Excerpt from The Human Figure: Its Beauties and Defects The Object of the volume is given by the author in the Opening of his preface. He addresses himself both to artists and to amateurs, to the former, in order to draw their attention to many things which, we know from experience, they not infrequently overlook; and to the latter, in order to introduce to them a way of studying works Of art which, although not habitually pursued by the amateur, is nevertheless indispensable to the proper understanding and due appreciation of them. For the amateur, indeed, the indications Offered in his pages are Of especial interest. Most persons cherish a secret conviction Of their capacity to arbitrate on any question Of personal beauty, -a fond belief that is not at all disturbed by the knowledge that in any particular case their friends will arrive with equal self-satis faction at conclusions Of a different kind, -but there are few who are prepared to advance cogent reasons for the faith that is in them. There must, indeed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.