s of the body, in the two sexes of this single
species only. If you assign any determinate proportions to the limbs of
a man, and if you limit human beauty to these proportions, when you find
a woman who differs in the make and measures of almost every part, you
must conclude her not to be beautiful, in spite of the suggestions of
your imagination; or, in obedience to your imagination, you must
renounce your rules; you must lay by the scale and compass, and look out
for some other cause of beauty. For if beauty be attached to certain
measures which operate from a _principle in nature_, why should similar
parts with different measures of proportion be found to have beauty, and
this too in the very same species? But to open our view a little, it is
worth observing, that almost all animals have parts of very much the
same nature, and destined nearly to the same purposes; a head, neck,
body, feet, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; yet Providence, to provide in
the best manner for their several wants, and to display the riches of
his wisdom and goodness in his creation, has worked out of these few and
similar organs, and members, a diversity hardly short of infinite in
their disposition, measures and relation. But, as we have before
observed, amidst this infinite diversity, one particular is common to
many species: several of the individuals which compose them are capable
of affecting us with a sense of loveliness: and whilst they agree in
producing this effect, they differ extremely in the relative measures of
those parts which have produced it. These considerations were sufficient
to induce me to reject the notion of any particular proportions that
operated by nature to produce a pleasing effect; but those who will
agree with me with regard to a particular proportion, are strongly
prepossessed in favor of one more indefinite. They imagine, that
although beauty in general is annexed to no certain measures common to
the several kinds of pleasing plants and animals; yet that there is a
certain proportion in each species absolutely essential to the beauty of
that particular kind. If we consider the animal world in general, we
find beauty confined to no certain measures; but as some peculiar
measure and relation of parts is what distinguishes each peculiar class
of animals, it must of necessity be, that the beautiful in each kind
will be found in the measures and proportions of that kind; for
otherwise it would deviate from its proper