: hundred arguments of Duns Scotus were publicly extolled, by the university of Aberdeen; incomprehensibility. I need not enlarge, Sir, upon this amended reading it is nonsense. The judicious will impute the poet's inaccuracy to that "solicitudo rerum,” which ought always to take precedence of the "cura verborum;" and its escape from detection, to that " exuberance" of his language, which Dr. Johnson charges with "filling the ear more than the mind." Such critics only as Cantabrigiensis will endeavour, colon-armed, to defend inadvertencies, to which our best poets are sometimes liable. April 3d. 1806. B. F. BEAUTY. In the countenance there are but two requisites to perfect beauty, which are wholly produced by external causes, colour and proportion; and it will appear, that even in common estimation these are not the chief; but, that though there may be beauty without them, there cannot be beauty without something more. The finest features, ranged in the most exact symmetry, and heightened by the most blooming complexion, must be animated before they can strike; and when they are animated, will generally excite the same passions which they express. If they are fixed in the dead calm of insensibility, they will be examined without emotion; and if they do not express kindness, they will be beheld without love. Looks of contempt, disdain, or malevolence, will be reflected, as from a mirror, by every countenance on which they are turned, and if a wanton aspect excites desire, it is but like that of a savage for his prey, which cannot be gratified without the destruction of its object. Among particular graces the dimple has always been allowed the pre-eminence, and the reason is evident; dimples are produced by a smile, and a smile is an expression of complacency: so the contraction of the brows into a frown, as an indication of a contrary temper, has always been deemed a capital defect. The lover is generally at a loss to define the beauty, by which bis passion was suddenly and irresistibly determined to a particular known object; but this could never happen, if it depended upon any rule of proportion, upon the shape or the disposition of features, or the colour of the skin: he tells you that it is something which he cannot fully express, something not fixed in any feature, but diffused over all; he calls it a sweetness, a softness, a placid sensibility, or gives it some other appellation, which connects beauty with sentiment, and expresses a charm which is not peculiar to any set of features, but is perhaps possible to all. This beauty, however, does not always consist in smiles, but varies, as expressions of meekness and kindness vary with their objects; it is extremely forcible in the silent complaint of patient sufferance, the tender solicitude of friendship, and the glow of filial obedience; and in tears, whether of joy, of pity, or of grief, it is almost irresistible. This is the charm which captivates without the aid of nature, and without which her utmost beauty is ineffectual. But it cannot be assumed as a mark to conceal insensibility or malevolence; it must be the genuine effect of corresponding sentiments, or it will impress upon the countenance a new and more disgusting deformity-' affectation: it will produce the grin, the simper, the stare, the languish, the pout, and innumerable other grimaces, that render folly ridiculous, and change pity to contempt. By some, indeed, this species of hypocrisy has been practised with such skill as to deceive superficial observers, though it can deceive even these but for a moment. Looks, which do not correspond with the heart, cannot be assumed without labour, nor continued without pain; the motive to relinquish them, must, therefore, soon preponderate, and the aspect and apparel of the visit will be laid by together; the smiles, and the languishments of art will vanish, and the fierceness of rage, or the gloom of discontent, will either obscure or destroy all the elegance of symmetry and complexion. The artificial aspect is, indeed, as wretched a substitute for the expression of sentiment, as the smear of paint for the blushes of health; it is not only equally transient, and equally liable to detection; but as paint leaves the countenance yet more withered and ghastly, the passions burst out with more violence after restraint, the features become distorted, and excite more determined aversion. Beauty, therefore, depends principally upon the mind, and consequently may be influenced by education. It has been remarked, that the predominant passions may generally be discovered in the countenance; because the muscles by which it is expressed, being almost perpetually contracted, lose their tone, and never totally relax; so that the expression remains, when the passion is suspended : thus an angry, a disdainful, a subtle, and a suspicious temper, is displayed in characters that are almost universally understood. It is equally true of the pleasing and the softer passions, that they leave their signatures upon the countenance, when they cease to act: the prevalence of these passions, therefore, produces a mechanical effect upon the aspect, and gives a turn and cast to the features, which make a more favourable and forcible impression upon the mind of others, than any charın produced by mere external causes. Neither does the beauty which depends upon temper and sentiment, equally endanger the possessor. "It is, (to use an eastern metaphor) like the towers of a city, not only an ornament, but a defence:" If it excites desire, it at once controls and refines it; it represses with awe, it softens with delicacy, and wins to imitation. The love of reason and of virtue is mingled with the love of beauty : because this beauty is little more than the emanation of intellectual excellence, which is not an object of corporeal appetite. As it excites a purer passion, it also more forcibly engages to fidelity: every man finds himself more powerfully restrained from giving pain to goodness, than to beauty; and every look of a countenance in which they are blended, in which beauty is the expression of goodness, is a silent reproach of the first irregular wish: and the purpose immediately appears to be disingenuous, and cruel, by which the tender hope of ineffable affection would be disappointed, the placid confidence of unsuspecting simplicity abused, and the peace even of virtue endangered by the most sordid infidelity, and the breach of the strongest obligations. But the hope of the hypocrite must perish. When the factitious beauty has laid by her smiles, when the lustre of her eyes and the bloom of her cheeks have lost their influence with their novelty; what remains but a tyrant divested of power, who will never be seen without a mixture of indignation and disdain? The only desire which this object could gratify, will be transferred to another, not only without reluctance, but with triumph. As resentment will succeed to disappointment, a desire to mortify will succeed to a desire to please; and the husband may be urged to solicit a mistress, merely by a remembrance of the beauty of his wife, which lasted only till she was known. Let it therefore be remembered, that, none can be disciples of the Graces, but in the school of Virtue; and that those who wish to be lovely, must learn early to be good. REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Qui monet quasi adjuvat. Speeches in the House of Commons on the War against the Mahrattas. By Philip Francis, Esq. 8vo. pp. 94. 2s. 6d. Ridgway. 1805. THE value of a general opinion depends on the authority of him who delivers it. We might from our labours claim, without vanity, some little deference in this respect; but, on the present subject, and on the character of the honourable gentleman to whom we are indebted for this publication, we prefer the opportunity of quoting the sentiments of men, who, if not more alive to genuine merit than ourselves, are more intimately informed, and better judges than we can pretend to be. We shall not repeat what we transcribed last month* from Burke; but we may remark, that such an eulogy, from such a man, is fame itself. If it wanted any aid, the following declaration of Lord Minto,† might be cited with propriety. "In delivering my opinion of my honourable friend (Mr, Francis) I am not so madly vain as to think it can add any thing to his honour. It is not for him, Sir, it is to do myself honour, that I say here what I have often said elsewhere; that, of all the great and considerable men whom this country possesses, there is not one in the empire, who has a claim so much beyond all question, who can shew a title so thoroughly authenticated as this gentleman, to the admiration, the thanks, the reward, the love of his country, and of the world. If I am asked for proof, I say, the book of his life is open before you; it has been examined in every line by the diligent inquisition, the searching eye of malice and envy. Has a single blot been found? Is there one page which has not been traced by virtue and by wisdom? Virtue, Sir, not of the cold and neutral quality, which is contented to avoid reproach, by shrinking from action, and is the best ally of vice; but virtue fervent, full of ardour, of energy, of effect: wisdom, Sir, not the mere flash of genius and of talents, though these are not wanting; but wisdom informed, deliberate, and profound. I know, Sir, the warmth imputed to, nay possessed by, that character; it is a warmth which does but burnish all his other virtues. His heart is warm, his judgment is cool, and the latter of these features none will deny, except those who have not examined, or wish to disbelieve it. The honourable testimony of Mr. Fox has been recently given to the same effect, and, if possible, in stronger terms, in the house of * See our review of Mr. Francis's speech, No. 129. + In his speech on moving the first charge against Sir Elijah Impey, 12th Decem ber, 1787. N-VOL. XXII. commons. It is in the recollection of us all; and the only matter on which the least surprise can hang, is, that while the greatest men in the state profess to revere the genius, and to acknowledge the services of Mr. Francis, and unite in paying him the tribute due to his invaluable experience, they not only pass him over with neglect, but at the very moment when they openly approve of his enlightened principles, they unaccountably act in diametrical opposition to them. What is continually in their professions, is rarely or never in their practice. Whatever Mr. Dundas, when so called, said wisely, or promised judiciously, he owed to the lights afforded to him by Mr. Francis, to whom we may well apply the "Sic vos non ⚫ vobis mellificatis apes;" for he has had all the labour, and others* all the honey-" tulit alter honores." His acts and documents will be found to present the purest code to direct the conduct of a chief in the proper government of India. We say will, when we might say that they have; but, astonishing as the inconsistency must appear, while it has, on all hands, been over and over again acknowledged, that his noble system was founded in wisdom, as well as in justice and humanity, an opposite line of conduct has in fact been pursued. The flood gates of blood and rapacity have been thrown wider than before; and, if we may judge from the statement in Lord Morpeth's speech, last July, on the India budget, and Mr. Francis's serious remarks on it, the " grasp all, lose all,” is on the eve of being verified in the India company. What we have here thought it our duty to advance, is, we believe, sufficient; and nothing further need be adduced, to stamp a high and lasting value on the opinions contained in the pages which we are now about to consider. ་་ A principal object of these speeches, is to prove (we use the words of Mr. Francis in his elegant dedication to Lord Thanet) "that justice and good faith ought to be observed even to the Mahrattas, and, that in the late wars in India, they were not the aggressors." In arguing these important points, Mr. Francis has "exerted * Such is precisely the situation in which he stood with respect to the court of directors.---Praised by them "to the very echo," and deservedly, for the eminent good done by him in their service in the East, he returns, and finds their doors shut against him.---Cum bene laudavit, laudato janua clausa est.---Hamlet would say, there's more in this than we dream of, if our philosophy could find it out! Gibbon, writing from Lausanne to Lord Sheffield, in the year 1783, says, "The vices of the company, both in their persons and their constitution, were manifold and manifest." Qto. Ed. vol. 1, p. 618, |