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  BEAUTY;
  ILLUSTRATED CHIEFLY BY AN
  ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION
  OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN,

  BY ALEXANDER WALKER,
  AUTHOR OF "INTERMARRIAGE," "WOMAN," "PHYSIOGNOMY FOUNDED
  ON PHYSIOLOGY," "THE NERVOUS SYSTEM," ETC.

  EDITED BY AN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN

  NEW YORK:
  HENRY G. LANGLEY, 8 ASTOR-HOUSE.
  1845.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, BY J. & H. G.
LANGLEY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern
District of New York

STEREOTYPED BY J. S. REDFIELD,

_13 Chambers Street, New York_




DEDICATION.


TO GEORGE BIRBECK, M.D., F.G.S.,

PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION, &c., &c., &c.


A department of science, which in many respects must be regarded as new,
cannot so properly be dedicated to any one as to the inventor of the best
mode of diffusing scientific knowledge among the most meritorious and most
oppressed classes of society.

When the enemies of freedom, in order effectually to blind the victims of
their spoliation, imposed a tax upon knowledge, you rendered the
acquirement of science easy by the establishment of mechanics'
institutions--you gave the first and greatest impulse to that diffusion of
knowledge which will render the repetition of such a conspiracy against
humanity impossible.

You more than once also wrested a reluctant concession, in behalf of
untaxed knowledge, from the men who had evidently succeeded, in some
degree, to the spirit, as well as to the office, of the original
conspirators, and who unwisely hesitated between the bad interest which is
soon felt by all participators in expensive government, and their dread of
the new and triumphant power of public opinion, before which they know and
feel that they are but as the chaff before the whirlwind.

For these services, accept this respectful dedication, as the expression
of a homage, in which I am sure that I am joined by thousands of Britons.

Nor, in writing this, on a subject of which your extensive knowledge
enables you so well to judge, am I without a peculiar and personal motive.

I gratefully acknowledge that, in one of the most earnest and strenuous
mental efforts I ever made, in my work on "The Nervous System," I owed to
your cautions as to logical reasoning and careful induction, an anxiety at
least, and a zeal in these respects, which, whatever success may have
attended them, could not well be exceeded.

I have endeavored to act conformably with the same cautions in the present
work. He must be weak-minded, indeed, who can seek for aught in philosophy
but the discovery of truth; and he must be a coward who, believing he has
discovered it, has any scruple to announce it.

ALEXANDER WALKER.

APRIL 10, 1836.




AMERICAN ADVERTISEMENT.


The present volume completes the series of Mr. Walker's anthropological
works. To say that they have met with a favorable reception from the
American public, would be but a very inadequate expression of the
unprecedented success which has attended their publication.
"INTERMARRIAGE," the first of the series, passed through six large
editions within eighteen months, and "WOMAN," has met with a sale scarcely
less extensive. The numerous calls for the present work, have compelled
the publishers to issue it sooner than they had contemplated; and, it is
believed, that it will be found not less worthy of attention than the
preceding.

All must acknowledge the interesting nature of the subject treated in the
present work, as well as its intimate connexion with those which have
already passed under discussion. The analysis of beauty on philosophical
principles, is attended with numerous difficulties, not the least of which
arises from the want of any fixed and acknowledged standard. The term
Beauty is, indeed, generally considered as a vague generality, varying
according to national, and even individual taste and judgment.

Mr. Walker claims, in his advertisement, numerous points of originality,
some of which, on examination, may perhaps prove to have been proposed
previously by other writers. Enough, however, will remain to entitle him
to the credit of great ingenuity and acuteness. As treated by him, the
subject assumes an aspect very different from that exhibited in any other
publication. To trace the connexion of beauty with, and its dependance on,
anatomical structure and physiological laws--to show how it may be
modified by causes within our control--to describe its different forms and
modifications, and defects, as indicated by certain physical signs--to
analyze its elements, with a view to its influence on individuals and
society, in connexion with its perpetration in posterity--all these were
novel topics of vast and exciting interest, and well adapted to the
genius, taste, and research of our author.

In preparing the present edition, it has been thought expedient to make
some verbal alterations, and omit a few paragraphs, to which a refined
taste might perhaps object, and to bring together in the Appendix such
collateral matter, as might serve to correct, extend, or illustrate the
views presented