Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in conditions
not unlike her own, beauty, in the common sense of the term, could hardly
find leisure to develop and shape itself. For it must be remembered,
that symmetry and elegance of features and figure, like perfectly formed
crystals in the mineral world, are reached only by insuring a certain
necessary repose to individuals and to generations. Human beauty is an
agricultural product in the country, growing up in men and women as in
corn and cattle, where the soil is good. It is a luxury almost
monopolized by the rich in cities, bred under glass like their forced
pine-apples and peaches. Both in city and country, the evolution of the
physical harmonies which make music to our eyes requires a combination of
favorable circumstances, of which alternations of unburdened tranquillity
with intervals of varied excitement of mind and body are among the most
important. Where sufficient excitement is wanting, as often happens in
the country, the features, however rich in red and white, get heavy, and
the movements sluggish; where excitement is furnished in excess, as is
frequently the case in cities, the contours and colors are impoverished,
and the nerves begin to make their existence known to the consciousness,
as the face very soon informs us.
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