The soft parts which enter into the composition of woman, and the cellular tissue which serves to unite them, are also more delicate and more supple than those of man.
All these circ.u.mstances indicate very clearly the pa.s.sive state to which nature has destined woman, and which will be fully ill.u.s.trated in a future volume.
If, in a living body, any part liable to be distended had too much firmness, or even elasticity, it might press against some essential organ; and the liquids being impeded in their course, would in that case be speedily altered, if the neighboring parts offered not flexible vessels for their reception.
Now, in the body of woman, certain parts are exposed to suffer great distentions and compressions. It is therefore necessary that her organs should be of such structure as to yield readily to these impressions, and to supply each other when their respective functions are impeded.
From this it follows, that woman never enjoys existence better, than when a moderate plumpness bestows on her organs, without too much weakening them, all the suppleness of which they are capable.
This leads to the consideration of the natural mobility of the organs of woman.
Their mobility is a necessary consequence, in the first place, of their littleness. The movements of all animals, appear to be executed with more rapidity, the less their bulk. It has been observed, that the arteries of the ox beat only thirty-five times, while those of the sheep beat sixty, and that the pulse of women is smaller and more rapid than that of men.
A second physical quality, which concurs to render more mobile the various parts of woman, is their softness.
A certain feebleness is the necessary consequence of these two circ.u.mstances. But it is thence that spring woman"s suppleness and lightness of movement, and her capacity for grace of att.i.tude.
It has been conjectured, that even the elements of the parts which const.i.tute woman, have a particular organization, on which depends the elegance of the forms, the vivacity of the sensations, and the lightness of the movements, which characterize her.
The result of these circ.u.mstances is that, while man possesses force and majesty, woman is distinguished by beauty and grace. The characteristics of woman are less imposing and more amiable; they inspire less admiration than love. As has been observed, a single trait of rudeness, a severe air, or even the character of majesty, would injure the effect of womanly beauty. Lucian admirably represents to us the G.o.d of love frightened at the masculine air of Minerva.
While man, by force and activity, surmounts the obstacles which embarra.s.s him, woman, by yielding, withdraws from their action, and adds to beauty, a gentle and winning grace which places all the vaunted power of man at her disposal.
It is evidently the influence of the organs distinguishing the two s.e.xes, which is the primary cause of their peculiar beauty.
As the liquid which, in man, is secreted in certain vessels for the purpose of reproduction, communicates a general excitement and activity to the character, so when, in woman, the periodical excretion appears, the b.r.e.a.s.t.s expand, the eyes sparkle, the countenance becomes more expressive, but at the same time more timid and reserved, and a character of flexibility and grace distinguishes every motion.
Conformably with this view, the appearance and the manners of eunuchs approach to those of women, by the softness and feebleness of their organization, as well as by their timidity, and by their acute voice.
The very opposite is naturally the result of the extirpation of the ovaries in women. Pott, giving an account of the case of a female, in whom both the ovaries were extirpated, says, the person "has become thinner, and more apparently muscular; her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which were large, are gone; nor has she ever menstruated since the operation, which is now some years."
Haighton found that, by dividing the Fallopian tubes, which connect the ovaries with the womb, s.e.xual feelings were destroyed, and the ovaries gradually wasted.
The women, also, in whom the uterus and the ovaries remain inert during life, approximate in forms and habits to men. It is stated, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1805, that an adult female, in whom the ovaries were defective, presented a corresponding defect in the state of the const.i.tution.
To the same general principle, it has been observed, we must refer the partial growth of a beard on females in the decline of life, and the circ.u.mstance that female-birds, when they have ceased to lay eggs, occasionally a.s.sume the plumage, and, to a certain extent, the other characters of the male.
Under the influence of this cause, the first exercise of her new faculty determines remarkable modifications in woman. Her neck swells and augments in size--
"Non illam nutrix orienti luce revisens Hesterno collum poterit circ.u.mdare filo;[31]
her voice a.s.sumes another expression; her moral habits totally change: and many women owe to love and marriage more splendid beauty.
The women thus happily const.i.tuted are not those of hot climates, but those of cooler regions and calmer temperament, whose placid features and more elastic forms announce a gentler and more pa.s.sive love.
Impa.s.sioned women, on the contrary, do not so long preserve their freshness: the expansive force, from which the organs derived their form and coloring, abates; and a less agreeable flaccidity succeeds to the elasticity with which they were endowed, if the plumpness which adult age commonly brings does not sustain them.
During pregnancy and suckling, the firstmentioned cla.s.s of women retain a remarkable freshness and plumpness.
The lastmentioned cla.s.s of women most frequently become meager, and lose their freshness during the continuance of these states.
If, however, during these states, suitable precautions and preservative cares be not employed, it is the first cla.s.s who most suffer from traces of maternity.
Conception, pregnancy, delivery, and suckling, being renewed more or less frequently during the second age, hasten debility in feeble and ill-const.i.tuted women; especially if misery or an improper mode of life increase the influence of these causes.
In the third age of woman, extending generally from forty to sixty, the physical form does not suddenly deteriorate; and, as has often been observed, "when premature infirmities or misfortunes, the exercise of an unfavorable profession, or a wrong employment of life, have not hastened old age, women during the third age preserve many of the charms of the preceding one."
At this period, in well-const.i.tuted women, the fat, being absorbed with less activity, is acc.u.mulated in the cellular tissue under the skin and elsewhere; and this effaces any wrinkles which might have begun to furrow the skin, rounds the outlines anew, and again restores an air of youth and freshness. Hence, this period is called "the age of return."
This plumpness, though juvenile lightness and freshness be wanting, sustains the forms, and sometimes confers a majestic air, which, in women otherwise favorably organized, still interests for a number of years.
The shape certainly is no longer so elegant; the articulations have less elasticity; the muscles are more feeble; the movements are less light; and in plump women we observe those broken motions, and in meager ones that stiffness, which mark the walk or the dance at that age.
At this period occurs a remarkable alteration in the organs of voice.
Women, therefore, to whom singing is a profession, ought to limit its exercise.
When women pa.s.s happily from the third to the fourth age, their const.i.tution, as every one must have observed, changes entirely; it becomes stronger: and nature abandons to individual life all the rest of existence.
Beauty, however, is no more; form and shape have disappeared; the plumpness which supported the reliefs has abandoned them; the sinkings and wrinkles are multiplied; the skin has lost its polish; color and freshness have fled for ever.
These injuries of time, it has been observed, commonly begin by the abdomen, which loses its polish and its firmness; the hemispheres of the bosom no longer sustain themselves; the clavicles project; the neck becomes meager; all the reliefs are effaced; all the forms are altered from roundness and softness to angularity and hardness.
That which, amid these ruins, still survives for a long time, is the entireness of the hair, the placidity or the fineness of the look, the air of sentiment, the amiable expression of the countenance, and, in women of elegant mind and great accomplishments, caressing manners and charming graces, which almost make us forget youth and beauty.
Finally, and especially in muscular or nervous women, the temperament changes, and the const.i.tution of woman approaches to that of man; the organs become rigid; and, in some unhappy cases, a beard protrudes.
Old age and decrepitude finally succeed.
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE CAUSES OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN.
The crossing of races is often spoken of as a means of perfecting the form of man, and of developing beauty; and we are told that it is in this manner that the Persians have become a beautiful people, and that many tribes of Tartar origin have been improved, especially the Turks, who now present to us scarcely anything of the Mongol.
In these general and vague statements, however, the mere crossing of different races is always deemed sufficient; whereas, every improvement depends on the circ.u.mstance that the organization of the races subjected to this operation is duly suited to each other. It is in that way only, that we can explain the following facts stated by Moreau:--
In one of the great towns of the north of France, the women, half a century ago, were rather ugly than pretty; but a detachment of the guards being quartered there, and remaining during several years, the population changed in appearance, and, favored by this circ.u.mstance, the town is now indebted to strangers for the beauty of the most interesting portion of its inhabitants.
The monks of Citeaux exercised an influence no less remarkable upon the beauty of the inhabitants of the country around their monastery; and it may be stated, as the result of actual observation, that the young female-peasants of their neighborhood were much more beautiful than those of other cantons. And, adds this writer, "there can be no doubt that the same effect occurred in the different places whither religious houses attracted foreign inmates, whom love and pleasure speedily united with the indigenous inhabitants!"
The other circ.u.mstances which contribute to female beauty, are, a mild climate, a fertile soil, a generous but temperate diet, a regular mode of life, favorable education, the guidance and suppression of pa.s.sions, easy manners, good moral, social, and political inst.i.tutions, and occupations which do not injure the beautiful proportions of the body.
Beauty, accordingly, is more especially to be found in certain countries.
Thus, as has often been observed, the sanguine temperament is that of the nations of the north; the phlegmatic is that of cold and moist countries; and the bilious is that of the greater part of the inhabitants of southern regions. Each of these has its degree and modification of beauty.