faid he, "not being able to paint ber beautiful, you have made her fine." Harth and violent motions are always unbecoming. Milton attributes the fame kind of motion to his angels that the Heathens did to their deities, foft, fliding, with out ftep. It is impoffible to preferve the attractions in a country dance that attend on a minuet; as the ftep quickens, the most delicate of the graces retire. The rule holds univerfally through all action, whether quick or flow; it fhould always partake of the fame polifhed and foftened motion, particularly in the tranfitions of the countenance, where the genius of the perfon feems to hover and refide. The degrees run very high upon the fcale of elegance, and probably few have arrived near the highest pitch; but it is certain, that the idea of furptifing beauty, that was familiar in Greece, has been hardly conceived by the moderns: many of their ftatues remain the objects of our admiration, but wholly fuperior to imitation; their pictures, that have funk in the wreck of time, appear in the defcriptions made of them to have equal imagination with the ftatues; and their poetry abounds with the fame celeftial imagery. But what puts this matter out of doubt is, that their celebrated beauties were the models of their artifts, and it is known, that the elegancies of Thais and Phryne were copied by the famous painters of Greece, and configned to canvafs and marble to aftonish and charm diftant ages. Perfonal elegance, in which tafte af fumes the most confpicuous and noble appearance, confufes us in our enquiries after it, by the quickness and variety of . its changes, as well as by a complication that is not eafily unravelled. I defined it to be the image and reflection of a great and beautiful foul; let us feparate the distinct parts of this variety; when they appear funder you will find them perfectly familiar and intelligible. The firt, and most refpectable part, that enters into the compofition of elegance, is the lofty confcioufnefs of worth or virtue, which futains an habitual decency, and becoming pride. The fecond, and moft pleafing part, is a difplay of good-nature approaching to affection, of gentle affability, and, in general, of the pleafing paffions. It feems difficult to reconcile thefe two parts, and in fact it is fo; but when they unite, then they appear like a referved and virgin kindness, that is at once noble and foft, that may be won, but must be courted with delicacy. The third part of elegance is the ap pearance of a polifhed and tranquil habit of mind, that foftens the actions and emotions, and gives a covert profpect of inno cence and undisturbed repofe. I will tre of thefe feparate, and firft of dignity of foul. I obferved, near the beginning of this difcourfe, in answer to an objection you made, that the mind has always a tafie for truth, for gratitude, for generolity, and greatness of foul: thefe, which are peculiarly called fentiments, ftamp upon the human fpirit a dignity and worth no to be found in any other animated being. However great and furprising the me glorious objects in nature be, the heaving ocean, the moon that guides it, and cati a foftened luftre over the night, the ftarry firmament, or the fun itfelf; yet their beauty and grandeur inflantly appear c an inferior kind, beyond all companior, to this of the foul of man. Thefe ferti ments are united under the general ant of virtue; and fuch are the embellishments they diffufe over the mind, that Plate, very polite philofopher, fays finely, "It Virtue was to appear in a vifible shape, a men would be enamoured of her." Virtue and truth are infeparable, and take their flight together. A mind de void of truth is a frightful wreck; it like a great city in ruins, whofe moulderis towers, jut bring to the imagination the mirth and life that once were there, and i now no more. Truth is the genius c taste, and enters into the effence of fins beauty, in wit, in writing, and through the fine arts. Generofity covers almost all other de fects, and raifes a blaze around them i which they difappear and are loft: List fovereign beauty, it makes a fhort cut to our affections; it wins our hearts withert refiftance or delay, and unites all the wond to favour and fupport its defigns. Grandeur of foul, fortitude, and a reir. lution that haughtily ftruggles with depar and will neither yield to, nor make terr with misfortunes; which, through every fituation, repofes a noble confidence in felf, and has an immoveable view to fute glory and honour, astonishes the world wa admiration and delight. We, as it me lean forward with furprise and trembi joy to behold the human foul collecting freng ftrength, and afferting a right to fuperior fates. When you leave man out of your account, and view the whole vifible creation befide, you indeed fee feveral traces of grandeur and unspeakable power, and the intermixture of a rich fcenery of beauty; yet fill the whole appears to be but a folemn abfurdity, and to have a littleness and infignificancy. But when you reflore man to profpect, and put him at the head of it, erdued with genius and an immortal foul; when you give him a paffion for truth, boundle's views that fpread along through eternity, and a fortitude that flruggles with fate, and yields not to misfortunes, then the ies, the ocean, and the earth, take the tamp of worth and dignity from the noble nabitant whofe purpofes they ferve. A mind fraught with the virtues is the natural foil of elegance. Unaffected truth, generofity, and grandeur of foul, for ever pleafe and charm: even when they break from the common forms, and appear wild and unmethodized by education, they are all beautiful. On the contrary, as foon as we difcover that outward elegance, which sformed by the mode, to want truth, geerofity, or grandeur of foul, it inftantly Cnks in our esteem like counterfeit coin, and we are fenfible of a reluctant difap. pointment, like that of the lover in the epiram, who became enamoured with the aly's voice and the foftnefs of her hand a the dark, but was cured of his paffion as on as he had light to view her. Let us now país on to the most pleafing art of elegance, an habitual difplay of e kind and gentle paffions. We are naturally inclined to love those ho bear an affection to us; and we are armed with the homage that is paid to ar merit: by these weakneffes politeness Racks us. The well-bred gentleman alvays in his behaviour infinuates a regard others, tempered with refpect. His atention to please confeffes plainly his kindIs to you, and the high esteem he holds ain. The affiduous prevention of our thes, and that yielding sweetness comalance puts on for our fake, are irrefiflie; and although we know this kind of ttery to be prostitute and habitual, yet is not indifferent to us; we receive it in manner that shows how much it gratifies The defire of being agreeable, finds out The art of being fo without study or labour. Ruttics who fall in love, grow unufually poe and engaging. This new charm, that has altered their natures, and fuddenly endued them with the powers of pleafing, is nothing more than an enlivened attention to pleafe, that has taken poffeffion of their minds, and tinctured their actions. We ought not to wonder that love is thus enchanting its tender affiduity is but the natural addrefs of the paffion; politeness borrows the flattering form of affection, and becomes agreeable by the appearance of kindness. What pleases us generally appears beautiful. Complaifance, that is fo engaging, gives an agreeableness to the whole perfon, and creates a beauty that nature gave not to the features; it fubmits, it promises, it applauds in the countenance; the heart lays itfelf in fimiles at your feet, and a voice that is indulgent and tender, is always heard with pleasure. The laft constituent part of elegance is the picture of a tranquil foul, that appears in foftening the actions and emotions, and exhibits a retired profpect of happiness and innocence. A calm of mind that is feen in graceful eafy action, and in the enfeeblement of our paffions, gives us an idea of the golden age, when human nature, adorned with innocence, and the peace that attends it, repofed in the arms of content. This ferene profpect of human nature always pleafes us; and although the content, whofe image it is, be vifionary in this world, and we cannot arrive at it, yet it is the point in imagination we have finally in view, in all the purfuits of life, and the native home for which we do not ceafe to languish. The fentiment of tranquillity particularly beautifies paftoral poetry. The images of calm and happy quiet that appear in fhaded groves, in filent vales, and flumbers by falling ftreams, invite the poet to indulge his genius in rural fcenes. The mufic that fulls and compofes the mind, at the fame time enchants it. The hue of this beauteous cafe, caft over the human actions and emotions, forms a very delightful part of elegance, and gives the other conftituent parts an appearance of nature and truth: for in a tranquil state of mind, undisturbed by wants or fears, the views of men are generous and elevated. From the combination of thefe fine parts, grandeur. of foul, complacency, and eafe, arife the enchantments of elegance; but the appearance of the two laft are oftener found together, and then they form Politeness. When we take a view of the feparate LI parts parts that conftitute perfonal elegance, we immediately know the feeds that are proper to be cherished in the infant mind, to bring forth the beauteous production. The virtues should be cultivated early with facred care. Good-nature, modefty, affability, and a kind concern for others, fhould be carefully inculcated; and an eafy unconftrained dominion acquired by habit over the paffions. A mind thus finely prepared, is capable of the higheft luftre of elegance; which is afterwards attained with as little labour as our first language, by only affociating with graceful people of different characters, from whom an habitual gracefulness will be acquired, that will bear the natural unaffected stamp of our own minds; in fhort, it will be our own character and genius ftripped of its native rudeness, and enriched with beauty and attraction. Nature, that beflows her favours with out refpect of perfons, often denies to the great the capacity of diftinguished elegance, and flings it away in obfcure vil. lages. You fometimes fee it at a country fair fpread an amiableness over a fun-burnt girl, like the light of the moon through a mift; but fuch, madam, is the neceflity of habitual elegance acquired by education and converfe, that if even you were born in that low clafs, you could be no more than the faireft damfel at the may-pole, and the object of the hope and jealousy of a few rustics. People are rendered totally incapable of elegance by the want of good-nature, and the other gentle paffions; by the want of modefty and fenfibility; and by a want of that noble pride, which arifes from a confcioufnefs of lofty and generous fentiments. The abfence of thefe native charms is generally fupplied by a brifk ftupidity, an impudence unconscious of defect, a caft of malice, and an uncommon tendency to rid'cule; as if nature had given these her ftep-children an instinctive intelligence, that they can rife out of contempt only by the depreffion of others. For the fame reafon it is, that perfons of true and finished tafte feldom affect ridicule, because they are confcious of their own fuperior merit. Pide is the cause of ridicule in the one, as it is of candour in the other; but the effects differ as the Audied parade of poverty does from the negligent grandeur of riches. You will fee nothing more common in the world, than for people, who by ftupidity and infenfibility are incapable of the graces, to commence wits on the ftrength of the petite talents of mimicr and the brifk tartnefs that ill-nature never fails to fupply. From what I have faid it appears, that a fenfe of elegance is a fenfe of dignity, ef virtue, and innocence, united. Is it not natural then to expect, that in the courie of a liberal education, men fhould cultivate the generous qualities they approve and af fume? But instead of them, men only aim at the appearances, which require no felfdenial; and thus, without acquiring the virtues, they facrifice their honefty and fincerity: whence it comes to pafs, that there is often the leaft virtue, where there is the greatest appearance of it; and that the po lifhed part of mankind only arrive at the fubtil corruption, of uniting vice with the drefs and complexion of virtue. I have dwelt on perfonal elegance, be eaufe the ideas and principles in this part of good taste are more familiar to you. We may then take them for a foundation, in our future obfervations, fince the fame principles of eafy grace and fimple grandeur, will animate our ideas with an unftudied propriety, and enlighten our judg ments in beauty, in literature, in fculpture, painting, and the other departments of fins taste. Ufber 219. On Perfonal Beauty. I shall but flightly touch on our tafe of perfonal beauty, because it requires no directions to be known. To afk what is beauty, fays a philofopher, is the queffion of a blind man. I fhall therefore only make a few reflections on this head, the lie out of the common track. But, prier to what I have to fay, it is neceffary to make fome obfervations on phyfiognomy. There is an obvious relation between the mind and the turn of the features, so well known by inftinet, that every one is more or less expert at reading the countenance. We look as well as fpeak our minds; and amongst people of little experience, the look is generally moft fincere. This fo well understood, that it is become a part of education to learn to difguife the counte nance, which yet requires a habit from early youth, and the continual practice of hypocrify, to deceive an intelligent eye. The natural virtues and vices not only have their places in the afpect, even acquired habits that much affect the mind fettle there; contemplation, in length of time, gives a caft of thought on the countenance. Now to come back to our fubject. The ailemblage affemblage called beauty, is the image of Complexion is a kind of beauty that is aly pleafing by affociation. The brown, e fair, the black, are not any of them orial beauty; but when the complexion is nited in one picture on the imagination, ith the affemblage that forms the image of e tender paffions, with gentle fmiles, and d endearments, it is then infeparable from or idea of beauty, and forms a part of it. rom the fame cause, a national fet of feaures appear amiable to the inhabitants, who Lave been accustomed to fee the amiable difctions through them. This obfervation olves a difficulty, that often occurs in the flections of men on our prefent fubject. Ve all fpeak of beauty as if it were acrowledged and fettled by a public ftanard; yet we find, in fact, that people, in lacing their affections, often have little regard to the common notions of beauty. The truth is, complexion and form being the charms that are visible and confpicuous, the common ftandard of beauty is gene rally reftrained to thofe general attractions: but fince perfonal grace and the engaging paffions,although they cannot be delineated, have a more univerfal and uniform power, it is no wonder people, in refigning their hearts, fo often contradict the common re. ceived ftandard. Accordingly, as the engaging paffions and the addrefs are difcovered in converfation, the tender attachments of people are generally fixed by an intercourfe of fentiment, and feldom by a tranfient view, except in romances and novels. It is further to be observed, that when once the affections are fixed, a new face with a higher degree of beauty will not always have a higher degree of power to remove them, because our affections arife from a fource within ourselves, as well ǝ from external beauty; and when the ten der paffion is attached by a particular ob.ject, the imagination furrounds that object with a thoufand ideal embellishments that exift only in the mind of the lover. The hiftory of the fhort life of beauty may be collected from what I have faid. In youth that borders on infancy, the paffions are in a state of vegetation, they only appear in full bloom in maturity; for which reafon the beauty of youth is no more than the dawn and promife of future beauty. The features, as we grow into years, gradually form along with the mind: different fenfibilities gather into the countenance, and become beauty there, as colours mount in a tulip, and enrich it. When the eloquent force and delicacy of fentiment has continued fome little time, age begins to ftiffen the features, and destroy the engaging variety and vivacity of the countenance, the eye gradually lofes its fire, and is no longer the mirror of the agreeable paflions. Finally, old age furrows the face with wrinkles, as a barbarous conqueror overturns a city from the foundation, and tranfitory beauty is extinguished. Beauty and elegance are nearly related, their difference confits in this, that ele ance is the image of the mind difplayed in motion and deportment; beauty is an image of the mind in the countenance and form; confequently beauty is of a more fixed nature, and owes lefs to art and habit. When I fpeak of beauty, it is not wholly out of my way to make a fingular obfervation on the tender pallion in our fpecies. Innocent Innocent and virtuous love cafts a' beaute- not learned, is not so much taken notice ef ous hue over human nature; it quickens and strengthens our admiration of virtue, and our deteftation of vice; it opens our eyes to our imperfections, and gives us a pride in excelling; it infpires us with heroic fentiments, generofity, a contempt of life, a boldness for enterprize, chastity, and purity of fentiment. It takes a fimilitude to devotion, and almoft deifies the object of paffion. People whose breafts are dulled with vice, or ftupified by nature, call this paffion romantic love; but when it was the mode, it was the diagnoftic of a virtuous age. Thefe fymptoms of heroifm fpring from an obfcure principle, that in a noble mind unites itfelf with every paffionate view in life; this nameless principle is diftinguished by endowing people with extraordinary powers and enthufiafm in the purfuit of their favourite wishes, and by difguft and difappointment when we arrive at the point were our wishes feem to be compleated. It has made great conquerors defpife dangers and death in their way to victory, and figh afterwards when they had no more to Usher. conquer. Converfation does not require the fame merit to pleafe that writing does. The human foul is endued with a kind of natural expreffion, which it does not acquire. The expreffion I fpeak of confifts in the fignificant modulations and tones of voice, accompanied, in unaffected people, by a propriety of gefture. This native language was not intended by nature to reprefent the tranfitory ideas that come by the fenfes to the imagination, but the paffions of the mind and its emotions only; therefore modulation and gesture give life and paffion to words; their mighty force in oratory is very confpicuous: but although their effects be milder in converfation, yet they are very fenfible; they agitate the foul by a variety of gentle fenfations, and help to form that fweet charm that makes the moft trifling fubjects engaging. This fine expreflion, which is as it deferves, because it is much fupe feded by the ufe of artificial and acquire language. The modern fyftem of phe fophy has alfo concurred to fhut it co from our reflections. It is in converfation "people put on a their graces, and appear in the luftre c' good breeding. It is certain, good. breeding, that fets fo great a diftinétic between individuals of the fame fpecie. creates nothing new (I mean a good ed cation) but only draws forth into profpect with kill and addrefs, the agreeable d pofitions and fentiments that lay later: the mind. You may call good-breeding artificial; but it is like the art of a ga dener, under whofe hand a barren re puts forth its own bloom, and is enriched with its fpecific fruit. It is fcarce poffit: to conceive any scene fo truly agreeab as an affembly of people elaborately ett cated, who affume a character fuperior ordinary life, and fupport it with cafe a familiarity. The heart is won in converfation by i own paffions. Its pride, its grandeur, i: affections, lay it open to the enchantment of an infinuating addrefs. Flattery is a grofs charm, but who is proof again gentle and yielding difpofition, that infer. your fuperiority with a delicacy fo fre that you cannot fee the lines of which it i compofed? Generofity, difintereftede a noble love of truth that will not deceiv a feeling of the diftreffes of others, and greatness of foul, infpire us with admiration along with love, and take our affe tions as it were by ftorm; but, above:" we are feduced by a view of the terce and affectionate paffions; they carry a infection, and the heart is betrayed to the by its own forces. If we are to judge tro fymptoms, the foul that engages us to powerfully by its reflected glances, is a object of infinite beauty. I obferved before that the modulations of the human voice that exprefs the foul, move us powerfully and indeed we are affected by the natu emotions of the mind expreffed in fimpleft language: in fhort, the happy that, in converfation and the intercouri life, lays hold upon our affections, is a juft address to the engaging paffors the human breaft. But this fyren post like beauty, is the gift of nature. Soft pleafing speech and graceful outward fhow, No arts can gain them, but the gods below. Pors's He Fro |