The daily critic., 1890-07-17
EDUCATION AND BEAUTY.
They Are Naturm Enemies-Tbe Ug-
iiness or RoyaIty

I They Are Natural Encmfes-The Ue-
liness of RoyaIty
man ne Spectator.
il may even be doubted. strange q.
many viii deem the assertion, whether
continuous education will produce
beauty, whether the growth of inteli
gcncc viii even in ages yield the physi
! cal result which we notice the authors
/ of Jtopi0s always assume. asif 30 were
q dcmonsirable consequence of the new
| society.
The most beautiful black race In
/ Africa, a tribe in Nyassaland. on whose
! looks even missionaries grow elouuent.
who are really as perfect as bronze
statues, are as ignorant as fishes. and.
| though they have discovered the use OF
/ fire, have never risen to The conception
Of clothes Of any kind The Otaheitan.
! when discovered, was as uuculmred MS
| the Papuan now is, yet the former an
| preached as neatly to positive beauty as
The latter does TO positive deformitv.
! The keenest race in Ashland as all
who know them assert, the strongest in
| character, the Chiuesc-is decidedly
/ the ugliest of mankind; while the
| Hindoo, If sufficiently fed, Is. even
| when as Ignorant as an animal, almost
| invariably handsome
The CirCassians, who know nothing.
snd sre rather stupid than exception
| ally intelligent, are physically a fault
| less race, far more so than the Germans,
| who, though the best trained people In
the world, display a marked common
ness Of feature, as II the great sculptor,
Nature, had used good clay but taken
no trouble about the modelling. Some
of the very ablest among them belong
TO the iiatnosed puffy checked, loose
Tipped variety
The keeuest race In the world, and
probably the one most susceptible Of
culture, the jew, presents few types of
beauty, being usually at once hooked
nOsed and ilabby. checked, though In
physique, rs In thought, that race oc.
Casionally throws out transcendent ex.
amples. The tanned Arabs of Egypt,
who seem 20 possess poor brains, and,
Of course, have no education, are often
extraordinarily handsome; wilhelm 1850
the grandest head in Asia, head
which every artist copied as his ideal of
Jove, belonged 20 an Arab horse dealer,
who, outside his trade, knew nothing.
No modern men Of culture would
pretend, In mere perfectness Of form, to
rival the old Greek athletes. who intel.
leciually were probably animals, or the
Berserkars, who were for the most part
only Hard drinking soldiers. The royal
caste, which has been cultivated for a
thousand years, seldom produces beau.
iiiul men. and still schooner beautiful
women; most princesscs, though some.
times dignifed, having been marked as
to features by a certain ordinariness
often wanting In the poor, and especially
the poor Of certain districts, like Devon
In England and Aries and Marseilles in
France. Devon Is no better taught
than Suffolk, but mark the difference I'm
peasant forms.
In the last century the ablest men IN
Europe were remarkable for a certain
supeiiluity OF flesh, Of which Gibbons
face Is the best known and most absurd
example, and In our own time. intellect.
even hereditary intellect h constantly
found dissoCiated from good looks, and
even from distinction. some Of the
ablCst men being externally heavy and
gross, and some OF the ablest women
marked by an Indebtedness nf cheek
and chin as II they had been carved by
the fingers IN putty. No stranger ever
saw Tennyson without turning round,
but Browning would have passed un.
noticed in any English OF Austrian
crowd
The air Of physical refinement, which
Is what continuous culture should give,
Is precisely The afr which is often lack.
ing among the cultivated, as Il is also
in many aristOcratlc families Indeed.
though caste must mean more or less
hereditary culture Il Is doubtful If II
secures beauty II does not In the
royal houses, and In any regiment,
though an officer or two will probably
stand first, the proportion of splendid |
men will be found greater among the |
non commissioned than the commits |
stoned officers.
Science can no more make a Circassian |
than a one-legged race, and the physi. |
cal attributes, like the grace Of God.
are independent Of thinking. Ii they |
were not We should some day have a |
race Of heroes indeed, stalking among |
lesser men as Kingsley depicts his |
Goths stalking among the far more
and better cultivated Alex |
andTians An entire race like Alexander /
the Great, the man IN whom. Of all |
brain power and physique /
were united In their highest peTfectness, !
would soon be more intolerable than the /
. Venetian" arisiocracy, whom Mr..
DisTaeli deTided, denounced and wor-
shipped.