perhaps merit the gratitude of some who are suffering ill-health or deformity, by pointing out the true principles upon which dress should be constructed, and all the evils attendant upon badly-formed clothing avoided.
To render our remarks upon this subject perfectly clear, we may premise that there are several kinds of beauty, each of which has its ideal standard. The temperaments are generally taken as the bases out of which those particular types are evolved; but, as a minute description of the temperaments belongs to the physiologist and phrenologist rather than to us, we are obliged to take some more general classification to illustrate our ideas.
Mr. Walker, in his elaborate work on Female Beauty, describes three several varieties, each of which is perfect in its kind. He arranges them under the heads of
- Intellectual beauty as shown in the statue of Minerva.
- Nutritious beauty as shown in the statue of Venus.
- Locomotive beauty as shown in the statue of Diana.
In the first, the intellectual qualities predominate, and the figure is slight, yet capable of supporting great fatigue. The head is large in proportion to the body, and the intellectual powers seem to absorb the nutrition required for the growth of the physical organization. In the second, the trunk is larger and longer, the waist and hips broader, the lower limbs shorter, affording ample space for the development of all the vital organs. In the third, the trunk is shorter, the extremities longer and more powerful, the head smaller, and, generally speaking, the character more determined. He also gives the different mixtures of each of these temperaments, which give rise to the intermediate forms; it is enough for our purpose to observe, that no absolute standard of beauty can be fixed, each style having its own peculiar excellences, and that, therefore, before any adaptation of dress can be successfully constructed, the contour of the body should be carefully observed, and no attempt made to regulate its form by any preconceived standard of fashion which is based upon any but that particular type.
Taking, then, the perfect female figure as the groundwork of all our adaptations; our exertions are always directed to the preservation
