human feature: the line which forms the ridge of the nofe is deemed beautiful when it is ftraight; but this is likewife the central form, which is oftener found than any one particular · degree of concave, convex, or any other irregular form that fhall be propofed. As we are then more accustomed to beauty than deformity, we may conclude that to be the reafon why we approve and admire it, juft as we approve fashions and drefs for no other reason than that we are used to them. The fame thing may be said of colour as of form: it is custom alone which determines our preference of the colour of the Europeans to that of the Ethiopians, and which makes them prefer their own colour to ours; fo that though habit and custom cannot be the caufe of beauty, they are certainly the cause of our liking it.

That we do like it cannot be denied. Every one is confcious of a pleafing emotion when contemplating beauty either in man or woman; and when that pleasure is combined with the gratification of the fenfual appetite, it is obvious that the fum of enjoyment, must be greatly increased. The perception of beauty, therefore, neceffarily directs the energy of the fenfual appetite to a particular object; but ftill this combination is a mere felfish feeling, which regards its object only as the best of many fimilar inftruments. of pleasure. Before it can deferve the name of love, it must be combined with esteem, which is never, bestowed but upon moral character and internal worth; for let a woman be ever fo beautiful, and of courfe ever fo defirable as an inftrument of fenfual gratification, if the be not poffeffed of the virtues and difpofitions which are peculiar to her fex, fhe will infpire no man with a generous affection. With regard to the outlines, indeed, whether of internal difpofition or of external form, men and women are the fame; but nature, intending them for mates, has given them difpofitions, which, though concordant, are, however, different, fo as to produce together delicious harmony. The man, more robuft, is fitted for fevere la bour, and for field exercifes; the woman, more delicate, is fitted for fe

dentary occupations, and particularly for nurfing children. The man, bold and vigorous, is qualified for being a protector; the woman, delicate and timid, requires protection. Hence it' is that a man never admires a woman for poffeffing bodily ftrength or perfonal courage! and women always defpife men who are deftitute of them. The man, as a protector, is directed by nature to govern; the woman, confcious of inferiority, is difpofed to obey. Their intellectual powers correfpond to the destination of nature. Men have penetration and folid judgment to fit them for governing; WOmen have understanding, to make an engaging figure under good government: a greater proportion would excite dangerous rivalthip between the fexes, which nature has avoided by giving them different talents. Women have more imagination and fenfibility than men, which make all their enjoyments more exquifite; at the fame time they are better qualified to communicate enjoyment. Add another capital difference of difpofition: the gentle and infinuating manners of the female fex tend to foften the roughnefs of the other fex; and wherever women are indulged with any freedom, they polish fooner than men.

Thefe are not the only particulars that diftinguish the fexes. With refpect to the ultimate end of love, it is the privilege of the male, as fuperior and protector, to make a choice: the female, preferred, has no privilege but barely to confent, or to refute. Whether this diftinction be the immediate refult of the originally different difpofitions of the fexes, or only the effect of affociations inevitably formed, may be queftioned; but among all nations it is the practice for men to court, and for women to be courted: and were the most beautiful woman on earth to invert this practice, fhe would forfeit the esteem, however by her external grace the might excite the defire, of the man whom the addreffed. The great moral virtues which may be comprehended under the general term integrity, are all ab folutely neceffary to make either men or women estimable; but to procure efteem to the female character, the modefty

modefty peculiar to their fex is a very effential circumstance. Nature hath provided them with it as a defence against the artful folicitations of the other fex before marriage, and alfo as a fupport of conjugal fidelity.

A woman, therefore, whofe difpofitions are gentle, delicate, and rather timid than bold, who is poffeffed of a large fhare of fenfibility and modefty, and whofe manners are foft and infimuating, muft, upon moral principles, command the efteem and benevolence of every individual of the other fex who is poffeffed of found understanding; but if her perfon be deformed, or not fuch as to excite fome degree of animal defire, fhe will attract no man's love. In like manner, a man whose moral character is good, whofe understanding is acute, and whofe converfation is inftructive, muft command the esteem of every fenfible and virtuous woman; but if his figure be difagreeable, his manners unpolifhed, his habits flovenly, and above all, if he be deficient in PERSONAL COURAGE, he will hardly excite defire in the female breast. It is only when the qualities which command efteem are, in the fame perfon, united with thofe which excite defire, that the individual fo accomplished can be an object of love to one of the other fex; but when thefe qualities are thus united, each of them increafes the other in the imagination of the lover. The beauty of his mistress gives her, in his apprehenfion, a greater fhare of gentleness, modefty, and every thing which adorns the female character, than perhaps the really poffeffes; whilft his perfuafion of her internal worth makes him, on the other hand, apprehend her beauty to be abfolutely unrivalled.

tual difpofition of mind gives a particular caft to the countenance, and is apt to discover itself in fome feature of the face. This we learn by experience; and in time, without any effort of our own, the idea of each particular cast of countenance comes to be so closely affociated in our minds with the internal difpofition which it indicates, that the one can never afterwards be prefented to our view without inftantly fuggefting the other to the imagination. Hence it is that every man, who has been accustomed to make obfervations, naturally forms to himself from the featurs and lineaments of a ftranger's face, fome opinion of his character and fortune. We are no fooner prefented to a perfon for the first time, than we are immediately impreffed with the idea of a proud, a referved, an affable, or a good-natured man; and upon our going into a company of abfolute strangers, our benevolence or averfion, our awe or contempt, rifes inftantly towards particular perfons, before we have heard them fpeak a word, or know so much as their names or defignations. The fame thing happens when we are prefented to the fair fex. If a woman, feen for the first time, have that particular caft of countenance, and that expreffion of features, to which we have affociated notions of gentleness, modefty, and other female virtues, the inftantly commands our esteem; and if the have likewife fo much beauty as to make her an object of particular defire, efteem and defire become fuddenly combined; and that combination conftitutes the affection of love. Such, too, is the nature of all mental associations, that each part of which they are compofed adds ftrength and vividnefs to the other parts; fo that, in the prefent inftance, defire makes us imagine virtues in the woman which her countenance perhaps does not indicate; - and the virtues which are there actually vifible, make us apprehend her beauty more perfect than it is.

To this theory an objection readily offers itfelf, which it is incumbent upon us to obviate. Men and women fometimes fall in love at firft fight, and very often before they have opportunities of forming a juft estimate of each other's moral character: How is this circumftance to be reconciled with the progreffive generation of love? We anfwer, By an affociation of ideas which is formed upon principles of phyfiognomy. Every paffion and habi

The affection thus generated is more or lefs pure, and will be more or lefs permanent, according as the one of the other part of which it is compounded predominates. Where defire of poffeffion prevails over our esteem of

the

the perfon and merits of the desirable object, love lofes its benevolent character: the appetite for gratification becomes ungovernable, and tends violently to its end, regardless of the mifery that must follow. In that state love is no longer a fweet agreeable affection; it becomes a felfith, painful paffion, which, like hunger and thirft, produceth no happiness but in the inftant of fruition; and when fruition is over, difguft and averfion generally fucceed to defire. On the other hand, where esteem, founded on a virtuous character and gentle manners, prevails over animal defire, the lover would not for the world gratify his appetite at the expence of a lady's honour, or peace of mind. He wifhes, indeed, for enjoyment; and to him enjoyment is more exquisite than to the mere fenfual lover, becaule it unites fentiment with the gratification of fenfe; at the fame time that, fo far from being fucceeded by difgult or avertion, it increases his benevolence to the woman, whole character and manners he esteems, and who has contributed so much to his pleasure. Benevolence to an individual, having a general end, admits of acts without number, and is feldom fully accomplished. Hence mutual love, which is chiefly compofed of esteem and benevolence, can hardly be of a fhorter duration than its objects. Frequent enjoyment endears fuch lovers to each other, and makes conftancy a pleafure; and when the days of fenfual enjoyment are over, efteem and benevolence will remain in the mind, making fweet, even in old age, the fociety of that pair, in whom are collected the affections of hufband, wife, lover, friend, the tenderest affections of hunian

nature.

From the whole of this inveftigation, we think it appears, that the affection between the lexes which deferves the name of love, is infeparably connected with virtue and delicacy; that a man of modern gallantry cannot be a faithful or a generous lover; that in the breaft of him who has ranged from woman to woman for the mere gratification of his fenfual appetite, defire muft have effaced all efteem for the female character; and that, therefore, the

maxim too generally received, “that a reformed rake makes the best hufband," has very feldom a chance to be true. We think it may likewise be inferred, that thousands fancy themfelves in love who know not what love is, or how it is generated in the human breast: and therefore we beg leave to advise fuch of our readers as may imagine themfelves to be in that ftate, to examine their own minds, with a view to difcover, whether, if the objects of their love were old or ugly, they would still efteem them for the virtues of their character, and the propriety of their manners. This is a question which deferves to be well weighed by the young and the amourous, who, in forming the matrimonial connection, are too often blindly impelled by mere animal defire, inflamed by beauty. It may indeed happen, after the pleafure of gratifying that defire is gone (and if not refined by efteem and benevolence, go it must with a fwift pace), that a new bond of attachment may be formed upon more dignified and lafting principles; but this is a dangerous experiment. Even fuppofing good fenfe, good temper, and internal worth of every fort, yet a new attachment upon fuch qualifications is rarely formed; because it commonly, or rather always, happens, that fuch qualifications, the only folid foundation of an indiffoluble connection, if they did not originally make efteem predominate over animal defire, are afterwards rendered altogether invisible by fatiety of enjoyment creating difguft, which is generally the cafe with violent love, formed on the defire of enjoyment only.

Violent love without affection is fine. ly exemplified in the following story. When Conftantinople was taken by the Turks, Irene, a young Greek of an illuftrious family, fell into the hands of Mahomet II. who was at that time in the prime of youth and glory. His favage heart being fubdued by her charms, he fhut himself up with her, denying accefs even to his ministers. Love obtained fuch afcendancy, as to make him frequently abandon the army and fly to his Irene. War relaxed, for victory was no longer the monarch's favourite pallion. The foldiers, ac

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