No. III.
Of the work alluded to at page [58] I was favoured with two opinions—the one referring to the theory it propounds, and the other to its anatomical accuracy—both of which I have been kindly permitted to publish.
The first is from Sir William Hamilton, Bart., professor of logic and metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh, and is as follows:—
“Your very elegant volume is to me extremely interesting, as affording an able contribution to what is the ancient, and, I conceive, the true theory of the Beautiful. But though your doctrine coincides with the one prevalent through all antiquity, it appears to me quite independent and original in you; and I esteem it the more, that it stands opposed to the hundred one-sided and exclusive views prevalent in modern times.—16 Great King Street, March 5, 1849.”
The second is from John Goodsir, Esq., professor of anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, and is as follows:—
“I have examined the plates in your work on the proportions of the human head and countenance, and find the head you have given as typical of human beauty to be anatomically correct in its structure, only differing from ordinary nature in its proportions being more mathematically precise, and consequently more symmetrically beautiful.—College, Edinburgh, 17th April 1849.”
No. IV.
I shall here shew, as I have done in a former work, how the curvilinear outline of the figure is traced upon the rectilinear diagrams by portions of the ellipse of (¹⁄₃), (¹⁄₄), (¹⁄₅), and (¹⁄₆).
The outline of the head and face, from points (1) to (3) (fig. 1, [Plate XIX.]), takes the direction of the two first curves of the diagram. From point (3), the outline of the sterno-mastoid muscle continues to (4), where, joining the outline of the trapezius muscle, at first concave, it becomes convex after passing through (5), reaches the point (6), where the convex outline of the deltoid muscle commences, and, passing through (7), takes the outline of the arm as far as (8). The outline of the muscles on the side, the latissimus dorsi and serratus magnus, commences under the arm at the point (9), and joins the outline of the oblique muscle of the abdomen by a concave curve at (10), which, rising into convexity as it passes through the points (11) and (12), ends at (13), where it joins the outline of the gluteus medius muscle. The outline of this latter muscle passes convexly through the point (14), and ends at (15), where the outline of the tensor vaginæ femoris and vastus externus muscle of the thigh commences. This convex outline joins the concave outline of the biceps of the thigh at (16), which ends in that of the slight convexity of the condyles of the thigh-bone at (17). From this point, the outline of the outer surface of the leg, which includes the biceps, peroneus longus, and soleus muscles, after passing through the point (18), continues convexly to (19), where the concave outline of the tendons of the peroneus longus continues to (20), whence the outline of the outer ankle and foot commences.