B E A 



IK; 



r> K A 



animal, exulting in its strength ntul agility, whii-h are 

 occasioned by the unshackled movements of the horse, the 

 antelope, or the stag. (Sec the comparison of the horse 

 ;it the end of the 6th Hind.) Hence likewise all ilcfurinity 

 in animals is inconsistent with beauty, ami is ugly in pro- 

 portion u the shape of the limb or body deviated from the 

 tttnndard form, and is unfitted for the purposes for which it 

 is intended. ' The disgust,' says Mr. Stewart, ' which mon- 

 strous animal productions produce seems to arise principally 

 from some idea of pain or suffering connected with their 

 existence ; or from the obvious unfitness of the structure of 

 the individual for the destined purposes of his species. No 

 similar emotion,' he continues, ' is excited by an analogous 

 appearance in the vegetable or in the mineral kingdom- : or 

 even by those phenomena which contradict the uniform 

 tenor o'f our past experience with respect to nature's most 

 obvious anil familiar laws.' (c. 7.) The reason of this dif- 

 ference is, that in inanimate objects which deviate from their 

 ordinary and natural form there is no cause for painful 

 .'.thy. as the object is unconscious of its defective struc- 

 ture. In the cultivation of flowers and ornamental trees, 

 tin' object indeed is for the most part to produce an arti- 

 ficial, and to a certain degree a monstrous size ; which all 

 ii-a.st admit U> be more beautiful than the natural and unim- 

 proved state of the plant. But even in this respect there is 

 a limit: and although the size consistent with beauty in 

 the vegetable kingdom is indefinite, it is not quite unlimited. 

 An oak as high as a mountain would probably cease to be 

 beautiful : and even the diseased growths and protuberances 

 in trees would become displeasing to the sight, if they were 

 enlarged to an excessive size. 



Vat the same reason that deformity in animals is incon- 

 sistent with beauty, all appearance of disease, decay, and 

 death is loathsome and hideous: as the ghastly look of a 

 Weeding wound, the convulsive movements of agony, the 

 pale, livid, or emaciated countenance of a person expiring 

 under the rapid progress of a pestilential disease, or wasting 

 nway with famine, atrophy, or consumption, the mouldering 

 remains of a dead body, or the empty frame of a skeleton. 

 Hence, when Uomeo is described by Shakspeare as de- 

 iing into the vault, in order to see Juliet's corpse, he 

 says, on discovering that the bloom had not faded I'rotn her 

 i.ic-e, 



Orny love! mvuVt 



IValli. that liatli liieVil the honey of thy brcalh, 



Hnth had no power _yc/ upon thy beauty. 



Thou art not eminuered: beauty's enaign yet 



It crimson in tliy lipt, uuil in thy cheeks. 



Anddealh'i pale flag i* not advanced there.' 



The same feelings are transferred by us to the vegetable 

 kingdom, though with a great diminution of their intensity : 

 thus the yellow or brown colour of the faded leaf is for the 

 must part less beautiful than the brilliant and vivid green 

 of spring and summer vegetation ; nevertheless, there is 

 probably no person at all alive to the beauties of external 

 nature who has not admired the rich and varied tints of an 

 autumn landscape, produced by the irregular discolouration 

 of the leaf. When, however, decay has completed its work, 

 ali lieauty vanishes; and a tree quite bared of its Icavi > has 

 nothing more to recommend it to the eye than if it were 

 actually dcitd. And when a tree has through age or by 

 accident undergone a partial decay, its beauty is impaired, 

 though its wreck may still suggest agreeable notions of 

 power and grandeur, the memory of former vigour, of resist- 

 ance to time and the elements, or to the destructive agents 

 <.!' nature. Such arc in part the feelings excited by the 

 sublime picture of Milton : 



' At nlien In . ven' fin 



TIatti sca'hed Iho forest oak* or mountain pinen, 

 \Vtth *in(;ed lop their talely jrrowth, though bare. 

 Stands on tin- blojU.fl heath.' 



In general, however, all appearance of poverty, meagre- 

 ness, or decline of vegetation is, unless compensated by 

 let-vailing circumstances, unfavourable to beauty. (See 

 - K**/iy on Reality, p. 29.) 



The beauty derived from a perception of utility is not 

 confined to the works of nature, but is common to the works 

 of constructive art, in which the adaptation of means to ends 

 i equally observable, and in which there is a similar cor- 

 respondence of the constituent parts. Tims in buildings 

 IMC|I different part has a manifest and visible purpo 

 the column to support a weight on the ground, the arch to 

 support a wright over nn opening, the window* to admit 

 light and nir, the projection of tho roof to throw the ram- 

 valor from the walls, See. Every part of a building has 



therefore its peculiar form and beauty, dependent on id 

 destination. And the same is the case with different /. 

 of building: the di]v. rn which would be beau- 



tiful in n church or a pa hire, would be ills) I ab- 



surd in n cottage or a fortified castle. ' Grecian tn; 

 Gothic abbr\j, and feudal castles,' says Mr. l'a> I K 

 'were all well adapted to their re-j -. riieiini- 



stanee.s, and situations: the distribution of tho pans sub- 

 servient to the purposes of the whole ; and the ornaments 

 and decorations suited to the character of the parts, and to 

 the manners, habits, and employments of the persons who 

 were to occupy'them : but the house of an Knghsh noble- 

 man of the eighteenth or nineteenth century is neither n 

 Grecian temple, a Gothic abbey, nor a feudal castle; and it 

 the style or distribution, or decoration of either he 

 ployed in it, such changes and modifications should !.: 

 admitted as may adapt it to existing circumstance* : < ' 

 wise the scale of its exactitude becomes that of iu incon- 

 gruity, and tho deviation from principle proportioned : 

 fidelity of imitation.' (On Taste, part ii. ch. 2. }. j I 

 also Lord Aberdeen on Grecian Architecture, p. '26-35.) 



For a similar reason all ornament in architecture s' 

 be subordinate to use, and should grow out of and 1" 

 nested by it : whence professed architects, with whci 

 idea of decoration is predominant, often fail in their ait.- 

 to produce beauty, and in many cases seem rather to adapt 

 the building to the ornaments than the ornaments to the 

 building. Accordingly it may be observed, that engineers 

 whose attention is solely directed to the < of that which 

 they plan, often construct more beautiful buildings than 

 persons with whom beauty is the chief consideration. And 

 generally it may be observed, that all ornament, if accumu- 

 lated to an excessive degree, cither from a love of gaudy 

 magnificence, or for the sake of ostentation, is devoid "I 1 

 beauty. 



' Tifi uv alone that RaneliAe* expense. 

 And sjil.'uilonr borrows all her rays from sense.' 



For the same reason that neatness, freshness, and regu- 

 larity are pleasing to us in buildings, as being 

 with the ideas of comfort and enjoyment, we require,* ns 

 Mr. Knight has observed, 'that immediately adjoining the 

 dwellings of opulence and luxury, everything should assume 

 its character, and not only be, but appear to be dressed and 

 cultivated. In such situations neat gravel walks, mown 

 turf, and flowering plants and shrubs, trained and distri- 

 buted by art, are perfectly in character.' (ii. 2. 29.) In 

 laying out the direction of mads or walks, the beauty of the 

 line is likewise determined by its fitness. Thus in an open 

 and level plain a straight line is most agreeable to tin 

 in broken and irregular ground, the line which adapts itself 

 to the shape of the country, by constantly keeping the 

 level, is to be preferred. The pleasure which is felt in fol- 

 lowing the windings of a road carried through a mountain- 

 pass, and creeping round the declivities of tli 

 enhanced by a sense of skill in the contriver and exr 

 and of difficulty successfully overcome. 



The beauty of furniture and dress is likewise in a great 

 measure derived from their fitness ; though, with regard to 

 dress in particular, our taste is liable t> lie determined by 

 many independent, and often conflicting, considc 

 novelty, fashion, &c., some of which will be mentioned be- 

 low. Symmetry of parts, which the eye often M> rigidly 

 exacts in architecture, in gardening, in the internal <! 

 tion of a house, in dress, tec., arises in great measure front 

 MI of utility: thus, for example, in the construction of 

 a house, the entrance is obviously best placed in the centre 

 of the wall, as it affords the easiest communication to (he 

 various parts of the building : the windows are most con- 

 venient if they arc at nearly equal distances from cae.h other, 

 and are not crowded together in someplace .rated 



by v.ide intervals in others: tho columns best perform their 

 work if they are separated by equal spaces, and tin 

 support equal weights*. The pleasure derived from syiu- 



The principle of the t*Jflr!cnl rca*m by hi< h Mr. Slrn.irt, c. 2 and 4, 

 explain* tlie brautv of pymnirlry in workf of art, appear* to u to U- im-Imlrd 

 in tli.it offline*!: fi>r if 'there ( no i -.v n why a door thouM lie pint ,-,, 

 one than tin- other rnd of a home, uhv a pi<-liin> tdiotild lie lump nearer on* 

 llrui the (illii-i i-ml (if a room, th.- imdille ; r\ nji niU lli.- line -.1 i ;.!(,. lien 

 in e.iw ul,.-ri- tin-rein nn r\irVnt filne in irirpilartlv. .jtiimctt>. 

 beautiful. 'An Intfultt aftiMtated tdtfiev (tty Mr. Stewart) wt ilown (ii 

 n diMil ful, romr) an idea of tiim or lolly in tlie do.igncr. . . . Tli- 

 nr \>-\ greater irregularity, would not only atUfy but delight the rye i:i MI 

 ant'i.-iit . mmidvntk :" 



and l.i it' i^ tic projeetion* of tin- r..(k on whirli H is built. Tlie oblique i 

 Inw in a h<Mir would be intolerable ; but utility, or rallirr 



reconcile! the eye to it at once in the cabin of a ship.' c. y. 



