It is the flowery spe cies, so
remarkable
for its weakness and momentary duration, that gives us the liveliest idea of beauty and elegance.
Edmund Burke
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
? ? ? ? 184 ON THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.
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
? ? ? ? on THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL. J85
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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on THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.
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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187
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
? objects.
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ON THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.
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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189
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
? ? ? ? 190
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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. Beauty is a thing much too affecting not to depend upon some positive qualities. And since it is no creature of our reason, since it strikes us without any reference to use, and even where no use at all can be discerned, since the order and method of nature is generally very different from our measures and proportions, we must conclude that beauty for the greater part, some quality in bodies acting mechanically upon the hu
man mind by the intervention of the senses. We ought, therefore, to consider attentively in what man ner those sensible qualities are disposed, in such things as by experience we find beautiful, or which excite in us the passion of love, or some correspondent affec tion.
SE CTION XIII. BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS SMALL.
THE most obvious point that presents itself to us in examining any object its extent or quantity. And what degree of extent prevails in bodies that are held beautiful, may be gathered from the usual manner of expression concerning it. am told that, in most
languages, the objects of love are spoken of under dirninutive epithets. It so in all the languages of which have any knowledge. In Greek the mu and other diminutive terms are almost always the terms
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of affection and tenderness. These diminutives were commonly added by the Greeks to the names of per sons with whom they conversed on terms of friend ship and familiarity. Though the Romans were a people of less quick and delicate feelings, yet they naturally slid into the lessening termination upon the same occasions. Anciently, in the English language, the diminishing ling was added to the names of per sons and things that were the objects of love. Some we retain still, as darling (or little dear), and a few others. But to this day, in ordinary conversation, it is usual to add the endearing name of little to every thing we love ; the French and Italians make use of these affectionate diminutives even more than we. In the animal creation, out of our own species, it is the small we are inclined to be fond of; little birds, and some of the smaller kinds of beasts. A great beautiful thing is a manner of expression scarcely ever used; but that of a great ugly thing is very common. There is a wide difference between admi ration and love. The sublime, which is the cause of the former, always dwells on great objects, and terri blc; the latter on small ones, and pleasing ; we sub mit to what we admire, but we love what submits to us; in one case we are forced, in the other we are flattered, into compliance. In short, the ideas of the sublime and the beautiful stand on fo1mdations so different, that it is hard, I had almost said impossible, to think of reconciling them in the same subject, without considerably lessening the effect of the one or the other upon the passions. So that, attending to their quantity, beautiful objects are comparatively small.
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SECTION XIV. suoornnnss.
193
THE next property constantly observable in such objects is smoothness ; * a quality so essential to beau ty, that I do not now recollect anything beautiful that is not smooth. In trees and flowers, smooth leaves are beautiful; smooth slopes of earth in gar dens; smooth streams in the landscape; smooth coats of birds and beasts in animal beauties; in
fine women, smooth skins; and in several sorts of ornamental furniture, smooth and polished surfaces. A very considerable part of the effect of beauty is owing to this quality ; indeed the most considerable. For, take any beautiful object, and give it a broken and rugged surface; and, however well formed it may be in other respects, it pleases no longer. Whereas, let it want ever so many of the other constituents, if it wants not this, it becomes more pleasing than almost all the others without it. This seems to me so evident, that I am a good deal sur prised that none who have handled the subject have
made any mention of the quality of smoothness in the enumeration of those that go to the forming of beauty. For, indeed, any ruggedness, any sudden projection, any sharp angle, is in the highest degree contrary to that idea
? vo1. I 18
1' Part IV. sect. 20.
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SECTION XV. GRAD UAL VARIATION.
BUT as perfectly beautiful bodies are not composed of angular parts, so their parts never continue long in the same right line. * They vary their direction every moment, and they change under the eye by a deviation continually carrying on, but for whose be ginning or end you will find it difficult to ascertain a point. The view of a beautiful bird will illustrate this observation. Here we see the head increasing insensibly to the middle, from whence it lessens grad ually until it mixes with the neck; the neck loses itself in a larger swell, which continues to the middle of the body, when the whole decreases again to the tail ; the tail takes a new direction, but it soon varies its new course, it blends again with the other parts, and the line is perpetually changing, above, below, upon every side. In this description I have before me the idea of a dove ; it agrees very well with most of the conditions of beauty. It is smooth and downy; its parts are (to use that expression) melted into one another; you are presented with no sudden protu berance through the whole, and yet the whole is con tinually changing. Observe that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps the most beautiful, about the neck and breasts ; the smoothness, the soft ness, the easy and insensible swell ; the variety of the surface, which is never for the smallest space the same; the deceitful maze through which the un steady eye slides giddily, without knowing where to fix, or whither it is carried. Is not this a demonstra
* Part IV. sect. 23.
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tion of that change of surface, continual, and yet
at any point, which forms one of the great constituents of beauty? It gives me no
hardly perceptible
small pleasure to find that I can strengthen my the ory in this point by the opinion of the very ingenious Mr. Hogarth, whose idea of the line of beauty I take in general to be extremely just. But the idea of variation, without attending so accurately to the man
ner of the variation, has led him to consider angular figures as beautiful; these figures, it is true, vary greatly, yet they vary in a sudden and broken man ner, and I do not find any natural object which is angular, and at the same time beautiful. Indeed, few natural objects are entirely angular. But I think those which approach the most nearly to it are the
? I must add, too, that so far as I could ob serve of nature, though the varied line is that alone in which complete beauty is found, yet there is no particular line which is always found in the most completely beautiful, and which is therefore beautiful in preference to all other lines. At least I never could observe it.
ugliest.
SECTION XVI. nsuoacr.
AN air of robustness and strength is very prejudi
cial to beauty. An appearance of delicacy, and even of fragility, is almost essential to it. Whoever exam ines the vegetable or animal creation will find this observation to be founded in nature. It is not the oak, the ash, or the elm, or any of the robust trees of the forest which we consider as beautiful; they are
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awful and majestic, they inspire a sort of reverence. It is the delicate myrtle, it is the orange, it is the almond, it is the jasmine, it is the vine which we look on as vegetable beauties.
It is the flowery spe cies, so remarkable for its weakness and momentary duration, that gives us the liveliest idea of beauty and elegance. Among animals, the greyhound is more beautiful than the mastiff, and the delicacy of a
jennet, a barb, or an Arabian horse, is much more amiable than the strength and stability of some horses of war or carriage. I need here say little of the fair sex, where I believe the point will be easily allowed me. The beauty of women is considerably owing to their weakness or delicacy, and is even enhanced by their timidity, a quality of mind analogous to it. I would not here be understood to say, that weakness betraying very bad health has any share in beauty; but the ill effect of this is not because it is weakness, but because the ill state of health, which produces such weakness, alters the other conditions of beauty; the parts in such a case collapse, the bright color, the lumen purpureum juventw is gone, and the fine varia tion is lost in wrinkles, sudden breaks, and right lines.
SECTION BEAUTY IN OOLOR.
As to the colors usually found in beautiful bodies, it may be somewhat difficult to ascertain them, be cause, in the several parts 'of nature, there is an infi nite variety. However, even in this variety, we may mark out something on which to settle. First, the colors of beautiful bodies must not be dusky O1
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muddy, but clean and fair. Secondly, they must not be of the strongest kind. Those which seem most appropriated to beauty, are the milder of every sort; light greens; soft blues; weak whites ; pink reds; and violets. Thirdly, if the colors be strong and vivid, they are always diversified, and the object is never of one strong color; there are almost always
such a number of them (as in variegated flowers) that the strength and glare of each is considerably abated. In a fine complexion there is not only some variety in the coloring, but the colors: neither the red nor the white are strong and glaring. Besides, they are mixed in such a manner, and with such gra dations, that it is impossible to fix the bounds. On the same principle it is that the dubious color in the necks and tails of peacocks, and about the heads of drakes, is so very agreeable. In reality, the beauty both of shape and coloring are as nearly related as we can well suppose it possible for things of such dif ferent natures to be.
SECTION XVIII. RECAPITULATION.
ON the whole, the qualities of beauty, as they are merely sensible qualities, are the following: First, to be comparatively small. Secondly, to be smooth. Thirdly, to have a variety in the direction of the parts; but, fourthly, to have those parts not angular, but melted, as it were, into each other. Fifthly, to be of a delicate frame, without any remarkable ap pearance of strength. Sixthly, to have its colors clear and bright, but not very strong and glaring.
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Seventhly, or if it should have any glaring color, to have it diversified with others. These are, I believe, the properties on which beauty depends; properties that operate by nature, and are less liable to be al tered by caprice, or confounded by a diversity of tastes, than any other.
SEC'1'ION XIX. THE rnrsioenomr.
THE physiognomy has a considerable share in beauty, especially in that of our own species. The manners
a certain determination to the countenance; which, being observed to correspond pretty regularly with them, is capable of joining the effect of certain agreeable qualities of the mind to those of the body. So that to form a finished human beauty, and to give it its full influence, the. face must be expressive of such gentle and amiable qualities, as correspond with the softness, smoothness, and delicacy of the outward form.
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SECTION xx. THE EYE
I HAVE hitherto purposely omitted to speak of the eye, which has so great a share in the beauty of the animal creation, as it did not fall so easily under the foregoing heads, though in fact it is reducible to the same principles. I think, then, that the beauty of the eye consists, first, in its clearness; what colored eye shall please most, depends a good deal on particu lar fancies; but none are pleased with an eye whose
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water (to use that term) is dull and muddy? " We are pleased with the eye in this view, on the principle upon which we like diamonds, clear water, glass, and such like transparent substances. Secondly, the mo tion of the eye contributes to its beauty, by contin
ually shifting its direction; but a slow and languid motion is more beautiful than a brisk one; the latter is enlivening; the former lovely. Thirdly, with re gard to the union of the eye with the neighboring parts, it is to hold the same rule that is given of other beautiful ones; it is not to make a strong deviation
from the line of the neighboring parts; nor to verge into any exact geometrical figure. Besides all this, the eye affects, as it is expressive of some qualities of the mind, and its principal power generally arises from this ; so that what we have just said of the phys
? iognomy is applicable here.
_
SECTION XXI. U,sLInEss.
IT may perhaps appear like a sort of repetition of what we have before said, to insist here upon the na ture of ugliness; as I imagine it to be in all respects the opposite to those qualities which we have laid down for the constituents of beauty. But though ugliness be the opposite to beauty, it is not the oppo site to proportion and fitness. For it is possible that a thing may be very ugly with any proportions, and with a perfect fitness to any uses. Ugliness I ima gine likewise to be consistent enough with an idea of the sublime. But I would by no means insinuate
* Part IV. sect. 25.
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that ugliness of itself is a sublime idea, unless united with such qualities as excite a strong terror.
SECTION XXII. GRACE.
GBAoEFULNEss is an idea not very different from beauty; it consists in much the same things. Grace fulness is an idea belonging to posture and motion. In both these, to be graceful, it is requisite that there be no appearance of difficulty ; there is required a small inflection of the body ; and a composure of the parts in such a manner, as not to incumber each other, not to appear divided by sharp and sudden angles. In this case, this roundness, this delicacy of attitude and motion, it is that all the magic of grace consists, and what is called its je ne spat' quoi ; as will be obvious to any observer, who considers attentively the Venus de Medicis, the Antinous or any statue generally allowed to be graceful in a high degree.
SECTION XXIII. ELEGANCE AND SPECIOUSNESS.
WHEN any body is composed of parts smooth and polished, without pressing upon each other, without
? or confusion, and at the same time affecting some regular shape, I call it ele gant. It is closely allied to the beautiful, differing
from it only in this regularity ; which, however, as it makes a very material difference in the affection pro duced, may very well constitute another species. Un
showing any ruggedness
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der this head I rank those delicate and regular works of art, that imitate no determinate object in nature, as elegant buildings, and pieces of furniture. When any object partakes of the above-mentioned qualities, or of those of beautiful bodies, and is withal of great dimensions, it is full as remote from the idea of mere
I call it
SECTION XXIV. THE BEAUTIFUL m FEELING.
THE foregoing description of beauty, so far as it is taken in by the eye, may be greatly illustrated by de scribing the nature of objects, which produce a similar effect through the touch. This I call the beautiful in
It corresponds wonderfully with what causes the same species of pleasure to the sight. There is a chain in all our sensations ; they are all but different sorts of feelings calculated to be affected by various sorts of objects, but all to be affected after the same manner. All bodies that are pleasant to the touch, are so by the slightness of the resistance they make. Re sistance is either to motion along the surface, or to the pressure of the parts on one another: if the former be slight,we call the body smooth; if the latter, soft. The chief pleasure we receive by feeling, is in the one or the other of these qualities ; and if there be a com bination of both, our pleasure is greatly increased. This is so plain, that it is rather more fit to illustrate other things, than to be illustrated itself by an example. The next source of pleasure in this sense, as in every other, is the continually presenting somewhat new; and we find that bodies which continually vary their
? feeling.
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surface, are much the most pleasant or beautiful to the feeling, as any one that pleases may experience. The third property in such objects that though the sur face continually varies its direction, never varies suddenly. The application of anything sudden, even though the impression itself have little or nothing violence, disagreeable. The quick application finger little warmer or colder than usual, without no tice, makes us start slight tap on the shoulder, not expected, has the same effect. Hence that angu lar bodies, bodies that suddenly vary the direction the outline, afford so little pleasure to the feeling. Every such change sort of climbing or falling in miniature so that squares, triangles, and other angu lar figures are neither beautiful to the sight nor feeling. Whoever compares his state of mind, on feeling soft,
? smooth,variated, unangular bodies, with that in which he finds himself, on the view of beautiful object, will perceive very striking analogy in the effects of both; and which may go
good way towards discovering Feeling and sight, in this re
their common cause.
spect, differ in but
the pleasure of softness, which not primarily aII ob
few points. The touch takes in
ject of sight; the sight, on the other hand, compre hends color, which can hardly be made perceptible to the touch: the touch, again, has the advantage in new idea of pleasure resulting from moderate degree of warmth; but the eye triumphs in the infinite extent and multiplicity of its objects. But there such similitude in the pleasures of these senses, that am apt to fancy, were possible that one might discern color by feeling (as said some blind men have done) that the same colors, and the same disposition of coloring, which are found beautiful to the sight,
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would be found likewise most grateful to the touch. But, setting aside conjectures, let us pass to the other
sense; of hearing.
SECTION XXV. THE BEAUTIFUL IN sounns.
'
IN this sense we find an equal aptitude to be af fected in a soft and delicate manner; and how far sweet or beautiful sounds agree with our descriptions_ of beauty in other senses, the experience of every one must decide. Milton has described this species of music in one of his juvenile poems. * I need not say that Milton was perfectly well versed in that art ; and that no man had a finer ear, with a happier mann-er of expressing the affections of one sense by metaphors taken from another. The description is as follows:
? '
" And ever against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs ;
In notes with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out;
With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, The melting voice through mazes running; Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony. "
Let us parallel this with the softness, the winding surface, the unbroken continuance, the easy grada tion of the beautiful in other things; and all the di versities of the several senses, with all their several affections, will rather help to throw lights from one another to finish one clear, consistent idea of the whole, than to obscure it by their intricacy and vari etv.
i L' Allegro.
'
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To the above-mentioned description I shall add one or two remarks. The first is; that the beautiful in music will not bear that loudness and strength of sounds, which may be used to raise other passions; nor notes which are shrill, or harsh, or deep; it agrees best with such as are clear, even, smooth, and weak. The second is; that great variety, and quick transitions from one measure or tone to an
other, are contrary to the genius of the beautiful in music. Such* transitions often excite mirth, or other sudden or tumultuous passions; but not that sinking, that melting, that languor, which is the characteristical effect of the beautiful as it regards every sense. The passion excited by beauty is in fact nearer to a species of melancholy, than to jollity and mirth. I do not here mean to confine music to any one species of notes, or tones, neither is it an art in which I can say I have any great skill. My sole design in this remark is to settle a consistent idea of
The infinite variety of the affections of the soul will suggest to a good head, and skilful ear, a variety of such sounds as are fitted to raise them. It can be no prejudice to this, to clear and distinguish some few particulars that belong to the same class, and are consistent with each other, from the immense crowd of different and sometimes contradictory ideas, that rank vulgarly under the standard of beauty. And of these it is my intention to mark such only of the leading points as show the conformity of the sense of hearing with all the other senses, in the arti cle of their pleasures.
* " I ne'er am merry, when I hear sweet music. " SHAxEsPEARE.
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Tnis general agreement of the senses is yet more evident on minutely considering those of taste and smell. We metaphorically apply the idea of sweet ness to sights and sounds; but as the qualities of bodies by which they are fitted to excite either pleas ure or pain in these senses are not so obvious as they are in the others, we shall refer an explanation of their analogy, which is a very close one, to that part wherein we come to consider the common efficient cause of beauty, as it regards all the senses. _I do
not think anything better fitted to establish a clear and settled idea of visual beauty than this way of examining the similar pleasures of other senses ; for one part is sometimes clear in one of the senses that is more obscure in another; and where there is a clear concurrence of all, we may with more certainty speak of any one of them. By this means, they bear witness to each other; nature as were, scruti nized; and we report nothing of her but what we receive from her own information.
SECTION XXVII.
THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL COMPARED.
ON closing this general view of beauty, naturally occurs that we should compare with the sublime and in this comparison there appears remarkable contrast. For sublime objects are vast in their di mensions, beautiful ones comparatively small; beauty
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SECTION XXVI. TASTE AND sIuE1. L.
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should be smooth and polished; the great, rugged and negligent: beauty should shun the right line, yet deviate from it insensibly; the great in many cases loves the right line; and when it deviates, it often makes a strong deviation: beauty should not be obscure ; the great ought to be dark and gloomy: beauty should be light and delicate ; the great ought to be solid, and even massive. They are indeed ideas of a very different nature, one being founded on pain, the other on pleasure; and, however they may vary afterwards from the direct nature of their causes, yet these causes keep up an eternal distinction between them, a distinction never to be forgotten by any whose business it is to affect the passions. In the infinite variety of natural combinations, we must expect "to find the qualities of things the most re mote imaginable from each other united in the same object. We must expect also to find combina tions of the same kind in the works of art. But when we consider the power of an object upon our
we must know that when anything is in tended to affect the mind by the force of some pre dominant property, the affection produced is like to be the more uniform and perfect, if all the other properties or qualities of the object be of the same nature, and tending to the same design as the prin cipal.
" If black and white blend, soften, and unite
A thousand ways, are there no black and white '5"
If the qualities of the sublime and beautiful are some times found united, does this prove that they are the same; does it prove that they are any way allied; does it prove even that they are not opposite and contradictory? Black and white may soften, may
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blend; but they are not therefore the same. Nor, when they are so softened and blended with each other, or with different colors, is the power of black as black, or of white as white, so strong as when each stands uniform and distinguished.
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PART IV.
SECTION I.
__'1
OF THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.
WHEN I say, I intend to inquire into the efficient cause of sublimity and beauty, I would not be under stood to say, that I can come to the ultimate cause. I do not pretend that I shall ever be able to explain why certain affections of the body produce such a dis tinct emotion of mind, and no other ; or why the body is at all affected by the mind, or the mind by the body. A little thought will show this to be impossible. But
I conceive, if we can discover what affections of the mind produce certain emotions of the body; and what distinct feelings and qualities of body shall produce certain determinate passions in the mind, and no others, I fancy a great deal will be done; something not unuseful towards a distinct knowledge of our pas sions, so far at least as we have them at present under our consideration. This is all, I believe, we can do. If we could advance a step farther, difficulties would still remain, as we should be still equally distant from the first cause. When Newton first discovered the property of attraction, and settled its laws, he found it served very well to explain several of the most remarkable phenomena in nature; but yet, with ref erence to the general system of things, he could con sider attraction but as an effect, whose cause at that time he did not attempt to trace. But when he af terwards began to account for it by a subtle elastic
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ether, this great man (if in so great a man it be not impious to discover anything like a blemish) seemed to have quitted his usual cautious manner of philoso phizing ; since, perhaps, allowing all that has been advanced on this subject to be sufficiently proved, I think it leaves us with as many difficulties as it found us. That great chain of causes, which, linking one to another, even to the throne of God himself, can
never be unravelled by any industry of ours. When we go but one step beyond the immediate sensible qualities of things, we go out of our depth. All we do after is but a faint struggle, that shows we are in an element which does not belong to us. So that when I speak of cause, and efficient cause, I only mean certain affections of the mind, that cause cer tain changes in the body; or certain powers and properties in bodies, that work a change in the mind. As, if I were to explain the motion of a body falling to the ground, I would say it was caused by gravity; and I would endeavor to show after what manner this power operated, without attempting to show why it operated in this manner: or, if I were to explain
the effects of bodies striking one another by the com mon laws of percussion, I should not endeavor to ex plain how motion itself is communicated.
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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. Beauty is a thing much too affecting not to depend upon some positive qualities. And since it is no creature of our reason, since it strikes us without any reference to use, and even where no use at all can be discerned, since the order and method of nature is generally very different from our measures and proportions, we must conclude that beauty for the greater part, some quality in bodies acting mechanically upon the hu
man mind by the intervention of the senses. We ought, therefore, to consider attentively in what man ner those sensible qualities are disposed, in such things as by experience we find beautiful, or which excite in us the passion of love, or some correspondent affec tion.
SE CTION XIII. BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS SMALL.
THE most obvious point that presents itself to us in examining any object its extent or quantity. And what degree of extent prevails in bodies that are held beautiful, may be gathered from the usual manner of expression concerning it. am told that, in most
languages, the objects of love are spoken of under dirninutive epithets. It so in all the languages of which have any knowledge. In Greek the mu and other diminutive terms are almost always the terms
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of affection and tenderness. These diminutives were commonly added by the Greeks to the names of per sons with whom they conversed on terms of friend ship and familiarity. Though the Romans were a people of less quick and delicate feelings, yet they naturally slid into the lessening termination upon the same occasions. Anciently, in the English language, the diminishing ling was added to the names of per sons and things that were the objects of love. Some we retain still, as darling (or little dear), and a few others. But to this day, in ordinary conversation, it is usual to add the endearing name of little to every thing we love ; the French and Italians make use of these affectionate diminutives even more than we. In the animal creation, out of our own species, it is the small we are inclined to be fond of; little birds, and some of the smaller kinds of beasts. A great beautiful thing is a manner of expression scarcely ever used; but that of a great ugly thing is very common. There is a wide difference between admi ration and love. The sublime, which is the cause of the former, always dwells on great objects, and terri blc; the latter on small ones, and pleasing ; we sub mit to what we admire, but we love what submits to us; in one case we are forced, in the other we are flattered, into compliance. In short, the ideas of the sublime and the beautiful stand on fo1mdations so different, that it is hard, I had almost said impossible, to think of reconciling them in the same subject, without considerably lessening the effect of the one or the other upon the passions. So that, attending to their quantity, beautiful objects are comparatively small.
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SECTION XIV. suoornnnss.
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THE next property constantly observable in such objects is smoothness ; * a quality so essential to beau ty, that I do not now recollect anything beautiful that is not smooth. In trees and flowers, smooth leaves are beautiful; smooth slopes of earth in gar dens; smooth streams in the landscape; smooth coats of birds and beasts in animal beauties; in
fine women, smooth skins; and in several sorts of ornamental furniture, smooth and polished surfaces. A very considerable part of the effect of beauty is owing to this quality ; indeed the most considerable. For, take any beautiful object, and give it a broken and rugged surface; and, however well formed it may be in other respects, it pleases no longer. Whereas, let it want ever so many of the other constituents, if it wants not this, it becomes more pleasing than almost all the others without it. This seems to me so evident, that I am a good deal sur prised that none who have handled the subject have
made any mention of the quality of smoothness in the enumeration of those that go to the forming of beauty. For, indeed, any ruggedness, any sudden projection, any sharp angle, is in the highest degree contrary to that idea
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SECTION XV. GRAD UAL VARIATION.
BUT as perfectly beautiful bodies are not composed of angular parts, so their parts never continue long in the same right line. * They vary their direction every moment, and they change under the eye by a deviation continually carrying on, but for whose be ginning or end you will find it difficult to ascertain a point. The view of a beautiful bird will illustrate this observation. Here we see the head increasing insensibly to the middle, from whence it lessens grad ually until it mixes with the neck; the neck loses itself in a larger swell, which continues to the middle of the body, when the whole decreases again to the tail ; the tail takes a new direction, but it soon varies its new course, it blends again with the other parts, and the line is perpetually changing, above, below, upon every side. In this description I have before me the idea of a dove ; it agrees very well with most of the conditions of beauty. It is smooth and downy; its parts are (to use that expression) melted into one another; you are presented with no sudden protu berance through the whole, and yet the whole is con tinually changing. Observe that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps the most beautiful, about the neck and breasts ; the smoothness, the soft ness, the easy and insensible swell ; the variety of the surface, which is never for the smallest space the same; the deceitful maze through which the un steady eye slides giddily, without knowing where to fix, or whither it is carried. Is not this a demonstra
* Part IV. sect. 23.
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tion of that change of surface, continual, and yet
at any point, which forms one of the great constituents of beauty? It gives me no
hardly perceptible
small pleasure to find that I can strengthen my the ory in this point by the opinion of the very ingenious Mr. Hogarth, whose idea of the line of beauty I take in general to be extremely just. But the idea of variation, without attending so accurately to the man
ner of the variation, has led him to consider angular figures as beautiful; these figures, it is true, vary greatly, yet they vary in a sudden and broken man ner, and I do not find any natural object which is angular, and at the same time beautiful. Indeed, few natural objects are entirely angular. But I think those which approach the most nearly to it are the
? I must add, too, that so far as I could ob serve of nature, though the varied line is that alone in which complete beauty is found, yet there is no particular line which is always found in the most completely beautiful, and which is therefore beautiful in preference to all other lines. At least I never could observe it.
ugliest.
SECTION XVI. nsuoacr.
AN air of robustness and strength is very prejudi
cial to beauty. An appearance of delicacy, and even of fragility, is almost essential to it. Whoever exam ines the vegetable or animal creation will find this observation to be founded in nature. It is not the oak, the ash, or the elm, or any of the robust trees of the forest which we consider as beautiful; they are
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awful and majestic, they inspire a sort of reverence. It is the delicate myrtle, it is the orange, it is the almond, it is the jasmine, it is the vine which we look on as vegetable beauties.
It is the flowery spe cies, so remarkable for its weakness and momentary duration, that gives us the liveliest idea of beauty and elegance. Among animals, the greyhound is more beautiful than the mastiff, and the delicacy of a
jennet, a barb, or an Arabian horse, is much more amiable than the strength and stability of some horses of war or carriage. I need here say little of the fair sex, where I believe the point will be easily allowed me. The beauty of women is considerably owing to their weakness or delicacy, and is even enhanced by their timidity, a quality of mind analogous to it. I would not here be understood to say, that weakness betraying very bad health has any share in beauty; but the ill effect of this is not because it is weakness, but because the ill state of health, which produces such weakness, alters the other conditions of beauty; the parts in such a case collapse, the bright color, the lumen purpureum juventw is gone, and the fine varia tion is lost in wrinkles, sudden breaks, and right lines.
SECTION BEAUTY IN OOLOR.
As to the colors usually found in beautiful bodies, it may be somewhat difficult to ascertain them, be cause, in the several parts 'of nature, there is an infi nite variety. However, even in this variety, we may mark out something on which to settle. First, the colors of beautiful bodies must not be dusky O1
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muddy, but clean and fair. Secondly, they must not be of the strongest kind. Those which seem most appropriated to beauty, are the milder of every sort; light greens; soft blues; weak whites ; pink reds; and violets. Thirdly, if the colors be strong and vivid, they are always diversified, and the object is never of one strong color; there are almost always
such a number of them (as in variegated flowers) that the strength and glare of each is considerably abated. In a fine complexion there is not only some variety in the coloring, but the colors: neither the red nor the white are strong and glaring. Besides, they are mixed in such a manner, and with such gra dations, that it is impossible to fix the bounds. On the same principle it is that the dubious color in the necks and tails of peacocks, and about the heads of drakes, is so very agreeable. In reality, the beauty both of shape and coloring are as nearly related as we can well suppose it possible for things of such dif ferent natures to be.
SECTION XVIII. RECAPITULATION.
ON the whole, the qualities of beauty, as they are merely sensible qualities, are the following: First, to be comparatively small. Secondly, to be smooth. Thirdly, to have a variety in the direction of the parts; but, fourthly, to have those parts not angular, but melted, as it were, into each other. Fifthly, to be of a delicate frame, without any remarkable ap pearance of strength. Sixthly, to have its colors clear and bright, but not very strong and glaring.
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Seventhly, or if it should have any glaring color, to have it diversified with others. These are, I believe, the properties on which beauty depends; properties that operate by nature, and are less liable to be al tered by caprice, or confounded by a diversity of tastes, than any other.
SEC'1'ION XIX. THE rnrsioenomr.
THE physiognomy has a considerable share in beauty, especially in that of our own species. The manners
a certain determination to the countenance; which, being observed to correspond pretty regularly with them, is capable of joining the effect of certain agreeable qualities of the mind to those of the body. So that to form a finished human beauty, and to give it its full influence, the. face must be expressive of such gentle and amiable qualities, as correspond with the softness, smoothness, and delicacy of the outward form.
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SECTION xx. THE EYE
I HAVE hitherto purposely omitted to speak of the eye, which has so great a share in the beauty of the animal creation, as it did not fall so easily under the foregoing heads, though in fact it is reducible to the same principles. I think, then, that the beauty of the eye consists, first, in its clearness; what colored eye shall please most, depends a good deal on particu lar fancies; but none are pleased with an eye whose
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water (to use that term) is dull and muddy? " We are pleased with the eye in this view, on the principle upon which we like diamonds, clear water, glass, and such like transparent substances. Secondly, the mo tion of the eye contributes to its beauty, by contin
ually shifting its direction; but a slow and languid motion is more beautiful than a brisk one; the latter is enlivening; the former lovely. Thirdly, with re gard to the union of the eye with the neighboring parts, it is to hold the same rule that is given of other beautiful ones; it is not to make a strong deviation
from the line of the neighboring parts; nor to verge into any exact geometrical figure. Besides all this, the eye affects, as it is expressive of some qualities of the mind, and its principal power generally arises from this ; so that what we have just said of the phys
? iognomy is applicable here.
_
SECTION XXI. U,sLInEss.
IT may perhaps appear like a sort of repetition of what we have before said, to insist here upon the na ture of ugliness; as I imagine it to be in all respects the opposite to those qualities which we have laid down for the constituents of beauty. But though ugliness be the opposite to beauty, it is not the oppo site to proportion and fitness. For it is possible that a thing may be very ugly with any proportions, and with a perfect fitness to any uses. Ugliness I ima gine likewise to be consistent enough with an idea of the sublime. But I would by no means insinuate
* Part IV. sect. 25.
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that ugliness of itself is a sublime idea, unless united with such qualities as excite a strong terror.
SECTION XXII. GRACE.
GBAoEFULNEss is an idea not very different from beauty; it consists in much the same things. Grace fulness is an idea belonging to posture and motion. In both these, to be graceful, it is requisite that there be no appearance of difficulty ; there is required a small inflection of the body ; and a composure of the parts in such a manner, as not to incumber each other, not to appear divided by sharp and sudden angles. In this case, this roundness, this delicacy of attitude and motion, it is that all the magic of grace consists, and what is called its je ne spat' quoi ; as will be obvious to any observer, who considers attentively the Venus de Medicis, the Antinous or any statue generally allowed to be graceful in a high degree.
SECTION XXIII. ELEGANCE AND SPECIOUSNESS.
WHEN any body is composed of parts smooth and polished, without pressing upon each other, without
? or confusion, and at the same time affecting some regular shape, I call it ele gant. It is closely allied to the beautiful, differing
from it only in this regularity ; which, however, as it makes a very material difference in the affection pro duced, may very well constitute another species. Un
showing any ruggedness
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der this head I rank those delicate and regular works of art, that imitate no determinate object in nature, as elegant buildings, and pieces of furniture. When any object partakes of the above-mentioned qualities, or of those of beautiful bodies, and is withal of great dimensions, it is full as remote from the idea of mere
I call it
SECTION XXIV. THE BEAUTIFUL m FEELING.
THE foregoing description of beauty, so far as it is taken in by the eye, may be greatly illustrated by de scribing the nature of objects, which produce a similar effect through the touch. This I call the beautiful in
It corresponds wonderfully with what causes the same species of pleasure to the sight. There is a chain in all our sensations ; they are all but different sorts of feelings calculated to be affected by various sorts of objects, but all to be affected after the same manner. All bodies that are pleasant to the touch, are so by the slightness of the resistance they make. Re sistance is either to motion along the surface, or to the pressure of the parts on one another: if the former be slight,we call the body smooth; if the latter, soft. The chief pleasure we receive by feeling, is in the one or the other of these qualities ; and if there be a com bination of both, our pleasure is greatly increased. This is so plain, that it is rather more fit to illustrate other things, than to be illustrated itself by an example. The next source of pleasure in this sense, as in every other, is the continually presenting somewhat new; and we find that bodies which continually vary their
? feeling.
? ? ? 202 ON THE SUBLIME ANI) BEAUTIFUL.
surface, are much the most pleasant or beautiful to the feeling, as any one that pleases may experience. The third property in such objects that though the sur face continually varies its direction, never varies suddenly. The application of anything sudden, even though the impression itself have little or nothing violence, disagreeable. The quick application finger little warmer or colder than usual, without no tice, makes us start slight tap on the shoulder, not expected, has the same effect. Hence that angu lar bodies, bodies that suddenly vary the direction the outline, afford so little pleasure to the feeling. Every such change sort of climbing or falling in miniature so that squares, triangles, and other angu lar figures are neither beautiful to the sight nor feeling. Whoever compares his state of mind, on feeling soft,
? smooth,variated, unangular bodies, with that in which he finds himself, on the view of beautiful object, will perceive very striking analogy in the effects of both; and which may go
good way towards discovering Feeling and sight, in this re
their common cause.
spect, differ in but
the pleasure of softness, which not primarily aII ob
few points. The touch takes in
ject of sight; the sight, on the other hand, compre hends color, which can hardly be made perceptible to the touch: the touch, again, has the advantage in new idea of pleasure resulting from moderate degree of warmth; but the eye triumphs in the infinite extent and multiplicity of its objects. But there such similitude in the pleasures of these senses, that am apt to fancy, were possible that one might discern color by feeling (as said some blind men have done) that the same colors, and the same disposition of coloring, which are found beautiful to the sight,
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? ON THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL. 203
would be found likewise most grateful to the touch. But, setting aside conjectures, let us pass to the other
sense; of hearing.
SECTION XXV. THE BEAUTIFUL IN sounns.
'
IN this sense we find an equal aptitude to be af fected in a soft and delicate manner; and how far sweet or beautiful sounds agree with our descriptions_ of beauty in other senses, the experience of every one must decide. Milton has described this species of music in one of his juvenile poems. * I need not say that Milton was perfectly well versed in that art ; and that no man had a finer ear, with a happier mann-er of expressing the affections of one sense by metaphors taken from another. The description is as follows:
? '
" And ever against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs ;
In notes with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out;
With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, The melting voice through mazes running; Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony. "
Let us parallel this with the softness, the winding surface, the unbroken continuance, the easy grada tion of the beautiful in other things; and all the di versities of the several senses, with all their several affections, will rather help to throw lights from one another to finish one clear, consistent idea of the whole, than to obscure it by their intricacy and vari etv.
i L' Allegro.
'
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l ON THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.
To the above-mentioned description I shall add one or two remarks. The first is; that the beautiful in music will not bear that loudness and strength of sounds, which may be used to raise other passions; nor notes which are shrill, or harsh, or deep; it agrees best with such as are clear, even, smooth, and weak. The second is; that great variety, and quick transitions from one measure or tone to an
other, are contrary to the genius of the beautiful in music. Such* transitions often excite mirth, or other sudden or tumultuous passions; but not that sinking, that melting, that languor, which is the characteristical effect of the beautiful as it regards every sense. The passion excited by beauty is in fact nearer to a species of melancholy, than to jollity and mirth. I do not here mean to confine music to any one species of notes, or tones, neither is it an art in which I can say I have any great skill. My sole design in this remark is to settle a consistent idea of
The infinite variety of the affections of the soul will suggest to a good head, and skilful ear, a variety of such sounds as are fitted to raise them. It can be no prejudice to this, to clear and distinguish some few particulars that belong to the same class, and are consistent with each other, from the immense crowd of different and sometimes contradictory ideas, that rank vulgarly under the standard of beauty. And of these it is my intention to mark such only of the leading points as show the conformity of the sense of hearing with all the other senses, in the arti cle of their pleasures.
* " I ne'er am merry, when I hear sweet music. " SHAxEsPEARE.
1
? beauty.
? ? ? '
Tnis general agreement of the senses is yet more evident on minutely considering those of taste and smell. We metaphorically apply the idea of sweet ness to sights and sounds; but as the qualities of bodies by which they are fitted to excite either pleas ure or pain in these senses are not so obvious as they are in the others, we shall refer an explanation of their analogy, which is a very close one, to that part wherein we come to consider the common efficient cause of beauty, as it regards all the senses. _I do
not think anything better fitted to establish a clear and settled idea of visual beauty than this way of examining the similar pleasures of other senses ; for one part is sometimes clear in one of the senses that is more obscure in another; and where there is a clear concurrence of all, we may with more certainty speak of any one of them. By this means, they bear witness to each other; nature as were, scruti nized; and we report nothing of her but what we receive from her own information.
SECTION XXVII.
THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL COMPARED.
ON closing this general view of beauty, naturally occurs that we should compare with the sublime and in this comparison there appears remarkable contrast. For sublime objects are vast in their di mensions, beautiful ones comparatively small; beauty
on THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL. 205
SECTION XXVI. TASTE AND sIuE1. L.
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is, it
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on THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.
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should be smooth and polished; the great, rugged and negligent: beauty should shun the right line, yet deviate from it insensibly; the great in many cases loves the right line; and when it deviates, it often makes a strong deviation: beauty should not be obscure ; the great ought to be dark and gloomy: beauty should be light and delicate ; the great ought to be solid, and even massive. They are indeed ideas of a very different nature, one being founded on pain, the other on pleasure; and, however they may vary afterwards from the direct nature of their causes, yet these causes keep up an eternal distinction between them, a distinction never to be forgotten by any whose business it is to affect the passions. In the infinite variety of natural combinations, we must expect "to find the qualities of things the most re mote imaginable from each other united in the same object. We must expect also to find combina tions of the same kind in the works of art. But when we consider the power of an object upon our
we must know that when anything is in tended to affect the mind by the force of some pre dominant property, the affection produced is like to be the more uniform and perfect, if all the other properties or qualities of the object be of the same nature, and tending to the same design as the prin cipal.
" If black and white blend, soften, and unite
A thousand ways, are there no black and white '5"
If the qualities of the sublime and beautiful are some times found united, does this prove that they are the same; does it prove that they are any way allied; does it prove even that they are not opposite and contradictory? Black and white may soften, may
? passions,
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blend; but they are not therefore the same. Nor, when they are so softened and blended with each other, or with different colors, is the power of black as black, or of white as white, so strong as when each stands uniform and distinguished.
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ON THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.
PART IV.
SECTION I.
__'1
OF THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.
WHEN I say, I intend to inquire into the efficient cause of sublimity and beauty, I would not be under stood to say, that I can come to the ultimate cause. I do not pretend that I shall ever be able to explain why certain affections of the body produce such a dis tinct emotion of mind, and no other ; or why the body is at all affected by the mind, or the mind by the body. A little thought will show this to be impossible. But
I conceive, if we can discover what affections of the mind produce certain emotions of the body; and what distinct feelings and qualities of body shall produce certain determinate passions in the mind, and no others, I fancy a great deal will be done; something not unuseful towards a distinct knowledge of our pas sions, so far at least as we have them at present under our consideration. This is all, I believe, we can do. If we could advance a step farther, difficulties would still remain, as we should be still equally distant from the first cause. When Newton first discovered the property of attraction, and settled its laws, he found it served very well to explain several of the most remarkable phenomena in nature; but yet, with ref erence to the general system of things, he could con sider attraction but as an effect, whose cause at that time he did not attempt to trace. But when he af terwards began to account for it by a subtle elastic
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ether, this great man (if in so great a man it be not impious to discover anything like a blemish) seemed to have quitted his usual cautious manner of philoso phizing ; since, perhaps, allowing all that has been advanced on this subject to be sufficiently proved, I think it leaves us with as many difficulties as it found us. That great chain of causes, which, linking one to another, even to the throne of God himself, can
never be unravelled by any industry of ours. When we go but one step beyond the immediate sensible qualities of things, we go out of our depth. All we do after is but a faint struggle, that shows we are in an element which does not belong to us. So that when I speak of cause, and efficient cause, I only mean certain affections of the mind, that cause cer tain changes in the body; or certain powers and properties in bodies, that work a change in the mind. As, if I were to explain the motion of a body falling to the ground, I would say it was caused by gravity; and I would endeavor to show after what manner this power operated, without attempting to show why it operated in this manner: or, if I were to explain
the effects of bodies striking one another by the com mon laws of percussion, I should not endeavor to ex plain how motion itself is communicated.
