together alike in many subjects, which were not
only very different from one another, but where one has been very
beautiful, and the other very remote from beauty. With regard to the
parts which are found so proportioned, they are often so remote from
each other, in situation, nature, and office, that I cannot see how they
admit of any comparison, nor consequently how any effect owing to
proportion can result from them. The neck, say they, in beautiful
bodies, should measure with the calf of the leg; it should likewise be
twice the circumference of the wrist. And an infinity of observations of
this kind are to be found in the writings and conversations of many. But
what relation has the calf of the leg to the neck; or either of these
parts to the wrist? These proportions are certainly to be found in
handsome bodies. They are as certainly in ugly ones; as any who will
take the pains to try may find. Nay, I do not know but they may be least
perfect in some of the most beautiful. You may assign any proportions
you please to every part of the human body; and I undertake that a
painter shall religiously observe them all, and notwithstanding produce,
if he pleases, a very ugly figure. The same painter shall considerably
deviate from these proportions, and produce a very beautiful one. And,
indeed, it may be observed in the masterpieces of the ancient and modern
statuary, that several of them differ very widely from the proportions
of others, in parts very conspicuous and of great consideration; and
that they differ no less from the proportions we find in living men, of
forms extremely striking and agreeable. And after all, how are the
partisans of proportional beauty agreed amongst themselves about the
proportions of the human body? Some hold it to be seven heads; some make
it eight; whilst others extend it even to ten: a vast difference in such
a small number of divisions! Others take other methods of estimating the
proportions, and all with equal success. But are these proportions
exactly the same in all handsome men? or are they at all the proportions
found in beautiful women? Nobody will say that they are; yet both sexes
are undoubtedly capable of beauty, and the female of the greatest; which
advantage I believe will hardly be attributed to the superior exactness
of proportion in the fair sex. Let us rest a moment on this point; and
consider how much difference there is between the measures that prevail
in many similar part