M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1857-04-30
A Chapter on Feet.

We do not like foot too small for
the height, any more than we like
one too large. A small foot indica-
teth coquetry. Cleopatra's foot must
have been small and finely arched, or
she wonld never have done as descIib.
ed by Enobarbus:
81 saw her once
Hop forty PAGES through the public street,
No woman ever did or would have
done the like but with the conscious.
ness of the great perfection in the
feet.
Anthony sends her peals, saying:
"The firm Roman 10 the great Egypt sends
This treasure Of an oyster; at whose feet
To mend the petty present, | will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms"
No man alludes to a woman's foot
in ahy way if he loves her, unless it
be beautiful.
Hermoine, on the contrary, had
firm, well proportioned foot, betoken-
ing majesty. When she acts the stat
ne scene we are sure she had a well.
sized foot.
"oh! royal piece
There's magic in thy majesty"
is the exclamation of Leontes.
A woman will never enact the part
of a statue if conscious of an ill.toot,
unless her intellectually may have
perverted her instincts, as in the case
of Madame dc Stael, who at one time
personated in this way; and Tally
rand, if we mistake not, offended her,
past retrieve, by saying he knew who
it was by the peSaeStal, (pedestal a
terrible pun where the feet and ankles
are ill.shaped.
Desdemona, Ophelia and Cordelia
must have had long, slender feet,
which go more with sentiment than
with magnetism or genius. Miranda,
on the contrary, had elegantly proper
toned feet, worthy the chaste Diana
herself. Then, too, graceful and elas-
tic as the spring ofthe tigers. When
Petruchio says,
"why doth the world report that Kate doth limp"
it was q delicate commentator of her
foot; still more when he says,
"Did ever Dian so become grove,
As Kate this chamber with her princoly gatl"
Tennyson hath delioato eye for a
foot when he represents Ida in this
wise:
"She stood
Among the maidens, higher by the head,
Her back against pillar, her foot on one
Of these tame leopards. Ktten-like he rolled
And paved about her sandal"
And again, describing the retinue
Of the princess climbing the rock in
pursuit ofminerals, he says,
"Many dark foot shone like jewel set
In the dark craig"
Women with large feet never like
to climb the hills.
The sentiment of beauty is less in
the size than a certain litheness and
elasticity. Light as a fawn," "Fleet
as the greyhound" with step like
a stag" are all very pretty phrases,
indicating the character Of the foot,
which is the index to the whole wo-
man.
Dress has a great effect upon the
foot, and we fear very long dresses
demoralize it. The long robe certain
ly destroys its elasticity. We like to
see the foot
Beneath the petticoats,
Peep out and in like little mice,
Which shun the light"
That was very pretty in a lover
who saw his mistress bathiGg her feet
in a brook, and wrote her,
''Do pot fear to put thy feet,
Naked in the water, sweet;
Fear not lizard, newt or toad
Will dare to come where thou hast trod."
Tho French foot is meagre, narrow
and bony; the Spanish is small and
elegantly curved thanks to its Moorish
blood, corresponding with the Castil-
ian pride "high in the instep. -
The Arab foot is proverbial for its
thigh arch; "a stream can run under
the hollow Of his foot" is a descrip.
ton of its form. The foot of the
Scotchmen, are large and thick-that
of the Irish, flat and square--the
English short and feshy. The Am.
erican foot is apt to be disproportion,
ately small.
i The Chinese women are made ia
wear iron shoes, when young, and