ed emotions of beauty. However it might appear to other beings, it would not have the character of beauty to us if there were not a sort of correspondence, an adaptedness to each other, between our mental constitution and such outward object.

But no one can be ignorant that not all objects cause the emotions in question; and of those which possess this power, some have it in a greater and some in a less degree. This brings us to a very important inquiry. It is no unreasonable curiosity which wishes to know why the effect is so limited, and why all objects are not embraced in it. Why different objects cause the same emotion in different degrees. And why the same objects produce a diversity of emotions in different individuals, and even in the same individual at different times.

§ 24. A susceptibility of emotions of beauty an ultimate principle of our mental constitution.

In answering these questions, something must be taken for granted; there must be some starting-point; otherwise all that can be said will be involved in inextricable confusion. That is, we must take for granted that the mind has an original susceptibility of such emotions. Nor can we suppose, after what has already been said, that there can be any objection to a concession which is warranted by the most general experience. We all know that we are created with this susceptibility, because we are all conscious of having had those emotions which are attributed to it. And if we are asked how, or why it is, that the susceptibility at the bottom of these feelings exists, we can only say, that such was the will of the Being who created the mind; and that this is one of the original or ultimate elements of our nature.

Although the mind, therefore, is originally susceptible of emotions of beauty, still it is no less evident, from the general arrangements we behold, both in physical and intellectual nature, that these emotions have their fixed causes or antecedents. We have seen

that these causes are not limited to one class or kind of objects, but are to be found under various circumstances; in the exercises of reasoning, in the fanciful creations of poetry, in musical airs, in the experiments of physics, in the forms of material existence, in works of art, and in the exhibition of mental attributes. Perhaps we may assert as a general statement (that is to say, in a great number or majority of cases), these objects cannot be presented to the mind, and the mind be unmoved by it; it contemplates them, and it necessarily has a feeling of delight, of a greater or less degree of strength, which authorizes us in characterizing them as beautiful.

In asserting that this is correct as a general statement, it is implied that some objects do not originally cause these emotions. And hence we are led to enter into more particular inquiries, having reference to this difference in what may conveniently be called the ÆSTHETIC power of objects. Accordingly, our purpose in the remarks which are to follow is to point out some of those objects, and forms and qualities of objects, which seem from their very nature, and in distinction from other objects which do not have this power, fitted to create within us the feelings under consideration.

§ 25. Remarks on the beauty of forms.-The circle.

In making that selection of those objects and qualities of objects which we suppose to be fitted, in the original constitution of things, to cause within us pleasing emotions of themselves, independently of any extraneous aid, we cannot profess to speak with certainty. The appeal is to the general experience of men; and all we can do is to give, so far as it seems to have been ascertained, the results of that experience. Beginning, therefore, with material objects, we are justified by general experience in saying that certain dispositions or forms of matter are beautiful; for instance, the CIRCLE.

We rarely look upon a winding or serpentine form

without experiencing a feeling of pleasure, and on seeing a circle this pleasure is heightened. Hence Hogarth, who, both by his turn of mind and by his habits of life, has claims to be regarded as a judge, expressly laid it down in his Analysis of Beauty, that those lines which have most variety in themselves, contribute most towards the production of beauty; and that the most beautiful line by which a surface can be bounded is the waving or serpentine, or that which constantly, but imperceptibly, deviates from the straight line. This, which we frequently find in shells, flowers, and other pleasing natural productions, he calls the line of beauty.

Without entering into the question whether the circular form has absolutely, all other things being equal, more beauty than any other form, it can certainly be said, without hesitation, that it possesses the power of exciting this emotion, at least in a considerable degree. We might safely refer it to almost any man's experience, whatever his mental character or situation in life, and let him say, when he contemplates the waving features of numberless flowers, when he gathers on the sea-shore wreathed and variegated shells, or beholds through distant meadows the winding stream, or pauses in the pathless wood to gaze on the constantly-changing position of its branches, whether he does not at once feel within him a spontaneous movement of delight. Is not the object, which is directly before him, in itself a source of this feeling? Although he may have a superadded pleasure from some other source, as we shall have occasion to see; still, considering the subject particularly in reference to the object before him, may not the true philosophy be summed up in the single assertion that he sees and he feels; he beholds and he admires; the intellect, through the instrumentality of the eye, has a knowledge of the object, and the awakened heart expands with the homage of its voluntary joy.

§ 26. Original or intrinsic beauty.-The circle.

It is necessary, in examining the subject of beauty, to look at it in two points of view, viz., as Intrinsic and as Associated. In the remarks which we may have occasion to make in this chapter, we have reference exclusively to what may be denominated Original or Intrinsic beauty; by which we mean that which is founded in the nature of the object, independently of accidental or merely accessory circumstances. Accordingly, in view of the remark at the close of the last section, it seems to result from the common experience of mankind, that objects which are circular, or approach that form, exhibiting a constantly varying outline, have in themselves, and on account of this configuration, a degree, and not unfrequently a high degree, of beauty. The bending stem of the tulip, the curve of the weeping willow, the windings of the ivy, the vine wreathing itself around the elm, the serpentine river, are highly pleasing. The vast circular expanse of the visible sky, when seen in a cloudless night, is a beautiful object, independently of the splendour that is spread over it by its brilliant troops of stars. The arch of the rainbow, expanding its immense curve over our heads, could hardly fail to be regarded as an object of great beauty, even if nothing but the form and outline were presented to our vision, without the unrivalled lustre of its colours. And the same of other instances, scattered in profusion through the works of nature, but too numerous to be mentioned here.

On this question, as in many others of mental philosophy, we appeal to the common feelings of mankind. And it is on this account that what we now say on the subject of the intrinsic beauty of some objects and combinations of objects, we take to be no "fable of man's device," no tinkering of an earthly philosophy; but the response of a higher oracle, the voice of nature, the announcement of the universal heart of humanity. We are aware that some may object to such an appeal; they perhaps regard it as be

low the dignity of science; but no one is ignorant that philosophers, who were not wanting in sagacity, have frequently made it. Their great inquiry on subjects of this nature is, what men generally have thought and felt. "I never remember," says Mr. Burke, "that anything beautiful, whether a man, a beast, a bird, or a plant, was ever shown, though it were to a hundred people, that they did not all immediately agree that it was beautiful, though some might have thought it fell short of their expectation, or that other things were still finer. I believe no man thinks a goose to be more beautiful than a swan, or imagines that what they call a Friesland hen excels a peacock."

§ 27. Of the beauty of straight and angular forms.

Although the circular or constantly varying outline is thought, more than any other, to excite the delightful emotions under consideration, we are not to suppose that the power of beauty is excluded from other forms. In examining the works of nature, it is hardly necessary to say that we find numerous instances of straight and angular forms, as well as of the serpentine and winding, although perhaps less frequently. It can hardly be doubted that these forms, as they are operated upon and moulded in nature's hands, possess more or less beauty. It is almost a matter of supererogation to attempt to illustrate this statement to those who have a heart and eye open to the great variety of her works, which on every side are presented to our notice. Her forms, either original or in their combinations, are without number; and if it be true that beauty does not claim a relationship with all, it is equally so that it is not restricted to one, or even a small portion of them. The intertwining shrubbery which spreads itself abroad upon the ground, emits, if we may be allowed the expression, its sparkles and gleams of beauty around our feet. The elm, which rises upward towards the heavens, and forms its broad and green