Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/111

 So far have we departed from this ancient ideal, that an unusually prominent nose is often a source of great mortification. It may even have more serious results. The wild and witty French author, Cyrano de Bergerac, was distinguished by a nose which almost deserved to be called a proboscis. Like most others similarly gifted, he was extremely sensitive on the point, and as he was as daring as a lion and an expert swordsman, it was not prudent to twit him about it. By the time he was thirty-five he had challenged for this cause six antagonists, and left every one of them dead on the field.

The artistic rule based on the Greek sculptures is to have the line of the nose straight or very nearly so, its length one-third of that of the face, and its prominence seen in profile one-third of its length. The septum, or division between the nostrils, must be exactly in the middle line of the face; the openings of the nostrils precisely similar, and horizontal in the profile. A thin and pointed, or a gross and flabby nose, is never handsome.

The pure Roman nose is admirably suited to a "stage face," and usually accompanies an energetic, clear-headed, practical, but somewhat hard and selfish character. The Greek type is more consonant with delicate sensibilities, taste, and refinement, but also uncertainty of purpose and self-indulgence. Such, also,