River,” -says Sir John Lubbock, “the size of the under lip is the standard -of female beauty. A hole is made in the under lip of the infant, -in which a small bone is inserted; from time to time the bone is -replaced by a larger one, until at last a piece of wood, three inches -long and an inch and a half wide, is inserted in the orifice, which -makes the lip protrude to a frightful extent. The process appears -to be very painful.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“In Central Africa,” says Darwin, “the women perforate the -lower lip and wear a crystal, which, from the movement of the -tongue, has ‘a wriggling motion, indescribably ludicrous during -conversation.’ The wife of the chief of Latooka told Sir S. Baker -that Lady Baker ‘would be much improved if she would extract -her four front teeth from the lower jaw, and wear the long pointed -polished crystal in her under lip.’ Further south, with the -Makalolo, the upper lip is perforated, and a large metal and -bamboo ring, called a <em>pelelé</em>, is worn in the hole. This caused the -lip to project in one point two inches beyond the tip of the nose; -and when the lady smiled, the contraction of the muscles elevated -it over the eyes. ‘Why do the women wear these things?’ the -venerable chief Chinsurdi was asked. Evidently surprised at such -a stupid question, he replied, ‘For beauty! They are the only -beautiful things women have; men have beards, women have -none. What kind of a person would she be without a <em>pelelé</em>? -She would not be a woman at all, with a mouth like a man but -no beard.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In New Zealand, according to Tylor, “it was considered -shameful for a woman not to have her mouth tattooed, for people -would say with disgust, ‘She has red lips.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Compare these two pictures for a moment: on the one side, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_417'>417</span>the protuberant mouth-borders of the negro woman, swollen as by -disease or an insect’s sting, enlarged, in smiling, to the very ears, -and showing not only the teeth but the gums, the tongue and the -unæsthetic œsophagus; on the other side, the full but delicate -cherry lips of civilised woman, capable of an infinite variety of -subtle, graceful movements, a keyboard on which the whole gamut -of human feelings finds expression, and revealing, in a smile, only -the tips of the pearly, undeformed teeth. Shall we say, with -Alison and Jeffrey, that it is all a matter of taste, and that the -negro has as much right to his taste as we have to ours? Or -have we not plentiful reasons for claiming that Personal Beauty -is a fine art, and that the reason why the negro prefers his coarse -mouth to our refined lips is because he <em>does not understand</em> our -highly-developed and specialised Beauty?</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are cogent scientific reasons for believing that, just as -the skull has been modified and developed from the upper part of -the spinal column, and the brain from its contents, so the facial -muscles are all developed from the broad muscle of the neck. In -the orang, according to Professor Owen, we find already all the -important facial muscles which man uses to express emotions. -But, as Darwin remarks, “distinct uses, independently of expression, -can ... be assigned with much probability for almost all -the facial muscles.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, the facial muscles “are, as is admitted by -every one who has written on the subject, very variable in -structure; and Moreau remarks that they are hardly alike in half -a dozen subjects. They are also variable in function. Thus the -power of uncovering the canine tooth on one side differs much in -different persons. The power of raising the wings of the nostrils -is also, according to Dr. Piderit, variable in a remarkable degree; -and other such cases could be given.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The facts that the facial muscles blend so much together that -their number has been variously estimated at from nineteen to -fifty-five, and that they vary so much in details of structure and -function in individuals, are of extreme significance. For, in the -first place, this variableness allows Love—or Sexual Selection—to -favour the survival of those modifications of the features which -are most in harmony with the laws of Beauty; and, secondly, it -affords the means of further specialisation and increased accuracy -in the modes of emotional expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When we see a friend reading a letter, we fancy his face a -perfect mirror, reflecting every mood touched upon in its contents. -Yet many of our expressions are vague, and there is much room -<span class='pageno' id='Page_418'>418</span>for improvement in definiteness. Darwin, in the introduction to -his work on the <cite>Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals</cite>, -has remarked how difficult it often is to name the exact emotion -intended to be expressed in a picture of a man, unless we regard -the accessories by which the painter illustrates the situation; and -how apt people are to disagree in naming the emotions expressed -by a series of physiognomic portraits. With monkeys, he says, -“the expression of slight pain, or of any painful emotion, such as -grief, vexation, jealousy, etc., is not easily distinguished from that -of moderate anger.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Savages, as we saw in a previous chapter, are strangers to -many of the tender emotions which enter into our daily life; hence -it would be absurd to look for muscles specially trained to express -them. And even with Europeans the refined emotions are of -such recent development that, as just stated, they are capable of -much further specialisation. To take only one case: it is probable -that, whereas in the present stage of human evolution, it is almost -impossible, without accessories, to distinguish the facial expression -of feminine Romantic Love from that of maternal love, future -generations will have specially modified muscles for those modes of -expression. Duchenne has pointed out on the side of the nose a -series of transient folds expressive of amorous desire. As -Romantic Love displaces coarse passion, may not these or another -set of muscles be pressed into the special service of refined Love -as a sign of encouragement to lovers about to propose? Coquettes, -of course, would immediately cultivate this expression, as a new -wile or “wrinkle.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Between the facial muscles that are thus utilised for the -expression of emotions and other muscles of the body, there is one -difference which is of the utmost importance from the point of -view of Personal Beauty. The function of ordinary muscles is to -move bones, whereas the muscles of expression in the face are -only concerned with the movements of the skin. Hence they do -not enlarge the bones of the face, which would destroy its delicacy. -Their exercise gives elasticity and plump roundness to the outlines -of the face; and as they are subtly subdivided in function, they -cannot easily become too plump from exercise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Individual peculiarities of expression are of course due to the -frequent exercise of certain sets of muscles, leading gradually to a -fixed physiognomic aspect; for form is merely crystallised expression. -Hence no one can be beautiful without being good. Vice -soon destroys Personal Beauty. If the muscles of anger, envy, -jealousy, spite, cruelty, etc., are too frequently called into exercise, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_419'>419</span>the result is a face on which the word <em>vicious</em> is written as legibly -and in as many corners as the numerals X and 10 are printed on -a United States banknote.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the reasons why Fashion encourages the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>blasé</i></span>, <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>nil admirari</i></span> -attitude, and the stolid suppression of emotional expression, -is to hide these signs of moral and hygienic sins.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oliver Wendell Holmes, anatomist and poet, says of Emerson -that he had “that look of refinement centring about the lips -which is rarely found in the male New Englander, unless the -family features have been for two or three cultivated generations -the battlefield and the playground of varied thoughts and complex -emotions, as well as the sensuous and nutritive port of entry.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dr. Holmes need not have limited his generalisation to “male -New Englanders.” Refined mouths are rare in every country, -among women as well as among men. As a writer in the <cite>Victoria -Magazine</cite> exclaims: “It is wonderful how far more common good -foreheads and eyes are amongst us than good mouths and chins.” -Yet there is a special reason for singling out the average male -New Englander as a “warning example.” He inherits the thin, -famished, pale, stern, forbidding lips of his Puritan ancestors, -whose sins are thus visited on later generations. Sins? Yes, -sins against health. Without cheerfulness there can be no sound -health, and the Puritans made the systematic pursuit of unhappiness -the chief object of their life. They made cruel war on all -those innocent pursuits and amusements which bring the bloom of -health and beauty to the youthful cheek, and exercise the lips in -the expression of refined æsthetic emotion. Even music, the most -innocent of the arts, was included in their fanatic ostracism, to -which historians also trace the rarity of musical taste of the highest -order in England.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is reason to believe that it is especially æsthetic culture -which betrays itself in the refined contours and expression of the -lips. Men of genius, though their cast of features is not always -handsome, commonly have finely-cut mouths. Among German -women addicted to music and love of nature, though beauty is -comparatively rare—owing to causes which will be considered in -a later chapter—good mouths are more common than in some -other countries which boast a higher general average of Personal -Beauty. Among Americans in general, all the features are apt to -be finely cut, hence the lips also partake of this advantage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But it is among Spanish maidens that perhaps the most inviting, -full-blooded yet delicate, soft, and refined lips are to be sought. -True, the Spanish maiden seems to lack refined feelings when she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_420'>420</span>goes, as commonly supposed, to be thrilled by a bull fight. Yet it -is well known that the upper classes of women in Spain do not -commonly attend these spectacles; and if they did, would they -be more cruel than our fashionable women? Which is the more -glaring evidence of callous emotions, to voluntarily witness the -slaughter of an infuriated, dangerous beast, or to wear on one’s -hat the painted corpses of innocent song-birds?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following passage in one of Washington Irving’s works -shows that the Spanish have genuine æsthetic feeling and taste:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“‘How near the Sierra looks this evening!’ said Mateo; ‘it -seems as if you could touch it with your hand, and yet it is many -leagues off.’ While he was speaking a star appeared over the -snowy summit of the mountain, the only one yet visible in the -heavens, and so pure, so large, so bright and beautiful as to call -forth ejaculations of delight from honest Mateo.</p> - -<p class='c001'>”<span lang="es" xml:lang="es">‘Que lucero hermoso!—que clara y limpio es!—no pueda ser -lucero mas brillante.’</span> (What a beautiful star! how clear and -lucid!—no star could be more brilliant!)</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have often remarked this sensibility of the common people -of Spain to the charms of natural objects. The lustre of a star—the -beauty or fragrance of a flower—the crystal purity of a fountain, -will inspire them with a kind of poetical delight—and then -what euphonious words their magnificent language affords with -which to give utterance to their transports!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Possibly the constant pronouncing of these “euphonious words” -is one of the causes of the beauty of Spanish lips. But one need -not go into such subtle details for an explanation of the phenomenon. -Sexual Selection accounts for it sufficiently. The admiration -of Beauty is the strongest factor in Romantic Love. The -Spaniard’s sense of Beauty is refined through his love of Beauty -in natural objects. Hence in Sexual Selection he is guided by a -taste which abhors equally the coarse, protuberant lips suggestive -of mere animality, and the leathery, lifeless lips indicating neglect -of the laws of health and a lack of lusty vitality. For true labial -refinement consists not in ascetic elimination of sensuous fulness, -but in æsthetic harmony between sense and intellect. The lips, -like all other parts of the body, are naturally plump and full-blooded -in Southern nations, saturated with sunshine and fresh air; -and when this plumpness is checked by mental refinement and the -exigencies of varied expression, then it is that lips become ideally -beautiful.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is with the lips as with Love, of which they are the perch. -Neither Zola nor Dante are the true painters of the romantic -<span class='pageno' id='Page_421'>421</span>passion, but Shakspere, who pays respect to flesh and blood as -well as to emotion and intellect.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COSMETIC HINTS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Although the size and shape of the lips afford an index of -coarse or refined ancestry, the mouth is commonly the most self-made -feature in the countenance, because it is such an important -seat of individual expression. Herein lies a soothing balm to -those who, owing to the stupidly irregular and incalculable laws -of heredity, have inherited an ugly mouth from a grandfather or -a more remote ancestor.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A pleasing impression, oft repeated, leaves its traces on the -facial muscles. Kant gives this advice to parents: “Children, -especially girls, must be accustomed early to smile in a frank, -unconstrained manner; for the cheerfulness and animation of the -features gradually leave an impression on the mind itself, and thus -create a disposition towards gaiety, amiableness, and sociability, -which lay an early foundation for the virtue of benevolence.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So Kant evidently believed that we can beautify the soul by -beautifying the body. And the reverse is equally true. As Mr. -Ruskin remarks: “There is not any virtue the exercise of which, -even momentarily, will not impress a new fairness upon the features.... -On the gentleness and decision of just feeling there follows a -grace of action which by no discipline may be taught or obtained.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>If educators and parents would thoroughly impress on the -minds of the young the great truth that good moral behaviour -and the industry which leads to intellectual pre-eminence are magic -sources of youthful and permanent Personal Beauty, they would find -it the most potent of all civilising agencies, especially with women.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Drs. Brinton and Napheys, in their work on <cite>Personal Beauty</cite> -(1870), which is especially valuable from the point of view of -medical and surgical cosmetics, but which is unfortunately out of -print, offer the following suggestions as to how the shape and -expression of the mouth may be improved:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>"For cosmetic reasons, immoderate laughter is objectionable. -It keeps the muscles on the stretch, destroys the contour of the -features, and produces wrinkles. It is better to cultivate a -‘classic repose.’</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Still more decidedly should the habit of ‘making mouths’ -be condemned, whether it occur in conversing in private or to -express emotions. It never adds to the emphasis of the discourse, -never improves the looks, and leads to actual malformations.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_422'>422</span>"Children sometimes learn to suck and bite their lips. This -distorts these organs, and unless they are persuaded to give it up -betimes, a permanent deformity will arise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“When the lips have once assumed a given form, it is difficult -to change them. Those that are too thin can occasionally be -increased by adopting the plan of sucking them. This forces a -large quantity of blood to the part, and consequently a greater -amount of nutriment. When too large, compresses can sometimes, -but not always, be used to effect. We have employed silver plates -connected by a wire spring, or a mould of stiff leather. Either -may be worn at night, or in the house during the day.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is astonishing to note how many persons are utterly unconcerned -regarding the appearance of their mouths in talking, smiling, -and laughing, sometimes revealing the whole of the teeth and even -the gums, like savages, or as if they were walking tooth-powder -advertisements. Self-observation before a mirror is the best antidote -against such grimaces.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Chapped lips sometimes call for constitutional treatment, but -ordinarily they can be easily cured by obtaining a lip-salve of some -reputable chemist. Glycerine is almost always adulterated and -injurious, and should only be used on any part of the skin when -chemically pure.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pale lips are commonly an indication of ill-health, and therefore -call for exercise, tonics, or other medical treatment. And the -colour of the lips is an index of emotion as well as of health—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in1'>“Whispering, with white lips, ‘The foe! They come! They come!’”—<span class='fss'>BYRON.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>That sound teeth, though they should never be seen except in -glimpses, are an extremely important element in facial beauty, -may be seen by the fact that the loss of a few front teeth makes -a person look ten years older at once. The art of dentistry has -reached such marvellous perfection that there is no excuse for -having unsightly teeth. They may be easily preserved to a good -age, if properly exercised on solid food—bread crusts, etc. Very -hot and very cold food and drink is injurious, especially if cold -and hot things are taken in immediate succession. The teeth -should be cleaned twice a day, on rising and before retiring. The -brush should not be too hard, and a harmless powder, wash, or -soap should be obtained of a trustworthy chemist for the threefold -purpose of whitening the teeth by removing tartar, of killing the -numerous microbes in the mouth, and purifying the breath. An -offensive breath is shockingly common, probably owing to the fact -<span class='pageno' id='Page_423'>423</span>that many brush only the outside surface of their teeth. They -should be brushed inside as well, and on the top, and the tooth -wash or soap should be brought into contact with every corner -and crevasse of the mouth and teeth. An offensive breath ought -to be good cause for divorce, and certainly it is a deadly enemy of -Romantic Love.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE CHEEKS</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>HIGH CHEEK-BONES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>When we look at a Mongolian, the flat nose and oblique eyes -at once attract our attention, but hardly to such a degree as his -high and prominent cheek-bones. The North American Indians, -who are probably the descendants of Mongolians, resemble them -in their prominent cheek-bones; and the Esquimaux likewise -possess these in a most exaggerated form. “The Siamese,” says -Darwin, “have small noses with divergent nostrils, a wide mouth, -rather thick lips, a remarkably large face, with very high and -broad cheek-bones. It is therefore not wonderful that ‘beauty, -according to our notion, is a stranger to them. Yet they consider -their own females to be much more beautiful than those of -Europe.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here is another “matter of taste,” which is decided in our -favour by the general laws of Beauty, positive and negative.</p> - -<p class='c001'>High, prominent cheek-bones are ugly, in the first place, because -they interfere with the regularly gradated oval of the face. -Secondly, because, like projecting bones and angles in any other -part of the body, they interrupt the regular curve of Beauty. -Thirdly, because they are coarse and inelegant, offending the sense -of delicacy and grace, like big, clumsy ankles and wrists. Fourthly, -because they suggest the decrepitude of old age and disease. -In the healthy cheek of youth and beauty there is a large -amount of adipose tissue, both under the skin and between the -subjacent muscles. When age or disease makes fatal inroads -on the body, this fat disappears and leaves the impression of -starvation. “Famine is in thy cheeks,” exclaims Shakspere; -and again—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Meagre were his looks,</div> - <div class='line'>Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>When the malar bones are too high, the fleshy cheeks, instead of -including them in a plump curve, are made by contrast to appear -hollow, thus simulating and suggesting the appearance of disease -<span class='pageno' id='Page_424'>424</span>to those whose imagination is sufficiently awake to notice such -suggestions. And besides emaciation, hollow cheeks suggest another -sign of age and decrepitude—the loss of the teeth, which -on the sides of the jaws help to give youthful cheeks their plump -outlines.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Finally, prominent cheek-bones are objectionable because they -are concomitants of the large, clumsy, brutal jaws which -characterise savages and apes. To the cheek-bones the upper -jaw-bone is directly attached; hence the larger the teeth are, and -the more vigorously they are exercised in fighting and picking -bones, the more massive must be the cheek-bones, to prevent the -upper jaw from being pushed out of position. Moreover, there is -attached to the cheek-bones a powerful muscle which connects it -with the lower jaw, and by its contraction brings the two jaws -together; and this is a second way in which violent exercise of -the jaws tends to enlarge the cheek-bones, for all bones become -enlarged if the muscles attached to them are much exercised.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At a recent meeting of the British Association, Sir George -Campbell advanced the theory that the Aryan race, to which we -belong, originally had prominent cheek-bones, like those of lower -races. On general evolutionary grounds this is indeed a foregone -conclusion; as is the corollary that our cheek-bones have become -smaller, for the same reason that our jaws have become more -delicate; viz. because we no longer use them to fight and tear -our food like wild beasts, but to masticate soft cooked food, to -talk, etc. Thus does the progress of civilisation enhance our -Personal Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>An excessive diminution in the size of the cheek-bones, as of -the jaws, will be prevented by Romantic Love (Sexual Selection), -which ever aims at establishing and preserving those proportions -and outlines of the features which are most in harmony with the -general laws of beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the lower animals cruel Natural Selection eliminates -those individuals who are ugly, <i>i.e.</i> unnatural, unhealthy, clumsy. -With mankind charity and pity have checked the operation of -this cruel though beneficial law, and progress in the direction of -refinement and Beauty would therefore be fatally impeded were it -not that Sexual Selection, or Love guided by the sense of Beauty, -steps in to eliminate the ill-favoured, who bear in their countenance -too conspicuously the marks of their savage and animal -ancestry. Perhaps Mr. Wallace had some such thought in his -mind when he anticipated the time when man’s selection shall -have supplanted natural <a id='corr424.43'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='selection'>selection.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_424.43'><ins class='correction' title='selection'>selection.</ins></a></span></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_425'>425</span>Yet there are thousands of good people who still profess to -believe that “beauty is only skin deep,” and that Romantic Love -and æsthetic culture are of no practical importance, but mere gaudy -soap-bubbles to delight our vision for a transient moment!</p> - -<p class='c001'>In future ages, when æsthetic refinement will be more common, -and Romantic Love, its offspring, less impeded by those considerations -of rank and money and imaginary “prudence” which lead -parents to <em>sacrifice the physique and wellbeing of their grand-children</em> -to the illusive comfort of their sons and daughters (in -“marriages of reason”)—what an impetus will then be given to -the development of Personal Beauty! Refined mouths and noses, -rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, plump and graceful healthy figures, -now so lamentably rare, will then become as plentiful as blackberries -in the autumn.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COLOUR AND BLUSHES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Although the heart’s warm blood is not carried to the cheeks -in so dense a network of arteries, nor so near the surface as in the -lips, yet the cheeks come next to the lips in delicate sensibility—a -fact which Love has discovered instinctively; for a kiss on the -cheeks is still a kiss of love, whereas a kiss on the forehead or eyelids -indicates less ecstatic forms of affection or esteem.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What makes the cheeks so sensitive is the great delicacy of their -transparent skin, which readily allows the colour of the blood to -be seen as through a veil, not only in blushing, but in the natural -rosy aspect of youth and health.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Though the cheeks may not vie with the lips and teeth, the -hair and the eyes, in lustrous depth of colour, they have an advantage -in their chamæleonic variety and changes of tint, and their -delicious gradations. Even the delicate blushes on an apple or a -peach, caused by the warm and loving glances of the sun,—what -are they compared to the luscious, mellow tints on a maiden’s ripe -cheeks? Nor is it possible to find in the leaves of an autumnal -American forest more endless individual <em>nuances</em> and shades of red -and rose and pink than in the cheeks of lovely girls—unless indolence -or other sins against health have painted them with -ghastly repulsive pallor, or the hideous Hottentot habit of bedaubing -them with brutal paint has ruined their translucent delicacy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Says the author of the <cite>Ugly Girl Papers</cite>: “Some cheeks have -a winelike, purplish glow, others a transparent saffron tinge, like -yellowish-pink porcelain; others still have clear, pale carmine; -and the rarest of all, that suffused tint like apple-blossoms.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_426'>426</span>At summer resorts where girls drink in daily draughts of the -elixir of youth and beauty, commonly known as fresh air, one of -their greatest love-charms is these colour-symphonies on their -cheeks, changing their melody with every pulse-beat. These -charms they might possess all the year round did not their parents -commonly convert their dwelling-houses into hothouses, reeking -with stagnant, enervating air.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If, therefore, we read that Africans prefer the opaque, inky, -immutable ebony of their complexion to the translucent, ever-changing -tints, eloquent of health and varied emotions, in a white -maiden’s face, we—well, we simply smile, on recalling the fact -that even among ourselves a cheap, gaudy chromo is preferred by -the great multitude to the work of a great master which they do -not understand. The slow growth of æsthetic refinement is -illustrated by the fact that it is only a few years since Fashion -has set its face against the use of vulgar paints and powders, -which ensure a most questionable temporary advantage at the expense -of future permanent defacement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The colours of the cheeks, so far under consideration, are to a -certain extent subject to our will and skill; for no one who cultivates -the complexion and has plenty of pure air need be without -these blooming buccal roses. But the “thousand <em>blushing apparitions</em>” -that start into our faces are, as Shakspere’s well-chosen -words imply, as independent of our will and control as any other -apparitions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Are blushes ornamental or useful? That is, were they developed -through Sexual or through Natural Selection? Such Shaksperian -expressions as “Bid the cheek be ready with a blush, modest -as morning;” “Thy cheeks blush for pure shame to counterfeit -our roses;” and “To blush and beautify the cheek again,” suggest -the notion that the great poet regarded blushes as beautiful; while -the following permit a different interpretation: “Her blush is guiltiness, -not modesty;” “Blushing cheeks by faults are bred, and fears -by pale white shown;” “You virtuous ass, you bashful fool, must -you be blushing?” “His treasons will sit blushing in his face.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let us see if any light is thrown on the problem by going back -to the beginning, and tracing the development of the habit of -blushing. That blushing is a comparatively recent human acquisition -is made apparent from the facts that it is not seen in animals, -nor in very young children, nor in idiots, as a rule; while among -savages the faculty of blushing seems to be dependent on the presence -of a sense of shame, which is almost, if not entirely, unknown -to the lowest tribes.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_427'>427</span>That animals never blush, Darwin thinks, is almost certain. -“Blushing,” he says, “is the most peculiar and the most human of -all expressions. Monkeys redden from passion, but it would require -an overwhelming amount of evidence to make us believe that any -animal could blush.” Concerning children he says: “The young -blush much more freely than the old, but not during infancy, which -is remarkable, as we know that infants at a very early age redden -from passion. I have received authentic accounts of two little -girls blushing at the ages of between two and three years; and of -another sensitive child, a year older, blushing when reproved for a -fault.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“In the dark-brown Peruvian,” says Mr. Tylor, “or the yet -blacker African, though a hand or a thermometer put to the cheek -will detect the blush by its heat, the somewhat increased depth of -colour is hardly perceptible to the eye.” Dr. Burgess repeatedly -had occasion to observe that a scar in the face of a negress “invariably -became red whenever she was abruptly spoken to, or -charged with any trivial offence.” And Darwin was assured by -several trustworthy observers “that they have seen on the faces of -negroes an appearance resembling a blush, under circumstances -which would have excited one in us, though their skins were of an -ebony-black tint. Some describe it as a blushing brown, but most -say that the blackness becomes more intense.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now evidence has already been quoted in a previous chapter -showing that negroes admire a black skin more than a white one -(vide <cite>Descent of Man</cite>, 1885, p. 579). Is it likely, therefore, that -the blush was admired by negroes, and became a ground of selection, -because it intensified the blackness of the skin. It hardly seems -probable that the coarse negro can be influenced in his amorous -choice by any such subtle, almost imperceptible difference; and -even the great originator of the theory of Sexual Selection does not -believe that it accounts for the origin of blushes: “No doubt a -slight blush adds to the beauty of a maiden’s face; and the Circassian -women who are capable of blushing invariably fetch a -higher price in the seraglio of the Sultan than less susceptible -women. But the firmest believer in the efficacy of sexual selection -will hardly suppose that blushing was acquired as a sexual ornament. -This view would also be opposed to what has just been -said about the dark-coloured races blushing in an invisible manner.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, it seems equally difficult to account for the -origin of blushing on utilitarian grounds. No one likes to be -caught blushing; on the contrary, every one tries to conceal such -a state by lowering or averting the face. How could such an unwelcome, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_428'>428</span>embarrassing habit prove of advantage to us? Sir Charles -Bell’s remarks on the subject may serve as a clue to the answer. -That blushing “is a provision for expression may be inferred,” he -says, “from the colour extending only to the surface of the face, -neck, and breast—the parts most exposed.... The colour caused -by blushing gives brilliancy and interest to the expression of the -face. In this we perceive an advantage possessed by the fair -family of mankind, and which must be lost to the dark; for I can -hardly believe that a blush may be seen in the negro.... Blushing -assorts well with youthful and with effeminate features, while -nothing is more hateful than a dog-face that exhibits no token of -sensibility in the variations of colour.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The poet Young tells us that “the man that blushes is not -quite a brute;” and Darwin quotes from Humboldt a sneer of the -Spaniard, “How can those be trusted who know not how to -blush?” Darwin’s remark that some idiots, “<em>if not utterly -degraded</em>, are capable of blushing,” also accords with Bell’s notion -that blushing is a provision for expression. Bell’s assertion that it -is “indicative of excitement” is, however, not sufficiently definite. -What is it that a blush expresses? Evidently nervous sensibility, -a moral sense, modesty, innocence. The Circassian who can blush -is more highly valued than another, because the blush is eloquent -of maiden modesty and heart untainted. The fact that there is -also a blush of violated modesty, a blush of shame, and of guilt, -does not argue against this view, any more than the fact that we -blush if, though innocent, we are accused of guilt. It is the -association of ideas and of emotions that evokes the blush in such -cases.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may therefore conclude that a blush is useful on account of -its <em>moral beauty</em>, <i>i.e.</i> its expressiveness of presumptive innocence, -or at least of a desire to be considered innocent; whereas the unblushing -front and cheek indicate a brutal, callous indifference to -virtue. We admire a blush as “the most peculiar and the most -human of all expressions.” And we admire it also, to some extent, -on purely æsthetic grounds, if not exaggerated. A slight blush -has a rosy charm of its own, and it is only when it becomes a too -diffused and deep facial Aurora borealis that it loses its charm, -because suggestive of the hectic or fever flush, or the redness -caused by anger, heat, violent exertion, etc., which has a physiological -origin distinct from that of blushing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>According to Bell, “the colour which attends exertion or the -violent passions, as of rage, arises from general vascular excitement, -and differs from blushing. Blushing is too sudden and too partial -<span class='pageno' id='Page_429'>429</span>to be traced to the heart’s action.” Darwin endeavours to find the -explanation of blushing in the intimate sympathy which exists -between the capillary circulation of the surface of the head and -face, and that of the brain, which would account for the mental -confusion of shyness, modesty, etc., being so immediately photographed -on the face. He sums up his theory in these words:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I conclude that blushing—whether due to shyness—to shame -for a real crime—to shame from a breach of the laws of etiquette—to -modesty from humility—to modesty from an indelicacy—depends -in all cases on the same principle; this principle being a -sensitive regard for the opinion, more particularly for the depreciation -of others, primarily in relation to our personal appearance, -especially of our faces; and secondarily, through the force of -association and habit, in relation to the opinion of others on our -conduct.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>He gives various illustrations showing how by directing our -attention to certain parts of the body we can increase their sensitivity -and activity in a manner analogous to that postulated by -the theory of blushing. But for these the reader must be referred -to his essay on this subject in the Expression of Emotions—a -masterpiece of physiological and psychological analysis. One more -passage, however, may be cited, as it helps to justify this long discussion -of blushing by showing its special relations to Romantic -Love and Personal Beauty:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is plain to every one that young men and women are highly -sensitive to the opinion of each other with reference to their personal -appearance; and they blush incomparably more in presence of -the opposite sex than in that of their own. A young man, not -very liable to blush, will blush intensely at any slight ridicule of -his appearance from a girl whose judgment on any important -subject he would disregard. No happy pair of young lovers, -valuing each other’s admiration and love more than anything else -in the world, probably ever courted each other without many a -blush. Even the barbarians of Tierra del Fuego, according to Mr. -Bridges, blush ‘chiefly in regard to women, but certainly also at -their own personal appearance.’”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE EARS</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>A USELESS ORNAMENT</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The shell of the ear appears to be the only part of man’s visible -body which has ceased to be useful and become purely ornamental -<span class='pageno' id='Page_430'>430</span>“Persons whose ears have been cut off hear just as well as before,” -says Professor Haeckel. Dr. J. Toynbee, F.R.S., “after collecting -all the evidence on this head, concludes that the external shell is -of no distinct use;” and Darwin was informed by Professor -Preyer that after experimenting on the functions of the shell of -the ear he had come to nearly the same conclusion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To infer from this that our external ears have been developed, -through Sexual Selection, for purely ornamental purposes, would -not be in accord with scientific analogies. For, often as existing -organs (horns, feathers, etc.) are <em>modified</em> for ornamental purposes, -there are no known instances of any that have been specially -developed for that purpose; even the facial muscles of expression -being, as we have seen, in this predicament. Hence we are led -to conclude that man has inherited the shell of his ear from a -remote apelike ancestor, to whom it was of use in catching faint -sounds, and who consequently had the power, common to other -animals, not only of directing the ears as a whole to different points -of the compass, but of temporarily altering its shape. Indeed, one -of the strongest proofs of our descent from lower animals lies in -the fact that man still possesses, in a rudimentary form, the -muscles needed to move the ears. Some savage tribes have considerable -control over these muscles. The famous physiologist, -Johannes Müller, after long and patient efforts, succeeded in -recovering the power of moving his ears; and Darwin writes: “I -have seen one man who could draw the whole ear forwards; other -men can draw it upwards; another who could draw it backwards; -and from what one of these persons told me, it is probable that -most of us, by often touching our ears, and thus directing our -attention towards them, could recover some power of movement by -repeated trials.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ordinary monkeys still possess the power to move their ears; -but the manlike or anthropoid apes resemble us in the rudimentary -condition of their ear-muscles; and Darwin was assured by the -keepers in the London Zoological Gardens that these animals never -move or erect their ears. He suggests two theories to account for -the loss of this power: first, that, owing to their arboreal habits -and great strength, these apes were not exposed to much danger, -and thus gradually, through disuse, lost control over these organs, -just as birds on oceanic islands where they are not subject to -attacks have lost the use of their wings; secondly, that the freedom -with which they can move the head in a horizontal plane enabled -them to dispense with mobile ears.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The remarkable variability of the ears—greater, by the way, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_431'>431</span>men than in women—is another reason for regarding them as -rudimentary organs, inherited from remote semi-human ancestors, -to whom they were useful; for great variability is a characteristic -of all rudimentary organs. Haeckel facetiously suggests that “at -large assemblies, where our interest is not sufficiently enchained, -nothing is more instructive and entertaining than a comparative -study of the countless variations in the form of the ears.” The -ancient Greek artists were aware of this variability, for Wincklemann -speaks of “the infinite variety of forms of the ear on heads -modelled from life.” “It was customary with the ancient artists -to elaborate no portion of the head more diligently than the ears.” -“In portrait figures, when the countenance is so much injured as -not to be recognised, we can occasionally make a correct conjecture -as to the person intended, if it is one of whom we have any -knowledge, merely by the form of the ear; thus we infer a head -of Marcus Aurelius from an ear with an unusually large inner -opening.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>If we compare a man’s ears with those of a dog or horse, -differences of shape appear no less conspicuous than differences in -mobility. Two points are especially characteristic of man—the -folded upper margin and the lobule. Our cousins, the anthropoid -apes, are the only other animals which have the margin of the ear thus -folded inwards, the lower monkeys having them simple and pointed, -like other animals. The sculptor, Mr. Woolner, called Darwin’s -attention to “a little blunt point, projecting from the inwardly-folded -margin or helix.” Darwin, on investigating the matter, -came to the conclusion that these points “are vestiges of the tips -of former erect and pointed ears”; being led to think so “from the -frequency of their occurrence, and from the general correspondence -in position with that of the tip of a pointed ear.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The lobule is still more peculiar to man than the folded margin, -since he does not even share it with the anthropoid apes, although, -according to Professor Mivart, “a rudiment of it is found in the -gorilla.” An intermediate stage between man and ape is occupied -by some savage tribes in whom the lobule is scantily developed or -even absent.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COSMETICS AND FASHION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>The lobule of the human ear has been presumably developed -through the agency of Sexual Selection, as it is an ornament the -absence of which is at once felt. And there are other ways in -which this organ has been gradually brought into harmony with -the laws of beauty. Thus the loss of the hair (of which rudiments -<span class='pageno' id='Page_432'>432</span>are still occasionally present) made visible the soft skin and the -delicate tint of the ear, which, like that of the cheeks, may be -momentarily heightened by a blush, and thus become an index of -emotional expression. A permanently heightened colour of the ear, -however, caused by exposure to extreme cold or by rough treatment, -is almost as great a blemish as a red nose or pallid lips. If boxers -are anxious to deform their ears, no one has a right to object; but -children have a right to ask of their parents and teachers not to -redden their ears permanently by pulling or boxing them. That a -delicate and important sense-organ like the ear should be so -frequently chosen as a place to inflict punishment, shows the -necessity of a general diffusion of hygienic knowledge. It may not -be superfluous to add a caution to lovers, that the ears should -never be taken as an osculatory substitute for the lips or cheeks, -as cases are known in medical practice where the tympanum, and -consequently the hearing, has been destroyed by a vigorous kiss -implanted by a foolish lover on his sweetheart’s ears.</p> - -<p class='c001'>An ear to be beautiful should be about twice as long as broad. -It should be attached to the head almost straight, or slightly -inclined backwards, and should almost touch the head with the -back of its upper point. Many poor girls are deformed for life -through the ignorance of their mothers, who allow them to wear -their hair or bonnets in such a way as to make the ears stand out -obliquely. As the ears contain no bones, but consist entirely of -cartilages and skin, they can be, more readily even than the nose, -moulded into a fine shape at an early age. As Drs. Brinton and -Napheys remark, “Even when the ear is in part or altogether absent, -the case is not desperate. An ‘artificial ear’ can be made of -vulcanised rubber, or other material, tinted the colour of the flesh, -and attached to the side of the head with such deftness that its -character will escape every ordinary eye.” There is therefore no -excuse for having badly-shaped or wrongly-inclined ears in these -days of cosmetic surgery.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the most beautiful ears the lobe is free, and not attached to -the head in its lower part. Heavy earrings, which have a tendency -to unduly enlarge the lobules, are now tabooed by Fashion; but -very small jewels in the ear may be looked on, like small finger-rings, -necklaces, and bracelets, as unobjectionable from an æsthetic -point of view, though real beauty unadorned is adorned the most.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Formerly Fashion maltreated the poor ears quite as badly as -it still does the waist and the feet. Lubbock remarks that the -East Islanders enlarge their ears till they come down to the -shoulders; and Darwin, after referring to liberties taken with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_433'>433</span>the nose, says that “the ears are everywhere pierced and similarly -ornamented, and with the Botocudos and Lenguas of South America -the hole is gradually so much enlarged that the lower edge touches -the shoulder.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the Greeks, as Becker remarks, "it was considered a -dishonour, or a token of foreign manners, for men to have their ears -bored.... Women and girls, however, not only used earrings, -ἐνώτια, ἐλλόβια, ἑλικτῆρες which are seen perpetually in vases, -but also wore numerous articles of jewellery about the neck, the -arms, and on the leg above the ankle."</p> - -<p class='c001'>The ancients, too, had heard of the malformed ears of primitive -peoples. “It is possible,” says Tylor, “that there may be some -truth in the favourite wonder-tale of the old geographers, about the -tribes whose great ears reached down to their shoulders, though -the story had to be stretched a good deal when it was declared -they lay down on one ear and covered themselves with the other -for a blanket.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such blanket-ears would be the æsthetic equivalent of modern -bustles, crinolettes, and wasp-waists.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>PHYSIOGNOMIC VAGARIES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Ever since the days of ancient Greek philosophy ingenious -attempts have been made to find a special meaning for this or that -particular form of the ear. According to Aristotle, a long ear -indicates a good memory, whereas modern physiognomists incline -to the opinion that a long ear shows a man’s mental relationship -to a certain unjustly-maligned animal. Small ears, Lavater thinks, -are a sign of an active mind, while a deep shell indicates a thirst -for knowledge.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As a matter of fact, the ears have no connection whatever with -intellectual or emotional expression, except that a well-shaped ear -indicates in a general way that its possessor comes off a stock in -which the laws of cosmetic hygiene have been observed during -many generations. To many of the lower animals the ears are a -means of emotional expression. What, for instance, could be more -expressive and droll than the way a dog expresses mild surprise or -expectation by pricking up his ears? Or what a more certain -sign of viciousness in a horse than the drawing back of the ears?—a -movement of which Darwin has found the reason in the fact -that all animals that fight with their teeth retract their ears to -protect them; whence, through habit and association, it comes -that they draw them back whenever a fighting mood comes over -<span class='pageno' id='Page_434'>434</span>them. Man, on the other hand, never uses his ears for emotional -expression, because they are the least mobile part of the body. -Now form is merely crystallised expression: and the absence of -special movements for emotional expression necessarily prevents -individual alterations indicative of character. Hence the absurdity -of trying to use the ears as a basis for physiognomic distinctions.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>NOISE AND CIVILISATION</h3> - -<p class='c013'>What is the cause of the folding of the margin of the human -ear, which distinguishes it from that of all other animals? Darwin -remarks that it “appears to be in some manner connected with the -whole external ear being permanently pressed backwards;” but -this does not explain the mysterious phenomenon. After many -hours of profound meditation on this subject I have come to the -conclusion that this slight folding of the ear’s margin is the beginning -of a new phase of human evolution. In course of time—this -cannot be disproved—the fold of the margin will become larger -and larger, until finally the shells of the ear will have been transformed -into mobile lids for shutting out at will disagreeable noises, -even as the eyelids have been developed to shut out glaring light. -This would account for the providential preservation of the rudimentary -ear-muscles referred to above. When this process of -evolution is completed men coming home late will no longer have -to listen to curtain-lectures. The innovation will tend to make -them polite, for instead of telling the lecturer to “shut up,” they -will shut up themselves.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Seriously speaking, such movable ear-lids are very much needed -in this transition stage of civilisation. The present age of steam -will by future historians be classified as the age of noise. It is -almost impossible to find a place within ten miles of a city where -one can rest without having one’s sleep constantly disturbed, or at -least <em>deprived of its refreshing depth</em>, by the blowing of railway -and factory whistles. Both are unnecessary, inasmuch as railway -signals would be quite as effective if not so murderously loud and -prolonged, while factory whistles are either blown at the moment -when the operatives go to work, when a simple bell would do as -well, or they are blown an hour earlier to wake up the workmen,—a -most outrageous proceeding, as everybody else sleeping within -a radius of a mile or more is thus waked up at six o’clock.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fact that these nuisances have so long been tolerated shows -how primitive is as yet the æsthetic development of the average -human ear. Some people even smile at you for being so “nervous,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_435'>435</span>and boast of their indifference to such hideous, brain-racking noises. -The Esquimaux and Chinese would doubtless assume a similar -attitude regarding their indifference to noisome stenches. In -mediæval times, Europeans in general were quite as indifferent to -the emanations from their gutters as they still are to the hideous -noises in the streets. It has often been noted with surprise that -the death-rate in London and the general aspect of health should -be so much more favourable than that of continental cities, which -are free from the depressing London fogs. The reason, doubtless, -lies chiefly in the facts that there are no vile sewer odours in -London to poison the atmosphere, and that the pavement of the -streets is of such a nature that one can sleep soundly at night, -provided there are no steam whistles near. London, too, does not -tolerate the brutal whip-cracking which transforms French, German, -and Swiss towns and cities into Bedlams of noise. In this respect -New York resembles London; but here the comparison ends. New -York pavements are the noisiest, roughest, and dirtiest in the -world. I have known of invalids who were advised to drive in -the Central Park, but could not do so because they could not bear -on their way to drive even up Fifth Avenue,—a street lined with -the houses of millionaires. And to walk on Broadway for twenty -minutes, talking to a friend, makes one as hoarse as delivering a -two-hour lecture.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There can be no doubt that a horror of useless noise grows with -the general refinement of the senses and the mind. Goethe’s -aversion to noise, especially at night, is well known. It led him -to poison dogs that disturbed him. The delicate hearing of Franz, -the great song composer, was ruined by the whistle of a locomotive. -And Schopenhauer has put the whole matter into a nutshell in -these admirable words: “Intellectual persons, and all in general -who have much <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>esprit</i></span>, cannot endure noise. Astounding, on the -other hand, is the insensibility of ordinary people to noise. The -quantity of noise which any one can endure without annoyance is -really related inversely to his mental endowments, and may be -regarded as a pretty accurate measure of them.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>A MUSICAL VOICE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It is self-evident that indifference to ear-splitting noises implies -a lack of appreciation for the exquisite clang-tints of music; for -whenever the acoustic nerve is sufficiently refined to appreciate -such subtle tints, it is affected as painfully by harsh sounds as the -artistic eye is by glaring colours and flickering light. And an ear -<span class='pageno' id='Page_436'>436</span>which is indifferent to the sweetness of musical sounds is of course -indifferent also to the musical charm of the speaking voice. But -a sweetly modulated voice is one of the most conspicuous attributes -of Personal Beauty—for Beauty refers to sounds as well as to -sights—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>“Her voice was ever soft,</div> - <div class='line'>Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.”—<span class='sc'>Shakspere.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>There is as much variety in voices as in faces; and in estimating -a person’s general refinement, the voice is perhaps a safer guide -than the face; because the quality of the voice is largely a matter -of individual training, whereas in reading faces the judgment is -warped by the presence of inherited features speaking of traits -which have not been modified by individual effort and culture.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Many young men and women live in absolute indifference to the -quality of their speaking voice, till one day Cupid arouses them -from their unæsthetic slumber with his golden arrows, and makes -them eager not only to brush up their hats and improve their -personal appearance, but also to modulate their voices into sweet, -expressive accents. But the vocal cords, like a violin, can only be -made to yield mellow sounds after long practice; hence the usual -result of a sudden effort to speak in love’s sweet accents is a -ridiculous lover’s falsetto.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE NOSE</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>SHAPE AND SIZE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>“The fate of innumerable girls has been decided by a slight -upward or downward curvature of the nose,” says Schopenhauer; -and Pascal points out that if Cleopatra’s nose had been but a trifle -larger, the whole political geography of this planet might have -been different. Owing to the fact that the nose occupies the most -prominent part of the face, Professor Kollmann remarks that “the -partial or complete loss of the nose causes a greater disfigurement -than a much greater fault of conformation in any other part of the -face.” And Winckelmann thus bears witness to the importance -of the nose as an element of Personal Beauty: “The proof, easy -to be understood, of the superiority of shape of the Greeks and the -present inhabitants of the Levant lies in the fact that we find -among them no flattened noses, which are the greatest disfigurement -of the face.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet here again we find that “tastes differ.” Thus we read in -Darwin “that the ancient Huns during the age of Attila were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_437'>437</span>accustomed to flatten the noses of their infants with bandages, ‘for -the sake of <em>exaggerating a natural conformation</em>’” [note the stamp -of Fashion]; that, “with the Tahitians, to be called <em>long-nose</em> is -considered as an insult, and they compress the noses and foreheads -of their children for the sake of beauty;” and that “the -same holds true with the Malays of Sumatra, the Hottentots, -certain Negroes, and the natives of Brazil.” But the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ne-plus-ultra</i></span> -of nasal ugliness is found among the Tartars and Esquimaux. -“European travellers in Tartary in the Middle Ages,” says Tylor, -“described its flat-nosed inhabitants as having no noses at all, but -breathing through holes in the face.” And among the Esquimaux, -as Mantegazza remarks, a rule can be placed on both the cheeks -at once without touching the nose. Flat noses, says Topinard, -“are either depressed as a whole, as among Chinese, or only in -the lower half, as among Malays. Negroes have both forms.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The yellow and black races, who naturally have flat noses, -consider it fashionable to have them <em>very</em> flat. The same is true -with our modern Fashion regarding wasp-waists and feet. But in -regard to the face the white races—including even the women—have -emancipated themselves from the tyranny of fashionable -exaggeration. Hence, though we admire prominent noses, we do -not admire them more and more in proportion to their size. On -the contrary, every one looks upon the very large Jewish nose as -ugly. The reason is that in judging of the face Fashion has been -displaced by æsthetic Taste, whose motto is Moderation, and which -is based on a knowledge of the cosmic laws of beauty. Savages -have Fashion but no Taste. We have both; but Taste is -gradually demolishing Fashion, like other relics of barbarism.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sometimes our estimate of the nose, as of other features, may -be influenced by non-æsthetic considerations—by prejudices of -race, aristocracy, etc. “In Italy,” says Mantegazza, “we call a -long nose aristocratic (especially if it is aquiline) perhaps because -conquerors with long noses, Greeks and Romans, have subjected -the indigenous small-nosed inhabitants.” But the Italians are -not the only people who, if asked to choose between a nose too -large or one too small, would ask for the former. And the cause -of this preference is suggested very forcibly in these remarks of -Grose: “Convex faces, prominent features, and large aquiline -noses, though differing much from beauty, still give an air of -dignity to their owners; whereas concave faces, flat, snub, or -broken noses, always stamp a meanness and vulgarity. <em>The one -seems to have passed through the limits of beauty, the other never -to have arrived at them.</em>”</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_438'>438</span> - <h3 class='c014'>EVOLUTION OF THE NOSE</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The flat, irregular nose of savages and semi-civilised peoples, -with its visible nostrils and imperfectly developed bridge, being -intermediate between the ape’s nose and our own, we are naturally -led to infer that the nose has been gradually developed into the -shape now regarded as most perfect by good judges of Beauty. -To what are we indebted for this favourable change—to Natural -or to Sexual Selection? In other words, is the present perfected -shape of the nose of any use to us, or is it purely ornamental?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It appears that both these laws have acted in subtle combination -to improve our nasal organ. The nose is a sort of funnel for -warming the air on its way to the sensitive lungs. In cold latitudes -a long nose would therefore be an advantage favoured by -Natural Selection; and it is noteworthy that in general the flat-nosed -peoples live in warm climes. There are exceptions, however, -notably the Esquimaux, showing that this hypothesis does not -entirely cover the facts.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let us examine, therefore, the second function of the nasal -organ. The external nose is a sort of filter for keeping organic -impurities out of the lungs. At the entrance of the nostrils there -are a number of fine hairs which serve to keep out the dust. If -any particles manage to get beyond this first fortress, they are -liable to be arrested by the rows of more minute, microscopic -hairs, or <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>cilia</i></span>, which line the mucous membrane and keep up a -constant downward movement, by means of which dusty intruders -are expelled and the air filtered. Esquimaux living in snowfields, -and savages in the forests and grass-carpeted meadows, do not -need these filters so much as we do in our dusty cities and along -dusty country roads; hence their noses have remained more like -those of the arboreal apes, while ours have grown larger, so as to -yield a larger surface of sifting hairs and cilia. When we think -of the dusty American prairies and the African and Asian deserts, -can we wonder, accordingly, that the American Indians, as well as -the nomadic Arabs and Jews, have such immense noses? The -theory seems fanciful, if not grotesque; but perhaps there is more -in it than appears at first sight.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even if both these hypotheses should prove untenable, there is -a third consideration which alone suffices to account for the development -of the European nose. The nose has a most important -<em>musico-philological</em> function. The language of savages often consists -of only a few hundred words, while ours is so complicated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_439'>439</span>that it requires the co-operation of the vocal cords, and the cavities -of the mouth and the nose to produce the countless modifications -of speech and song which make us listen with so much pleasure to -an eloquent speaker or a great singer. The subject is far too -complicated with anatomical details to be fully explained here, -and the reader must be referred to a full discussion (not from the -evolutionary point of view, however) to Professor Georg Hermann -von Meyer’s elaborate treatise on <cite>The Organs of Speech</cite>, chap. iii.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A few points, however, must be noted here. The nasal air-passage, -“with its two narrow openings and intermediate greater -width, possesses the general form of a resonator, and there can be -no doubt but that it has a corresponding influence, and that the -tones with which the air passing through it vibrates are strengthened -by its resonance. The larger the nasal cavity the more -powerful the resonance, and, consequently, the reinforcement experienced -by the tone.... In consequence of the peculiarity of -the walls of the nasal cavity, it appears that sounds uttered with -the nasal resonance, particularly the nasal vowels, are fuller and -more ample than the same sounds when strengthened by the -resonance of the cavity of the mouth. The general impression of -fulness and richness conveyed by the French language arises from -its wealth in nasal vowels; and it is for this reason that second-rate -tragic actors like to give a nasal resonance to all the vowels -in the pathetic speeches of their heroic parts.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Further, it is of great importance to bear in mind “<em>that the -resonance of the nasal cavity also plays a part in the formation of -non-nasal articulate sounds,</em>” appearing here as a mere reinforcement -of the resonance of the cavity of the mouth, and free from -the nasal twang. Indeed, paradoxical as it may seem, an infallible -way to make our speech sound “nasal” is to keep the air out of -the nose by clasping it tightly; whereas if the nasal passage -remains open the nasal twang is replaced by an agreeable resonance. -What could more forcibly illustrate the importance of a -well-developed nose?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now there are several groups of muscles attached to the lower -cartilages of the nose,—parts which are imperfectly developed in -apes and negroes. The constant exercise of these, during many -generations, in the service of speech, in expressing several emotions, -and in heavy breathing, suffice to account, on accepted physiological -principles, for the gradual enlargement of the resonant tube -which we call the nose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So much for Natural or Utilitarian Selection. But Sexual -Selection or Romantic Love plays also a most important <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_440'>440</span>the development of the nose. The quotations from Pascal and -Schopenhauer made at the beginning of this chapter show that -the efficacy of Sexual Selection was recognised long before Darwin -had coined the term. As soon as a refined æsthetic taste appears, -it rejects ugly forms of the nose. It rejects, for instance, open, -visible nostrils, because they are a scavenging apparatus, unæsthetic -to behold, though the savage, having no taste, is not thus offended. -It gives the preference, in the second place, to the long nose, on -musical grounds, because its owner has a more sonorous speech. -It scorns the snub-nose because of its simian suggestiveness, and -dislikes the excessively large and aquiline nose because it is an -exaggerated form, which has passed beyond the delicate dimensions -and subtle curves of beauty.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>GREEK AND HEBREW NOSES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>This checking of excessive development in the direction at first -prescribed by the cosmic laws of beauty is indeed one of the main -functions of Sexual Selection, without which our mouths would -gradually become too small, our eyes and noses too large, our -foreheads too high, our hair too scant, etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why, for instance, have the Jews such large noses compared -with the Greeks? Evidently because Taste—which, though commonly -associated with Romantic Love, may, in a highly æsthetic -nation, act independently of it—did not restrain the excessive -development of the Jewish nose. The ancient Hebrews were not -an æsthetic nation, like the Greeks. The finest works of sculpture -ever created were made by the Greeks, while the Hebrews -practically had no sculpture at all—not even such works as were -produced by Assyrians and Egyptians. And if any further proof -were needed of the statement that the ancient Hebrews had little -taste for beauty it might be found in the fact that Solomon, -esteemed a great judge of feminine charms, compares his love’s -nose to “the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The admission which I have just made that there may be a -sort of æsthetic selection independent of real Romantic Love, does -not militate against the general thesis of this book: that Love is -the cause of Beauty, as Beauty is the cause of Love. For though -the Greek artists knew what the shape and size of a beautiful -nose should be, there are cogent reasons for believing that “Greek -noses” were rare even among the ancient Greeks, thanks to their -habit of sacrificing Romantic Love to the dragon chaperon. Hear -what Ruskin has to say, in his <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Aratra Pentelici</i></span>, about the Greek -<span class='pageno' id='Page_441'>441</span>features in general: “Will you look again at the series of coins of -the best time of Greek art which I have just set before you? -Are any of these goddesses or nymphs very beautiful? Certainly -the Junos are not. Certainly the Demeters are not. The Siren -and Arethusa have well-formed and regular features; but I am -quite sure that if you look at them without prejudice, you will -think neither reaches even the average standard of pretty English -girls. The Venus Urania suggests at first the idea of a very -charming person, but you will find there is no real depth nor -sweetness in the contours, looked at closely. And remember, -these are chosen examples; the best I can find of art current in -Greece at the great time; and even if I were to take the celebrated -statues, of which only two or three are extant, not one of -them excels the Venus of Melos; and she, as I have already -asserted in <cite>The Queen of the Air</cite>, has nothing notable in feature -except dignity and simplicity. Of Athena I do not know one -authentic type of great beauty; but the intense ugliness which -the Greeks could tolerate in their symbolism of her will be convincingly -proved to you by the coin represented in Plate VI. -You need only look at two or three vases of the best time to -assure yourselves that beauty of feature was, in popular art, not -only unattained, but unattempted; and finally—and this you -may accept as a conclusive proof of the Greek insensitiveness to -the most subtle beauty—there is little evidence, even in their -literature, and none in their art, of their having ever perceived -any beauty in infancy or early childhood.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevertheless, it was to the contours of childhood that the -Greek artists apparently went for their ideal of the divine nose. -Greek beauty was youthful masculine beauty; and the “Greek -nose” is one which not only is straight in itself, but forms a -straight line with the forehead. In other words, there is no -hollow at the root of the nose, where it meets the forehead. -Now the absence of this cavity is characteristic of youth, and is -owing to the imperfect development of the brain cavities. Later -in life these cavities bulge forwards and produce the hollow, -which, therefore, is an indication of superior cranial development -and higher intellectual powers. Hence, as Professor Kollmann -suggests, the object of the Greek artists in making the nose of -their deities form a straight line with the forehead, was probably -to give them the stamp of eternal youth; which would thus -appear to have been considered a more important attribute even -than the expression of superior <em>masculine</em> intellectual power, -which we associate with the hollow at the junction of nose and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_442'>442</span>forehead, and for which reason we do not admire it in women if -too pronounced. Nevertheless, even in women the cosmic laws of -Beauty call for a gentle curve instead of a perfectly straight line; -but the more subtle the curve the greater is its beauty; whereas -the nose itself may be perfectly straight on its upper edge, because -it forms a dividing line of the face into two symmetric halves, and -by its contrasting straightness heightens the beauty of the surrounding -facial curves.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To sum up: the Greeks admiration of such features as are -naturally associated with youthful masculine beauty no doubt led -him, in choosing a wife, to give the preference to similar features, -including the “Greek” nose. Yet in the absence of opportunities -for courtship, Sexual Selection could not operate very extensively; -hence it is probable that ungainly noses, though not so extravagant -as among the Semitic races, were common enough in Greece as in -Rome. In the Dark Ages hideous noses must have prevailed -everywhere, as might be inferred from the facts that Romantic -Love was unknown, and physical beauty looked on as a sinful -possession, even if the painted and sculptured portraits did not -prove it to our eyes in most instances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Regarding modern noses it may be said that the nose is such a -prominent feature that more has been done for its improvement, -through the agency of Love or Sexual Selection, than for the -mouth or any other feature, excepting the eye. The average -Englishman’s nose of to-day, for example, is a tolerably shapely -organ, and yet his ancestors were not exactly distinguished for -nasal beauty, according to a close observer and student of portraiture, -Mr. G. A. Simcox, who remarks that “sometimes both -Danes and Saxons had their fair proportions of snub-noses and -pug-noses, but when they escaped that catastrophe the Danish -nose tended to be a beak (rather a hawk’s beak than an eagle’s), -while the Saxon nose tends to be a proboscis.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet even at this date perfect noses are rare, and it is easy to -see why. In the first place, it takes many generations to wipe -out entirely the ugliness inherited from our unæsthetic ancestors; -secondly, Romantic Love, based on æsthetic admiration, is still -very commonly ignored in the marriage market in favour of -considerations of rank and wealth; and thirdly, a lover, infatuated -by his sweetheart’s fascinating eyes, is apt to overlook her large -nose or mouth—till after the honeymoon.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_443'>443</span> - <h3 class='c014'>FASHION AND COSMETIC SURGERY</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>Inasmuch as the civilised races of Europe have so long been -indifferent to their ugly noses, we can hardly wonder that barbarians -should not only disregard their nasal caricatures, but even -exaggerate their grotesqueness deliberately. We have already -seen how certain tribes habitually flatten their already flat noses. -Moreover, “in all quarters of the world the septum, and more -rarely the wings, of the nose are pierced; rings, sticks, feathers, -and other ornaments being inserted into the holes.” “In Persia -one still finds the nose-ring through one side of a woman’s nostril;” -and Professor Flower states that such rings are often worn by -female servants who accompany English families returning from -India.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Captain Cook, in the account of his first voyage, says of the -east-coast Australians: “Their principal ornament is the bone -which they thrust through the cartilage which divides the nostrils -from each other.... As this bone is as thick as a man’s finger, -and between five and six inches long, it reaches quite across the -face, and so effectually stops up both the nostrils that they are -forced to keep their mouths wide open for breath, and snuffle so -when they attempt to speak that they are scarcely intelligible -even to each other.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This last sentence bears out our assertion regarding the philological -or conversational importance of the nose. And there is -another lesson to be learned from these barbarian mutilations of -the nose. If Huns, Tahitians, and Hottentots are able to make -their noses as delightfully ugly as they please, why should not we -utilise the plastic character of the nasal cartilages for beautifying -ourselves? Says a specialist: “Much can be done by an ingenious -surgeon in restoration and improvement. A nose that is too flat -can be raised, one with unequal apertures can be modified, one too -thin can be expanded. Cosmetic surgery is rich in devices here, -all of which are very available in children and young persons, less -so when years have hardened and stiffened the cartilages and bones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus may Cupid employ a medical artist as an assistant in his -efforts at improving the physical beauty of mankind. Needless to -add that only a first-class surgeon should ever be allowed to -meddle with the features.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Cosmetic surgery has already reached such perfection that it -can even make “a good, living, fleshly nose. It will transplant -you one from the arm or the forehead, Roman or Grecian, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>à -<span class='pageno' id='Page_444'>444</span>volonté</i></span>; it will graft it adroitly into the middle of the face, with -two regular nostrils and a handsome bridge; and it will almost -challenge Nature herself to improve on the model” (Brinton and -Napheys).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Medical men are daily complaining in a more clamorous chorus -that their profession is overcrowded. Why don’t some of them in -every city and town make a specialty of cosmetic surgery and -hygienic advice? Why leave this remunerative field entirely in -the hands of dangerous quacks who alone have enterprise and -sense enough to advertise?</p> - -<p class='c001'>As illustrations of what may be done in this direction, two -points may be noted. A French surgeon, Dr. Cid, noticed that -persons who wear eyeglasses are apt to have long and thin noses. -The thought occurred to him that this might be due to the compression -of the arteries which carry blood to the nose, by the -springs of the glasses; so he constructed a special apparatus for -compressing these arteries, and by attaching it to a young girl’s -large and fleshy nose, succeeded in reducing its size. Why should -people worry themselves and frighten others with ugly noses when -they can be so easily improved?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The second point is still more simple. It is important that -the nose should occupy exactly the middle of the face, so as to -secure bilateral symmetry. Yet Welcker, who made a number of -accurate observations on skulls, plaster casts of the dead, as well -as on the living countenance, noted that perfect symmetry is very -rarely found. The obliqueness is sometimes at the root, sometimes -at the tip of the nose, and the cause of the deviation from a -straight line is attributed to the habit most persons have of -sleeping exclusively on one side,—a practice which is also objectionable -on other grounds. Mantegazza, however, suggests that, -as he has found the deviation almost always toward the right side, -it may be due to our habit of always taking our handkerchief in -the right hand; and the same view is held by Drs. Brinton and -Napheys. So that we have here an additional argument in favour -of ambidexterity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The New York <cite>Medical and Surgical Reporter</cite> for November -1, 1884, prints a lecture by Dr. J. B. Roberts on “The Cure of -Crooked Noses by a New Method,” which, as it is not conspicuous -and hardly leaves a scar, may be commended to the attention of -those afflicted with nasal deformities. The pin method, he says, -is applicable “even to those slight deformities whose chief annoyance -is an æsthetic and cosmetic one. I leave the pins in position -for about two weeks.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_445'>445</span>Red noses, if due to exposure, can be readily whitened by one -of the methods to be discussed in the chapter on the complexion. -If due to disease, they call for medical treatment; if to intemperance -or tight lacing, moral and æsthetic reform is the only possible -cure.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>NOSE-BREATHING AND HEALTH</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Owing to its tendency toward unsightly redness and malformation, -the nose is very apt to be looked at from a comic point of -view. Wits and caricaturists fix on it habitually for their -nefarious purposes, as if it were a sort of facial clown. Indeed, -ninety-nine persons in a hundred, if questioned regarding the -functions of the nose, would know no answer but this: that it is -sometimes ornamental, and is remotely connected with the -“almost useless” sense of smell.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We have seen, however, that besides being ornamental <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>per se</i></span>, -the nose plays a most important æsthetic—as well as utilitarian—<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> -in giving sonority and variety to human speech; and that it -is, further, of great use as an apparatus for warming, moistening, -and filtering the air before it enters the lungs. Hence the importance -of nose-breathing. Professor Reclam states that city -people at the age of thirty usually have <em>a whole gramme of calcareous -dust in their lungs</em>, which they can never again get rid of, -and which may at any time engender dangerous disease. This is -one of the bad results of mouth-breathing, but by no means the -only one. “The continued irritation from dry, cold, and unfiltered -air upon the mucous membrane of the upper air tract soon results,” -says Dr. T. R. French, “in the establishment of catarrhal inflammation, -the parts most affected being the tongue, pharynx, and -larynx.... The habit of breathing through the mouth interferes -with general nutrition. The subjects of this habit are usually -anæmic, spare, and dyspeptic.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>That mouth-breathing at night leaves a disagreeable taste in -the mouth and leads to snoring, thus interfering with refreshing -sleep, has already been stated. It also injures the teeth and gums -by exposing them all night to the dry air. And in the daytime it -compels one to keep the mouth wide open, which imparts a rustic if -not semi-idiotic expression to the face. Moreover, think of the filthy -dust you swallow in walking along the street with your mouth open. -However, it is useless to advise people on such matters. An -attempt is made for a day or two to reform, and then—the whole -matter is forgotten. These points are therefore noted here not with -any missionary intentions, but merely for their scientific interest.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_446'>446</span> - <h3 class='c014'>COSMETIC VALUE OF ODOURS</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>We come now to the fourth important function of the nose—the -sense of smell. What has this to do with Personal Beauty? -A great deal. In the first place, is not the flower-like fragrance -of a lovely maiden a personal charm that has been sung of by a -thousand poets, of all times? “The fragrant bosom of Andromache -and of Aphrodite finds a place in Homer’s poetry,” as Professor -Bain remarks; and an eccentric German professor, Dr. Jäger of -Stuttgart, even wrote a book a few years ago on the <cite>Discovery of -the Soul</cite>, in which he endeavoured to prove that the whole mystery -of Love lies in the intoxicating personal perfumes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is not with such fancies, however, that we are concerned -here. It can be shown on purely scientific grounds that the cause -of Personal Beauty would gain an immense advantage if people -would train and refine their olfactory nerves systematically, as -they do their eyes and ears. Unfortunately, Kant’s absurd notion, -expressed a century ago, that it is not worth while to cultivate -the sense of smell, has been countenanced to the present day by -the erroneous views held by the leading men of science, including -Darwin, who wrote that “the sense of smell is of extremely slight -service” to man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In an article on the “Gastronomic Value of Odours,” which -appeared in the <cite>Contemporary Review</cite> for November 1886, I -pointed out that this under-valuation of the sense of smell is -explained by the fact that the sense of taste has hitherto been -credited with all the countless flavours inherent in food, whereas, -in fact, taste includes only four sensations of gastronomic value—sweet, -sour, bitter, and saline, all other “flavours” being in reality -odours; as is proved by the fact that by clasping the nose we -cannot distinguish between a lime and a lemon, different kinds of -confectionery, of cheese, of nuts, of meat, etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now it is well known that most people show a most amazing -tolerance to insipid, badly-cooked food, gulping it down as rapidly -as possible; and why? Simply because they do not know that in -order to enjoy our meals we must eat slowly, and, while masticating, -<em>continually exhale the aroma-laden air through the nose</em> -(mind, not inhale but <em>exhale</em>). This is what epicures do unconsciously; -and look at the results! No dyspepsia, no anæmia and -sickly pallor, no walking skeletons;—and surely a slight <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>embonpoint</i></span> -is preferable to leanness from the point of view of Personal -Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_447'>447</span>If this gastronomic secret were generally known, people would -insist on having better cooked food; dyspepsia, and leanness, and -a thousand infirmities hostile to Beauty would disappear, and in -course of time everybody would be as sleek and handsome and -rosy-cheeked as a professional epicure.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is this the only way in which refinement of the sense of -smell would benefit Personal Beauty. In consequence of the -criminally superstitious dread of night air, the atmosphere in -most bedrooms is as foul, compared to fresh air, as a street puddle -after a shower compared to a mountain brook. I have seen well-dressed -persons in America and Italy take into their mouths the -shamefully filthy and disease-soaked banknotes current in those -countries; and I have seen others shudder at this sight who, if -their smell were as refined as their sight, would have shuddered -equally at the foul air in their bedrooms, which diminishes their -vital energy and working power by one-half. Architects, of course, -will make no provision for proper ventilation as long as they are -not compelled to do so. Why should they? They don’t even -care, in building a theatre, how many hundreds of people will -some day be burnt in it, in consequence of their neglect of the -simplest precautions for exit.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One more important consideration. When you leave the city -for a few weeks everybody will exclaim on your return, “Why, -how well you look! where have you been?” But wherein lies -this cosmetic magic of country air? Not in its oxygen, for it has -been proved, by accurate chemical tests, that in regard to the -quantity of oxygen there is not the slightest difference between -city and country air. What, then, is the secret?</p> - -<p class='c001'>I am convinced, from numerous experiments, that the value of -country air lies partly in its tonic fragrance, partly in the <em>absence -of depressing, foul odours</em>. The great cosmetic and hygienic -value of deep-breathing has been proved in the chapter on the -Chest. Now the tonic value of fragrant meadow or forest air lies -in this—that it causes us involuntarily to breathe deeply, in order -to drink in as many mouthfuls of this luscious aerial Tokay as -possible: whereas in the city the air is—well, say unfragrant and -uninviting; and the constant fear of gulping down a pint of deadly -sewer gas discourages deep breathing. The general pallor and -nervousness of New York people have often been noted. The -cause is obvious. New York has the dirtiest streets of any city -in the world, except Constantinople and Canton; and, moreover, -it is surrounded by oil-refineries, which sometimes for days poison -the whole city with the stifling fumes of petroleum, so that one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_448'>448</span>hardly dares to breathe at all. No wonder that, by universal -consent, there is more Fashion than Beauty in New York. And -no wonder that it is becoming more and more customary, for all -who can afford it, to spend six to eight months of the year in the -country.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE FOREHEAD</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>BEAUTY AND BRAIN</h3> - -<p class='c013'>It has been stated already that, anatomically considered, the -forehead is not a part of the face but of the cranium. From an -artistic and popular point of view, however, the forehead is a part -of the face, and a most important one. Modern taste fully -endorses the ancient law of facial proportion, which makes the -height of the forehead equal to the length of the nose, and to the -distance from the tip of the nose to the tip of the chin. “Foreheads -villainous low” are objectionable, because associated with a -vulgar unintellectual type of man, and too vividly suggestive of -our simian ancestors. Foreheads abnormally high, though preferable -to the other extreme, displease, because they violate the -law of facial proportion. We excuse them in men, because they -are commonly expressive of intellectual power. But in women a -high forehead is always objectionable, because it gives them a -masculine appearance. Hence Romantic Love, which cannot exist -without sexual contrasts, and which aims at making woman a -perfect embodiment of the laws of Beauty, eliminates girls with -too high foreheads. Yet at the command of Fashion thousands of -maidens deliberately prevent men from falling in love with them -by combing back their hair and giving their foreheads a masculine -appearance, instead of coyly hiding it under a fringe or “bang.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fact that the feminine forehead, though more perpendicular -than the masculine at the lower part, slants backward in its upper -part in a more pronounced angle, is another reason why women -should cover up this part of their forehead, which Sexual Selection -has not yet succeeded in moulding into perfect shape. For the -receding forehead is universally recognised as a sign of inferior -culture. Everybody knows what is meant by Camper’s facial -angle, which is formed by a horizontal line drawn from the opening -of the ear to the nasal spine, and a perpendicular line touching the -most prominent parts of the forehead and front teeth. In adult -Europeans Camper’s angle rarely exceeds 85 degrees. The average -in the Caucasian race is 80°; in the yellow races 75°; in the -negro 60° to 70°; in the gorilla 31°. In antique Greek heads the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_449'>449</span>angle is sometimes over 90°. Says Camper: “If I cause the -facial line to fall in front, I have an antique head; if I incline it -backwards, I have the head of a negro; if I cause it to incline still -further, I have the head of a monkey; inclined still more, I have -that of a dog, and, lastly, that of a goose.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It appears, however, that this angle has more value as a test of -beauty than as an absolute gauge of intellect. Generally speaking, -there is no doubt a correlation between a bulging forehead and a -superior intellect; but individual exceptions to this rule are not -infrequent. Nor is it at all difficult to account for them. For -intellectual power does not depend so much on the size and shape -of the skull as on the convoluted structure of the brain.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Our brain consists of two kinds of matter—the white, which is -inside, and the gray, which covers it. The white substance is a -complicated telegraphic network for conveying messages which are -sent from the external gray cells. It has been proved, by comparing -the brains of man and various animals, that the amount of -intelligence depends not so much on the absolute size of the brain, -as on the abundance of this gray matter. And, what is of extreme -importance from a cosmetic point of view, the gray cells are -increased in number, not by an addition to the absolute size or -circumference of the brain, but by a system of furrows and convolutions -which increase the surface lining of the brain without enlarging -its visible mass. For the benefit of those who have never seen -a human brain, it may be very roughly compared to the convoluted -kernel of an English walnut.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Wherein lies the æsthetic significance of this mode of cerebral -evolution? It prevents our head from becoming too large. Have -you ever considered why infants appear so ugly to every one but -their mothers? One of the principal reasons is that their heads are -twice as large in proportion to the rest of the body as those of -adults. A child’s stature is equal to four times the height of its -head, an adult’s to eight heads. If our heads continued to grow -larger as our minds expanded, from generation to generation, all -the proportions of human stature would ultimately be violated. -But thanks to the peculiar mode of cerebral evolution just -described, Romantic Love may continue to “select” in accordance -with our present standards of beauty, without thereby favouring -the survival of lower intellectual types.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This view of the question also solves a difficulty which has -staggered even such a leading evolutionist as Mr. Wallace, viz., -the fact that the oldest prehistoric skulls that have been found -“surpass the average of modern European skulls in capacity.” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_450'>450</span>But if it is the easiest thing in the world to find an ordinary stupid -man in our streets with a larger skull than that of many a clever -brain-worker, why should we attach so much importance to those -prehistoric skulls? Had their brains been examined, they would -doubtless have been found as scantily furrowed as those of a big-headed -modern anarchist.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FASHIONABLE DEFORMITY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>That the intellectual powers are to a large extent independent -of the particular conformation of the skull is shown further by the -circumstance that so many savage tribes have for centuries followed -the fashion of artificially shaping their heads, without any apparent -effect on their minds. Man’s brain incites him, as Topinard -remarks, “to the noblest deeds, as well as to the most ridiculous -practices, such as cutting off the little finger, scorching the soles of -the feet, extracting the front teeth, or deforming the head <em>because -others have done so before him</em>.” But of all silly Fashions hostile -to Beauty, that of deforming the head has found the largest number -of followers—always excepting, of course, the modern Wasp-Waist -Mania.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Deformed skulls have been found in the Caucasus, the Crimea, -Hungary, Silesia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, in Polynesia, in -different parts of Asia, etc. “But the classic country in which -these deformations are found is America,” says Topinard. “M. -Gosse has described sixteen species of artificial deformation, ten of -which were in American skulls.” “Sometimes the infant was -fastened on a plank or a sort of cradle with leather straps; or they -applied pieces of clay, pressing them down with small boards on -the forehead, the vertex, and the occiput.... Sometimes the -head was kneaded with the hands or knees, or, the infant being -laid on the back, the elbow was pressed on the forehead. Circular -bands were sometimes employed to support the sides of the -head.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Many American Indians,” says Darwin, “are known to admire -a head so extremely flattened as to appear to us idiotic. The -natives of the north-western coast compress the head into a pointed -cone;” while the inhabitants of Arakhan “admire a broad, smooth -forehead, and in order to produce it, they fasten a plate of lead on -the head of the new-born children.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The genuine Turkish skull is of the broad Tartar form,” says -Mr. Tylor, “while the nations of Greece and Asia Minor have -oval skulls, which gives the reason why at Constantinople it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_451'>451</span>became the fashion to mould the babies’ skulls round, so that they -grew up with the broad head of the conquering race. Relics of -such barbarism linger on in the midst of civilisation, and not long -ago a French physician surprised the world by the fact that nurses -in Normandy were still giving the children’s heads a sugar-loaf -shape by bandages and a tight cap, while in Brittany they preferred -to press it round. No doubt they are doing so to this -day.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Failure properly to mould the cranium of her offspring,” says -Bancroft, “gives to the Chinook matron the reputation of a lazy -and undutiful mother, and subjects the neglected children to the -ridicule of their young companions, <em>so despotic is fashion</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Food for thought will also be found in these remarks by Darwin. -Ethnologists believe, he says, “that the skull is modified by the -kind of cradle in which infants sleep;” and Schaffhausen is convinced -that “in certain trades, such as that of a shoemaker, where -the head is habitually held forward, the forehead becomes more -round and prominent.” If this is true, then we have one reason, -at least, why authors have such large foreheads.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>WRINKLES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Wrinkles in the face are signs of advanced age, or disease, or -habits of profound meditation, or frequent indulgence in frowning -and grief. The wrinkles on a thinker’s forehead do not arouse our -disapproval, because they are often eloquent of genius, which -excuses a slight sacrifice of the smoothness of skin that belongs to -perfect Beauty. In women, however, we apply a pure and strict -æsthetic standard, wherefore all wrinkles are regarded as regrettable -inroads on Personal Beauty. Old women, of course, form an -exception, because in them we no longer look for youthful Beauty, -and are therefore gratified at the sight of wrinkles and folds as -stereotyped forms of expression bespeaking a life rich in experiences, -and associated with the veneration due to old age. Such wrinkles -are characteristic but not beautiful; and it may be stated, by the -way, that Alison’s whole book on Taste is vitiated by the ever-recurring -argument in which he forgets that we may take a personal -and even an artistic interest in a thing which is characteristic -without being beautiful.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In youth, while the skin is firm and elastic, the wrinkles on the -forehead or around the eyes, caused by a frown or smile, pass away, -leaving no more trace than the ripples on the surface of a lake. -With advancing age the skin becomes looser and less elastic, so -<span class='pageno' id='Page_452'>452</span>that frequent repetition of those movements which produce a fold -in the skin finally leaves an indelible mark on the furrowed countenance. -Woman’s skin, being commonly better “padded” with -fat than man’s, is not so liable to wrinkles, provided attention is -paid to the laws of health. Mantegazza suggests that the simplest -antidote for wrinkles would be to distend the folded skin again by -fattening up. The daily use of <em>good</em> soap and slight friction helps -to ward off wrinkles by keeping the facial muscles toned up and the -skin elastic.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The (voluntary) mobility of the skin of the forehead, to which -we owe our wrinkles, affords an interesting illustration of the way -in which facial muscles, once “useful,” have been modified for -mere purposes of expression. “Many monkeys have, and frequently -use, the power of largely moving their scalps up and down.” This -may be of use in shaking off leaves, flies, rain, etc. But man, with -his covered head, needs no such protection; hence most of us have -lost the power of moving our scalps. A correspondent wrote to -Darwin, however, of a youth who could pitch several heavy books -from his head by the movement of the scalp alone; and many -other similar cases are on record, attesting our simian relationship. -But lower down on the forehead, our skin has universally retained -the power of movement, as shown in frowning and the expression -of various emotions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At first sight it is somewhat difficult to understand why meditation -should wrinkle the skin; but Darwin explains it by concluding -that frowning (which, oft repeated, results in wrinkles) -“is not the expression of simple reflection, however profound, or -of attention, however close, but of something difficult or displeasing -encountered in a train of thought or in action. Deep reflection -can, however, seldom be long carried on without some difficulty, -so that it will generally be accompanied by a frown.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fashionable women sometimes endeavour (unsuccessfully) to -distend the skin and remove wrinkles by pasting court-plaster on -certain spots in the face. But the repulsive fashion of wearing -patches of court-plaster all over the face as an ornament (“beauty-spots!”), -doubtless had its origin in the desire of some aristocratic -dame to conceal pimples or other skin blemishes. At one time -women even submitted to the fashion of pasting on the face and -bosom paper flies, fleas, and other loathsome creatures.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The African monkeys who held an indignation meeting when -they first heard of Darwin’s theory of the descent of man, had probably -just been reading a history of human Fashions.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_453'>453</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE COMPLEXION</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>WHITE <i>VERSUS</i> BLACK</h3> - -<p class='c013'>“The charm of colour, especially in the intricate infinities of -human flesh, is so mysterious and fascinating, that some almost -measure a painter’s merit by his success in dealing with it,” says -Hegel; and again: “Man is the only animal that has flesh in its -display of the infinities of colour.” “No loveliness of colour, even -of the humming birds or the birds of Paradise, is living, is glowing -with its own life, but shines with the lustre of light reflected, and -its charm is from without and not from within” (<cite>Æsthetics</cite>, -Kedney’s edition).</p> - -<p class='c001'>For a metaphysician, trained to scornfully ignore facts, the -difference between man and animals is in these sentences pointed -out with commendable insight. Regard for scientific accuracy, it -is true, compels us to qualify Hegel’s generalisation, for not only -have monkeys bare coloured patches in their faces, and elsewhere, -which are subject to changes, but the plumage of birds, too, is -dulled by ill-health and brightened by health, reaching its greatest -brilliancy in the season of Courtship, thus showing a connection -between internal states and external appearances. Nevertheless, -these correspondences in animals are transient and crude; and man -is the only being whose nude skin is sufficiently delicate and transparent -to indicate the minute changes in the blood’s circulation -brought about by various phases of pleasure and pain.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To understand the exact nature of these tints of the complexion, -which are so greatly admired—though different nations, as usual, -have different standards of “taste”—it is necessary to bear in -mind a few simple facts of microscopic anatomy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To put the matter graphically, it may be said that our body -wears two tight-fitting physiological coats, called the epidermis or -overskin, and the cutis or underskin.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The overskin is not simple, but consists of an outside layer of -horny cells, such as are removed by the razor on shaving, and an -inside mucous layer, as seen on the lips, which have no horny -covering.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The underskin contains nerves, fat cells, hairbulbs, and numerous -blood-vessels, some as fine as a hair, all embedded in a soft, -elastic network of connective tissue.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The overskin has none of these blood-vessels; but as it is very -delicate and transparent, it allows the colour of the blood to be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_454'>454</span>seen as through a veil. In the extremely blond races of the North -nothing but the blood can be seen through this veil; but in the -coloured races the lower or mucous layer of the overskin contains -a number of black, brown, or yellowish pigment cells. The colours -of these cells blend with that of the blood, thus producing, according -to their number and depth of coloration, the brunette, black, -yellow, or red complexion. The palm of the negro’s hand is -whiter than the rest of his body, because there the horny epidermis -is so thick that the black pigmentary matter cannot be seen -through it. And the reason why every negro is born to blush unseen -is because the pigmentary matter in his skin is so deep and -abundant that it neutralises the colour of the blood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now, why do the races of various countries differ so greatly in -the colour of their skin? This is the most vexed and difficult -question in anthropology, on which there are almost as many -opinions as writers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The oldest and most obvious theory is that the sun is responsible -for dark complexions. Are not those parts of our body -which are constantly exposed to sunlight—the hands, face, and -neck—darker than the rest of the body? and does not this colour -become darker still if we spend a few weeks in the country or -make a trip across the Atlantic? Do we not find in Europe, as -we pass from the sunny South to the cloudy North, that complexion, -hair, and eyes grow gradually lighter? And not only are -the Spaniards and Italians darker than the Germans, but the South -Germans are darker than the North Germans, and the Swedes and -Norwegians lighter still than the Prussians.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The same holds true not only of South America as compared to -North America, but of the southern United States compared to -the northern. It also holds true of the East, where, as Waitz -tells us, “The Chinese from Peking to Canton show every shade -from a light to a dark-copper colour, while in the Arabians, from -the desert down to Yemen, we find every gradation from olive -colour to black.” Moreover, aristocratic ladies in Japan and China -are almost or quite white, whereas the labouring classes, as with -us, are of a darker tint.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These and numerous similar facts, taken in connection with the -circumstance that the blackest of all races lives in the hottest continent, -and that Jews may be found of all colours according to the -country they inhabit, lead almost irresistibly to the conclusion that -it is the sun who paints the complexion dark.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevertheless there are numerous and striking exceptions to the -rule that the warmer the climate the darker the complexion. To -<span class='pageno' id='Page_455'>455</span>obviate this difficulty, Heusinger in 1829, Jarrold in 1838, and -others after them, have endeavoured to show that the moisture and -altitude, as well as the direct action of the sun, had to be taken -into consideration. But since “D’Orbigny in South America, and -Livingstone in Africa, arrived at diametrically opposite conclusions -with respect to dampness and dryness,” Darwin excogitated the -theory (which, he subsequently found, had already been advanced -in 1813 by Dr. Wells), that inasmuch as “the colour of the skin -and hair is sometimes correlated in a surprising manner with a -complete immunity from the action of certain vegetable poisons, -and from the attacks of parasites ... negroes and other dark -races might have acquired their dark tints by the darker individuals -escaping from the deadly influence of the miasma of their native -countries, during a long series of generations.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The testimony on this point being, however, conflicting and unsatisfactory, -Darwin gave up this notion too, and fell back on the -theory that differences in complexion are due to differences in taste, -and were created through the agency of Sexual Selection. “We -know,” he says, “from the many facts already given that the -colour of the skin is regarded by the men of all races as a highly -important element in their beauty; so that it is a character which -would be likely to have been modified through selection, as has -occurred in innumerable instances with the lower animals. It -seems at first sight a monstrous supposition that the jet-blackness -of the negro should have been gained through sexual selection; -but this view is supported by various analogies, and we know that -negroes admire their own colour.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Doubtless there is some truth in Darwin’s view, but it does not -cover the whole ground. Natural as well as Sexual Selection has -been instrumental in producing the diverse colours of various races. -Hitherto the trouble has been that no one could understand how a -black skin could be useful to an African negro. It ought to make -him feel uncomfortably hot—for is it not well known that black -absorbs heat more than any other colour? and do we not feel -warmer in summer if we wear black than if we wear white -clothes?</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt whatever. But it so happens that the skin is not -made of dead wool or felt. It contains, among various other -ingenious arrangements, a vast number of minute holes or pores, -through which, when we are very warm, the perspiration leaks, -and, in changing into vapour, absorbs the body’s heat and leaves it -cool, or even cold. Now, in a negro’s skin these pores are both -larger and more numerous than in ours, which partly accounts for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_456'>456</span>his indifference to heat, and the fact that his temperature is lower -than ours. Yet it does not solve the problem in hand; for there -is no visible reason why Natural Selection should not succeed in -enlarging the number and size of the pores in a white skin as easily -as in a black one.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A year or two ago Surgeon-Major Alcock sent a communication -to <cite>Nature</cite> in which, as I believe, he for the first time suggested -the true reason why tropical man is black, and why his blackness -is useful to him. He pointed out that since the pigment-cells in -the negro’s skin are placed in front of the nerve terminations, they -serve to lessen the intensity of the nerve vibrations that would be -caused in a naked human body by exposure to a tropical sun; so -that the pigment plays the same part as a piece of smoked glass -held between the sun and the eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This ingenious theory at once explains some curious and apparently -anomalous observations communicated to <cite>Nature</cite> by Mr. -Ralph Abercrombie from Darjeeling. They are that “In Morocco, -and all along the north of Africa, the inhabitants blacken themselves -round the eyes to avert ophthalmia from the glare off hot -sand;” that “In Fiji the natives, who are in the habit of painting -their faces with red and white stripes as an ornament, invariably -blacken them when they go out fishing on the reef in the full glare -of the sun;” and that “In the Sikkim hills the natives blacken -themselves round the eyes with charcoal to palliate the glare of a -tropical sun on newly-fallen snow.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>How, on the other hand, are we to account for the white complexion -of northern races? It is well known that there is a -tendency among arctic animals to become white. This, in many -cases, can be accounted for by the advantage white beasts of prey, -as well as their victims, thus gain in escaping detection. But it is -probable that another agency comes into play, first suggested by -Craven in 1846, and thus summarised by a writer in <cite>Nature</cite>, 2d -April 1885: “It is well known that white, as the worst absorber, -is also the worst radiator of all forms of radiant energy, so that -<em>warm-blooded</em> creatures thus clad would be better enabled to withstand -the severity of an arctic climate—the loss of heat by radiation -might, in fact, be expected to be less rapid than if the hairs or -feathers were of a darker colour.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This argument, which may be applied to man as well as to -animals, is greatly strengthened by a circumstance which at first -appears to oppose it—the fact, namely, that insects in northern -regions, instead of being light-coloured, show a tendency toward -blackness. But this apparent anomaly is easily explained. Insects, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_457'>457</span>being cold-blooded, cannot lose any bodily heat through radiation; -whereas a black surface, by absorbing as much solar heat as possible -while it lasts, adds to their comfort and vitality.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The question now arises, Which was the original colour of the -human race, white or black? This question, too, we are enabled -to answer with the aid of a principle of evolution which, so far, has -stood every test,—the principle that the child’s development is an -epitome of the evolution of his race. Before birth there is no -colouring matter at all in the skin of a negro child. “In a new-born -child the colour is light gray, and in the northern parts of -the negro countries the completely dark colour is not attained till -towards the third year,” says Waitz; and again, in speaking of -Tahiti: “The children are here (as everywhere in Polynesia) white -at birth, and only gradually assume their darker colour under the -influence of sunlight; covered portions of their bodies remain -lighter, and since women wear more clothes than men, and dwell -more in the shade, they too are often of so light a colour that they -have red cheeks and blush visibly.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>So we are entitled to infer that primitive man was originally -white, or whitish. As he moved south, Natural Selection made -him darker and darker by continually favouring the survival of -those individuals whose colour—owing to the spontaneous variation -found throughout Nature—was of a dark shade, and therefore -better able to dull the ardour of the sun’s rays. In the north, on -the contrary, a light complexion was favoured for its quality of -retaining the body’s heat. The yellow and red varieties need not -be specially considered, for it has been shown that the different -tints of the iris are merely due to the greater or less quantity of -the same pigmentary matter; and as the colouring matter of the -complexion and the hair is similar to that of the eye, it is probable -that the same holds true of different hues of the skin; so that -yellowish, brown, and reddish tints may be looked upon as mere -intermediate stages between white and black. A trace of pigment, -indeed, is found even in our skins; and I believe that the reason -why we become brown on exposure to the sun is that the skin, -when thus exposed and irritated, secretes a larger amount of this -colouring matter, to serve, like a dimly-smoked glass, as a protection -against scorching rays.</p> - -<p class='c001'>From all these considerations we may safely infer that the particular -hue of man’s skin in each climate is useful to him, and not -merely an ornamental product of “taste,” as Darwin believed. -Yet to some extent Sexual Selection, doubtless, does come into play -in most cases. At a low stage of culture each race likes its special -<span class='pageno' id='Page_458'>458</span>characteristics in an exaggerated form,—a trait which would lead -the more vigorous men to persistently select the darkest girls as -wives, and thus cause their gradual predominance over the others: -while the men, too, would, of course, inherit a darker tint from -their mothers. But a still more important consideration is this, -that, as Dr. Topinard points out, “Dark colour in the negro is <em>a -sign of health</em>,”—naturally, since the darker the dermal pigment, -the better are the nerves of temperature protected against the enervating -solar rays. Concerning the Polynesians, too, Ellis (cited -by Waitz) “notes expressly that a dark colour was more admired -and desired because it was looked upon as a sign of vigour.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>These facts yield us a most profound insight into the methods -of amorous selection. The erotic instinct, whose duty is the preservation -of the species, is above all things attracted by Health, -because without Health the species must languish and die out. In -a climate where—under the circumstances in which negroes live—a -light complexion is incompatible with Health, it is bound to be -eliminated.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fortunately, the negro’s taste is not sufficiently refined to make -him feel the æsthetic inferiority of the ebony complexion imposed -on him by his climate. Wherein this æsthetic inferiority consists -is graphically pointed out in these words of Figuier: “The colour -of the skin takes away all charm from the negro’s countenance. -What renders the European’s face pleasing is that each of its -features exhibits a particular shade. The cheeks, forehead, nose, -and chin of the white have each a different tinge. On an African -visage, on the contrary, all is black, even the eyebrows, as inky as -the rest, are merged in the general colour; scarcely another shade -is perceptible, except at the line where the lips join each other.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is this all. Not only do we look in vain, in the monotonous -blackness of the negro’s face, for those varied tints which -adorn a white maiden’s face, borrowing one another’s charms by -insensible gradations, but also for those subtle emotional changes -which, even if they existed in the negro’s mind, could not paint -themselves so delicately on his opaque countenance, betraying every -acceleration or retardation in the heart’s beats, indicating every -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>nuance</i></span> of hope and despair, of pleasure or anguish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In our own latitude, luckily, Natural Selection favours, in the -manner indicated, the survival of the translucent white complexion. -And what Natural Selection leaves undone, Sexual Selection completes. -Romantic Love is the great awakener of the sense of -Beauty, and in proportion as Love is developed and unimpeded in -its action, does the complexion become more beautiful and more -<span class='pageno' id='Page_459'>459</span>appreciated. Savages, blind to the delicate tints of a transparent -skin, daub themselves all over with mixtures of grease and paint. -The women of ancient Greece had taste enough to feel the ugliness -of the pallor caused by being constantly chaperoned and locked up, -but not enough to know that no artificial paint can ever replace -the natural colour of health. Hence, as Becker tells us, “painting -was almost universal among Grecian women.” Perhaps they did -not use any rouge at home, but it “was resumed when they were -going out, or wished to be specially attractive.” The men, apparently, -had better taste, for we read that “Ischomachos counselled -his young wife to take exercise, that she might do without rouge, -which she was accustomed constantly to use.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coming to more recent times, we find men still protesting in -vain against the feminine fashion of bedaubing the face with vulgar -paint. More than two centuries ago La Bruyère informed his -countrywomen pointedly that “If it is the men they desire to please, -if it is for them that they paint and stain themselves, I have collected -their opinions, and I assure them, in the name of all or most -men, that the white and red paint renders them frightful and -disgusting; that the red alone makes them appear old and artificial; -that men hate as much to see them with cherry in their faces, -as with false teeth in their mouth and lumps of wax in the jaws.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is needless to say that women who paint their faces put -themselves on a level with savages; for they show thereby that -they prefer hideous opaque daubs to the charm of translucent facial -tints. Masculine protestation, combined with masculine amorous -preference for pure complexions, has at last succeeded in banishing -paint from the boudoir of the most refined ladies; and this, combined -with compulsory vaccination against smallpox, accounts for -the increasing number of good complexions in the world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But, the important question now confronts us, Is there no limit -to the evolution of whiteness of complexion? Will Sexual Selection -continue to favour the lighter shades until the hyperbolic -“milk and blood” complexion will have been universally realised?</p> - -<p class='c001'>An emphatic <a id='corr459.34'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='No”'>“No”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_459.34'><ins class='correction' title='No”'>“No”</ins></a></span> is the answer. An exaggerated white is as -objectionable as black,—more so, in fact, because, whereas the -deepest black indicates good health, <em>extreme</em> whiteness suggests -the pallor of ill-health, and will therefore always displease Cupid, -the supreme judge of Personal Beauty. Moreover, in a very white -face the red cheek suggests the confusing blush or the hectic flush -rather than the subtle tints of health and normal emotion. And -again, the Scandinavian rose-and-lily complexion is inferior to the -delicate and slightly-veiled tint of the Spanish brunette, because -<span class='pageno' id='Page_460'>460</span>the latter suggests <em>the mellowing action of the sun’s rays, which -promises more permanence of beauty</em>. Hence it is that in the -marriage market a decided preference is shown for the brunette -type, as we shall see in the chapter on Blondes and Brunettes.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COSMETIC HINTS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>We are now in a position to understand the extreme importance -of the complexion from an amorous point of view, and to see why -the care of the complexion has almost monopolised the attention -of those desiring to improve their personal appearance, as shown by -the fact that the word “cosmetic,” in common parlance, refers to -the care of the skin alone.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Books containing recipes for skin lotions, ointments, and -powders are so numerous, that it is not worth while to devote -much space to the matter here. As a rule, the best advice to -those about to use cosmetics is <em>Don’t</em>. Every man whose admiration -is worth having will infinitely prefer a freckled, or even a -pallid or smallpox-marked, face to one showing traces of powder or -greasy ointments, or lifeless, cadaverous enamel, opaque as ebony -blackness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If a woman’s skin is so morbidly sensitive as to be injured by -ordinary water and good soap, it is a sign of ill-health which calls -for residence in the country and the mellowing rays of the sun. -Where this is unattainable, the water may be medicated by the -addition of a slice of lemon, cucumber, or horse-radish, to all of -which magic effects are often attributed. The black spots on the -sides of the nose may be removed in a few weeks by the daily -application (with friction) of lemon juice. For pimples and barber’s -itch a camphor and sulphur ointment, which may be obtained of -any chemist, is the simplest remedy. For a shiny, polished complexion, -and excessive redness of the nose, cheeks, and knuckles, -the following mixture is recommended by a good authority:—Powdered -borax, one half ounce; <em>pure</em> glycerine, one ounce; -camphor-water, one quart. Borax, indeed, is as indispensable a -toilet article as soap or a nail-brush. After washing the face, exposure -to the raw air should always be avoided for ten or fifteen -minutes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“A certain amount of friction applied to the face daily will do -much,” says Dr. Bulkley, “to keep the pores of the sebaceous -glands open; and, by stimulating the face, to prevent the formation -of the black specks and red spots so common in young people, -I generally direct that the face be rubbed to a degree short of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_461'>461</span>discomfort, and that the towel be not too rough.” Slight friction -also helps to ward off wrinkles.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Two or three weekly baths—hot in winter, cold in summer—are -absolutely necessary for those who wish to keep their skin in a -healthy condition; and no elixir of youth and beauty could produce -such a sparkling eye and glow of rosy health as a daily -morning sponge bath, followed by friction—care being taken, in a -cold room, to expose only one part of the body at a time. The -importance of keeping open the pores of the skin by bathing is -seen by the fact that if a man were painted with varnish he would -suffocate in a few hours; for the skin is a sort of external lung, -aiding its internal colleague in removing effete products, dissolved -in the perspiration, from the system.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The debris and oily matter brought to the surface of the skin -and deposited there by the perspiration cannot be completely -removed without soap. Unfortunately, this article has done more -to ruin complexions than almost any other cause, except smallpox -and the superstitious dread of sunshine. Many people have a -peculiar mania for economising in soap. If they can buy a piece -of soap for a farthing, they consider themselves wonderfully clever, -regardless of the fact that it may not only ruin their complexion, -but produce a repulsive skin disease which it will cost much gold -to cure. Do they ever realise that these soaps, which they thus -smear over the most delicate parts of their body every day, are made -of putrid carcasses of animals, rancid fat, and corrosive alkalies? -Has no one ever told them that if a soap is both cheap and highly -perfumed it is <em>certain</em> to be of vile composition, and injurious to -the skin? After washing yourself wait a moment till the soap’s -artificial odour has disappeared, and then smell your hands. That -vile rancid odour which remains—if you knew its source, you would -immediately run for a Turkish bath to wash off the very epidermis -to which that odour has adhered.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What has ruined so many complexions is not soap itself, but -bad soap. A famous specialist, Dr. Bulkley, says that “there is -no intrinsic reason why soap should not be applied to the face, -although there is a very common impression among the profession, -as well as the laity, that it should not be used there.... The -fact is, that many cases of eruptions upon the face are largely due -to the fact that soap has <em>not</em> been used on that part; and it is -also true that, if properly employed, and <em>if the soap is good</em>, it is -not only harmless, but beneficial to the skin of the face, as to every -other part of the body.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“A word may be added in reference to the so-called ‘medicated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_462'>462</span>soaps,’ whose number and variety are legion, each claiming virtues -far excelling all others previously produced.... Now all or most -of this attempt to ‘medicate’ soap is a perfect farce, a delusion, -and a snare to entrap the unwary and uneducated.... Carbolic -soap is useless and may be dangerous, because the carbolic acid -may possibly become the blind beneath which a cheap, poor soap -is used; for in all these advertised and patented nostrums the -temptation is great to employ inferior articles that the pecuniary -gain may be greater. The small amount of carbolic acid incorporated -in the soap cannot act as an efficient disinfectant.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FRECKLES AND SUNSHINE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Soap is not the only cosmetic that has been tabooed in the face -because of illogical reasoning. There is a much more potent -beautifying influence—viz., the mellowing rays of the sun—of -which the face has long been deprived, chiefly on account of an -unscientific prejudice that the sun is responsible for freckles. In -his famous work on skin diseases Professor Hebra of Vienna, the -greatest modern authority in his specialty, has completely disproved -this almost universally accepted theory. The matter is of -such extreme importance to Health and Beauty that his remarks -must be quoted at length:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>"It is a fact that lentigo (freckles) neither appears in the -newly-born nor in children under the age of 6-8 years, whether -they run about the whole day in the open air and exposed to the -bronzing influence of the sun, or whether they remain confined to -the darkest room; it is therefore certain that neither light nor air -nor warmth produces such spots in children....</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If we examine the skin of an individual who is said to be -affected with the so-called freckles only in the summer, at other -seasons of the year with sufficient closeness in a good light, and -with the skin put on the stretch by the finger, we shall detect the -same spots, of the same size but of somewhat lighter colour than -in summer. In further illustration of what has just been said, I -will mention that I have repeatedly had the opportunity of seeing -lentigines on parts of the body that, as a rule, are never exposed -to the influence of the light and sun....</p> - -<p class='c001'>”<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>A priori</i></span>, it is difficult to understand how ephelides can -originate from the influence of sun and light in the singular form -of disseminated spots, since these influences act not only on single -points, but uniformly over the whole surface of the skin of the face, -hands, etc. The pigmentary changes must appear, therefore, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_463'>463</span>the form of patches, not of points. Moreover, it is known to every -one that, if the skin of the face be directly exposed, even for only -a short time, to a rough wind or to intense heat, a tolerably dark -bronzing appears, which invades the affected parts uniformly, and -not in the form or disseminated, so-called summer-spots (freckles). -It was, therefore, only faulty observation on the part of our forefathers -which induced them to attribute the ephelides to the -influence of light and sun."</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the amount of mischief done by this “faulty observation of -our forefathers” is incalculable. To it we owe the universal feminine -horror of sunshine, without which it is as impossible for their -complexion to have a healthy, love-inspiring aspect, as it is for a -plant grown in a cellar to have a healthy green colour. How -many women are there who preserve their youthful beauty after -twenty-five—the age when they ought to be in full bloom? They -owe this early decay partly to their indolence, mental and physical, -partly to their habit of shutting out every ray of sunlight from -their faces as if it were a rank poison instead of the source of all -Health and Beauty. If young ladies would daily exercise their -muscles in fresh air and sunshine, they would not need veils to -make themselves look younger. Veils may be useful against very -rough wind, but otherwise they should be avoided, because they -injure the eyesight. Parasols are a necessity on very hot summer -afternoons, but “the rest of the year the complexion needs all the -sun it can get.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Were any further argument needed to convince us that the sun -has been falsely accused of creating freckles, it would be found in -the fact that southern brunette races, though constantly exposed -to the sun, are much less liable to them than the yellow and -especially the red-haired individuals of the North. Professor -Hebra regards freckles as “a freak of Nature rather than as a -veritable disease,” and thinks they are “analogous to the piebald -appearances met with in the lower animals.” As has just been -noted, they exist in winter as well as in summer. All that the -summer heat does is to make them visible by making the skin -more transparent. As the heat itself causes them to appear any -way, it is useless to taboo the direct sunlight as their source.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as freckles appear chiefly among northern races, -whose skin has been excessively bleached and weakened in its -action by constant indoor life, it seems probable, notwithstanding -Dr. Hebra’s opinion, that they are the result of an unhealthy, -abnormal action of the pigment-secreting apparatus which exists -even in the white skin. If this be so, then proper care of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_464'>464</span>skin continued for several generations would obliterate them. -The reason why country folks are more liable to freckles than -their city cousins would then be referable, not to the greater -amount of sunlight in the country, but to the rarity of bath-tubs, -good soap, and friction-towels. My own observation leads me to -believe that freckles are rarer in England than on the continent, -and the English are proverbially enamoured of the bath-tub and -open-air exercise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For those who, without any fault of their own, have inherited -freckles from their parents, there is this consoling reflection that -these blemishes reside in a very superficial layer of the skin, and -can therefore be removed. Several methods are known; but as -no one should ever use them without medical assistance, they need -not be described here (see Hebra’s <cite>Treatise</cite>, vol. iii.) Any one -who wishes to temporarily conceal skin-blemishes may find this -citation from Hebra of use: “Perfumers and apothecaries have -prepared from time immemorial cosmetics whose chief constituent -is <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>talcum venetum</i></span>, or <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>pulvis aluminis plumosi</i></span> (Federweiss), which, -when rubbed in, in the form of a paste, with water and alcohol, -or a salve with lard, or quite dry, as a powder, gives to the skin -an agreeable white colour, and does not injure it in the least, even -if the use of the cosmetic be continued throughout life.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is probable that electricity will play a grand <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> in future -as an agent for removing superfluous hairs, freckles, moles, port-wine -marks, etc. Much has already been done in this direction, -and the only danger is in falling into the hands of an unscrupulous -quack. In vol. iii. No. 4 of the <cite>Journal of Cutaneous and -Venereal Diseases</cite>, Dr. Hardaway has an interesting article on -this subject.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE EYES</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>In one of the Platonic dialogues Sokrates points out the relativity -of standards of Beauty. “Is not,” he asks in effect, “the -most beautiful ape ugly compared to a maiden? and is not the -maiden, in turn, inferior in beauty to a goddess?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Regarding most of the human features it may be conceded that -Sokrates is right in his second question. To find a human forehead, -nose, or mouth that could not be improved in some respect, -is perhaps impossible. But <em>one</em> feature must be excepted. There -are human eyes which no artist with a goddess for a model could -make more divine. And of these glorious orbs there are so many, -in every country, that one cannot help concluding that Schopenhauer -<span class='pageno' id='Page_465'>465</span>made a great mistake in placing the face, with the eyes, so -low down in his list of love-inspiring human qualities. On the -contrary, I am convinced that no feminine charm so frequently -and so fatally fascinates men as lovely eyes, and that it is for this -reason that Sexual Selection has done more to perfect the eyes -than any other part of the body.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When Petruchio says of Katharina that “she looks as clear as -morning roses newly washed with dew,” he compliments her complexion; -but when the Persian poet compares “a violet sparkling -with dew” to “the blue eyes of a beautiful girl in tears,” the -compliment is to the violet. A woman’s eye is the most beautiful -object in the universe; and what made it so is man’s Romantic -Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Putting poetry aside, we must now consider a few scientific -facts and correct a few misconceptions regarding the eye, its colour, -lustre, form, and expression.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COLOUR</h3> - -<p class='c013'>To say of any one that he has gray, blue, brown, or black eyes, -is vague and incorrect from a strictly scientific point of view, -inasmuch as there are no really gray or black eyes, and, as a -matter of fact, every eye, if closely examined, shows at least five -or six different colours.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is, first, the tough sclerotic coat or <em>white</em> of the eye, -which covers the greater part of the eyeball, and is not transparent, -except in front where the coloured <em>iris</em> (or rainbow membrane) -is seen through it. This central transparent portion of the -sclerotic coat is called the cornea, and is slightly raised above the -general surface of the eyeball, like the middle portion of some -watch-glasses.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The white of the eye is sometimes slightly tinged with blue -or yellow, and sometimes netted with inflamed blood-vessels. All -these deviations are æsthetically inferior to the pure white of the -healthy European, because suggestive of disease, and conflicting -with the general cosmic standards of beauty. The bluish tint is a -sign of consumption or scrofulous disorders, being caused by a -diminution of the pigmentary matter in the choroid coat which -lines the inside of the sclerotic. The yellowish tint, in the -European, is indicative of jaundice, dyspepsia, or premature degeneracy -of the white of the eye. It is normal, on the other -hand, in the healthy negro; but if a negro should claim that, -inasmuch as a yellowish sclerotic is to him not suggestive of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_466'>466</span>disease, he has as much right to consider it beautiful as we our -white sclerotic, the simple retort would be, that we are guided in our -æsthetic judgment by positive as well as negative tests. Disease -is the negative test; the positive lies in the fact that in inanimate -objects, where disease is altogether out of the question—as in -ivory ornaments (which no one associates with an elephant’s tusk)—we -also invariably prefer a pure snowy white to a muddy uncertain -yellow. It is these two tests in combination which have -guided Sexual Selection in its efforts to eliminate all but the pure -white sclerotic,—a tint which, moreover, throws into brighter -relief the enchanting hues of the “sunbeamed” iris.</p> - -<p class='c001'>More objectionable still than a yellowish or bluish sclerotic is a -bloodshot eye, not only because the inflamed blood-vessels which -swell and flood the white surface of the eye deface the marble -purity of the sclerotic (in a manner not in the least analogous to -marble “veins”), but because the red, watery blear eye generally -indicates the ravages of intemperance or unrestrained passions. -However, a bloodshot eye may be the result of mere overwork, or -reading in a flickering light, or lack of sleep; hence it is not -always safe to allow the disagreeable æsthetic impression given by -inflamed eyes to prognosticate moral obliquity. But, after all, -the intimate connection between æsthetic and moral judgments is -in this case based on a correct, subtle instinct; for is not a man -who ruins the health and beauty of his eyes by intemperance in -drink or night-work sinning against himself? If attempts at -suicide are punished by law, why should not minor offences against -one’s Health at least be looked upon with moral disapproval? If -this sentiment could be made universal, there would be fifty per -cent more Beauty in the world after a single generation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the centre of the white sclerotic is the membrane which -gives the eyes their characteristic variations of colour,—the iris or -rainbow curtain. If we look at an eye from a distance of a few -paces, it seems to have some one definite colour, as brown or blue. -But on closer examination we see that there are always several -hues in each iris. The colour of the iris is due to the presence of -small pigment granules in its interior layer. These granules are -<em>always</em> brown, in blue and gray as well as in brown eyes; and -the greater their number and thickness, the darker is the colour -of the iris. Blue eyes are caused by the presence, in front of the -pigment-layer, of a thin, almost colourless membrane, which -absorbs all the rays of light except the blue, which it reflects, and -thus causes the translucent iris to appear of that colour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Instructions de la Société d’Anthropologie</span>, says Dr. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_467'>467</span>Topinard, "recognise four shades of colour,—brown, green, blue, -and gray; each having five tones—the very dark, the dark, the -intermediate, the light, and the very light. The expression -“brown” does not mean pure brown; it is rather a reddish, a -yellowish, or a greenish brown, corresponding with the chestnut or -auburn colour, the hazel and the sandy, made use of by the -English. The gray, too, is not pure; it is, strictly speaking, a -violet more or less mixed with black and white."</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The negro, in spite of his name, is not black but deep brown,” -as Mr. Tylor remarks; and what is true of his complexion is also -true of his eyes; “what are popularly called black eyes are far -from having the iris really black like the pupil; eyes described as -black are commonly of the deepest shades of brown or violet.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The pupil, however, is always jetblack, not only in negroes, but -in all races. For the pupil is simply a round opening in the -centre of the iris which allows us to see clear through the lens -and watery substance of the eyeball to the black pigment which -lines its inside surface. The iris, in truth, is nothing but a -muscular curtain for regulating the size of the pupil, and thus -determining how much light shall be admitted into the interior of -the eye. When the light is bright and glaring, a little of it -suffices for vision, hence the iris relaxes its fibres and the pupil -becomes smaller; whereas, in twilight and moonlight, the eye -needs all the light it can catch, so the muscles of the iris-curtain -contract and enlarge the pupil-window. This mechanism of the -iris in diminishing or enlarging the pupil can be neatly observed -by looking into a mirror placed on one side of a window. If the -hand is put up in such a way as to screen the eye from the light, -the pupil will be seen to enlarge; and if the hand is then suddenly -taken away, it will immediately return to its smaller size. For -the muscles of the iris have the power, denied to other unstriped -or involuntary muscles, of acting quite rapidly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we find in the eyeball three distinct zones of colour—the -white of the eye, sometimes slightly tinted blue, yellow, or red; -the iris, which has various shades of brown, green, blue, and gray, -commonly two or three in each eye; and the central black pupil. -Add to this the flesh-colour of the eyelid and surrounding parts, -and the light or dark lashes and eyebrows, and we see that the -eye in itself is a perfect colour-symphony.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Can we account for the existence of all these colours? The -easiest thing in the world, with the aid of the principles of Natural -and Sexual Selection. There are reasons for believing that the -sense of sight is merely a higher development from the sense of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_468'>468</span>temperature, adapted to vibrations so rapid that the nerves of -temperature can no longer distinguish them. In its simplest -form, among the lowest animals, the sense of sight is represented -by a mere pigment spot. And in the highest form of sight, after -the development of the various parts of our complicated eye, we -still find this pigment as one of the most essential conditions of -vision. Its function, however, is not the same as that of the pigment -in the human skin. There it is interposed between the sun -and the underskin, in order to protect the nerves of temperature. -The optic nerve needs no such protection; for the heat-rays of the -sun cannot but be cooled on passing through the membranes, the -lens, and the watery substance in the eye, before reaching the -optic nerve, spread out on the retina. Consequently the eye-pigment, -instead of being placed in front of the nerves, is put -behind them; and their function is to absorb any excess of light -that enters the eye. Were the membrane which contains this -pigment whitish, all the light would be reflected back, and create -such a glare and confusion that no object could be seen distinctly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This view regarding the function of the pigment is strikingly -supported by the anomalous case of Albinos. “The pink of their -eyes (as of white rabbits) is caused by the absence of the black -pigment,” says Mr. Tylor, “so that light passing out through the -iris and pupil is tinged red from the blood-vessels at the back; -thus their eyes may be seen to blush with the rest of the face.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bearing these facts in mind, it is obvious why it is an advantage -in a sunny country to have as much pigmentary matter as -possible in the eye, and why, therefore, Natural Selection makes -the eyes blacker the nearer we approach the tropics. And, as -with the complexion, so here, it is fortunate for the negro that he -has not sufficient taste to feel the æsthetic inferiority of the -monotonous black thus imposed on him by Natural Selection. -“The iris is so dark,” says Figuier, “as almost to be confounded -with the black of the pupil. In the European, the colour of the -iris is so strongly marked as to render at once perceptible whether -the person has black, blue, or gray eyes. There is nothing similar -in the case of the negro, where all parts of the eye are blended in -the same hue. Add to this that the white of the eye is always -suffused with yellow in the Negro, and you will understand how -this organ, which contributes so powerfully to give life to the -countenance of the White, is invariably dull and expressionless in -the Black Race.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>To the Esquimaux, living in the constant glare of ice and -snowfields, a protective pigment is quite as necessary as to an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_469'>469</span>African savage; hence their eyes are equally black. But among -other northern races, who are less constantly exposed to the -blinding rays of the sun, it suffices to have coal-black pigment in -the back part of the eye, as seen through the pupil, while the iris -need not be so absolutely opaque. This leaves room for the -action of Sexual Selection in giving the preference to eyes less -monotonously black. Our æsthetic sense craves variety and contrasts -in colour; and as the sense of Beauty originally stood in -the service of Love almost exclusively, it is to Cupid’s selective -action that we doubtless owe the diverse hues of the modern iris.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To what kind of an iris does modern Love or æsthetic selection -give the preference? Doubtless to that which has the deepest -and most unmistakable colour—to dark brown, or deep blue, or -violet. One reason why we care less for the lighter, faded tints of -the iris is because they present a less vivid contrast to the white -of the eye; and another reason, as Dr. Hugo Magnus suggests, -lies in the disagreeable impression produced in us by the difficulty -of making out the exact character of the various indistinct shades -of gray, yellow, green, or blue.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The consideration of the question whether amorous selection -shows any further preference for one of its two favourite colours—dark -brown and deep blue—must be deferred to the chapter on -Blondes and Brunettes.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>LUSTRE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>But Cupid is not guided by colour alone in his choice. However -beautiful the colour of an eye, it loses half its charm if it -lacks lustre. A bright, sparkling eye is the most infallible index -of youthful vigour and health, whereas the lack-lustre eyes of ill-health -can never serve as windows from which Cupid shoots his -arrows. No wonder that the poets have searched all nature for -analogies to the lustre of a maiden’s eye, comparing it to sun and -stars, to diamonds, crystalline lakes, the light of glow-worms, -glistening dewdrops, etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What is the source of this light which shines from the eye -and intoxicates the lover’s senses? Several answers to this -question have been suggested. Twenty-five hundred years ago -Empedokles taught that “there is in the eye a fine network -which holds back the watery substance swimming about in it, but -the fiery particles penetrate through it like the rays of light -through a lantern” (Ueberweg). And a notion similar to this, -that there is a kind of magnetic or nervous emanation which -beams from the eye and is a direct efflux of the soul, was entertained -<span class='pageno' id='Page_470'>470</span>in recent times by Lavater and Carus. It was apparently -supported by the peculiar light which may be seen occasionally in -the eyes of cats, dogs, and horses in the twilight; but this has -been proved to be a purely physical phenomenon of reflection, due -to an anatomical peculiarity in the eyes of these animals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Some writers have attempted to account for the lustrous fire of -the eye by attributing it to the increased tension of the eyeball -brought about through certain joyous and exciting emotions. Dr. -Hugo Magnus, however, denies that these emotions ever increase -the tension of the eyeball: “We know from numerous exceedingly -minute measurements that there is no such thing whatever as a -rapid change of tension in the eye, as long as it is in a healthy -condition.” In some diseases, especially in cataract or glaucoma, -such an increased tension does occur, indeed, but it does not in -the least impart to the eye the sparkle of joyous excitement. -Hence Professor Magnus concludes that “the mimic significance -of the eye cannot be conditioned by changes in the form of the -eyeball, through tension or pressure on it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>His own theory (as developed in his two interesting pamphlets, -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die Sprache der Augen</cite></span> and <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Das Auge in seinen aesthetischen und -culturgeschichtlichen Beziehungen</cite></span>) is that the greater or less -brilliancy of the eyes depends entirely on the movements of -the eyelids. Instead of calling the eye the window of the soul, -it is more correct to say that the cornea is a mirror which, -like any other mirror, reflects the light that falls on it. The -higher the eyelids are raised the larger becomes the mirror, and -the more light is therefore reflected. Now it is well known -that exciting emotions like joy, enthusiasm, anger, and pride have -a tendency to raise the eyelids, while the sad and depressing -emotions cause them to sink and partially cover the eyeball; -hence joy makes the eyes sparkling, while grief renders them dull -and lustreless.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The old poetic and popular notion that the lustre of the eye is -a direct emanation of the human soul must therefore be abandoned. -The sparkling eye is a mere physical consequence of the involuntary -raising of the eyelids brought about through exhilarating or -exciting emotions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This theory of Dr. Magnus doubtless comes nearer the truth -than the others referred to; and the fact that snakes’ eyes, though -small, are proverbially glistening, apparently because they are -lidless, may be used as an additional argument in his favour, -which he overlooked. Yet his view does not cover the whole -ground; for it does not explain why, after weeping, or when we -<span class='pageno' id='Page_471'>471</span>are weary or ill, we may open our eyes as widely as we please -without making them appear lustrous.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This difficulty suggested to me the theory that, though -partly dependent on the movements of the eyelids, the lustre -of the eyes is due originally to the tension and moisture of the -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>conjunctiva</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>conjunctiva</i></span>, though consisting of 6-8 layers of cells, is an -extremely thin and highly sensitive, transparent membrane, which -lines the surface of the eyeball as well as the inside of the eyelids. -In this membrane is located the pain which we feel if dust, -etc., flies into our eyes. In order to wash out any particles that -may get into the eye, and to prevent the lid from sticking to -the eyeball, the lachrymal glands constantly secrete the water, -which, during an emotional shower, consolidates into tear-drops.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now, just as “the rose is sweetest washed with morning -dew,” so the eye is brightest and most fascinating which glistens -in an ever fresh supply of lachrymal fluid. After weeping, this -supply is temporarily exhausted, hence not only are the eyes -“sticky” and the lids difficult to raise, but even if they are -raised there is no lustre; you look in vain for “Cupid’s bonfires -burning in the eye.” But when we wake up from refreshing -sleep in the morning, or when we take a walk in the bracing -country air, the eye sparkles its best and “emulates the diamond,” -because at such a time all the vital energies, including of course -those of the lachrymal glands, are incited to fresh activity, which -they lose again after prolonged use of the eye, thus making it -appear duller in the evening.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we can readily account for those lights in the eye “that -do mislead the morn.” Yet it is probable that (although in a less -degree than dewy moisture) the tension and translucency of the -conjunctiva are also concerned in the production of a liquid, -lustrous expression. Though the eyeball itself may not undergo -any changes in tension, the conjunctiva doubtless does. The -eyeball rests on a bed of fatty tissue which shrinks after death, -owing to the emptying of the blood-vessels and the consolidation -of the fat, which makes a corpse appear “hollow-eyed.” -The same effect, to a slighter degree, is caused by disease and excessive -fatigue, making the eyes sink into their sockets. This -sinking must diminish the tension of the conjunctiva, both under -the eyelids and on the surface of the eyeball; and in shrinking it -becomes less transparent and glistening.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following observations of Professor Kollmann indirectly -support my theory that the conjunctiva is the source of the eye’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_472'>472</span>lustre: “After death this transparent membrane (the conjunctiva) -becomes turbid, the eye loses its lustre and becomes veiled. The -surface reflects but a faint degree of light, the eye is ‘broken.’” -The loss of lustre extends to the white of the eye, but is less -noticeable, perhaps because there lustre does not blend with -colour, as in the iris region.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fashionable young ladies who dance throughout the night -several times a week may well be disgusted with the <em>blue</em> rings -which appear around their sunken eyes. These rings are a -warning that they need “beauty sleep” and fresh air to fill up the -sockets again with healthy fat and <em>red</em> blood, so as to increase the -tension of the conjunctiva and stimulate the flow of dewy moisture -on which the lustre of the eye depends. There are tears of Beauty -as well as of anguish and joy.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FORM</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Of the beauty of the eye as conditioned by its form, Dr. -Magnus has made such an admirable and exhaustive analysis -that I can do little more than summarise his observations. He -points out, in the first place, that the form of the eyeball itself is -of subordinate importance. The differences in the size and shape -of eyeballs are insignificant, and are, moreover, liable to be concealed -by the shape of the eyelids; hence it is to the lids and brows -that the eye chiefly owes its formal beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The form of the eye is conditioned exclusively by the cut of -the lids and the size of the aperture between them.... The -countless individual differences in this aperture give to the eyeballs -the most diverse shapes, so that we speak of round eyes, wide -eyes, almond-shaped, elongated, and owl eyes, etc.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first condition of beauty in an eye is size. Large eyes -have been extolled ever since the beginnings of poetry. The -Mahometan heaven is peopled with “virgins with chaste mien -and large black eyes,” and the Arabian poets never tire of comparing -their idols’ eyes to those of the gazelle and the deer. The -Greeks appear to have considered large eyes an essential trait of -beauty as well as of mental superiority; hence Sokrates as well as -Aspasia are described as having had such eyes; and who has not -read of Homer’s ox-eyed Juno? Juvenal specially mentions small -eyes as a blemish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Large eyes, however, are not beautiful if the aperture between -the lids is too wide, or if the white can be seen above the iris. -They must owe their largeness to the graceful curvature of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_473'>473</span>upper eyelid. As Winckelmann remarks, “Jupiter, Apollo, and -Juno have the opening of their eyelids large and vaulted, -and less elongated than is usual, so as to make the arch more -pronounced.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time we are sufficiently catholic in taste to admire -eyes which are not quite round but somewhat elongated. One -favourite variety is that in which “the upper lid shows, in the -margin adjoining the inner corner of the eye, a rather decided -curvature, which, however, diminishes toward the outer corner in -an extremely graceful and pleasing wavy line. As the lower lid -has a similar, though less decided, marginal curve, the eyeball -which appears within this aperture assumes a unique oval form, -which has been very aptly and characteristically named ‘almond-shaped.’ -The Greeks compared the graceful curve of such lids to -the delicate and pleasing loops formed by young vines, and therefore -called an eye of this variety ἑλικοβλέφαρος. Winckelmann -has noted that it was the eyes of Venus, in particular, that the -ancient artists were fond of adorning with this graceful curve of -the lids.... Italian, and especially Spanish eyes, are far-famed -for their classical and graceful oval form.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Almond eyes are peculiar to the Semitic and ancient Aryan -races. Some of the bards of India sing the praises of an eye -so elongated that it reaches to the ear; and in Assyrian statues -such eyes are common. The ancient Egyptians had a similar -taste; and Carus relates that some Oriental nations actually enlarge -the slit of the eye with the knife; while others use cosmetics -to simulate the appearance of very long eyes. According to Dr. -Sömmering, the eye of male Europeans is somewhat less elongated -than that of females.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Round or oval marginal curvature, however, is not the only -condition of beauty in an eyelid. The surface, too, must be -kept in a tense, well-rounded condition. Sunken, hollow eyes -displease us not only because they suggest disease and age, but -because they destroy the smooth surface and curvature of the -eyelids. Thus do we find the laws of Health and Beauty coinciding -in the smallest details.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The position of the eye also largely influences our æsthetic -judgment. What strikes us first in looking at a Chinaman is -his obliquely-set eyes, with the outer corner drawn upwards, which -displeases us even more than their excessive elongation and small -size. Oblique eyes are a dissonance in the harmony of our -features, and almost as objectionable as a crooked mouth. True, -our own eyes are rarely absolutely horizontal, but the deviation is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_474'>474</span>too minute to be noticed by any but a trained observer. Sometimes, -as Mantegazza remarks, the opposite form may be noticed, -the outer corner of the eye being lower than the inner. “If this -trait is associated with other æsthetic elements, it may produce -a rare and extraordinary charm, as in the case of the Empress -Eugénie.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The eyelashes and eyebrows, though strictly belonging in the -chapter on the hair, must be referred to here because they bear -such a large part in the impression which the form of the eye -makes on us. The short, stiff hairs, which form “the fringed -curtain of the eye,” are attached to the cartilage which edges the -eyelids. They are not straight but curved, downward in the -lower, upward in the upper lid. And the Beauty-Curve is observed -in still another way, the hairs in the central part of -each lid being longer than they are towards the ends. In the -upper lid the hairs are longer than in the lower. Their æsthetic -and physiognomic value will be considered presently under the -head of Expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the eyebrows the Curve of Beauty is again the condition -of perfection. It must be a gentle curve, however, or else it -imparts to the countenance a Mephistophelian expression of irony. -Eyebrows were formerly held to be peculiar to man, but Darwin -states that “in the Chimpanzee, and in certain species of -Macacus, there are scattered hairs of considerable length rising -from the naked skin above the eyes, and corresponding to our -eyebrows; similar long hairs project from the hairy covering of -the superciliary ridges in some baboons.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The existence of the eyebrows may be accounted for on utilitarian -grounds. Natural Selection favoured their development -because they are, like the lashes, of use in preventing perspiration -and dust from getting into the eyes. Their delicately curved form, -however, they probably owe to Sexual Selection. Cupid objects -to eyebrows which are too much or not sufficiently arched, and he -objects to those which are too bushy or which meet in the middle. -The ancient Greeks already disliked eyebrows meeting in the -middle, whereas in Rome Fashion not only approved of them, -but even resorted to artificial means for producing them. The -Arabians go a step farther in the use of paint. They endeavour -to produce the impression as if their eyebrows grew down to the -middle of the nose and met there. The Egyptians, Assyrians, -Persians, and Indians also used paint to make their eyebrows -seem wider, but they did not unite them. On the outside border -the eyebrows should extend slightly beyond the corner of the eye.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_475'>475</span> - <h3 class='c014'>EXPRESSION</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>In the chapter on the nose reference was made to our disposition -to seize upon any sensation experienced inside the mouth and -label it as a “taste,” whereas psychologic analysis shows that in -most cases the sense of smell (excited during <em>exhalation</em>) has more -to do with our enjoyment of food than taste; and that the nerves -of temperature and touch likewise come into play in the case of -peppermint, pungent condiments, alcohol, etc. We are also in the -habit of including in the term “feeling” or “touch” the entirely -distinct sensations of temperature, tickling, and some other sensations, -to the separate study of which physiologists are only now -beginning to devote special attention.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Similarly with the eyes. Being the most fascinating part of -the face, on which we habitually fix our attention while talking, -they are credited with various expressions that are really referable -to other features, which we rapidly scan and then transfer their -language to the eyes. Nor is this all. Most persons habitually -attribute to the varying lustre of the eyeball diverse “soulful” -expressions which, as physiologic analysis shows, are due to the -<em>movements</em> of the eyeball, the eyebrows, and lashes. The poets, -who have said so many beautiful things about the eyes, are rarely -sufficiently definite to lay themselves open to the charge of inaccuracy. -But there can be little doubt that the popular opinion -concerning the all-importance of the eyeball is embodied in such -expressions as these: “Love, anger, pride, and avarice all visibly -move in those little orbs” (Addison). “Her eye in silence has a -speech which eye best understands” (Southwell). “An eye like -Mars to threaten or command.” “The heavenly rhetoric of thine -eye, ’gainst which the world cannot hold argument.” “Behold -the window of my heart, mine eye.” “Sometimes from her eyes -I did receive fair speechless messages.” “For shame, lie not, to -say mine eyes are murderers.” “If mine eyes can wound, now let -them kill thee.” “There’s an eye wounds like a leaden sword.” -The last three of these Shaksperian lines were evidently echoing -in Emerson’s mind when he wrote that “Some eyes threaten like -a loaded and levelled pistol, and others are as insulting as hissing -or kicking; some have no more expression than blueberries, while -others as deep as a well which you can fall into.” “Glances are -the first <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>billets-doux</i></span> of love,” says Ninon de L’Enclos.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In order to make perfectly clear the mechanism by which -the eye becomes an organ of speech, it is advisable to consider -<span class='pageno' id='Page_476'>476</span>separately these six factors, which are included in it—(<i>a</i>) Lustre; -(<i>b</i>) Colour of the Iris; (<i>c</i>) Movements of the Iris or Pupil; (<i>d</i>) -Movements of the Eyeball; (<i>e</i>) Movements of the Eyelids; (<i>f</i>) -Movements of the Eyebrows.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>a</i>) <em>Lustre.</em>—"The physiological problem whether the surface -of the eyeball, independent of the muscles that cover and surround -it, can express emotion, a near study of the American girl seems -to answer quite in the affirmative." Dr. G. M. Beard remarks, -without, however, endeavouring to specify what emotions the -surface of the eyeball expresses, or in what manner it does express -them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dr. Magnus, on the other hand, who has made a more profound -study of this question than any other writer, is emphatic in his -conviction that “the eyeball takes no active part in the expression -of emotions, which is entirely accomplished by the muscles and -soft parts surrounding it.” His view is supported by the fact that -although some of the ancient sculptors endeavoured by the use of -jewels or by chiselling semi-lunar or other grooves into the eyeball -to simulate its lustre by means of shadows, yet as a rule sculptors -and painters strangely neglect the careful elaboration of the eyeball; -and in the Greek works of the best period, including those -of Phidias, the eyeball was left smooth and unadorned, the artists -relying especially on the careful chiselling of the lids and brows -for the attainment of the particular characteristic expression -desired.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevertheless Dr. Magnus goes too far in denying that ocular -lustre can be directly expressive of mental states without the -assistance of the movements of the eyebrows and lids. His own -observations show that he has overstated his thesis. We can -indeed, he says, infer from the appearance of the eyeball, “whether -the soul is agitated or calm, but we have to rely on the facial -muscles to specify the emotion. This is the reason why we can -never judge the sentiments of one who is masked; for the fire in -his eye can only indicate to us his greater or less agitation, but -not its special character. <em>That</em> we could only read in the features -which the mask conceals. It is for this reason that the orthodox -Mahometan makes his women cover up their face with a veil -which leaves nothing exposed but the eyes, because these cannot, -without the constant play of the facial muscles, indicate the emotional -state. The lustre of the corneal mirror therefore indicates -to us only the quantity, but never the quality of emotional excitement.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Herein Dr. Magnus follows the assertion of Lebrun, a contemporary -<span class='pageno' id='Page_477'>477</span>of Louis XIV., that “the eyeball indicates by its fire -and its movements in general that the soul is passionately excited, -but not in what manner.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt the Turk attains his object in leaving only the eyes -of his women open to view, for thus the passing stranger cannot -tell whether her eye flashes Love or anger. But he <em>can</em> tell -whether she is agitated or indifferent: and is not that a language -too? Do we not call music <em>the</em> “language of emotions,” although -it can only indicate the quantity of emotion, and rarely its precise -quality—just like the eyes? Therefore Dr. Magnus is wrong in -denying to the eyeball the power of emotional expression. Vague -emotion is still emotion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It has already been intimated in what manner emotional excitement -increases the eye’s lustre. It causes the blood-vessels in the -sockets of the eye to swell, thus increasing the tension of the conjunctiva -and the flow of the lachrymal fluid.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Besides quantitative emotion there is another thing which -ocular lustre expresses, and that is Health. It is true that -consumption, fever, and possibly other diseases may produce a -peculiar temporary transparency of complexion and ocular lustre; -but, as a rule, a bright eye indicates Health and abundant vitality.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As Health is the first condition of Love, and as the ocular -lustre which indicates Health cannot be normally secured without -it, women of all times and countries have been addicted to the -habit of increasing the eye’s sparkle artificially by applying a thin -line of black paint to the edge of the lids. The ancient Egyptians, -Persians, Hindoos, Greeks, and Romans followed this custom. But -the natural sparkle which comes of Health and Beauty-sleep [<i>i.e.</i> -before midnight, with open windows] is a thousand times preferable -to such dangerous methods of tampering with the most delicate -and most easily injured organ of the body.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Still another way in which the eyeball itself can express emotion -is by the varying amount on it of the lachrymal fluid, to which, in -my opinion, its lustre is chiefly owing. There is a supreme and -thrilling sparkle of the eye which can only come of the heavenly -joys of Love; but there is also “a liquid <em>melancholy</em>” of sweet -eyes, to use Bulwer’s words. Scott remarks that “Love is loveliest -when embalmed in tears;” and Dr. Magnus attests that -“especially in the eyes of lovers we often find a slight suspicion -of tears.” He traces to this fact a peculiar charm that is to be -found in the eyes of Venus, which the Greeks called ὑγρὸν (liquid, -swimming, languishing). The sculptors produced this expression -by indicating the border between the lower lid and the eyeball but -<span class='pageno' id='Page_478'>478</span>slightly, thus giving the impression as if this border were veiled -by a liquid line of tear-fluid.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What enables the lid to keep this fluid line in place is the fact -that its edge is lined with minute glands secreting an oily substance. -The presence of these glands in the upper lid, where they -cannot serve to retain lachrymal fluid, suggests the important -inference that the lustre of the eye may be partly due to a thin -film of oil spread over the cornea by the up-and-down movements -of this lid. Indeed, this may possibly be the chief cause of ocular -lustre.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When the lachrymal fluid habitually present in the eye becomes -too abundant it ceases to express amorous tenderness, and becomes -instead indicative of old age, or, worse still, of intemperance. -Alcoholism has a peculiarly demoralising effect on the lower eyelid, -which becomes swollen and inflamed. This probably overstimulates -the action of the oil glands in the lids, thus accounting -for the watery or blear eye, eloquent of vice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>b</i>) <em>Colour of the Iris.</em>—There is nothing in which popular -physiognomy takes so much delight as in pointing out what -particular characteristics are indicated by the different colours of -eyes. All such distinctions are the purest drivel. We have seen -that differences in the colour of eyes are entirely due to the varying -amount of the same pigmentary matter present in the iris. Now, -what earthly connection could a greater or less quantity of this -colouring matter have with our intellectual or moral traits? It is -necessary thus to trace facts to their last analysis in order to expose -the absurdities of current physiognomy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as black-eyed southern nations are, on the whole, -more impulsive than northern races, it may be said in a vague, -general way that a black eye indicates a passionate disposition. -But there are countless exceptions to this rule—apathetic black-eyed -persons, as well as, conversely, fiery blue-eyed individuals. -Nor is this at all strange; for the black colour is not stored up in -some mysterious way as a result of a fiery temperament, but is -simply accumulated in the iris through Natural Selection, as a -protection against glaring sunlight.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although, therefore, the brilliancy of the eye may vary with its -colour, the colour itself does not express emotion, either qualitatively -or quantitatively. In reading character no assistance is given us -by the fact that eyes are “of unholy blue,” “darkly divine,” “gray -as glass,” or “green as leeks.” Shakspere calls Jealousy a “green-eyed -monster”; and the green iris has indeed such a bad reputation -that blondes in search of a compliment commonly abuse their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_479'>479</span>“green” eyes, to exercise your Gallantry, and give you a chance to -defend their “celestial blue” or “divine violet.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dr. Magnus suggests that the reason why we dislike decidedly -green or yellow eyes is simply because they are of rare occurrence, -and therefore appear anomalous; for in animals we do not hesitate -to pronounce such eyes beautiful. He also explains ingeniously -why it is that we are apt to attribute moral shortcomings to persons -whose eyes are of a vague, dubious colour. Such eyes displease -our æsthetic sense, and this displeasure we transfer to the moral -sense, and thus confound and prejudice our judgment. In the -same way our dislike of unusual green eyes disposes us to accuse -their owners of irregularities of conduct. Moral: Keep your -æsthetic and ethical judgments apart.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Conversely, in the case of snakes, our fear and horror make it -difficult for us to appreciate the æsthetic charm of their colours. -And all these cases show that the æsthetic sense, if properly -understood and specialised, is independent of moral and utilitarian -considerations: which knocks the bottom out of the theory of -Alison, Jeffrey, and Co.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One more abnormality of colour in the iris must be referred to. -It happens not infrequently that the colour of the two eyes is not -alike, one being brown, the other blue or gray. In such -cases, though each eye may be perfect in itself, we dislike the -combination. What is the ground of this æsthetic dislike? Simply -the fact that the dissimilarity of the eyes violates one of the -fundamental laws of Beauty—the law of Symmetry, which -demands that corresponding parts on the two sides of the body -should harmonise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>c</i>) <em>Movements of the Iris.</em>—The jetblack pupil of the eye, as -already noted, is not always of the same size. It becomes smaller -if an excess of light causes the iris to relax, larger if diminution of -light makes the iris contract its fibres. Another way of altering -the size of the pupil is by gazing at a distant object, which causes -it to enlarge, while gazing at a near object makes it smaller. -According to Gratiolet and some other writers, there is still another -way in which the pupil is affected, namely, through emotional -excitement. Great fear, for instance, enlarges the pupil, according -to Gratiolet. Dr. Magnus, however, remarks that, apart from the -fact that some observers have denied that the pupil is affected by -emotions, the alterations in its size are as a rule too insignificant -to be noted by any but a trained observer; so that they could not -play any important physiognomic <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet a large pupil is everywhere esteemed a great beauty, and is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_480'>480</span>often credited with a special power of amorous expression. -“Widened pupils,” says Kollmann, “give the eye a tender aspect; -they seem to increase its depth, and fascinate the spectator by the -strangeness this imparts to the gaze. Oriental women put atropine -into their eyes, which enlarges the pupil. They do this in order -to give their eyes the soulful expression which they believe is -imparted by large pupils, distinctly foreshadowing the joys of love.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Whether emotionally expressive or not, so much is certain that -large pupils are more beautiful than small ones, for the same reason -that large eyes are more beautiful than small ones, <i>i.e.</i> because we -cannot have too much of a thing of Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Finally, there is this to be said regarding the lustre, colour, and -size of pupil and iris, that they emphasise the language of the eye. -If we play a love-song on the piano, we may admire it; but if it -is sung or played on the violoncello, it makes a doubly deep -impression; and why? Because the superior sensuous beauty of -the voice, or the amorous tone-colour of the ’cello, paints and gilds -the bare fabric of the song. A small dull-coloured eye, similarly, -may speak quite as definite a language of command or entreaty, -pride or humility, as any other; but the flashing large pupil and -the lustrous deep-dyed iris intensify the emotional impressiveness of -this language a hundredfold, by adding the incalculable power of -sensuous Beauty. Thus lustre and colour are for the <em>visible</em> music -of the spheres what orchestration is to audible music.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>d</i>) <em>Movements of the Eyeball.</em>—The socket of the eye contains -(besides the fat-cushion in which the eyeball is imbedded, the -blood-vessels, and other tissues) seven muscles; one for raising the -upper lid, and six for moving the eyeball itself upwards, downwards, -inwards, outwards, or forwards and obliquely. To the action of -these muscles the eye owes much of its expressiveness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It has been noted that elating emotions have a tendency to raise -the features, depressing emotions to depress them. The eyeball is -no exception. Persons who are elated by their real or apparent -superiority to others turn their eyes habitually from the humble -things beneath them; hence the muscle which turns the eyeball -upwards has long ago received the name of “pride-muscle”; while -its antipode, the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>musculus humilis</i></span>, is so called because humility -and modesty are characterised by a downward gaze.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The muscle which turns the eyeball towards the inner corner, -nosewards, is much used by persons who are occupied with near -objects. If this convergence of the eyes is too pronounced, it gives -one a stupid expression; whereas, if moderate, the expression is -one of great intellectual penetration, as Dr. Magnus points out. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_481'>481</span>He believes that the trick, made use of by some portrait-painters, -of making the eyes appear to follow you wherever you go depends -on this medium degree of convergence of the eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Slight divergence of the eyeballs, on the other hand, is characteristic -of children and of great thinkers—an item which -Schopenhauer forgot to note when he pointed out that genius -always retains certain traits of childhood. “Donders,” says Dr. -Magnus, “has always observed this divergent position of the eyes -in persons who meditate deeply. And the artists make use of this -position of the eyes to give their figures the expression of a soul -averted from terrestrial affairs, and fixed on higher spiritual objects. -Thus the Sistine Madonna has this divergent position of the eyes, -as well as the beautiful boy she carries on her arm.” It is also -found in Dürer’s portrait of himself, and in a bust of Marcus -Aurelius in the Vatican.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If, however, this divergence becomes too great, it loses its -charm, for the eyes then appear to fix no object at all, and the -gaze becomes “vacant,” as in the eyes of the blind or the sick. -To appreciate the force of these remarks it must be borne in mind -that there is only one part of the retina, called the “yellow spot,” -with which we can distinctly fix an object. What we see with -other parts of the retina is indistinct, blurred.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These details are here given because many will be glad to know -that by daily exercising the muscles of the eyeballs before the -mirror, they can greatly alter and improve their looks. Every day -one hears the remark, “She has beautiful eyes, but she does not -know how to use them.” When we read of a great thinker, like -Kant, fixing his gaze immovably on a tree for an hour, we think it -quite natural; nor does any one object to “the poet’s eye, in a fine -frenzy rolling,” for we all know that a poet is merely an inspired -madman. But a young lady who wishes to charm by her Beauty -must learn to fix her wandering eyes calmly on others, while -avoiding a stony stare. One of the greatest charms of American -girls is their frank, steady gaze, free from any tinge of unfeminine -boldness. Such a charming natural gaze can only be acquired in -a country where girls are taught to look upon men as gentlemen, -and not as wolves, against whom they must be guarded by dragons.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Eye-gymnastics are as important to Beauty as lung-gymnastics -to Health, and dancing-lessons to Grace. But of course there is a -certain number of fortunate girls who can dispense with such -exercises, because they gradually learn the proper use of their eyes, -as well as general graceful movements, from the example of a -refined mother.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_482'>482</span>Goldsmith’s pretty line about “the bashful virgin’s sidelong -looks of love,” is not a mere poetic conceit, but a scientific <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>aperçu</i></span>; -for, as Professor Kollmann remarks, “the external straight muscle -of the eye was also called the lover’s muscle, <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>musculus amatorius</i></span>, -because the furtive side-glance is aimed at a beloved person.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is this the only way in which the movements of the eyeball -are concerned with Romantic Love. By constantly exercising -certain muscles of the eyeball in preference to others, the eyes -gradually assume, when at rest, a fixed and peculiar gaze which -distinguishes them from all other eyes. It is comparatively easy -to find two pairs of eyes of the same colour or form, but two with -the same gaze, <i>i.e.</i> characteristic position of the eyeballs, never. -Hence Dr. Magnus boldly generalises Herder’s statement that -“Every great man has a look which no one but he can give with -his eyes,” into the maxim that “<em>Every individual</em> has a look which -no one else can make with his eyes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bungling photographers commonly spoil their pictures by compelling -their victims to fix their eyes in an unwonted position. -The result is a picture which bears some general resemblance to -the victim, but in which the characteristic <em>individual</em> expression is -wanting.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Our habit of masking our eyes alone when we wish to remain -unrecognised, and leaving the lower part of the face exposed, -affords another proof of the assertion that the eye is the chief seat -of individuality. For though the eyeball itself remains visible, the -surrounding parts are covered, so that its characteristic position -cannot be determined.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now we know that Individual Preference is the first and most -essential element of Romantic Love. Hence Dante was as correct -in calling the eyes “the beginning of Love,” as in terming the lips -“the end of Love.” And Shakspere agrees with Dante when he -speaks of “Love first learned in a lady’s eyes”; and again: “But -for her eye I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>e</i>) <em>Movements of the Eyelids.</em>—Although the foregoing pages -considerably qualify Dr. Magnus’s thesis that the eyeball owes all -its life and expressiveness to the movements of the eyelids and -brows, yet the physiognomic and æsthetic importance of lids, -lashes, and brows can hardly be too much emphasised. A very -large proportion of the pleasure we derive from beautiful eyes is -due to the constant changes in the apparent size of the eyeball, -and the gradations in its lustre, produced by the rapid movements -of the upper lid. This is strikingly proved by the fact, noted by -Dr. Magnus, “that the eyes of wax figures, be they ever so -<span class='pageno' id='Page_483'>483</span>artistically finished, always give the impression of death and -rigidity,” whereas “artificial eyes, such as are often inserted by -physicians after the loss of an eye, have, thanks to the constant -play of the lids, an appearance so animated and lifelike that it -requires the trained eye of a specialist to detect the dead, lifeless -glass-eye in this apparently so animated orb.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A complete emotional scale is symbolised in these movements of -the upper eyelids. A medium position indicates rest or indifference. -Joyous and other exciting emotions raise them, so that the -whole of the lustrous iris becomes visible. Thus we get the eye -“sparkling with joy” or the “angry flash of the eye,” as well as -Cupid’s darts: “He is already dead; stabbed with a white wench’s -black eye.” “Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye than twenty -of their swords.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if the lids are raised too high, so that the white above the -iris becomes visible, the expression changes to one of affectation, -or maniacal wildness, or extreme terror. There are persons, says -Magnus, in whom the aperture between the lids is naturally so -wide as to reveal the upper white of the eyes; and in consequence -we are apt to accuse them of hollow pathos. I have seen not a -few beautiful pairs of eyes marred by the habitual tendency to -raise the lids too much—a fault that can be readily overcome by -deliberate effort and practice before the mirror.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, if the aperture between the lids is too small, -that is, if the lids are naturally (or only transiently) lowered too -much, we get an apathetic, drowsy expression. The Chinese eye -displeases us not only by its oblique set, and the narrowness of the -lid, but also because the natural smallness of the eyeball is -exaggerated by the narrow palpebral aperture. The negro appears -more wide awake to us, because in his eyes this aperture is wider—so -wide, in fact, that he is apt to displease us by showing too -much of the white sclerotic.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A very drooping eyelid being expressive of fatigue, physical or -mental, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>blasé</i></span> persons affect it in order to indicate their <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>nil -admirari</i></span> attitude. But there is another secret reason why they -drop their eyelids. If we lower the head and open our eyes widely, -they retire within their sockets and appear hollow, suggesting dissipation -or disease; whereas, if we raise the head, throwing it -slightly backwards, and lowering the eyelids, we obliterate this -hollow, and give the impression of languid indifference. This, -rather than the “raising of the eyebrows,” is what constitutes the -“supercilious” expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It cannot be said that a supercilious appearance is specially -<span class='pageno' id='Page_484'>484</span>attractive, yet the obliteration of the eyes’ hollowness is an advantage; -and it may be added that, since perfect health is not a superabundant -phenomenon, the same reasoning explains why many -faces are so much more fascinating in a reclining or semi-reclining -position than when upright. Fashion, of course, being the handmaid -of ugliness, does not object to hollow eyes encircled by blue -rings, but even cultivates them. Yet in her heart of hearts every -fashionable woman knows that nothing so surely kills masculine -admiration—not to speak of Love—as sunken eyes with blue -rings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A slight drooping of the eyelids, on the other hand, gives a -pleasing expression of amorous languor. The lid, with its lashes, -in this case, coyly veils the lustre of the eye, without extinguishing -it. Hence, in the words of Dr. Magnus, the sculptors of antiquity -made use of this slight lowering of the lid to express sensuous -love; and accordingly it was customary to chisel the eyes of Venus -with drooping lids and a small aperture.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In their task of moderating and varying the lustre of the eyeball, -the lids are greatly assisted by the lashes. An eye with -missing or too short lashes is apt to appear too fiery, glaring, or -“stinging.” Long dark eyelashes are of all the means of flirtation -the most irresistible. Note yonder artful maiden. How modestly -and coyly she droops her eyes, till suddenly the fringed curtain is -raised and a glorious symphony of colour and lustre is flashed on -her poor companion’s dazed vision! No wonder he staggers and -falls in love at first sight.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“White lashes and eyebrows are so disagreeably suggestive,” -we read in the <cite>Ugly Girl Papers</cite>, “that one cannot blame their -possessor for disguising them by a harmless device. A decoction -of walnut juice should be made in season, and kept in a bottle for -use the year round. It is to be applied with a small hair-pencil -to the brows and lashes, turning them to a rich brown, which harmonises -with fair hair.” Another recipe given, by a good authority, -is as follows: “Take frankincense, resin, pitch, of each one half -ounce; gum mastic, quarter of an ounce; mix and drop on red-hot -charcoals. Receive the fumes in a large funnel, and a black -powder will adhere to its sides. Mix this with fresh juice of -alderberries (or Cologne water will do), and apply with a fine -camel-hair brush.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Those who wish to make their lashes longer and more regular -may find the following suggestions, by Drs. Brinton and Napheys, -of use: “The eyelashes should be examined one by one, and any -which are split, or crooked, or feeble, should be trimmed with a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_485'>485</span>pair of sharp scissors. The base of the lashes should be anointed -nightly with a minute quantity of oil of cajuput on the top of a -camel-hair brush, and the examination and trimming repeated -every month. If this is sedulously carried out for a few months -the result will be gratifying.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>All such operations should be performed by another person, for -the eye is a most delicate organ. Yet, not even this organ has -been spared by deforming Fashion. The fact that some Africans -colour their eyelids black may have a utilitarian rather than a -cosmetic reason. But what shall we say to the Africans who -eradicate their eyebrows, and the Paraguayans, who remove their -eyelashes because they “do not wish to be like horses?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Twin sisters ever are Fashion and Idiocy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(<i>f</i>) <em>Movements of the Eyebrows.</em>—Herder called the arched eyebrow -the rainbow of peace, because if it is straightened by a frown -it portends a storm. In plain prose, the eyebrow partakes of the -general upward movement from joyous excitement, and the downward -movement in grief. If the eyebrows are too bushy, they -overshadow the eye and produce a gloomy or even ferocious appearance. -The Chinese, possibly from an instinctive perception that -their eyes are not too large or bright, shave their eyebrows, leaving -only a narrow fringe. Dr. Broca also notes that the eyebrow adds -to the oblique appearance of the Chinese eye through a particular -movement, the two internal thirds of the eyebrows being lower, -and the external third higher than with us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Though not, perhaps, directly concerned in the expression of -Love, the eyebrow is not to be under-rated. No detail of Beauty -escapes Cupid’s eyes; for do we not read of “the lover, sighing -like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’s eyebrows”?</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COSMETIC HINTS</h3> - -<p class='c013'>As modern lovers disapprove of eyebrows meeting over the nose, -superfluous hairs should be removed. Coarse irregular hairs in -any part of the eyebrow should be pulled out or kept in position -by a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>fixateur</i></span>. “It is not well to trim the eyebrow generally, -as it makes it coarse.... When it is desired to thicken or -strengthen them, two or three drops of oil of cajuput may be -gently rubbed into the skin every other night; but here, and -<em>always</em> when wiping them, the rubbing should be in the direction -of the hair, from the nose outward, and <em>never</em> in the reverse -direction.” Among harmless dyes, pencils of dark pomatum or -walnut-bark, steeped in Cologne for a week, are recommended; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_486'>486</span>or, for a transient effect, a needle smoked over the flame of a -candle may be used.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Regarding the general hygienic care of the eye, the following -rules should be borne in mind. Never read or work in a too weak -or too glaring light, or when lying down, or with the book too near -the eye. Rest the muscles occasionally by looking at a distant -object. Bathe the eyes every morning in cold water, <em>keeping them -closed</em>. For disorders, consult a physician immediately; a day’s -delay may be fatal to ocular beauty. For ordinary inflammation, -an external application of witch-hazel extract, mixed with a few -drops of Cologne, is very soothing. <em>Never</em> sleep with your eyes -facing the window. Ninety-nine persons in a hundred do so; -hence the large number of weak, lustreless eyes, early disturbances -of slumber, and morning headaches. Large numbers of tourists in -Switzerland constantly suffer from headaches, and lose all the -benefits of their vacation, simply because they fail to have their -head at night in the centre of the room, where it ought to be, -because the air circulates there more freely than near the wall.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>THE HAIR</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>CAUSE OF MAN’S NUDITY</h3> - -<p class='c013'>“From the presence of the woolly hair or lanugo on the human -fœtus, and of rudimentary hairs scattered over the body during -maturity,” Darwin inferred that “man is descended from some -animal which was born hairy and remained so during life.” He -believed that “the loss of hair is an inconvenience and probably an -injury to man, even in a hot climate, for he is thus exposed to the -scorching in the sun, and to sudden chills, especially during wet -weather. As Mr. Wallace remarks, the natives in all countries are -glad to protect their naked backs and shoulders with some slight -covering. No one supposes that the nakedness of the skin is any -direct advantage to man; his body, therefore, cannot have been -divested of hair through Natural Selection.” Accordingly, he concludes -that man lost his hairy covering through Sexual Selection, -for ornamental purposes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if it can be shown that the nakedness of his skin <em>is</em> in some -way of advantage to man, this argument falls to the ground. -There are sufficient reasons, I think, for believing that Natural -Selection aided Sexual Selection in divesting man of his hairy coat.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With his usual candour Darwin noticed the evidence which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_487'>487</span>seemed to tell against his view. Mr. Belt, he says, “believes that -within the tropics it is an advantage to man to be destitute of hair, -as he is thus enabled to free himself of the multitude of ticks -(acari) and other parasites with which he is often infested, and -which sometimes cause ulceration.” Darwin doubts, however, -whether this evil is of sufficient magnitude to have led to the -denudation of the body through Natural Selection, “since none of -the many quadrupeds inhabiting the tropics have, as far as I -know, acquired any specialised means of relief.” But as primitive -man’s habits of cleanliness are much inferior to those of animals, -this objection loses its force; and it is, moreover, weakened by the -testimony of Sir W. Denison that “it is said to be a practice with -the Australians, when the vermin get troublesome, to singe themselves.” -We also know that the ancient <a id='corr487.14'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Egyptains'>Egyptians</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_487.14'><ins class='correction' title='Egyptains'>Egyptians</ins></a></span> shaved off their -hair from motives of cleanliness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>However, it is not likely that the superior advantages of cleanliness -and freedom from parasites would alone have sufficed to -produce so great a change in man as the loss of his hair. It is -more probable that the sun was the chief agent in accomplishing -this transformation. I fail to see the force of Darwin’s contention -that the fact that “the other members of the order of Primates, to -which man belongs, although inhabiting various hot regions, are -well clothed with hair, generally thickest on the upper surface, is -opposed to the supposition that man became naked through the -action of the sun.” For these animals commonly live in forests -and on trees, where they are protected from the rays of the sun, -which is not the case with man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Furthermore, Darwin himself mentions some circumstances -which point to the conclusion that the sun is the cause of man’s -nudity. He says, for instance, that “elephants and rhinoceroses -are almost hairless; and as certain extinct species which formerly -lived under an arctic climate were covered with long wool or hair, -it would almost appear as if the existing species of both genera -had lost their hairy covering from exposure to heat. This appears -the more probable as the elephants in India which live on elevated -and cool districts are more hairy than those on the lowlands.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bearing in mind what was said in the chapter on the Complexion -regarding the negro’s skin, there is no difficulty in understanding -why Natural Selection should eliminate the hairy covering -of the skin while favouring a dark complexion. Hair not only -absorbs the sun’s heat, but retains that of the body; hence a hairy -man not living on trees would be very uncomfortable in Africa, -and likely to succumb to the enervating effects of high temperature. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_488'>488</span>The negro’s naked skin, on the other hand, is, as we have seen, -specially devised as a <em>body-cooler</em>. The black pigment protects -the underlying nerves of temperature, while the solar heat absorbed -by this pigment is immediately radiated in the form of perspiration. -Now we can see not only why the negro’s skin is more velvety, -smooth, and hairless than our own, but why its sweat-pores are -larger and more numerous than in our skin.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At a later stage of evolution Sexual Selection probably came in -to aid in this process of denudation. We may infer this, in the -first place, from the analogous case of apes who have denuded and -variously-coloured patches on the head and elsewhere, which they -use for purposes of display, to attract the notice of the opposite -sex; in the second place, from the fact that there are not a few -tribes who pluck out their hairs. “The Fuegians threatened a -young missionary, who was left for a time with them, to strip him -naked, and pluck the hairs from his face and body, yet he was far -from being a hairy man;” and “throughout the world the races -which are almost completely destitute of a beard, dislike hairs on -the face and body, and take pains to eradicate them.” Darwin -also notes some facts which, by analogy, seem to make it probable -that “the long-continued habit of eradicating the hair may have -produced an inherited effect.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the case of the white race we cannot rely so much on the -action of the sun as accounting for the absence of hair, but must -place more especial emphasis on Sexual Selection. We are warranted -in doing this by the consideration that Taste for Beauty is -more developed in the white race, and therefore has more influence -in controlling the choice of a mate. “As the body in woman is -less hairy than in man, and as this character is common to all -races, we may conclude” with Darwin “that it was our female -semi-human ancestors who were first divested of hair,” this -character being then transmitted by the mothers to their children -of both sexes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The two universal traits of Beauty which chiefly guided man in -the preference of a hairless skin were evidently Smoothness and -Colour. One need only compare for a moment the face of a female -chimpanzee, its leathery folded skin and straggling hairs, with the -smooth and rosy complexion of a European damsel, to understand -that, leaving touch out of consideration, sight alone would have -sufficed to give the preference to the hairless skin. But since we -derive less direct advantage than the tropical races from such a -skin, cases of reversion to the hairy type are more common among -us than with them, and our bodies in general are more hairy.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_489'>489</span> - <h3 class='c014'>BEARDS AND MOUSTACHES</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>The elimination of hair from those parts of the body where it is -less beautiful than a nude skin, is only one of the functions of -Sexual Selection. Another equally important function is the preservation -and elongation of the hair in a few places for ornamental -purposes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We know from Eschricht,” says Darwin, “that with mankind -the female as well as the male fœtus is furnished with much hair -on the face, especially round the mouth; and this indicates that -we are descended from progenitors of whom <em>both sexes were bearded</em>. -It appears, therefore, at first sight, probable that man has retained -his beard from a very early period, whilst woman lost her -beard at the same time that her body became almost completely -divested of hair.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A long beard serves, to some extent, to protect the throat, but -a moustache serves no such use, and it seems therefore more probable -that beards as well as moustaches were developed in man for -ornamental purposes, as in many monkeys (see, for some very -curious pictures of bearded monkeys, <cite>Descent of Man</cite>, chap. xviii.) -But why should women have lost their beards while men retained -theirs? Because of the importance of emphasising the secondary -sexual differences between man and woman, on which the degree -of amorous infatuation depends. The tendency of evolution, as we -have seen, has been to make the sexes more and more different in -appearance; and as man chooses his mate chiefly on <em>æsthetic</em> -grounds, he habitually gave the preference to smooth-faced women, -whereas woman’s choice, being largely based on <em>dynamic</em> grounds, -fell on the bearded and moustached men, since a luxurious growth -of hair is commonly a sign of physical vigour. Hence the humiliation -of the young man who cannot raise a moustache, and the -reciprocal horror of the young lady who finds the germs of one on -her lip. Both are instinctively afraid of being “boycotted” by -Cupid, and for ever debarred from the pleasures of mutual Romantic -Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women are quite right in dreading hair in the face as a blemish, -for it is not only objectionable as a masculine trait, but also as a characteristic -of old age, a hairy face being quite a common attribute -of aged females. But with men the case is different. Though -women may still be often influenced in their amorous choice by a -beard, it is not, as just pointed out, on æsthetic grounds; and it -is indeed very dubious if the beard can be accepted as a real personal -<span class='pageno' id='Page_490'>490</span>ornament. True, the ancient Greeks respected a beard as an -attribute of maturity and manhood, but their ideal of <em>supreme</em> -beauty was nevertheless an unbearded youth: Apollo has neither -beard nor moustache. The ancient Egyptians had a horror of the -bearded and long-haired Greeks. “No Egyptian of either sex -would on any account kiss the lips of a Greek,” and whenever the -Egyptians “intended to convey the idea of a man of low condition, -or a slovenly person, the artists represented him with a beard” -(Wilkinson). Similarly, in the second edition of his <cite>Anatomy of -Expression</cite> (1824), Sir Charles Bell wrote that “When those -essays were first written there was not a beard to be seen in -England unless joined with squalor and neglect, and I had the -conviction that this appendage <em>concealed the finest features</em>. Being -in Rome, however, during the procession of the Corpus Domini, I -saw that the expression was not injured by the beard, but that it -added to the dignity and character of years.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>These two sentences contain the whole philosophy of beards. -The expression of character is not injured, but rather increased by -a beard; but if it conceals the fine features of youth it is objectionable. -There are men whose faces are too wide, and whose -appearance is therefore improved by a chin-beard; and there are -others whose faces are too narrow, and who consequently look -better with side-whiskers. But in a well-shaped youthful masculine -face a beard is as great a superfluity, if not a blemish, as in a -woman’s face.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now, since the faces of civilised races are undoubtedly becoming -more beautiful as time advances, it is comforting to know that, -notwithstanding female selection, the beard is gradually disappearing. -Very few men are able to raise a fine beard to-day, even -with the artificial stimulus of several years’ daily shaving; and the -time, no doubt, is not very distant when men will go to the cosmetic -electrician to have their straggling hairbulbs in the chin -killed. This may produce an inherited effect on their children; -and the always smooth-faced mother, too, cannot but exert some -hereditary influence on her sons as well as her daughters. The -women, in turn, will inherit some of the superior æsthetic Taste of -the men, and begin to see that there is more charm in a smooth -than in a bearded face; while there will still be room enough for -those sexual differences in facial Beauty which feed the flame of -Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following newspaper paragraph, though it may be a mere -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>jeu d’esprit</i></span>, is amusing and suggestive: “A Frenchman sent a -circular to all his friends asking why they cultivated a beard. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_491'>491</span>Among the answers 9 stated, ‘Because I wish to avoid shaving’; -12 ‘Because I do not wish to catch cold’; 5 ‘Because I wish to -conceal bad teeth’; ‘Because I wish to conceal the length of my -nose’; 6 ‘Because I am a soldier’; 21 ‘Because I was a soldier’; -65 ‘Because my wife likes it’; 28 ‘Because my love likes it’; 15 -answered that they wore no beards.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Moustaches are much more common to-day than beards, and it -is barely possible that they may escape æsthetic condemnation, and -survive to the millennium. Persons with very short upper lips or -flat noses, it is true, only emphasise their shortcomings by wearing -a moustache; but in broad faces with prominent noses a well-shaped, -not too drooping, moustache is no doubt an ornament, relieving -the gravity of the masculine features and adding to their -expression. As Bell remarks: “Although the hair of the upper -lip does conceal the finer modulations of the mouth, as in woman, -it adds to the character of the stronger and harsher emotions.” -“I was led to attend more particularly to the moustache as a -feature of expression,” he says, “in meeting a handsome young French -soldier coming up a long ascent in the Côte d’Or, and breathing -hard, although with a good-humoured, innocent expression. His -sharp-pointed black moustache rose and fell with a catamount look -that set me to think on the cause.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Young men may find in Bell’s remarks a suggestion as to how they -may make the moustache a permanent ornament of the human race. -The movements of the moustache are dependent on the muscle called -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>depressor alæ nasi</i></span>. By specially cultivating this muscle men -might in course of time make the movements of the moustaches -subject to voluntary control. Just think what a capacity for -emotional expression lies in such a simple organ as the dog’s caudal -appendage, aptly called the “psychographic tail” by Vischer: and -moustaches are double, and therefore equal to two psychographic -appendages!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sexual Selection would not fail to seize on this “new departure” -in moustaches immediately in order to emphasise the sexual differences -of expression in the face, and thus increase the ardour of -romantic passion. A few days ago I came across an attempt in a -German paper to explain the meaning of the word Flirtation. The -writer derives the word from an old expression meaning to toss or -cast about. This he refers to the eyes, and thinks that the proper -translation of Flirtation is <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>äugeln</i></span>, <i>i.e.</i> to “make eyes.” We, of -course, know that flirting is a fine art which includes a vast deal -besides <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>äugeln</i></span>; but “making eyes” is certainly one of its tricks. -Now, is it not probable that by and by, when young men will have -<span class='pageno' id='Page_492'>492</span>properly trained their <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>depressor alæ nasi</i></span>, they will look upon the -making of eyes as a feminine attribute, and, instead of winking at -their sweethearts, express their admiration by some subtle and -graceful movement of the moustaches? This would obliterate -Darwin’s assertion that Love has no special means of expression.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>BALDNESS AND DEPILATORIES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Superficial students of Darwinism are constantly making owlish -predictions that ere many generations will have passed bald heads -will be the normal aspect of man. But, as we have just seen in -the case of beards, it is not utility or Natural Selection so much -as Sexual, Æsthetico-Amorous Selection on which the evolution of -Personal Beauty depends. If Natural Selection were at work alone -we should, indeed, ultimately become bald; for as soon as man -begins to cover his head with a cap or hat, he takes away the chief -function of the hair on the top of the head, where it serves as a -protection against wind and weather. But Sexual Selection now -steps in and says that the hair must remain, because without it the -head looks decidedly ugly, whatever its shape.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Eschricht states that in the human fœtus the hair on the face -during the fifth month is longer than that on the head; and this -indicates that our semi-human progenitors were not furnished with -long tresses, which must therefore have been a late acquisition. -This is likewise indicated by the extraordinary difference in the -length of the hair in the different races: in the negro the hair -forms a mere curly mat; with us it is of great length, and with -the American natives it not rarely reaches to the ground. Some -species of Semnopithecus have their head covered with moderately -long hair, and this probably serves as an ornament, and was acquired -through sexual selection. The same view may perhaps be -extended to mankind, for we know that long tresses are now and -were formerly much admired, as may be observed in the works of -almost every poet; St. Paul says, ‘If a woman have long hair it -is a glory to her;’ and we have seen that in North America a -chief was elected solely from the length of his hair” (Darwin).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inasmuch as Sexual Selection or Love is impeded in its action -not only by pecuniary and social considerations, but by the fact -that it cannot be guided by any particular feature alone, its action -is slow and sometimes uncertain. Hence the increase of bald -heads. It is therefore necessary to supplement the beautifying -results of Sexual Selection by means of hygienic precautions, such -as avoiding air-tight, warm, high hats, badly ventilated rooms, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_493'>493</span>intemperate habits, and other causes of baldness. Hereditary -baldness is difficult to arrest in its course; but even in such cases -much may be accomplished by beginning in childhood to take -proper care of the hair. Most persons—especially men—seem to -imagine that combs and brushes are made solely for the purpose -of arranging the hair in some approved fashion; whereas, if properly -used, a brush adds as much to the <em>sensuous</em> beauty of the -hair as to its <em>formal</em> appearance. To remove all the dust from -the hair, and give it gloss and healthy colour, about fifty daily -strokes, or more even, are recommended. Avoid irritating the -scalp with fine combs or hard bristles, and wash it once or twice -a week with a weak solution of ammonia or borax. Hair that is -properly brushed is always glossy with its natural oil, and needs -no vulgar ointment, offensive to the smell and suggestive of uncleanliness. -If with these hygienic precautions the hair refuses to -become beautiful, it is time to get medical advice; for the dull -colour and dryness of the hair which lead to baldness are often -due to constitutional disease.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Powdering the hair is fortunately no longer in vogue as it was -formerly. It is a most unæsthetic habit, not only because white -or gray hair is naturally suggestive of old age, grief, and decrepitude, -but because the flour forms with the perspiration and with -the oil of the hair a nasty compound. William Pitt “estimated, -in 1795, that the amount of flour annually consumed for this -purpose in the United Kingdom represented the enormous and -incredible value of six million dollars.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is estimated that the average number of hairs on the head -is 120,000. This allows one to look with considerable indifference -on the loss of a few hundred, all the more as in ordinary cases, -even after illness, every hair lost is replaced by another. But -when the papilla at the base of the hair cavity is destroyed, then -baldness is inevitable. It follows from this that the only certain -way of removing hair permanently from places where it is not -desired is to destroy this papilla. “Plucking hair out by the -root” does not destroy it. “If they are pulled out with the -tweezers there is a still greater stimulus given,” says Dr. Bulkley -(<cite>The Skin in Health and Disease</cite>), “and the hairs return yet -more coarse and obtrusive.” The various Oriental and Occidental -pastes for removing the hair have no more permanent effect than -shaving. “Superfluous hairs can be removed either by the introduction -of an irregularly-shaped needle into the follicle (after -the extraction of the hair), which is then twisted so as to break -up the papilla and produce a little inflammation, which closes the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_494'>494</span>follicle; or a needle can be inserted, and a current from a battery -be turned on, when the follicle is destroyed by what is known as -electrolysis. These procedures could be done only by a physician.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning electrolysis Dr. S. E. Woody says in the <cite>American -Practitioner and News</cite> that the number of hairs to return and -demand a second removal will decrease with the skill of the -operator and the thoroughness of the operation. He usually -expects the return of about 5 per cent, but when these are in -turn removed the cure is complete. “You should have the patient -come only on bright days, for good light is necessary.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>ÆSTHETIC VALUE OF HAIR</p> - -<p class='c001'>If not the most beautiful part of the head, hair certainly is the -most beautifying. To improve the shape of mouth, nose, chin, or -eyes requires time and patience, but the arrangement of the hair -can be altered in a minute, not only to its own advantage, but so -as to enhance the beauty of the whole face. By clever manipulation -of her long tresses, a woman can alter her appearance almost -as completely as a man can by shaving off his long beard or -moustache.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But, alas! If the prevalence of the bustle and wasp-waist -allowed any doubt to remain as to the woful rarity of æsthetic -taste among women, it would be found in the arrangement of the -hair and the kind of head-dresses they commonly adopt at the -behest of Fashion. “Because women as a rule do not know what -<em>beauty</em> means,” says Mrs. Haweis (<cite>The Art of Beauty</cite>), “therefore -they catch at whatever presents itself as a novelty.... They do -not pause to consider whether the old fashion became them better—whether -the new one reveals more clearly the slight shrinking -of the jaw, or spoils the pretty colour still blooming in the -cheek.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The latest head-dress foisted on the feminine world by Parisian -Fashion shows most strikingly how Fashion is the Handmaid of -Vulgarity as well as of Ugliness. Heaven knows, the high silk -hats worn by men are bad enough, on hygienic as well as æsthetic -grounds. They promote baldness and destroy all the artistic proportions -of stature, making the head look by one half too high. -But silk hats are a harmless trifle compared with the shapeless -straw-towers, ornamented with bird-corpses, that have been worn -of late by almost all women in countries which slavishly follow -Parisian example. And there is this great difference between -man’s silk hat and woman’s bird-sarcophagus—the former only -<span class='pageno' id='Page_495'>495</span>results in ugliness, the second is also evidence of heartlessness, -and leads to vulgarity. For what is it but vulgarity if women -continue to go to the theatre for two winters with hats which -make it quite impossible for those sitting behind them to see the -scenery and enjoy the play—and all this in spite of innumerable -sarcastic and angry protests in the journals? Is not the first rule -of etiquette and good manners regard for the feelings and pleasures -of others?</p> - -<p class='c001'>What would women say to a man who kept on his tall hat in -a theatre until the ushers threw him out? Would they not all -pronounce him either intoxicated or ineffably vulgar? Would not -Schopenhauer, if he could go to an American theatre to-day, be -justified in saying that women are not only the “unæsthetic sex,” -but also the “ill-bred sex”? And can the women who are so -devoid of courtesy towards the men wonder that masculine gallantry -towards women on street-cars and elsewhere seems to be on the -wane?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although there are no two heads in which the most pleasing -effect is secured by precisely the same arrangement of the hair -and the same style of hat, it may be laid down as a universal rule -that a very high hat or arrangement of the hair is becoming to no -one, for the reason above indicated. Let it be observed, says Mr. -Buskin, “that in spite of all custom, an Englishman instantly -acknowledges, and at first sight, the superiority of the turban to -the hat.” “Guido,” says Mrs. Haweis, “probably felt the -peculiar charm of the turban when he placed one upon the quiet -melancholy head of Beatrice Cenci.” For full and bright young -faces the Tam o’ Shanter is the loveliest of all head-dresses. But -this subject is too large to be discussed in a paragraph. In Mrs. -Haweis’s <cite>Art of Beauty</cite> may be found some elegant illustrations -of head-dresses placed near fashionable monstrosities; and young -ladies would do well to devote an hour a day for a year or two to -the study of some history of costume. Nothing awakens the sense -of Beauty so rapidly as good models and comparisons.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning the arrangement of the hair two more points may -be noted. Is it not about time to do away with the venerable -absurdity of parting the hair? If entire baldness is voted ugly, -why should partial baldness be courted? The hair should be -allowed to remain in its natural direction of growth. It does not -part itself naturally, nor again—and this is a much more important -point—does it grow backward from the forehead. The -Chinese coiffure disfigures <em>every</em> woman who adopts it; and the -habit of combing back the hair tightly from the forehead, moreover, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_496'>496</span>often causes neuralgic headache, the cause of which is unsuspected; -not to speak of the fact that such a coiffure raises the -eyebrows, and thus gives a fixed expression of amazed stupefaction. -The hair naturally falls over the forehead, and fringes it as -beautifully as a grove does a lake.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The ancient Greek notions on this subject are worthy of attentive -consideration. “Women who had a high forehead placed a -band over it, with the design of making it thereby seem lower,” -says Winckelmann. Not only in women but in mature men the -hair was so arranged as to cover up “the receding bare corners -over the temples, which usually enlarge as life advances beyond -that age when the forehead is naturally high.” The modern -fringe or “bang” is, however, an improvement even on the Greek -curve of the hair over the temples. It improves the appearance -of all women except those whose forehead is very low naturally; -but in all cases exaggeration must be avoided.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A writer in the London <cite>Evening Standard</cite> thinks it is strange -that the English, “who have the poorest hair in Europe, make -the least attempt to show what they have,” and that it has now -“come to such a pass that a maiden of twenty thinks it almost -indecent to wear her hair loose.” He traces this to the tyranny -of Fashion—the ugly majority having compelled the beautiful -minority to conceal their charms. But we may be sure that ere -long Beauty will revolt against Fashion. It will be another French -revolution, practically,—an emphatic protest against Parisian -dictation and vulgarity.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>BRUNETTE AND BLONDE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c021'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“In the old time black was not counted fair,</div> - <div class='line'>Or if it were it bore not beauty’s name;</div> - <div class='line'><em>But now is black beauty’s successive heir</em>.”—<span class='sc'>Shakspere.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>BLONDE <i>VERSUS</i> BRUNETTE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Becker tells us that among the ancient Greeks “black was -probably the prevailing colour of the hair, though blond is -frequently mentioned”; and he adds that both men and women -used dyes, and “the blond or yellow hair was much admired.” -Mr. Gladstone, in his work on Homer, remarks that “dark hair is -a note of the foreigner and of Southern extraction.... I have -been assured that, in the Greece of to-day, light hair is still held -as indicating the purest Hellenic blood.” According to Winckelmann, -“Homer does not even once mention hair of a black colour”; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_497'>497</span>and again: "Flaxen, ξανθὴ hair has always been considered the -most beautiful; and hair of this colour has been attributed to the -most beautiful of the gods, as Apollo and Bacchus, not less than -to the heroes; even Alexander had flaxen hair."</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the Romans agreed with the Greeks in giving the preference -to light hair seems probable from the extensive importations -of yellow German hair for the Roman ladies, as also from the fact -that “Lucretius, when speaking of the false flatteries addressed to -women, quotes one in illustration, namely, that a maiden with -black hair is μελίχροος (honey-coloured)—thus ascribing to her a -beauty which she does not possess.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>When the fair-haired Teuton overran the South a new motive -for preferring blond hair arose, as a writer in the London <cite>Standard</cite> -remarks: “Whatever the feeling of the men, we may be sure that -the dark beauties of those climes felt a natural inclination to -resemble the wives and daughters of the conqueror, and when we -perceive their likenesses again, at the revival of art in Italy, not a -black tress is to be seen. Is there a single Madonna not blond?—or -ten portraits of women by the great masters? In all the -gallery of Titian, we think only of a figure, naked to the waist, in -the Uffizi, described as one of his mistresses.... But we know -that the blond tint was artificial in a majority of cases—the deep -black of eye and brow would show it if no evidence were forthcoming. -But evidence turns up at every side ... a hundred -recipes are found in memoirs, correspondence, and treatises of the -time.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hear another witness: “Southern Europe,” says Mr. R. G. -White, “is peopled with dark-skinned, dark-haired races, and the -superior beauty of the blond type was recognised by the painters, -who always, from the earliest days, represented angels as of that -type. The Devil was painted black so much as a matter of course -that his pictured appearance gave rise to a well-known proverb; -ordinary mortals were represented as more or less dark; celestial -people were white and golden-haired: whence the epithet ‘divinely -fair.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>And the poets were quite as partial as the artists to the light -type. Petrarch’s sonnets are addressed to a blue-eyed Laura. -Krimhild of the <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Nibelungenlied</cite></span> is blue-eyed, like Fricka, the -Northern Juno, and Ingeborg of the <cite>Frithjof’s Saga</cite>, and the -Danish princess Iolanthe, as Dr. Magnus points out; and in the -French folk-songs “the girls are almost as invariably blond as in -the songs of Heine,” as a writer in the <cite>Saturday Review</cite> (1878) -remarks, adding that “there is even such an expression as <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>aller en -<span class='pageno' id='Page_498'>498</span>blonde</i></span>, ‘to go a-wooing,’ which proves the universality of the -belief in fair beauties.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning England, a writer in the <cite>Quarterly Review</cite> declares -that Shakspere mentions black hair only twice throughout his -plays; and that in the National Gallery of that date (1853) there -was not a single female head with black hair.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>BRUNETTE <i>VERSUS</i> BLONDE</h3> - -<p class='c013'>Thus we have evidence showing that during the epoch preceding -the general prevalence of Romantic Love, the blond type was considered -the ideal of beauty throughout Europe—in Greece and -Italy as well as in Germany, Scandinavia, France, and England. -And where the hair was not naturally blond, artificial means were -used to make it so.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But as soon as Love appears on the scene and sharpens the -æsthetic sense, we find a reaction in favour of brunettes. There -can be no doubt of this, for it is attested not only by personal -opinions and observations, but by accurate statistics. The -<cite>Quarterly Review</cite> just referred to believed that blondes were -gradually decreasing in England, and the <cite>Saturday Review</cite> asserts -that “some years ago Mr. Gladstone, whom nothing escapes, -declared that light-haired people were far less numerous than in -his youth. Many middle-aged persons will probably agree with -him.” “The time was,” the writer adds, “when the black-haired, -black-eyed girl of fiction was as dark of soul as of tresses, while -the blue-eyed maiden’s character was of ‘heaven’s own colour.’ -Thackeray damaged this tradition by invariably making his dark -heroines nice, his fair heroines treacherous sirens.” Byron, we -may add, also showed a passionate preference for brunettes; and -does not another great love-poet, Moore, speak of “eyes of unholy -blue”?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Speaking of the Germans, the anthropologist Waitz remarks -that “the blond and red hair, the blue eyes and light complexion, -which most of them had at the period of the Roman wars, have -not disappeared, it is true, but certainly diminished greatly in -frequency. In Jarrold we find the analogous statement that as -late as the time of Henry VIII. red hair predominated in England, -and that at the beginning of the fifteenth century gray eyes were -more common, dark eyes and dark hair less common, than now.” -As this change is correlated in both these countries with a gradual -refinement of the features, does it not indicate that modern -æsthetico-amorous selection favours the brunette type?</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_499'>499</span>Waitz’s assertion regarding the gradual decrease in the number -of blondes in Germany is strikingly confirmed by the results of a -series of statistical investigations undertaken under the supervision -of Professor Virchow. Almost eleven million school children were -examined in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium, and the -results showed that Switzerland has only 11·10, Austria 19·79, -and Germany 31·80 per cent of pure blondes. Thus the very -country which, since the days of ancient Rome has been proverbially -known as the home of yellow hair and blue eyes, has to-day -only 32 pure blondes in a hundred; while the average of pure -brunettes is already 14·05 per cent (and in some regions as high as -25 per cent). The 53·15 per cent of the mixed type are evidently -being slowly transformed into pure brunettes, thanks to intermarriages -with the neighbours who are of the dark variety east and -west, as well as south of Germany.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In England Dr. Beddoe has collected a number of statistics -which also bear out the theory that brunettes are gaining on -blondes. Among 726 women examined he found 369 brunettes -and 357 blondes. Of the brunettes he found that 78·5 per cent -were married, while of the blondes only 68 per cent were married. -Thus it would seem that a brunette has ten chances of getting -married in England to a blonde’s nine. Hence Dr. Beddoe reasons -that the English are becoming darker because the men persist in -selecting the darker-haired women as wives.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In France a similar view has been put forth by M. Adolphe de -Candolle in the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Archives des Sciences</cite></span>. He found that when both -parents have eyes of the same colour 88·4 per cent inherit this -colour. "But the curious fact comes out that more females than -males have black or brown eyes, in the proportion, say, of 49 to 45 -or of 41 to 39. Next, it appears that with different coloured -eyes in the two parents, 53·09 per cent of the progeny followed -the fathers in being dark-eyed, and 55·09 per cent followed their -mothers in being dark-eyed. An increase of 5 per cent of dark-eyed -in each generation of discolorous unions must tell heavily in -the course of time. It would seem," adds <cite>Science</cite>, to which I owe -this summary of De Candolle’s views, “that, unless specially bred -by concolorous marriages, blue-eyed belles will be scarce in the -millennium.”</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>WHY CUPID FAVOURS BRUNETTES</h3> - -<p class='c013'>How are we to account for this undeniable change in favour of -brunettes? Is it merely a matter of Taste and Fashion? Are we -simply going through a period of brunette-worship which in turn -<span class='pageno' id='Page_500'>500</span>will be followed by a century or two of blonde-worship, and so on -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ad infinitum</i></span>? or are there reasons for believing that Cupid will -abide by his present decision, and continue to eliminate blondes? -There are several such reasons, which may best be discussed separately, -under the heads of Complexion, Hair, and Eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(1) <em>Complexion.</em>—The dark skin is more soft and velvety than -the light skin, and therefore more agreeable to the touch; hence, -as Winckelmann remarks, “he who prefers dark to fair beauty is -not on that account to be censured; indeed, one might approve his -choice, if he is attracted less by sight than by the touch.” But -the eye, too, is likely to be more pleased by a brunette than a pure -blond complexion. In the dark skin the pigmentary matter tones -down the too vivid red of the translucent blood, wherefore the -brunette complexion appears more mellow and delicate in its tints -than the Scandinavian blonde, in which a blush suggests a hectic -flush, and its normal whiteness the pallor of ill-health or a lack of -invigorating and beautifying sunshine.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The brunette complexion, in a word, suggests to the mind the -idea of <em>stored-up sunshine</em>, i.e. <em>Health</em>; and as Health is what -primarily attracts Cupid, this, combined with his taste for delicate -tints and veiled blushes, partly accounts for his preference of the -dark type. Youthful freshness is another bait which tempts -Cupid; and it is well known that the dark complexion does not, -as a rule, fade so soon as the blond.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the brownish skin is commonly healthier than the white -is also shown by its being less subject to the irregularity in the -secretion of pigmentary matter which causes freckles. These -blemishes, like smallpox marks, are much rarer among the dark -than among blond races and individuals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The skin of blondes who are exposed to a hot sun and raw -weather becomes red, inflamed, and decidedly unbeautiful, while a -brunette’s complexion only becomes a shade darker, and possibly -all the more attractive. This suggests another reason why the -brunettes have an advantage over blondes in the country, where -love-making is chiefly carried on in summer. Yet it will not do -for the blondes to avoid the sunshine on this account, for that will -make them anæmic and prematurely old.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is a class of extreme blondes to whom sunlight is not -only irritating, but positively painful. They are called albinos, -because there is no brown pigment whatever in any part of their -body—skin, hair, or iris. The Dutch call them Kakerlaken or -cockroaches, because, like these animals, they avoid the light. -Such anomalous individuals occur also among animals; and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_501'>501</span>Darwin has noted regarding birds that albinos do not pair, -apparently because they are rejected by their normally-coloured -comrades. This fact has a remote bearing on our argument, for -blondes are intermediate between albinos and brunettes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It would appear, indeed, as if not only the complexion but the -general constitution of the dark type were superior to that of the -blond type. In the chapter on the Complexion it was stated that -a dark hue is regarded in Australia and elsewhere as evidence of -superior strength. The ancient Greeks, Winckelmann tells us, -although they called the young with fair complexions “children of -the gods,” looked upon a brown complexion in boys as an indication -of courage. Professor Topinard states that “the fair races -are especially adapted to temperate and cool regions, and the -South is looked upon as almost forbidden ground. The brown -races, on the contrary, have a remarkable power of becoming -acclimatised.” Several writers have even endeavoured to account -for the gradual increase in the proportion of brunettes by connecting -it with the modern tendency towards centralisation of the -population in large cities, where the blondes, being unable to -resist their unsanitary surroundings, are eliminated, while the -more vigorous and fertile brunettes survive and multiply.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One reason why tourists are more impressed by the prevalence -of beauty in southern than in northern regions, is because the -working classes are more beautiful in the South than in the -North; and the working classes, of course, constitute the vast -majority of the population everywhere. “In northern countries,” -says Mr. Lecky, “the prevailing cast of beauty depends rather on -colour than on form. It consists chiefly of a freshness and -delicacy of complexion which severe labour and constant exposure -necessarily destroy, and which is therefore rarely found in the -highest perfection among the very poor. But the southern type -is essentially democratic. The fierce rays of the sun only mellow -and mature its charms. Its most perfect examples may be found in -the hovel as in the palace, and the effects of this diffusion of beauty -may be traced both in the manners and the morals of the people.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another advantage to the study and development of Personal -Beauty lies in the fact, noted by Ruskin, “that in climates where -the body can be more openly and frequently visited by sun and -weather, the nude both comes to be regarded in a way more -grand and pure, as not of necessity awakening ideas of base kind -(as pre-eminently with the Greeks), and also from that exposure -receives a firmness and sunny elasticity very different from the -silky softness of the clothed nations of the North.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_502'>502</span>(2) <em>Hair.</em>—"That noble beauty," says Winckelmann, “which -consists not merely in a soft skin, a brilliant complexion, wanton or -languishing eyes, but in the shape or form, is found more frequently -in countries which enjoy a uniform mildness of climate.” “This -difference shows itself even in the hair of the head and of the -beard, and both in warm climates have a more beautiful growth -even from childhood, so that the greater number of children in -Italy are born with fine curling hair, which loses none of its -beauty with increasing years. All the beards, also, are curly, -ample, and finely shaped; whereas those of the pilgrims who come -to Rome from the other side of the Alps are generally, like the -hair of their heads, stiff, bristly, straight, and pointed.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevertheless, the hair is the blonde’s one feature in which, so -far as the head itself is concerned, she may dispute the supremacy -with the brunette. Light hair is finer than dark hair, and there -is more of it to the square inch; and as for the colour, who will -say that a girl with “golden locks which make such wanton -gambols” is inferior in beauty to one who is “robed in the long -night of her deep hair”?</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if the positive tests of Beauty—Colour, Lustre, Smoothness, -Delicacy, etc.—do not permit us to give the preference to -dark hair, it is otherwise when we come to the negative tests. A -fine head of blond hair <em>may</em> be as beautiful as a head of brown -hair, but it is not so apt to be beautiful; it has a tendency to -become “stiff, bristly, straight, and pointed.” There are various -reasons for believing that light hair as a rule is not so healthy, -not so well-nourished, as dark hair. Every reader must have -noticed among his friends that the blondes are much more likely -than the brunettes to complain of dry and refractory hairs, and -difficulty in keeping them in shape.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The end of long hair is usually lighter in colour than its -beginning,” as Professor Kollmann remarks: “at a distance from -the skin the hairs lose their natural oil as well as the nourishing -sap which comes from their roots.” This implies that the colour -of the hair becomes darker with increasing vigour and vitality. -We have seen that the same is true of the colour of animals in -general, the healthiest being the most vividly coloured, and the -males commonly darker than the less vigorous females; and as -for plants, who has not noticed how easy it is to trace the course -of an invisible brooklet in a meadow, not only by the greater -luxuriance, but the much darker colour of the grass which lines its -banks?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Once more, we know that old age, great sorrow, terror, headaches, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_503'>503</span>or insanity, diminish the pigmentary matter in the hair and -make it lighter—gray or white; and that by frequently brushing -blond hair we not only make it more glossy and shapely, but at -the same time darker.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Red hair is probably an abnormal variety of blond hair, since -it does not occur among the darker races. It is disliked not only -because it is so often associated with freckles, but because it is -commonly dry, coarse, and bristly. The Brahmins were forbidden -to marry a red-haired woman; and the populace of most countries, -confounding moral with æsthetic impressions, accuses red-haired -people of various shortcomings. “Sandy hair, when well brushed -and kept glossy with the natural oil of the scalp, changes to a -warm golden tinge. I have seen,” says the author of the <cite>Ugly -Girl Papers</cite>, “a most obnoxious head of colour so changed by a -few years’ care that it became the admiration of the owner’s -friends, and could hardly be recognised as the withered, fiery locks -once worn.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>An American newspaper paragraph, for the truthfulness of -which I cannot vouch, recently stated that twenty-one men in -Cincinnati, who had married red-haired women, were found to be -colour-blind. A person who is colour-blind mistakes red for -black.</p> - -<p class='c001'>(3) <em>Eyes.</em>—But it is when we leave the scalp that the -superiority of dark over light hair becomes most manifest. That -black eyelashes and eyebrows are infinitely more beautiful than -light-coloured ones, is admitted without a dissentient voice; and -it is needless to add that brunettes, whether gray or black-eyed, -are almost certain to have dark eyelashes, while blondes are -almost certain not to have them. Hence the painting of light -eyelashes has been a common artifice among all nations and at -all times; and Mrs. Haweis goes so far as to sanction the use of -nasty gray hair powder because it “makes the eyebrows and eyelashes -appear much darker than they really are.” I have, however, -seen black eyelashes on several young ladies who could -hardly be classed as brunettes, and who assured me on their -conscience that they had not dyed them. Can it be possible that -Sexual Selection (<i>i.e.</i> the æsthetic overtone in Romantic Love) is -endeavouring to evolve a type of Beauty in which golden locks -will be allowed to remain, while the eyelashes will be changed to -black? The only objection to this surmise is that the hair in -other parts of the face (chin and upper lip), though rarely of the -same colour as that on the scalp, is almost always lighter in hue. -But, whether or not Love can accomplish the miracle of making -<span class='pageno' id='Page_504'>504</span>black lashes universal, the fact remains that they are in all cases -a thousand times more charming than yellow or red lashes, and -also more apt to be long and delicately curved, coyly veiling the -mysterious lustre and fire of the iris.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning the iris, in turn, it cannot be denied that it is most -beautiful when black (dark brown), or so deeply blue or violet as -to be easily taken for black. This superiority of the dark hue is -due partly to the fact that a brown eye is commonly more lustrous -than a light eye, and partly to the law of contrast; for a light-coloured -iris obviously does not present such a vivid contrast to -the white of the eye as a brown iris, and is therefore apt to seem -vague, watery, and superficial in expression. The light blue or -gray eye appears shallow. All its beauty seems to be on the -surface, whereas the “soul-deep eyes of darkest night” appear -unfathomable through their bewitching glamour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What is the etymology of the word bella donna? Was it -given to the plant on account of the beauty of its cherry-like -berries? or was it not rather chosen by some poet who noted the -wondrous effect of these poisonous berries in changing all eyes -into black eyes by enlarging the pupils, thus making every donna -a bella donna, or “beautiful lady”? Great, indeed, must be the -fascination of a large pupil, since so many women have braved -the danger to health, and the certainty of impairment of vision, -which follow the use of this poison as a cosmetic.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was noted in an earlier part of this volume that young men -are led to propose chiefly in the evening, because the twilight -enlarges the pupil, thus not only beautifying <em>her</em> eyes, but enabling -him to see <em>his own</em> divine image reflected in them, proving his -Monopoly of her soul. A brunette’s dark eyes on such an occasion -appear to be <em>all</em> pupil: how, then, can you wonder that -brunettes are gaining on blondes?</p> - -<p class='c001'>However, let not the blondes despair. As they become -scarcer they will for that very reason be valued the more as -curiosities, and the last of them, should she fail to find a husband, -will be able to command a handsome salary in a museum or as a -comic opera singer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Moreover, there is no reason why physiologists should not ere -long discover the secret of changing the tint of the skin, hair, and -iris to suit one’s taste. All children are born with light eyes, but -a great many exchange them for dark eyes as soon as they realise -their mistake. We also know that ill-health temporarily changes -the colour of the hair. According to the <cite>Popular Science Monthly</cite>, -“Prentiss records a case of a patient to whom muriate of pilocarpine -<span class='pageno' id='Page_505'>505</span>was administered hypodermically, and whose hair was -changed from light blond to nearly jet black, and his eyes from -light blue to dark blue.” The eating of sorghum is also said to -favour the evolution of a brunette colour. But it is to the electricians -that we must look for a harmless and efficient method of -stimulating the secretion of pigmentary matter in the iris, skin, -and hair. The man who first discovers how to change blondes -to brunettes will acquire a fame as great as Newton’s or Shakspere’s, -and when he dies Cupid will appoint him his private -secretary.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“John,” we can hear a woman say to her husband twenty -years hence—"John, Laura is now five years old. Don’t you -think it is time to send her over to Dr. Electrode? I don’t object -to her yellow hair, but I do think her complexion, iris, and -eyelashes should be made several shades darker. She will -then stand a better chance in the marriage-market when she -gets older."</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>NATIONALITY AND BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Beauty, like Love, has its national peculiarities, based on -climate, customs, traditions, mental and physical. As the description -of all these differences between the various peoples in -the world would require several volumes the size of this, it -cannot, of course, be attempted here even roughly. Nor is this -necessary, for most of these national peculiarities are variations -which have more ethnologic than æsthetic interest. Many of -them have been considered in the preceding pages to illustrate the -Evolution of Personal Beauty; and something has been said -episodically regarding Greek, Hebrew, Georgian, and Mediæval -Beauty. Polish women are famous for their beauty, but as I have -never been in Poland nor in Russia, I do not feel competent to -pronounce judgment on the common verdict, and will therefore -limit my observations to the six nations whose Love-customs I -have endeavoured to describe. And even in these cases I cannot -claim that the following remarks have any greater value than -such as attaches to mere casual jottings. In most European -countries the nations are as wildly mixed as in the United States, -though less recently; and it is therefore extremely difficult to -draw any general conclusions, as is shown by the conflicting -opinions of tourists. Moreover, each nation is variously subdivided, -so that some things are, <i>e.g.</i> true of North Germany -which are not true of South Germany, and so in other countries. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_506'>506</span>Yet there are a few points on which travellers commonly agree, -and these will be briefly considered here. The highest beauty is -pretty much the same the world over—in Japan as in France; -and even among the savages of Africa young girls are to be found -who, but for their colour, would be pronounced beauties in -Europe. Most nations are on their way towards this highest type -of Beauty, and they occupy different stages of evolution according -to their attitude and advantages regarding the four principal -sources of Personal Beauty—Hygienic Habits, Mixture of Nationalities, -Romantic Love, and Mental Refinement.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>FRENCH BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Widely as tourists commonly differ in their opinions as to the -prevalence of Beauty in various countries, on one point there -seems to be a universal agreement—viz. that nowhere in Europe -is it so rare as in France. Thackeray notes that nature has -“rather stinted the bodies and limbs of the French nation.” -Walker, in his work on Beauty, remarks that “the women of -France are among the ugliest in the world”; and Sir Lepel Griffin -puts the truth pointedly in these words: <a id='corr506.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='National'>“National</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_506.19'><ins class='correction' title='National'>“National</ins></a></span> vanity, where -inordinately developed, may take the form of asserting that black -is white, as in France, where the average of good looks, among -both men and women, is perhaps lower than elsewhere in Europe. -If a pretty woman be seen in the streets of Paris, she is almost -certainly English or American; yet if a foreigner were to form an -estimate of French beauty from the rapturous descriptions of contemporary -French novels, or from the sketches of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>La Vie -Parisienne</cite></span>, he must conclude that the Frenchwoman was the -purest and loveliest type in the world in face and figure. -The fiction in this case disguises itself in no semblance of the -truth.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet there have been French writers who felt the shortcomings -of their nation in regard to Personal Beauty. One of them says -that you find in the Frenchman “the love of the graceful rather -than the beautiful”; and in the following characterisation of his -countrywomen, by M. Figuier, it is easy to see that he lays -much more emphasis on their grace and the expressiveness of -their features than on their Beauty proper: “There is in her face -much that is most pleasing, although we can assign her physiognomy -to no determinate type. Her features, <em>frequently irregular</em>, -seem to be borrowed from different races; they do not possess -<span class='pageno' id='Page_507'>507</span>that unity which springs from calm and majesty, but are in the -highest degree expressive, and marvellously contrived for conveying -every shade of feeling. In them we see a smile though it be -shaded by tears; a caress though they threaten us; and an -appeal when yet they command. Amid <em>the irregularity of this -physiognomy</em> the soul displays its workings. As a rule the -Frenchwoman is short of stature, but in every proportion of her -form combines grace and delicacy. Her extremities and joints -are fine and elegant, of perfect model and distinct form, without a -suspicion of coarseness. With her, moreover, art is brought -wonderfully to assist nature” (<cite>The Races of Man</cite>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>It appears, indeed, as if Frenchwomen, who are naturally -bright and quickwitted, endeavoured to make up in grace what -they lack in beauty. Hence nothing is more common than -Frenchwomen who are so fascinating with their graceful little -ways and movements that one almost or quite forgets their -homeliness. No French girl ever needs to be taught how to use -her eyes to best advantage; and, as a clever newspaper writer has -remarked, French girls “can say more with their shoulders than -most girls can with their eyes; and when they talk with eyes, -hands, shoulders, and tongue at once, it takes a man of talent to -keep up.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of course it would be absurd to say that no specimens of -supreme Beauty are to be found in France; but they are scarce as -strawberries in December. The general tendency of women to -become either too stout or too lean after they have got out of -their teens, is apparently more pronounced in France than elsewhere -in Europe. And as for the men, they can be recognised -anywhere, either by their almost simian hairiness or their puny -appearance. What a difference in stature and general manly -aspect between a regiment of French and one of English or -German soldiers! And the superiority of the English soldiers -to the French in vigour and beauty is more than “skin-deep”; it -appears to extend to the very chemical composition of their -tissues; for Professor Topinard remarks in his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Anthropologie</cite></span> that -he enunciated more than twenty years ago “a fact which was -more or less confirmed by others, namely, that the mortality -after capital operations in English hospitals was less by one-half -than in the French. We attributed it to a better diet, to their -better sanitary arrangements, and to their superior management. -There was but one serious objection offered to our statement. M. -Velapeau, with his wonderful acumen, made reply, at the Academy -of Medicine, that the flesh of the English and of the French -<span class='pageno' id='Page_508'>508</span>differed; in other words, that the reaction after operations was -not the same in both races. It is, in effect, an anthropological -character.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus the “wonderful acumen” of two French scientists has -established the fact that French deterioration is shown not only in -a surprisingly low birth-rate, but in the general inferiority of the -French constitution: for the ability to resist the effects of wounds -or illness is evidence of a sound constitution.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the chief cause of French ugliness, degeneration, and infertility -lies in their contemptuous treatment of Romantic Love, -must be apparent to any one after reading the preceding chapter -on French Love. French parents may point triumphantly to cases -of genuine Conjugal attachment in their sons and daughters, whose -marriages were based on social or pecuniary considerations. But -they forget the <em>grandchildren</em>. It is they who suffer from these -ill-assorted, fortuitous unions. Only the children of Love are -beautiful and destined to multiply.</p> - -<p class='c001'>French indifference to the claims of Love also explains why -another leading source of Beauty—the mixture of races—is inoperative -in their country. The French are a very mixed nation. -In the North, says Dr. Topinard, “we find the descendants of the -Belgæ, the Walloons, and other Kymri; in the East, those of -Germans and Burgundians; in the West, Normans; in the centre, -Celts, who at the same epoch at which their name took its origin -consisted of foreigners of various origins and of the aborigines; in -the South, ancient Aquitanians and Basques; without mentioning -a host of settlers like the Saracens, who are found here and there, -Tectosages, who have left at Toulouse the custom of cranial deformities, -and the traders who passed through the Phocæan town -of Marseilles.” But the advantages which might result to Personal -Beauty from such a mixture of peoples are neutralised through the -universality of money-marriages, notwithstanding that these must -in some cases bring together the descendants of different races. -For a mixture of races is not necessarily and always an advantage, -but only when it enables a lover to profit by the greater physiognomic -variety in finding a mate whose qualities will blend harmoniously -with his own.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the case of a third primal source of Beauty—Mental Culture—we -find again that its action is impeded through the anomalous -position of Love in France. Inasmuch as adulterous love-making -is the only kind of Love-making sanctioned by French custom and -described in French literature, it is necessary to withhold most -books and periodicals from the young of both sexes, who are thus -<span class='pageno' id='Page_509'>509</span>compelled to grow up in ignorance. “The burden of ignorance -presses sorely upon her,” says M. Figuier of the Frenchwoman: -“It is a rare thing for a woman of the people to read, as only -those of the higher classes have leisure, during their girlhood, to -cultivate their minds. And yet even they must not give themselves -up too much to study, nor aspire to honour or distinction. -The epithet <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>bas bleu</i></span> (‘blue-stocking’) would soon bring them -back to the common crowd—<em>an ignorant and frivolous feminine -mass</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Note that this is the confession of a patriotic Frenchman. -The fact that there have been a few brilliant Frenchwomen, -famous for their <em>salons</em>, has created the impression that most -Frenchwomen are brilliant, whereas the majority appear to be -utterly without intellectual interests or ambition. Nor could this -possibly be otherwise, considering the extremely superficial education -which even the most favoured receive in the nuns’ schools. -And not a few of them bring home from these schools something -worse than ignorance, viz. the constitution and habits of an invalid. -Not only the girls, even the boys in French schools are never -allowed to play without supervision. Healthy romping is considered -undignified in young girls, and when they get a little older -the high-heeled, pointed shoes prescribed by Fashion take away -any desire they may feel to indulge in beautifying exercise. Uncomfortable -shoes and clothing, combined with the necessity of -having a chaperon, even to simply cross the street, prevent French -girls from indulging in those long walks to which English girls -owe their fine physique. Nor do the French show such a devotion -to the bath-tub and other details of Personal Hygiene as their -neighbours across the channel.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we see that the French, thanks to their conservative, -Oriental customs, are placed at a disadvantage as regards every -one of the four main sources of Beauty—Romantic Love, Mixture -of Races, Mental Culture, and Hygiene. And it is not only -Personal Beauty that suffers. A writer in <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>La Réforme Sociale</cite></span> -complains that “family feeling is dying out, the moral sense -is growing weaker ... the country is falling into a state of -anæmia.” And another writer in the same periodical, after noting -the alarming fact that although France has gained eight million -inhabitants since 1805, the number of births is no larger than it -was then, calls upon those interested in these symptoms of national -decay to investigate the local causes of it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But it is needless to look for “local causes.” The disease is -a national one, and calls for constitutional treatment. Let the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_510'>510</span>French, in the first place, instead of locking up their girls till -they are ready to be sold to a rich <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>roué</i></span>, initiate them into the -arts of Anglo-American Courtship, and then allow Romantic Love -to take the place of money as a matchmaker. That the effect of -such a change would be miraculous may be inferred from the fact -that the products of a few generations of American love-making—French -girls in Canada and the United States—are vastly superior -in Beauty and Health to their transatlantic cousins.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the second place, the French must give up the notion that -disease is aristocratic. “In almost all countries,” says M. About, -“there exists a class distinguished from the masses as the aristocracy. -In this social miscellany the women have small white -hands, because they wear gloves and do not work; a pale complexion, -because they are never exposed to the sun; a sickly -appearance and thin features, because they spend the four months -of the winter at balls. Hence it follows that ‘distinction’ consists -in a faded complexion, sickly appearance, a pair of white -hands, and thin features. The Madonnas of Raphael are not -‘<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>distingué</i></span>,’ and the Venus of Milo also is very deficient in that -quality.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>After they have ceased to ridicule Love and to worship Disease, -it will be in order for the French to cultivate their æsthetic Taste. -That of all European men Frenchmen show the worst taste in -dressing is commonly admitted; but the preposterous superstition -that French<em>women</em> have a special instinct for dressing tastefully is -so firmly rooted in the mind of women elsewhere, that nothing -short of a miracle would be able to eradicate it. The reason why -the roots of this superstition are so deep is this: Frenchwomen -rarely have any great beauty of figure or features. Hence they -devote all their time to devising means for hiding their formal -defects and distracting the attention of men by some novelty or -eccentricity of apparel. In America and Germany, where the -majority of the women are also ugly, these tricks are eagerly -copied; and the pretty girls are compelled to yield to the tyranny -of the majority, as has been fully explained in the chapter on the -Fashion Fetish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Englishwomen have, to a large extent, emancipated themselves -from Parisian Fashion Tyranny, aided by the protests of the men -against self-inflicted ugliness. And it is one of the healthiest signs -of the times that in America, too, the men are beginning to break -the ice of gallant timidity, and telling the women plainly what -they think of their hideous Parisian fashions. Not long ago an -intelligent woman wrote to the Boston <cite>Transcript</cite>, asking: “Why -<span class='pageno' id='Page_511'>511</span>will not the press, instead of growling and snarling at <em>the poor -women who cannot help themselves</em>,” ask the theatre managers to -compel the women to take off their high hats, which, she admits, -ninety-nine in a hundred women consider a nuisance? Yet they -“cannot help themselves!” The poor women! What a terrible -slavery! the pretty women of America <em>compelled</em> to adopt the -fashions originated by the ugliest women of Europe in order to -hide their defects!</p> - -<p class='c001'>If American women must have models, let them go to Spain or -Italy for them, especially in the matter of headdresses. Of the -Spanish mantilla, which can be adapted to the style of every face, -Prosper Mérimée says that “it makes ugly women pretty, and -pretty ones enchanting.” And a German lady on her way to -Spain bought on her way, as a matter of course, the latest Parisian -hat. “But when I arrived in Madrid,” she writes, “my genuine -Parisian hat seemed of such apelike ugliness that I felt actually -ashamed to wear it. For my taste had been corrected and improved -at sight of the first mantilla I saw; and I am convinced -that a large majority of German women and girls possess quite as -much sense of beauty as I, and will therefore prefer the Spanish -mantilla to any hat made by the most noted <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>modiste</i></span> in Europe.”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>ITALIAN BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Although differences in form, complexion, and physiognomy are -to be noted in different parts of France, they are less pronounced -than in Italy, concerning which it is therefore more difficult to -make general statements. “The barbarian invasions in the north, -and the contact with Greeks and Africans in the south,” says -M. Figuier, “have wrought much alteration in the primitive type -of the inhabitants of Italy. Except in Rome and the Roman -Campagna, the true type of the primitive Latin population is -hardly to be found. The Grecian type exists in the South, and -upon the eastern slope of the Apennines, while in the North the -great majority of faces are Gallic. In Tuscany and the neighbouring -regions are found the descendants of the ancient Etruscans.... -The mixture of African blood has changed the organic type -of the Southern Italian to such an extent as to render him entirely -distinct from his Northern compatriots, the exciting influence which -the climate has over the senses imparting to his whole conduct a -peculiar exuberance.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In their estimate of Italian Beauty tourists differ widely. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_512'>512</span>raptures and ecstasies of some writers are explained by others as -due to the æsthetic intoxication produced by sudden contact with -a new type; and they claim that a few years’ residence suffices to -dispel these illusions. On the judgment of the Italians themselves -it is not safe to rely, for that is tinged too much by local patriotism, -the Milanese claiming the pre-eminence in Beauty for themselves, -while the Venetians, Florentines, Romans, and Neapolitans blow -their own horns respectively. Professor Mantegazza thinks that -the men are handsomer in Italy than the women, of whom he -allows only about ten per cent to have any claims to real Beauty. -Sir Charles Bell notes that “Raphael, in painting the head of -Galatea, found no beauty deserving to be his model; he is reported -to have said that there is nothing so rare as perfect beauty in -woman; and that he substituted for nature a certain idea inspired -by his fancy.” Montaigne, who travelled in Italy in the latter -part of the sixteenth century, expressed his surprise at the rarity of -beauty in women and girls, who at that time were kept in more -than French seclusion. A German author, Dr. J. Volkmann, -wrote in 1770 that “there are few beautiful women in Rome, -especially among the higher classes; in Venice and Naples more -are to be seen. The Italian himself has a proverb which says that -Roman women are not beautiful” (quoted by Ploss).</p> - -<p class='c001'>Byron, in one of his letters, gives a glowing description of an -Italian beauty of the Oriental type whom he met, and then adds: -“Whether being in love with her has steeled me or not, I do not -know; but I have not seen many other women who seem pretty. -The nobility, in particular, are a sad-looking race—the gentry -rather better.” In another place he writes that “the general race -of women appear to be handsome; but in Italy, as on almost all -the Continent, the highest orders are by no means a well-looking -generation.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet was it not Byron who wrote of Italy that it is “the garden -of the world,” and that its “very weeds are beautiful”? And does -not this apply to the race as well as the soil? It is because they -constantly live in a garden, in the balmy air and mellowing sunshine, -that Italians can to a certain extent defy the laws of personal -Hygiene, and flourish under conditions which would torture us to -death. Miss Margaret Collier remarks, in <cite>Our Home by the -Adriatic</cite>, that in the rural communities, even among the well-to-do, -to ask for a bath is to create alarm as to the state of your health. -And Berlioz speaks somewhere of Italian peasant-girls “carrying -heavy copper vessels and faggots on their heads; but all so wretched, -go miserable, so tattered, so filthily dirty, that, <em>in spite of the beauty -<span class='pageno' id='Page_513'>513</span>of the race</em> and the picturesqueness of their costume, all other -feelings are swallowed up in one of utter compassion.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Could the cosmetic value of fresh air and sunshine be more -strikingly attested than by the fact that Berlioz could speak of -“the beauty of the race,” notwithstanding the national indifference -to the laws of cleanliness?</p> - -<p class='c001'>In regard to Romantic Love as a source of Beauty, the Italians -also occupy a somewhat anomalous position. In the rural districts -French matrimonial methods seem to be largely followed. Miss -Collier mentions a young lady who visited her to receive her -congratulations on her approaching marriage, and who, on being -asked the name of her future husband, replied naïvely, “Oh, I -don’t know; papa has not yet told me that.” The peasantry, -however, are free to choose their own mates, and it is among them -that Italian Beauty is accordingly most prevalent. In the cities -the method of love-making is “operatic,” as we saw in the chapter -on Italian Love; but the main point is that Individual Choice is -not made impossible as in France, and that the Italians worship -Love as a law instead of looking on it with contemptuous cynicism -and ridicule.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The way in which the Mixture of Races affects Italian Beauty -affords a fresh illustration of the superiority of the Brunette type. -In Germany, by general consent, Beauty is much more frequent in -the South, where brunettes abound, than in the North, where they -are scarce. Hence we may conclude that the Blonde type is -improved by the intermixture of the Brunette type. But is the -Brunette type of Northern Italy improved to the same degree by -the admixture of Northern Blondes? Not in my judgment. -Venice and Milan and Bologna, it is true, boast many beautiful -women; but has any tourist in writing about these cities ever -expressed much admiration for Italian Blondes? And are not -Naples and Capri, the paradise of Brunettes, commonly regarded -as the region where Italian Beauty is seen at its best? Here it is -chiefly dark races that have intermingled, hence the eyes are sure -to be of a deep brown colour; whereas in Northern Italy the -introduction of blonde blood produces the lighter, less decided tints -of the iris which we do not admire. This disadvantage, it is true, -is also encountered in South Germany, but it is neutralised by the -gain of dark eyebrows, and long black lashes, and the more supple -and rounded limbs of the South.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That mental culture adds much to Italian beauty cannot be -said, for Italian women of all classes are noted for their intellectual -indolence. But atonement is largely made for this by their extreme -<span class='pageno' id='Page_514'>514</span>emotional susceptibility. Blue skies, rank vegetation, pretty -scenery, and a natural love of music have softened and trained their -feelings; and though the Italian climate does not favour profound -artistic culture it warms the blood and incites the features to give -expression to every passing mood. It is this habit of emotional -expression that has given a unique charm and the power of graceful -modulation to Italian features. As a German artist, Herr Otto -Knille, remarks of the Italians, “They pose unintentionally. Their -features, especially among the lower classes, have been moulded -through mimic expression practised for thousands of years. Gesture-language -has shaped the hands of many into models of anatomic -clearness. They have a complete language of signs and gestures, -which each one understands, as, for instance, in the ballet. Add -to this the innate grace of this race ... and we see that the -Italian artist has an abundance of material for copying, as compared -with which the German artist must admit his extreme poverty. -Whoever has lived in Italy is in a position to appreciate these -advantages.... Think of the neck, the nape, and the bust of -Italian woman, the fine joints and the elastic gait of both men and -women. Nor are we much better endowed as regards the physiognomy. -The German potato-face is not a mere fancy—the mirror -which A. de Neuville has held up to us, though clouded with -prejudice, shows us an image not entirely untrue to life. We -artists know how rarely a head, especially one which lacks the -enchanting charm of youth, can be used as a model for anything -but flat realism. Most German faces, instead of becoming more -clearly chiselled and elaborated with age, appear more spongy, -vague, and unmeaning.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Winklemann’s remarks on Italian Beauty are in the same vein: -“We seldom find in the fairest portions of Italy the features of -the face unfinished, vague, and inexpressive, as is frequently the -case on the other side of the Alps; but they have partly an air of -nobleness, partly of acuteness and intelligence; and the form of -the face is generally large and full, and the parts of it in harmony -with each other. The superiority of conformation is so manifest -that the head of the humblest man among the people might be -introduced in the most dignified historical painting, especially one -in which aged men are to be represented. And among the women -of this class, even in places of the least importance, it would not -be difficult to find a Juno. The lower portion of Italy, which -enjoys a softer climate than any other part of it, brings forth men -of superb and vigorously-designed forms, which appear to have -been made, as it were, for the purposes of sculpture.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_515'>515</span>In confirmation of my statement that in Northern as in Southern -Italy it is the Brunette type that chiefly excites the admiration of -the tourist, I may finally cite Heine’s remarks on the women of -Trent. For, although Trent is a town of the Austrian Tyrol, it -yet is practically an Italian community. Had not business called -him southwards, Heine relates in his <cite>Journey from Munich to -Genoa</cite>, he would have felt tempted to remain in this town where -“beautiful girls were moving about in bevies. I do not know,” he -adds, “whether other tourists will approve of the adjective -‘beautiful’ in this case; but I liked the women of Trent exceptionally -well. They were just of the kind I admire—and I do -love these pale, elegiac faces with the large black eyes that gaze at -you so love-sick; I love also the dusky tint of those proud necks -which Phœbus already has loved and browned with his kisses; ... -but above all things do I love that graceful gait, that dumb music -of the body, those limbs with their exquisitely rhythmic movements, -luxurious, supple, divinely careless, mortally languid, anon æthereal, -majestic, and always highly poetic. I love such things as I love -poetry itself; and these figures with their melodious movements, -this wondrous concert of femininity which delighted my senses, -found an echo in my heart, and awoke in it sympathetic strains.”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>SPANISH BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>In Spain, as in Italy, Germany, France, and the United States, -we find more Personal Beauty in the Southern than in the -Northern regions. This coincidence cannot be accidental, but -attests the great cosmetic value of sunshine and plenty of fresh -air. Perhaps no other portion of the globe has such a paradisiacal -climate as Andalusia, where the inhabitants practically pass all -their time in the open air,—on verandahs and in their cosy little -galleries, and fragrant orange groves, in whose shade they can -spend the hot part of the day, while the nights are cooled by -balmy mountain or sea breezes. To these natural hygienic advantages -add the unusually happy mixture of nationalities, and the -fact that Romantic Love is much less impeded in its sway than in -France or Italy, and we see at a glance to what the young Andalusian -owes the undulating lines and luscious plumpness of her -figure, her ravishing facial beauty, and her graceful gait, or -“melodious movements,” as Heine would say.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Surely the goddess of Beauty herself mixed the national colours -that make up the Spanish type. When Spain was added to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_516'>516</span>Roman dominion she was, as Mr. E. A. Freeman remarks, “the -only one of the great countries of Europe where the mass of the -people were not of the Aryan stock. The greater part of the land -was still held by the <em>Iberians</em>, as a small part is even now by -their descendants the Basques. But in the central part of the -<a id='corr516.6'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='peniusula'>peninsula</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_516.6'><ins class='correction' title='peniusula'>peninsula</ins></a></span> <em>Celtic</em> tribes had pressed in, and ... there were some -<em>Phœnician</em> colonies in the south, and some <em>Greek</em> colonies on the -east coast. In the time between the first and second Punic Wars, -Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, and Hannibal had won all Spain as far as -the Ebro for <em>Carthage</em>.” Among the other nations which successively -overran the country were the Goths, Vandals, Suevi, and -Moors; to whom must be added large numbers of Jews and -Gypsies, of which latter race Spain still possesses about 50,000.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Most of these nations had some favourable physical traits which -Sexual Selection had the opportunity to fix upon and perpetuate; -while sundry incongruities must have been neutralised and obliterated -by the intermingling of races. And another important consideration -is, that this intermingling of nations was effected so -many centuries ago that it is now no longer a heterogeneous -physical mixture, but a true “chemical,” or physiological, fusion, -in which dissonances and incongruities are less likely to occur than -in countries where the mixture is more recent.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the addition of Greek and Roman blood, redolent of -ancient civilisation, to the original Spanish stock was an advantage -is obvious. The Goth brought his manly vigour; the Gypsy his -concentrated essence of Brunetteism; the Arab his oval face, -dusky complexion, the straight line connecting nose and forehead, -the small mouth and white teeth, the dark and glossy hair, the -delicate extremities and gracefully-arched foot, and above all, the -black eyes and long black eyelashes. If Shakspere is right in -saying that there is no author in the world “teaches such beauty -as a woman’s eye,” then Andalusia easily leads the world in -Personal Beauty. The prosiest tourist becomes poetic in describing -the Andalusian’s “black eye that mocks her coal-black veil.” -Large and round are these eyes, like those of Oriental Houris; -long and dense their black lashes, which yet cannot smother the -mysterious fire and sparkle which their iris appears to have -borrowed of the Gypsies. In many cases there is a vague, piquant -indication of the almond-shaped palpebral aperture—one of the -Semitic traits derived from the Phœnicians, Jews, and Saracens. -And then, what woman can make such irresistibly fascinating use -of her eyes as the Spanish brunette?</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. Figuier thus sums up the physical characteristics of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_517'>517</span>Spanish woman: “She is generally brunette, although the blonde -type occurs much more frequently than is usually supposed. The -Spanish woman is almost always small of stature. Who has not -observed the large eyes, veiled by thick lashes, her delicate nose, -and well-formed nostrils? Her form is always undulating and -graceful; her limbs are round and beautifully moulded, and her -extremities of incomparable delicacy. She is a charming mixture -of vigour, languor, and grace.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The appearance of a Spanish woman,” says Bogumil Goltz, -“is the expression of her character. Her fine figure, her majestic -gait, her sonorous voice, her black, flashing eye, the liveliness of -her gesticulations, in a word, her whole external personality indicates -her character.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is to be noted that whereas French Beauty appears to be -visible to French eyes only, and regarding Italian Beauty opinions -differ, all nations unite in singing the praises of “Spain’s dark-glancing -daughters.” To the French and German testimony just -cited may now be added a few Italian, English, and American -witnesses.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Signor E. de Amicis, in his interesting work on Spain, says of -the women of Madrid that “they are still the same little women -so besung for their great eyes, small hands, and tiny feet, with -their very black hair, but skin rather white than dark, so well-formed, -erect, lithe, and vivacious.” But, like all other tourists, -he reserves most of his remarks on Spanish women for his chapters -on Andalusia, although this is the part of Spain which also offers -the richest material for description in its architecture and scenery. -Concerning the women and girls of Seville, as seen in the large -tobacco factory which employs 5000 females, he says: “There -are some very beautiful faces, and even those that are not absolutely -beautiful, have something about them which attracts the -eye and remains impressed upon the memory—the colouring, eyes, -brows, and smile, for instance. Many, especially the so-called -<span lang="es" xml:lang="es"><i>gitane</i></span>, are dark brown, like mulattoes, and have protruding lips: -others have such large eyes that a faithful likeness of them would -seem an exaggeration. The majority are small, well-made, and -all wear a rose, pink, or a bunch of field-flowers among their -braids.... On coming out of the factory, you seem to see on -every side for a time, black pupils which look at you with a -thousand different expressions of curiosity, ennui, sympathy, sadness, -and drowsiness.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The same writer found that “The feminine type of Cadiz was -not less attractive than that celebrated one at Seville. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_518'>518</span>women are a little taller, a trifle stouter, and rather darker. -Some fine observer has asserted that they are of the Greek type; -but I cannot see where. I saw nothing, with the exception of -their stature, but the Andalusian type; and this sufficed to make -me heave sighs deep enough to have blown along a boat and -obliged me to return as soon as possible to my ship, as a place of -peace and refuge.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. G. P. Lathrop’s description (in <cite>Spanish Vistas</cite>) of the -girls in the Seville factory is pitched in a somewhat lower key -than Signor de Amicis’s: “Some of them,” he writes, “had a -spendthrift, common sort of beauty, which, owing to their southern -vivacity and fine physique, had the air of being more than it really -was.... There were some appalling old crones.... Others, -on the contrary, looked blooming and coquettish. Many were in -startling deshabille, resorted to on account of the intense (July) -heat, and hastened to draw pretty pañuelos of variegated dye over -their bare shoulders when they saw us coming.... The beauty -of these Carmens has certainly been exaggerated. It may be -remarked here that, as an offset to occasional disappointment -arising from such exaggerations, all Spanish women walk with -astonishing gracefulness, and natural and elastic step; and that is -their chief advantage over women of other nations.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A writer in <cite>Macmillan’s Magazine</cite> (1874), after referring to -“the stately upright walk of the Spanish ladies, and the graceful -carriage of the head,” notes that a mother will not allow her -daughter to carry a basket, so as not to destroy her “queenly -walk”; and “her dull eye too will grow moist with a tear, and -her worn face will kindle with absolute softness and sweetness, -if an English señor expresses his admiration of her child’s magnificent -hair or flashing black eyes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The description given by the same writer of a scene he witnessed -along the Guadalquiver, suggests one reason of the healthy -physique and vitality of Spanish women: “An old mill-house, -with its clumsy wheel and a couple of pomegranates, shaded one -corner of this part of the river; and under their shade, sitting up -to their shoulders in the water, on the huge round boulders of -which the bottom of the river is composed, were groups of -Spanish ladies. Truly it was a pretty sight! They sat as though -on chairs, clothed to the neck in bathing-gowns of the gaudiest -colours—red, gray, yellow, and blue; and, holding in one hand -their umbrellas, and with the other fanning themselves, they -formed a most picturesque group.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Washington Irving, in a private letter, paints this picture of a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_519'>519</span>Spanish beauty whom he saw on a coast steamer: “A young -married lady, of about four or five and twenty, middle-sized, -finely-modelled, a Grecian outline of face, a complexion sallow yet -healthful, raven black hair, eyes dark, large, and beaming, softened -by long eyelashes, lips full and rosy red, yet finely chiselled, and -teeth of dazzling whiteness. Her hand ... is small, exquisitely -formed, with taper fingers, and blue veins. I never saw a female -hand more exquisite.” The husband of this young lady, noticing -that Mr. Irving was apparently sketching her, questioned him on -the matter. Mr. Irving read his sketch to the man, who was -greatly pleased with it; and this led to a delightful though brief -acquaintance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>in another letter, Washington Irving writes to a friend: -“There are beautiful women in Seville as ... there are in all -other great cities; but do not, my worthy and inquiring friend, -expect a perfect beauty to be staring you in the face at every turn, -or you will be awfully disappointed. Andalusia, generally speaking, -derives its renown for the beauty of its women and the beauty -of its landscape, from the rare and captivating charms of individuals. -The generality of its female faces are as sunburnt and void of -bloom and freshness as its plains. I am convinced, the great -fascination of Spanish women arises from their natural talent, their -fire and soul, which beam through their dark and flashing eyes, -and kindle up their whole countenance in the course of an interesting -conversation. As I have had but few opportunities of judging -them in this way, I can only criticise them with the eye of a -sauntering observer. It is like judging of a fountain when it is -not in play, or a fire when it lies dormant and neither flames nor -sparkles.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Byron, in <cite>Childe Harold</cite>, waxes enthusiastic over the Spanish -woman’s “fairy form, with more than female grace”—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Her glance how wildly beautiful! how much</div> - <div class='line'>Hath Phœbus wooed in vain to spoil her cheek,</div> - <div class='line'>Which glows yet smoother from his amorous clutch!</div> - <div class='line'>Who round the North for paler dames would seek?</div> - <div class='line'>How poor their forms appear! how languid, wan, and weak!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>But in a letter from Cadiz Byron notes the weak as well as the -strong points of Spanish women. “With all national prejudice, I -must confess, the women of Cadiz are as far superior to the English -women in beauty, as the Spaniards are inferior to the English -in every quality that dignifies the name of man.... The Spanish -women are all alike, their education the same.... Certainly they -are fascinating; but their minds have only one idea, and the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_520'>520</span>business of their lives is intrigue.... Long black hair, dark languishing -eyes, clear olive complexions, and forms more graceful in -motion than can be conceived by an Englishman used to the drowsy, -listless air of his countrywomen, added to the most becoming dress, -and, at the same time, the most decent in the world, render a -Spanish beauty irresistible.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Their minds have only one idea,” is an exaggeration, for the -Andalusian women are famed for a considerable amount of innate -wit, rivalling the brightness of their eyes. Yet of deeper intellectual -interests there are none. Of the total population of Spain -only a quarter can read and write; for although schools exist in -abundance, they are very generally neglected; and the estimation -in which teachers are held is seen from the fact that out of 15,000 -one half receive an annual salary of less than twenty pounds -sterling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mental Culture avenges itself bitterly on the women of Spain, -as of other Southern countries, for this neglect of its claims. -While the freshness of youthful Beauty remains, all is well, for -then the sensuous charms are so great that intellectual claims can -be ignored. But when this freshness fades, then it is that the -features begin to show a lack of mental training. Intellectual -apathy masks the face, and gives it an expression of vacuity; -exercise is neglected, and indolence, combined with excessive indulgence -in fattening food, soon destroy the lovely contours of the -figure and the fairy-like gait. “A Spanish woman of forty appears -twice as old,” says Goltz.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus we see that for perfect and permanent Beauty <em>all</em> its -sources must be kept open and utilised.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Attention must finally be called to one feature of Andalusian -Beauty which all tourists emphasise, namely, the small stature of -the women, to which they largely owe their exceptional grace of -gait. And there are reasons for believing that the perfected woman -of the millennium will resemble the Andalusian Brunette, not only -in complexion, hair, eyes, gait, and tapering plumpness of figure, -but also in stature. In other words, it seems that Sexual Selection -is evolving the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>petite</i></span> Brunette as the ideal of womanhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the ancient Greeks who were not swayed by Romantic -Love, Amazons were greatly admired, as previously noted; and Mr. -Gladstone remarks that “stature was a great element of beauty in -the view of the ancients, for women as well as for men; and their -admiration of tallness, even in women, is hardly restrained by a -limit.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>From this Greek predilection modern æsthetico-amorous Taste -<span class='pageno' id='Page_521'>521</span>differs, for several weighty reasons. The first is that a very tall -and bulky woman, though she may be stately and majestic, cannot -be very graceful; and Grace, as we know, is as potent a source of -Love as formal Beauty. Again, there is something incongruous -and almost comic in the thought of a very large woman submitting -to Love’s caresses; and <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>le ridicule tue</i></span>. Thirdly, great stature is -rarely associated with delicate joints and extremities. But the -principal reason why the modern lover disapproves of Amazonian -women, mental and physical, is because they are quasi-masculine. -Romantic Love tends to differentiate the sexes in stature as in -everything else. True, Mr. Galton, after making observations on -205 married couples, came to the conclusion that “marriage -selection takes little or no account of shortness and tallness. There -are undoubtedly sexual preferences for moderate contrasts in -height; but the marriage choice appears to be guided by so many -and more important considerations that questions of stature exert -no perceptible influence upon it.... Men and women of contrasted -heights, short and tall or tall and short, married just about -as frequently as men and women of similar heights, both tall or -both short; there were 32 cases of one to 27 of the other.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>But Mr. Galton’s argument is rather weak. He admits that -“there are undoubtedly sexual preferences for moderate contrast -in height”; and his own figures show 32 to 27 in favour of -mixed-stature marriages, in most of which the women must have -been shorter, owing to the prevalent feminine inferiority in size. -And in course of time the elimination of non-amorous motives of -marriage will assist the law of sexual differentiation in suppressing -Amazons.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The modern masculine preference for <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>petite</i></span> female stature is, -furthermore, attested by an irrefutable philological argument which -will be found in the following citation from Crabb’s <cite>English -Synonymes</cite>: “<em>Prettiness</em> is always coupled with simplicity; it is -incompatible with that which is large; a tall woman with masculine -features cannot be <em>pretty</em>. <em>Beauty</em> is peculiarly a female -perfection; in the male sex it is rather a defect; a man can -scarcely be <em>beautiful</em> without losing his manly characteristics, boldness -and energy of mind, strength and robustness of limb; but -though a man may not be <em>beautiful</em> or <em>pretty</em>, he may be <em>fine</em> or -<em>handsome</em>.” <a id='corr521.39'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='A woman'>“A woman</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_521.39'><ins class='correction' title='A woman'>“A woman</ins></a></span> is <em>fine</em> who with a striking figure unites -shape and symmetry; a woman is <em>handsome</em> who has good features, -and <em>pretty</em> if with symmetry of feature be united delicacy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Burke believed that it is possible to fall in love with a very -small person, but not with a giant. There is, indeed, a natural -<span class='pageno' id='Page_522'>522</span>prejudice in the modern mind against very tall statue even in men. -Thus, we read in Fuller’s <cite>Andronicus</cite>: “Often the cockloft is -empty in those whom Nature hath built many stories high”; and -Bacon is reported to have said that <a id='corr522.3'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Nature'>“Nature</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_522.3'><ins class='correction' title='Nature'>“Nature</ins></a></span> did never put her -precious jewels into a garret four stories high, and therefore that -exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.” An apparent -scientific confirmation of this belief is found in Professor Hermann’s -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Nervensystem</cite></span> (ii. 195), where we read that “when the body -becomes abnormally large, the brain begins to decrease again, -relatively, as Langer found in measuring giant skeletons.” And, -another sign of regression is found in the fact that tall men are apt -to have relatively too have jaws.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Although the Germans of to-day are by no means a pure and -distinct race, they are less thoroughly and variously mixed than -most other European nations; and this is one of the main reasons -why Personal Beauty is comparatively rare in the Fatherland. It -is rarest in the northern and central regions, where the original -Blonde type is best preserved, and becomes more frequent the -nearer we approach the Brunette neighbours of Germany—Italy, -Austria-Hungary, and Poland—whose women have been aptly -called “the Spaniards of the north.” France forms an exception. -There, thanks to the imprisonment of Cupid, ugliness is so rampant -that intermarriage only intensifies the natural homeliness,—a fact -of which any one may convince himself by spending a few days in -the borderland between France and Germany.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Partly owing to this lack of variety in the national composition -of the Germans, partly to the custom of chaperonage, Romantic -Love has not as wide a scope of selective action as elsewhere; and as -if these impediments to the increase of Beauty were not sufficient, -they are augmented in a wholesale fashion by the parental illusion -that the Love-instinct is a less trustworthy guide to a happy -marriage than “Reason,” <i>i.e.</i> the consideration that the bride has -a few thousand marks and belongs to the same social clique as the -bridegroom. Like their French neighbours, the Germans in these -cases forget the claims of the <em>grandchildren</em> to Health and Beauty—<i>i.e.</i> -the harmonious fusion of the complementary parental qualities -by which Love is inspired.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But in regard to the third source of Beauty—Mental Culture—the -Germans surely are pre-eminent among nations, it will be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_523'>523</span>claimed. In one sense, no doubt, they are. Almost all Germans -can read and write, and no race equals them in special erudition. -But erudition is not culture. The German system of education is -exceedingly defective, because it cultivates too largely the lowest -of the mental faculties—the Memory. The number of scientific, -historic, and philological facts a German schoolboy knows by heart -is simply astounding; but he has not digested them, and cannot -apply them practically. No attempt is made to cultivate his -higher faculties—his imagination, originality, or the gift of expressing -a thought in elegant language. Were a candidate to show -the wit and brilliancy of a Heine or a Shakspere, it would not add -one grain to the weight his pedantic professors attach to his work. -They will not favour the growth of qualities in which they themselves -are so conspicuously deficient. Note, for example, the vast -contempt with which the pedants of the University of Berlin look -down on “the German Darwin,” Professor Haeckel, because he -dares not only to be original, but to write his books in a language -clear as crystal, and adorned with wit, satire, and literary polish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Other nations are proud of their great men <em>even before they are -dead</em>; not so the Germans. Nor are the Germans really a literary -nation, as a whole. Many books are written there, but they rarely -come under the head of <em>literature</em>; and their circulation, on the -average, is not one-tenth that of English, French, and American -books. Beer is more popular than books.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No, the pedantic erudition, which alone is officially honoured -in Germany, is not synonymous with Mental Culture. It does -not vivify the features sufficiently to mould them into plastic shape. -Hence the prevalence of the “spongy features” and Teutonic -“potato-faces” referred to by a German artist quoted in the chapter -on Italian Beauty. “The true national character of the Germans -is clumsiness,” says Schopenhauer; and again: “The Germans are -distinguished from all other nations by the slovenliness of their -style, as of their dress.” And the Swiss Professor, H. F. Amiel, -remarks in his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Journal Intime</cite></span> that “the notion of ‘bad taste’ -seems to have no place in German æsthetics. Their elegance has -no grace in it; they cannot understand the enormous difference there -is between distinction (which is <em>gentlemanly</em>, <em>ladylike</em>) and their -stiff <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Vornehmheit</i></span>. Their imagination lacks style, training, education, -and knowledge of the world; it has an ill-bred air even in its -Sunday dress. The race is poetical and intelligent, but common -and ill-mannered.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It must be admitted, however, that the Germans have made -great progress in external refinement and manners since their late -<span class='pageno' id='Page_524'>524</span>war with France, one of the greatest advantages of which to -them was that it destroyed the mystic halo which had for many -generations surrounded the important Parisian Fashion Fetish. -What the Germans need now is a period of Anglomania. They -have already ceased to laugh at the Englishman for travelling with -his bath-tub, and have found it worth while to provide him with -that commodity in the hotels. In course of time bath-tubs in private -German houses may be expected to become more common -than they are now; and after a generation or two shall have given -proper attention to skin-hygiene, freckles and other cutaneous -blemishes will be less prevalent than at present. In their houses -the Germans are really as tidy as any nation; but their indifference -to the appearance of their collars and cuffs often leads one to -suspect the contrary.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The next thing the Germans ought to learn of the English is -greater gallantry toward the women, who are too apt to be looked -upon as household drudges, whom it is not necessary to educate or -amuse. Especially ruinous to female Beauty is the hard field -labour required of the women who have the misfortune to belong -to a nation which has not yet outgrown its condition of mediæval -militarism. A German physician, quoted by Dr. Ploss, notes the -fact that the beauty and bloom of youth last but a short time with -the working classes of North Germany: “The hard labour performed -before the body is fully developed too easily destroys the -plumpness, which is an essential element of beauty, draws furrows -in the face, and makes the figure stiff and angular. Often have I -taken a mother who showed me her child for its grandmother.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The author of <cite>German Home Life</cite> remarks in a similar vein: -“German girls are often charmingly pretty, with dazzling complexions, -abundant beautiful hair, and clear lovely eyes; but the -splendid matron, the sound, healthy, well-developed woman, who -has lost no grain of beauty, and yet gained a certain magnificent -maturity such as we in England see daily with daughters who -might well be her youngest sisters—of such women the Fatherland -has few specimens to show. The ‘pale unripened beauties of the -North’ do not ripen, they fade.” And no wonder, for either the -girls belong to the poorer classes and lose their beauty prematurely -from overwork; or, if they are of the well-to-do classes, they get -no Beauty-preserving exercise at all. “German girls,” the -Countess Von Bothmer continues, “have no outdoor amusements, -if we except skating when the winter proves favourable. Boating, -riding, archery, swimming, croquet—all the active, healthy outdoor -life which English maidens are allowed to share and to enjoy -<span class='pageno' id='Page_525'>525</span>with their brothers is unknown to them.... Such diversions are -looked upon by the girls themselves as bold, coarse, and unfeminine.... -It is in vain that you tell them such exercises, far from unsexing -them, fit them all the better for the duties of their sex; it -is difficult for them to hear you out and not show the scorn they -entertain for you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>German men, as a rule, are much handsomer than their sisters, -and they owe this superiority partly to the fact that their minds -are not so vacant, and partly to the prolonged physical training -which is the one redeeming feature of their military system. -Nevertheless, especially in South Germany, the men too often lose -their fine manly proportions in an enormous <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>embonpoint</i></span>, the -penalty of drinking too much beer. Nor is the acquisition of a -turnip shape the only bad result of the German habit of spending -every evening in a tavern. The air in these beer-houses is so filthy, -so soaked with vile tobacco smoke and nicotine, that after sitting -in it for an hour the odour haunts one’s clothes for a week, and -poisons the lungs for a month. It is this foul atmosphere, combined -with the stupefying effect of the beer, that accounts for -German heaviness and clumsiness in appearance, attitude, gait, and -literary style.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These disadvantages might be to some extent neutralised if, on -returning to his bedroom, the German would spend the rest of the -night, at least, in fresh air. But no! He dreads the balmy night -air as he would a dragon’s breath, although Professor Reclam and -other great authorities on Hygiene have told him a million and -sixty times that night air is more salubrious than day air, except -in swampy regions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tourists in Switzerland often wonder why it is that the natives, -notwithstanding their glorious Alpine air, are, with rare exceptions, -so utterly devoid of Beauty. Partly this is due to the hard labour -and scanty food to which most of them are condemned; but the -main reason is that they enjoy their health-laden air only in the -daytime and in summer. At night and in winter they close their -windows hermetically, and in the morning the atmosphere in such -a room is something which no one who has ever breathed it will -ever forget.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When the Germans visit Switzerland they carefully imitate the -example of these ignorant peasants, thus depriving themselves of -all the benefits of an Alpine tour. An eye-witness last summer -told me of the following encounter in a Swiss hotel between an -English lady and a German. The dining-room being hot to suffocation, -the English lady opened a window, whereupon the German -<span class='pageno' id='Page_526'>526</span>immediately got up and closed it. The English lady opened it -again, and again it was closed; whereupon she pushed her elbow -through the glass, and thenceforth enjoyed the fresh, fragrant air, -to the horror and indignation of the assembled Teutons.</p> - -<p class='c001'>All these remarks of course apply to the Germans only in a very -general way. Among all classes in Germany specimens of Beauty -may be found that could hardly be surpassed anywhere else. -Pretty faces are more frequent than elegant figures, which commonly -are too robust and masculine. German girls are the most -domestic and amiable in the world, and it is their amiability and -depth of feeling that gives their mouth such a sweet expression -and refined outlines. When German girls are educated, as often -they are in America, their faces beam in irresistible beauty. The -most beautiful non-Spanish eyes I have ever seen belonged to a -girl in Baden; and the most roguish blue eyes I have ever seen, -to a Würtemberg girl. Regular Italian features are not uncommon -in Bavaria, although snub-noses are most frequent there. The -Bavarian complexion, though somewhat too pale, is beautifully -clear; and I have almost come to the conclusion that this is in some -way connected with the national habit of drinking beer three times -a day. It might be worth while to inquire whether there is a -beautifying ingredient in beer which might be obtained without its -stupefying effects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Germans commonly consider the maidens along the Rhine -their most favourable and abundant specimens of Beauty; but -Robert Schumann, who had a fine eye for feminine Beauty, emphasized -the amiability rather than the beauty of these maidens in -the following passage from one of his private letters: “What -characteristic faces among the lowest classes! On the west shore -of the Rhine the girls have very delicate features, indicating -amiability rather than intelligence; the noses are mostly Greek, -the face very oval and artistically symmetrical, the hair brown. I -did not see a single blonde. The complexion is soft, delicate, with -more white than red; melancholy rather than sanguine. The -Frankfort girls, on the other hand, have in common a sisterly trait—the -character of German, manly, sad earnestness which we often -find in our quondam free cities, and which toward the east -gradually merges into a gentle softness. Characteristic are the -faces of all the Frankfort girls: intellectual or beautiful few of -them; the noses mostly Greek, often snub-noses; the dialect I did -not like.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning the peasant women of Saxony, Mr. Julian Hawthorne -remarks in his <cite>Saxon Studies</cite>: “Massive are their legs as the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_527'>527</span>banyan root; their hips are as the bows of a three-decker. Backs -have they like derricks: rough hands like pile-drivers.” And -again: “Handsome and pretty women are certainly no rarity in -Saxony, although few of them can lay claim to an unadulterated -Saxon pedigree.” “We see lovely Austrians, and fascinating Poles -and Russians, who delicately smoke cigars in the concert gardens. -But it is hard for the peasant type to rise higher than comeliness; -and it is distressingly apt to be coarse of feature as well as of -hand, clumsy of ankle, and more or less wedded to grease and dirt. -Good blood shows in the profile; and these young girls, whose -faces are often pleasant and even attractive, have seldom an -eloquent contour of nose and mouth. There is sometimes great -softness and sweetness of eye, a clear complexion, a pretty roundness -of chin and throat. Indeed, I have found scattered through -half a dozen different villages all the features of the true Gretchen; -and once, in an obscure hamlet whose name I have forgotten, I -came unexpectedly upon what seemed a near approach to the -mythic being.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>One thing must be admitted. The Germans are the most -systematic and persevering nation in the world. They took music, -for instance, from her Italian cradle, and reared her till she -developed into the most fascinating of the modern muses. They -lead the world in scientific research; and within a few years they -have terrified the English monopolists by a sudden outburst of -thorough-going Teutonic industrial activity and world-competition. -Let but the Germans once make up their mind that they want -Personal Beauty, and lo! they will have it in superabundance. -The Professorships of Hygiene, which are now being established at -the Universities, will doubtless bear rich fruit. If Bismarck discovered -the full significance of Anglo-American Courtship, he would -forthwith order an hour of it to be added to the daily academic -curriculum; and if he realised the importance of racial mixture, he -would order shiploads of South American and Andalusian brunettes -to be distributed among his officers as wives. Nor would female -education be any longer neglected, were it fully understood how -essential it is to Personal Beauty and true Romantic Love, the -basis of happy conjugal life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What <em>can</em> be done with German stock if it is duly mixed with -Brunette ingredients, is shown at Vienna, which, by the apparently -unanimous consent of tourists, boasts more beautiful women than -any other city in the world. Austria has about ten per cent more -of the pure Brunette and fourteen per cent more of the mixed types -than Germany. The dark blood of Italians, Hungarians, Czechs, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_528'>528</span>flows in Viennese veins, and there is also a piquant suspicion of -Oriental beauty. The Viennese woman combines Andalusian -plumpness of figure and grace of movement, with American delicacy -of features and purity of complexion. The bust is almost always -finely developed and rarely too luxuriant; and the joints are the -admiration of all tourists and natives. Speaking of England, Mr. -Richard Grant White says that “Plump arms are not uncommon, -but really fine arms are rare; and fine wrists are still rarer. Such -wrists as the Viennese women have ... are almost unknown -among women of English race in either country.” And the Countess -von Bothmer thus describes the neighbours of Germany:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>"Polish, Hungarian, and Austrian women, whom we, in a -general, inconclusive way, are apt to class as Germans, are ‘beautiful -exceedingly’; but here we come upon another race, or rather -such a fusion of other races as may help to contribute to the -charming result. Polish ladies have a special, vivid, delicate, -spirited, haunting loveliness, with grace, distinction, and elegance -in their limbs and features that is all their own; you cannot call -them fragile, but they are of so fine a fibre and so delicate a -colouring that they only just escape that apprehension. Of Polish -and Hungarian <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>pur sang</i></span> there is little to be found; women of -the latter race are of a more robust and substantial build, with -dark hair and complexion, fine flashing eyes, and pronounced type; -and who that remembers the women of Linz and Vienna will refuse -them a first prize? They possess a special beauty of their own, a -beauty which is rare in even the loveliest Englishwomen; rare, -indeed, and exceptional everywhere else; a beauty that the artist -eye appreciates with a feeling of delight. They have the most -delicately articulated joints of any women in the world. The -juncture of the hand and wrist, of foot and ankle, of the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>nuque</i></span> -with the back and shoulders, is what our neighbours would call -‘adorable.’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But alas that it should be so! The full gracious figures—types -at once of strength and elegance—the supple, slender waists, -the dainty little wrists and hands, become all too soon hopelessly -fat, from the persistent idleness and luxury of the nerveless, -unoccupied lives of these graceful ladies.”</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>ENGLISH BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Like the Viennese, the English afford an illustration of what -can be done with Teutonic stock by a judicious admixture of dark -<span class='pageno' id='Page_529'>529</span>blood. Although the mysteries of English ethnology have not -been completely unravelled, the original inhabitants of the British -Islands appear to have been “composed of the long-headed dark -races of the Mediterranean stock, possibly mingled with fragments -of still more ancient races, Mongoliform or Allophylian” (Dr. -Beddoe). In the later history of the race Romans, Germans, -Danes, and Normans added their blood to this mixture. The -Celtic-speaking people who in the time of the Roman Conquest -inhabited South Britain, partook, according to Dr. Beddoe, “more -of the tall blond stock of Northern Europe than of the thickset, -broad-headed, dark stock which Broca has called Celts.” But the -true Blonde invasion of Britain did not occur till towards the beginning -of the fifth century, when the Low-Dutch tribes, the Angles and -Saxons, came over from the river Elbe and the coast region, and -drove the Britons to the west of the island, where they were called -the Welsh, which is an old German appellation for foreigners.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The inference naturally suggests itself that the predilection for -Blondes shown in English literature up to a recent date (as noted -in the chapter on Blondes and Brunettes) may be traced to this -fact that the conquering race was fair, and that consequently dark -hair and eyes stigmatised their possessor as belonging to the -conquered race. This condemnation of the Brunette type (on <em>non-æsthetic</em> -grounds, be it noted) is forcibly illustrated by the following -lines of the shepherdess Phebe in <cite>As You Like It</cite>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I have more cause to hate him than to love him;</div> - <div class='line in2'>For what had he to do to chide at me?</div> - <div class='line'>He said mine eyes were black and my hair black,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And, now I am remember’d, scorned at me.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>But when this temporary aristocratic ground of preferring the -Blond type was neutralised through the lapse of time, and -Romantic Love, that potent awakener of the æsthetic sense, -appeared on the scene and opened men’s eyes to the inferior beauty -of that type, then began the reaction in favour of Brunettes, which -has been going on ever since. This view is strikingly confirmed -by the following remarks of Mr. Charles Roberts in <cite>Nature</cite>, January -7, 1885:—</p> - -<p class='c001'>“American statistics show that the blonde type is more subject -to all the diseases, except one (chronic rheumatism), which disqualify -men for military service, and this must obviously -place blondes at a great disadvantage in the battle of life, -while the popular saying, ‘A pair of black eyes is the delight of -a pair of blue ones,’ shows that sexual selection does not allow -them to escape from it. It is more than probable, therefore, from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_530'>530</span>all these considerations, that the darker portion of our population -is gaining on the blond, and this surmise is borne out by Dr. -Beddoe’s remark that the proportion of English and Scotch blood -in Ireland is probably not less than a third, and that the Gaelic -and Iberian races of the West, mostly dark-haired, are <em>tending to -swamp the blond Teutonic of England by a reflex migration</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Obviously, the ideal Englishwoman of the future will be a -Brunette. Thackeray had a prophetic vision of her when he -described Beatrix Esmond: “She was a brown beauty: that is, -her eyes, hair, and eyebrows and eyelashes were dark; her hair -curling with rich undulations, and waving over her shoulders” -[note that]; “but her complexion was as dazzling white as snow -in sunshine; except her cheeks, which were a bright red, and her -lips, which were of a still deeper crimson ... a woman whose -eyes were fire, whose look was love, whose voice was the sweetest -love-song, whose shape was perfect symmetry, health, decision, -activity, whose foot as it planted itself on the ground was firm but -flexible, and whose motion, whether rapid or slow, was always -perfect grace,—agile as a nymph, lofty as a queen—now melting; -now imperious, now sarcastic—there was no single movement of -hers but was beautiful. As he thinks of her, he who writes feels -young again and remembers a paragon.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sexual Selection, however, has not limited its efforts to the -improvement of the colour of the hair, eyes, and complexion; the -form of the features and figure has also been gradually altered and -refined. An examination of the portraits in the National Gallery -showed to Mr. Galton “what appear to be indisputable signs of -one predominant type of face supplanting another. For instance, -the features of the men painted by and about the time of Holbein -have unusually high cheek-bones, long upper lips, thin eyebrows, -and lank dark [?] hair. It would be impossible, I think, for the -majority of modern Englishmen so to dress themselves, and clip -and arrange their hair, as to look like the majority of these portraits.” -And again: “If we may believe caricaturists, the fleshiness -and obesity of many English men and women in the earlier -years of this century must have been prodigious. It testifies to -the grosser conditions of life in those days, and makes it improbable -that the types best adapted to prevail then would be the best -adapted to prevail now.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet this improvement in the British figure and physiognomy is -far from universal. The English are beyond all dispute the finest -race in the world, physically and mentally; but the favourable -action of the four Sources of Beauty, to which they owe this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_531'>531</span>supremacy, does not extend to all classes. The lowest-class Englishman -or Irishman is the most hideous and brutal ruffian in the -world. Of Mental or Moral Culture not a trace; and whereas -“the Spaniard, however ignorant, has naturally the manners and -the refined feelings of a gentleman” (<cite>Macmillan’s Magazine</cite>, 1874), -as well as a love of the beautiful forms and colours of nature; the -Englishman of the corresponding class has nerves and senses so -coarse that he is absolutely impervious to any impressions which -do not come under the head of mere brutal excitement. In this -class there is no Mixture of Races, but a worse than barbarian -promiscuity; Romantic Love is of course miles beyond the conception -of imaginations so filthy and sluggish; and Hygienic neglect -here finds its most hideous examples in the Western World.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In his <cite>English Note-Books</cite> Hawthorne speaks as follows of “a -countless multitude of little girls” taken from the workhouses and -educated at a charity school at Liverpool: “I should not have conceived -it possible that so many children could have been collected -together, without a single trace of beauty or scarcely of intelligence -in so much as one individual; such mean, coarse, vulgar features -and figures betraying unmistakably a low origin, and ignorant and -brutal parents. They did not appear wicked, but only stupid, -animal, and soulless. It must require many generations of better -life to wake the soul in them. All America could not show the -like.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Climate,” he says in another place, “no doubt has most to do -with diffusing a slender elegance over American young women; but -something, perhaps, is also due to the circumstance of classes not -being kept apart there as they are here: they interfuse amid the -continual ups and downs of our social life; and so, in the lowest -stations of life, you may see the refining influence of gentle blood.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Taine, in his <cite>Notes on England</cite>, thus sketches the lowest of -the Englishmen: “Apoplectical and swollen faces, whereof the -scarlet hue turns almost to black, worn-out, bloodshot eyes like raw -lobsters; the brute brutalised. Lessen the quantity of blood and -fat, while retaining the same bone and structure, and increasing the -countrified look; large and wild beard and moustache, tangled hair, -rolling eyes, truculent muzzle, big, knotted hands; this is the -primitive Teuton issuing from his woods; after the portly animal, -after the overfed animal, comes the fierce animal, the English bull.” -“The lower-class women of London,” says another French writer, -Mr. Max O’Rell, “are thin-faced or bloated-looking. They are -horribly pale; there is no colour to be seen except on the tips of -their noses.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_532'>532</span>Personal Beauty in England diminishes in quality and frequency, -not only as we go from the upper to the lower classes, but also if -we leave London and go to other cities. How far sanitary and -educational differences account for this state of affairs, and how -much is due to a habitual and natural immigration of Beauty to a -place where it is most sure of appreciation, it is not easy to say. -Hawthorne thus records the impression made on his artistic eyes -by an excursion party of Liverpool manufacturing people: “They -were paler, smaller, less wholesome-looking, and less intelligent, -and, I think, less noisy than so many Yankees would have been.... -As to their persons,” the women “generally looked better -developed and healthier than the men; but there was a woeful -lack of beauty and grace,—not a pretty girl among them, all coarse -and vulgar. Their bodies, it seems to me, are apt to be very long -in proportion to their limbs—in truth, this kind of make is rather -characteristic of both sexes in England.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A French writer, quoted by Figuier, Dr. Clavel, makes a similar -statement: “The level plains, which are as a rule met with in -England, are not favourable to the development of the lower extremities, -and it is a fact that the power of the English lies, not so -much in their legs, as in the arms, shoulders, and loins.... The -barely-marked nape of his neck and the oval form of his cranium -indicate that Finn blood flows in his veins; his maxillary power -and the size of his teeth evidence a preference for an animal diet. -He has the high forehead of the thinker, but not the long eyes of -the artist.... In dealing craftily with his antagonist, he is well -able to guard himself against the weaknesses of feeling. His face -rarely betrays his convictions, and his features are devoid of the -mobility which would prove disadvantageous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Englishwoman, according to the same writer, “is tall, fair, -and strongly built. Her skin is of dazzling freshness; her features -are small and elegantly formed; the oval of her face is marked, -but it is <em>somewhat heavy toward the lower</em> portion; her hair is fine, -silky, and charming; and her <em>long and graceful neck</em> imparts to -the movements of her head a character of grace and pride. So far -all about her is essentially feminine; but upon analysing her bust -and limbs we find that the large bones, peculiar to her race, interfere -with the delicacy of her form, enlarge her extremities, and -lessen the elegance of her postures and the harmony of her movements.... -She lacks a thousand feminine instincts, and this lack -is revealed in her toilette, the posture she assumes, and in her -actions and movements.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. Taine also was convinced of the frequent lack of taste in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_533'>533</span>dress and bearing in Englishwomen. Yet it is noticeable, and -cannot be too much emphasised, that he <em>goes to Spain and not to -France</em> for a comparison: “Compared with the supple, easy, silent, -serpentine undulation of the Spanish dress and bearing, the movement -here (in England), is energetic, discordant, jerking, like a -piece of mechanism.” Nor does Taine in other respects venture to -hold up his own countrywomen as models. He repeatedly refers to -the superior beauty of the English complexion: “Many ladies have -their hair decked with diamonds, and their shoulders, much -exposed, have the incomparable whiteness of which I have just -spoken, the petals of a lily, the gloss of satin do not come near to -it.” And though he thinks that ugliness is more ugly in England -than in France, he confesses that “generally an Englishwoman is -more thoroughly beautiful and healthy than a Frenchwoman.” -“Out of every ten young girls one is admirable, and upon five or -six a naturalist painter would look with pleasure.” “Lady Mary -Wortley Montague, who came to see the Court of the Regent in -France, severely rallied our slim, painted, affected beauties, and -proudly held up as a contrast ‘the natural charms and the lively -colours of the unsullied complexions’ of Englishwomen.” “The -physiognomy remains youthful here much later than amongst us, -especially than at Paris, where it withers so quickly; sometimes it -remains open even in old age; I recall at this moment two old -ladies with white hair whose cheeks were smooth and softly rosy; -after an hour’s conversation I discovered that their minds were as -fresh as their complexions. Even when the physiognomy and the -form are commonplace, the whole satisfies the mind; a solid bony -structure, and upon it healthy flesh, constitute what is essential in -a living creature.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>That is it precisely. The Englishman is the finest <em>animal</em> in -the world; and it is because other nations so often forget that one -must be a fine animal before one can be a fine man, that the -English have outstripped them in colonising the world, and -imposing on it their special form of culture and manners. As -Emerson remarks, in his Essay on <em>Beauty</em>, “It is the soundness -of the bones that ultimates itself in the peach-bloom complexion; -health of constitution that makes the sparkle and the power of the -eye.” “We are all entitled to beauty, should have been beautiful, -if our ancestors had kept the laws,—as every lily and every rose -is well.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The London <cite>Times</cite> characteristically speaks of “that worst of -sins in English eyes—uncleanliness”; and it is in England alone -of all European countries that cleanliness is esteemed next to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_534'>534</span>godliness. The Frenchman’s paradoxical exclamation, “What a -dirty nation the English must be that they have to bathe so -often!” is not so funny as it seems. The English, as can be seen -in the uneducated classes, <em>would be</em> the dirtiest people in the -world, thanks to their fogs and smoke, if they were not the most -cleanly. It is the magic of tub and towel that has compelled M. -Figuier to admit that although the Englishwomen “do not offer -the noble appearance and luxurious figure of the Greek and Roman -women,” yet “their skins surpass in transparency and brilliancy -those of the female inhabitants of all other European countries.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is needless to dilate on the other hygienic habits to which -the English owe their Health, notwithstanding their often depressing -climate,—the passion for walking and riding, for tennis, -boating, and other sports, which, moreover, have the advantage of -bringing the sexes together, and enabling every Romeo to find his -Juliet. One cannot help admiring the independence and common -sense of the respectable London girls who go home on the top of -the ’bus, enjoying the fresh air and varied sights, instead of being -locked up in the foul-aired interior. They know very well, these -clever girls, that their cheeks will be all the rosier, their smiles -more bewitching, their eyes more sparkling after such a ride. In -countries where there are fewer <em>gentlemen</em> such a thing would be -considered as improper for a girl as it is for a man to give a girl a -chance to choose her own husband. Do the French agree with -the Turks that women have no souls, since, in Taine’s words, a -Frenchman “would consider it indelicate to utter a single clear or -vague phrase to the young girl before having spoken to her -parents”? Taine imparts to his countrymen the curious information -that in England men and women marry for Love, but he does -not appear to realise how much of their superior Beauty—which -he acknowledges—they owe to the habitual privilege of choosing -their own wives for their personal charms, instead of having them -selected by their parents for their money value. He does, however, -realise the effect this system of courtship has on conjugal -life; for in his <em>History of English Literature</em> he refers to the -Englishwoman’s extreme “sweetness, devotion, patience, inextinguishable -affection,—a thing unknown in distant lands, and in -France especially; a woman here gives herself without drawing -back, and places her glory and duty in obedience, forgiveness, -adoration, wishing and pretending only to be melted and absorbed -daily deeper and deeper in him whom she has <em>freely and for ever -chosen</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>And there is another English custom the value of which Taine -<span class='pageno' id='Page_535'>535</span>realises and acknowledges: “In France we believe too readily,” -he says, “that if a woman ceases to be a doll she ceases to be a -woman.” True, it is only a decade or two since the superstition -that a higher education would “destroy all the feminine graces” -has been successfully combated even in England; but there has -always been a vast amount of home education, and the girls have -profited immensely by the unimpeded opportunity of meeting the -young men and talking with them, and by the fact that the purity -of tone which pervades English literature has made all of it -accessible to them. Hence the charming intellectual lines which -may be traced in an English woman’s face.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What the English still need is gastronomic and æsthetic training. -After a few generations of sense-refinement the lower part -of the English face will become as perfect as the upper part is -now. Cultivation of the fine arts and freer facial expression of -the emotions are the two great cosmetics which will put the -finishing touch on English Beauty.</p> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>AMERICAN BEAUTY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>England and America—which of these two countries has the -most beautiful women, and which the largest number of them? -Few questions of international diplomacy have been more frequently -discussed than these problems in comparative æsthetics. But as -in most cases patriotism has taken the place of æsthetic judgment -in forming a verdict, few tangible results have been reached. -There is too much exaggeration. Many English tourists have -denied that there is any remarkable Beauty at all in the United -States, and Americans have said the same of England.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If these sceptical Englishmen had only spent an hour on either -side of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge at 6 <span class='fss'>P.M.</span>, they would -have seen Beauty enough to bewilder all their senses; and if the -American sceptics, next time they go to London, will spend a -shilling in buying penny stamps at a dozen of those small post-offices -so profusely scattered all over the city, they will see enough -feminine Beauty in an hour to make them wish to stay in London -the rest of their life,—especially if they remember that an -advertisement for eleven girls to fill these postal clerkships has -been answered by as many as 2000,—the majority of whom, -presumably, were as good-looking as those who got the places, -since postal clerks are not selected for their Beauty, but for their -intelligence and efficiency.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_536'>536</span>A few specimens of the sweeping generalisations of tourists -may here be cited. According to Richard Grant White, “The -belief, formerly prevalent, that ‘American’ women had in their -youth pretty doll faces, but at no period of life womanly beauty of -figure, is passing away before a knowledge of the truth, and I -have heard it scouted here by Englishmen, who, pointing to the -charming evidence to the contrary before their eyes, have expressed -surprise that the travelling bookwriters ... could have so misrepresented -the truth.” Yet the same author indulges in the -following absurdly extravagant statement: “Beauty is very much -commoner among women of the English race than among those of -any other with which I am acquainted; and among that race it -is commoner in America than in England. I saw more beauty of -face and figure at the first two receptions which I attended after -my return than I had found among the hundreds of thousands of -women whom I had seen in England.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The late Dr. G. M. Beard, though an acute observer, allowed -his patriotism a still more ludicrous sway over his imagination: -“It is not possible,” he says, “to go to an opera in any of our -large cities without seeing more of the representatives of the -highest type of female beauty than can be found in months of -travel in any part of Europe!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Possibly Sir Lepel Griffin had read these lines when he was -moved to pen the following counter-extravagances: “More pretty -faces are to be seen in a day in London than in a month in the -States. The average of beauty is far higher in Canada, and the -American town in which most pretty women are noticeable is -Detroit, on the Canadian border, and containing many Canadian -residents. In the Western States beauty is conspicuous by its -absence, and in the Eastern towns, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New -York, and Boston, it is to be chiefly found. In New York, in -August, I hardly saw a face which could be called pretty.... -In November New York presented a different appearance, and -many pretty women were to be seen, although the number was -comparatively small; and at the Metropolitan Opera House even -American friends were unable to point out any lady whom they -could call beautiful. A distinguished artist told me that when -he first visited America he scarcely saw in the streets of New -York a single face which he could select as a model, though he -could find twenty such in the London street in which his studio -was situated.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Volumes might be filled with similar unscientific generalisations, -but it would be a waste of space. My own general -<span class='pageno' id='Page_537'>537</span>impression is that there are more pretty girls In America, and -more beautiful women in England; that the average Englishwoman -has a finer, healthier figure and colour, the American -greater mobility and finer chiselling of the features. If English -hands and feet are often somewhat large, American hands are just -as often too small,—the greater blemish of the two, because it -usually goes with too thin limbs. Irish girls of the best classes -appear to be intermediate. Some of the finest figures and faces -in the world belong to them; an Andalusian could hardly be -more plump and graceful than many Irish and Irish-American -girls. The Scotch, in the opinion of Hawthorne, “are a better-looking -people than the English (and this is true of all classes), -more intelligent of aspect, with more regular features. I looked -for the high cheek-bones, which have been attributed, as a -characteristic feature, to the Scotch, but could not find them. -What most distinguishes them from the English is the regularity -of the nose, which is straight, and sometimes a little curved -inward; whereas the English nose has no law whatever, but -disports itself in all manner of irregularity. I very soon learned -to recognise the Scotch face, and when not too Scotch, it is a -handsome one.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Comparative Æsthetics is still in its infancy, and many years -will doubtless elapse before it will become an exact science, in -place of a collection of individual opinions based on vague impressions. -The statistics which have lately been collected regarding -the proportion of Blondes and Brunettes in various countries, -may be regarded as the beginning of such a science. The next -step should be the collection of a series of national composite -portraits after the manner in which Mr. Galton has formed typical -faces of criminals, etc. If in each country a number of individuals -of pronounced national aspect were photographed on the -same plate, the result would be a picture which would emphasise -the typical national traits, and enable one to judge how far they -deviate in each case from regular Beauty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In most European countries it would be comparatively easy to -obtain characteristic composite portraits of this kind. But in -America the difficulties would perhaps be insurmountable. For -there the mixture of nationalities is too great and too recent to -have produced any national type. The women of Baltimore, New -York, Boston, and San Francisco—what have they in common -with one another any more than with their cousins in London? -Almost one-third of the inhabitants of New York are foreign-born, -including about half a million Irish and Germans. A fusion -<span class='pageno' id='Page_538'>538</span>of these has been going on for generations, while others have retained -their national traits; and to look, therefore, for a special -type of New York Beauty would be absurd. Thanks to this -large number of foreigners—not always of the most desirable -classes—there is less Beauty in New York in proportion to the -number of inhabitants than in most other cities of the United -States. When people imagine they can tell from what American -city a given woman comes, they are hardly ever influenced in -their judgment by physiognomy or figure, but by peculiarities of dress, -speech, or manner.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dr. Weir Mitchell says that in America you may see “many -very charming faces, the like of which the world cannot match—figures -somewhat too spare of flesh, and, especially south of -Rhode Island, a marvellous littleness of hand and foot. But look -farther, and especially among New England young girls; you -will be struck with a certain hardness of line in form and feature, -which should not be seen between thirteen and eighteen at least. -And if you have an eye which rejoices in the tints of health, -you will miss them on a multitude of the cheeks which we are now -so daringly criticising.” The notion that there is too much -angularity of outline in New England faces and forms is a wide-spread -one, and to some extent founded on truth; yet many of -the plumpest, rosiest, and most charming American women come -from Boston—as if to make amends for their antipodes, whom -Mr. R. G. White describes as “certain women, too common in -America, who seem to be composed in equal parts of mind and -leather, the elements of body and soul being left out, so far as is -compatible with existence in human form.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Concerning the multitudinous mixture of nationalities in the -United States one thing may be asserted confidently: that the -finest ingredient in it is the English. Yet it has long been held -that the English blood deteriorates in the United States; that the -descendants of the English, like those of the Germans and other -nations and their mixtures, gradually lose the sound constitution -of their ancestors. Hawthorne, in his <cite>Scarlet Letter</cite>, was probably -one of the first to give expression to this belief. Speaking -of the New England women who two centuries ago waited for the -appearance of Hester, he says: “Morally, as well as materially, -there was a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens of old -English birth and breeding than in their fair descendants, separated -from them by a series of six or seven generations; for -throughout that chain of ancestry every successive mother has -transmitted to her child a fainter bloom, a more delicate and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_539'>539</span>briefer beauty, and a slighter physical frame, if not a character of -less force and solidity, than her own.... The bright morning -sun, therefore, shone on broad shoulders and well-developed busts, -and on round and ruddy cheeks, that had ripened in the far-off -island, and had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere -of New <a id='corr539.6'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='England.'>England.”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_539.6'><ins class='correction' title='England.'>England.”</ins></a></span></p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet in his <cite>English Note-Books</cite>, written after the <cite>Scarlet Letter</cite>, -he relates that he had a conversation with Jenny Lind: “She -talked about America, and of our unwholesome modes of life, as -to eating and exercise, and of the ill-health especially of our -women; but I opposed this view as far as I could with any truth, -insinuating my opinion that we were about as healthy as other -people, and affirming for a certainty that we live longer.... -This charge of ill-health is almost universally brought forward -against us nowadays,—and, taking the whole country together, I -do not believe the statistics will bear it out.” But why does he -in another place speak of English rural people as “wholesome and -well-to-do,—not specimens of hard, dry, sunburnt muscle, like our -yeoman”? and on still another page: “In America, what squeamishness, -what delicacy, what stomachic apprehension, would there -not be among three stomachs of sixty or seventy years’ experience! -I think this failure of American stomachs is partly owing -to our ill-usage of our digestive powers, partly to our want of -faith in them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe exclaims that “the race of -strong, hardy, cheerful girls ... is daily lessening; and, in their -stead, come the fragile, easy-fatigued, languid girls of a modern -age, drilled in book-learning, ignorant of common things.” Dr. -E. H. Clarke writes in his <cite>Sex and Education</cite>, which should be -read by all parents: “‘I never saw before so many pretty girls -together,’ said Lady Amberley to the writer, after a visit to the -public schools of Boston; and then added, ‘They all looked -sick.’ Circumstances have repeatedly carried me to Europe, -where I am always surprised by the red blood that fills and -colours the faces of ladies and peasant girls, reminding one of -the canvas of Rubens and Murillo; and I am always equally -surprised on my return by crowds of pale, bloodless, female faces, -that suggest consumption, scrofula, anæmia, and neuralgia.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dr. S. Weir Mitchell remarks that “To-day the American -woman is, to speak plainly, physically unfit for her duties as -woman.” Dr. Allen, quoted by Sir Lepel Griffin, remarks that a -majority of American women “have a predominance of nerve -tissue, with <em>weak muscles</em> and digestive organs”; and Mr. William -<span class='pageno' id='Page_540'>540</span>Blaikie says that “scarcely one girl in three ventures to wear a -jersey, mainly because she knows too well that this tell-tale jacket -only becomes a good figure.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dr. Clarke relates that when travelling in the East he was -summoned as a physician into a harem where he had the privilege -of seeing nearly a dozen Syrian girls: “As I looked upon their -well-developed forms, their brown skins, rich with the blood and -sun of the East, and their unintelligent sensuous faces, I thought -that if it were possible to marry the Oriental care of woman’s -organisation to the Western liberty and culture of her brain, -there would be a new birth and loftier type of womanly grace and -form.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is, doubtless, much truth in these assertions. It is distressing -to see the thin limbs of so many American children, and -the anæmic complexions and frail, willowy forms of so many -maidens. What the American girl chiefly needs is more muscle, -more exercise, more fresh air. A large proportion of girls, it is -true, become invalids because their employers in the shops never -allow them to sit down and rest; and standing, as physiologists -tell us, and as has been proved in the case of armies, is twice as -fatiguing as walking. As if to restore the balance, therefore, the -average well-to-do American girl never walks a hundred yards if a -street car or ’bus is convenient; and the men, too, are not much -better as a rule. One of the most disgusting sights to be seen -in New York on a fine day is a procession of street cars going up -Broadway, crowded to suffocation by young men who have -plenty of time to walk home. In the case of the women, the -cramping French fashions, which impede exercise, are largely to -blame.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fresh-air starvation, again, is almost as epidemic in America as -in Germany. Although night air is less dreaded, draughts are -quite as much; and people imagine that they owe their constant -“colds” to the <em>cold</em> air with which they come into contact, whereas -it is the excessively <em>hot</em> air in their rooms that makes them morbidly -sensitive to a salubrious atmosphere. If young ladies knew that -the hothouse air of their parlours has the same effect on them as -on a bunch of flowers, making them wither prematurely, they -would shun it as they would the sulphurous fumes of a volcano. -Why should they deliberately hasten the conversion of the plump, -smooth grape into a dull, wrinkled raisin?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is through their morbid fondness for hothouse air and their -indolence that American women so often neutralise their natural -advantages: thanks to the fusion of nationalities and the unimpeded -<span class='pageno' id='Page_541'>541</span>sway of Romantic Love, they are born more beautiful -than the women of any other nation; but the beauty does not -last.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It must be admitted, however, that a vast improvement has -been effected within the last two generations. Beyond all doubt -the young girls of fifteen are to-day healthier and better-looking -than were their mothers at the same age. It is no longer fashionable -to be pale and frail. Anglomania has done some good in -introducing a love of walking, tennis, etc., as well as the habit of -spending a large part of the year in the country.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Higginson, Mr. R. G. White, and many others, have insisted -on this gradual improvement in the health and physique of -Americans; and Dr. Beard remarks in his work on <cite>American -Nervousness</cite>: “During the last two decades the well-to-do classes -of America have been visibly growing stronger, fuller, healthier. -We weigh more than our fathers; the women in all our great -centres of population are yearly becoming more plump and more -beautiful.... On all sides there is a visible reversion to the -better physical appearance of our English and German ancestors.... -The one need for the perfection of the beauty of the American -women—increase of fat—is now supplied.” Yet the one cosmetic -which 20 per cent of American women still need above all others -is the ability to eat food which they scorn as “greasy,” but which -is only greasy when badly prepared. It is to such food that Italian -and Spanish women owe their luscious fulness of figure.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dr. Clarke’s work on <cite>Sex and Education</cite> made a great sensation -because he pointed out that the ill-health of American women -is largely due to the brain-work imposed on them at school. Now -the superior beauty of American women is admittedly largely due -to the intelligent animation of their features, to the early training -of their mental faculties. Is this advantage to be sacrificed? Dr. -Clarke’s argument does not point to any such conclusion. He -simply contended that the methods of female education were injurious. -“The law has, or had, a maxim that a man and his wife -are one, and that the one is the man. Modern American education -has a maxim, that boys’ schools and girls’ schools are one, -and that the one is the boys’ school.” Girls need different studies -from boys to fit them for <em>their</em> sphere in life; and above all they -need careful hygienic supervision and periods of rest.—Dr. Clarke’s -book affords many irrefutable arguments in favour of one of the -main theses of the present treatise: that the tendency of civilisation -is to differentiate the sexes, mentally and physically. It is -on this differentiation that the ardour and the cosmetic power of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_542'>542</span>Romantic Love depend. Hence the hopelessness of the Virago -Woman’s Rights Cause, especially in America, where the women -are more thoroughly feminine than elsewhere. It is said that -when the first female presidential candidate announced a lecture -in a western town, <em>not a single auditor</em> appeared on the scene. -American women, evidently, are in no immediate danger of becoming -masculine and ceasing to inspire Love.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Women, however, must be educated and thoroughly, for it -has been abundantly shown in the preceding pages that only an -educated mind can feel true Romantic Love. But their education -should be feminine. They need no algebra, Greek, and chemistry. -What they need is first of all a thorough knowledge of Physiology -and Hygiene, so that they may be able to take care of the Health -and Beauty of their children. Then they should be well versed in -literature, so as to be able to shine in conversation. Their artistic -eye should be trained, to enable them to teach their children to go -through the world with their eyes open. Most of us are half -blind; we cannot describe accurately a single person or thing we -see. Music should be taught to all women, as an aid in making -home pleasant and refined, and as an antidote to care. Natural -history is another useful feminine study which enlarges the sympathies -by showing, for example, that birds love and marry almost -as we do, wherefore it is barbarous to wear their stuffed bodies on -one’s hat.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Education, Intermarriage, Hygiene, and Romantic Love will -ultimately remove the last traces of the ape and the savage from -the human countenance and figure. Climate will perhaps always -continue to modify different races sufficiently to afford the advantages -of cross-fertilisation or intermarriage. The remarkable -fineness of the American complexion, for instance, has been ascribed -to climatic influences, and with justice it seems, for, according to -Schoolcraft, the skin of the native Indians is not only smoother, -but more delicate and regularly furrowed than that of Europeans. -The notion, however, that the climate is tending to make the -American like the Indian in feature and form is nonsensical. The -typical “Yankee” owes his high cheek-bones and lankness to his -indigestible food; his thin colourless lips to his Puritan ancestry -and lack of æsthetic culture.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even if climate did possess the power to modify the forms of -our features, it would not be allowed to have its own way where -these modifications conflicted with the laws of Beauty. Science is -daily making us more and more independent of crude and cruel -Natural Selection, and of the advantages of physical conformity -<span class='pageno' id='Page_543'>543</span>to our surroundings. Hence Sexual Selection has freer scope to -modify the human race into harmony with æsthetic demands. -Perhaps the time will come when the average man will have as -refined a taste and as deep feelings as a few favoured individuals -have at present; that epoch will be known as the age of Romantic -Love and Personal Beauty.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_545'>545</span> - <h2 class='c005'>INDEX</h2> -</div> - -<ul class='index c019'> - <li class='c022'>About, E.: fashionable disease, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Absence: effect on Love, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Addison: familiarity, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Æsthetic sense: developed from utilitarian associations, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>; - <ul> - <li>training the, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>;</li> - <li>highest product of civilisation, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>, <a href='#Page_479'>479</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Æsthetic suicide, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Affection, impersonal, <a href='#Page_16'>11-16</a>; - <ul> - <li>for dismal scenery, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Affections, Personal: love for animals, <a href='#Page_19'>16-19</a>; - <ul> - <li>maternal love, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>;</li> - <li>paternal, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>;</li> - <li>filial, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>;</li> - <li>brotherly and sisterly, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</li> - <li>friendship, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>;</li> - <li>romantic love, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>;</li> - <li>differentiation of, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Age: which preferred by Cupid, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>; - <ul> - <li>beauty of old, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>;</li> - <li>and decrepitude, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>;</li> - <li>ears in old, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>;</li> - <li>eyebrows, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a>;</li> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Air: fresh, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>; - <ul> - <li>necessary to Beauty, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>, <a href='#Page_515'>515</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Albinos, <a href='#Page_468'>468</a>, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Alcock, Dr.: colour of tropical man, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Alfieri: first love, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Alison: on taste, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Allen, Grant: origin of æsthetic sense, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Amazons, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Ambidexterity, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a></li> - <li class='c022'>American beauty, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>; - <ul> - <li>South American, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>;</li> - <li>quadroons, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>;</li> - <li>rapid development of, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>;</li> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>;</li> - <li>frank gaze, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>, <a href='#Page_531'>531</a>, <a href='#Page_543'>535-543</a>;</li> - <li>complexion, <a href='#Page_542'>542</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>American Love: courtship, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>; - <ul> - <li>flirtation, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>;</li> - <li>Gallantry, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li> - <li>and Beauty, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li> - <li>at eighteen, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_546'>546</span>replaces German and French courtship, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_301'>294-301</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Amicis, E. de: Spanish beauty, <a href='#Page_517'>517</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Amiel, H. F.: on Germans, <a href='#Page_523'>523</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Animals: love for, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>; - <ul> - <li>ignored in Christian ethics, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li> - <li>love among, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>;</li> - <li>jealousy, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li> - <li>as tests of Beauty, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>;</li> - <li>arctic, why white, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Apes, caressing, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>; - <ul> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>;</li> - <li>ugliness of, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>;</li> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>;</li> - <li>gait, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>;</li> - <li>legs, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</li> - <li>abdomen, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</li> - <li>arms, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>;</li> - <li>hands, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>;</li> - <li>jaws, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>;</li> - <li>nude patches, <a href='#Page_487'>487</a>;</li> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Apollo, <a href='#Page_490'>490</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Arabian beauty, <a href='#Page_516'>516</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Aryan Love, ancient, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Asceticism and ugliness, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Augustine, St.: love and jealousy, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Austrian beauty, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_516'>516</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Bach, A. B.: chest-exercise, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Bachelors, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Bacon: friendship, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>; - <ul> - <li>amorous hyperbole, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li> - <li>celibacy and genius, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li> - <li>love and genius, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li> - <li>employment <i>versus</i> love, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Bain, Prof., <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</li> - <li class='c022'>Baldness, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Ballet-dancing, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Ballrooms: unhealthy, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>; - <ul> - <li>for birds, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Balzac: prolonging Love, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>; - <ul> - <li>how his love was won, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>;</li> - <li>hand of great men, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>“Bangs,” <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Banting, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Bathing, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a>, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a>, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a>, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_547'>547</span>Beard, G. M.: diet, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>; - <ul> - <li>eyeball, <a href='#Page_476'>476</a>;</li> - <li>American beauty, <a href='#Page_536'>536</a>, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Beard, the, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Beauty, in flowers, origin of, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>; - <ul> - <li>dependent on Health and Cross-fertilisation, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Beauty, Personal: the æsthetic overtone of Love, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>; - <ul> - <li>admiration of, by animals, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>;</li> - <li>by savages, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>;</li> - <li>among Hebrews, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</li> - <li>Hindoos, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li> - <li>Greeks, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>;</li> - <li>Romans, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</li> - <li>feminine <i>versus</i> masculine strength, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li> - <li>arouses jealousy, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>;</li> - <li>when only skin-deep, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>;</li> - <li>and intellect, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>;</li> - <li>refines Love, <a href='#Page_180'>177-180</a>;</li> - <li>feminine, in masculine eyes, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li> - <li>masculine, in feminine eyes, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>;</li> - <li>neglected after marriage, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>;</li> - <li>lost prematurely, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</li> - <li>“skin-deep,” <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li> - <li>elimination of ugly and masculine women, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li> - <li>fatal to bachelors, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li> - <li>physical, a source of Love, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>;</li> - <li>facial, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>;</li> - <li>dependent on Health, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>;</li> - <li>independent of utility, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>;</li> - <li>Greek, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>;</li> - <li>increased through Hygiene, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>;</li> - <li>effect of crossing on, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>;</li> - <li>Jews, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>;</li> - <li>quadroons, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>;</li> - <li>increased through Love, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</li> - <li>as a fine art, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>;</li> - <li>tests of, negative, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>;</li> - <li>positive, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>;</li> - <li>human less frequent than animal, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>;</li> - <li>lost in degradation, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>;</li> - <li>and age, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>;</li> - <li>expression <i>versus</i> form, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>;</li> - <li>proportion, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>;</li> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>;</li> - <li>value of exercise, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>;</li> - <li>lower limbs, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</li> - <li>Hygiene and civilisation, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>;</li> - <li>lacing fatal to, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>;</li> - <li>corpulence, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>;</li> - <li>rare, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>;</li> - <li>chest, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>, <a href='#Page_396'>396</a>;</li> - <li>increased by deep-breathing, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>;</li> - <li>neglect of, a sin, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>;</li> - <li>neck and shoulder, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>;</li> - <li>finger-nails, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>;</li> - <li>jaw, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>;</li> - <li>characteristic, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>;</li> - <li>dimples, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>;</li> - <li>lips, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>;</li> - <li>cheeks, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>;</li> - <li>colour and blushes, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>;</li> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>;</li> - <li>noses, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>;</li> - <li>Greek, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>;</li> - <li>arm and hand, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>;</li> - <li>cosmetic value of gastronomy, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>;</li> - <li>of fragrant air, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>;</li> - <li>of sunlight, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a>, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>;</li> - <li>skin, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href='#Page_516'>516</a>;</li> - <li>beards and moustaches, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>;</li> - <li>sexual selection preserves hair, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>;</li> - <li>sensuous, of eyes, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a>;</li> - <li>of hair, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a>;</li> - <li><i>versus</i> Fashion, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_548'>548</span>Brunette <i>versus</i> Blonde, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>;</li> - <li>national traits, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a>;</li> - <li>race-mixture and Love, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a>;</li> - <li>and mental culture, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>;</li> - <li>stature, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>;</li> - <li>beautiful and pretty, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Beauty-sleep, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Beauty-spots, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Beddoe, Dr.: brunettes and blondes, <a href='#Page_499'>499</a>; - <ul> - <li>races of Britain, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Beer, <a href='#Page_525'>525</a>, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Beethoven: Love-affairs, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Bell, Sir Charles: the lips, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>; - <ul> - <li>Greek beauty, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s gait, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>;</li> - <li>facial expression, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>;</li> - <li>beards, <a href='#Page_490'>490</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Bella donna, <a href='#Page_504'>504</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Berlioz: love-affairs, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Birds: affections of, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>; - <ul> - <li>intermarriages, nuptial mass meetings, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>;</li> - <li>courtship, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>;</li> - <li>love-dances, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</li> - <li>jealousy, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li> - <li>coyness, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>;</li> - <li>choice of a mate, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>;</li> - <li>source of colours, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>;</li> - <li>love-calls, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</li> - <li>female seeks male, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</li> - <li>display of ornaments, motives of, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</li> - <li>æsthetic taste of, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>;</li> - <li>murdered for vulgar women, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>;</li> - <li>billing, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Blackie, Prof.: Goethe’s love-affairs, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Blaikie, W.: American physique, <a href='#Page_540'>540</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Blind, why love is, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Blonde <i>versus</i> Brunette, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Blushes, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>; - <ul> - <li>eyes of Albinos, <a href='#Page_468'>468</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Bodenstedt: Oriental women, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>; - <ul> - <li>Georgian women, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Bones, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Bothmer, Countess von: French Love, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>; - <ul> - <li>German women, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>;</li> - <li>English flirtation, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Brain, the, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Brandes, Georg: feminine Love at thirty, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Breath, offensive, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Breathing, healthy, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>; - <ul> - <li>deep, magic effects of, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Brinton and Napheys, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a>, <a href='#Page_484'>484</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Brotherly and sisterly love, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Browne, Lennox: corset ruins grace, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>; - <ul> - <li>consumption, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Brunette <i>versus</i> Blonde, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>, <a href='#Page_513'>513</a>, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a>, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Bryant, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_549'>549</span>Büchner, L., <a href='#Page_534'>534</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Bulkley, Dr.: care of skin, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a>; - <ul> - <li>removing hairs, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Bunyan: kissing, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Burke: delicacy, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>; - <ul> - <li>smoothness, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>;</li> - <li>neck and breasts, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>;</li> - <li>love and stature, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Burns: Love and cosmic attraction, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>; - <ul> - <li>amorous hyperbole, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li> - <li>first love, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>;</li> - <li>ardour of his love, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>;</li> - <li>fickleness, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li> - <li>undercurrents, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li> - <li>a lover’s dream, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Burton, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Bustle, the, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Buxton, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Byron, Lord: affection for mountains, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>; - <ul> - <li>epitaph on dog, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s Love, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</li> - <li>waltzing, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li> - <li>the coquette, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</li> - <li>Romantic Love, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li> - <li>love-affairs, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;</li> - <li>first love, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>;</li> - <li>a poet’s love, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li> - <li>Swift, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>;</li> - <li>refusals, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li> - <li>how to win love, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>;</li> - <li>sarcasm on marriage, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li> - <li>money and “love,” <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>;</li> - <li>Italian Love, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>;</li> - <li>Love inspired by inferior beauty, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;</li> - <li>black eyes, <a href='#Page_498'>498</a>;</li> - <li>Italian beauty, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Calderwood: on affection, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Calisthenics, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Campbell, Sir G.: Aryan cheekbones, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Camper’s angle, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Canada: Love-matches and Beauty, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Capture of women, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Caresses, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Carew, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Celibacy: mediæval notions of, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>; - <ul> - <li>bachelors, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>;</li> - <li>and genius, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Cervantes, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Chamfort, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Chaperonage: in Greece, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>; - <ul> - <li>Rome, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> - <li>England, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>;</li> - <li>Italy, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>;</li> - <li>Spain, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>;</li> - <li>Germany, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>;</li> - <li>America, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Characteristic, the, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Cheeks, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>; - <ul> - <li>colour and blushes, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Chemical affinities, <a href='#Page_6'>3-6</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Chest, the, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_550'>550</span>Chesterfield: birth of “flirtation,” <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>; - <ul> - <li>flattery, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Children: head, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>; - <ul> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Childs, Mrs,: Love and marriage, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Chin, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a></li> - <li class='c022'>China: Love in, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>; - <ul> - <li>jealousy, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>;</li> - <li>aristocracy of intellect, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li> - <li>standard of Beauty, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>;</li> - <li>mutilation of the feet, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>;</li> - <li>dancing, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</li> - <li>cheeks, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Chiromancy, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Chivalry: militant and comic, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>; - <ul> - <li>poetic, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Choice, sexual. <i>See</i> <a href='#INDIVIDUAL'>Individual Preference</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Chopin: musician for lovers, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Christianity and Love, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>; - <ul> - <li>sympathy, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>;</li> - <li>and Beauty, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Circassian women, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a></li> - <li class='c022'>City air, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>; - <ul> - <li>city life, injurious to health, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Civilisation: and Beauty, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>; - <ul> - <li>and noise, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Clarke, E. H.: American Health and Beauty, <a href='#Page_539'>539</a>; - <ul> - <li>sex and education, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Clavel, Dr.: English Beauty, <a href='#Page_532'>532</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Cleanliness, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Climate, <a href='#Page_542'>542</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Clough, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a></li> - <li class='c022'>“Colds,” <a href='#Page_540'>540</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Coleridge: fruitless Love, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>; - <ul> - <li>best marriages, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li> - <li>virtue and passion, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>;</li> - <li>compliments, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>;</li> - <li>love and absence, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Collier, Miss M.; Italian Love and Hygiene, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Collier, R. L.: English and American courtship, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Colour: a normal product, proportionate to vitality, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>; - <ul> - <li>Typical and Sexual, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>;</li> - <li>Protective and Warning, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li> - <li>means of recognition of species, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>;</li> - <li>complementary, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>;</li> - <li>in cheeks, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>;</li> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>;</li> - <li>skin, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>;</li> - <li>of man’s skin, original, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_465'>465</a>, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Complementary qualities: colours, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>; - <ul> - <li>guide Love, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'><a id='COMPLEXION'></a>Complexion: white <i>versus</i> black, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>; - <ul> - <li>Scandinavian and Spanish, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>;</li> - <li>cosmetic hints, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a>;</li> - <li>freckles, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>;</li> - <li>brunette <i>versus</i> blonde, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_551'>551</span>English, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a>, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a>;</li> - <li>injured by hot air, <a href='#Page_540'>540</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Compliments, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Confidence, value of, to lovers, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Conjugal love: among animals, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>; - <ul> - <li>savages, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>;</li> - <li>Hebrews, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li> - <li>Greeks, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</li> - <li>Romans, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>;</li> - <li>troubadours, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</li> - <li>self-sacrifice, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li> - <li>differs from Romantic, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>;</li> - <li>essence of, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>;</li> - <li>feminine deeper than masculine, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</li> - <li>and friendship, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Constable, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Consumption, nurseries of, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Coquetry: in birds, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>; - <ul> - <li>and flirtation, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li> - <li>historic excuse for, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>;</li> - <li>essence of, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</li> - <li>masculine, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</li> - <li>and high collars, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Corpulence, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>; - <ul> - <li>how to reduce, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>;</li> - <li>in old England, <a href='#Page_530'>530</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Corset: fatal to Beauty, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a> <i>et seq.</i>; - <ul> - <li>causes corpulence, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</li> - <li>ruins chest, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Cosmetic hints (<i>see</i> also <a href='#HYGIENE'>Hygiene</a> and <a href='#EXERCISE'>Exercise</a>): how to refine the lips, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>; - <ul> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>;</li> - <li>odours, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a>;</li> - <li>complexion, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a>, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>;</li> - <li>electricity, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>;</li> - <li>eyelashes, <a href='#Page_484'>484</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>;</li> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_491'>491</a>;</li> - <li>scalp, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a>;</li> - <li>colour of eyes, <a href='#Page_504'>504</a>;</li> - <li>fresh air, <a href='#Page_513'>513</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Cosmic attraction, <a href='#Page_6'>3-6</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Costume, study of, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Court-plaster, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Courts of Love, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a></li> - <li class='c022'><a id='COURTSHIP'></a>Courtship: among animals, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>; - <ul> - <li>facilitated by love-calls, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li> - <li>display of ornaments, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>;</li> - <li>among savages, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>;</li> - <li>Hebrews, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>;</li> - <li>Greeks, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>;</li> - <li>Plato on, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>;</li> - <li>advice to mediæval girls, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>;</li> - <li>definition and value of, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li> - <li>playing at, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>;</li> - <li>French, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>;</li> - <li>Italian, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>;</li> - <li>Spanish, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>;</li> - <li>German, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>;</li> - <li>American and English, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>;</li> - <li>the object of dancing, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>;</li> - <li>needed in France, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>;</li> - <li>Germany, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Cousins: Love and kissing, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>; - <ul> - <li>as chaperons, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Coyness: an overtone of Love, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>; - <ul> - <li>among animals, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>;</li> - <li>among primitive maidens, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>;</li> - <li>Hindoos, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li> - <li>Greeks, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>; <i>et seq.</i>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_552'>552</span>a feminine weapon, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li> - <li>disadvantages of, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li> - <li>lessens woman’s Love, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>;</li> - <li>displaced by flirtation, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</li> - <li>of fate, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li> - <li>after marriage, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>;</li> - <li>varies, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>;</li> - <li>how to overcome, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;</li> - <li>needed in Germany, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Crimes, against Health and Beauty, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Criminal types, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Crinoline craze, the, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Cross-fertilisation: advantages to Health and Beauty, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a></li> - <li class='c022'><a id='CROSSING'></a>Crossing, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>; - <ul> - <li>a source of Beauty, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Crowe and Cavalcaselle, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> - <li class='c022'>“Cunning to be strange,” <a href='#Page_115'>115</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Cupid’s arrows, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Curing Love, art of: 154, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>; - <ul> - <li>absence, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>;</li> - <li>travel, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>;</li> - <li>employment, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>;</li> - <li>contemplation of married misery, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>;</li> - <li>of feminine inferiority, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</li> - <li>focussing her faults, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</li> - <li>reason <i>versus</i> passion, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>;</li> - <li>Love <i>versus</i> Love, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Curvature, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_396'>396</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Dancing: love-dances of birds, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>; - <ul> - <li>and grace, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>;</li> - <li>and courtship, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>;</li> - <li>birds, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>;</li> - <li>Greeks and Romans, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</li> - <li>why men no longer care for, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>;</li> - <li>evolution of dance-music, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>;</li> - <li>dance of Love, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>;</li> - <li>ballet, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Dante, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Darwin: on flowers and insects, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>; - <ul> - <li>benefactor of animals, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>;</li> - <li>birds, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>;</li> - <li>animal jealousy, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li> - <li>coyness, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>;</li> - <li>sexual selection, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>;</li> - <li>love charms and calls, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li> - <li>birds displaying their ornaments, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>;</li> - <li>English Beauty, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>;</li> - <li>female tenderness, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>;</li> - <li>masculine females, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li> - <li>expression of Love, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li> - <li>amorous desire for contact, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li> - <li>origin of kissing, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li> - <li>feminine inferiority, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</li> - <li>taste, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>;</li> - <li>symmetry in nature, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>;</li> - <li>bird dances and courtship, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>;</li> - <li>Hottentot bustle, or steatopyg, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>;</li> - <li>jaws and hands, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>;</li> - <li>lip mutilations, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>;</li> - <li>expression of emotions, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>;</li> - <li>Siamese notions of Beauty, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>;</li> - <li>blushing, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_553'>553</span>Albinos, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>;</li> - <li>movements of ears, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li> - <li>point of, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>;</li> - <li>mutilations, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>;</li> - <li>the nose, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>;</li> - <li>sense of smell, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>;</li> - <li>Indian heads, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>;</li> - <li>movements of the scalp, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>;</li> - <li>complexion, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>;</li> - <li>eyebrows, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a>;</li> - <li>loss of man’s hair, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Darwinism, new proof for, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Decrepitude, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Deformity: fatal to Love, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>; - <ul> - <li>elimination of, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Degradation: a cause of ugliness, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Delicacy, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Depilatories, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a></li> - <li class='c022'>De Quincy: inferiority of feminine imagination, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Diagnosis of Love, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Diderot: effects of Love, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Dimples, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Disease: kills Love, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>; - <ul> - <li>a cause of ugliness, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>;</li> - <li>resulting from tight shoes, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>;</li> - <li>from lacing, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>;</li> - <li>hollow eyes, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>;</li> - <li>and Fashion, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a>, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Display of ornaments, by animals, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Don Juans, among birds, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Draughts, stupid fear of, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Drayton, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Dress, improprieties of, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>; - <ul> - <li>woman’s for woman, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Dryden: on Love, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>; - <ul> - <li>Love <i>versus</i> Love, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Dühring, Dr.: German money-marriages, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Dürer, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Ears: a useless ornament, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>; - <ul> - <li>physiognomic theories, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Eckstein: antiquity of Love, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Education of Girls, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>; - <ul> - <li>the right kind, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</li> - <li>effect of on Beauty, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a>, <a href='#Page_542'>542</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Egypt: Love in, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Electricity, as a cosmetic, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a>, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Eliot, George: on first Love, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Elopements, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Elson, L. C.: Troubadours and Minnesingers, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Emerson: poetry and science, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>; - <ul> - <li>lovers’ sympathy, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>;</li> - <li>on lovers, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>;</li> - <li>amorous hyperbole, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li> - <li>balm for rejected lovers, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_554'>554</span>ocular expression, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a>;</li> - <li>Health and Beauty, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Emotional differentiation, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Empedokles, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Engagements, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>; - <ul> - <li>broken, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>English Beauty, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>; - <ul> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>;</li> - <li>open-air games, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>;</li> - <li>mouths and chins, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a>;</li> - <li>nose, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>;</li> - <li>beards, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>;</li> - <li>Brunettes gaining on Blondes, <a href='#Page_499'>499</a>;</li> - <li>physique, <a href='#Page_507'>507</a>, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>, <a href='#Page_528'>528</a> <i>seq.</i></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>English Love: courtship, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>; - <ul> - <li>flirtation, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>288-294</a>;</li> - <li>Goldsmith on, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Epicures: why handsome, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Erasmus: kissing in England, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Erotomania, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Evolution of Love, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>; - <ul> - <li>of Beauty, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>;</li> - <li>of taste, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>;</li> - <li>great toe, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Exaggeration: characteristic of bad taste, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Exclusiveness: amorous. <i>See</i> <a href='#MONOPOLY'>Monopoly</a></li> - <li class='c022'><a id='EXERCISE'></a>Exercise: effects on Beauty, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>; - <ul> - <li>reduces fatness but increases muscle, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>, <a href='#Page_525'>525</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Exogamy, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Expression: improves form of features, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>; - <ul> - <li>facial, of Love, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li> - <li>of lips, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>;</li> - <li>of Beauty, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>347-352</a>;</li> - <li>mouth, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>;</li> - <li>facial, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>;</li> - <li>of vice, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>;</li> - <li>of lust, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>;</li> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a>, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a>;</li> - <li>dog’s tail, <a href='#Page_491'>491</a>;</li> - <li>Italian, <a href='#Page_513'>513</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Eyes, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>; - <ul> - <li>smiling, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;</li> - <li>the most beautiful feature, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>;</li> - <li>colour of, <a href='#Page_465'>465</a>;</li> - <li>lustre, <a href='#Page_469'>469</a>;</li> - <li>form, <a href='#Page_472'>472</a>;</li> - <li>lashes and brows, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a>, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a>, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>;</li> - <li>expression of, <a href='#Page_479'>479</a>;</li> - <li>movements of iris, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a>;</li> - <li>of eyeball, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a>;</li> - <li>of lids, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>;</li> - <li>of brows, <a href='#Page_484'>484</a>;</li> - <li>“making eyes,” <a href='#Page_491'>491</a>;</li> - <li>dark <i>versus</i> light, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a>;</li> - <li>Spanish, <a href='#Page_516'>516</a>, <a href='#Page_517'>517</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Face, the, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>, <a href='#Page_490'>490</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Factories: unhealthy, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>; - <ul> - <li>whistles, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Fashion: the Handmaid of Ugliness, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>; - <ul> - <li>a disease, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>;</li> - <li>mutilates the feet, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>;</li> - <li>frustrates advantages of dancing, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>;</li> - <li>prescribes absurd hours, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>;</li> - <li>its essence vulgar exaggeration, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_555'>555</span>crinoline craze, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>;</li> - <li>wasp-waist mania, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>;</li> - <li>lacing, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>;</li> - <li>Fashion Fetish analysed, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</li> - <li>and Darwinism, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>;</li> - <li>repeats itself, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>;</li> - <li>ludicrous features, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>;</li> - <li>masculine, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>;</li> - <li>disgusting pictures, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>;</li> - <li>deforms the breasts, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>;</li> - <li>finger-nails, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>;</li> - <li>gloves, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</li> - <li>right-handedness, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>;</li> - <li>teeth, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;</li> - <li>powders and paints, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>;</li> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>;</li> - <li>noses, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>, <a href='#Page_443'>443</a>;</li> - <li><i>versus</i> Taste, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>;</li> - <li>forehead, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>;</li> - <li>court-plaster, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>;</li> - <li>eyebrows, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a>;</li> - <li>hollow eyes, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>;</li> - <li>mutilates eyes, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>;</li> - <li>head-dresses, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a>;</li> - <li>tyranny of ugliness, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>;</li> - <li>and bad manners, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Fat, cosmetic value of, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Feet, the: size, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>; - <ul> - <li>fashionable ugliness, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>;</li> - <li>tests of Beauty, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>;</li> - <li>not enlarged by <em>graceful</em> walking, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Feminine Beauty: in masculine eyes, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>; - <ul> - <li>prematurely lost, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>;</li> - <li>rarer than masculine, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>;</li> - <li>greater than masculine, <a href='#Page_342'>342</a>;</li> - <li>bosom, <a href='#Page_342'>342</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>;</li> - <li>face, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>;</li> - <li>nose, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a>;</li> - <li>forehead, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>;</li> - <li>wrinkles, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>;</li> - <li>skin, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>;</li> - <li>beard, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Feminine Inferiority, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Feminine Love: less deep than masculine, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>; - <ul> - <li>desire to please, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>;</li> - <li>dynamic, not æsthetic, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>;</li> - <li>at thirty, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>;</li> - <li>expression of, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li> - <li>lessens delicacy, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;</li> - <li>Fichte on, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Feminine virtues, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>; - <ul> - <li>mediæval culture, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>;</li> - <li>cruelty, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>;</li> - <li>devotion, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Femininity, standard of, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Fichte: feminine Love, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Fickleness of genius, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Figuier, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>, <a href='#Page_506'>506</a>, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>, <a href='#Page_511'>511</a>, <a href='#Page_517'>517</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Figure: a good, inspires Love, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>; - <ul> - <li>Oriental, <a href='#Page_540'>540</a>;</li> - <li>plump, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Filial Love, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Finger-nails, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Fletcher, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Flirtation and coquetry, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>; - <ul> - <li>definition of, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>;</li> - <li><i>versus</i> coyness, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>;</li> - <li>in Spain, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>;</li> - <li>Germany, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_556'>556</span>England, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>;</li> - <li>with the eyes, <a href='#Page_484'>484</a>, <a href='#Page_491'>491</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Flower love and beauty, <a href='#Page_11'>7-11</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Flower, Prof.: walking, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>; - <ul> - <li>toes, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>;</li> - <li>nose-rings, <a href='#Page_443'>443</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Forehead, the, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>; - <ul> - <li>Beauty and brain, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>;</li> - <li>fashionable deformity, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Fragrance, a tonic, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a></li> - <li class='c022'>France: the source of vulgar Fashions, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Franklin, B.: early marriages, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>; - <ul> - <li>advantages of large families, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Freckles, not caused by sunshine, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a></li> - <li class='c022'>French Beauty: rare as Love-marriages, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>; - <ul> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>;</li> - <li>ugly fashions, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>;</li> - <li>brunettes and blondes, <a href='#Page_499'>499</a>;</li> - <li>general 506;</li> - <li>in America, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a>;</li> - <li>compared with English, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>French Love: Chivalry, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>; - <ul> - <li>Troubadours, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</li> - <li>no flirtation, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>;</li> - <li>grandchildren sacrificed, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li> - <li>lower classes, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>;</li> - <li>feminine, at thirty, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li> - <li>killed by ridicule, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>265-274</a>, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>French, T. R.: nose-breathing, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Freytag, G.: mediæval German marriages, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Friendship, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>; - <ul> - <li>among animals, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>;</li> - <li>female, in Greece, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>;</li> - <li>advantages over conjugal love, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Fringe, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Gait, graceful, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>; - <ul> - <li>defects in woman’s, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>;</li> - <li>in Spain, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a>, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Gallantry: an overtone of Love, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>; - <ul> - <li>among animals, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li> - <li>among savages, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;</li> - <li>birth of, in Rome, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>;</li> - <li>crazy mediæval, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>;</li> - <li>conjugal, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>;</li> - <li>extravagant forms of, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</li> - <li>feminine, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li> - <li>flattery in actions, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>;</li> - <li>Italian, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>;</li> - <li>Spanish, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>;</li> - <li>German, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>;</li> - <li>American, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>;</li> - <li>true, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>;</li> - <li>why on the wane, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Galton: on Coyness, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>; - <ul> - <li>callous feelings, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>;</li> - <li>morals and large families, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>;</li> - <li>heredity of genius, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s senses less delicate than man’s, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</li> - <li>ancestral influences, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>;</li> - <li>criminal types, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>;</li> - <li>stature and marriage, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a>;</li> - <li>change in English physiognomy, <a href='#Page_530'>530</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_557'>557</span>Gastronomy: cosmetic value of, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>; - <ul> - <li>England, <a href='#Page_535'>535</a>;</li> - <li>America, <a href='#Page_539'>539</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Gautier, Th.: woman has no sense of beauty, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Genius: emotional, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>; - <ul> - <li>and Health, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>;</li> - <li>and marriage, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li> - <li>and Love, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>;</li> - <li>modern, abundant, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>;</li> - <li>in Love, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>;</li> - <li>amorous precocity, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>;</li> - <li>ardour, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</li> - <li><i>versus</i> rank and money, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</li> - <li>fickleness, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</li> - <li>multiplicity, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li> - <li>and Monopoly, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>;</li> - <li>fictitiousness, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Georgian women, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a></li> - <li class='c022'>German Beauty: 144; - <ul> - <li>Bavarian corpulence, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</li> - <li>Brunettes gaining on Blondes, <a href='#Page_499'>499</a>;</li> - <li>physiognomy, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a>;</li> - <li>general, <a href='#Page_528'>522-528</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>German Love: chivalry, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>; - <ul> - <li>Minnesingers, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li> - <li>in Folksongs, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>;</li> - <li>word for courtship, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>;</li> - <li>in novels, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li> - <li>gallantry, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</li> - <li>compared with French, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>, <a href='#Page_288'>280-288</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Girls: of the Period, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>; - <ul> - <li>plain, chances of getting married, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>;</li> - <li>pretty, apt to be spoiled, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>;</li> - <li>wrong education, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</li> - <li>cages <i>versus</i> nets, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>;</li> - <li>hints on men, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</li> - <li>American and English, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;</li> - <li>best education for, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>;</li> - <li>easily duped, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>;</li> - <li>Germany, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>;</li> - <li>know when they are ugly, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>;</li> - <li>should skate, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>;</li> - <li>how to acquire a fine figure, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Gladstone: Greek hair, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>, <a href='#Page_498'>498</a>; - <ul> - <li>stature, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Godkin, E. L.: true character of milliners, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Goethe: <cite>Elective Affinities</cite>, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>; - <ul> - <li>affection for nature, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>;</li> - <li>ancient love, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>;</li> - <li>first love, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</li> - <li>intellect and Love, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>;</li> - <li>love affairs, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li> - <li>unhappy marriages, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>;</li> - <li>transitoriness of Love, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>;</li> - <li>aversion to noise, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Goldsmith: on Love, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>; - <ul> - <li>his first love, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li> - <li>English Love, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Grace, where found, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>; - <ul> - <li>of gait, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>;</li> - <li>acquired by dancing, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>;</li> - <li>destroyed by corsets, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>;</li> - <li>movements of the head, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>;</li> - <li>French, <a href='#Page_507'>507</a>;</li> - <li>Italian, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a>;</li> - <li>Spanish, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a>, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_558'>558</span>Gradation, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Grandchildren: sacrificed to money-marriages, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Gratiolet, <a href='#Page_479'>479</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Greek Beauty, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>; - <ul> - <li>sources of, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>;</li> - <li>animals as ideals, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>;</li> - <li>no expression, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>;</li> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>;</li> - <li>gymnastics, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>;</li> - <li>hands, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>;</li> - <li>chin, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>;</li> - <li>lips, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>;</li> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li> - <li>beards, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>;</li> - <li>arrangement of hair, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a>;</li> - <li>colour of hair, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a>;</li> - <li>stature, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Greek Love, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Griffin, Sir L.: French women, <a href='#Page_506'>506</a>; - <ul> - <li>American women, <a href='#Page_536'>536</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Grose: noses, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Grote, G.: Platonic love, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>; - <ul> - <li>Greek Beauty, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>;</li> - <li>Amazons, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Gymnastics: among Greeks, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Gypsy, Spanish, <a href='#Page_516'>516</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Haeckel, Prof., <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>, <a href='#Page_523'>523</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Hair: how to wear, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_530'>530</a>; - <ul> - <li>on the arm, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>;</li> - <li>cause of man’s nudity, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>;</li> - <li>how to remove, <a href='#Page_491'>491</a>;</li> - <li>preserved by Sexual Selection, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>;</li> - <li>æsthetic value of, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a>;</li> - <li>blonde and brunette, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>;</li> - <li>red, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hamerton, P. G.: Love and age, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>; - <ul> - <li>feminine sympathy, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>;</li> - <li>embers of passion, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>;</li> - <li>French Love, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hammond, Dr. W.: Delirium of Persecution, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>; - <ul> - <li>erotomania, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hand, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Handel, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Harrison, J. P.: length of first and second toes, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Hartmann, E. von: pleasure and pain, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>; - <ul> - <li>masculine and feminine Love, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hats, tall, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>; - <ul> - <li>hideous French, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Haweis, Mrs.: Fashion <i>versus</i> Beauty, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a>; - <ul> - <li>turban, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a>;</li> - <li>hair-powder, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hawthorne, N.: a love-letter, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>; - <ul> - <li>English Beauty, <a href='#Page_531'>531</a>;</li> - <li>American physique, <a href='#Page_538'>538</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hawthorne, Julian: German Beauty, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Haydn, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Hazlitt, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_559'>559</span>Head, the deformities of, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>; - <ul> - <li>and hair, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Health: correlated with Beauty in flowers, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>; - <ul> - <li>in animals, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>;</li> - <li>men and women, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>;</li> - <li>source of Love, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>;</li> - <li>source of Beauty, <a href='#Page_317'>310-317</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a>;</li> - <li>and delicacy, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>;</li> - <li>exercise, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>;</li> - <li>lacing, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>;</li> - <li>sins against, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a>;</li> - <li>and colour, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>;</li> - <li>and lustre, <a href='#Page_469'>469</a>, <a href='#Page_477'>477</a>;</li> - <li>eyelids, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>;</li> - <li>and sunshine, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>;</li> - <li>in Italy, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a>;</li> - <li>England, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a>;</li> - <li>America, <a href='#Page_538'>538</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hebra, Prof.: freckles, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a></li> - <li class='c022'><a id='HEBREWS'></a>Hebrews: Love among ancient, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>; - <ul> - <li>sense of beauty, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</li> - <li>absence of jealousy, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li> - <li>beauty and ugliness of, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>;</li> - <li>noses, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hegel: colour of the skin, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Heine: flower and butterfly love, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>; - <ul> - <li>the word love, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</li> - <li>joy and torture, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>;</li> - <li>persiflage of coyness, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li> - <li>jealousy, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>;</li> - <li>on first Love, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>;</li> - <li>his marriage, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>;</li> - <li>poet for lovers, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;</li> - <li>his first love, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>;</li> - <li>his true love, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>;</li> - <li>æsthetic love, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</li> - <li>multiplicity, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li> - <li>wedding music, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s character, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li> - <li>curing Love with Love, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>;</li> - <li>French Love, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>;</li> - <li>an emotional educator, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>;</li> - <li>Italian Beauty, <a href='#Page_515'>515</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Helmholtz: overtones, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Herder: Love, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>; - <ul> - <li>eyes of great men, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Heredity: of genius, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Hetairai, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Higginson, T. W.: sexual likeness, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>; - <ul> - <li>American physique, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hindoo Love maxims, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a></li> - <li class='c022'>History of Love, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Holland, F. W.: morals and large families, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Holmes, O. W.: feminine barbarity, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>; - <ul> - <li>refined lips, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Homer: Helen’s Beauty, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Honeymoon, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Horwicz, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Hottentots: notions of Beauty, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Howells, W. D.: monogamy, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>; - <ul> - <li>feminine self-abnegation, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li> - <li>Italian courtship, <a href='#Page_276'>275-276</a>;</li> - <li>broken engagements, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>;</li> - <li>playful flattery, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hueffer, F.: Troubadours, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_560'>560</span>Hume: uncertainty augments passion, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>; - <ul> - <li>mixed emotions, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Humphrey, Dr.: walking, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Hungarian Beauty, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Huxley: female education, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>; - <ul> - <li>ape’s foot, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'><a id='HYGIENE'></a>Hygiene, modern: a source of Beauty, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>; - <ul> - <li>of the feet, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>;</li> - <li>legs, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>;</li> - <li>chest, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a>;</li> - <li>fatal consequences of neglect, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a>;</li> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a>;</li> - <li>in England, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Hyperbole: emotional, an overtone of Love, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>; - <ul> - <li>in ancient Aryan Love, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_166'>162-166</a>;</li> - <li>after marriage, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>;</li> - <li>pathologic analogies, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</li> - <li>contact, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li> - <li>and genius, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</li> - <li>in America, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Indians, American: wooing, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>; - <ul> - <li>standard of Beauty, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>;</li> - <li>muscular power, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</li> - <li>deformed skulls, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Indifference, feigned: value to lovers, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> - <li class='c022'><a id='INDIVIDUAL'></a>Individual Preference: an overtone of Love, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>; - <ul> - <li>among animals, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>;</li> - <li>savages, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>;</li> - <li>Hebrews, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>;</li> - <li>Greeks, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>;</li> - <li>Romans, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval times, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_177'>173-177</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>;</li> - <li>Italy, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>;</li> - <li>Spain, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>;</li> - <li>Germany, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>;</li> - <li>England, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_535'>535</a>;</li> - <li>America, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>;</li> - <li>Schopenhauer on, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Individualism <i>versus</i> Fashion, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Individuality, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>; - <ul> - <li>and nationality, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Individuals: sacrificed to species, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Insanity and Love: analogies, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>; - <ul> - <li>erotomania, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Intellect and Beauty, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Intellect and Love, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Intoxication, amorous, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Iris, <a href='#Page_466'>466</a>, <a href='#Page_479'>479</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Irving, Washington: transient Love, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>; - <ul> - <li>intellect and Beauty, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>;</li> - <li>Spanish Beauty, <a href='#Page_519'>519</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Italian Beauty: 274, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>; - <ul> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>;</li> - <li>nose, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>;</li> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a>, <a href='#Page_502'>502</a>;</li> - <li>complexion, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>;</li> - <li>general, <a href='#Page_515'>511-515</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Italian Love: chivalry, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>; - <ul> - <li>no word for courtship, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_277'>274-277</a>, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_561'>561</span>Jaeger, G.: personal perfumery, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a></li> - <li class='c022'>James, Henry: American women, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>; - <ul> - <li>Daisy Miller, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Japan: jealousy, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Jaws, the, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Jealousy: an overtone of Love, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>; - <ul> - <li>among animals, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li> - <li>moral mission of, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</li> - <li>occasional absence among savages, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</li> - <li>Greek, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_133'>127-133</a>;</li> - <li>retrospective and prospective, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>;</li> - <li>aroused by Beauty, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</li> - <li>conjugal, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>;</li> - <li>Oriental, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>;</li> - <li>morbid, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Jeffrey: on Taste, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>; - <ul> - <li>theory of Beauty, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Jews. <i>See</i> <a href='#HEBREWS'>Hebrews</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Johnson, Dr.: second Love, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>; - <ul> - <li>marriage and Love, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Jowett, Prof.: Sokrates, love and friendship, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Kant: women ensnared by counterfeit lovers, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>; - <ul> - <li>value of smiles, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Karr, A.: Woman’s Love, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Keats: amorous hyperbole, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>; - <ul> - <li>paradox, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</li> - <li>Beauty and Love, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li> - <li>love-letters, <a href='#Page_248'>246-248</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Kissing, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>; - <ul> - <li>among animals, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>;</li> - <li>savages, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>;</li> - <li>origin of, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li> - <li>ancient, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>;</li> - <li>love-kisses, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li> - <li>art of, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>;</li> - <li>varieties of, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>;</li> - <li>on the ears, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>;</li> - <li>cheeks, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Knight: Beauty and utility, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Knille: Italian Beauty, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Kollmann, Prof.: feminine Beauty, <a href='#Page_342'>342</a>; - <ul> - <li>walking, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</li> - <li>muscular development, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>;</li> - <li>gait, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>;</li> - <li>breasts, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>;</li> - <li>face, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>;</li> - <li>nose, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>;</li> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_502'>502</a>;</li> - <li>results of crossing, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Koran, the: on woman’s soul, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Krafft-Ebing: Insanity and Love, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>La Bruyère: how to win love, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>; - <ul> - <li>on use of paint, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Lacing: fatal to Beauty, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Lamartine: genius and Love, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>; - <ul> - <li>love-affairs, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Lamb, Chas.: amorous paradoxes, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>; - <ul> - <li>love-affairs, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Language of Love: words, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>; - <ul> - <li>facial expression, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_562'>562</span>caresses, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>La Rochefoucauld: Love and friendship, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>; - <ul> - <li>and absence, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Lathrop, G. P.: Love-making in Spain, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>; - <ul> - <li>Spanish Beauty, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Laughter, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Lavater: chin, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>; - <ul> - <li>ocular lustre, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Lawson, F. P.: effect of education on Beauty, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Leanness, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>; - <ul> - <li>how to cure, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Lecky: on kindness to animals, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>; - <ul> - <li>family affections among Greeks, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</li> - <li>asceticism and chastity, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li> - <li>feminine devotion, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li> - <li>southern type of Beauty, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Lenau: love-letters, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>; - <ul> - <li>music and Love, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Leo, Judah: on Love, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Lessing: every woman a shrew, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Life: prolonged through hygienic care, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Lips, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>; - <ul> - <li>expression of scorn, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>;</li> - <li>refined, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>;</li> - <li>lip language, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>;</li> - <li>effect on, of æsthetic culture, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Liszt, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> - <li class='c022'>London, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Longfellow, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Love-charms (and calls): among animals, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>; - <ul> - <li>for women, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Love-dramas, among flowers, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Love-maxims: Hindoo, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></li> - <li class='c022'><a id='LOVE'></a>Love, Romantic: a modern sentiment, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>; - <ul> - <li>superior to friendship, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>;</li> - <li>to maternal love, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;</li> - <li>secures to man the benefits of cross-fertilisation, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>;</li> - <li>overtones of, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>;</li> - <li>a great moral, æsthetic and hygienic force, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>;</li> - <li>among animals, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>;</li> - <li>savages, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>;</li> - <li>Egyptians, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</li> - <li>Hebrews, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li> - <li>ancient Aryans, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</li> - <li>more traces of modern in Indian poetry than in Greek and Roman, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>;</li> - <li>among Greeks, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</li> - <li>origin of, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>;</li> - <li>among Romans, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>;</li> - <li>Mediæval, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li> - <li>wooing and waiting, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;</li> - <li>dependent on refinement, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;</li> - <li>maid <i>versus</i> married woman, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>;</li> - <li>birth of modern, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>;</li> - <li>order of development proved, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>;</li> - <li>at the altar, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>;</li> - <li>in novels, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>;</li> - <li>pleasure of pursuit, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li> - <li>value of procrastination, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_563'>563</span>coyness lessens woman’s, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>;</li> - <li>masculine deeper than feminine, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>;</li> - <li>modern jealousy, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>;</li> - <li>passion or admiration, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>;</li> - <li>is transient, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>;</li> - <li>is first best? <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</li> - <li>Heine on first, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>;</li> - <li>first is not best, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>;</li> - <li>individual <i>versus</i> the species, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</li> - <li>coquetry, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</li> - <li>opposed by rank, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>;</li> - <li>intensifies emotions, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>;</li> - <li>stimulates social sympathy, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>;</li> - <li>selfish aspect of, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>;</li> - <li>at first sight, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>;</li> - <li>inspired by a fine figure, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>;</li> - <li>by sympathy, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>;</li> - <li>responsible for general growth of Gallantry, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li> - <li>refines men, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>;</li> - <li>impels toward self-sacrifice, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li> - <li>emotional hyperbole, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>;</li> - <li>intoxication of, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li> - <li>honeymoon, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</li> - <li>mixed moods and paradoxes, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>;</li> - <li>course of true, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li> - <li>lunatic, lover, and poet, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</li> - <li>and conjugal, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>;</li> - <li>individual choice, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>;</li> - <li>and culture, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>;</li> - <li>idealised by Beauty, <a href='#Page_180'>177-180</a>;</li> - <li>responsible for Beauty, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li> - <li>differs from conjugal, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>;</li> - <li>elements of, in conjugal affection, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>;</li> - <li>makes men embarrassed, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</li> - <li>free choice does not always imply Love, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;</li> - <li>eliminates ugly and masculine women, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>;</li> - <li>inspired by Beauty, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li> - <li>a duty, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li> - <li>must be mutual, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li> - <li>genius is amorous, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li> - <li><em>a creative impulse</em>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;</li> - <li>imagined is real, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>;</li> - <li>arouses genius, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>;</li> - <li>precocious, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>;</li> - <li>most intense in men of genius, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>;</li> - <li>fickle, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li> - <li>loving two at once, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li> - <li>“sublimed” by Beauty, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>;</li> - <li>pathologic analogies, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>;</li> - <li>erotomania, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>;</li> - <li>language of, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>;</li> - <li>facial expression of, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li> - <li>caresses, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>;</li> - <li>how to win, <a href='#Page_255'>237-255</a>;</li> - <li>feminine, and genius, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>;</li> - <li>effects of, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>;</li> - <li>compliments, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li> - <li>love-letters not necessarily slovenly, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>;</li> - <li>extracts from, <a href='#Page_250'>247-250</a>;</li> - <li>charms for women, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>;</li> - <li>masculine, and vanity, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>;</li> - <li>opposed to viragoes, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>;</li> - <li>proposing, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>;</li> - <li>signs and tests of, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;</li> - <li>how to cure, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>;</li> - <li>effect of absence on, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>;</li> - <li>effects of marriage on, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>;</li> - <li>poisoned by humiliation, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_564'>564</span><i>versus</i> Love, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>;</li> - <li>chances of recovery, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>;</li> - <li>national peculiarities, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>;</li> - <li>massacred in France, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</li> - <li>Italian, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>;</li> - <li>Spanish, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>;</li> - <li>German, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>;</li> - <li>English, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>;</li> - <li>American, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>;</li> - <li>a cause of Beauty, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>;</li> - <li>points out woman’s sphere, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>;</li> - <li>obedience to, a moral duty, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>;</li> - <li>Schopenhauer’s theory of, <a href='#Page_310'>301-310</a>;</li> - <li>sources of, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>;</li> - <li>complementary, explanation of, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>;</li> - <li>leads to happy marriages, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>;</li> - <li>a source of Beauty, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>;</li> - <li>displaces cruel Natural Selection, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>;</li> - <li>is inspired by grace, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>;</li> - <li>more concerned with form than with colour, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>;</li> - <li>guided by subtle signs, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>;</li> - <li>individualisation and “beauty-spots,” <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>;</li> - <li>neglects no detail of Beauty, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>;</li> - <li>the object of dancing, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>;</li> - <li>killed by fashionable deformity, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>;</li> - <li>feminine and masculine, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>;</li> - <li>maintains æsthetic proportion, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>;</li> - <li>related to Health and Beauty, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;</li> - <li>beautifies the face, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>;</li> - <li>special expression of, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>;</li> - <li>beautifies the lips, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>;</li> - <li>the cheeks, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>;</li> - <li>and fresh air, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li> - <li>and blushes, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>;</li> - <li>inspired by a musical voice, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a>;</li> - <li>beautifies the nose, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>;</li> - <li>eliminates high feminine foreheads, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>;</li> - <li>method of amorous selection, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>;</li> - <li>awakens the sense of beauty, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>;</li> - <li>banishes rouge, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>;</li> - <li>inspired by eyes, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>;</li> - <li>beautifies the eyes, <a href='#Page_469'>469</a>;</li> - <li>eyebrows, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>;</li> - <li>large pupils, <a href='#Page_479'>479</a>;</li> - <li><span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>musculus amatorius</i></span>, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>;</li> - <li>killed by sunken eyes, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>;</li> - <li>preserves the hair, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>;</li> - <li>favours brunettes, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a>, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a>;</li> - <li>eye-lashes, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a>;</li> - <li>and Beauty, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a>;</li> - <li>favours small women, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>;</li> - <li><i>versus</i> reason, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a>;</li> - <li>and Beauty in England, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a>;</li> - <li>sexual differentiation, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a>;</li> - <li>in America, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a>;</li> - <li>age of, <a href='#Page_542'>542</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Lovers: selfish bores, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>; - <ul> - <li>quarrels, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li> - <li>musician and poet for, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>;</li> - <li>falsetto, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Love-sickness: real, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Love-stories; none in Greek literature, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_565'>565</span>Lubbock, Sir J.: on flowers and insects, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>; - <ul> - <li>absence of certain emotions in savages, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Lungs: hygiene of, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Lustre, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>; - <ul> - <li>in eyes, <a href='#Page_469'>469</a>, <a href='#Page_476'>476</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Luther: and marriage, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Lynn-Linton, Mrs.: Girl of the Period, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Macaulay: Petrarch’s love, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Madonna, Sistine, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>; - <ul> - <li>blond, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Magnus, Dr. Hugo: colour of the eye, <a href='#Page_469'>469</a>; - <ul> - <li>lustre, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a>;</li> - <li>expression, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a>;</li> - <li>portraits, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>;</li> - <li>individuality, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Manicure secrets, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Manners: essence of good, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a>; - <ul> - <li>Spanish, <a href='#Page_530'>530</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Mantegazza: on courtship, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>; - <ul> - <li>caresses, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>;</li> - <li>Esquimaux nose, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>;</li> - <li>Italian noses, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a>;</li> - <li>wrinkles, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>;</li> - <li>Italian Beauty, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Manu, laws of: on woman, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mariolatry: influence on woman’s position, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Marlowe: amorous hyperbole, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>; - <ul> - <li>half-kisses, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Marriage: among animals, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>; - <ul> - <li>Egyptian trial, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li> - <li>modern ideal of, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li> - <li>in Greece, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>;</li> - <li>in Rome, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li> - <li>and chivalry, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li> - <li>Love <i>versus</i> expediency, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</li> - <li>maiden <i>versus</i> wife, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li> - <li>through accident, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</li> - <li>men becoming cautious, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>;</li> - <li>Love not a motive in France, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li> - <li>of men of genius, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>;</li> - <li>money <i>versus</i> Beauty, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>;</li> - <li>“the sunset of Love,” <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>;</li> - <li>conditions of happy, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>;</li> - <li>nets and cages, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>;</li> - <li>of love, <i>versus</i> “reason,” <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a>;</li> - <li>hints, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;</li> - <li>chances for ugly women, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>;</li> - <li>age for, advancing, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>;</li> - <li>misery of, <a href='#Page_260'>257-260</a>;</li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>;</li> - <li>Germany, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>;</li> - <li>America, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>;</li> - <li>based on Love, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>;</li> - <li>and dancing, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>;</li> - <li>and noses, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>;</li> - <li>and complexion, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>;</li> - <li>Albinos, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>;</li> - <li>and stature, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Masculine Beauty: in feminine eyes, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>; - <ul> - <li>more common than feminine, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>;</li> - <li>face, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>;</li> - <li>nose, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a>;</li> - <li>forehead, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>;</li> - <li>wrinkles, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>;</li> - <li>beard, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>, <a href='#Page_490'>490</a>, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a>;</li> - <li>in Germany, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_566'>566</span>Masculine Love; deeper than feminine, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>; - <ul> - <li>coquetry, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</li> - <li>Gallantry, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</li> - <li>beautifying impulse, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>;</li> - <li>insincerity, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</li> - <li>comic expression of, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</li> - <li>won <i>vid</i> Vanity, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>;</li> - <li>increases delicacy, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;</li> - <li><i>versus</i> feminine, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Masculine vanity, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Masculine women: eliminated as old maids, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Massage, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Maternal Love, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>; - <ul> - <li>among animals, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Mediæval Love, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>; - <ul> - <li>celibacy, <i>versus</i> marriage, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s lowest degradation, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li> - <li>negation of feminine choice, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>;</li> - <li>Christianity and love, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>;</li> - <li>chivalry, militant and comic, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>;</li> - <li>poetic, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;</li> - <li>female culture, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>;</li> - <li>Personal Beauty, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>;</li> - <li>Spenser on Love, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</li> - <li>Dante and Shakspere, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Mediæval Ugliness: causes of, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Meditation beautifies the face, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mental culture: a source of Beauty, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>; - <ul> - <li>France, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>;</li> - <li>Italy, <a href='#Page_513'>513</a>;</li> - <li>Spain, <a href='#Page_519'>519</a>, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>;</li> - <li>Germany, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a>;</li> - <li>England, <a href='#Page_534'>534</a>;</li> - <li>America, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Middleton, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mill, J. S.: female self-denial, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>; - <ul> - <li>companionship in marriage, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s sphere, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Milliners’ cunning, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Milton, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Minnesingers, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mitchell, Dr. W.: American physique, <a href='#Page_538'>538</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mitchell, P. C.: monkeys’ kisses, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mixed Moods and Paradoxes of Love, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mixture of races (<i>see</i> also <a href='#CROSSING'>Crossing</a>): and Love, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a>; - <ul> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a>;</li> - <li>Italy, <a href='#Page_511'>511</a>;</li> - <li>Spain, <a href='#Page_515'>515</a>;</li> - <li>Germany, <a href='#Page_522'>522</a>;</li> - <li>England, <a href='#Page_516'>516</a>, <a href='#Page_528'>528</a>, <a href='#Page_538'>538</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Modesty: a source of Coyness, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>; - <ul> - <li>and blushes, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Monogamy: favours the development of Love, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>; - <ul> - <li>in Egypt, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'><a id='MONOPOLY'></a>Monopoly: an overtone of Love, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>; - <ul> - <li>among savages, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>;</li> - <li>in ancient Aryan Love, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</li> - <li>modern, <a href='#Page_141'>133-141</a>;</li> - <li>and genius, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li> - <li>three are a crowd, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</li> - <li>in Lenau’s love-letters, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_567'>567</span>masculine and feminine Love, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>, <a href='#Page_504'>504</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Montagu, Lady: on woman, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Montaigne: on marriage, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>; - <ul> - <li>Italian Beauty, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Moore, T.: genius and marriage, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>; - <ul> - <li>first love, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Moral impressions: confounded with æsthetic, <a href='#Page_479'>479</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mormons, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mountains: feelings inspired by, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Mouth: muscles of, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>; - <ul> - <li>self-made, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Muscles: development of, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>; - <ul> - <li>use and disuse, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>;</li> - <li>the plastic material of Beauty, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>;</li> - <li>of an athlete, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>;</li> - <li>facial, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>;</li> - <li>mouth, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Music: of male birds, does it charm the females? <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>; - <ul> - <li>dance-music, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</li> - <li>Chopin’s funeral march, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li> - <li>fans love, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a>, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Nationality: and Beauty, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a>; - <ul> - <li>and Love, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Natural Selection: a cause of Beauty, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a> <i>seq.</i>; - <ul> - <li>replaced by Love, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>;</li> - <li>blushes, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li> - <li>complexion, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>;</li> - <li>eyebrows, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a>;</li> - <li>loss of hair, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Neck, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Negroes: African, strangers to Love, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>; - <ul> - <li>American, can they love? <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;</li> - <li>ugliness of, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>;</li> - <li>standard of Beauty, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>;</li> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>;</li> - <li>legs, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>;</li> - <li>teeth, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;</li> - <li>lips, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>;</li> - <li>cause of blackness, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a>;</li> - <li>complexion, inferiority of, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>, <a href='#Page_467'>467</a>, <a href='#Page_468'>468</a>, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>;</li> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>New York: a silly fashion in, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>; - <ul> - <li>noise in, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a>, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>;</li> - <li>effeminate men, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Nordau, Max: love in Germany, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Norton, C. E.: on Dante, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Nose, the: shape and size, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>; - <ul> - <li>evolution of, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>;</li> - <li>Greek and Hebrew, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>;</li> - <li>fashion and cosmetic surgery, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>;</li> - <li>important functions of, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Nose-breathing: importance of, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a>, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Novels: Love in, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Novelty: and first Love, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Nudity: cause of man’s, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Odours: cosmetic value of, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_568'>568</span>Old Maids, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></li> - <li class='c022'>O’Rell, Max: French chaperonage, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>; - <ul> - <li>English degraded women, <a href='#Page_531'>531</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Origin of Love, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Ornamentation: non-æsthetic, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Ovid: on tricks of Gallantry, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>; - <ul> - <li>rarity of Beauty in Rome, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>;</li> - <li>art of making love, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>;</li> - <li>Gallantry, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li> - <li>conception of Love, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>;</li> - <li>enduring a rival, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li> - <li>estimate of, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li> - <li>loving two at once, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li> - <li>how to cure love, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Paradoxes of Love, <a href='#Page_173'>166-173</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Parasols, <a href='#Page_463'>463</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Pascal: self-conscious lovers, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Paternal love, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>; - <ul> - <li>animals, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Pepys: Spanish wooing, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Perfume: personal, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>; - <ul> - <li>cosmetic value of, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Pessimism, erotic, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Petrarch: as a love-poet, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Photographs: why inferior to portraits, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>; - <ul> - <li>why so often bad, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Physiognomy: comparative, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>; - <ul> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li> - <li>colour of the eyes, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a>;</li> - <li>variety in, and Love, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a>;</li> - <li>language of passion, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Pity and Love, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Planché: wasp-waists, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Plato: on Courtship, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>; - <ul> - <li>“Platonic” Love, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</li> - <li>origin of Love, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>;</li> - <li>pre-matrimonial acquaintance, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>;</li> - <li>mixed mood of love, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</li> - <li>irrational love, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>;</li> - <li>feminine inferiority, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</li> - <li>Love and Beauty, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Pleasure and pain, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Ploss: love-charms, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>; - <ul> - <li>Germanic marriages, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Plumpness: inspires Love, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Polish Beauty, <a href='#Page_528'>528</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Polygamy: among animals, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>; - <ul> - <li>conducive to Jealousy, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>;</li> - <li>among Hebrews, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li> - <li>in India, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</li> - <li>neutralizes conjugal love, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Portraits, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a>; - <ul> - <li>typical, <a href='#Page_537'>537</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Pretty: definition of, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Pride: in paternal love, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>; - <ul> - <li>in Romantic Love, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>;</li> - <li>and vanity, <a href='#Page_145'>141-145</a>;</li> - <li>in conjugal love, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>;</li> - <li>masculine vanity, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>;</li> - <li>wounded, cures Love, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_569'>569</span>Procrastination, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Proportion, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>; - <ul> - <li>facial, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>;</li> - <li>stature, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Proposing, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Prudery, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Purchase of wives, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Puritans: sins of, against Health, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Quadroons: beauty of American, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>; - <ul> - <li>graceful gait, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Railway whistles, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Raleigh: deep love, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Rank: an enemy of Love, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Raphael: on Beauty, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Realism: emotional, desirable in novels, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Reclam, Prof.: dust in lungs, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a>; - <ul> - <li>night air, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_525'>525</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Richardson, W. B.; the ideal city, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Right-handedness, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Roberts, Charles: brunettes and blondes, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Roberts, J. B.: nasal deformities, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Rochefoucauld, La: women, love, and friendship, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>; - <ul> - <li>pleasure of love, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Roman Beauty, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>; - <ul> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Roman Love, <a href='#Page_92'>86-92</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Rousseau: on woman’s Love, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>; - <ul> - <li>his last love, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Rückert: kissing, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Ruskin: poetry and science, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>; - <ul> - <li>love of dismal scenery, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li> - <li>amorous paradoxes, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s work, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a>;</li> - <li>health and beauty, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>;</li> - <li>and utility, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>;</li> - <li>happiness essential to beauty, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>;</li> - <li>intellect beautifies the features, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>;</li> - <li>taste of savages, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>;</li> - <li>beauty and utility, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>;</li> - <li>degradation and ugliness, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>;</li> - <li>wild scenery, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>;</li> - <li>symmetry, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>;</li> - <li>curvature, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>;</li> - <li>colour, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>;</li> - <li>moderation, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a>;</li> - <li>expression in the mouth, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>;</li> - <li>virtue and Beauty, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>;</li> - <li>Greek features, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>;</li> - <li>turban, beauty of, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a>;</li> - <li>southern Beauty, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Russian old maids, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Sappho: as a Love-poet, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Savages: development of maternal love, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>; - <ul> - <li>parental love, irregular, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>;</li> - <li>filial love weak, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>;</li> - <li>strangers to Romantic Love, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_570'>570</span>inferior to birds, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>;</li> - <li>courtship, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>;</li> - <li>regard for beauty, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>;</li> - <li>Jealousy and Polygamy, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>;</li> - <li>Gallantry, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>;</li> - <li>masculine women, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>;</li> - <li>notions of Beauty, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>;</li> - <li>conjugal attachment, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li> - <li>sense delicacy, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>;</li> - <li>inferior to us in Health, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>;</li> - <li>taste, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>;</li> - <li>tests of Beauty, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>;</li> - <li>ugliness of, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>;</li> - <li>dancing, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>;</li> - <li>muscular development, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</li> - <li>noses, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>;</li> - <li>paint, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Scalp: movements of, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Scandinavian complexion, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Scherer: on mediæval German Love, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Scherr, J.: on witchcraft trials, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>; - <ul> - <li>Wieland in love, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</li> - <li>Petrarch, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval courtship, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval Spanish women, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Schiller: Minnesingers, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Schopenhauer: on the Will, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>; - <ul> - <li>æsthetic enjoyment, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</li> - <li>final cause of colour in animals, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</li> - <li>love at first sight, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>;</li> - <li>self-sacrifice, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li> - <li>torments, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>;</li> - <li>celibacy and genius, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li> - <li>genius and woman’s love, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>;</li> - <li>unhappy marriages, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li> - <li>theory of Love, <a href='#Page_310'>301-310</a>;</li> - <li>animal Beauty, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>;</li> - <li>masculine and feminine beauty, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>;</li> - <li>small feet, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>;</li> - <li>the unæsthetic sex, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>;</li> - <li>noise and culture, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a>;</li> - <li>noses and marriage, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>, <a href='#Page_443'>443</a>;</li> - <li>Germans, <a href='#Page_523'>523</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Schumann, R.: 162; - <ul> - <li>love-affairs, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>;</li> - <li>on German Beauty, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Schweiger-Lerchenfeld: Italian women, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>; - <ul> - <li>Spanish love-making, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Schwenninger cure for corpulence, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Scotch Beauty, <a href='#Page_537'>537</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Scott, Sir W.: on Dryden and Love, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>; - <ul> - <li>and marriage, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>;</li> - <li>masculine vanity, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Seeley, Prof.: Goethe on Love, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Selden: marriage, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Self-sacrifice: an overtone of Love, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>; - <ul> - <li>conjugal, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;</li> - <li>in feminine Love, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>;</li> - <li>Schopenhauer on, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Sellar, Prof.: Ovid, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Seneca: Beauty, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Sensuality and Romantic Love, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Service for a wife, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_571'>571</span>Sex: the unæsthetic, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>; - <ul> - <li>and education, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Sexual differentiation, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Sexual Selection (<i>see</i> also <a href='#LOVE'>Love</a> and <a href='#INDIVIDUAL'>Individual Preference</a>): among animals, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>; - <ul> - <li>primitive men, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>;</li> - <li>effect on chest, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>;</li> - <li>loss of hair, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>;</li> - <li>blushes, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>;</li> - <li>noses, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>;</li> - <li>complexion, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>, <a href='#Page_465'>465</a>;</li> - <li>masculine and feminine, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>;</li> - <li>preserves hair on head, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>;</li> - <li>action uncertain, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a>;</li> - <li><i>versus</i> Natural Selection, <a href='#Page_542'>542</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Shakspere: treatment of Love, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>; - <ul> - <li>invests inanimate objects with human feelings, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>;</li> - <li>on Beauty, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>;</li> - <li>coyness and modesty, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s Love, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li> - <li>amorous hyperbole, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</li> - <li>course of true love, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</li> - <li>what inspires love in women, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>;</li> - <li>marriage of, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li> - <li>amorous character of, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</li> - <li>blind love, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;</li> - <li>lunatic and lover, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>;</li> - <li>kissing, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>;</li> - <li>winning love, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>;</li> - <li>refusals, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li> - <li>flattery, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</li> - <li>unsought love, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;</li> - <li>tests of Love, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>;</li> - <li>love never fatal, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>;</li> - <li>reason as Love’s physician, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>;</li> - <li>hereditary Beauty, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>;</li> - <li>feet, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>;</li> - <li>the beautiful and the characteristic, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>;</li> - <li>poet of Love, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>;</li> - <li>blushes, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li> - <li>expression in the eyes, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a>, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>;</li> - <li>love inspired by eyes, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>;</li> - <li>Blondes and Brunettes, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Shelley: paradox of Love, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>; - <ul> - <li>loving and being loved, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li> - <li>amorous disposition of, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Shoes: tight, objections to, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>; - <ul> - <li>improvements in, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Shoulders, the, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Simcox, G. A.: on Gallantry, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>; - <ul> - <li>mediæval ugliness, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>;</li> - <li>noses, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Sisterly love, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Skating: effects on Beauty, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Skin. <i>See</i> <a href='#COMPLEXION'>Complexion</a>.</li> - <li class='c022'>Sleep: and noise, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a>; - <ul> - <li>refreshing, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Smoothness, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>, <a href='#Page_490'>490</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Soap: should be used in the face, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>; - <ul> - <li>good and bad, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Solomon’s Song, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Sources of Love, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_572'>572</span>Southey: woman’s faith, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Southwell, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Spanish Beauty: feet, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>; - <ul> - <li>grace, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>, <a href='#Page_518'>518</a>, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a>;</li> - <li>chest deformed by Fashion, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>;</li> - <li>lips, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a>;</li> - <li>mantillas, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a>;</li> - <li>complexion, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>;</li> - <li>general, <a href='#Page_522'>515-522</a>;</li> - <li>refinement, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Spanish Love: chivalry, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>; - <ul> - <li>falling in love, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>;</li> - <li>extravagant Gallantry, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</li> - <li>ardour, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_277'>277-280</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Spencer, Herbert: on primitive paternal love, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>; - <ul> - <li>filial love, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>;</li> - <li>analysis of Love, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>;</li> - <li>money-marriages, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>;</li> - <li>woman’s sphere, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>;</li> - <li>origin of kissing, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</li> - <li>irregular mixture of ancestral qualities in children, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>;</li> - <li>individuals <i>versus</i> the species, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>;</li> - <li>female savages uglier than male, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>;</li> - <li>intellectual and physical beauty, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>;</li> - <li>evolution of Beauty, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>;</li> - <li>muscular power of savages, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</li> - <li>laziness of savages, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>;</li> - <li>masculine Fashion, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Spenser: Love and friendship, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Staël, Mme. de: on Beauty and intellect, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>; - <ul> - <li>Love <i>versus</i> parental dictation, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Stanton, Mrs. E. C., <a href='#Page_97'>97</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Stature and Beauty, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Stays: for deformed women, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Steatopyga, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Steele: kissing, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>; - <ul> - <li>love-letters, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Stenches and noises, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Stendhal: Love and age, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>; - <ul> - <li>Love in France, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>;</li> - <li>humiliation poisons Love, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>St. Jerome: on the education of girls, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Stockings: best kind, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Suckling: lovers’ pallor, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Suicide: from Love, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Sunshine: good for the complexion, <a href='#Page_454'>454</a>; - <ul> - <li>does not cause freckles, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>;</li> - <li>and Health, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a>, <a href='#Page_515'>515</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Surgery, cosmetic, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>, <a href='#Page_443'>443</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Swift: marriage, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>; - <ul> - <li>love-affairs, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Swiss, the, <a href='#Page_525'>525</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Symmetry, natural tendency to, in flowers, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Symonds: on Italian Love, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>; - <ul> - <li>formal code of Love, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>;</li> - <li>Petrarch, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;</li> - <li>Shelley, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_573'>573</span>Sympathy: and affection, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>; - <ul> - <li>an overtone of love, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145-157</a>;</li> - <li>development of, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>;</li> - <li>in conjugal love, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Taine, H.: English Beauty and Love, <a href='#Page_532'>532</a> <i>seq.</i></li> - <li class='c022'>Taste: æsthetic theories of, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>; - <ul> - <li>disputing about, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>;</li> - <li><i>versus</i> Fashion, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>;</li> - <li>sense of, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>;</li> - <li>non-æsthetic standard, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Teeth: 409, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>; - <ul> - <li>care of, <a href='#Page_422'>422</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Tennyson: kissing, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Tests of Beauty: negative, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>; - <ul> - <li>positive, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Thackeray: advice to lovers, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>; - <ul> - <li>Love, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</li> - <li>to women, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>;</li> - <li>simpering Madonnas, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>;</li> - <li>dark heroines, <a href='#Page_498'>498</a>;</li> - <li>French physique, <a href='#Page_506'>506</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Thaxter, Mrs.: women and birds, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Thomson, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Toe, great, evolution of, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Topinard: early decrepitude of savages, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>; - <ul> - <li>life prolonged in France, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>;</li> - <li>crossing, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>;</li> - <li>nose, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>;</li> - <li>deformed skulls, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>;</li> - <li>dark races, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>;</li> - <li>French nation, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Tourgenieff: on a dog’s love, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>; - <ul> - <li>first love, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Trollope, A.: American Gallantry, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Troubadours, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Trousers, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Turks, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Tylor, E. B.: the ape’s gait, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>; - <ul> - <li>arms, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>;</li> - <li>negro’s finger-nails, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>;</li> - <li>blushing, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>;</li> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li> - <li>nose, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>;</li> - <li>skulls, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Tyranny of ugly women, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Ugliness: follows ill-health in animals, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>; - <ul> - <li>in women, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</li> - <li>no bar to marriage, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>;</li> - <li>due to simian resemblance, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>;</li> - <li>savage features, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>;</li> - <li>degradation, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>;</li> - <li>decrepitude and disease, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>;</li> - <li>tyranny of, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>;</li> - <li>due to indolence, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>;</li> - <li>a sin, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>;</li> - <li>“beauty-spots,” <a href='#Page_452'>452</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Use and disuse, effect of, on organs, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Utility and Beauty, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Veils, <a href='#Page_463'>463</a></li> - <li class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_574'>574</span>Vice: destroys Beauty, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Viragoes, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Virchow, Prof.: Brunettes and Blondes, <a href='#Page_499'>499</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Virgil: Love-episode, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Vogt, Carl: sexual divergence, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>; - <ul> - <li>negro’s feet, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>;</li> - <li>females and animals, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>;</li> - <li>thighs, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Voice, a musical, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Voltaire: on ancient and modern friendship, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>; - <ul> - <li>standard of taste, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Wagner, R.: leading motives, literary application of, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>; - <ul> - <li>analogies between Love and music, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</li> - <li>feminine devotion, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li> - <li>marriage, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li> - <li>a musical kiss, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Waist, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Waitz: Magyars, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>; - <ul> - <li>Chinese complexion, <a href='#Page_454'>454</a>, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>;</li> - <li>decrease in number of blondes, <a href='#Page_498'>498</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Walker, A.: <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>; - <ul> - <li>woman’s gait, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>;</li> - <li>French Beauty, <a href='#Page_506'>506</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Walking, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Wallace, A. R.: on choice exerted by animals, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>; - <ul> - <li>Natural <i>versus</i> Sexual Selection, <a href='#Page_43'>43-50</a>;</li> - <li>beauty correlated with health in animals, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>;</li> - <li>sources of colour in animals, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</li> - <li>chest of Amazon Indians, <a href='#Page_396'>396</a>;</li> - <li>hair on arm, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Waltz: the dance of Love, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Warner, Chas. D.: women and birds, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Wasp-waist mania, the, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Wealth, vulgar display of, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a></li> - <li class='c022'>White, R. G.: blonde type, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a>; - <ul> - <li>Viennese Beauty, <a href='#Page_528'>528</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Wieland: love-affair, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Wife: capture, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>; - <ul> - <li>purchase, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li> - <li>service for, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li> - <li>capture and coyness, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>;</li> - <li>selling, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Wilde, Oscar, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Winckelmann: Greek Beauty, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>; - <ul> - <li>curvature, <a href='#Page_342'>342</a>;</li> - <li>breasts, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>;</li> - <li>Greek chest, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>;</li> - <li>hand, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>;</li> - <li>chin, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>;</li> - <li>dimples, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>;</li> - <li>lips, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;</li> - <li>ears, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>;</li> - <li>nose, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>;</li> - <li>eyes, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>;</li> - <li>hair, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>, <a href='#Page_502'>502</a>;</li> - <li>dark complexion, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>;</li> - <li>Italian Beauty, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Winning Love, art of: <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237-255</a>; - <ul> - <li>brass buttons, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>;</li> - <li>confidence and boldness, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_575'>575</span>pleasant associations, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>;</li> - <li>perseverance, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li> - <li>feigned indifference, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>;</li> - <li>compliments, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>;</li> - <li>Love-letters, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>;</li> - <li>for women, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>;</li> - <li>proposing, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>;</li> - <li>how to meet coyness, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;</li> - <li>spicing flattery with burlesque, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Witchcraft, trials for, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Woe, ecstasy of, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Woman: weak in impersonal emotions, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>; - <ul> - <li>strong in conjugal and maternal love, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>;</li> - <li>inferior to man in Romantic Love, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</li> - <li>prefers manly to handsome men, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>;</li> - <li>position in Egypt, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</li> - <li>among Hebrews, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li> - <li>in India, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</li> - <li>ancient Greece, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>;</li> - <li>Rome, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>;</li> - <li>mediæval degradation, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</li> - <li>proverbs about, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>;</li> - <li>oasis of culture, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>;</li> - <li>position in France, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>;</li> - <li>cruelty to birds, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>;</li> - <li>intelligent, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>;</li> - <li>in public life, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>;</li> - <li>loses Beauty prematurely, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</li> - <li>employment problem, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>;</li> - <li>uniform worship, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>;</li> - <li>discourages deep Love, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>;</li> - <li>inferior to man, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</li> - <li>Huxley’s ideal, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</li> - <li>in mediæval Spain, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>;</li> - <li>indifferent to loss of Health, and the consequences, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>;</li> - <li>superior in Beauty to man, <a href='#Page_342'>342</a>;</li> - <li>deplorable conservatism, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>;</li> - <li>penalty of indolence, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</li> - <li>has no sense of beauty, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_396'>396</a>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a>;</li> - <li>needs no stays, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</li> - <li>deficient in taste, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>;</li> - <li>duped by sly milliners, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>;</li> - <li>object of dress, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>;</li> - <li>needs æsthetic instruction, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>;</li> - <li>riding hat, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>;</li> - <li>fashion preferred to good manners, <a href='#Page_495'>495</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c022'>Wooing. <i>See</i> <a href='#COURTSHIP'>courtship</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Woody, S. E.: electrolysis for removing hairs, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Wrinkles, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Yankee, <a href='#Page_542'>542</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Young, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a></li> -</ul> -<ul class='index c000'> - <li class='c022'>Zimmermann, O.: Ecstasy of woe, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a></li> - <li class='c022'>Zola, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a></li> -</ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>THE END</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<p class='c001'><a id='endnote'></a></p> -<div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>Transcriber’s Note</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and -are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. -The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.</p> - -<table class='table2' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='12%' /> -<col width='69%' /> -<col width='18%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_27.27'></a><a href='#corr27.27'>27.27</a></td> - <td class='c006'>the lover[’]s concentrated affection</td> - <td class='c023'>Restored.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_53.20'></a><a href='#corr53.20'>53.20</a></td> - <td class='c006'>at their [b/h]oly places</td> - <td class='c023'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_53.26'></a><a href='#corr53.26'>53.26</a></td> - <td class='c006'>in displaying their beauty.[’/”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_55.28'></a><a href='#corr55.28'>55.28</a></td> - <td class='c006'>Letourne[a]u, in his <cite>Sociologie</cite></td> - <td class='c023'>Inserted.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_63.1'></a><a href='#corr63.1'>63.1</a></td> - <td class='c006'>‘the means of causing enmity’[”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Probable closing.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_64.11'></a><a href='#corr64.11'>64.11</a></td> - <td class='c006'>monog[o/a]my is the only marital relation</td> - <td class='c023'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_67.26'></a><a href='#corr67.26'>67.26</a></td> - <td class='c006'>mere passion linked with opportunity.[”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_133.44'></a><a href='#corr133.44'>133.44</a></td> - <td class='c006'>Prior[-]ity of discovery</td> - <td class='c023'>Removed.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_138.12'></a><a href='#corr138.12'>138.12</a></td> - <td class='c006'>as a woman of twenty-eight;[”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Probable closing.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_138.18'></a><a href='#corr138.18'>138.18</a></td> - <td class='c006'>the gay and thoughtless first love.[”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_163.9'></a><a href='#corr163.9'>163.9</a></td> - <td class='c006'>B[i/y]ron really feels</td> - <td class='c023'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_178.19'></a><a href='#corr178.19'>178.19</a></td> - <td class='c006'>their energy[,] courage, and manly prowess</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_205.1'></a><a href='#corr205.1'>205.1</a></td> - <td class='c006'>really attached since[’/”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_241.18'></a><a href='#corr241.18'>241.18</a></td> - <td class='c006'>Who listens once will listen twice[;]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_252.39'></a><a href='#corr252.39'>252.39</a></td> - <td class='c006'>was promptly accepted.[”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Probable closing.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_271.38'></a><a href='#corr271.38'>271.38</a></td> - <td class='c006'>where they do not marry.[’/”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_273.19'></a><a href='#corr273.19'>273.19</a></td> - <td class='c006'>And power of love.’[”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_272.4'></a><a href='#corr272.4'>272.4</a></td> - <td class='c006'>not knowing wh[e/i]ther she was going?</td> - <td class='c023'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_285.38'></a><a href='#corr285.38'>285.38</a></td> - <td class='c006'>[“]O love, O fire! once he drew</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_288.30'></a><a href='#corr288.30'>288.30</a></td> - <td class='c006'>but the brigh[t]est of all is this</td> - <td class='c023'>Inserted.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_323.4'></a><a href='#corr323.4'>323.4</a></td> - <td class='c006'>[‘/“]with the ugly Eros</td> - <td class='c023'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_393.19'></a><a href='#corr393.19'>393.19</a></td> - <td class='c006'>considered fashionable[.]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_394.26'></a><a href='#corr394.26'>394.26</a></td> - <td class='c006'>under the arm.[”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_406.19'></a><a href='#corr406.19'>406.19</a></td> - <td class='c006'>modified to their advantage[.]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_407.17'></a><a href='#corr407.17'>407.17</a></td> - <td class='c006'>but glycerine [don’t] agree with every one</td> - <td class='c023'><i>Sic</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_424.43'></a><a href='#corr424.43'>424.43</a></td> - <td class='c006'>have supplanted natural selection[.]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_459.34'></a><a href='#corr459.34'>459.34</a></td> - <td class='c006'>An emphatic [“]No” is the answer.</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_487.14'></a><a href='#corr487.14'>487.14</a></td> - <td class='c006'>the ancient Egypt[ai/ia]ns</td> - <td class='c023'>Transposed.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_506.19'></a><a href='#corr506.19'>506.19</a></td> - <td class='c006'>in these words: [“]National vanity</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_516.6'></a><a href='#corr516.6'>516.6</a></td> - <td class='c006'>the central part of the peni[u/n]sula</td> - <td class='c023'>Inverted.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_521.39'></a><a href='#corr521.39'>521.39</a></td> - <td class='c006'>[“]A woman’ is <em>fine</em></td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_522.3'></a><a href='#corr522.3'>522.3</a></td> - <td class='c006'>said that [“]Nature did never</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><a id='c_539.6'></a><a href='#corr539.6'>539.6</a></td> - <td class='c006'>in the atmosphere of New England.[”]</td> - <td class='c023'>Added.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class='c001'>The punctuation of the Index is occasionally irregular, and has been silently -standardized.</p> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Love and Personal Beauty, by -Henry Theophilus Finck - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC LOVE AND PERSONAL BEAUTY *** - -***** This file should be named 60054-h.htm or 60054-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/0/5/60054/ - -Produced by KD Weeks, Turgut Dincer and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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