And,since it is no creature of our reason,since it strikes us without any reference to use,and even where no use at all can be discerned,since the order and method of nature is generally very different from our measures and proportions,we must conclude that beauty is,for the greater part,some quality in bodies acting mechanically upon the human mind by the intervention of the senses.We ought therefore to consider attentively in what manner those sensible qualities are disposed,in such things as by experience we find beautiful,or which excite in us the passion of love,or some correspondent affection.
XIII
Beautiful Objects Small The most obvious point that presents itself to us in examining any object,is its extent or quantity.And what degree of extent prevails in bodies that are held beautiful,may be gathered from the usual manner of expression concerning it.
I am told that,in most languages,the objects of love are spoken of under diminutive epithets.It is so in all languages of which I have any knowledge.In Greek the lwy and other diminutive terms are almost always the terms of affection and tenderness.These diminutives were commonly added by the Greeks to the names of persons with whom they conversed on terms of friendship and familiarity.Though the Romans were a people of less quick and delicate feelings,yet they naturally slid into the lessening termination upon the same occasions.Anciently in the English language the diminishing ling was added to the names of persons and things that were the objects of love.
Some we retain still,as darling,(or little dear,)and a few others.But,to this day,in ordinary conversation,it is usual to add the endearing name of little to everything we love:the French and Italians make use of these affectionate diminutives even more than we.In the animal creation,out of our own species,it is the small we are inclined to be fond of;little birds,and some of the smaller kinds of beasts.A great beautiful thing is a manner of expression scarcely ever used;but that of a great ugly thing is very common.
There is a wide difference between admiration and love.The sublime,which is the cause of the former,always dwells on great objects,and terrible;the latter on small ones,and pleasing;we submit to what we admire,but we love what submits to us;in one case we are forced,in the other we are flattered,into compliance.In short,the ideas of the sublime and the beautiful stand on foundations so different,that it is hard,I had almost said impossible,to think of reconciling them in the same subject,without considerably lessening the effect of the one or the other upon the passions.So that,attending to their quantity,beautiful objects are comparatively small.
XIV
Smoothness The next property constantly observable in such objects is smoothness:1 a quality so essential to beauty,that I do not now recollect anything beautiful that is not smooth.In trees and flowers,smooth leaves are beautiful;smooth slopes of earth in gardens;smooth streams in the landscape;smooth coats of birds and beasts in animal beauties;in fine women,smooth skins;and in several sorts of ornamental furniture,smooth and polished surfaces.
A very considerable part of the effect of beauty is owing to this quality;indeed the most considerable.For,take any beautiful object,and give it a broken and rugged surface;and however well formed it may be in other respects,it pleases no longer.Whereas,let it want ever so many of the other constituents,if it wants not this,it becomes more pleasing than almost all the others without it.This seems to me so evident,that I am a good deal surprised,that none who have handled the subject have made any mention of the quality of smoothness,in the enumeration of those that go to the forming of beauty.
For indeed any ruggedness,any sudden projection,any sharp angle,is in the highest degree contrary to that idea.
[Footnote 1:Part IV.sect.21.]
XV
Gradual Variation [Footnote 1:Part IV.sect.23.]
But as perfectly beautiful bodies are not composed of angular parts,so their parts never continue long in the same right line.1They vary their direction every moment,and they change under the eye by a deviation continually carrying on,but for whose beginning or end you will find it difficult to ascertain a point.The view of a beautiful bird will illustrate this observation.
Here we see the head increasing insensibly to the middle,from whence it lessens gradually until it mixes with the neck;the neck loses itself in larger swell,which continues to the middle of the body,when the whole decreases again to the tail;the tail takes a new direction;but it soon varies its new course:it blends again with the other parts;and the line is perpetually changing,above,below,upon every side.In this deion I have before me the idea of a dove;it agrees very well with most of the conditions of beauty.It is smooth and downy;its parts are (to use that expression)melted into one another;
you are presented with no sudden protuberance through the whole,and yet the whole is continually changing.Observe that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps the most beautiful,about the neck and breasts;the smoothness;the softness;the easy and insensible swell;the variety of the surface,which is never for the smallest space the same;the deceitful maze,through which the unsteady eye slides giddily,without knowing where to fix or whither it is carried.Is not this a demonstration of that change of surface,continual,and yet hardly perceptible at any point,which forms one of the great constituents of beauty?It gives me no small pleasure to find that I can strengthen my theory in this point,by the opinion of the very ingenious Mr.Hogarth;
whose idea of the line of beauty I take in general to be extremely just.
