shorter, another a little taller. One thinks the complexion a shade too light, another too dark; but no one, not even a Hottentot will pretend that the Hottentot Venus is as beautiful as those of Titian or Canova, Apelles or Praxiteles.

Observation gives us many proofs of this. Throughout rentral and western Asia, and northern Africa, the Circassian females are most prized for their beauty; while in Europe, they, and those most closely resembling them, are counted as being nearest perfection. In many savage nations of Africa, south eastern Asia, and Polynesia, men, overcoming their natural jealousy, have promoted an intercourse between their women, and European voyagers, expressly to improve their race. This striking fact is stated by many independent authorities. Lastly; though there is in our race everywhere, a variety reaching from extreme beauty to extreme deformity; one is never mistaken for the other, by any person in his proper senses.

In considering the general question of female beauty, there arise some of the most difficult questions that have perplexed the philosophic world.

Did the whole human race come from one original pair? Those who answer this question in the negative, say there are no causes in nature which could, in the confessedly limited duration of the human race, have produced its strongly marked varieties. Three thousand years ago, the Chinese had square heads, yellow complexions and little queerly shaped eyes. As far back as our researches go, we find the Negro as black as now, and with the same peculiarities; moreover, we find in South Africa, in Australia, and in America, races differing from all the others.

The arguments on the other hand are of great weight. Aside from this question, which is full of difficulties, we have the commonly received opinion of the creation of a single pair, in a state of high perfection from which the miserable and savage races, scattered over the earth have degenerated; and then we have the great theory of progressive development, which supposes that the present condition of mankind is the result of the progressive improvement and perfection of the animal races, and that from the orang outang, the bushmen, or savage dwarfs of South Africa-the Australians, the Negro races, man has

gradually ascended to his highest existing type in the Catt casian race; in which he has attained to the highest degree of beauty, energy, and genius, ever yet developed.

Each way the difficulties seem insurmountable. The great races, so strongly marked in some localities, are found in others to run into each other, by insensible gradations, so that from the most perfect Circassian beauty, to the most horrible fright of a female Australian, we can go step by step, and find it exceedingly difficult to trace the lines of demarcation.

On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine how any difference of circumstances, or any kind or continuance of cultivation, should ever develope the models of Grecian Art from the Hottentot, or reduce the beautiful Greek to the appearance of the frightful females of Terra del Fuego.

The primitive history of our race, contained in the book of Genesis, does not solve these difficulties. The whole race of Adam is there said to have been destroyed by an universal deluge, so that all these striking changes must have taken place since that catastrophe. Now our histories go back almost to the date of that event. The monuments of Egypt, and the annals of China, date back to the lifetime of the Patriarch Noah. In all that time mankind have not been much changed by circumstances. Barbarous nations have grown civilized, but they have not changed their color or form.

Helen, who caused the ten years siege and destruction of Troy by her beauty and perfidy, and who was so supremely enchanting, that her bitterest enemies were incapable of revenging their injuries when they saw her-Helen, who, three thousand years ago, was so beautiful, still has her representatives in modern Greece. Other nations have, under all changes of circumstances, preserved the same features and appearance. When, then, did this deterioration occur when did these changes happen, and what causes produced them? These are matters in regard to which we know very little.

But in spite of these great differences in the several varieties of the human race, there are in all, some individuals who approach nearer than others to the standard of perfection. Travellers assure us that among the gaunt,

filthy, and disgusting inhabitants of Australia and Southern Africa, there are not wanting individuals who approach to something like symmetrical forms. In Central Africa there are females whose shapes might be models for the sculptor. There are females of considerable beauty among the North American Indians; and in some of the islands of the Pacific, there are women who, in physical beauty, compare favorably with the finest in Europe. Throughout Asia, beauty in woman is considered the supreme good; and it is everywhere sought after and cultivated. It is an article of commerce and monopoly. From the time of Solomon, and perhaps ages before, the choice beauties of the empire were culled for the sovereign-and distant States paid tribute in beauty. Next came the rich and great personages, who were served in this respect only less luxuriously than their monarch. Then, and in all times to the present day, women were shut up in harems, prisoners, reconciled by custom tó their condition, and educated to think it the most desirable on earth. In the East, the customs of to-day are those of three thousand years ago, and the description given of the harem of Ahasuerus, in the book of Esther, would answer well for a Persian seraglio of the present day.

But it is in Europe that woman's beauty has exerted the greatest power. Her empire came from the North; and it was the barbarians of Germany who gave the world chivalry and romance, placed woman upon her proper eminence, and by this means gave an impulse to civilization. In savage nations beauty is subordinate to usefulness. A strong wife, and especially an industrious one, is preferred to a pretty one. In Oriental nations beauty languishes in chains. The chains are worn willingly and happily, but man is not less the tyrant; and his power is his weakness.

In ancient Greece the influence of beauty appears to have been confined to a few, and the most celebrated Grecian women were such as we should style notorious. In Rome women occupied more nearly their true position, and had a considerable, and at first a favorable influence in the state. At last the sex and the nation grew corrupt together, acting reciprocally on each other.

The influence of female beauty, everywhere felt, in all times acknowledged, often exerted for evil, sometimes used

for good; is capable of being rendered a more powerful instrument in the education and elevation of humanity, than statesmen or philosophers have yet conceived. If beautiful women choose to exert their combined influence for good or evil, there is no power in the world could stand against them-they could change customs, refine manners, ameliorate conditions, modify legislation, reform constitutions, and overthrow despotisms. They could fill the world with peace, refinement, and happiness.

If beautiful women knew their power, and knew how to make the best use of it, we should not wait long for the realization of those noble theories of human progress and happiness, which have so long filled the minds of benevolent reformers. Unhappily, philosophers have but too often been insensible of the power of this influence, either to degrade or elevate-to drag the world down into the hells in which it lies groaning, or elevate it to those heavens of purity and beauty, to which the human race is most surely destined. Whenever that elevation shall come, foremost in the influences that shall produce it, will be found that of refined and intellectual female beauty.

WOMAN.

PART SECOND.

FEMALE COSTUME.

IN whatever manner the human race first came into being, whether by the creation of a single pair in Eden, or several pairs as the progenitors of distinct races in various parts of the world, or whether we adopt the doctrine of "progressive development;" in either case, mankind was at first without clothing, and adopted it from sentiment, convenience, or necessity.

Our Revelation tells us that our first parents were without clothing so long as they remained innocent; but that, having partaken of the forbidden fruit, they first felt the sentiment of modesty, since considered a virtue, when they adopted the first and simplest clothing-aprons of fig leaves. After this, God taught them to make garments of the skins of animals.

But this account is supposed, by many to be allegorical; Adam and Eve representing a primitive state of societyfirst ignorant and innocent-then curious, and with growing intelligence, seeking sinful enjoyment, and, as is too often the case at the present day, improving their minds at the expense of their morals.

But whatever may have been the origin of mankind and their habits, dress is at this day, with all but the most savage tribes, a matter of custom, of ornament, or of necessity. There may be found, on Islands in the South Seas, in some parts of Africa, and in Australia, small tribes who are still in a state of entire nudity. Human nature in them is so dimly revealed, that they seem but one grade removed from the brutal creation. But generally, among the most savage, where dress is not regarded for its modest uses, some kind of costume is worn for ornament. Shells