384 



\l K A U T Y. 



Beaut?, sure, and to the smiles of fortune, as well as her 

 frowns. These awful virtues constitute what is most 

 grand in the human character ; the gentle virtues, 

 what is most beautiful and lovely. Thus the qualities 

 of mind are a copioHS source both of beauty and sub- 

 limity : 



Mind, mind, nionc ! hear witness, or-.rtli and heaven, 



The Bring tamuirn lil itself contains 



Of K-auteons and suNhr.e. Here, hand in hand, 



Sit paramount tin- GracV.o. Here, enthroned, 



Celestial Venus with divines' airs, 



Invites the a6bi la bevci-fodirig ,' J " U)1% 



" Those viitties,'' says Mr Burke, ' &!& 

 admiration, and are of the sublimer kind, produce 

 terror rather than love; such as fortitude, justice, 

 wisdom, and the like. Never was any man amiable 

 by force of these qualities. Those which engage 

 our hearts, which impress us with a sense of loveli- 

 ness, are the softer virtues ; easiness of temper, com- 

 passion, kindness, and liberality ; though certainly 

 those latter are of less immediate and momentous 

 concern to society, and of less dignity. But it is for 

 that reason that they are so amiable. The great vir- 

 tues turn principally on dangers, punishments, arid 

 troubles, and are exercised rather in preventing the 

 worst mischiefs, than in dispensing favours j and are 

 therefore not lovely, though highly venerable. The 

 subordinate, turn on reliefs, gratifications, and indul- 

 gences ; and are therefore more lovely, though in- 

 ferior in dignity. Those persons who creep into the 

 hearts of most people, who are chosen as the com- 

 panions of their softer hours, and their reliefs from 

 care and anxiety, are never persons of shining qualities, 

 nor strong virtues. It is rather the soft green of the 

 soil on which we rest our eyes when they are fatigued 

 with beholding more glaring objects. It i; worth 

 observing how we feel ourselves aiFected in reading 

 characters of Caesar and Cato, as they are So 

 finely drawn and contrasted in Sallust. In one, the 

 ignOsc&ndo, tar'giehdb; in the other, nil largicndo. 

 In one, the WiiSefh vcrfitgiitm; in the other, mails 

 pcmicieni. In the latter we have much to admire, 

 much to reverence, and perhaps something to fear ; 

 we respect him, but we respect him at a distance. 

 The former makes us familiar with him ; we love 

 him, and he leads us whether he pleases. To draw 

 things closer to our first and most natural feelings, I 

 will add a remark made upon reading this section 

 by an ingenious friend. The authority of a father, 

 k> useful to our well-being, and so justly venerable 

 Upon all accounts, hinders us from having that entire 

 love for him that we have for our mothers, where 

 die parental authority is almost melted down into 

 Ih'e mother's fondness and indulgence. But we ge- 

 nerally have a great love for our grandfathers, in 

 whom this authority is removed a degree from us, 

 and where the weakness of age mellows it into some- 

 thing of a feminine partiality." Enquiry irfto the 

 'Sublime and Beautiful, Part iii. Beet. 10. 



So powerful is the influence of the beauty of mind 

 apon out affections, and so intimate the connection 

 between that kind of beauty, and the expression 

 which belongs to every beautiful object of the mate- 

 rial world, that jarieus writers, both ancient ajid 



modern, have been disposed to affirm, that matter $ 

 derives all its beauty from the expression of certain 

 qualities of Mind. Such is the doctrine that appears 

 to have been taught in the Platonic school ; and 

 which has been maintained by several writers of emi- 

 nence in this country, particularly by Lord Shafts- 

 bury, Dr Hutcheson, Dr Akenside, Dr Spence ; 

 and by Dr Reid, in his Essays on the Intellectual 

 Powc.-s of Man. Mr Alison, although the inves- 

 tigations which he has so successfully conducted 

 concerning the real sources of the beautiful, all tend 

 to establish the general principle, that beauty is re- 

 solvable into expression, is not dispos'-d to give an 

 unqualified assent to this theory. " If," says he, 

 ti-& 'his doctrine it is only meant that matter is not 

 bcautifui in"VtsfA f without reference to mind; and 

 that its beauty ri&bfr* the ^P^sions which an 

 mtelligent mind connects" w "? th a,,d P^eives m it, I 

 read.ly agree to it ; and perhaps 1 '.^' P**<% illus- 

 ion firmatioi 



by 

 been 



trations may afford it some farther cV 

 pointing cut, more minutely than has Kit- 

 done, some of the principal classes of thoKV^I" 

 sions. But if it is further meant, that nit?' J* 

 beautiful only by being expressive of the pi v P 

 qualities of mind ; and that all the beauty of the (??" 

 tcrial, as well as of the intellectual world, is to be 

 found in mind, and its qualities alone, there seems 

 some reason for hesitation before we admit this con- 

 clusion. That the only subjects of our knowlei' 

 are matters and mind, cannot be denied ; but it does 

 not follow, that all the qualities with which we are 

 acquainted, rhust be the proper qualities either of 

 body or of mind. There are a number of qualities 

 which arise from relation ; from the relation of dif- 

 ferent bodies or parts of bodies to each other ; from 

 the relation of body to mind ; and from the rrol 

 of different qualities of mind to each other, that are- 

 as much the objects of our knowledge, and as fre- 

 quently the objects of our attention, as any of the 

 proper qualities, either of body or mind. Many qua- 

 lities also of this kind are productive of emotion. In- 

 stead, therefore, of concluding that the beauty of 

 matter arises from the expression of the qualities of 

 mind, we shall rest in a more humble, but, as I ap- 

 prehend, a more definite conclusion. That the beau- 

 ty of the qualities of matter arises from their being 

 the signs or expressions of such qualities as are fitted 

 by the constitution of our nature to produce emo- 

 tion." 



Before bringing this article to a close, it may be 

 proper to remark, that the leading principle to which 

 we have been conducted by the preceding ample ana- 

 lysis, very nearly coincides with the conclusions of 

 Professor Stewart, respecting the source of our ap- 

 probation of the beautiful, as given to the world in 

 his late volume of Philosophical Essays. It is the 

 opinion of that philosopher, that the term beauty is 

 first of all applied to whatever is naturally pleasing 

 or delightful in colours, in some of which there is an 

 essential and inherent source of gratification, in con- 

 sequence of their agreeable action on our sense of 

 sight, as we have had occasion to observe above. 

 FrOth this early and limited application, the epithet 

 hrrmdfid is, he thinks, gradually and metaphorically 

 extended to indicate whatever is pleasing in external 



