If (descending to still more minute inquiries) external indications as to figure are required as to parts concealed by drapery--if such indications would obviate deception even with regard to those parts of the figure which are more exposed to observation by the closer adaptation of dress--if, even when the face is seen, the deception as to the degree of beauty, is such that a correct estimate of it is perhaps never formed--if indications as to mind may be derived from many external circumstances--if external indications as to the personal habits of women are both numerous and interesting--if such indications even of age and health are sometimes essential--if all this be the case, let the reader say what other object of human inquiry exceeds this in importance. Let us not then deceive ourselves respecting the source of those impressions which one sex experiences from the sight of the other. It is evidently nothing else than the more or less delicate and just perception of a certain conformity of means with a want which has been created by nature, and which must be satisfied. "It is very obvious," says Dr. Pritchard, "that this peculiarity in the constitution of man must have considerable effects on the physical character of the race, and that it must act as a constant principle of improvement, supplying the place in our own kind of the beneficial control [in the crossing of races] which we exercise over the brute creation." And he adds: "This is probably the final cause for which the instinctive perception of human beauty was implanted by Providence in our nature." We need not wonder, then, that the Greeks should have preferred beauty to all other advantages, should have placed it immediately after virtue in the order of their affections, or should have made it an object of worship. Even the practical application of this principle to the improvement of the human race is not a matter of conjecture. We have seen both families and nations ameliorated by the means which it affords. Of this, the Turks are a striking example. Nothing, therefore, can better deserve the researches of the physiologist, or the exertions of the philanthropist, than the fact that there are laws, of which we have yet only a glimpse, according to which we may influence the amelioration of the human race in a manner the most extensive and profound, by acting according to a uniform and uninterrupted system.