Page:Language of the Eye.djvu/71

Rh concave. Man has most direct lines; woman most curved. The nervous system of woman is more mobile than that of man; her forehead should be fully developed, her face oval, and in her lower features should be modesty and dignity; but in all woman's beauty and distinction, the organs of sensation should be far more developed than that of the understanding and reasoning faculties. The circulation and respiration have less force, but are more rapid; the surface and the extremities of the body are more readily supplied, and, owing to the translucency of the skin, the slightest emotion brings beautiful tints to the surface. The bust of woman should be round, and distinguished by its volume and elegant contour, which should contain serpentine lines or parts of a sphere. The eye of the extremely passionate woman is of the softest azure; and in a well-developed woman all the organs of sense are small; but the sensibility is more vivacious and quick; hence her mental vivacity and acuteness is greater, as her perceptions appear with intenseness and promptitude. The countenance of man, taken in profile, is more seldom perpendicular than that of the woman. All her movements of body are made to perfect the purposes of feeling, and in such an easy and buoyant course, that you cannot but detect therein a certain ethereal nature of mind which is rarely seen in man; and, in the most gentle and delightful moments of thought, her body is naturally thrown into attitudes which communicate a like softness to the mind of the beholder,—it is then one of the apparitions of divinity overshadows materialism with its ineffable light and glory. Whatever is of love, and truth, and grace, will be so in expression; then comes that elevation of mind, that happy consciousness of the presence of virtue, which dignifies passion and realizes