SECT. V.-PROPORTION FURTHER CONSIDERED. SECT. VI.-FITNESS NOT THE CAUSE OF BEAUTY SECT. XXIII.-ELEGANCE AND SPECIOUSNESS SECT. XXIV.-THE BEAUTIFUL IN FEELING. SECT. XVIII.-THE EFFECTS OF BLACKNESS MODERATED 125 SECT. XIX.-THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF LOVE SECT. XX.-WHY SMOOTHNESS IS BEAUTIFUL SECT. XXI.-SWEETNESS, ITS NATURE. SECT. XXII.-SWEETNESS RELAXING SECT. XXIII.-VARIATION, WHY BEAUTIFUL GENERAL INTRODUCTION EDMUND BURKE was born in Dublin in January, 1729, the son of an attorney. His father was Protestant, his mother Catholic; and though the son followed his father's religion, he was always tolerant of the other faith. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he took his B.A. in 1748, coming to London two years later to study law. But his tastes were more literary than legal, and on giving up law, against his father's wish, before he was called to the bar, he was forced to resort to his pen for a livelihood. The first of his productions to gain notice was his "Vindication of Natural Society, by a late noble writer," an ironical imitation of the style and arguments of Bolingbroke, carried out with great skill. This pamphlet already showed Burke as a defender of the established order of things. In the same year, 1756, appeared his famous "Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful." For five years, from 1759 to 1764, Burke's time was largely occupied by his duties as secretary to William Gerard Hamilton, practically his only publications being in the “Annual Register,” with which he was connected for many years; yet in this period he found time to form intimacies with the famous group containing, among others, Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dr. Johnson. During the short administration of Lord Rockingham, Burke acted as that nobleman's private secretary, and in January, 1766, he became a member of the House of Commons. Almost at once he came into prominence as a speaker, displaying in the debates on American affairs, which then occupied the House, much independence and a disposition toward a wise expediency rather than a harsh insistence on theoretical sovereignty in dealing with the colonists. In 1768 Burke bought an estate in Buckinghamshire, for which he was never able to pay in full; and during most of his life he was in financial difficulties. During the Grafton ministry his chief publication was his "Thoughts on the Present Discontents," in which he opposed the reviving influence of the court, and championed the interests of the people. American affairs continued to engage the attention of Parliament, and throughout the |