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Illus. Persons are apt to imagine that magnificent words, accumulated epithets, and a certain swelling kind of expression, by rising above what is usual or vulgar, contributes to the sublime; nay, even forms this style. Nothing can be more false. In all the instances of sublime writing, which we have given, nothing of this kind appears.

Example. "God said, Let there be light, and there was light." Analysis. This is striking and sublime. But put it into what is commonly called the sublime style: "The sovereign Arbiter of nature, by the potent energy of a single word, commanded the light to exist;" and, as Boileau has well observed, the style indeed is raised, but the thought is fallen.

Corol. 1. In general, in all good writing, the sublime lies in the thought, not in the words: and when the thought is truly noble, it will, for the most part, clothe itself in a native dignity of language. The sublime, indeed, rejects mean, low, or trivial expressions; but it is equally an enemy to such as are turgid. The main secret of being sublime is to say great things in few and plain words.

2. It will be found to hold, without exception, that the most sublime authors are the simplest in their style; and wherever you find a writer, who affects a more than ordinary pomp and parade of words, and is always endeavouring to magnify his subject by epithets, there you may immediately suspect, that, feeble in sentiment, he is studying to support himself by mere expression.

409. The same unfavourable judgment we must pass on all that laboured apparatus with which some writers introduce a passage or description, which they intend shall be sublime; calling on their readers to attend, invoking their muse, or breaking forth into general, unmeaning exclamations, concerning the greatness, terribleness, or majesty of the object, which they are to describe.

Example. Addison, in his Campaign, has fallen into an error of this kind, when about to describe the battle of Blenheim:

But O! my Muse! what numbers wilt thou find

To sing the furious troops in battle join'd?

Methinks I hear the drum's tumultuous sound,

The victor's shouts, and dying groans, confound; &c.

Analysis. Introductions of this kind, are a forced attempt in a writer to spur up himself and his reader, when he finds his imagination begin to flag. It is like taking artificial spirits in order to supply the want of such as are natural. By this observation, however, it is not meant to pass a general censure on Addison's Campaign, which, in several places, is far from wanting merit; and, in particular, the noted comparison of his hero to the angel who rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm, is a truly sublime image.

410. The faults opposite to the sublime, are chiefly two; first, the frigid; and, secondly, the bombast.

Illus. 1. The frigid consists in degrading an object, or sentiment, which is sublime in itself, by our weak conception of it; or by our weak, low, and childish description of it. This betrays entire absence, or, at least, great poverty of genius. (See Art. 204.)

2. Bombast lies in forcing an ordinary or trivial object out of its rank, and endeavouring to raise it into the sublime; or in attempting to exalt a sublime object beyond all natural and reasonable bounds. Into this error, which is but too common, writers of genius may sometimes fall, by unluckily losing sight of the true point of the sublime. This is also called fustian, or rant. Shakspeare, a great but incorrect genius, is not unexceptionable here. Dryden and Lee, in their tragedies, abound with it. (See Chapter VIII. Book III.)

CHAPTER VI.

BEAUTY, AND OTHER PLEASURES OF TASTE.

411. BEAUTY, next to sublimity, affords, beyond doubt, the highest pleasure to the imagination. The emotion which it raises, is very distinguishable from that of sublimity. It is of a calmer kind; more gentle and soothing; it does not elevate the mind so much, but produces an agreeable serenity. Sublimity raises a feeling too violent to be lasting the pleasure arising from beauty admits of longer continuance. It extends also to a much greater variety of objects than sublimity; to a variety indeed so great, that the feelings which beautiful objects produce, differ considerably, not in degree only, but also in kind, from one another. Hence, no word in the language is used in a more vague signification than beauty.

Illus. It is applied to almost every external object that pleases the eye or the ear; to a great number of the graces of writing; to many dispositions of the mind; nay, to several objects of mere abstract science. We talk currently of a beautiful tree, or flower; a beautiful poem; a beautiful character; and a beautiful theorem in mathematics.

Scholia. 1. Hence we may easily perceive, that, among so great a variety of objects, to find out some one quality in which they all agree, and which is the foundation of that agreeable sensation they all raise, must be a very difficult, if not, more probably, a vain attempt.

2. Objects, denominated beautiful, are so different, as to please, not in virtue of any one quality common to them all, but by means of several different principles in human nature. The agreeable emotion which they all raise, is somewhat of the same nature; and, therefore, has the common name of beauty given to it; but it is raised by differ

ent causes.

412. Hypotheses, however, have been framed by ingenious men, for assigning the fundamental quality of beauty in all objects. In particular, uniformity amidst variety, has been insisted on as this fundamental quality. This accounts, in a satisfactory manner, for the beauty of many figures.

Illus. But when we endeavour to apply this principle to beautiful objects of some other kind, as to colour, for instance, or motion, we shall soon find that it has no place. And even in external figured objects, it does not hold that their beauty is in proportion to their mixture of variety with uniformity; seeing many please us as highly beautiful, which have scarcely any variety; and others, which are various to a degree of intricacy.

Obs. Laying systems of this kind, therefore, aside, we propose to give an enumeration of several of those classes of objects in which beauty most remarkably appears; and to point out, as far as the limits of this work will admit, the separate principles of beauty in each of them.

413. COLOUR affords, perhaps, the simplest instance of beauty, and therefore the fittest to begin with. Here, neither variety nor uniformity, nor any other principle, can perhaps be assigned, as the foundation of beauty.

Illus. 1. We can refer it to no other cause except the structure of the eye, which determines us to receive certain modifications of the rays of light with more pleasure than others. And we see accordingly, that, as the organ of sensation varies in different persons, they have their different favourite colours. It is probable, that association of ideas has influence, in some cases, on the pleasure which we receive from colours.

Example. Green, for instance, may appear more beautiful, by being connected in our ideas with rural prospects and scenes; white, with innocence; blue, with the serenity of the sky.

Illus. 2. Independent of associations of this kind, all that we can farther observe concerning colours, is, that those chosen for beauty are, generally, delicate rather than glaring.

Example. Such are those paintings with which nature hath ornamented some of her works, and which art strives in vain to imitate; as the feathers of several kinds of birds, the leaves of flowers, and the fine variation of colours exhibited by the sky at the rising and setting of the sun.

Corol. These present to us the highest instances of the beauty of colouring; and have accordingly been the favourite subjects of poetical description in all countries.

414. From colour we proceed to figure, which opens to us forms of beauty more complex and diversified.

415. RegularITY of figure first occurs to be noticed as a source of beauty.

Illus. 1. By a regular figure, is meant, one which we perceive to be formed according to some certain rule, and not left arbitrary, or loose, in the construction of its parts.

Example. Thus, a circle, a square, a triangle, or a hexagon, pleases the eye, by its regularity, as a beautiful figure.

Analysis. We must not, however, conclude, that all figures please in proportion to their regularity; or that regularity is the sole, or the chief foundation of beauty in figure. On the contrary, a certain graceful variety is found to be a much more powerful principle of beauty; and is therefore studied a great deal more than regularity, in all works that are designed to please the eye.

Illus. 2. Regularity appears beautiful to us, chiefly, if not only, on account of its suggesting the ideas of fitness, propriety, and use-qualities which have always a greater connection with orderly and proportioned forms, than with those which appear not constructed according to any certain rule. It is clear that Nature, who is undoubtedly the most graceful artist, hath, in all her ornamental works, pursued variety, with an apparent neglect of regularity.

Examples. Cabinets, made after a regular form, in cubes, doors, and windows, constructed in the form of parallelograms, with exact proportion of parts, by being so formed, please the eye: the reason is obvious; being works of use, they are, by such figures, the better suited to the ends for which they were designed. But plants, flowers, and leaves, are full of variety and diversity. A straight canal is an insipid figure, in comparison of the meanders of rivers. Cones and pyramids are beautiful; but trees, growing in their natural wildness, are infinitely more beautiful than when trimmed into pyramids and cones; as is the fashion, for instance, in almost all gardens and pleasuregrounds. The apartments of a house must be regular in their disposition, for the conveniency of its inhabitants; but a garden, which is designed merely for beauty, is exceedingly disgusting, when it has as much uniformity and order in its parts as a dwelling-house.*

416. Hogarth, in his Analysis of Beauty, has observed, that figures, bounded by curve lines, are, in general, more beautiful than those bounded by straight lines and angles.

Illus. He pitches upon two lines, on which, according to him, the beauty of figure principally depends; and he has illustrated and supported his doctrine, by a surprising number of instances.

Example 1. The one is the waving line, or a curve bending backwards and forwards, somewhat in the form of the letter S.

Analysis. This he calls the line of beauty; and shows how often it is found in shells, flowers, and such other ornamental works of nature; and how common it also is in the figures designed by painters and sculptors, for the purpose of decoration.

Example 2. The other line, which he calls the line of grace, is the former waving curve, twisted round some solid body. The curling worm of a common jack is one of the instances he gives of it. Twisted pillars, and twisted horns, also exhibit it.

Analysis. In all the instances which he mentions, variety plainly appears to be so material a principle of beauty, that he seems not to err much, when he defines the art of drawing pleasing forms, to be the art of varying well. For the curve line, so much the favourite of painters, derives, according to him, its chief advantage, from its perpetual bending and variation from the stiff regularity of the straight line.

417. MOTION furnishes another source of beauty, distinct from figure. Motion of itself is pleasing; and bodies in motion are, "cæteris paribus," preferred to those in rest. It is, however, only gentle motion that belongs to the beautiful; for, when it is very swift, or very forcible, such as that of a torrent, it partakes of the sublime. (Illus. 2. Art. 392.)

* See Lord Kames' Elements of Criticism, vol. ii. chap. 24.

Example 1. The motion of a bird gliding through the air is extremely beautiful; the swiftness with which lightning darts through the heavens is magnificent and astonishing.

Obs. And here it is proper to observe, that the sensations of sublime and beautiful are not always distinguished by very distant boundaries; but are capable, in several instances, of approaching towards each other.

Example 2. Thus, a smooth running stream is one of the most beautiful objects in nature: as it swells gradually into a great river, the beautiful, by degrees, is lost in the sublime.

3. A young tree is a beautiful object; a spreading ancient oak is a venerable and a grand one.

4. The calmness of a fine morning is beautiful; the universal stillness of the evening is highly sublime.

Illus. But, to return to the beauty of motion, it will be found to hold, very generally, that motion in a straight line is not so beautiful as in an undulating, waving direction; and motion upwards is commonly, too, more agreeable than motion downwards.

Example 5. The easy curling motion of flame and smoke may be instanced, as an object singularly agreeable; and here Mr. Hogarth's waving line recurs upon us as a principle of beauty.

Corol. That artist observes, very ingeniously, that all the common and necessary motions for the business of life, are performed by men in straight or plain lines; but that all the graceful and ornamental movements are made in waving lines; an observation not unworthy of being attended to, by all who study the grace of gesture and action.

418. Though colour, figure, and motion, be separate principles of beauty; yet, in many beautiful objects, they all meet, and thereby render the beauty both greater and more complex.

Example 1. Thus, in flowers, trees, and animals, we are entertained at once with the delicacy of the colour, with the gracefulness of the figure, and sometimes, also, with the motion of the object.

Analysis. Although each of these produces a separate agreeable sensation, yet they are of such a similar nature, as readily to mix and blend in one general perception of beauty, which we ascribe to the whole object as its cause; for beauty is always conceived by us as something residing in the object which raises the pleasant sensation; a sort of glory which dwells upon it, and that invests it.

Example 2. Perhaps the most complete assemblage of beautiful objects that can any where be found, is presented by a rich natural landscape, where there is a sufficient variety of objects; fields in verdure, scattered trees and flower, running waters, and animals grazing.

Analysis. If to these be joined some of the productions of art which suit such a scene, as a bridge with arches over a river, smoke rising from cottages in the midst of trees, and the distant view of a fine building seen, at the same time, with the rising sun; we then enjoy, in the highest perfection, that gay, cheerful, and placid sensation which characterizes beauty.

Corol. To have an eye and a taste formed for catching the peculiar beauties of such scenes as these, is a necessary requisite for all who attempt poetical description.

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