The Express.
London, England, 1854-01-04 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

MR. MARSHALL'S LECTURE AT MARL-
BOROUGH-HOUSE.
Last night, Mr. John Marshall commenced a
course of eight lectures on the human form. He
touched lightly upon natural forms in general; os
the straight line as expressive, in the abstract, of
strength, the angular of weakness and interruption,
the curved of richness and grace. He called atten-
tion to the infinite variety of form in one million
kind of plants, in two million, of insects, and in
every individual of the whole race of man, no one •
being without a distinct and characteristic dif-
ference from every other. The lecturer then
called attention to the wonderful resemblance, and
almost identity, of all animal forms in embryo,;
to the dependence of animal beauty in great measure
upon symmetrical repetitions of parts, such repetitions
being an unmistakeable indication of consciously
adjusted equilibrium, and the main source of the ides
of totality and wholeness. Mr. Marshall then dwelt
in a very general and introductory way on the;relep
tions and superiority of the human to other forms. He
gave it as his opinion that the horse was next in
beauty to man, but did not support his view with
any arguments. We are glad, however, to welcome
any opinion that snubs our abominable neighbour
in comparative anatomy, the ape. For the honour
of mankind there ought to be a world-prize offered
for the best confutation of Mooboddo. A good deal,
however, is done by the mere juxta-position of the
human skeleton with that of the ourang-outang its
Mr. Marshall's lecture room. We at once see
that there is a much more real relation
between the horse or the hound and man,
than between such a villanous mockery and
the thing mocked. The lecturer showed that the
beauty of the figure of man is founded upon its more
various capacity. The sections of the trunk and
limbs of the most beautiful of animals, the horse, are
shown to contrast most remarkably by their narrow
and elongated character with the beautiful roundness
et sections of the corresponding memters in man.
Tfw motion of the horse, like almost all other
animals, is simply backwards and forwards;
but the limbs of man can act in all direc-
tions, hence they are roundly sod beautifully
clothed with muscles on all sides. The great supe-
riority of the general aspect of man depends very
much on the greater thickness of his legs, this feature
being necessitated by their having to perform twice
the work done by those of quadrupeds. Again, the
beauty of the human form could not exist under any
conditions but that of a mixed diet—carnivorous and
granivorous. If men had been intended to eat
nothing but vegetables, their bellies would have
protruded like the ape's; had they been
merely carnivorous, they would have been formed
lank and lean in stomach, like the lion and the wolE
Mr. Marshall, in concluding his introductory lecture,
spoke a word in favour of beards. He remarked
very justly that nature covers nothing that is as
beautiful uncovered. The masculine chin is seldom

a sightly feature, for it is intended to be covered.
The chins of women are, however, generally beau-
tiful. The lecturer supported this view by in-
stancing animals with and without fur. The
bear, the rabbit, the cat, and the bird, ars
hideous to look upon when deprived of their hairy
,and feathery decoration; but the horse, the grey-
hound, and other animals, so thinly clad that their
shape is not altered by the fur, are beautiful in their
naked forms.

Yn•

The lecture was, on the whole, an interesting one.
The room was crowded with intelligent and atten-
tive students.