B E A 



B E A 



Perhaps, fays Beattie, the jutting out of her elbows, tlie 

 natural efTeA of lier endeavouring with lifted hands to ftcure 

 the molt delicate part of the human frame, may give to her 

 motion the appearance of timidity and conftraint. Or, per- 

 haps, (he may fail in this exercife, merely becaufe, according 

 to our manners, Cat cannot be much accuftomcd to it. See 

 Dancing. 



It is not eafy to convey, in fo few words, fo many charm- 

 ing ideas of beauty, in its feveral vanetits of colour, fliape, 

 attitude, and motion, as Gray has combined in the follou'- 

 ing image: 



" Slow melting {trains their queen's approach declare; 

 Where'er fhe turns the graces homage pay : 

 With arms fublime that float upon the air. 

 In gliding (late (lie wins her eafy way : 

 O'er her warm check, and rifing bofom move 

 The bloo-m of young defire, and purple light of love." 

 But to return from this digreffion. Dr. Bklr obferves, that 

 though colour, figure, and motion, be feparate principles of 

 beauty; yet in many beautiful objefts they all meet, and render 

 the beauty both greater, and more complex. Thus, in flowers, 

 trees, animals, we are entertained at once with the delicacy of 

 the colour, with the gracefulnefs of figure, and fometimes 

 alfo with the motion of the objeft. Perhaps, the moft com- 

 plete afltmblage of beautiful objefts is prefented by a rich 

 natural landfcape, compofed of a fufReient variety of objc-fts; 

 tields in verdure, fcattcred trees and flowers, running water, 

 animals grazing ; to which may be added fome produftions 

 of art, which fuit fnch a fcene, as a bridge with arches over 

 a river, fmoke rifing from cottages in the midft of trees, and 

 the diftant view of a fine building, feen bv the rifing fun. 



The beauty of the human countenance is more complex 

 than any which has yet been confidered. It includes the 

 beauty of colour, arifing from the delicate fhades of the com- 

 plexion ; and the beauty of figure, arifing from the lines 

 which form the different features of the face. But its chief 

 beauty depends upon a myfterious expreffion which it con- 

 veys of the qualities of the mind ; of good fenfe, or good 

 humour ; of Iprightlinefs, candour, benevolence, fcnfibility, or 

 other amiable difpofitions. 



Another diftinft fpecies of beauty arifes from defign or 

 art, or from the perception of means being adapted to an 

 end ; or the parts of any thing being well fitted to anfwer 

 the defign of the whole. This is altogether different from 

 the perception of beauty produced by colour, figure, variety, 

 or any of the caufes already mentioned. This fenfe of beauty 

 in fitnefs and delign, has an extenfive influence over many 

 of our ideas. It is the foundation of the beauty which we 

 difcover in the proportion of doors, window5, arches, pillars, 

 and all the orders of architecture. We Ihall here obfcrve, 

 that Mr. Perrault dillinguifhes two kinds of beauty in archi- 

 tefture. The one he calls " pofitive," and " convincing," 

 fuch as the richnefs of the materials, grandeur of the flruc- 

 ture, neatnefs of the workmanfhip, fymmetry, Sec; the other 

 he calls " arbitrary," which depends on the will, and which 

 would admit of having their proportions changed without 

 deformity. Thefe only pleafe by the connection or afTocin- 

 tion of their ideas with others of a different kind, which 

 pleafe of themfelves : they owe their beauty to that pre- 

 pofTeffion of the mind, by which a thing, whofe value we do 

 know, infinuates an ellecm for others which we do not know, 

 riius, he obferves, there are many things in architecture, 

 which reafon and good fenfe would judge deformed, which, 

 however, cuftom has not only made tolerable, but even 

 beautiful, by their being always joined with other beauties 

 that are pofitive. Being at firll pleafed with \iewing them in 

 company, and merely on that account, we at length become 

 pleafed with them alone ; and thus we frequently become 



fond of faults, and fall in love with deformity. Our fenfe of 

 fitnefs and defign holds fo high a rank among our percep- 

 tions as to regulate, in a great degree, our other ideas of 

 beauty. In an epic poem, a hi!lory, an oration, or any 

 work of genius, we always require, as in other works, a fit- 

 nefs, or adjuilment of means, to the end which the author 

 is fuppofed to have in view. 



Beauty, as it is applied to writing or difcourfe, denotes 

 all that pleafes, either in ftyle or fentiment, from whatever 

 principle that pleafure flows ; and a beautiful poem or ora- 

 tion means, in common language, no other than a good one, 

 or one well compofed. Beauty, befides this indefinite fenfe 

 of it, is alfo ufed to fignify a certain grace and amenity in 

 the turn either of ilyle or fentiment, for which fome authors 

 have been peculiarly dillinguifhed. In this fenfe it denotes 

 a manner, neither remarkably fublime, nor vehemently 

 pafiionate, nor uncommonly fparkling; but fuch as excites in 

 the reader an emotion of the gentle placid kind, fimilar to 

 what is excited by the contemplation of beautiful objefts in 

 natiu-e, which diffufes over the imagination an agreeable and 

 pleafing fcrenlty. Addifon was eminently a writer of this 

 chara<^Ler ; and it belongs alfo to Fenelon, the author of the 

 Adventures of Telemachus. Virgil, among the ancients, is 

 diflinguiilied, in his general manner, by beauty and grace, 

 rather than fublimitv. Among orators, Cicero has more cf 

 the beautiful thin Demoflhenes, whofe genius led him v.holly 

 tov.'ards vehemence and ilrength. 



The ingenious Mr. Burke, in his " Philofophical Inquiry 

 into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," 

 excludes from the number of real caufes of beauty, the pro- 

 portion of parts, fitnefs, or that idea of utility which confifts 

 in a part's being well adapted to anfwer its end, and alfo 

 perfection; and he obferves (p. 210,) that beauty is, forthe 

 greater part, fome quality in bodies, afting mechanically 

 upon the human mind by the intervention of the fenfes. The 

 quahties of beauty, as they are merely fenfible qualities, 

 which he enumerates, are the following : they fhould be 

 comparatively fniall, fmooth, various in the direftion of their 

 conftituent parts ; thefe parts fhould not he angular, but 

 melted, as it were, into each other ; they fhould be of a deli- 

 cate frame, without any remarkable appearance of ftrength ; 

 the colours fliould be clear and bright, but not very ftrong 

 and glaring; and any glaring colour that is introduced fliould 

 be diverfified with others. Thefe are the feven properties 

 upon which, according to this author, beauty depends ; pro- 

 perties that operate by nature, and are lefs liable to be al- 

 tered by caprice, or confounded by a diverfity of tafles, than 

 any others. The phyfiognomv alfo, fays Mr. Burke, has a 

 confiderable fhare in beauty, efpecially in that of our own 

 fpecies. The manners give a certain determination to the 

 countenance, which being obferved to correfpond pretty re- 

 gularly with them, is capable of joining the effefts of certain 

 agreeable qualities of the mind to thofe of the body. So 

 that to form a finifhed human beauty, and to give it its full 

 influence, the face inufl be expreffive of fuch gentle and ami- 

 able qualities as correfpond with the foftnefs, fmoothneA, 

 and delicacy of the outward form. For Mr. Burke's mode 

 of illuflrating and confirming his theory of beauty, the reader 

 is referred to his work above cited. 



Dr. Sayers, in his " Difquifitions, metaphyfical and lite- 

 rary," 8vo. 1793, has given a new analyfis of beauty, con- 

 ducted on the principles whiclv were applied by Dr. Prieilley 

 in his " Lectures on Oratory and Criticifm," and by Mr. 

 AUifon in his " EfFays on Tafte,'" to the explanation of the 

 intelleftual pleafures, namely the dodrines of the Hartleyan 

 fchool. His argument, furamed up in a few words, is as 

 follows : that individual of a clafs of objefts isjultly to be 

 cftee/ned more beautiful than the reft, with the whole of 



L 3 which. 



