On the Beautiful im the Grecian Siatues. 409 
because not answering to that medium standard 
which every one has erected in his own mind» 
and which he has collected from the exhibition 
of his species. There is therefore in the imagi~ 
nation of every one a standard, collected from 
observation, but insensibly and without design, 
to which he refers every form, that attracts his 
attention, and agreeably to which he pronounces 
that it is beautiful or otherwise, and in what degree 
it pleases or offends. it is an ideal figure, which 
the eye of the mind can contemplate, and does 
contemplate and does refer to, though the rational 
mind cannot describe this figure; because the 
figure has been imperceptibly formed, corrected, 
improved through life, in which the senses, and 
not reason, have been altogether employed. The 
ultimate figure, as a picture of the imagination, 
is the abstract of all the impressions which have 
been received from a multitude of original forms 
preserving what is characteristic of all, and 
rejecting whatever is incidental, excessive or de- 
fective, superinduced by violence or art, or in 
any respect offending against the general character 
of the form. 
This perhaps is the secret foundation of what 
we call taste, or the perception of the beautiful, 
whether as referred to the human or to any other 
form whatever. I do not say, that this is the 
