Part 1 (1/2)
Beauty.
by Alexander Walker.
DEDICATION.
TO GEORGE BIRBECK, M.D., F.G.S.,
PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON MECHANICS' INSt.i.tUTION, &c., &c., &c.
A department of science, which in many respects must be regarded as new, cannot so properly be dedicated to any one as to the inventor of the best mode of diffusing scientific knowledge among the most meritorious and most oppressed cla.s.ses of society.
When the enemies of freedom, in order effectually to blind the victims of their spoliation, imposed a tax upon knowledge, you rendered the acquirement of science easy by the establishment of mechanics'
inst.i.tutions--you gave the first and greatest impulse to that diffusion of knowledge which will render the repet.i.tion of such a conspiracy against humanity impossible.
You more than once also wrested a reluctant concession, in behalf of untaxed knowledge, from the men who had evidently succeeded, in some degree, to the spirit, as well as to the office, of the original conspirators, and who unwisely hesitated between the bad interest which is soon felt by all partic.i.p.ators in expensive government, and their dread of the new and triumphant power of public opinion, before which they know and feel that they are but as the chaff before the whirlwind.
For these services, accept this respectful dedication, as the expression of a homage, in which I am sure that I am joined by thousands of Britons.
Nor, in writing this, on a subject of which your extensive knowledge enables you so well to judge, am I without a peculiar and personal motive.
I gratefully acknowledge that, in one of the most earnest and strenuous mental efforts I ever made, in my work on ”The Nervous System,” I owed to your cautions as to logical reasoning and careful induction, an anxiety at least, and a zeal in these respects, which, whatever success may have attended them, could not well be exceeded.
I have endeavored to act conformably with the same cautions in the present work. He must be weak-minded, indeed, who can seek for aught in philosophy but the discovery of truth; and he must be a coward who, believing he has discovered it, has any scruple to announce it.
ALEXANDER WALKER.
APRIL 10, 1836.
AMERICAN ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT.
The present volume completes the series of Mr. Walker's anthropological works. To say that they have met with a favorable reception from the American public, would be but a very inadequate expression of the unprecedented success which has attended their publication.
”INTERMARRIAGE,” the first of the series, pa.s.sed through six large editions within eighteen months, and ”WOMAN,” has met with a sale scarcely less extensive. The numerous calls for the present work, have compelled the publishers to issue it sooner than they had contemplated; and, it is believed, that it will be found not less worthy of attention than the preceding.
All must acknowledge the interesting nature of the subject treated in the present work, as well as its intimate connexion with those which have already pa.s.sed under discussion. The a.n.a.lysis of beauty on philosophical principles, is attended with numerous difficulties, not the least of which arises from the want of any fixed and acknowledged standard. The term Beauty is, indeed, generally considered as a vague generality, varying according to national, and even individual taste and judgment.
Mr. Walker claims, in his advertis.e.m.e.nt, numerous points of originality, some of which, on examination, may perhaps prove to have been proposed previously by other writers. Enough, however, will remain to ent.i.tle him to the credit of great ingenuity and acuteness. As treated by him, the subject a.s.sumes an aspect very different from that exhibited in any other publication. To trace the connexion of beauty with, and its dependance on, anatomical structure and physiological laws--to show how it may be modified by causes within our control--to describe its different forms and modifications, and defects, as indicated by certain physical signs--to a.n.a.lyze its elements, with a view to its influence on individuals and society, in connexion with its perpetration in posterity--all these were novel topics of vast and exciting interest, and well adapted to the genius, taste, and research of our author.
In preparing the present edition, it has been thought expedient to make some verbal alterations, and omit a few paragraphs, to which a refined taste might perhaps object, and to bring together in the Appendix such collateral matter, as might serve to correct, extend, or ill.u.s.trate the views presented in the text. With these explanations, the work is confidently commended to the popular as well as philosophical reader, as worthy of studious examination.
PRELIMINARY ESSAY,
BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:
Death hath no power yet upon thy beauty-- Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson on thy lips, and in thy cheeks.--SHAKSPEARE.