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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



419 



whether, according to Allison, it is in itself a source of emotion. I 

 say, that it would matter little either way, provided that it be essentia!, 

 ■were it not for certain notions entertained of it by many, wliich no- 

 tions, arising out of habit, or want of study, cause the word to be in- 

 correctly viewed in a composition. Proportion may be defined to be 

 the arrangement of parts in a form, inasmuch as, according to the 

 mutual fitness or disagreement of those parts, we have an idea of the 

 whole, or of its symmetry ; it is from this idea of the proportion, that 

 we speak of a figure as being well or ill-formed. 



It is evident, therefore, that proportion to be entertained, must re- 

 quire our attention given to those parts, and it is evident also, that 

 pleasure to arise from them must vary as the power to perceive ex- 

 isting harmonies ; but it is also evident that the mind must at the 

 same time be thoughtfully engaged. Now, if great emotion be the 

 effect of a composition in art, and if severity of thought be opposed to 

 great emotion, which it is, proportion as fitness cannot be entertained 

 for its own sake in the composition of beauty. Allison has taken con- 

 siderable pains to confute the ideas of Burke upon this subject, by 

 showing the nature of satisfaction felt from the consideration of fitness 

 in a figure, and by arguing that if unpleasant associations (destructive 

 to ideas of the beautiful) connected with a figure be removed, that 

 then the fitness-of parts will produce emotion. But the very neces- 

 sity to have unpleasant associations removed before parts can be 

 balanced in the mind, argues in favour of Burke, since, if our emotions 

 in relation to beauty, being that beauty moves us and not we beauty, 

 proportion would first of all affect us, independently of associations, 

 were it a sharer in beauty's influence. There is undoubtedly a satis- 

 faction felt by the mind, in discerning the perfection of figure. The 

 anatomist might feel delight in theories, the very mention of which 

 would shock, but it is only satisfaction that is felt, arising out of the 

 effective exercise of our reasoning powers, or it may be extending 

 into a livelier feeling, from the pleasure of having conquered, when 

 by labour we have been able to discern the ingenuity or wisdom of 

 another. This delight is an emotion different from that engendered 

 by beauty, for it is an emotion resembling triumph. The spectator in 

 such a case can sift his own emotion, and is differently affected to him 

 who, viewing the beautiful, yields up his emotions and is conquered. 

 It is no argument either in favour of proportion as being necessary to 

 beauty, that the naturalist may deem a pig or a toad beautiful, be- 

 cause long study has prepared him for such a conclusion, and the 

 mind naturally delights in perceiving that which reminds it of passed 

 difficulties. In perceiving the harmony of contrivances, the naturalist 

 views with the eye of habit, and feels an emotion because the cause 

 of that appears which habit has made essential to his delight. Such 

 a man from habit would view the skeleton of a woman with estacy, 

 wliilst the poet, who feels the poetry of beauty more than any one, 

 ■would shudder, or mournfully meditate on the decay of beauty which 

 he saw not. The one would see with satisfaction hollow cavities in 

 the skull, the other would be wandering with melancholy over soft and 

 oval features which were gone ; the one would perceive the delicacy 

 of bones and joints, the other would suggest to memory undulating 

 and retiring beauties now no more : — the anatomist would reason, but 

 the poet would feel. If proportion were minutely essential, our ideas 

 would be full of it whilst viewing a building, but the reverse of this is 

 the case. In buildings where the mind is encouraged to deep emotions, 

 the trivialities of parts could not be entertained, for if they were, an 

 admiration of them would change the character of deep emotion into 

 that of mere pleasure — the grand cause of the effect being that reason 

 is overbalanced ; and hence it is, that the moment the eye becomes 

 critical, then reason being restored, the impression is lost. In build- 

 ings, too, where the mind is more tranquilly engaged, and where the 

 emotion is more softened, if proportion were minutely essential, we 

 should seek out for every part to understand its relations, and be rest- 

 less unless we discovered all ; but how opposed is this to that law of 

 beauty which always conceals a part and never displays the whole of 

 her melting figure. If proportion were minutely essential, the design 

 would be only one of contrivances, like that of a machine, which sets 

 the mind thinking and perplexing itself before it can admire ; and if 

 we were to regard the design as we would a machine, our minds 

 would be led from ourselves, who ought to be solely affected, to dwell 

 on the ingenuity or skill of the contriver. It is only in severe and 

 chaste designs, where the mind has its pleasure tempered by expec- 

 tation, such as when a temple is erected to Minerva (and we contract 

 an evenness of thought), that the idea of proportion is consecutively 

 entertained, but the poetic sentiment is nevertheless sacrificed to this 

 exercise of comparison, for we are more as admirers of the goddess 

 than as beings affected by her power, our thoughts are not allowed to 

 repose on beauty, but our repose is checked by the demand of beauty 

 requiring us to admire — we are not allowed the languor of uncertainty, 

 but we must rouse ourselves to perceive the fitness of harmonies. 



My remarks tend, then, to make proportion only indirectly essential 

 to a composition of beauty, and I am the more inclined to agree with 

 Burke, because it is the expression of form which pleases us and first 

 invites us to regard; and the only idea we have of fitness to (he beau- 

 tiful in figure, is the fitness of its expression, or of that wliich conveys 

 in one unbroken harmony, ideas of delicacy, ease, grace, &o. Objects 

 of beauty, too, although affecting to the mind, are also seen by a deter- 

 mination of sense, which, exquisitely acted upon by thc> most subtle 

 influence, catches the spirit of a figure. Beauties in architecture are 

 seen in this way. The beauty of the Grecian Ionic column for in- 

 stance, would never charm us as it does, however well proportioned, 

 unless a certain delicate softness of form were also apparent, which 

 we trace in circles, cavettos, volutes, and beads. Our Creator, who, 

 for wise purposes, has made us deeply sensitive to beautv, has given 

 us sensations which, to be perfect, require either the accord of all our 

 senses, or the quiescence of those unaffected; because, if one be dis- 

 turbed, then the other is affected, and hence, it is in the proportion of 

 the column, I love the sweeps and bends, because my eye wanders, 

 sinks and reposes, like the touch, which, perchance, resting on a form 

 of beauty, would wander, sink and repose. Besides, we sympathize 

 to a certain extent with the object, before we think it beautiful, by 

 giving it a personality. The poet is wooed by the gentle landscape, 

 and is kissed by a pensive moonbeam — an ideal embrace is traced oa 

 such a mind, under such influence, with all that softness which sense 

 in reality would feel ; hence objects cannot be deemed beautiful that 

 do not thus affect us, and hence the pig and the toad are both disgust- 

 ing, spite of their proportion. 



Proportion to architecture is however essential, but I do not say 

 what are its degrees; the difficulty of explanation would be long and 

 tedious, and beyond the narrow limits allowed me, which limits con- 

 fine me to a prejudice confronting criticism, viz. that importance paid 

 to minute divisions, to which the general sentiment of a composition 

 is often sacrificed. Proportion in its most extended signification is 

 expressed by fitness, and, as applied to composition, it is the adapta- 

 tion of forms to some general idea, so that in their arrangement the 

 general idea may not be broken. It is the poetry of forms, and their 

 comparative magnitudes and altitudes, which is then lequired, assisted 

 by that relative position which makes proportion in one case to be no 

 proportion in another, and this leaves the mind open to that general 

 emotion which all feel, when buildings of ■beauty or of magnificence 

 appear to move or arrest them. 



I do not mean, however, to say, that proportion in itself is not a 

 source of delight in composition, for the contrary is instanced in the 

 connoissenr, who, studying in Greece and Rome, has learned to ex- 

 amine critically and minutely, the exquisite parts of architectural 

 figure found there. Habit has made his eye nicely alive to minute 

 errors and delicate defects, or he feels an emotion in viewing their 

 absence in forms, which careful study has discovered to him admirable 

 in their fitness ; but he resembles the anatomist, whose scrutiny fur- 

 nishes his emotion. His delight is undoubtedly that of proportion, 

 but it is a delight which springs out of severity, or habit of thought, 

 and whilst this minuteness of thought engrosses him, it prevents the 

 sentiment of a composition from operating on his mind. A second 

 man might have studied the same figures, and as carefully, and yet 

 have only discovered an expression of beauty in them. He might, too, 

 before this, have seen the fitness of parts ; but let him recur back to 

 forms and figures, and he remembers them only by their expression, 

 which expression it is, which makes them beautiful or sublime : and 

 this remark is quite in accordance with taste, for, let a man be ever 

 so cultivated, it is the expression of form which, after all, must in- 

 fluence the emotion of beauty arising out of figure. An idea of grace 

 from difference of association, may be more refined in one man than 

 in another, and his idea of loveliness may require greater delicacy of 

 form to induce emotion; but, although the form which moves him is 

 more symmetrical than that which moves another, it is, after all, the 

 expression of the form which operates. Thus it is, that the asso- 

 ciation of the youthful artist with all the delicate cbasteness of 

 Greece, causes liira to perceive expressions of beauty which a man of 

 vulgar taste would lose. So that I do not quarrel with proportion, 

 but only with the idea that it is entertained for its own sake in a 

 composition of beauty. In speaking of figure, we say often, the form 

 of such a girl is faultless :— what do we mean ? We surely do not 

 conceive the anatomy of her frame — the very emotion which induces 

 such a remark prevents our reason from so working. What then do 

 we mean? We mean that there is every thing in her form to express 

 the delicate ease of beauty. An increased severity of mind in the 

 spectator always bears a ratio to the decrease of poetic sentiment; 

 hence it is, tha't an assemblage of few parts simply connected (deduct- 

 ing the accessories of situation) conti-ibutes to bestow on the rustic 

 habitation its powerful charm. Finally these, and the foregoing ob- 



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