give to the form of Jove or Hercules, the limbs of the Apollo, and to those of Juno or of Minerva the head and bust of the Venus, and we should feel the assemblage not only painful, but ludicrous. If we were asked, or if we were to ask ourselves for the reason of this displeasure, we should immediately say that it was because these forms were discordant with the general character; and that they affected us precisely in the same manner as we are affected in real life, when we see age or dignity counterfeit the manners of youth, or matron gravity assume the affectation of youthful bashfulness. These indeed

are extreme cases: but they are important in shewing the principle from which our most common judgments are formed; and whoever will prosecute the inquiry by his own observation, will perceive, that even in his most familiar intercourse with others, it is this demand which chiefly determines them: that in every form which we feel as characteristic, we look for unity in the expression of its parts and that our criticisms upon the forms of those around us are permanently occasioned by the want of this correspondence, and the contradiction we feel between the expression of the limbs and that of the general form. It is unnecessary for me to say, that such feelings and such criticism never could take place, if there were any essential beauty in such forms, independent of all expression.

These observations (slight as they are) lead so necessarily to establish the truth of the third proposition, "that "different forms and different proportions of form are "felt as beautiful, when they correspond with the charac"ter of the general form," that I can scarcely presume to fatigue my readers with any illustration. If no forms of parts are beautiful but those which accord with the general expression, it must follow that different forms of

these parts may be beautiful. How fully this is the case, we have the testimony of experience. Nothing is more different than both the forms and proportions of the same members in infancy, in youth, in manhood, and in age; yet in all these we discover beauty, when they are expressive of the character which is amiable or respectable, or interesting in these different periods of human life. I forbear to speak of the difference of sexual forms, and of the principle which so obviously determines the dif ference of our admiration. I leave my readers to attend to the illustrations which painting, and which, above all, statuary can afford them, where they will find that the great masters of this art have governed themselves by principles very different from those who, in later ages, have satisfied themselves with the humble glory of being their admirers and expositors: that the deep effect which they have produced, is by the magical harmony of their composition: that in this study, they have made use of the most different forms, and proportions of form, in every member of the human body: that there are not per haps two examples existing, in which these proportions are to be found the same; and that, even in the representation of the same ideal being, these proportions are found to vary, whenever the expression, by which it was distinguished, varied either in kind or degree. I shall only observe, that the principle from which they executed their unrivalled works, is the same which the lowest of us experience in daily life. We are all acquainted with the influences of passion or emotion upon the general form, and upon its different members; and we every day judge of the existence of such emotions or passions by such appearances of the form. Even in the same individual we have seen perhaps all these changes take place; the muscular limbs of health and the shrunk

limbs of disease, the elevated chest of hope or ardour, and the bent form of despondence or grief, the firm and compressed form of fortitude, or the lengthened and elas. tic spring of gaiety or joy, &c. We have felt the influence of these expressions of mind, therefore, even in the same individual: under different forms and proportions of form, we have recognized, by this experience, the principle which has given to the statuary his power over the feelings of mankind; and whenever we look back upon our experience, we shall find that the forms which we thus felt as most beautiful in the same individual, were permanently those which were expressive of the most amiable or the most interesting dispositions of mind. They who have sufficiently felt the power of theatrical representation, who have attended not only to the voice and the countenance, but to the variety of form, or proportions of form, which Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Siddons assumed, according to the passions they rèpresented, will feel better than by any cold illustration, that different forms are capable of beauty, and that all are beautiful which express noble passions and interesting

emotions.

From the illustrations, which I have limited myself to suggest only, but not to pursue, I flatter myself my readers will perceive, that the form of man is actually significant to us of two distinct and important expressions. 1st, As a physical form, in which the form itself, and every member of it, is expressive either of fitness or unfitness for its physical ends. 2dly, As a form expressive of mind, in which every passion or emotion has its distinct signs, in the appearance of the form itself, and in the appearance of its different members.

The term proportion has unfortunately been promis cuously applied to both expressions; and in the ambi guity of the term both the artist and the philosopher have been often misled, in their research into the origin of this beauty.

I am not presumptuous enough to attempt to intro duce any new language into a science where technical terms are so rigidly cherished; but I may presume to suggest to my younger readers a very simple rule, by which they may know to what cause they are, in such cases, to ascribe the emotions they feel.

A human form has all the beauty of strict proportion, when nothing hurts us in its form, and when no impropriety appears in any of its members for the physical ends, for which the form, either in nature or art, is designed.

A human form, on the contrary, has only the beauty of character, when some amiable or interesting disposi tion of mind is expressed by it, and when we perceive a positive relation between the expression of every differ. ent member, and the expression of the general character.

Some attention to this distinction may perhaps be of use both to the man of genuine taste, and to the artist.— It may relieve the first from the trammels of technical language, and raise him to higher speculations than the usual schools of art permit or employ and it the latter, that his ambition is only to be gratified when he can excite the sympathies of mankind, and make the human form expressive of all that the human mind can either exert or feel.

may

teach

I finish this long section, by stating the general conclusions, with regard to the beauty that is peculiar to the

een pre

in the

form of man, which seem to follow from the considerations I have suggested.

I.

That the beauty or sublimity of the human form, does not arise from any original and essential beauty in this form, or in its composition.

II.

That there is a negative species of beauty necessary to every beautiful form, but not constituting it, which arises from the expression of physical fitness or propriety.

III.

That the real and positive beauty of the form arises from its expression of some amiable or interesting character of mind, and that the degree of this beauty is proportionate to the degree in which this character is interesting or affecting to us. And,

IV.

That the beauty of composition in the human form arises (as in all other cases) from the unity of expres sion; and that the law by which we determine the beauty of the several members of this form, is that of their correspondence to the peculiar nature of the characteristic expression.

SECTION IV.

Of the Sublimity and Beauty of Attitude and Gesture.

BESIDE the general beauty of form which I have considered, there are various emotions of beauty felt from peculiar POSITIONS, OF MOTIONS of the human body.