The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-02
BEAUTY I'm M
Why 1t Is Impossible to Fix q Standard
Ideals of the Poets.

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Ideals of the Poets.
New York Herald.
The standards of feminine beauty have never
been fixed by competent authority, and there
are evident reasons why agreement on some OF
the points at issue can never be arrived at. The
Chinese, for instance, inds the true standard in
his short statured, round-faced women, with
plum-colored complexion. AniAfrican prefers
the color of his native race, with lips and nose
on a scale corresponding with the
breadth of his continent. These are,
however, extreme instances. The Italian and
Spanlard, with more reason, give the palm to
the black haired, dark-eyed beauties who unite
the finest features of the brunette type, while
natives of the North find all that is lovely and
angelic in womans nature associated with blue
eyes and fair compilations. The characteristic
OF the Latin type Is passion; of the Germanic
and Anglo-Saxon, tenderness; but which is the
better no one will ever dare to decide in these
cosmopolitan days, with specimens of both types
freely distributed about him.
To render a woman of any type or class beau
tiful she must not have too great irregularity Of
feature. Intellectual or moral beauty may
atone for many deficiencies. but cannot make
beautiful in the eyes of civilization a mouth too
large, a chin too sharp, or a nose out of the line
of projection. When the ordinary mortal rises
to find standards outside of his own judgment,
he becomes greatly confused by the utteranceS
of the poets and novelists. The sonnet of a
bard to his MISTRESS eyebrows is certainly no
SulU0 TO u SOuQQ QeClSlOU, WIll0 tO TcdU u
descriptions of lips like cherries and peach
colored cheeks suggests some of the points
without leading to a verdict.
Recent novelists, it would seem, fight shy Of
the subject. 1t is hard to pin them down to any
definite detail of the charm of their heroines.
There is, of course, a long list of beautiful
mental and moral qualities, and with those the
reader is expected to be satisfied. The older
novelists treated their subject differ
emily.
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He had opinions. and was quite willing to state
them boldly. When he undertook to describe
anything it was with graphic lineaments that
made an impression. Yet, with all his pictorial
audacity, he hesitated to decide between the two
great types-the dark and the light-into which
nature has divided women. His passages de-
scribing the blonde Rowena and the dark Re-
becca are familiar to all lovers Of English
literature. He dwells with especial tenderness
on the portrait of the dark Rebecca, which is
said to have been drawn after a description of
an American JeweSs given to the novelist by his
friend, Washing ton Irving.
Since Scott such descriptions have become
hackneyed. Novelists have become more afraid
of their readers, who delight in analysis and not
delineations Beauty is not found in the face
alone. According to Emerson a fine figure is
better than a fine face, by which is meant that If
the choice lies between the two the first is to be
preferred. The two, however, are very likely to
go together, regularity of features being in a
majority Of cases attended by symmetry of form
"a tendency of the race which is every year be-
coming physically more perfect. To have a
good figure and a face not displeasing is 10 doubt
a happy combination in either man or woman.
The beauty of Shakspeare's heroines is of an
entirely underlined type. tits something like his
geography and his chronology, which are so
closely related to the o-where and no-when A
lovely procession of Juliets, Ccnstances. Isabel
las, Imogenes, Beatrices, Ophelias, Helens,
Rosalinds, Cordelias and Violas troop through
his dramas in picturesque professions, theoret-
ically beautiful, but most of them gentle. sub
mlsslve and hapless food for tragedy. AS for
Lady Macbeth, she was. without doubt, a freck-
led Scotch maid. by fate a termagant, by acct
dent a queen. The inference is that most of
these women were beautiful, but no reason can
be given for such assumption. They drew men
irresistibiy to them. Nearly all had great love
illness of character, which should have made
them admired, and if the poet is to be believed
it had its effect. They are certainly immortal
lied in his verse.
Beauty in history has usually been associated
with misfortune, and has, therefore, sometimes
received undue sympathy.
The beauty of Mary of Scotland has been used
to cover a multitude of sins, while the lack of
personal charms in Elizabeth has been often
cited to render her faults more conspicuous.
Some beauties, like Beatrice, Laura and Bettina,
have been rendered famous, either by the adora-
ton of certain great poets or chance association
with them. Beatrice and Laura were doubtless
beautiful in an era when beautiful women were
not uncommon, ana JuStlneQ the eulngleS or
Dante and Petrarch; but Bettina was teresr-
ing to Goethe, primarily, for her ms and
moral graces. which may have kindled tface
into physical loveliness.
How did Helen of Troy look? the woman who,
when past middle age, convulsed the heroes of
the world with the desire to possess her, and
caused the ruin of a nation. She was probably
of the Greek type, her profile forming a straight
line from the top of her forehead to the tip of
her nose. So also must be described the sem
blance of Portia, Aerippa, Cleopatra, Faustinia
and Virginia of Roman history.
Judith, Esther, Bathsheba and Herodias were.
no doubt, of the Jewish style of beauty, darker
doubtless than the modern representatives of
the race, and with the curve of the nose con-
siderably pronounced. Perhaps they would not
now be called beautiful, for only among the
ancient Greeks and Romans beauty, whether of
form or face, arrived at a great de-
gree of perfection. With other an
cient nations beauty must have been
simply comparative-that is, a woman was beau
tiful because she was less ugly in face or less un-
attractive in form than others of her sex about
her
And so it is in the present age. Mrs. Langtry,
Mrs. CORVALLIS West, the Countess Dudley and
Miss Chamberlain are none OF them called beau
tiful. They have fine compilations. superb
figures, pleasing eyes and mobile features. Yet
they are not perfect beauties, but deserve com
mendation only by comparison.
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