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the curious works of art, fuch as a clock, a fhip, or any nice machine the pleasure which we have in the furvey, is wholly founded on this fenfe of beauty. It is altogether different from the perception of beauty, produced by colour, figure, variety, or any of the caufes formerly mentioned. When I look at a watch, for inftance, the cafe of it, if finely engraved, and of curious workmanhip, ftrikes me as beautiful in the former fenfe; bright colour, exquifite polifh, figures finely raised and turned. But when I examine the fpring and the wheels, and praise the beauty of the internal machinery; my pleasure then arifes wholly from the view of that admirable art, with which fo many varions and complicated parts are made to unite for one purpofc.

This fenfe of beauty, in fitnefs and defign, has an extenfive influence over many of our ideas. It is the foundation of the beauty which we difcover in.. the proportion of doors, windows, arches, pillars, and all the orders of architecture. Let the ornaments of a building be ever fo fine and elegant in themfelves, yet if they interfere with this fenfe of fitnefs and defign, they lofe their beauty, and hurt the eye, like difagreeable objects. Twifted columns, for inftance, are undoubtedly ornamental; but as they have an appearance of weaknefs, they always difpleafe when they are made ufe of to fupport any part of a building that is maf fy, and that feems to require a more fubftantial prop. We cannot look upon any work whatever, without being led, by a natural affociation of ideas, to think of its end and defign, and of courfe to examine the propriety of its parts, in relation to this defign and end. When their propriety is clearly difcerned, the work feems always to have fome beauty; but when there is a total want of propriety, it never fails of appearing deformed. Our

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fenfe of fitness and defign, therefore, is fo pows erful, and holds fo high a rank among our per ceptions, as to regulate, in a great measure, our other ideas of beauty: an obfervation which I the rather make, as it is of the utmost importance, that all who ftudy compofition fhould carefully at tend to it. For, in an epic poem, a history, an ora tion, or any work of genius, we always require, as we do in other works, a fitnefs, or adjustment of means, to the end which the author is fuppofed to have in view. Let his defcriptions be ever fo rich, or his figures ever fo elegant, yet, if they are out of place, if they are not proper parts of that whole, if they fuit not the main défign, they lofe all their beauty; nay, from beauties they are converted into deformities. Such power has our fenfe of fitnefs and congruity, to produce a total transformation of an object whofe appearance otherwife would have been beautiful.

After having mentioned fo many various fpecies of beauty, it now only remains to take notice of beauty as it is applied to writing or difcourfe; a term commonly used in a fenfe altogether loose and undetermined. For it is applied to all that pleases, either in ftyle or in fentiment, from whatever principle that pleasure flows; and a beautiful poem or oration means,, in common language, no other than a good one, or one well compofed. In this fenfe, it is plain, the word is altogether indefinite, and points at no particular fpecies or kind of beauty. There is, however, another fenfe, fomewhat more definite, in which beauty of writing characterifes a particular manner; when it is ufed to fignify a certain grace and amenity in the turn either of ftyle or fentiment, for which fome authors have been peculiarly diftinguifhed. In this fenfe, it denotes a manner neither remarkably fublime, nor vehemently pailionate, nor uncommonly

fparkling; but fuch as raifes in the reader an emotion of the gentle placid kind, fimilar to what is raised by the contemplation of beautiful objects in nature; which neither lifts the mind very high, nor agitates it very much, but diffufes over the imagination an agreeable and pleafing ferenity. Mr. Addifon is a writer altogether of this character; and is one of the most proper and precife examples that can be given of it. Fenelon, the author of the adventures of Telemachus, may be given. as another example. Virgil, too, though very ca pable of rifing on occafions into the fublime, yet, in his general manner, is diftinguifhed by the cha racter of beauty and grace, rather than of fublimity. Among orators, Cicero has more of the beautiful than Demofthenes, whofe genius led him wholly towards vehemence and ftrength.

This much it is fufficient to have faid upon the fubject of beauty. We have traced it through a variety of forms; as, next to fublimity, it is the moft copious fource of the pleasures of tafte; and as the confideration of the different appearances, and principles of beauty, tend to the improvement of tafte in many fubjects.

But it is not only by appearing under the forms of fublime or beautiful, that objects delight the imagination. From feveral other principles, alfo, they derive their power of giving it pleasure.

Novelty, for instance, has been mentioned by mr. Addison, and by every writer on this fubject. An object, which has no merit to recommend it,.. except its being uncommon or new, by means of this quality alone, produces in the mind a vivid and an agreeable emotion. Hence that paffion of curiofity, which prevails fo generally among mankind. Objects and ideas which have been long familiar, make too faint an impreffion, to give an agreeable exercife to our faculties. New and ftrange

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objects roufe the mind from its dormant ftate, by giving it a quick and pleafing impulfe. Hence, in a great measure, the entertainment afforded us by fiction and romance. The emotion raised by novelty is of a more lively and pungent nature, than that produced by beauty; but much fhorter in its continuance. For if the object have in itself no charms to hold our attention, the fhining glofs thrown upon it by novelty, foon wears off.

Befides novelty, imitation is another fource of pleasure to tafte. This gives rife to what mr. Addifon terms, the fecondary pleasures of imagination, which form, doubtlefs, a very extenfive class. For all imitation affords fome pleafure; not only the imitation of beautiful or great objects, by recalling the original ideas of beauty or grandeur which fuch objects themselves exhibited; but even objects which have neither beauty nor grandeur, nay, fome which are terrible or deformed, please us in a fecondary or reprefented view.

The pleafures of melody and harmony belong alfo to taste. There is no agreeable fenfation we receive, either from beauty or fublimity, but what is capable of being heightened by the power of mufical found. Hence the delight of poetical numbers; and even of the more concealed and loofer measures of profe. Wit, humour, and ridicule likewife open a variety of pleasures to tafte, quite diftinct from any that we have yet confidered.

At prefent, it is not neceffary to purfue any farther the fubject of the pleafures of tafte. I have opened fome of the general principles; it is time now to make the application to our chief fubject. If the question be put, to what clafs of thofe pleafures of tafte which I have enumerated, that pleafure is to be referred, which we receive from poetry, eloquence, or fine writing? My anfwer is, not to any one, but to them all. This fingular advan

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tage, writing and difcourfe poffefs, that they encompafs fo large and rich a field on all fides, and have power to exhibit, in great perfection, not a fingle fet of objects only, but almost the whole of those which give pleafure to tafte and imagination; whether that pleasure arife from fublimity, from beauty in its different forms, from defign and art, from moral fentiment, from novelty, from har-` mony, from wit, humour, and ridicule. To whichfoever of these the peculiar bent of a perfon's tafte lies, from fome writer or other, he has it always in his power to receive the gratification of it.

Now this high power, which eloquence and poetry poffefs, of fupplying tafte and imagination with fuch a wide circle of pleasures, they derive altogether from their having a greater capacity of imitation and defcription than is poffeffed by any other art. Of all the means which human ingenuity has contrived, for recalling the images of real objects, and awakening, by reprefentation, fimilar emotions to those which are raised by the original, none is fo full and extenfive, as that which is executed by words and writing. Through the affiftance of this happy invention, there is nothing, either in the natural or moral world, but what can be reprefented and fet before the mind, in colours very strong and lively. Hence it is ufual among critical writers, to fpeak of difcourfe as the chief of all the imitative or mimetic arts; they compare it with painting and with fculpture, and in many refpects prefer it juftly before

them.

This ftyle was first introduced by Ariftotle in his poetics; and fince his time, has acquired a, general currency among modern authors. But, as it is of confequence to introduce as much precifion as poffible into critical language, I mult obferve,

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