identified with whatever forms and colours may chance to embody them to the eye or to the fancy? The most striking illustration of this that can be produced is, the complicated assemblage of charms, physical and moral, which enter into the composition of Female Beauty. What philosopher can presume to analyze the different ingredients; or to assign to matter and to mind their respective shares in exciting the emotion which he feels? I believe, for my own part, that the effect depends chiefly on the Mind; and that the loveliest features, if divested of their expression, would be beheld with indif ference. But no person thus philosophizes when the object is before him, or dreams of any source of his plea sure, but that Beauty which fixes his gaze. With what admirable precision and delicacy are its un. definable elements touched on in the following verses! "Rien ne manque à Venus, ni les lys, ni les roses, "Ni la grace plus belle encore que la beauté." In Homer's description of Juno, when attiring herself to deceive Jupiter, by trying "the old, yet still successful "cheat of love," it is remarkable, that the poet leaves to her own fancy the whole task of adorning and heightening her personal attractions; but when she requests Venus to grant her "Those conqu❜ring charms, "That power which mortals and immortals warms." * La Fontaine. Adonis. The gifts which she receives are, all of them, significant of mental qualities alone: "The gentle vow, the gay desire, "The kind deceit, the still reviving fire, The exquisite allegory of the Cestus, expresses, in one single word, how innumerable and ineffable were the enchantments, visible and invisible, which the Goddess of Love mingled together, in binding her omnipotent spell.* The intimate combination which, in this and various other cases, exists between the immediate objects of sight, and the moral ideas they suggest, led, in ancient times, Plato, as well as his master Socrates, and many later philosophers of the same school, to conclude, that the word Beauty, in its literal acceptation, denotes a quality, not of matter, but of mind; and that, as the light we admire on I have adopted in the text, Pope's version, (though somewhat paraphrastical) in preference to the original; as it combines at once the authority of ancient and of modern taste, in confirmation of the point which it is brought to illustrate. The words of Homer are at least equally apposite to my purpose with those of his translator: σε Ενθ' ενι μεν φιλότης, εν δ' ίμερος, εν δ' οαρίσης, « Παρφασις, ήτ' εκλεψε νοόν πυκα πες Φρονεονίων. The je ne sçais quoi of the French, and the fortunate phrase in an English song, ("the provoking charm of Calia altogether.") have been suggested by the same feeling with respect to the problematical essence of female beauty. The very word charm, when its different meanings are attentively considered, will be found an additional confirmation of this remark. "Tis not a lip or eye, we Beauty call, the discs of the moon and planets is, when traced to its original source, the light of the sun, so what is commonly called the beauty of the material world, is but a reflection from those primitive and underived beauties, which the intellectual eye can alone perceive. I have already said, that, in my opinion, the chief effect of Female Beauty depends on Expression.-A similar remark may be applied (though perhaps not altogether in the same extent) to the Material Universe in general; the Beauty of which, it cannot be denied, is wonderfully heightened to those who are able to read in it the expressive characters of a governing intelligence. But still I think that Beauty, in its literal sense, denotes what is presented to the organ of Sight; and that it is afterwards transferred to moral qualities by an associating process, similar to that which combines the smell of a rose with its beautiful form and colour; or which embellishes our native spot with the charms which it borrows from the pleasures of memory. The chief difference between the cases here mentioned, consists in the intimate and inseparable union, which, in the human face, connects soul and body with each other; a union to which nothing completely analogous occurs in any other association whatsoever. "Her pure and eloquent blood "Spoke in her cheek, and so distinctly wrought, "That one might almost say her body thought." To the peculiar intimacy of this connection, (which, as long as the beautiful object is under our survey, blends the qualities of matter and those of mind in one common perception,) it seems to be owing, that the word Beauty comes, in process of time, to be applied to certain moral qualities considered abstractly.* The qualities which are thus characterized in ordinary discourse, are, in truth, Eexactly those which it gives us the greatest delight to see expressed in the countenance;† or such as have a tendency (which is the case with various affections of the mind) to improve the visible beauty which the features exhibit. Is it surprising, that, to a person who has been accustomed to apply the epithet Beautiful to the smile of complacency and kindness, the same epithet should naturally occur as expressively characteristical of the disposition and temper, which it is the study of Beauty to display, when solicitous to assume her most winning form? Such transitions in the use of words, are daily exemplified in all the various subjects about which language is employ. ed: And, in the present instance, the transition is so easy and obvious, that we are at a loss to say which is the literal and which the metaphorical meaning. In the cases which have been hitherto under our con Such too seems to have been the opinion of Cicero, from the following passage, which coincides remarkably, in more respects than one, with the doctrine maintained in the text: "Itaque eorum ipsorum, quæ adspectu sentiuntur, nullum aliud "animal pulchritudinem, venustatem, convenientiam partium sentit; "quam similitudinem natura ratioque ab oculis ad animum transfer"ens, multo etiam magis pulchritudinem, constantiam, ordinem in "consiliis factisque conservandum putat, &c. &c. Formam quidem ❝ipsam, Marce fili, et tanquam faciem Honęsti vides; quæ, si oculis "cerneretur, mirabiles amores (ut ait Plato) excitaret sapientiæ."De offic. Lib. i. x'ayada † Πότερον ουν νομίζεις ήδιον ὁρᾶν τις ανθρωπες, δι ὧν τα καλα τε κ' και αγαπητα ήθη φαίνεται, η δι ὧν τα αισχρά τε καὶ πονηρα, και μισητα, Χen. Mem. Lib. iii. cap. x. sideration, the visible object, if it is not the physical cause, furnishes, at least, the occasion of the pleasure we feel; and it is on the eye alone that any organic impression is supposed to be made. Our other senses, indeed, frequently contribute to the effect; but they do so only through the medium of the associating principle, when, by its means, the pleasures originally derived from them are blended and identified with those peculiar to vision. The same observation is applicable to all the various moral and intellectual enjoyments, which, by combining themselves with the effects of colours and of forms, may embellish the original beauties of those material objects, which, while they please the eye, exercise the understanding, awaken the fancy, or touch the heart. Hence, to a botanist, the luxury of a garden, where every thing is arranged with a view to his favourite study; hence, to the poet, the charms of a romantic retreat; hence, to every mind alive to the common sympathies of nature, the inspiring influence of scenes consecrated to the memory of worth, of valour, or of genius. There is, however, nothing which places, in so strong a light, the truth of the preceding remarks, as the consent of all mankind in applying the word Beautiful to order, to fitness, to utility, to symmetry; above all, to that skill and comprehensiveness, and unity of design, which, combining a multitude of parts into one agreeable whole, blend the charms of variety with that of simplicity. All of these circumstances are calculated to give pleasure to the understanding; but as this pleasure is conveyed through the medium of the eye, they are universally con |