No. LXXXII. Saturday, Auguft 18. 1753.

Nunc fcio quid fit amor.

Now know I what is love...

VIRG

THOUGH the danger of disappointment is always in pro-portion to the height of expectation, yet I this day. claim the attention of the ladies, and profefs to teach an art by which all may obtain what has hitherto been deemed the prerogative of a few; an art by which their predominant paffion may be gratified, and their conquefts not only extended but fecured; "The art of "being pretty."

But though my subject may intereft the ladies, it may, perhaps, offend those profound moralifts, who have long fince determined, that beauty ought rather to be defpifed than defired; that, like strength, it is a mere natural excellence, the effect of caufes wholly out of our power, and not intended either as the pledge of happiness, or the diftinction of merit,

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2

To thefe gentlemen I fhall remark, that beauty is among thofe qualities, which no effort of human wit could ever bring into contempt: it is therefore to be wished at leaft, that beauty was in fome de gree dependent upon fentiment and manners, that fo high a privilege might not be poffeffed by the unworthy, and that human reafon might no longer fuffer the mortification of thofe who are compelled to adorn an idol, which differs from a ftone or a log only by the fkill of the artificer: and if they cannot themselves behold beauty with indifference, they muft furely approve an attempt to fhew that it merits their regard.

I fhall, however, principally confider that fpecies of beauty which is expreffed in the countenance; for this alone is peculiar to human beings, and is not lefs complicated than their nature. In the countenance there are but two requifites to perfect beauty, which are wholly produced by external caufes, colour and proportion and it will appear, that even in common estimation these are not the chief, but that though there may be beauty without them, yet there cannot be beau. ty without fomething more.

The finest features, ranged in the most exact fymmetry, and heightened by the most blooming com. plexion, must be animated before they can ftrike; and when they are animated, will generally excite the fame paffions which they exprefs. If they are fixed in the dead calm of infenfibility, they will be examined without emotion; and if they do not exprefs kindness, they will be beheld without love. Looks of contempt, difdain or malevolence, will be reflected as from a miryor, by every countenance on which they are turned;

and

and if a wanton aspect excites defire, it is but like that of a favage for his prey, which cannot be gratified without the deftruction of its object.

Among particular graces the dimple has always been allowed the pre-eminence, and the reafon is evident; dimples are produced by a smile, and a smile is an expreffion of complacency: fo the contraction of the brows into a frown, as it is an indication of a contrary temper, has always been deemed a capital defect.

The lover is generally at a lofs to define the beauty, by which his paffion was fuddenly and irresistiby determined to a particular object; but this could never happen, if it depended upon any known rule of proportion, upon the shape or difpofition of the features, or the colour of the fkin: he tells you, thas it is fomething which he cannot fully exprefs, fomething not fixed in any part, but diffufed over the whole; he calls it a fweetness, a softness, a placid fenfibility, or gives it fome other appellation which connects beauty with fentiment, and expreffes a charm which is not peculiar to any set of features, but is perhaps poffible to all.

This beauty, however, does not always confift in fmiles, but varies, as expreffions of meeknefs and kindnefs vary with their objects; it is extremely forcible in the filent complaint of patient fufferance, the tender folicitude of friendship, and the glow of filial obedience; and in tears, whether of joy, of pity, or of grief, it is almost irresistible.

This is the charm which captivates without the aid of nature, and without which her utmost bounty is ineffectual. But it cannot be affumed as a mask to conceal infenfibility or malevolence; it must be the genuine effect of corresponding fentiments, or it will im

prefs

prefs upon the countenance a new and more disgusting deformity, affectation; it will produce the grin, the fimper, the stare, the languish, the pout, and innumerable other grimaces, that render fully ridiculous, and change pity to contempt. By fome, indeed, this fpecies of hypocrify has been practifed with fuch skill as to deceive fuperficial observers, though it can deceive even thefe but for a moment. Looks which do not correspond with the heart, cannot be affumed without labour, nor continued without pain; the motive to relinquish them muft, therefore, feon preponderate, and the aspect and apparel of the vifit will be laid by together; the smiles and the languishments of art will vanish, and the fierceness of rage, or the gloom of difcontent, will either obfcure or deftroy all the elegance of fymmetry and complexion.

The artificial aspect is, indeed, as wretched a fubAtitute for the expreffion of fentiment, as the fmear of paint for the blushes of health it is not only equally tranfient, and equally liable to detection; but as paint leaves the countenance yet more withered and ghaftly, the paffions burst out with more violence after restraint, the features become more distorted, and excite more determined averfion.

Beauty, therefore, depends principally upon the mind, and confequently may be influenced by education. It has been remarked, that the predominant paffion may generally be discovered in the countenance; because the muscles by which it is expreffed, being almost perpetually contracted, lose their tone, and never totally relax; fo that the expreffion remains when the paffion is fufpended: thus, an angry, a difdainful, a fubtle, and a fufpicious temper, is displayed in characters that

are almost univerfally understood. It is equally trueof the pleafing and the fofter paffions, that they leave their fignatures upon the countenance when they ceafe to act: the prevalence of thefe paffions, therefore, produces a mechanical effect upon the afpect, and gives a turn and cast to the features, which makes a more favourable and forcible impreffion upon the mind of others, than any charm produced by mere external causes.

Neither does the beauty which depends upon tem-. per and fentiment, equally endanger the poffeffor; • "It is," to use an eaftern metaphor, like "the towers "of a city, not only an ornament, but a defence:" if it excites desire, it at once controuls and refines it; it repreffes with awe, it foftens with delicacy, and it wins to imitation. The love of reason and of virtue is mingled with the love of beauty; because this beauty. is little more than the emanation of intellectual excellence, which is not an object of corporeal appetite. As it excites a purer paffion, it also more forcibly engages to fidelity: every man finds himself more powerfully restrained from giving pain to goodness than to beauty; and every look of a countenance in which they are blended, in which beauty is the expreffion of goodness, is a filent reproach of the first irregular wish; and the purpose immediately appears to be difingenuous and cruel, by which the tender hope of ineffable affection would be difappointed, the placid confidence of unfufpecting fimplicity abused, and the peace even of virtue endangered by the moft fordid infidelity, and the breach of the strongest obligations.

But the hope of the hypocrite must perish. When the factious beauty has laid by her fmiles; when the luftre of her eyes and the bloom of her cheeks have

loft