The Foot. —It. may be doubted
whether there exists throughout the
whole civilized world a well-formed
foot. Many exquisites of both sexes
claim admiration for their pedal ex
tremities, but. is the boot and shoe
with which they are covered that we
are called on to admire. Their feet,
if bared, v.ou’d present a very great
divergence from the classical idea of
beauty. The firmly planted foot,
neither too large nor too small, but
justly proportioned to the height and
weight it sustains, the smooth surface
and regularly curved the dis
tinctness ami the perfect formation of
each toe, with its well marked sepa
ratCfless, and its gradation of size and
regularity of detail, to the very tip ol
hv Rail, arc now to he seen only in
art. In Greek nature they were
foiji.H, for the ancient sandal', which
left the foot nnfeltore*.l, gave freedom 1
to the development Os its natural
grace and proportions. The modern
boot or shoe, with tiie prevalent no
tion that everything must be saeri
fired to smallness, has squeezed the
font into a lump as knotty and irregu
lar as a bit of pudding «tone, where
the distorted toes ate so imbedded in
the mass and mutilated by the press
ure, that it is impossible to pick them
out in the originality and complete
ness of their original forms.
