45 



BEAUTY. , 



BED OF JUSTICE. 



4S 



This distinction between associations which give an interest to an 

 object, which make us emrimu to see it, and those which make it 

 beautiful, has not always been sufficiently attended to. Thus Mr. Alison 

 cites Runnymede and the Rubicon as instances of beauty conferred or 

 enhanced by historical associations. (Vol. i. pp. 25, 27.) But beauty 

 never arises from such a source as this. No man would think a plain 

 green field or an ordinary stream more beautiful than any other such 

 field or stream, simply because King John had signed Magna Charta in 

 the one, or Julius Csesar raised the standard of rebellion on the banks 

 of the other. A sincere Roman Catholic might be led into trains of 

 the tenderest pathos and the loftiest religious enthusiasm by the sight 

 of a fragment of the true cross, but would find no beauty in it. The 

 iron crown of Charlemagne, or the stone on which the Scottish kings 

 were crowned at Scone, would suggest historical recollections of deep 

 interest, but would be devoid of beauty. The same may be said of 

 badges of distinction, as orders, crowns, coronets, mitres, &c. ; they 

 may call up ideas of nobility, magnificence, grandeur, courage, or 

 power, and yet they may not be beautiful. No one probably ever 

 found any beauty in the Garter, the Victoria Cross, or the Cross of the 

 Legion of Honour, however lofty or agreeable their associations may 

 be. Feelings of this kind may make the mind susceptible to impressions 

 of beauty, but cannot alone produce it. What can have less pretensions 

 to beauty than a modern fortress, with its bare walls and heavy unor- 

 namented masonry ? Yet it is inseparably connected with all those 

 ideas of power, grandeur, martial prowess, and courage, to which Mr. 

 Alison in other cases refers the origin of beauty. 



Having thus attempted to give a general account of the origin and 

 causes of beauty hi outward objects, we shall next consider the state of 

 mind which is most favourable to the perception of it. 



In the first place it may be remarked that a certain degree of ciiJtim- 

 tion is necessary to the perception of beauty. Savage nations appear to 

 be nearly or quite destitute of any notion of it, in the works both of 

 nature and art, or at least their admiration, as in children, is confined 

 to gaudy and shining trinkets and ornaments of the person. The 

 practice of tattooing, however, is doubtless founded on notions of 

 beauty, more mistaken even than those which led the ladies of Europe 

 to cover their hair with powder and pomatum. In the lower orders of 

 civilised nations the same indifference to beauty may be generally 

 observed, in proportion to their coarseness and ignorance. The early 

 de veli .pmeut of the sense of beauty among the Greeks, which is so 

 strikingly shown both in their mythology and poetry, and in their 

 works of art (see ' Philological Museum,' vol. ii. p. 165-166), is a proof 

 of their early culture and of their great superiority, even in a half 

 savage state, to the barbarous nations by which they were surrounded. 



Another thing essential to the perception of beauty is semibi/ltii of 

 mi*d, arising from the development of the social affections, and the 

 cultivation of the benevolent feelings. The custom, prevalent in 

 some countries, of planting flowers on graves, and of offering nosegays to 

 the images of saints or of the Virgin, is a mark at once of a feeling of 

 beauty and of sensibility of mind. On the other hand, persons of a 

 sour, phlegmatic, morose, and misanthropic temperament, are little 

 alive to the beauty of outward objects or works of art. It was, doubt- 

 less, from a sense of the incompatibility of a feeling for beauty with 

 absence of all social and benevolent sympathies, that Milton represents 

 the Devil aa insensible to the beauties of Paradise : 



" The Fiend 



Saw undelighted all delight, all kind 

 Of living creatures, new to sight and strange." 



the one hand, all the antisocial passions, as anger, jealousy, 

 envy, fear, &c., are inconsistent with the perception of beauty ; no the 

 social passions sharpen and facilitate it, as love and pity, which, as 

 Dryden says, " melt* the soul to love." Hence Imdinext in the human 

 race v> intimately connected with beauty, as the desire of sex is height- 

 ened and stimulated by the beauty of form, colour, and expression ; 

 but it is not identical with it, for lovers are often not only blind to the 

 defect* of their mistresses, but sometimes even admire them on that 

 very account : whence love is proverbially said to be blind. 



A third requisite to the perception of beauty is urenitti and cheerful- 

 not of mind, and the absence of overpowering care or affliction, which 

 engrotses the faculties and prevents them from taking pleasure in the 

 relations of outward objects. This inconsistency is well illustrated by 

 the reflections of Hamlet, when he is oppressed with a sense of the 

 ('.lint'nl task imposed upon him by his father's spirit. (Act ii. sc. 2.) 

 (See Alison ' On Taste,' vol. i. p. 10.) 



On the relation of the beauty of outward objectx to the beauty of 

 works of art, more will be said under the heads of the several arts. 

 Here it in only necessary to observe, that of the three arts of design, 

 namely, architecture, sculpture, and painting, the two last are purely 

 reprarniative art*, while the first alone creates objects which have a 

 MM beyond the mere gratification of the taste. The beauty of buildings 

 therefore belongs to the class of objects which we have been above 

 examining ; whilo the beauty of pictures and statues, though closely 

 connected with the same range of ideas, yet forms a class apart, and 

 require* the consideration of additional elements peculiar to itself. 

 These are derived in great measure from the capabilities of the respec- 

 tive arts, as dependent on the material* which they work with and the 

 effects which they are thus able to produce. There are many objects 



beautiful in nature which cannot be represented with advantage by 

 the painter or sculptor ; on the other hand, there are many objects 

 disagreeable in nature which are beautiful in a picture, because a 

 picture is an abstraction, a representation of the colour and outline of 

 an object, without any of those accompanying circumstances which in 

 the reality may cause disgust to the other senses, and thus prevent 

 the mind from enjoying that pleasure which it might otherwise derive 

 through the organ of sight alone. Hence those things in nature which 

 are peculiarly fitted to be subjects for a painter, are properly said to 

 have picturesque beauty, as those forms and postures which would appear 

 to most advantage in marble, might, as has been truly remarked, be 

 said to have sculpturesque beauty. There are certain general cha- 

 racteristics of these two arts, as that painting best represents expres- 

 sion, whilst sculpture best represents character ; that painting embraces 

 a vast variety of subjects, whilst sculpture confines itself almost ex- 

 clusively to the human figure and some of the nobler animals, which 

 may be here pointed out ; but to determine the peculiar provinces of 

 these two arts respectively requires a separate investigation, with 

 reference not to the general subject of beauty, but to the capabilities 

 and advantages of each, and would be materially assisted by a know- 

 ledge of those mechanical processes and mysteries of art which the 

 professed sculptor or painter can themselves alone possess. 



(On the relation of the beautiful and the sublime, see the article 

 SUBLIMITY ; and on the more psychological view of Beauty of recent 

 German philosophers, see ^ESTHETICS.) 



BEBIRIC ACID. [BEBIKINE.] 



BEBIRINE (C 3! H 21 N0 8 ). An alkaloid found by Dr. Rodie in the 

 bark of a tree (the Nectandra Rodlei) growing in British Guiana, and 

 used by the inhabitants as a remedy for fever, in the place of quinine. 

 According to Maclagan, the Bebirine of Rodie contains two alkaloids ; 

 bebirine, possessing the above formula, and sepirine, which is a reddish- 

 brown resinous body, that has not been further examined. Bebirine is 

 a white, inodorous, amorphous powder, possessing a strong and persistent 

 bitter taste. It is nearly insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol and 

 ether. It forms with acids bitter and uncrystallisable salts. Bebirine 

 and sepirine are contained in the bark, in combination with bebiric acid, 

 the composition of which is not known. 



BEBIRINE, Medical uses of. The part used in medicine is the bark. 

 It is derived from the trunk, and comes over in flat heavy pieces from 

 1 to 2 feet long, from 2 to 6 inches broad, and about 8 or 4 inches 

 thick. The epidermis is brittle, and of a grayish-brown colour. Inter- 

 nally the bark is of a cinnamon-brown colour. The fracture is rough 

 and fibrous. The taste is bitter, astringent, and aromatic. The seeds 

 also contain the bebirine, on which the medicinal properties of the 

 plant depends. The following is Dr. Maclagan's analysis of the two : 



Bebirine 



Tannin and resinous matter 

 Soluble matter . . 

 Starch .... 

 Fibre and albumen 

 Ashes .... 

 Water .... 

 Loss 



Bark. 

 2-56 

 2-53 

 4-31 



62-92 

 7-13 



14-07 

 6-45 



100-00 



Seed. 



2-20 



4-04 



9-40 



53-51 



11-24 



0-31 



18-13 



1-17 



100-00 



The alkaloid bebirine is obtained by decomposing commercial sul- 

 phate of bebirine by ammonia ; the precipitate is washed with cold 

 water, triturated whilst still moist with moist hydrated oxide of lead, 

 dried in a water-bath and exhausted rectified spirit ; an alcoholic solu- 

 tion of bebirine is thus obtained. The alcohol may then be distilled 

 from the bebirine. If this is heated with ether a part will be left 

 undissolved. Dr. Maclagan thought this another alkaloid, and called it 

 sepirine, but he now regards it as bebirine in an oxidised condition. 



When bebirine is obtained from its etherial solution, it is a yellow, 

 amorphous, resinous-looking substance, but in the form of powder it is 

 white. 



The effect of the Bibiru bark is the same as that of cinchona. It is 

 bitter and tonic, and possesses antiperiodic or febrifugal virtues. The 

 alkaloid possesses the same properties ; and from experiments which 

 have hitherto been made, although it is not so powerfully febrifugal as 

 quinine, it does not produce the headache, feverishness, singing in the 

 ears, and other symptoms which are sometimes found to follow the 

 administration of quinine. In intermittent and remittent fevers, in 

 neuralgia, and as a genuine tonic it has been recommended, and 

 especially in those cases where quinine disagrees. 



BED OF JUSTICE. This expression (lit de justice) literally denoted 

 the seat or throne upon which the king of France was accustomed to 

 sit when personally present in parliaments. Under the ancient 

 monarchy of France, a bed of justice denoted a solemn session of the 

 king in the parliament, for the purpose of registering or promulgating 

 edicts or ordinances. According to the principle of the old French 

 constitution, the authority of the parliament, being derived entirely 

 from the crown, ceased when the king was present ; and consequently, 

 all ordinances enrolled at a bed of justice were acts of the royal will, 

 and of more authenticity and effect than decisions of parliament. The 

 last bed of justice was assembled by Louis XVI. at Versailles, on the 



