esteemed beauties. At present, the stature or height is computed by six heads. These measures, and many others are, as it were, the foundation of the beauty of forms. The oval is the perfect form in a human countenance. The ancients always adhered to it, and used it in all their works, as in the most beautiful of their vases, which we still possess. The oval is compounded of curve lines, not indeed circular, but inclining to a circle; and these lines are multiplied, and concentrated in each other; they are generated in a manner by one another, so that they never have a single centre, but vary it, and always appear circular. Hence the oval form is the finest, and a beautiful body, according to the learned Wincklemann, who is a master of this subject, is like the surface of the sea seen from a distance, which appears smooth and tranquil as a glass, tho' continually in motion. The beautiful oval forms, when we attentively survey them, appear always to wave, and are continually rounding, turning, returning, and bending. Observe how the hairs form a beautiful arch over the forehead, whence the countenance descends waving to the temples, the cheeks, the chin; and thence a continued circuit brings it back to the forehead, without ever closing or terminating. Observe, how the hairs round the head second that waving circle; how every motion, every action, every lineament of the countenance runs agreeably round, and descends, seeking the chin, as it were, for a basis to rest upon. The line does not rest, however, but goes thence waving to unite itself with the neck, describing always oval lines. The neck is more circular, because it acts as a base, and, supporting the whole head, ought to exhibit a greater degree of force.Yet a beautiful neck ought to be longish, because it thus departs more from rotundity, and approaches to the oval. Parmigiano, among others, formed the most beautiful of his Madonas with a long neck; the Greeks did the same, tho' with more discretion. Observe the most beautiful countenances in the finest medals and statues; they are all oval; but view them in their profile, and see what a pleasing line serpentizes from the forehead to the chin, with a sinuosity so delicate, that it appears a right line. It ought not naturally to be so, because, even in a profile, every feature tends to roundness; the forehead, the temples, the eyes, the eye-brows, the nose, the cheeks, the chin with the lips.That a different effect is produced clearly declares the truth of this doctrine. A flat nose is the greatest deformity in the countenance, because it is the most remote from the aquiline, the pleasing and somewhat lengthened curvature of which is the most beautiful, because it makes nearly a straight line with the forehead. We may see a proof of what has been said in the union of beauty and youth, two things which cannot be separated. Why? because the body in youth being juicy and well nourished, expresses the muscles so little, that they cannot be perceived beneath the roundness of the fresh limbs; whereas when the body is fully matured or declining into age, the muscles are distinctly expressed, form an inequality with the surface, and interrupt its waving form by angles. In fact, there is no real beauty consistent with age. The ancients accordingly always made their beautiful deities youthful, the poets made their goddesses always virgins, with the power of recovering virginity, and the freshness of youth. (To be continued.) On a Phenomenon in Musical Sounds. SIR, in Mr Cavallo's Treatise on Na tural tural Philosophy, an account of a singular phenomenon, of which, according to that author, no adequate hypothesis has been offered, I take the liberty of sending you the following attempt at an explanation. In his chapter on Musical Sounds, Mr C. states, that in many cases where two notes are sounded, a third note, lower in tone than either of them, is at the same time heard. May not this be owing to the coincidences in the vibrations of the air which convey the sounds? The first example mentioned in the work alluded to is, that when C, on the lowest string of a violin, and A, immediately above, are at once sounded, F, the twelfth below the C sounded, would also be heard. But it is very well known, (by observing the length of the strings required to sound these notes, the elasticity, weight, and tension, being the same in each,) that C makes three vibrations for every five of A, so that we might reasonably expect, that every fifth vibration of A would be strengthened by every 3d vibration of C. There is in this case, therefore, a third series of vibrations succeeding each other thrice as slowly as those of C, and five times as slowly as those of A; and this is exactly what constitutes the sound of F, the note found to be produced. the contiguous air. Setting this objection aside, however, (and I cannot think it will be rigidly maintained by any one,) I am aware, that the hypothesis which I now propose seems at first sight not wholly unobjectionable. In some examples mentioned in the above work, the note stated as being really produced, is an octave higher than what this theory would assign. But it is not unlikely that Mr C. would consider a note and its octave so much the same, that he would think it of no great consequence to distinguish them, if it were attended with any great inconvenience; and, as the examples alluded to are only marked in a plate, it would have been somewhat inconvenient to engrave the octaves below the notes marked. It is also difficult to determine on experiment which really is the note produced, the ear having both to observe it at the time that two other notes are sounding, and to do so when these two are so much louder. I am, I am aware that this is inconsistent Anecdotes and Letters of the late Dr with M. Rameau's theory, that each sound is conveyed by particles calculated to convey that particular sound, and no other. This supposes the air to be composed of so infinite a variety of particles, that, to me at least, it appears quite absurd. Indeed, it would only have been in consistence with this hypothesis, to have also assigned an infinite number of tympana to the ear, for one body cannot receive an impression from another without yielding, in some degree, however small, to the impulse producing that impression; and the tympanum of the ear must therefore vibrate along with GILBERT STuart. (From "Calamities of Authors.") N the peaceful walks of literature, we are startled at discovering genius, with the mind, and, if we conceive the instrument it guides to be a stiletto, with the hand of an assassin; irascible, vindictive, armed with indiscriminate satire, and never pardoning the merit of rival genius, but fastening on it throughout life, till, in the moral retribution of human nature, these very passions, by their ungratified cravings, have tended to annihilate the being who fostered them. Such a character was the Author now before us. Dr GILBERT STUART seems early in life to have devoted himself to literature; but his habits were irregular, and his passions fierce. The celebrity of Robertson, Blair, Henry, with other Scottish writers, diseased his mind with a most envious rancour. and He confined all his literary efforts to the pitiable motive of destroying theirs; and the fact is, that he was prompted to every one of his historical works by the mere desire of discrediting some work of Robertson; and his numerous critical labours were directed to annihilate all the genius of his country. How he converted his life into its own scourge, wasted talents he might have cultivated into perfection, lost every trace of humanity, and finally perished, devoured by his own fiend-like passions, shall be illustrated by the following narrative, collected from a correspondence now lying before me, which the Author carried on for several years with his publisher in London. I shall copy out at some length the hopes and disappointments of the literary adventurer-the colours are not mine; I am dipping my pencil in the pallet of the artist himself. In June 1773 was commenced the project of "The Edinburgh Maga zine and Review." Stuart's letters pe breathe the spirit of rapturous confidence, and the first volumes were executed with more talent than the riodical publications of those times had shewn. Stuart had combined the sedulous attention of the intelligent Smellie, who was also the printer; and the Review department was divided among them and some very honourable critics; Professor Baron, Dr Blacklock, and Professor Richardson. But the genius of Stuart had not yet betrayed itself to his colleagues; the hardiness of his opinions, his offensive attacks on the clergy (and that in a country of Presbyters,) and the flowing acrimony of his literary libels, indeed, presented a new feature in Scottish literature, but of such ugliness and horror, that every honourable man soon averted his face from this Boutefeu. He designed to ornament his first number with in his quadruped form. I most ear"A print of my Lord Monboddo nestly beg that you will purchase for me a copy of it in some of the Macaroni-print shops. It is not to be procured at Edinburgh. raid to vend it here. We are to take They are afmal, not yet described; and are to it on the footing of a figure of an anigive a grave, yet satirical account of it, in the manner of Buffon. It would not be proper to allude to his Lordship, but in a very distant manner." It was not, however, ventured onand the non-descript animal was still confined to the windows of " the macaroni-print shops;"-it was however the bloom of the Author's fancy, and promised all the mellow fruits it afterwards produced. In September this ardour did not abate. "The proposals are issued; the subscriptions in the booksellers shops and, what will surprise you, the timid astonish; correspondents flock in; proprietors of the Scots Magazine have come to the resolution of dropping their work. You stare at all this, and so do I too." Thus he flatters himself he is to annihilate his rival, without even striking the first blow; the appearance of his first number is to be the moment when their last is to come forth!Authors, like the discoverers of mines, are the most sanguine creatures in the world: Gilbert Stuart afterwards flattered himself Dr Henry was lying at the point of death, from the scalping scalping of his tomahawk pen-but of this anon! On the publication of the first number in November 1773, all is exultation; and an account is facetiously expected that " a thousand copies had emigrated from the Row, and Fleetstreet." There is a serious composure in the There is a serious composure in the letter of December, which seems to be occasioned by the tempered answer of his London Correspondent. The work was more suited to the meridian of Edinburgh; and from causes sufficiently obvious, its personality and causticity. Stuart, however, assures his friend, that "the second number you will find better than the first, and the third better than the second." The next letter is dated March 4, 1774, in which I find our Author still in good spirits. "The Magazine rises, and promises much, in this quarter. Our Artillery has silenced all opposition. The rogues of the uplifted hands decline the combat." These rogues are the Clergy; and some others, who had "uplifted hands" from the vituperative nature of their adversary; for he tells us, that" now the Clergy are silent, the Town-council have had the presumption to oppose us; and have threatened Creech (the publisher in Edinburgh) with the terror of making him a constable for his insolence. A pamphlet on the abuses of Heriot's hospital, including a direct of Heriot's hospital, including a direct proof of perjury in the Provost, was the punishment inflicted in return.— And new papers are forging to chastise them in regard to the poor's rate, which is again started; the improper choice of professors; and violent stretches of the impost. The Liberty of the Press in its fullest extent is to be employed against them." Such is the language of Reform, and the spirit of a Reformist! A little private malignity thus ferments a good deal of public spirit—but patriotism must be independent, to be pure. If the Edinburgh Review continues to succeed in its sale, as Stuart fancies, Edinburgh itself may be in some danger. His perfect contempt of his cotemporaries is amusing: "Monboddo's second volume is published, and, with Kaimes, will appear in our next; the former is a childish performance; the latter rather better. deal of freedom. I observe an amaWe are to treat them with a good deal of freedom. I observe an amazing falling off in the English Reviews. We beat them hollow. I fancy they have no assistance but from the Dissenters, a dull body of men. The Monthly will not easily recover the death of Hawkesworth; saken them-for I see no longer his and I suspect that Langhorne has forpen." den, and the moral catastrophe of our We are now hastening to the sudthor flattered his genius with emigratale. The thousand copies the author flattered his genius with emigra innocent state, little disturbed by pubting to London, remained here in an lic enquiry; the personal animosity against almost every literary characthe sale, became naturally the latent ter in Scotland, which had inflamed cause of its extinction; for its life its florid complexion carried with it there had but a feverish existence, and the seeds of its dissolution. Stuart at length quarrelled with his coadjutor Smellie, for altering his Reviews, and whose prudential dexterity was such, that in an article designed to level Lord Kaimes with Lord Monboddo, morphosed into a panegyric. They the whole libel was completely meta were involved in a law-suit about "a blasphemous paper." And now the enraged Zoilus complains of "his hours of peevishness and dissatisfaction."He acknowledges that "a circumstance had happened, which had broke his peace and ease altogether for some weeks." And now he resolves that this great work shall quietly sink in to to a mere compilation from the London periodical works. Such then is the progress of malignant genius!The author, like Phalaris, is writhing in that machine of tortures he had invented for others. We now come to a very remarkable passage-it is the frenzied language of disappointed wickedness! “17 June 1774. "It is an infinite disappointment to me, that the Magazine does not grow in London; I thought the soil had been richer. But it is my constant fate to be disappointed in every thing I attempt; I do not think I ever had a wish that was gratified; and never dreaded an event that did not come. With this felicity of fate, I wonder how the devil I could turn projector. I am now sorry that I left London; and the moment that I have money enough to carry me back to it, I shall set off. I mortally detest and abhor this place, and every body in it. Never was there a a city where there was so much pretension to knowledge, and that had so little of it. The solemn foppery, and the gross stupidity of the Scottish literati, are perfectly insupportable. I shall drop my idea of a Scots newspaper. Nothing will do in this country that has common sense in it; only cant, hypocrisy, and superstition, will flourish here, A curse on the country, and all the men, women, and children of it!" Again-"The publication is top good for the country. There are very few men of taste or erudition on this side the Tweed. Yet every idiot one meets with, lays claim to both. Yet the success of the Magazine is in reality greater than we could expect, considering that we have every Clergyman in the kingdom to oppose it; and that the Magistracy of the place are every moment threatening its destruction." And, therefore, this recreant Scot, anathematizes the Scottish people! for not rendering fashionable, blasphemy, calumny, and every species of literary criminality. Such are the monstrous passions that swell out the poisonous breast of genius, deprived of every moral restraint; and such was the demoniac irritability which prompted a wish in Collot d' Herbois to set fire to the four quarters of the der mercies," the kennels of the city of Lyons; while, in his "tenof its inhabitants-remembering still streets were running with the blood that the Lyonese had, when he was a miserable actor, hissed him off the stage! now Stuart curses his country, and re treats to London. Fallen, but not abject; repulsed, but not altered; degraded, but still haughty. No change of place could operate any in his heart. He was born in literary crime, and he perished in it. It was stituted, with his idol Whitaker, the "The English Review" was inhistorian of Manchester, and others. He says, "to Whitaker he assigns Hume and Robertson." I have heard the palm of history in preference to that he considered himself higher than Whitaker, and ranked himself for Whitaker and himself a doctor of with Montesquieu. He negotiated the titular possession of all the fame laws degree; and they were now in which a dozen pieces could bestow! But to return to "The English Review," in which broke forth all the genius of Stuart in an unnatural warfare of Scotchmen in London against "The Scotchmen at Edinburgh. bitter herbs," which seasoned it against Blair, Robertson, Gibbon, and provoked the public appetite, which the first authors of the age, at first afterwards indignantly rejected the palatable garbage. spectacle of a Literary Conspiracy.— I am now to exhibit the singular It was conducted by Stuart, with a pertinacity of invention, perhaps not to |