191 



pears in the description of Scylla in the 

 Metamorphoses, and of Sin in Paradise 

 Lost. 



As deformity consists of some striking 

 and unnatural deviation from what is usual 

 in the shape of the face or body, or of a 

 similar addition to it, all lines, of whatever 

 description they may be, will equally pro- 

 duce it. Mr. Burke's opinion of flowing 

 lines as producing beauty, and of angular 

 lines as producing ugliness, has been men- 

 tioned ; and those who are of his way of 

 thinking, must probably object to the 

 Grecian nose as too straight, and as form- 

 ing too sharp an angle with the rest of the 

 face. Whether the Greek artists were right 

 or not, their practice shews, that, in their 

 opinion, straight lines, and what nearly ap- 

 proach to angles, were not merely compa- 

 tible with beauty, but that the effect of the 

 whole would thence be more attractive, 

 than by a continual sweep and flow of out- 

 line in every part*. 



* The application of this to modern gardening is too obvi- 

 ous to be enforced. It is the highest of all authority against 



