Part 14 (1/2)

The soft parts which enter into the composition of woman, and the cellular tissue which serves to unite them, are also more delicate and more supple than those of man.

All these circ.u.mstances indicate very clearly the pa.s.sive state to which nature has destined woman, and which will be fully ill.u.s.trated in a future volume.

If, in a living body, any part liable to be distended had too much firmness, or even elasticity, it might press against some essential organ; and the liquids being impeded in their course, would in that case be speedily altered, if the neighboring parts offered not flexible vessels for their reception.

Now, in the body of woman, certain parts are exposed to suffer great distentions and compressions. It is therefore necessary that her organs should be of such structure as to yield readily to these impressions, and to supply each other when their respective functions are impeded.

From this it follows, that woman never enjoys existence better, than when a moderate plumpness bestows on her organs, without too much weakening them, all the suppleness of which they are capable.

This leads to the consideration of the natural mobility of the organs of woman.

Their mobility is a necessary consequence, in the first place, of their littleness. The movements of all animals, appear to be executed with more rapidity, the less their bulk. It has been observed, that the arteries of the ox beat only thirty-five times, while those of the sheep beat sixty, and that the pulse of women is smaller and more rapid than that of men.

A second physical quality, which concurs to render more mobile the various parts of woman, is their softness.

A certain feebleness is the necessary consequence of these two circ.u.mstances. But it is thence that spring woman's suppleness and lightness of movement, and her capacity for grace of att.i.tude.

It has been conjectured, that even the elements of the parts which const.i.tute woman, have a particular organization, on which depends the elegance of the forms, the vivacity of the sensations, and the lightness of the movements, which characterize her.

The result of these circ.u.mstances is that, while man possesses force and majesty, woman is distinguished by beauty and grace. The characteristics of woman are less imposing and more amiable; they inspire less admiration than love. As has been observed, a single trait of rudeness, a severe air, or even the character of majesty, would injure the effect of womanly beauty. Lucian admirably represents to us the G.o.d of love frightened at the masculine air of Minerva.

While man, by force and activity, surmounts the obstacles which embarra.s.s him, woman, by yielding, withdraws from their action, and adds to beauty, a gentle and winning grace which places all the vaunted power of man at her disposal.

It is evidently the influence of the organs distinguis.h.i.+ng the two s.e.xes, which is the primary cause of their peculiar beauty.

As the liquid which, in man, is secreted in certain vessels for the purpose of reproduction, communicates a general excitement and activity to the character, so when, in woman, the periodical excretion appears, the b.r.e.a.s.t.s expand, the eyes sparkle, the countenance becomes more expressive, but at the same time more timid and reserved, and a character of flexibility and grace distinguishes every motion.

Conformably with this view, the appearance and the manners of eunuchs approach to those of women, by the softness and feebleness of their organization, as well as by their timidity, and by their acute voice.

The very opposite is naturally the result of the extirpation of the ovaries in women. Pott, giving an account of the case of a female, in whom both the ovaries were extirpated, says, the person ”has become thinner, and more apparently muscular; her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which were large, are gone; nor has she ever menstruated since the operation, which is now some years.”

Haighton found that, by dividing the Fallopian tubes, which connect the ovaries with the womb, s.e.xual feelings were destroyed, and the ovaries gradually wasted.

The women, also, in whom the uterus and the ovaries remain inert during life, approximate in forms and habits to men. It is stated, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1805, that an adult female, in whom the ovaries were defective, presented a corresponding defect in the state of the const.i.tution.

To the same general principle, it has been observed, we must refer the partial growth of a beard on females in the decline of life, and the circ.u.mstance that female-birds, when they have ceased to lay eggs, occasionally a.s.sume the plumage, and, to a certain extent, the other characters of the male.

Under the influence of this cause, the first exercise of her new faculty determines remarkable modifications in woman. Her neck swells and augments in size--

”Non illam nutrix orienti luce revisens Hesterno collum poterit circ.u.mdare filo;[31]

her voice a.s.sumes another expression; her moral habits totally change: and many women owe to love and marriage more splendid beauty.

The women thus happily const.i.tuted are not those of hot climates, but those of cooler regions and calmer temperament, whose placid features and more elastic forms announce a gentler and more pa.s.sive love.

Impa.s.sioned women, on the contrary, do not so long preserve their freshness: the expansive force, from which the organs derived their form and coloring, abates; and a less agreeable flaccidity succeeds to the elasticity with which they were endowed, if the plumpness which adult age commonly brings does not sustain them.

During pregnancy and suckling, the firstmentioned cla.s.s of women retain a remarkable freshness and plumpness.