the more fully convinced, that the patrons of propor tion have
transferred
their artificial ideas to nature, and not borrowed from thence the proportions they usein works of art ; because in any discussion of this subject they always quit as soon as possible the open
field of natural beauties, the animal and vegetable
and fortify themselves within the artificial lines and angles of architecture.
field of natural beauties, the animal and vegetable
and fortify themselves within the artificial lines and angles of architecture.
Edmund Burke
Those I have mentioned are only a few instances to show on what principles they are all
? built.
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SECTION XXI.
SMELL AND TASTE. -- BITTERS AND srnuCmIzs.
SMELLS and tastes have some share too in ideas of greatness; but it is a small one", weak in its nature, and confined in its operations. I shall only ob serve that no smells or tastes can produce a grand sensation, except excessive bitters, and 'intolerable stenches. It is true that these affections of the smell and taste, when they are in their full force, and lean directly upon the sensory, are simply painful, and accompanied with no_sort of delight; but when they are moderated, as in a description or narrative, they become sources of the sublime, as genuine as any other, and upon the very same principle of a moder
ated pain. " A cup of bitterness " ; " to drain the bit
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163
ter cup of fortune " ; " the bitter apples of Sodom " ; these are all ideas suitable to a sublime description. Nor is this passage of Vi1gil without sublimity, where the stench of the vapor in Albunea conspires so hap pily with the sacred horror and gloominess of that
prophetic forest:
At i-ex sollicitus monstris oracula Fauni
Fatidici genitoris adit, lucosque sub alta Consulit Albunca, nemorum qum maxima sacro Fonte sonar; sazvamque exhalet apaca Illephitim.
In the sixth book, and in a very sublime description, the poisonous exhalation of Acheron is not forgot ten, nor does it at all disagree with the other images amongst which it is introduced:
Spelunca alta fuit, vastoque immanis hiatu
Scrupea, tuta la/:u nfgro, nemornmque tenebris; Quam super hand ulla: poterunt impnne volantes Tenderc itcr pennis : talis sese halitus atria
Faucibus eflizndens supera ad convezraferebat.
I have added these examples, because some friends, for whose judgment I have great deference, were of opinion that if the sentiment stood nakedly by itself, it would be subject, at first view, to burlesque and ridicule; but this I imagine would principally arise from considering the bitterness and stench in com pany with mean and contemptible ideas, with which it must be owned they are often united ; such an union degrades the sublime in all other instances as well as in those. But it is one of the tests by which the sub limity of an image is to be tried, not whether it be comes mean when associated with mean ideas; but whether, when united with images of an allowed grandeur, the whole composition is supported with dignity. Things which are terrible are always great;
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but when things possess disagreeable qualities, or such as have indeed some degree of danger, but of a danger easily overcome, they are merely odious; as toads and spiders.
SECTION XXII. FEELING. --PAIN.
OF feeling little more can be said than that the idea of bodily pain, in all the modes and degrees of labor, pain, anguish, torment, is productive of the sublime; and nothing else in this sense can produce it. I need not give here any fresh instances, as those given in the former sections abundantly illustrate a remark that, in reality, wants only an attention to nature, to be made by everybody.
Having thus run through the causes of the sublime with reference to all the senses, my first observation (Sect. 7) will be found very nearly true; that the sublime is an idea belonging to self-preservation ; that it is, therefore, one of the most affecting we have; that its strongest emotion is an emotion of dis tress; and that no pleasure* from a positive cause belongs to it. Numberless examples, besides those mentioned, might be brought in support of these truths, and many perhaps useful consequences drawn from them--
? 1
Sed fugit interea, fugit irrevocabile tempus, Singula dum capti circumvectamur amore.
* Vide Part I. sect. 6.
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PART III.
SECTION I. or BEAUTY.
I65
Ir is my design to consider beauty as distinguished from the sublime; and, in the course of the inquiry, to examine how far it is consistent with it. But pre
vious to this, we must take a short review of the opin ions already entertained of this quality; which I think are hardly to be reduced to any fixed princi ples ; because men are used to talk of beauty in a figurative manner, that is to say, in a manner ex
tremely uncertain, and indeterminate. By beauty, I mean that quality, or those _qualities in bodies, by which they cause love, or some passion similar to it. I confine this definition to the merely sensible quali ties of things, for the sake of preserving the utmost simplicity in a subject, which must always distract us whenever we take in those various causes of sympa thy which attach us to any persons or things from secondary considerations, and not from the direct force which they have merely on being viewed. I likewise distinguish love, (by which I mean that sat isfaction which arises to the mind upon contemplating anything beautiful, of whatsoever nature it may be,) from desire or lust; which is an energy of the mind, that hurries us on to the possession of certain objects, that do not affect us as they are beautiful, but by means altogether different. We shall have a strong desire for a woman of no remarkable beauty; whilst the greatest beauty in men, or in other animals,
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though it causes love, yet excites nothing at all of desire. Which shows that beauty, and the passion caused by beauty, which I call love, is different from desire, though desire may sometimes operate along with it ; but it is to this latter that we must attribute those violent and tempestuous passions, and the con sequent emotions of the body which attend what is called love in some of its ordinary acceptations, and not to the effects of beauty merely as it is such.
SECTION II.
PROPORTION NOT THE cAUsE 0F BEAUTY IN VEGETABLES.
'BEAUTY hath usually been said to consist in certain proportions of parts. On considering the matter, I have great reason to doubt, whether beauty be at all an idea belonging to proportion. Proportion relates almost wholly to convenience, as every idea of order seems to do; and it must therefore be considered as a creature of the understanding, rather than a pri mary cause acting on the senses and imagination. It is not by the force of long attention and inquiry that we find any object to be beautiful; beauty demands no assistance from our reasoning; even the will is unconcerned ; the appearance of beauty as effectually causes some degree of love in iis, as the application of ice or fire produces the ideas of heat or cold. To gain something like a satisfactory conclusion in this point, it were well' to examine what proportion is; since several who make use of that word do not
always seem to understand very clearly the force of the term, nor to have very distinct ideas concerning the thing itself. Proportion is the measure of rela
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tive quantity. Since all quantity is divisible, it is evident that everydistinct part into which any quan tity is divided must bear some relation to the other parts, or to the whole. These relations give an origin to the idea of proportion. They are discovered mensuration, and they are the objects of mathemati cal inquiry. But whether any part of any determi nate quantity be a fourth, or a fifth, or a sixth, or a moiety of the whole ; or whether it be of equal length with any other part, or double its length, or but one
half, is a matter merely indifferent to the mind; it stands neuter in the question: and it is from this absolute indifference and tranquillity of the mind, that mathematical speculations derive some of their most considerable advantages; because there is noth ing to interest the imagination; because the judg ment sits free and unbiassed to examine the point. All proportions, every arrangement of quantity, is alike to the understanding, because the same truths result to it from all ; from greater, from lesser, from equality and inequality. But surely beauty is no idea belonging to mensuration; nor has it anything to'do with calculation and geometry. If it had, we might then point out some certain measures which we could demonstrate to be beautiful, either as simply considered, or as related to others; and we could call in those natural objects, for whose beauty we have no voucher but the sense, to this happy stand ard, and confirm the voice of our passions by the determination of our reason. But since we have not this help, let us see whether proportion can in any sense be considered as the cause of beauty, as hath been so generally, and, by some, so confidently af firmed. If proportion be one of the constituents of
by
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beauty, it must derive that power either from some natural properties inherent in certain measures,
which operate mechanically; from the operation of custom; or from the fitness which some measures
have to answer some particular ends of conveniency. Our business therefore is to inquire, whether the parts of those objects, which are found beautiful in the vegetable or animal kingdoms, are constantly so formed according to such certain measures, as may serve to satisfy us that their beauty results from those measures, on the principle of a natural mechanical
cause ; or from custom; or, in fine, from their fitness for any determinate purposes. I intend to examine this point under each of these heads in their order. But before I proceed further, I hope it will not be thought amiss, if I lay down the rules which governed me in this inquiry, and which have misled me in
have gone astray. If two bodies produce the same or similar effect on the mind, and on exami nation they are found to agree in some of their prop erties, and to differ in others; the common efifect
to be attributed to the properties in which they agree, and not to those in which they differ. 2. Not to ac count for the effect of natural object from the effect of an artificial object. 3. Not to account for the
etfect of any natural object from conclusion of our reason concerning its uses, natural cause may be assigned. 4. Not to admit any determinate quantity, or any relation of quantity, as the cause of certain effect, the effect produced by different or opposite measures and relations or these measures and relations may exist, and yet the effect may not be pro duced. These are the rules which have chiefly fol lowed, whilst examined into the power of proportion
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considered as a natural cause ; and these, if he thinks them just, I request the reader to carry with him throughout the following discussion; whilst we in quire, in the first place, in what things we find this quality of beauty; next, to see whether in these we can find any assignable proportions in such a manner as ought to convince us that our idea of beauty re sults from them. We shall consider this pleasing power as it appears in vegetables, in the inferior ani mals, and in man. Turning our eyes to the vegeta ble creation, we find nothing there so beautiful as flowers; but flowers are almost of every sort of
and of every sort of disposition; they are turned and fashioned into an infinite variety of forms; and from these forms botanists have given them their names, which are almost as various. What proportion do we discover between the stalks and the leaves of flowers, or between the leaves and the pistils? How does the slender stalk of the rose agree with the bulky head under which it bends? but the rose is a beautiful flower; and can we undertake to say that it does not owe a great deal of its beauty even to that disproportion ; the rose is a large flower, yet it grows upon a small shrub; the flower of the
apple is very small, and grows upon a large tree ; yet the rose and the apple blossom are both beautiful, and the plants that bear them are most engagingly attired, notwithstanding this disproportion. What by general consent is allowed to be a more beautiful object than an orange-tree, flourishing at once with its leaves, its blossoms, and its fruit? but it is in vain that we search here for any proportion between the
height, the breadth, or anything else concerning the dilnensions of the whole, or concerning the relation
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of the particular parts to each other. I grant that we may observe in many flowers something of a reg ular figure, and of a methodical disposition of the leaves. The rose has such a figure and such a dispo sition of its petals; but in an oblique view, when this figure is in a good measure lost, and the order of the leaves confounded, it yet retains its beauty ; the rose is even more beautiful before it is full blown ; in the bud; before this exact figure is formed; and this is not the only instance wherein method and exactness, the soul of proportion, are found rather prejudicial than serviceable to the cause of beauty.
SECTION III.
PROPORTION NOT THE Cnus]: or BEAUTY IN ANIMALS.
THAT proportion has but a small share in the for
mation of beauty is full as evident among animals.
Here the greatest variety of shapes and dispositions of parts are well fitted to excite this idea. The swan, confessedly a beautiful bird, has a neck longer than the rest of his body, and but a very short tail: is this a beautiful proportion? We must, allow that it is. But then what shall we say to the peacock, who has comparatively but a short neck, with a tail longer than the neck and the rest of the body taken together? How many birds are there that vary infi nitely from each of these standards, and from every other which you can fix; with proportions different, and often directly opposite to each other! and yet many of these birds are extremely beautiful; when upon considering them we find nothing in any one part that might determine us, ri priori, to say what
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the others ought to be, nor indeed to guess anything about them, but what experience might show to be full of disappointment and mistake. And with re gard to the colors either of birds or flowers, for there is something similar in the coloring of both, whether they are considered in their extension or gradation, there is nothing of proportion to be observed. Some
are of but one single color ; others have all the colors of the rainbow ; some are of the primary colors, others are of the mixed ; in short, an attentive observer may soon conclude that there is as little of proportion in the coloring as in the shapes of these objects. Turn next to beasts ; examine the head of a beauti ful horse; find what proportion that bears to his
and to his limbs, and what relation these have to each other; and when you have settled these proportions as a standard of beauty, then take a dog or cat, or any other animal, and examine how far the same proportions between their heads and
their necks, between those and the body, and so on, are found to hold; I think we may safely say, that they differ in every species, yet that there are individ uals, found in a great many species so differing, that
have a very striking beauty. Now, if it be allowed that very different, and even contrary forms and dispositions are consistent with beauty, it amounts I
believe to a concession, that no certain measures, operating from a natural principle, are necessary to produce it; at least so far as the brute species is
concerned.
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SECTION IV.
PROPORTION NOT THE CAUSE OF BEAUTY IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
THERE are some parts of the human body that are observed to hold certain proportions to each other; but before it can be proved that the efficient cause of beauty lies in these, it must be shown that, wherever these are found exact, the person to whom they be long is beautiful: I mean in the effect produced on the view, either of any member distinctly considered, or of the whole body together. It must be likewise shown, that these parts stand in such a relation to each other, that the comparison between them may be easily made, and that the affection of the mind may naturally result from it. For my part, I have at several times very carefullyexamined many of those proportions, and found them hold very nearly, or altogether alike in many subjects, which were not only very different from one another, but where one has been very beautiful, and the other very remote from beauty. With regard to the parts which are found so proportioned, they are often so remote from each other, in situation, nature, and office, that I cannot see how they admit of any comparison, nor
? how any effect owing to proportion can result from them. The neck, say they, in beautiful
bodies, should measure with the calf of the leg; it should likewise be twice the circumference of the wrist. And an infinity of observations of this kind are to be found in the writings and conversations of
consequently
But what relation has the calf of the leg to the_neck ; or either of these parts to the wrist?
many.
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These proportions are certainly to be found in hand some bodies. They are as certainly in ugly ones; as any whO will take the pains to try may find. Nay, I do not know but they may be least perfect in some of the most beautiful. You may assign any proportions you please to every part of the human body; and I undertake that a painter shall religiously observe them all, and notwithstanding produce, if he pleases, a very ugly figure. The same painter shall consider ably deviate from these proportions, and produce a very beautiful one. And, indeed, it may be observed in the masterpieces of the ancient and modern statu ary, that several of them differ very widely from the
proportions of others, in parts very conspicuous and of great consideration; and that they differ no less from the proportions we find in living men, of forms extremely striking and agreeable. And after all, how are the partisans of proportional beauty agreed amongst themselves about the proportions of the
human body? Some hold it to be seven heads; some make it eight; whilst others extend it even to ten : a vast difference in such a small number of divisions! Others take other methods of estimating the proportions, and all with equal success. But are these proportions exactly the same in all handsome men? or are they at all the proportions found in beautifi1l women? Nobody will say that they are;
yet both sexes are undoubtedly capable of beauty, and the female of the greatest; which advantage I be lieve will hardly be attributed to the superior exact ness of proportion in the fair sex. Let us rest a moment on this point; and consider how much dif
ference there is between the measures that prevail in many similar parts of the body, in the two sexes of
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this single species only. If you assign any determi nate proportions to the limbs of a man, and if you limit human beauty to these proportions, when you find a woman who differs in the make and measures of almost every part, you must conclude her not to be beautiful, in spite of the suggestions of yo1u' imagi nation; or, in obedience to your imagination,
must renounce your rules; you must lay by the scale and compass, and look out for some other cause of beauty. For if beauty be attached to certain measures which operate from a principle in nature, why should similar parts with diiferent measures of proportion be found to have beauty, and this too in the very' same species? But to open our view a little, it is worth observing, that almost all animals have parts of very much the same nature, and destined nearly to the same purposes; a head, neck, body, feet, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; yet Providence, to provide in the best manner for their several wants, and to display the riches of his wis dom and goodness in his creation, has worked out of these few and similar organs, and members, a diver sity hardly short of infinite in their disposition, meas ures and relation. But, as we have before observed, amidst this infinite diversity, one particular is com mon to many species: several of the individuals which compose them are capable of affecting us with a sense of loveliness: and whilst they agree in pro ducing this effect, they differ extremely in the rela tive measures of those parts which have produced it. These considerations were sufiicient to induce me to reject the notion of any particular proportions that operated by nature to produce a pleasing eifect ; but those who will agree with me with regard to a par
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ticular proportion, are strongly prepossessed in favor of one more indefinite. They imagine, that although beauty in general is annexed to no certain measures common to the several kinds of pleasing plants and animals; yet that there is a certain proportion in each species absolutely essential to the beauty of that particular kind. If we consider the animal world in general, we find beauty confined to no certain meas ures ; but as some peculiar measure and relation of parts is what distinguishes each' peculiar class of ani mals, it must of necessity be, that the beautiful in each kind will be found in the measures and propor tions of that kind; for otherwise it would deviate from its proper species, and become in some sort monstrous : however, no species is so strictly confined
to any certain proportions, that there is not a consider able variation amongst the individuals ; and as it has been shown of the human, so it may be shown of the brute kinds, that beauty is found indifferently in all the
? which each kind can admit, without quit ting its common form ; and it is this idea of a com mon form that makes the proportion of parts at all regarded, and not the operation of any natural cause : indeed a little consideration will make it appear, that
it is not measure, but manner, that creates all the beauty which belongs to shape. What light do we borrow from these boasted proportions, when we study ornamental design? It seems amazing to me, that artists, if they were as well convinced as they
pretend to be, that proportion is a principal . cause of beauty, have not by them at all times accurate meas urements of all sorts of beautiful animals to help them to proper proportions, when they would con trive anything elegant; especially as they frequently
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assert that it is from an observation of the beautiful in nature they direct their practice. I know that it has been said long since, and echoed backward and for ward from one writer to another a thousand times, that the proportions of building have been taken from those of the human body. To make this forced analo gy complete, they represent a man with his arms raised and extended at full length, and then describe a sort of square, as it is formed by passing lines along the ex tremities of this strange figure. But it appears very clearly to me that the human figure never supplied the architect with any of his ideas. For, in the first
place, men are very rarely seen in this strained pos ture; it is not natural to them; neither is it at all becoming. Secondly, the view of the human figure so disposed, does not naturally suggest the idea of a square, but rather of a cross ; as that large space be tween the arms and the ground must be filled with something before it can make anybody think of a square. Thirdly, several buildings are by no means of the form of that particular square, which are not withstanding planned by the best architects, and pro duce an effect altogether as good, and perhaps a
better. And certainly nothing could be more unac countably whimsical, than for an architect to model his performance by the human figure, since no two things can have less resemblance or analogy, than a man, and a house or temple: do we need to observe that their purposes are entirely different? What I am apt to suspect is this: that these analogies were devised to give a credit to the works of art, by show ing a conformity between them and the noblest works in nature ; not that the latter served at all to supply hints for the perfection of the former. And I am
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the more fully convinced, that the patrons of propor tion have transferred their artificial ideas to nature, and not borrowed from thence the proportions they usein works of art ; because in any discussion of this subject they always quit as soon as possible the open
field of natural beauties, the animal and vegetable
and fortify themselves within the artificial lines and angles of architecture. For there is in man kind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views, and their works, the measure of excel lence in everything whatsoever. Therefore having observed that their dwellings were most commodious and firm when they were thrown into regular figures, with parts answerable to each other; they transferred these ideas to their gardens ; they turned their trees into pillars, pyramids, and obelisks ; they formed their hedges into so many green walls, and fashioned their walks into squares, triangles, and other mathe
matical figures, with exactness and symmetry; and they thought, if they were not imitating, they were at least improving nature, and teaching her to know her business. But nature has at last escaped from their discipline and their fetters ; and our gardens, if nothing else, declare, we begin to feel that mathemat- ical ideas are not the true measures of beauty. And surely they are full as little so in the animal as the vegetable world. For is it not extraordinary, that in these fine descriptive pieces, these innumerable odes
and elegies which are in the mouths of all the world, and many of which have been the entertainment of ages, that in these pieces which describe love with such
a passionate energy, and represent its object in such
an infinite variety of lights, not one word is said of
proportion, if it be, what some insist it the princi v0x. . 1. 12
kingdoms,
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pal component of beauty; whilst, at the same time, several other qualities are very frequently and warm ly mentioned? But if proportion has not this power, it may appear odd how men came originally to be so prepossessed in its favor. It arose, I imagine, from the fondness I have just mentioned, which men bear so remarkably to their own works and notions; it arose from false reasonings on the effects of the cus tomary figure of animals; it arose from the Platonic theory of fitness and aptitude. For which reason, in the next section, I shall consider the effects of custom in the figure of animals; and afterwards the idea of fitness: since if proportion does not operate by a nat ural power attending some measures, it must be either by custom, or the idea of utility; there is no other way.
SECTION V. PROPORTION FURTHER CONSIDERED.
IF I am not mistaken, a great deal of the prejudice in favor of proportion has arisen, not so much from the observation of any certain measures found in beau tiful bodies, as from a wrong idea of the relation which deformity bears to beauty, to which it has been consid ered as the opposite; on this principle it was conclu ded that where the causes of deformity were removed, beauty must naturally and necessarily be introduced. This I believe is a mistake. For deformity is opposed
? If one of the legs of a man be found shorter than the
not to beauty, but to theeomplete common form.
other, the man is deformed; because there is some thing wanting to complete the whole idea we form of
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a man; and this has the same effect in natural faults, as maiming and mutilation produce from accidents. So if the back be humped, the man is deformed ; be cause his back has an unusual figure, and what car ries with it the idea of some disease or misfortune; so if a man's neck be considerably longer or shorter than usual, we say he is deformed in that part, be cause men are not commonly made in that manner.
But surely every hour's experience may convince us that a man may have his legs of an equal length, and resembling each other in all respects, and his neck of a just size, and his back quite straight, without hav ing at the same time the least perceivable beauty. In deed beauty is so far from belonging to the idea of custom, that in reality what affects us in that manner
is extremely rare and uncommon. The beautiful strikes us as much by its novelty as the deformed it self. It is thus in those species of animals with which we are acquainted ; and if one of a new species were represented, we should by no means wait until custom had settled an idea of proportion, before we decided concerning its beauty or ugliness: which shows that the general idea of beauty can be no more owing "to customary than to natural proportion. Deformity arises from the want of the common proportions ; but the necessary result of their existence in any object is not beauty. If we suppose proportion in natural things to be relative to custom and use, the nature of use and custom will show that beauty, which is a
positive and powerful quality, cannot result from it. We are so wonderfully formed, that, whilst we are creatures vehemently desirous of novelty, we are as strongly attached to habit and custom. But it is the
nature of things which hold us by custom, to affect
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us very little whilst we are in possession of them, but A strongly when they are absent. I remember to have frequented a certain place, every day for a long time together; and I may truly say that, so far from find ing pleasure in was affected with sort of weari ness and disgust; came, went, returned, without pleasure yet by any means passed by the usual time of my going thither,
was' remarkably uneasy, had got into my old track. almost without being sen
and was not quiet till
They who use snuff, take
sible that they take and the acute sense of smell deadened, so as to feel hardly anything from so sharp
? stimulus yet deprive the snuff-taker of his box, and he the most uneasy mortal in the world. Indeed so far are use and habit from being causes of pleasure merely as such, that the effect of constant use to make all things of whatever kind entirely unaffecting.
. For as use at last takes off the painful effect of many things, reduces the pleasurable effect in others in the same manner, and brings both to sort of medi ocrity and indifference. Very justly use called second nature; and our natural and common state one of absolute indifference, equally prepared for pain or pleasure. But when we are thrownout of this state, or deprived of anything requisite to maintain us in it; when this chance does not happen by pleasure from some mechanical cause, we are always hurt. It is so with the second nature, custom, in all things which relate to it. Thus the want of the usual proportions in men and other animals sure to disgust, though their presence by no means any cause of real pleasure. It
true that the proportions laid down as causes of beauty in the human body, are frequently found in beautiful ones, because they are generally found in
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all mankind; but if it can be shown too that they are
found without beauty, and that beauty frequently ex ists without them, and that this beauty, where it ex
ists, always can be assigned to other less equivocal causes, it will naturally lead us to conclude that pro portion and beauty are not ideas of the same nature. The true opposite to beauty is not disproportion or deformity, but ugliness : and as it proceeds from causes opposite to those of positive beauty, we cannot consider it until we come to treat of that. Between beauty and ugliness there is a sort of mediocrity, in which the assigned proportions are most commonly found ; but this has no effect upon the passions.
SECTION VI.
FITNESS NOT _TI1I-3 Cnus>>: or BEAUTY.
IT is said that the idea of utility, or of a part's being well adapted to answer its end, is the cause of beauty, or indeed beauty itself. If it were not for this opin ion, it had been impossible for the doctrine of pro portion to have held its ground very long; the world would be soon weary of hearing of measures which related to nothing, either of a natural principle, or of a fitness to answer some end; the idea which man kind most commonly conceive of proportion, is the suitableness of means to certain ends, and, where this is not the question, very seldom trouble themselves about the effect of different measures of things. Therefore it was necessary for this theory to insist that not only artificial, but natural objects took their beauty from the fitness of the parts for their several purposes. But in framing this theory, I am apprehen
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sive that experience was not sufficiently consulted. For, on that principle, the wedge-like snout of a swine, with its tough cartilage at the end, the little sunk eyes, and the whole make of the head, so well adapted to its offices of digging and rooting, would be extreme ly beautiful. The great bag hanging to the bill of a pelican, a thing highly useful to this animal, would be likewise as beautiful in our eyes. The hedge-hog, so well secured against all assaults by his prickly hide, and the porcupine with his missile quills, would be then considered as creatures of no small elegance. There are few animals whose parts are better con trived than those of a monkey: he has the hands of a man, joined to the springy limbs of a beast; he is admirably calculated for running, leaping, grap pling, and climbing; and yet there are few animals which seem to have less beauty in the eyes of all man kind. I need say little on the trunk of the elephant, of such various usefulness, and which is so far from contributing to his beauty. How well fitted is the wolf for running and leaping! how admirably is the lion armed for battle! but will any one therefore call the elephant, the wolf, and the lion, beautiful ani mals? I believe nobody will think the form of a man's leg so well adapted to running, as those of a horse, a dog, a deer, and several other creatures; at least they have not that appearance: yet, I believe, a well-fashioned human leg will be allowed to far ex ceed all these in beauty. If the fitness of parts was what constituted the loveliness of their form, the ac tual employment of them would undoubtedly much augment it ; but this, though it is sometimes so upon another principle, is far from being always the case. A bird on the wing is not so_beautiful as when it is
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perched; nay, there are several of the domestic fowls which are seldom seen to fly, and which are nothing the less beautiful on that account; yet birds are so ex tremely different in their form from the beast and hu man kinds, that you cannot, on the principle of fitness, allow them anything agreeable, but in consideration of their parts being designed for quite other purposes. I never in my life chanced to see a peacock fly; and yet before, very long before I considered any aptitude in his form 'for the aerial life, I was struck with the extreme beauty which raises that bird above many of
the best flying fowls in the world; though, for any thing I saw, his way of living was much like that of the swine, which fed in the farm-yard along with him. The same may be said of cocks, hens, and the like; they are of the flying kind in figure; in their man ner of moving not very different from men and beasts. To leave these foreign examples ; if beauty in our own species was annexed to use, men would be much more lovely than women; and strength and agility would be considered as the only beauties. But to call strength by the name of beauty, to have but one de nomination for the qualities of a Venus and Hercu les, so totally different in almost all respects, is surely a strange confusion of ideas, or abuse of words. The cause of this confusion, I imagine, proceeds from our frequently perceiving the parts of the human and other animal bodies to be at once very beautiful, and very well adapted to their purposes; and we are de ceived by a sophism, which makes us take that for a cause which is only a concomitant: this is the SOphism of the fly; who imagined he raised a great dust, because he stood upon the chariot that really raised it. The stomach, the lungs, the liver, as well
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as other parts, are incomparably well adapted to their purposes; yet they are far from having any beauty. Again, many things are very beautiful, in which it is impossible to discern any idea of use. And I appeal to the first and most natural feelings of mankind, whether on beholding a beautiful eye, or a well fashioned mouth, or a well-turned leg, any ideas of their being well fitted for seeing, eating, or running, ever present themselves. What idea of use is it that flowers excite, the most beautiful part of 'the vegeta ble world? It is true that the infinitely wise and good Creator has, of his bounty, frequently joined beauty to those things which he has made useful to us; but this does not prove that an idea of use and beauty are the same thing, or that they are any way dependent on each other.
SECTION VII.
THE REAL EFFECTS OF FITNEss.
WHEN I excluded proportion and fitness from any share in beauty, I did not by any means intend to say that they were of no value, or that they ought to be disregarded in works of art. \Vorks of art are the proper sphere of their power; and here it is that they have their full effect. Whenever the wisdom of our Creator intended that we should be affected with anything, he did not confide the execution of his de sign to the languid and precarious operation of our reason ; but he endued it with powers and properties that prevent the understanding, and even the will;
which, seizing upon the senses and imagination, cap tivate the soul, before the undcrstanding is ready
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e1ther to join with them, or to oppose them. It is by a long deduction, and much study, that we discover the adorable wisdom of God in his works: when we discover it the eifect is very different, not only in the inanner of acquiring but in its own nature, from that which strikes us without any preparation from the sublime or the beautiful. How different the satisfaction of an anatomist, who discovers the use of the muscles and of the skin, the excellent contrivance of the one for the various movements of the body, and the wonderful texture of the other, at once general covering, and at once general outlet as well
inlet; how dilferent this from the affection which possesses an ordinary man at the sight of delicate, smooth skin, and all the other parts of beau ty, which require no investigation to be perceived! In the former case, whilst we look up to the Maker with admiration and praise, the object which causes
may be odious and distasteful; the latter very of ten so touches us by its power on the imagination, that we examine but little into the artifice of its con trivance and we have need of strong effort of our
reason to disentangle our minds from the allurements of the object, to consideration of that wisdom which invented so powerful machine. The effect of pro
portion and fitness, at least so far as they proceed from mere consideration of the work itself, produce approbation, the acquiescence of the understanding, but not love, nor any passion of that species. When we examine the structure of watch, when we come
to know thoroughly the use of every part of satis fied as we are with the fitness of the whole, we are far enough from perceiving anything like beauty in the watch-work itself; but let us look on the case,
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the labor of some curious artist in engraving, with little or no idea of use, we shall have a much livelier idea of beauty than we ever could have had from the watch itself, though the masterpiece of Graham. In beauty, as I said, the effect is previous to any knowl edge of the use ; but to judge of proportion, we must know the end for which any work is designed. Ac cording to the end, the proportion varies. Thus there is one proportion of a tower, another of a house ; one proportion of a gallery, another of a hall, another of a chamber. To judge of the proportions of these, you must be first acquainted with the pur poses for which they were designed. Good sense and experience acting together, find out what is fit to be done in every work of art. We are rational crea tures, and in all our works we ought to regard their end and purpose; the gratification of any passion, how innocent soever, ought only to be of secondary consideration. Herein is placed the real power of fit ness and proportion ; they operate on the understand ing considering them, which approves the work and acquiesces in it. The passions, and the imagination which principally raises them, have here very little to do. When a room appears in its original nakedness, bare walls and a plain ceiling: let its proportion be ever so excellent, it pleases very little ; a cold appro bation is the utmost we can reach; a much worse proportioned room with elegant mouldings and fine festoons, glasses, and other merely ornamental furni ture, will make the imagination revolt against the reason ; it will please much more than the naked proportion of the first room, which the understanding has so much approved, as admirably fitted for its Pi11' poses. What I have here said and before concerning
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proportion, is by no means to persuade people absurd ly to neglect the idea of use in the works of art. It is only to show that these excellent things, beauty and proportion, are not the same ; not that they should either of them be disregarded. _
SECTION VIII. THE RECAPITULATION.
ON the whole ; if such parts in human bodies as are fo1md proportioned, were likewise constantly found beautiful, as they certainly are not; or if they were so situated, as that a pleasure might flow from the comparison, which they seldom are ; or if any assign able proportions were found, either in plants or ani mals, which were always attended with beauty, which never was the case ; or where parts were well adapt ed to their purposes, they were constantly beautiful, and when no use appeared, there was no beauty, which contrary to all experience; we might con clude that beauty consisted in proportion or utility.
But since, in all respects, the case quite otherwise we may be satisfied that beauty does not depend on these, let owe its origin to what else will.
N X. PERFECTION NOT THE cause 0F BEAUTY.
THERE another notion current, pretty closely allied to the former; that perfection the constit uent cause of beauty. This opinion has been made to extend much further than to sensible
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But in these, so far is perfection, considered as such, from being the cause of beauty; that this quality, where it is highest, in the female sex, almost always carries with it an idea of weakness and imperfection. Women are very sensible of this; for which reason they learn to lisp, to totter in their walk, to counterfeit weakness, and even sickness. In all this they are guided by nature. Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty. Blush ing has little less power: and modesty in general, which is a tacit allowance of imperfection, is itself considered as an amiable quality, and certainly height ens every other that is so. I know it is in every body's mouth, that we ought to love perfection. This is to me a sufficient proof, that it is not the proper object of love. Who ever said we ought to love a fine woman, or even any of these beautiful animals which please us? Here to be affected, there is no need of the concurrence of our will.
SECTION X.
HOW FAR THE IDEA OF BEAUTY MAY BE APPLIED TO THE QUALITIES OF THE MIND
NOR is this remark in general less applicable to the qualities of the mind. Those virtues which cause admiration, and are _of the sublimer kind, produce terror rather than love; such as fortitude, justice, wisdom, and the like. Never was any man amiable by force of these qualities. Those which engage our hearts, which impress us with a sense of loveliness, are the softer virtues; easiness of temper, compas sion, kindness, and liberality ; though certainly those
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latter are of less immediate and momentous concern to society, and of less dignity. But it is for that reason that they are so amiable. The great vir tues turn principally on dangers, punishments, and troubles, and are exercised, rather in preventing the worst mischiefs, than in dispensing favors; and are therefore not lovely, though highly venerable. The subordinate turn on reliefs, gratifications, and indul
gences; and are therefore more lovely, though infe rior in dignity. Those persons who creep into the hearts of most people, who are chosen as the compan ions of their softer hours, and their reliefs from care and anxiety, are never persons of shining qualities or strong virtues. It is rather the soft green of the soul on which we rest our eyes, that are fatigued with beholding more glaring objects. It is worth observ ing how we feel Ou. rS6lV6S affected in reading the
characters of Caesar and Cato, as they are so finely drawn and contrasted in Sallust. In one the igno scendo largiundo ; in the other, nil largiundo. In one, the miseris perfugium ; in the other, malis perniciem. In the latter we have much to admire, much to rev erence, and perhaps something to fear; we respect him, but we respect him at a distance, The former makes us familiar with him; we love him, and he leads us whither he pleases. To draw things closer
to our first and most natural feelings, I will add a re . mark made upon reading this section by an ingen
ious friend. The authority of a father, so useful to our well-being, and so justly venerable upon all ac counts, hinders us from having that entire love for him that we have for our mothers,where the parental authority is almost melted down into the mother's fondness and indulgence. But we generally have a
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great love for our grandfathers, in whom this au thority is removed a degree from us, and where the weakness of age mellows it into something of a fem inine partiality.
SECTION XI.
HOW FAR THE IDEA OF BEAUTY MAY BE APPLIED TO VIRTUE.
FROM what has been said in the foregoing section, we may easily see how far the application of beauty to virtue may be made with propriety. The general application of this quality to virtue has a strong ten dency to confound our ideas of things, and it has given rise to an infinite deal of whimsical theory; as the affixing the name of beauty to proportion, con gruity, and perfection, as well as to qualities of things yet more remote from our natural ideas of
and from one another, has tended to confound om' ideas of beauty, and left us no standard or rule to judge by, that was not even more uncertain and fal
lacious than our own fancies. This loose and inac. curate manner of speaking has therefore misled us both in the theory of taste and of morals; and in duced us to remove the science of our duties from their proper basis (our reason, our relations, and our necessities), to rest upon foundations alto gether visionary and unsubstantial.
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SECTION XIL THE REAL causs or BEAUTY.
HAVING endeavored to show what beauty is not, it remains that we should examine, at least with equal attention, in what it really consists.
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SECTION XXI.
SMELL AND TASTE. -- BITTERS AND srnuCmIzs.
SMELLS and tastes have some share too in ideas of greatness; but it is a small one", weak in its nature, and confined in its operations. I shall only ob serve that no smells or tastes can produce a grand sensation, except excessive bitters, and 'intolerable stenches. It is true that these affections of the smell and taste, when they are in their full force, and lean directly upon the sensory, are simply painful, and accompanied with no_sort of delight; but when they are moderated, as in a description or narrative, they become sources of the sublime, as genuine as any other, and upon the very same principle of a moder
ated pain. " A cup of bitterness " ; " to drain the bit
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ter cup of fortune " ; " the bitter apples of Sodom " ; these are all ideas suitable to a sublime description. Nor is this passage of Vi1gil without sublimity, where the stench of the vapor in Albunea conspires so hap pily with the sacred horror and gloominess of that
prophetic forest:
At i-ex sollicitus monstris oracula Fauni
Fatidici genitoris adit, lucosque sub alta Consulit Albunca, nemorum qum maxima sacro Fonte sonar; sazvamque exhalet apaca Illephitim.
In the sixth book, and in a very sublime description, the poisonous exhalation of Acheron is not forgot ten, nor does it at all disagree with the other images amongst which it is introduced:
Spelunca alta fuit, vastoque immanis hiatu
Scrupea, tuta la/:u nfgro, nemornmque tenebris; Quam super hand ulla: poterunt impnne volantes Tenderc itcr pennis : talis sese halitus atria
Faucibus eflizndens supera ad convezraferebat.
I have added these examples, because some friends, for whose judgment I have great deference, were of opinion that if the sentiment stood nakedly by itself, it would be subject, at first view, to burlesque and ridicule; but this I imagine would principally arise from considering the bitterness and stench in com pany with mean and contemptible ideas, with which it must be owned they are often united ; such an union degrades the sublime in all other instances as well as in those. But it is one of the tests by which the sub limity of an image is to be tried, not whether it be comes mean when associated with mean ideas; but whether, when united with images of an allowed grandeur, the whole composition is supported with dignity. Things which are terrible are always great;
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but when things possess disagreeable qualities, or such as have indeed some degree of danger, but of a danger easily overcome, they are merely odious; as toads and spiders.
SECTION XXII. FEELING. --PAIN.
OF feeling little more can be said than that the idea of bodily pain, in all the modes and degrees of labor, pain, anguish, torment, is productive of the sublime; and nothing else in this sense can produce it. I need not give here any fresh instances, as those given in the former sections abundantly illustrate a remark that, in reality, wants only an attention to nature, to be made by everybody.
Having thus run through the causes of the sublime with reference to all the senses, my first observation (Sect. 7) will be found very nearly true; that the sublime is an idea belonging to self-preservation ; that it is, therefore, one of the most affecting we have; that its strongest emotion is an emotion of dis tress; and that no pleasure* from a positive cause belongs to it. Numberless examples, besides those mentioned, might be brought in support of these truths, and many perhaps useful consequences drawn from them--
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Sed fugit interea, fugit irrevocabile tempus, Singula dum capti circumvectamur amore.
* Vide Part I. sect. 6.
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PART III.
SECTION I. or BEAUTY.
I65
Ir is my design to consider beauty as distinguished from the sublime; and, in the course of the inquiry, to examine how far it is consistent with it. But pre
vious to this, we must take a short review of the opin ions already entertained of this quality; which I think are hardly to be reduced to any fixed princi ples ; because men are used to talk of beauty in a figurative manner, that is to say, in a manner ex
tremely uncertain, and indeterminate. By beauty, I mean that quality, or those _qualities in bodies, by which they cause love, or some passion similar to it. I confine this definition to the merely sensible quali ties of things, for the sake of preserving the utmost simplicity in a subject, which must always distract us whenever we take in those various causes of sympa thy which attach us to any persons or things from secondary considerations, and not from the direct force which they have merely on being viewed. I likewise distinguish love, (by which I mean that sat isfaction which arises to the mind upon contemplating anything beautiful, of whatsoever nature it may be,) from desire or lust; which is an energy of the mind, that hurries us on to the possession of certain objects, that do not affect us as they are beautiful, but by means altogether different. We shall have a strong desire for a woman of no remarkable beauty; whilst the greatest beauty in men, or in other animals,
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though it causes love, yet excites nothing at all of desire. Which shows that beauty, and the passion caused by beauty, which I call love, is different from desire, though desire may sometimes operate along with it ; but it is to this latter that we must attribute those violent and tempestuous passions, and the con sequent emotions of the body which attend what is called love in some of its ordinary acceptations, and not to the effects of beauty merely as it is such.
SECTION II.
PROPORTION NOT THE cAUsE 0F BEAUTY IN VEGETABLES.
'BEAUTY hath usually been said to consist in certain proportions of parts. On considering the matter, I have great reason to doubt, whether beauty be at all an idea belonging to proportion. Proportion relates almost wholly to convenience, as every idea of order seems to do; and it must therefore be considered as a creature of the understanding, rather than a pri mary cause acting on the senses and imagination. It is not by the force of long attention and inquiry that we find any object to be beautiful; beauty demands no assistance from our reasoning; even the will is unconcerned ; the appearance of beauty as effectually causes some degree of love in iis, as the application of ice or fire produces the ideas of heat or cold. To gain something like a satisfactory conclusion in this point, it were well' to examine what proportion is; since several who make use of that word do not
always seem to understand very clearly the force of the term, nor to have very distinct ideas concerning the thing itself. Proportion is the measure of rela
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tive quantity. Since all quantity is divisible, it is evident that everydistinct part into which any quan tity is divided must bear some relation to the other parts, or to the whole. These relations give an origin to the idea of proportion. They are discovered mensuration, and they are the objects of mathemati cal inquiry. But whether any part of any determi nate quantity be a fourth, or a fifth, or a sixth, or a moiety of the whole ; or whether it be of equal length with any other part, or double its length, or but one
half, is a matter merely indifferent to the mind; it stands neuter in the question: and it is from this absolute indifference and tranquillity of the mind, that mathematical speculations derive some of their most considerable advantages; because there is noth ing to interest the imagination; because the judg ment sits free and unbiassed to examine the point. All proportions, every arrangement of quantity, is alike to the understanding, because the same truths result to it from all ; from greater, from lesser, from equality and inequality. But surely beauty is no idea belonging to mensuration; nor has it anything to'do with calculation and geometry. If it had, we might then point out some certain measures which we could demonstrate to be beautiful, either as simply considered, or as related to others; and we could call in those natural objects, for whose beauty we have no voucher but the sense, to this happy stand ard, and confirm the voice of our passions by the determination of our reason. But since we have not this help, let us see whether proportion can in any sense be considered as the cause of beauty, as hath been so generally, and, by some, so confidently af firmed. If proportion be one of the constituents of
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beauty, it must derive that power either from some natural properties inherent in certain measures,
which operate mechanically; from the operation of custom; or from the fitness which some measures
have to answer some particular ends of conveniency. Our business therefore is to inquire, whether the parts of those objects, which are found beautiful in the vegetable or animal kingdoms, are constantly so formed according to such certain measures, as may serve to satisfy us that their beauty results from those measures, on the principle of a natural mechanical
cause ; or from custom; or, in fine, from their fitness for any determinate purposes. I intend to examine this point under each of these heads in their order. But before I proceed further, I hope it will not be thought amiss, if I lay down the rules which governed me in this inquiry, and which have misled me in
have gone astray. If two bodies produce the same or similar effect on the mind, and on exami nation they are found to agree in some of their prop erties, and to differ in others; the common efifect
to be attributed to the properties in which they agree, and not to those in which they differ. 2. Not to ac count for the effect of natural object from the effect of an artificial object. 3. Not to account for the
etfect of any natural object from conclusion of our reason concerning its uses, natural cause may be assigned. 4. Not to admit any determinate quantity, or any relation of quantity, as the cause of certain effect, the effect produced by different or opposite measures and relations or these measures and relations may exist, and yet the effect may not be pro duced. These are the rules which have chiefly fol lowed, whilst examined into the power of proportion
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considered as a natural cause ; and these, if he thinks them just, I request the reader to carry with him throughout the following discussion; whilst we in quire, in the first place, in what things we find this quality of beauty; next, to see whether in these we can find any assignable proportions in such a manner as ought to convince us that our idea of beauty re sults from them. We shall consider this pleasing power as it appears in vegetables, in the inferior ani mals, and in man. Turning our eyes to the vegeta ble creation, we find nothing there so beautiful as flowers; but flowers are almost of every sort of
and of every sort of disposition; they are turned and fashioned into an infinite variety of forms; and from these forms botanists have given them their names, which are almost as various. What proportion do we discover between the stalks and the leaves of flowers, or between the leaves and the pistils? How does the slender stalk of the rose agree with the bulky head under which it bends? but the rose is a beautiful flower; and can we undertake to say that it does not owe a great deal of its beauty even to that disproportion ; the rose is a large flower, yet it grows upon a small shrub; the flower of the
apple is very small, and grows upon a large tree ; yet the rose and the apple blossom are both beautiful, and the plants that bear them are most engagingly attired, notwithstanding this disproportion. What by general consent is allowed to be a more beautiful object than an orange-tree, flourishing at once with its leaves, its blossoms, and its fruit? but it is in vain that we search here for any proportion between the
height, the breadth, or anything else concerning the dilnensions of the whole, or concerning the relation
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of the particular parts to each other. I grant that we may observe in many flowers something of a reg ular figure, and of a methodical disposition of the leaves. The rose has such a figure and such a dispo sition of its petals; but in an oblique view, when this figure is in a good measure lost, and the order of the leaves confounded, it yet retains its beauty ; the rose is even more beautiful before it is full blown ; in the bud; before this exact figure is formed; and this is not the only instance wherein method and exactness, the soul of proportion, are found rather prejudicial than serviceable to the cause of beauty.
SECTION III.
PROPORTION NOT THE Cnus]: or BEAUTY IN ANIMALS.
THAT proportion has but a small share in the for
mation of beauty is full as evident among animals.
Here the greatest variety of shapes and dispositions of parts are well fitted to excite this idea. The swan, confessedly a beautiful bird, has a neck longer than the rest of his body, and but a very short tail: is this a beautiful proportion? We must, allow that it is. But then what shall we say to the peacock, who has comparatively but a short neck, with a tail longer than the neck and the rest of the body taken together? How many birds are there that vary infi nitely from each of these standards, and from every other which you can fix; with proportions different, and often directly opposite to each other! and yet many of these birds are extremely beautiful; when upon considering them we find nothing in any one part that might determine us, ri priori, to say what
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the others ought to be, nor indeed to guess anything about them, but what experience might show to be full of disappointment and mistake. And with re gard to the colors either of birds or flowers, for there is something similar in the coloring of both, whether they are considered in their extension or gradation, there is nothing of proportion to be observed. Some
are of but one single color ; others have all the colors of the rainbow ; some are of the primary colors, others are of the mixed ; in short, an attentive observer may soon conclude that there is as little of proportion in the coloring as in the shapes of these objects. Turn next to beasts ; examine the head of a beauti ful horse; find what proportion that bears to his
and to his limbs, and what relation these have to each other; and when you have settled these proportions as a standard of beauty, then take a dog or cat, or any other animal, and examine how far the same proportions between their heads and
their necks, between those and the body, and so on, are found to hold; I think we may safely say, that they differ in every species, yet that there are individ uals, found in a great many species so differing, that
have a very striking beauty. Now, if it be allowed that very different, and even contrary forms and dispositions are consistent with beauty, it amounts I
believe to a concession, that no certain measures, operating from a natural principle, are necessary to produce it; at least so far as the brute species is
concerned.
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SECTION IV.
PROPORTION NOT THE CAUSE OF BEAUTY IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
THERE are some parts of the human body that are observed to hold certain proportions to each other; but before it can be proved that the efficient cause of beauty lies in these, it must be shown that, wherever these are found exact, the person to whom they be long is beautiful: I mean in the effect produced on the view, either of any member distinctly considered, or of the whole body together. It must be likewise shown, that these parts stand in such a relation to each other, that the comparison between them may be easily made, and that the affection of the mind may naturally result from it. For my part, I have at several times very carefullyexamined many of those proportions, and found them hold very nearly, or altogether alike in many subjects, which were not only very different from one another, but where one has been very beautiful, and the other very remote from beauty. With regard to the parts which are found so proportioned, they are often so remote from each other, in situation, nature, and office, that I cannot see how they admit of any comparison, nor
? how any effect owing to proportion can result from them. The neck, say they, in beautiful
bodies, should measure with the calf of the leg; it should likewise be twice the circumference of the wrist. And an infinity of observations of this kind are to be found in the writings and conversations of
consequently
But what relation has the calf of the leg to the_neck ; or either of these parts to the wrist?
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These proportions are certainly to be found in hand some bodies. They are as certainly in ugly ones; as any whO will take the pains to try may find. Nay, I do not know but they may be least perfect in some of the most beautiful. You may assign any proportions you please to every part of the human body; and I undertake that a painter shall religiously observe them all, and notwithstanding produce, if he pleases, a very ugly figure. The same painter shall consider ably deviate from these proportions, and produce a very beautiful one. And, indeed, it may be observed in the masterpieces of the ancient and modern statu ary, that several of them differ very widely from the
proportions of others, in parts very conspicuous and of great consideration; and that they differ no less from the proportions we find in living men, of forms extremely striking and agreeable. And after all, how are the partisans of proportional beauty agreed amongst themselves about the proportions of the
human body? Some hold it to be seven heads; some make it eight; whilst others extend it even to ten : a vast difference in such a small number of divisions! Others take other methods of estimating the proportions, and all with equal success. But are these proportions exactly the same in all handsome men? or are they at all the proportions found in beautifi1l women? Nobody will say that they are;
yet both sexes are undoubtedly capable of beauty, and the female of the greatest; which advantage I be lieve will hardly be attributed to the superior exact ness of proportion in the fair sex. Let us rest a moment on this point; and consider how much dif
ference there is between the measures that prevail in many similar parts of the body, in the two sexes of
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this single species only. If you assign any determi nate proportions to the limbs of a man, and if you limit human beauty to these proportions, when you find a woman who differs in the make and measures of almost every part, you must conclude her not to be beautiful, in spite of the suggestions of yo1u' imagi nation; or, in obedience to your imagination,
must renounce your rules; you must lay by the scale and compass, and look out for some other cause of beauty. For if beauty be attached to certain measures which operate from a principle in nature, why should similar parts with diiferent measures of proportion be found to have beauty, and this too in the very' same species? But to open our view a little, it is worth observing, that almost all animals have parts of very much the same nature, and destined nearly to the same purposes; a head, neck, body, feet, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; yet Providence, to provide in the best manner for their several wants, and to display the riches of his wis dom and goodness in his creation, has worked out of these few and similar organs, and members, a diver sity hardly short of infinite in their disposition, meas ures and relation. But, as we have before observed, amidst this infinite diversity, one particular is com mon to many species: several of the individuals which compose them are capable of affecting us with a sense of loveliness: and whilst they agree in pro ducing this effect, they differ extremely in the rela tive measures of those parts which have produced it. These considerations were sufiicient to induce me to reject the notion of any particular proportions that operated by nature to produce a pleasing eifect ; but those who will agree with me with regard to a par
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ticular proportion, are strongly prepossessed in favor of one more indefinite. They imagine, that although beauty in general is annexed to no certain measures common to the several kinds of pleasing plants and animals; yet that there is a certain proportion in each species absolutely essential to the beauty of that particular kind. If we consider the animal world in general, we find beauty confined to no certain meas ures ; but as some peculiar measure and relation of parts is what distinguishes each' peculiar class of ani mals, it must of necessity be, that the beautiful in each kind will be found in the measures and propor tions of that kind; for otherwise it would deviate from its proper species, and become in some sort monstrous : however, no species is so strictly confined
to any certain proportions, that there is not a consider able variation amongst the individuals ; and as it has been shown of the human, so it may be shown of the brute kinds, that beauty is found indifferently in all the
? which each kind can admit, without quit ting its common form ; and it is this idea of a com mon form that makes the proportion of parts at all regarded, and not the operation of any natural cause : indeed a little consideration will make it appear, that
it is not measure, but manner, that creates all the beauty which belongs to shape. What light do we borrow from these boasted proportions, when we study ornamental design? It seems amazing to me, that artists, if they were as well convinced as they
pretend to be, that proportion is a principal . cause of beauty, have not by them at all times accurate meas urements of all sorts of beautiful animals to help them to proper proportions, when they would con trive anything elegant; especially as they frequently
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assert that it is from an observation of the beautiful in nature they direct their practice. I know that it has been said long since, and echoed backward and for ward from one writer to another a thousand times, that the proportions of building have been taken from those of the human body. To make this forced analo gy complete, they represent a man with his arms raised and extended at full length, and then describe a sort of square, as it is formed by passing lines along the ex tremities of this strange figure. But it appears very clearly to me that the human figure never supplied the architect with any of his ideas. For, in the first
place, men are very rarely seen in this strained pos ture; it is not natural to them; neither is it at all becoming. Secondly, the view of the human figure so disposed, does not naturally suggest the idea of a square, but rather of a cross ; as that large space be tween the arms and the ground must be filled with something before it can make anybody think of a square. Thirdly, several buildings are by no means of the form of that particular square, which are not withstanding planned by the best architects, and pro duce an effect altogether as good, and perhaps a
better. And certainly nothing could be more unac countably whimsical, than for an architect to model his performance by the human figure, since no two things can have less resemblance or analogy, than a man, and a house or temple: do we need to observe that their purposes are entirely different? What I am apt to suspect is this: that these analogies were devised to give a credit to the works of art, by show ing a conformity between them and the noblest works in nature ; not that the latter served at all to supply hints for the perfection of the former. And I am
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the more fully convinced, that the patrons of propor tion have transferred their artificial ideas to nature, and not borrowed from thence the proportions they usein works of art ; because in any discussion of this subject they always quit as soon as possible the open
field of natural beauties, the animal and vegetable
and fortify themselves within the artificial lines and angles of architecture. For there is in man kind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views, and their works, the measure of excel lence in everything whatsoever. Therefore having observed that their dwellings were most commodious and firm when they were thrown into regular figures, with parts answerable to each other; they transferred these ideas to their gardens ; they turned their trees into pillars, pyramids, and obelisks ; they formed their hedges into so many green walls, and fashioned their walks into squares, triangles, and other mathe
matical figures, with exactness and symmetry; and they thought, if they were not imitating, they were at least improving nature, and teaching her to know her business. But nature has at last escaped from their discipline and their fetters ; and our gardens, if nothing else, declare, we begin to feel that mathemat- ical ideas are not the true measures of beauty. And surely they are full as little so in the animal as the vegetable world. For is it not extraordinary, that in these fine descriptive pieces, these innumerable odes
and elegies which are in the mouths of all the world, and many of which have been the entertainment of ages, that in these pieces which describe love with such
a passionate energy, and represent its object in such
an infinite variety of lights, not one word is said of
proportion, if it be, what some insist it the princi v0x. . 1. 12
kingdoms,
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pal component of beauty; whilst, at the same time, several other qualities are very frequently and warm ly mentioned? But if proportion has not this power, it may appear odd how men came originally to be so prepossessed in its favor. It arose, I imagine, from the fondness I have just mentioned, which men bear so remarkably to their own works and notions; it arose from false reasonings on the effects of the cus tomary figure of animals; it arose from the Platonic theory of fitness and aptitude. For which reason, in the next section, I shall consider the effects of custom in the figure of animals; and afterwards the idea of fitness: since if proportion does not operate by a nat ural power attending some measures, it must be either by custom, or the idea of utility; there is no other way.
SECTION V. PROPORTION FURTHER CONSIDERED.
IF I am not mistaken, a great deal of the prejudice in favor of proportion has arisen, not so much from the observation of any certain measures found in beau tiful bodies, as from a wrong idea of the relation which deformity bears to beauty, to which it has been consid ered as the opposite; on this principle it was conclu ded that where the causes of deformity were removed, beauty must naturally and necessarily be introduced. This I believe is a mistake. For deformity is opposed
? If one of the legs of a man be found shorter than the
not to beauty, but to theeomplete common form.
other, the man is deformed; because there is some thing wanting to complete the whole idea we form of
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a man; and this has the same effect in natural faults, as maiming and mutilation produce from accidents. So if the back be humped, the man is deformed ; be cause his back has an unusual figure, and what car ries with it the idea of some disease or misfortune; so if a man's neck be considerably longer or shorter than usual, we say he is deformed in that part, be cause men are not commonly made in that manner.
But surely every hour's experience may convince us that a man may have his legs of an equal length, and resembling each other in all respects, and his neck of a just size, and his back quite straight, without hav ing at the same time the least perceivable beauty. In deed beauty is so far from belonging to the idea of custom, that in reality what affects us in that manner
is extremely rare and uncommon. The beautiful strikes us as much by its novelty as the deformed it self. It is thus in those species of animals with which we are acquainted ; and if one of a new species were represented, we should by no means wait until custom had settled an idea of proportion, before we decided concerning its beauty or ugliness: which shows that the general idea of beauty can be no more owing "to customary than to natural proportion. Deformity arises from the want of the common proportions ; but the necessary result of their existence in any object is not beauty. If we suppose proportion in natural things to be relative to custom and use, the nature of use and custom will show that beauty, which is a
positive and powerful quality, cannot result from it. We are so wonderfully formed, that, whilst we are creatures vehemently desirous of novelty, we are as strongly attached to habit and custom. But it is the
nature of things which hold us by custom, to affect
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us very little whilst we are in possession of them, but A strongly when they are absent. I remember to have frequented a certain place, every day for a long time together; and I may truly say that, so far from find ing pleasure in was affected with sort of weari ness and disgust; came, went, returned, without pleasure yet by any means passed by the usual time of my going thither,
was' remarkably uneasy, had got into my old track. almost without being sen
and was not quiet till
They who use snuff, take
sible that they take and the acute sense of smell deadened, so as to feel hardly anything from so sharp
? stimulus yet deprive the snuff-taker of his box, and he the most uneasy mortal in the world. Indeed so far are use and habit from being causes of pleasure merely as such, that the effect of constant use to make all things of whatever kind entirely unaffecting.
. For as use at last takes off the painful effect of many things, reduces the pleasurable effect in others in the same manner, and brings both to sort of medi ocrity and indifference. Very justly use called second nature; and our natural and common state one of absolute indifference, equally prepared for pain or pleasure. But when we are thrownout of this state, or deprived of anything requisite to maintain us in it; when this chance does not happen by pleasure from some mechanical cause, we are always hurt. It is so with the second nature, custom, in all things which relate to it. Thus the want of the usual proportions in men and other animals sure to disgust, though their presence by no means any cause of real pleasure. It
true that the proportions laid down as causes of beauty in the human body, are frequently found in beautiful ones, because they are generally found in
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all mankind; but if it can be shown too that they are
found without beauty, and that beauty frequently ex ists without them, and that this beauty, where it ex
ists, always can be assigned to other less equivocal causes, it will naturally lead us to conclude that pro portion and beauty are not ideas of the same nature. The true opposite to beauty is not disproportion or deformity, but ugliness : and as it proceeds from causes opposite to those of positive beauty, we cannot consider it until we come to treat of that. Between beauty and ugliness there is a sort of mediocrity, in which the assigned proportions are most commonly found ; but this has no effect upon the passions.
SECTION VI.
FITNESS NOT _TI1I-3 Cnus>>: or BEAUTY.
IT is said that the idea of utility, or of a part's being well adapted to answer its end, is the cause of beauty, or indeed beauty itself. If it were not for this opin ion, it had been impossible for the doctrine of pro portion to have held its ground very long; the world would be soon weary of hearing of measures which related to nothing, either of a natural principle, or of a fitness to answer some end; the idea which man kind most commonly conceive of proportion, is the suitableness of means to certain ends, and, where this is not the question, very seldom trouble themselves about the effect of different measures of things. Therefore it was necessary for this theory to insist that not only artificial, but natural objects took their beauty from the fitness of the parts for their several purposes. But in framing this theory, I am apprehen
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sive that experience was not sufficiently consulted. For, on that principle, the wedge-like snout of a swine, with its tough cartilage at the end, the little sunk eyes, and the whole make of the head, so well adapted to its offices of digging and rooting, would be extreme ly beautiful. The great bag hanging to the bill of a pelican, a thing highly useful to this animal, would be likewise as beautiful in our eyes. The hedge-hog, so well secured against all assaults by his prickly hide, and the porcupine with his missile quills, would be then considered as creatures of no small elegance. There are few animals whose parts are better con trived than those of a monkey: he has the hands of a man, joined to the springy limbs of a beast; he is admirably calculated for running, leaping, grap pling, and climbing; and yet there are few animals which seem to have less beauty in the eyes of all man kind. I need say little on the trunk of the elephant, of such various usefulness, and which is so far from contributing to his beauty. How well fitted is the wolf for running and leaping! how admirably is the lion armed for battle! but will any one therefore call the elephant, the wolf, and the lion, beautiful ani mals? I believe nobody will think the form of a man's leg so well adapted to running, as those of a horse, a dog, a deer, and several other creatures; at least they have not that appearance: yet, I believe, a well-fashioned human leg will be allowed to far ex ceed all these in beauty. If the fitness of parts was what constituted the loveliness of their form, the ac tual employment of them would undoubtedly much augment it ; but this, though it is sometimes so upon another principle, is far from being always the case. A bird on the wing is not so_beautiful as when it is
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perched; nay, there are several of the domestic fowls which are seldom seen to fly, and which are nothing the less beautiful on that account; yet birds are so ex tremely different in their form from the beast and hu man kinds, that you cannot, on the principle of fitness, allow them anything agreeable, but in consideration of their parts being designed for quite other purposes. I never in my life chanced to see a peacock fly; and yet before, very long before I considered any aptitude in his form 'for the aerial life, I was struck with the extreme beauty which raises that bird above many of
the best flying fowls in the world; though, for any thing I saw, his way of living was much like that of the swine, which fed in the farm-yard along with him. The same may be said of cocks, hens, and the like; they are of the flying kind in figure; in their man ner of moving not very different from men and beasts. To leave these foreign examples ; if beauty in our own species was annexed to use, men would be much more lovely than women; and strength and agility would be considered as the only beauties. But to call strength by the name of beauty, to have but one de nomination for the qualities of a Venus and Hercu les, so totally different in almost all respects, is surely a strange confusion of ideas, or abuse of words. The cause of this confusion, I imagine, proceeds from our frequently perceiving the parts of the human and other animal bodies to be at once very beautiful, and very well adapted to their purposes; and we are de ceived by a sophism, which makes us take that for a cause which is only a concomitant: this is the SOphism of the fly; who imagined he raised a great dust, because he stood upon the chariot that really raised it. The stomach, the lungs, the liver, as well
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as other parts, are incomparably well adapted to their purposes; yet they are far from having any beauty. Again, many things are very beautiful, in which it is impossible to discern any idea of use. And I appeal to the first and most natural feelings of mankind, whether on beholding a beautiful eye, or a well fashioned mouth, or a well-turned leg, any ideas of their being well fitted for seeing, eating, or running, ever present themselves. What idea of use is it that flowers excite, the most beautiful part of 'the vegeta ble world? It is true that the infinitely wise and good Creator has, of his bounty, frequently joined beauty to those things which he has made useful to us; but this does not prove that an idea of use and beauty are the same thing, or that they are any way dependent on each other.
SECTION VII.
THE REAL EFFECTS OF FITNEss.
WHEN I excluded proportion and fitness from any share in beauty, I did not by any means intend to say that they were of no value, or that they ought to be disregarded in works of art. \Vorks of art are the proper sphere of their power; and here it is that they have their full effect. Whenever the wisdom of our Creator intended that we should be affected with anything, he did not confide the execution of his de sign to the languid and precarious operation of our reason ; but he endued it with powers and properties that prevent the understanding, and even the will;
which, seizing upon the senses and imagination, cap tivate the soul, before the undcrstanding is ready
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e1ther to join with them, or to oppose them. It is by a long deduction, and much study, that we discover the adorable wisdom of God in his works: when we discover it the eifect is very different, not only in the inanner of acquiring but in its own nature, from that which strikes us without any preparation from the sublime or the beautiful. How different the satisfaction of an anatomist, who discovers the use of the muscles and of the skin, the excellent contrivance of the one for the various movements of the body, and the wonderful texture of the other, at once general covering, and at once general outlet as well
inlet; how dilferent this from the affection which possesses an ordinary man at the sight of delicate, smooth skin, and all the other parts of beau ty, which require no investigation to be perceived! In the former case, whilst we look up to the Maker with admiration and praise, the object which causes
may be odious and distasteful; the latter very of ten so touches us by its power on the imagination, that we examine but little into the artifice of its con trivance and we have need of strong effort of our
reason to disentangle our minds from the allurements of the object, to consideration of that wisdom which invented so powerful machine. The effect of pro
portion and fitness, at least so far as they proceed from mere consideration of the work itself, produce approbation, the acquiescence of the understanding, but not love, nor any passion of that species. When we examine the structure of watch, when we come
to know thoroughly the use of every part of satis fied as we are with the fitness of the whole, we are far enough from perceiving anything like beauty in the watch-work itself; but let us look on the case,
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the labor of some curious artist in engraving, with little or no idea of use, we shall have a much livelier idea of beauty than we ever could have had from the watch itself, though the masterpiece of Graham. In beauty, as I said, the effect is previous to any knowl edge of the use ; but to judge of proportion, we must know the end for which any work is designed. Ac cording to the end, the proportion varies. Thus there is one proportion of a tower, another of a house ; one proportion of a gallery, another of a hall, another of a chamber. To judge of the proportions of these, you must be first acquainted with the pur poses for which they were designed. Good sense and experience acting together, find out what is fit to be done in every work of art. We are rational crea tures, and in all our works we ought to regard their end and purpose; the gratification of any passion, how innocent soever, ought only to be of secondary consideration. Herein is placed the real power of fit ness and proportion ; they operate on the understand ing considering them, which approves the work and acquiesces in it. The passions, and the imagination which principally raises them, have here very little to do. When a room appears in its original nakedness, bare walls and a plain ceiling: let its proportion be ever so excellent, it pleases very little ; a cold appro bation is the utmost we can reach; a much worse proportioned room with elegant mouldings and fine festoons, glasses, and other merely ornamental furni ture, will make the imagination revolt against the reason ; it will please much more than the naked proportion of the first room, which the understanding has so much approved, as admirably fitted for its Pi11' poses. What I have here said and before concerning
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proportion, is by no means to persuade people absurd ly to neglect the idea of use in the works of art. It is only to show that these excellent things, beauty and proportion, are not the same ; not that they should either of them be disregarded. _
SECTION VIII. THE RECAPITULATION.
ON the whole ; if such parts in human bodies as are fo1md proportioned, were likewise constantly found beautiful, as they certainly are not; or if they were so situated, as that a pleasure might flow from the comparison, which they seldom are ; or if any assign able proportions were found, either in plants or ani mals, which were always attended with beauty, which never was the case ; or where parts were well adapt ed to their purposes, they were constantly beautiful, and when no use appeared, there was no beauty, which contrary to all experience; we might con clude that beauty consisted in proportion or utility.
But since, in all respects, the case quite otherwise we may be satisfied that beauty does not depend on these, let owe its origin to what else will.
N X. PERFECTION NOT THE cause 0F BEAUTY.
THERE another notion current, pretty closely allied to the former; that perfection the constit uent cause of beauty. This opinion has been made to extend much further than to sensible
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But in these, so far is perfection, considered as such, from being the cause of beauty; that this quality, where it is highest, in the female sex, almost always carries with it an idea of weakness and imperfection. Women are very sensible of this; for which reason they learn to lisp, to totter in their walk, to counterfeit weakness, and even sickness. In all this they are guided by nature. Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty. Blush ing has little less power: and modesty in general, which is a tacit allowance of imperfection, is itself considered as an amiable quality, and certainly height ens every other that is so. I know it is in every body's mouth, that we ought to love perfection. This is to me a sufficient proof, that it is not the proper object of love. Who ever said we ought to love a fine woman, or even any of these beautiful animals which please us? Here to be affected, there is no need of the concurrence of our will.
SECTION X.
HOW FAR THE IDEA OF BEAUTY MAY BE APPLIED TO THE QUALITIES OF THE MIND
NOR is this remark in general less applicable to the qualities of the mind. Those virtues which cause admiration, and are _of the sublimer kind, produce terror rather than love; such as fortitude, justice, wisdom, and the like. Never was any man amiable by force of these qualities. Those which engage our hearts, which impress us with a sense of loveliness, are the softer virtues; easiness of temper, compas sion, kindness, and liberality ; though certainly those
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latter are of less immediate and momentous concern to society, and of less dignity. But it is for that reason that they are so amiable. The great vir tues turn principally on dangers, punishments, and troubles, and are exercised, rather in preventing the worst mischiefs, than in dispensing favors; and are therefore not lovely, though highly venerable. The subordinate turn on reliefs, gratifications, and indul
gences; and are therefore more lovely, though infe rior in dignity. Those persons who creep into the hearts of most people, who are chosen as the compan ions of their softer hours, and their reliefs from care and anxiety, are never persons of shining qualities or strong virtues. It is rather the soft green of the soul on which we rest our eyes, that are fatigued with beholding more glaring objects. It is worth observ ing how we feel Ou. rS6lV6S affected in reading the
characters of Caesar and Cato, as they are so finely drawn and contrasted in Sallust. In one the igno scendo largiundo ; in the other, nil largiundo. In one, the miseris perfugium ; in the other, malis perniciem. In the latter we have much to admire, much to rev erence, and perhaps something to fear; we respect him, but we respect him at a distance, The former makes us familiar with him; we love him, and he leads us whither he pleases. To draw things closer
to our first and most natural feelings, I will add a re . mark made upon reading this section by an ingen
ious friend. The authority of a father, so useful to our well-being, and so justly venerable upon all ac counts, hinders us from having that entire love for him that we have for our mothers,where the parental authority is almost melted down into the mother's fondness and indulgence. But we generally have a
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great love for our grandfathers, in whom this au thority is removed a degree from us, and where the weakness of age mellows it into something of a fem inine partiality.
SECTION XI.
HOW FAR THE IDEA OF BEAUTY MAY BE APPLIED TO VIRTUE.
FROM what has been said in the foregoing section, we may easily see how far the application of beauty to virtue may be made with propriety. The general application of this quality to virtue has a strong ten dency to confound our ideas of things, and it has given rise to an infinite deal of whimsical theory; as the affixing the name of beauty to proportion, con gruity, and perfection, as well as to qualities of things yet more remote from our natural ideas of
and from one another, has tended to confound om' ideas of beauty, and left us no standard or rule to judge by, that was not even more uncertain and fal
lacious than our own fancies. This loose and inac. curate manner of speaking has therefore misled us both in the theory of taste and of morals; and in duced us to remove the science of our duties from their proper basis (our reason, our relations, and our necessities), to rest upon foundations alto gether visionary and unsubstantial.
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SECTION XIL THE REAL causs or BEAUTY.
HAVING endeavored to show what beauty is not, it remains that we should examine, at least with equal attention, in what it really consists.
