tions, it sometimes seems almost aërial; and we would imagine, that, if our hands were placed under the lateral parts of the tapering waist of a woman thus characterized, the slightest pressure would suffice to throw her into the air.

To this class belong generally the more firm, vigorous, and even actively impassioned women: though it may doubtless boast many of greatly modified character.

This species of beauty is very well illustrated in Plates V, VI, and VII.*

FIRST VARIETY OR MODIFICATION OF THIS SPECIES OF BEAUTY.

It may here be observed, that the varieties or modifications of each species of beauty naturally correspond with the greater or less development of some one of the various organs on which the species is founded. Thus the modifications of beauty of the locomotive system correspond with the greater or less development of the bones, the ligaments, or the muscles; those of the nutritive system correspond with the greater or less development of the absorbents, the blood-vessels, or the glands; and those of the thinking system corres

* In Plate VI, the lithograph renders the calf of the left leg less muscular than in the original. In Plate VII, the mamma and the lateral part of the abdomen are rather, perhaps, too prominent in the original drawing; and the thigh and leg taper and become too slender, in the lithograph.

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pond with the greater or less development of the organs of sense, the brain, or the cerebel. A little reflection will show, that some of these modifications will be more, and others less beautiful.

To understand the present variety, the bony structure on which it especially depends, must now be more minutely described.

Commencing with the trunk of the body, — the chest in woman is shorter but more expanded; the breast-bone is shorter but wider; the two upper ribs are flatter; the collar-bones are more straight or less curved, and do not present that prominent relief which appears on the chest of man; the shoulders are carried farther back, and project less from the trunk.

The haunches, as already stated, are proportionally wider in woman than in man, and the interior cavity of the pelvis, which is between them, being adapted to gestation, is more capacious. This greater capacity of the pelvis arises from the lateral parts having in woman more convexity outward; from the bones called ossa pubis, which form the anterior part, touching at a smaller number of points, and running obliquely or forming a greater angle, to enlarge the space which is between them and the inferior extremity of the posterior part of the pelvis; from the arch of the pubis being larger; from the greater concavity and breadth of