BEAt'TY. 



BEAUTY. 



of ui iinif.inu and extensive pUii having lieeo conceived MM! executed, 

 and in put from that satisfaction which we tek in the perception of 

 n<nlilinnns. as \\. il in outward obj<-cts u ip Ui effort* of wit and 

 imagination. It was probably the latter feeling (combined however 

 with an excessive attempt Ui imitate in the garden the form* of 

 architecture) which gave rise to the style of gardening described by 

 Pope, in which 



' Orore nod. at tnn, teen alley hat IU brother, 

 An* half the platform jurt r.ecu the oUwr." (Mftot. 4.) 



This formal style of gardening wss founded on a juct aentiment of 

 what U tutted to the immediate neighbourhood of a house, both in 

 respect to the oumfort uf the inhabitante and the agreement with 

 architectural form* ; but in clipping shrubs into unnatural and fan- 

 tastic shapes, and in laying out the ground in over-minute and compli- 

 cated pattern*, it sometime* carriea a juct principle t a vicious excess. 

 (See Walpoles history of the modern taste in gardening, in hu 

 ' Anecdotes of Painting; ' and NYhately ' On Oardeniug,' 13947.) 



The garden, in fact, fornu the tnuaitiim from the forma of archi- 

 tecture to those of landscape, and u a sort of middle term by which 

 the bard, angular, and precise forma of art are melted into the flowing, 

 irregular, and infinitely varied outlines of nature. Hence the quantity 

 and character of the ornament in a garden ought to depend on the 

 tyle of the building to which it belongs ; and thus a richly decorated 

 garden would not harmonise with a perfectly plain house ; and, on the 

 . ih. r hand, a large building loaded with architectural ornament seem* 

 to require something more than a few shrubs, planted irregularly 

 around it, which scarcely differ in character from the nsjghboudnj| 

 i uiititry. It in on this principle that small cottages and houses, which 

 make no pretension to architectural beauty, are much improved by the 

 growth of creepers and other plants upon their walls, which, as it were, 

 makes them a part of the surrounding vegetation. On the other hand, 

 in buildings which, from their imposing size and elaborate execution, 

 have an independent character of their own, creepers usually suggest a 

 notion of discomfort and neglect, a feeling which lias no place if the 

 building is not inhabited by man, and which, therefore, is not 

 awakened by the sight of an ancient mouldering ruin overgrown 

 with ivy. (See Price 'On the Picturesque,' vol. i. p. 287, vol. ii. 

 pp. 134, 170, 177, 218; Lord At-erdeen 'On Grecian Architecture; 

 p. 45.) 



Tli.' perception of fitness or congruity appears to us to account for 

 the beauty of fonn in nearly all cases, and occasionally for the beauty 

 of colour : there are, however, other circumstances which contribute to 

 produce or heighten that feeling, or are conditions necessary to its 

 existence. Such, for example, is the beauty of txprario* in the human 

 countenance, when the notion conveyed to the mind is that of bene- 

 volence, cheerfulness, tranquillity, innocence, simplicity, or affection. 

 (See Bacon's ' Essay on Beauty.') The distinctness and rapid. 

 which the eyes express the emotions of the mind contribute i.i\ 

 powerfully to their beauty. Xurdty likewise is, to a certain extent, 

 nssnntial to the perception of beauty ; and as the most beautiful object 

 would, by its continual presence, soon pall ujxin the sight, and produce 

 complete indifference, so objects, whose beauty will not bear close 

 examination, and is only calculated to please for a time, are agreeable 

 merely from their novelty and freshness. This is the case to a great 

 extent with fashions in dress, which are continually changing, and in 

 which the newest fashion often seems the most beautiful, although it 

 may have no other recommendation than its novelty. It does not, 

 however, seem to us satisfactory to explain the beauty of modes of 

 dress by laying, that " while they were in fashion they were the forms 

 and colours which distinguished the rich and the noble, the eminent, 

 tlir envied, the observed in society ; they were the forms and the 

 e.il..un in which all that was beautiful, and admired, and exalted were 

 habitually arrayed. They were associated, therefore, with ideas of 

 opulence, and elegance, and gaiety, and all that is captivating and 

 bewitching in manners, fortune, and situation, and doited the ichvle uf 

 Oieir beauty from ttujte cutociatiwu." (' Encycl. Briton.,' art. ' Beauty,' 

 Hupjil. vol. ii. p. 186.) For, in the first place, there is always a certain 

 regard in utility in all kinds of drew and ornament for the person : 

 colours are selected with reference to the colour of the complexion or 

 hair, different dresses become the young and old, Ac. ; and those forms 

 are usually chosen which, if not the mod adapted to the motion of the 

 limbs and the display of the natural beauties, are at least contutent 

 cM Ikon. (See Hogarth's ' Analysis of Beauty,' c. 6, ad fin.)- < 

 or bad taste may sometimes introduce such fashions as hair-powder, 

 pomatum, and hoops, and habit may reconcile the eye to such 

 monstrous disguises; but it seems incredible that any person should 

 maintain that modes of dress are in themselves indifferent, and that 

 the powdered and plastered hair and stiff hoop of an English or French 

 lady of the 18th or .middle of the I'.'th century are intrinsically as 

 beautiful as the loose and flowing locks and graceful .h-.,p. ry of a 

 Grecian statue. New modes of dress are worn, not because they are 

 Imtfliful, but because they are faAiiauMf. Ladies not unfrequ. -ntly 

 lament that the new fashion is ugly and unbecoming, though they 

 abandon the old fashion as being obsolete. Brilliant colours, more- 

 over, are almost universally considered beautiful for dress, especially 

 for female dress ; and therefore they are worn by the rich, who can 

 afford a frequent succession of clothes : the poor, who cannot, arc con- 



mquently forced i themselves iu dark and dingy colour.. 



which are not so soon soiled and spoilt So likewise fine, soft, and 

 smooth textures are not only more convenient, but m..n- U-.i-n.iul for 

 clothing, as being batter fitted to show the i-.i m .-t the body : in this 

 respect the taste of all ages has agreed, from the Uomans, who admired 

 the cobweb garment*, the ttjiilii aura, which they imported from the 

 Ksst, and who bartered gold for an equal weight of silk, down to the 

 modern purchasers of the delicate fabrics of Paisley and Lyons : and 

 hence the rich clothe themselves in tine linen and woollen, in nilk. in 

 velvet, and in lace ; while the poor, unable to purchase such luxuries, 

 content themselves with coarser and thicker textures. In fact 

 ever, the dress of the rich is not beautiful because it U the drew 

 rich, but it is the dress of the rich because it U beautiful : costly 

 furniture is not beautiful because it is costly, but it is costly because 

 it is beautiful. The dress of the poor is not plain because it is the 

 dress of the poor, but it is the dress of the poor because it is plain. 

 In countries where the peasants ornament their dress with taste and 

 fancy, as in some cantons of Switzerland, their dress is thought 

 beautiful : in countries, as in ancient Venice, where the upper orders 

 wore black clothes, block might have been considered a mark of 

 nobility and rank, but could scarcely, even by the natives, have been 

 considered as beautiful : nor in this country does any one think a lr- 

 rister's or even a judge's wig and gown, a clergyman's surplice, or a 

 bishop's sleeves, as having any title to be called beautiful becati.- 

 are the dress of distinguished persons or professions. 



Variety, likewise, is a condition of the beauty of colour nearly allied 

 to novelty. Combinations of colours, if they are not so mixed as to be 

 confused, and if their tints harmonise well together, are for the most 

 part agreeable to the eye ; while large and unbroken masses of an 

 uniform hue, such as long flat walls, wide expanses of sand or wr 

 green plain, are devoid of beauty. The beauty of the human hair 

 arises, in great measure, from the irregularity of its movements, its 

 flexibility and variety of outline, and the changeability of its tint, as 

 ita glossy surface reflects the light in .lilt, rent parts; while a bald 

 head is not only deprived of this ornament, but also seems to be 

 shorn of its fair proportions, and to want something which belongs to 

 its integrity. 



The most remarkable exception to the ugliness of uniform colours, 

 it lias been said, is the beauty of the blue sky and the blue sea ; but 



uniform, in fact, but exquisitely graduated. : 



however, when tin- sea is most brilliant in its colour, how much do a 

 few white sails, scudding along its surface, add not only to the interest 

 but also to the beauty of the scene I 



Some writers have thought that a certain size is an essential element 

 of beauty : thus Ari-tot Is, in lu's ' Poetic,' says, that beauty oon.-i 

 i,i>i;/ii!liule and prafiorli'iii ; and, therefore, a very small or a very large 

 animal would be devoid of beauty, the former because the eye could 

 not dittiii>/ui*li, the latter because the eye could not roi/>nArW its 

 parts.* This notion of Aristotle's doubtless arose from his predominant 

 love of making the excellence of . \. ivthing to consist in a mean 

 between two extremes ; but in the case which he puts the mean U the 

 ! .. mtii'ul form, because it ig the best suited to the nature and wants of 

 the animal. That beauty generally does not depend on the size of the 

 object which makes the impression on the sense, is proved by the 

 admiration which wu equally bestow on tin' delicate frame and brilliant 

 plumage of a humming-bird, and on the vast expanse of an Alpine 

 view. Burke, on tin- other hand, mokes miattneu an essential element 

 of beauty (' Sublime and Beautiful,' part iii. 13); but the arguments 

 which he adduces are equally untenable, as being founded on a partial 

 view of the subject. Among other considerations he allcg. 

 practice of giving diminutive names to tbe objects of our all. 

 but this arises not from any sense of the connection of 1" anty with 

 smallness of size, but from the incompatibility of the passion of Inrr 

 with that of fear that is, so far as fear means an anticipation of evil ; 

 for by using diminutive names, expressive of weakness and inf. i 

 men signify their consciousness that the persons whom they love are 

 things in their power, of which they entertain no apprehension and do 

 not stand in awe. 



The feeling of beauty is, moreover, increased, if not awakened, by 

 ancient recollections, which spread a charm over places illuistra' 

 the arts, the learning, and the civil and military glories of former ages. 

 It is, however, necessary to distinguish between the quality of 

 and the feelings excited by intending historical associations. Th- 

 no doubt that the first time that a scholar beholds Athens or Horn.-, I.. 

 is affected far more powerfully and agreeably than a person to whom 

 ancient history is a blank. But these emotions cannot be oonsid< -red 

 as arising from the perception of beauty. It seems to us quite con- 

 ceivable that a painter who did not know that 1'ericles or Socrates 

 were Athenians, or that the Parthenon was the Temple of Minerva, 

 should be as much alive to the lniiiii of the view of Athens as the 

 historian, though his feelings would not be so strongly move-, 1 by tin- 

 sight before his eyes. (See Knight ' On Taste,' part '2, eh. ii. = , 



T4 ybp KO\O* iv faytttt KO) TC^K iffrt, Ac., ' Poet,' chtp. ril. ; and * 



Twining'! trantUtion, note 01, where MYtral puuge* ore cited showing the 



..f the Ureiks to the close connexion of luge tlte and beauty. Our 



word hantiiomr, in like manner, includes an Idea of tin above the ordinary 



itandard. 



