The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1876-09-21
Degeneracy OF Physical Beauty.


One of the most striking chronological
facts of the age is the physical change
| wrought in the men and women OF the
century past This change is not dne to
costume nor climatic influences, but
springs from causes which must be patent
to the thinker and observer The promi
nent people of the Addisonian era find no
typical Successors OF to-day in England .
Referring to the portraits OF distinguished
| persons of both sexes, it will be seen that
the hearty look, placidity OF face and ftll
ness ct form of the reign of George LII.
have given place 10 angularlty both in the
Englishman aud Eugiishwoman of oar
| time.
Among literary men Alfred Jenny son
would appear, when contfasted with the
poets of Il hundred years ago, II man in
which the straight line predoninated in
stead OF the curved line; while Disraeli,
with his sharp outline and saffron face,
would suffer in the presence of Charles
James Fox and the rest of the fine looking
statesmen who We're to be seen any day at
Aimack's Among women no such glori
Gus beauty is now to be found in England
as the duchess of Devonshire, the Gun
ming sisters, and poor Lady Hamilton,
whose name is SO intimately and untorlu
nately connected with Lord Nelson. The
nearest approach to these is Lady Ellen
borough, who ran away from court Cir
cles, and wanders about the deserts Of the
Euphrates, the wife OF a miserable little
Arab sheik
In our own country. the curve line. i'll
both sexes, is rapidly giving way to the
straight which every artist knows is fatal
to symmetry and facial beauty. II the
skeptic will glance at the portraits Of the
men who formed the cabinet of Washing
ton. and contrast the faces Of the Presi-
dent, Alexander Hamilton, General Knox
and the rest he must be struck with their
| physical superiority over President Lin
coin, Bates, Seward and Stanton, the lat
ter of whom would almost pass for full
er edition OF that artist OF the horrible,
| Fusel. The Nashingtonian era was one
in which the nOblest proportions of lea-
| ture and form were developed. and with
| them that benignancy OF look which comes
| from Il calm repose of soul On the con-
trary, the Lincolnian era was developer
Of angularity, and with it that troubled
and severe look, which has unrest in its
author Now, to what is this change Of
type, both in England and America, chiefly
due? 1t is no philosophical puzzle; we
see the effect, let us look briefly for the
cause A century since Enolishmen knew
nothing of steam; they travelled, but did
not arrive as if shot forward by bolts of
lightning. There was then far less dense
population. London could not then boast
of over three millions of inhabitants.
Liverpool was but a small seaport, and
Manchester and birmingham inconsider-
able towns. The push for wealth, the
tug for bread was not what it is to-day
In the United States the population was
sparse, and the foremost men of the re-
public chiefly farmers. Steam had not sup
| planted the slow, yet pleasant means of
travel Diseases of the heart and of the
brain, sapping the powers of the muscular
and nervous organization, were not super
| induced by overWork either for wealth or
bread Men and women lived slower, and
hence the recuperative energies were elias
tic and strong The lines of physical beau
| ty had time for natural development
Then more exercise was taken, sociality a
source of genuine pleasure, and longevity
not the exception to the rule of life To
what. taen, is due our physical deteriora
ton under a sky, from Maine to Califor-
mia, far surprising that Of Europe, and a
climate which is generally friend, not
an enemy to health? The solution is to
be found in four words: we live too fast
There is no help for it, perhaps. but the
lightning race on the track of life will
make both the English and American peo-
pies races SO angular, and abnormal in
other respects, that in the after times they
will be to their progcnitors what the Ro-
mans were to the Greeks. coarser and
ruder in physique but numerically more
powerful. Percles will have been sup
planted by Cassius. New York Mercury.