



BKAfTV. 



BEAUTY. 



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al animal indulgence, 



till- __-__, 



ana \ha most' nearly allied to the enjoyments of the intellect* The 

 unconsciousness we have in both thvee eases of any local impression 

 on our bodily frame may perhaps help to explain the peculiar facility 

 with which their perceptions blend thenuelves with other pleasures of 

 a rank still nobler and more refined." (Ibid. c. vi.) 



But although the epithet leaxlifol is never applied to the perceptions 

 of any sense except those of seeing and hearing, yet it is extended to 

 the results of some intellectual processes, as when we speak of a 

 beautiful chain of reasoning, a beautiful poem, a beautiful metaphor, a 

 beautiful language, a beautiful machine, a beautiful contrivance of 

 nature, tx. When the word Ixauty is thus employed, it is merely a 

 vague term of praise, and is nearly synoymous with admirable. " The 

 word beauty (as Mr. Knight remarks) is often applied to a syllogism 

 or a problem ; but then it means clearness, point, or precision or 

 vtairrrr tilt be At characteristic excellence of that to K-AiVA it is , 

 (' In.|uiry into the Principles of Taste,' p. 258.) As the effect of 

 beauty in visible objects is to produce admiration, all beautiful objects 

 are also admirable ; and thence it was an easy step to apply the epithet 

 beautiful to things which produced admiration, although this feeling 

 did not arise from the cause which produces it in the contemplation of 

 visible objects. Similar transfers may be observed in other words : 

 thus the word laic properly signifies a general command given by one 

 intelligent being to another ; but because the efect of such a command 

 U to produce an uniformity of conduct in the persons to whom it is 

 addressed, the term law has been extended to those operations of 

 nature in which an uniformity of phenomena prevails, although the 

 cause of the uniformity is altogether different. [ANALOGY.] 



In the following remarks on the nature and causes of beauty, we 

 shall limit ourselves to the original and appropriate meaning of the 

 word in question, namely, the beauty of risible objects. 



The beauty of visible objects consists of two parts, namely, the 

 beauty of colour and the beauty of form, which, although closely con- 

 nected with each other, arise from different sources, and from sources 

 of a different character, inasmuch as the one appears to be, in most 

 cases, a simple emotion, and therefore an ultimate fact, of which no 

 explanation can be given, while the other is a pleasure derived from 

 association, which is susceptible of analysis. 



There cannot, in our opinion, be any doubt that certain colours, 

 and certain arrangements of colours, ore naturally, and in themselves, 

 pleasing to the eye. Children are observed to take delight in brilliant 

 colours before they have learnt to connect any agreeable ideas with 

 them. The analogy of the other senses would, a priori, lead to this 

 conclusion : for as there are certain odours, tastes, and sounds, which 

 are naturally pleasing or displeasing to the nose, the tongue, and the 

 ear, so it may be presumed that there are certain colours, and combi- 

 nations of colours, which are naturally pleasing or displeasing to the 

 eye. Although, as will be presently shown, one branch of beauty is 

 entirely founded on association, the feeling of beauty cannot be derived 

 from association alone. " It is the province of association (as Mr. 

 Stewart has justly observed) to impart to one thing the agreeable or 

 disagreeable effect of another ; but association can never account for 

 the origin of a class of pleasures different in kind from all the others 

 we know. If there was nothing originally and intrinsically pleasing or 

 beautiful, the associating principle would have no materials on which 

 it could operate." (' Essay,' i. c. 6.) 



This origin of the feeling of beauty appears to us to consist in the 

 pleasure derived from the contemplation of colours, a pleasure, in most 

 cases, purely sensual and organic, and as incapable of explanation as 

 the pleasure derived to the mind through the medium of the ear from 

 the harmony of sweet sounds. An instance of purely sensual beauty 

 is afforded by precious stones, which all ages and nations, ancient and 

 modern, barbarous and uncivilised, have agreed in admiring. That 



arising from the fitness of the form for its end, requires thai the colour 

 of the object should be such as shall not interfere with the effect pro- 

 duced by the mutual relations of its parts. 



Thcrv is, however, another condition for the existence of beauty of 

 form, beyond the perception of its fitness to its purpose, the state- 

 ment of which will complete our definition of this kind of beauty. If, 

 then, those colours are either absent or present, whose absence or 

 presence is essential to the perception of beauty in any object, simply 

 as an organic impression, the beauty of form in any object mainly 

 depends on our sense of its adaptation to the end for which 

 destined, provided that this end is agreeable to tontemphttr, ami i 

 that the mind ilicclli on it mth pleasure. Hence the form of the ante- 

 lope, the swan, or the tiger, is considered beautiful, because we take a 

 satisfaction in contemplating the movements which those forms are 

 admirably fitted to produce ; but the form of the pig's snout is not 

 considered beautiful, because the mind flies with disgust from the 

 filthy purposes for which that animal employs it So likewise we call 

 the outward form of the arms, legs, neck, &c., of the human figure 

 beautiful, when their form is suited to their respective uses ; but no 

 one (except perhaps an anatomist) finds any beauty in the form of the 

 human stomach, or intestines, or liver, though equally well fittc,! i..r 

 their several ends, because they suggest the notion of processes which 

 men do not willingly contemplate. (Burke's ' Sublime and Beautiful,' 

 part iii. a. 6 8.) 



Perhaps, in strictness, it might be thought that the simple emotion 

 derived from the colour of objects U alone properly entitled to be con- 

 sidered as the feeling of beauty ; and that the beauty of form in any 

 object, derived from a sense of its fitness to its end, is only a pleasing 

 association, allied indeed to the feeling of beauty by a close analogy, 

 but still distinct from it. This question (which in fact is merely 

 verbal) we have not sufficient space to discuss at length ; nevertheless 

 it appears to us that all ages and nations have agreed in speak 

 the beauty of form as well as of colour, and that we are justified in < >n 

 sidering as included in the feeling of beauty those emotions which are 

 susceptible of analysis, as well as those which are not 



Having made these general remarks, we will proceed to explain, 

 with somewhat more detail, the application of -the principles last 

 stated. 



The beauty of form, arising from a perception of utility or of fitness 

 of certain means to produce a certain end, may be observed both in 

 animate and inanimate objects in the works both of nature and of art. 

 In animate beings we are gratified by the recognition that a certain 

 form is suited to the wants of the animal, and that certain desired 

 effects or motions are produced with ease and little effort. It is on 

 this principle that we admire the beauty of the human form, every 

 part of which is perfectly fitted for its intended purposes, and that we 

 admire the motions of a horse, a stag, a greyhound, or a cat, as being 

 made without any apparent trouble or difficulty, and as the result of a 

 power which accomplishes its end with the least possible expense of 

 exertion. The same feeling which makes us take pleasure in move- 

 ments and forms which indicate ease, leads us likewise to dislike those 

 which express constraint and toil ; hence, both in nature and art, all 

 forced and laboured attitudes, all tension of muscle, all visible and 

 overstrained efforts to produce a certain effect, or to express a certain 

 feeling (which is the source of affectation in art), are offensive to the 

 taste. And thus all angular and jerking action, and all heavy dragging 

 of the limbs, ore devoid of beauty, as being signs of violent and toil- 

 some effort, and as equally removed, though in contrary ways, from 

 that equable, flowing, and easy motion in which grace consists. Nor 

 U it only in animals that the marks of ease are. agreeable to us ; the 

 varied, flowing, and irregular outline which characterises the free 

 growth of plants, is beautiful on the same principle. It was the per- 



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their beauty does not arise from any collateral associations of their 

 durability and hardness is evident from this, that in the unpolished 

 state, when they are equally hard and durable, they excite no admira- 

 The precious metals also are beautiful for the same reason ; 

 though they have other qualities besides their beauty which give them 

 exchangeable value: whereas the value of precious stones is almost 

 exclusively owing to their beauty. Flowers, the plumage of birds, the 

 rainbow, the setting sun, the clear blue expanse of the sky or the sea, 

 also derive their beauty in great measure from the mere sensual im- 

 pression on the organ of sight. Indeed, there are only a few cases 

 (such as that of the beauty of complexion, which will be mentioned 

 below), in which the beauty of colour in derived from association, and 

 therefore admits of a resolution into simpler element . 



The beauty of form belongs altogether to a different category, anil is 

 derived (as we shall attempt to show) from an association inseparably 

 connected with the form of any object, and necessarily and instan- 

 taneously suggested by it, namely, its adaptation to the purpose which 

 it is intended to fulfil. The Itfiuty of form, as arising from thin 

 source, in however subject to certain conditions, the chief of which i -. 

 that the object should either possess the beauty of colour, or at least 

 should be of such a colour as is completely inoffensive to the eye. The 

 beauty of form, although in strictness not connected with the colour 

 of any object, is nevertheless so far dependent on it, that if the colour 

 should be offensive to the eye, the pleasure derived from the beauty 

 of form is much impaired, or is even destroyed. Beauty of form as 



ception of this fact which induced Hogarth to imagine that 1 

 of outline consists in its serpentine direction, which is true of those 

 animate and organised beings whoso wants require them to assume 

 this shape ; but does not apply to other objects, such as buildings or 

 walks, in which convenience requires a straight or angular form, and 

 in which a straight or angular form U therefore beautiful. The beauty 

 ot proportion OT symmetry in the forms of animals is likewise derived 

 from a sense of utility ; for it is manifest that small limbs would not 

 suit the wants of a large body; that a large foot would be an incum- 

 ti a small leg ; that a large hand would be an incumbraiice to a 

 small arm, &c. For the same reason different animals have ilill. n ut 

 proportions, as their bodies arc formed on different scales ami 

 to ilitli T. 'lit purposes; and thus the form or size which is beautiful in 

 one animal would be monstrous in another, as if the long neck of the 

 camelopard, an animal living on the leaves of trees, were given to 

 tin- lion, whone teeth and claws are adapted to seizing and tearing the 

 flesh of animals; or if the antlers of a stag were fixed on the forehead 

 of a dog. (Horace, ' De Arte Poet.,' at the beginning ; on some ex- 

 i,]iti"in to this principle, see Hogarth's ' Analysis of Beauty,' c. 6 ; 

 Mulli r'-. ' Archa ologie der Kunst, 24.) And thus the limbs of the 

 human body, or the features of the human face, are beautiful only in 

 their i'io|, i places, when they are taken in combination with the other 

 parts of the body, and so manifestly suggest the notion that they are 

 fitted to perform their respective offices. 



* 'Til not a Up or check wo beauty call, 

 But the joint fore* and full result of all. 



