Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/279

Rh their complexions are fair, their eyes full and sparkling, and their features bold and regular. But their countenances are inanimate; they want that cast and expression of feature, without which, to my ideas, no high degree of beauty can exist, and with which an ordinary face charms. I speak, I should observe, of women whose graces the heats of five-and-twenty summers, or the rigors of as many winters, have not impaired, for after that period of life the Dutch ladies lose their attractions; the rosy blush of youth forsakes them, and their fine complexions assume a sallow autumnal hue. Women are shorter lived in Holland than men, but from what cause I cannot pretend to account: the contrary is the case in England; and the reason is obvious, because women lead more regular and temperate lives. There are few, perhaps no instances of what can be called extreme longevity in Holland; and the fault is rather in the unwholesomeness of the climate, than in any want of precautions in the Dutch to protract their lives to the utmost date. They