New-York tribune., 1876-07-15
EYECR4BLE SHAPES,

DO not always add up. If Scott, for example
had understood the density of bodies aud then
corresponding weight, would he ever have
written. "E'en the slight harebell raised It's
"head, Elastic from her airy treadW Ger
tainly not. He might have said, had he recos-
nized the great axiom that the True ana the
Beautiful are one, "Tough-rOOted harebell
seemed to thrive Beneath her well shaped
Number Five;" or, "Tbe hareben blue
"cushion put Under her well-proportioned
&" foot - or even, "Freely its blooms the hare
"bell shed, To blaze the way her light feet
"sped"
For Miss Ellen was a tall young woman,
with muscular system well developed by run
ming and rowing and Scotch, besides. Now
if the foot of this heroine were really beautiful,
as the foot of q heroine is and must be, by
the law of its being, it was perfectly proper
toned TO her 1.-the frame. Thus related, if
could not have weighed less than two aud
once quarter pounds ayOirdupols. Not the most
resolute harebell that ever purped CaIedonmn
wastes would raise its head elastic after two
pounds and quarter, live weight, had sud-
denly obscured its day. We wouldn't back an
india-rubber plant to do it.
If Sucking had been n psychologist, could he
have made the absurd statement that Her
eject beneath her pctticoat Like little mice
"stole in and out (" Again, certainly not.
How could seven tarsal bones five In the
metatarsus and fourteen in the toes, with the
muscles, sinews, tendOns, nerves, and adipOSe
tissue to them pertaining, be squeezed into a
bulk suggestive even of the patriarch and
chleftan of mice, let alone little oncsl I'M
less. indeed, the lovely bride were a Chinese
belle, a supposition which tie context seems
to forbid.
Shakespeare, the Omn5cicnt, never commits
such solecisms. He gives "ShOre's wife" a
pretty foot and Rosalind fine foot" and
Juliet a eight foot, but not one of his hero
ines has foot whose praise lies in its small
ness. He WAS Greek in bis sense of the
beauty and harmony of the body. But Shake
spcare gathers dust on the shelf while Herrck
with his feet like snails," and COngreve with
his "b0-pccpn nonsense, and the rest of the
tuneful but unscientiiC tribe adorn the quota
ton books.
Who shall say, however, that in IIades,
Yesalius and Phdias and lIer0philns of Chal-
cedon have not s., in judgment and cOndem-
nation Oh these offenders for publishing false
doctrines concerning the examinations of Lovely
Woman! For their influence has been far
reaching. They have perpetuated that middle
age instrument of torture, the French heel,
which bestows ophthalma, spinal disorders I'M
told nervous horrors upon its victims, and
fetters their free movements as with ball and
chain. They have corrupted the good taste OF
generations. They have raised up brood OF
reporters and correspondents who send stalls
tics to the country newspapers concerning the
dimensions of Mrs. Smiths foot, Mrs. Jones's
slipper, Mrs. RobinsOn's boot. If Mesdames
Smith, Jones, and Robinson are tail or stout,
yet can endure an incapaclOus shoe, to each OF
those fashionable Stoics is ascribed :" the most
beautiful foot in America" And if their shoe
maker happen to live in Berlin or Paris, the
reporters cup of satisfaction runneth over.
1t is not many years since the fashionable
world pronounced, as with one voice, that n
delightful singer then new to the boards could
never quite succeed III opera because of her
big feet. Now Nature had projected that
young lady upon liberal plan. She had given
her deep chest wherein her lungs might COM
fortably labor, a large throat out of which her
warbng notes trilled free as bird songs, and
a general amplitude Of structure in keeping
with these. In her salad days, indeed,
Madcmoiselle might have been taxed, by the
unthinking, with u supcrabmdance of collar
bone, elbow-jo Joint, and tibia. But Nature
knew what she was about. Little by little,
she softly overlaid the sufficient framework
with firm and rosy flesh On the fouted feet,
not one hairs breadth too large for the weight
they were to carry, she taught her child to
move with charming ease and grace, and TO-
day those symmetrical eXtrcmltieS are fit TO be
carved in marble.
The Greek sculptors declared that the length
of the foot should be one-slxth of the length
of the body. But even this ratio is exceeded
in the statue of the Venus de Medici, who
stands only four feet and seyenty-six one-hm-
dredths in her head so to speak, willie her
foot measures nine inches and three-tcnths.
The meekest victim of the crude notion
that small foot must be beautiful is the
second toe-that martyr by the pang without
the palm. In the antique marbles this junior
appears taller than the head of the family by
the length of a joint, projection which is
essential to the easy pose of the body and its
grace of movement. But by a process of
natural selection, continued through generations,
fashion has so improved on Providence that
not one female foot in q hundred displays this
conformation. Centuries of short shoes have
outwitted the purposes of Mature, until, to
save her children from added torture, she has
pushed back the advanced guard of the foot
almost to a line with the great toe. Aud so
our women must mince along like hens and
spend their substance on the chiropodist,
instead of stepping free on healthy feet with
the equal gait of goddesses.
Mrs. Washington was noted for her pretty