prevents the notion of deformity, but does not give the notion of beauty, for beauty itself is always uncommon. Mr. Burke says, "If I am not mistaken, a great deal "of the prejudice in favour of proportion has arisen, not "so much from the observations of any certain measures "found in beautiful bodies, as from a wrong idea of the "relation which deformity bears to beauty, to which it "has been considered as the opposite: on this principle "it was concluded, that where the causes of deformity "were removed, beauty must naturally and necessarily "be introduced. This, I believe, is a mistake; for de'formity is opposed, not to beauty, but to the' complete common form. If one of the legs of a man be found "shorter than the other, the man is deformed, because "there is something wanting to complete the whole idea "we form of a man: and this has the same effect in "natural faults, as maiming and mutilation produce "from accidents. So if the back be humped, the man "is deformed, because his back has an unusual figure, "and what carries with it the idea of some misfortune; so if a man's neck be considerably longer or shorter "than usual, we say he is deformed in that part, because men are not commonly made in that manner. "But surely every hour's experience may convince us, "that a man may have his legs of an equal length, and "resembling each other in all respects, and his neck of "a just size, and his back quite straight, without having "at the same time the least perceivable beauty. Indeed, beauty is so far from belonging to the idea of custom, "that, in reality, what affects us in that manner, is extremely rare and uncommon. The beautiful strikes us as much by its novelty, as the deformed itself."* Custom has precisely the same effect upon our ideas of relative magnitude or proportion, as on our ideas of figure. There is a certain breadth of the mouth, in 66 แ * Burke, p. 221. strous. proportion to the breadth of the whole face, which is monstrous; another opposite proportion, equally monThere is a certain middle limit, within which all proportions are equally removed from deformity. Mr. Burke contends, and in my humble opinion with great success, that proportion is never of itself the original cause of beauty. It is the cause of beauty, as it is an indication of strength and utility in buildings, of swiftness in animals, of any feeling morally beautiful; and it is agreeable, as it is customary in animals, or the proof of the absence of deformity, but no proportion of itself; and, without one of these reasons, ever pleases. No man would contend Nature ever intended that 6 to 2, or 9 to 14, are perfection: that the moment a monkey could be discovered and brought to light, the length of whose ear was precisely the cube root of the length of his tail, that he ought to be set up as a model of perfect conformation to the whole simious tribe. Certain proportions are beautiful, as they indicate skill, swiftness, convenience, strength, or historical association; and then philosophers copy these proportions, and determine that they must be originally and abstractedly beautiful, applying that to the sign, which is only true of the thing indicated by the sign. Custom has also the same effect upon magnitudes. Tall and short mean only unusual. The excellence of stature would lie within those limits where one height was equally common with another, were it not for the idea of utility which intervenes and overcomes the slight deviation from that which is most common. For instance: I believe there are many more Englishmen between 5 feet 6 and 5 feet 9, than there are between 5 feet 9 and 6 feet; but I believe Mr. Flaxman, in making a statue of a beautiful young man, would rather choose between the last proportion than the first, because, though the deviation from custom would be greater, it would be compensated for by the superior notions of strength and energy it would convey. But every sculptor would undoubtedly take the commonest proportion between the nose and the chin he could discover, because no superior pleasure would be gained by deviating from that proportion. Mr. Burke has a notion that things, to be beautiful, must be small, - that smallness is one cause of beauty. This, I confess, I cannot agree to. Little is a term of affection, but not a term of beauty: where the stature is small, we are rather inclined to use some less powerful word than beautiful, as pretty. There is a certain feeling of admiration, a faint tinge of awe, connected with personal beauty, which, if not diminished, is certainly not assisted, by smallness. If smallness were one cause of beauty, we should have remarked it in the great mass of amatory poetry, which has been accumulating since the beginning of the world: the lover would have told his mistress, from time immemorial, that she was so short that she could walk under his arm; that she weighed less by 20 or 30 pounds than any other beauty in the neighbourhood; that he solemnly believed her only to be five feet; and he would have diminished her down by elegant adulation, to think as lowly of herself as possible. I think if the poetical gentlemen who attend the Institution will recollect, they will rather find, when they speak of stature at all, that their adulation runs in an opposite channel; and that, though they may speak of grand stately figures, they never allude to those remarkable only for weighing very little, and being shorter and thinner than the average of the human race. Having now gone through the various effects of magnitude, proportion, and figure, on beauty, I think I have said enough to explain the causes of the most remarkable sort of beauty, the beauty of the human face. I shall first take a very beautiful female face, entirely without expression, why do we call that face beautiful? Take twenty other faces, all devoid of expression; why do we denominate the one beautiful, the others not? The beautiful face is a most uncommon assemblage of common figures, common proportions, common magnitudes, and common relations. Take all the other twenty, the first has features too large, that is, larger than is common; the second violates proportion, that is, the customary proportion between the length of the forehead and the length of the chin is violated; in a third, the figure of the mouth is extraordinary, it is not the average customary figure of mouths. In the beautiful face alone, there is not a single deviation from custom: the figure of every feature is the average figure; the magnitude the average magnitude; the proportion each part bears to the other, the customary_proportion. The only thing which is not average, and not customary, is the extraordinary assemblage of averages and common standards in one single face: that whereas all human faces deviate from the custom of Nature in some of their magnitudes, figures, and proportions, she has assembled, in this single face, one and all her models for every separate feature; and indulged the eye of man, unused to excellence, with the spectacle of that which is without spot, blemish, or objection. Now mind what we have to add to this bare assemblage of proportions, figures, and magnitudes: in the first place we add to it smoothness, a great cause of beauty; then beautiful colours, which are also the signs of health, youth, and delicacy of feeling. It shall also express goodness, compassion, gentleness, an obliging spirit, and a mild wisdom; and, putting all these powerful causes together, I think I have said enough to explain the effects which personal beauty produces on the destinies of man. 66 These, when the Spartan queen approach'd the tower, In secret own'd resistless beauty's power: They cried, 'No wonder such celestial charms These are the causes which made all the old senators of Troy exclaim, at the sight of Helen, that the Trojans and the well-booted Greeks were by no means to blame for having endured such griefs so long a time for such a beautiful lady. All the beauty of motion I should suspect to be the result of association. Motion is either quick or slow, direct or circuitous, uniform or irregular. Sometimes quick motion is not beautiful, from the association it excites of violent resistance to the touch; in other instances there is a want of variety, both in direct motion and in slow motion, which is tiresome. All motion which gives us the notion of ease, is beautiful; of restraint, is painful. All movements in human creatures, which express any feeling of mind which itself would be called beautiful, is as beautiful as the thing it signifies. The motion of a rivulet is beautiful from its variety; of a balloon, from its ease; and the apparent absence of effort of a sailing kite, from the same reason; of a man of war moving slowly, for the same reason. Grace is either the beauty of motion, or the beauty of posture. Graceful motion is motion without difficulty or embarrassment; or that which, from experience, we know to be connected with ingenuous modesty, a desire to increase the happiness of others, or any beautiful moral feeling. A person walks up a long room, observed by a great number of individuals, and pays his respects as a gentleman ought to do;- why is he graceful? Because every movement of his body inspires you with some pleasant feeling; he has the free and unembarrassed use of his limbs; his motions do not indicate forward boldness, or irrational timidity; the outward signs perpetually indicate agreeable qualities. The same explanation applies to grace of posture and attitude: that is a graceful attitude which indicates an absence of restraint; and facility, which is the sign of agreeable qualities of mind: apart from such indications, one |