230 BEAUTY IN NATURE. 



of the rose and the lily, that we may contemplate with 

 the more pleasure its expressions of innocence and affec- 

 tion, and feel the more sympathy towards it. "We follow 

 the example of nature when we decorate the objects we 

 love. Hence the poet, when describing a lovely heroine, 

 paints her with the qualities of beauty, that the reader's 

 interest may be more devoutly fixed upon her. 



But the beauty of the human form and face is quite 

 inexplicable ; all our ideas of love, of delicacy, modesty, 

 innocence, wit, vivacity, of everything it is pleasant to 

 think of in connection with the loveliness of the sex, are 

 awakened by the sight of a beautiful female face. It is 

 impossible to say how much of this beauty consists in its 

 power to excite agreeable physical sensations, and how 

 much in its power to awaken romantic sentiments or 

 affections by its expression of certain amiable traits of 

 character. Yet it must be confessed that the mere beauty 

 of color and outline in the features of the most beautiful 

 face is but a small part of its charms. - 



A sense of utility and convenience is admitted by all 

 writers to increase our estimation of a beautiful object. 

 But this abstract consideration of utility produces only a 

 very feeble emotion. A man seldom falls in love with 

 a plain woman by hearing of her superior virtues as a 

 housekeeper ; but he might love her, if she was proved to 

 possess qualities that would immediately gratify his am- 

 bition. So far as utility is concerned, the emotion of 

 beauty is excited rather by the evident fitness of an 

 object for conferring some passionate gratification, than 

 by its fitness merely for serving our convenience. The 

 sense of utility, however, enters considerably into our 

 ideas of the beauty of landscape ; and it cannot be denied 

 that when we see an artificial decoration upon any grounds, 

 the knowledge of its usefulness for a valuable purpose 

 increases our feeling of its beauty. 



