CHAPTER V.

SENSATIONS MINISTERING TO BEAUTY.

IF beauty then is an ultimate emotion, to which there are many avenues, it will not be enough for either eritic or artist to know the end, without knowing also the paths by which it is to be reached. Let us therefore, in the next place, endeavor to scrutinize more particularly the different classes of pleasures which minister to beauty, with the view of securing a foundation of practical rules. And to this end, we must confine our attention to the primary pleasures, and the objects that produce them.

Among objects of sensation, the most important, in an æsthetic point of view, are those of sight and hearing, these two senses being the most active and copious reporters to the mind. The former is cognizant of colors and outlines, and by aid of touch, with shapes, and by other helps, with distance, motion and direction; all of which are abundant sources of pleasure. All colors being modifications of light, certainly enter the eye, and having penetrated several of its materials, are painted upon the retina. Here is a distinct physical

connection with the object of the sense, which can not exist without affecting the organ, either to its comfort or discomfort, in many cases. The mind, so quick to perceive all the affections of its sentient dominion, must, together with the modification of light, apprehend also the state of the organ by which it entered. When again, the same color is observed, the same pain or pleasure is recalled, and being actually repeated in greater or less degree, is enforced upon the mind until the very conception of the color calls up the recollection of its attendant pleasure or pain. The colors most agreeable to the structure of the eye, absolutely considered, are the perfectly pure primitive colors, as they are separated from the rays of the sun by a prism. Perhaps there is no healthy eye to which they fail to be agreeable. A fact which, though it will be denied by the followers of Alison and Jeffrey, is asserted by the general voice of mankind, and by the slaves of theory themselves, when not constantly guarding their words in view of their theory. Whenever these colors appear in nature, in the plumage of birds, in the cleavage of minerals, in the rainbow, or on the evening sky, they are hailed as causes of delight. But it would not be consistent with the infinite profusion of nature to limit her beauties to any given number. The few primary colors are combined into an endless diversity, not all to be characterized as beautiful or indifferent. This remark of colors will apply also to outlines, inasmuch as they must be drawn in some modification of light.

But in addition, there is some distance to be followed by the motion of the eye, which will be pleasant or not, according as it coincides with the natural and easy motion of the organ, or not. A circle, for example, is pleasing, the eye following with ease its course, pursuing invariably the same direction until it returns into itself and the whole is complete. Any perfect curve, following one law through its whole extent, is agreeable; and so is a perfectly straight line, in itself considered. A square is ungainly, but a quadrangle, especially that in which the length is about twice the breadth, is more pleasing; though when considered in itself, and not in the light of some purpose to be accomplished by it, not to be compared with a regular curve. For, though the eye soon detects its principle, and adapts itself thereto, yet its lines are not the continuation of the same direction, and the motion of the eye is several times changed in following it. In some cases this quality of the angle and correspondence of opposite lines, is pleasing. Association will enhance or counteract according to circumstances; but what I now speak of is the primary sensation alone.

Perhaps, for the reason already assigned, the most beautiful of all curves is that which deviates but slightly from a straight line, or that which is produced by waving an extended cord. The ellipse and parabola are both more agreeable than the circle. Indeed in the finer productions of Grecian architecture, the circle seldom appears in any of the moldings, but instead of it the

spiral, parabola, ellipse, or other curves of easier outline.

Motion in a regular curve, or straight line, is for the same reason most agreeable to the eye. Indeed, the force of the primary pleasure could be more satisfactorily illustrated under this head than the former; for the physical effects of different kinds of motion, and motion in certain directions, are more marked than those of lines.

These simple elements, though originally few, are in nature continually recurring, combined and modified into a thousand sources of delight. We find them in the winding course and motion of streams, in the changing light upon their waters, now mirror-like repeating all the features of earth and sky above them; now dark and solid as steel, and again curved into the blending light and shade of waves; in the general outlines of the plumy forest, as well as in every tree, which repays the studious eye with its own lines and hues of beauty; in every leaf that moves to the breath of spring; in the design of the landscape diversified by hill and dale, by rolling champaign, extended plain, and far blue mountain, by a variety and multitude of curve and color, defying imitation; in the shapes and tints of clouds, infinitely diversified, and changing without end; in the colors of the sky, from the deep azure of night to the molten gold that glows around the sun; in the chaste soft light of stars, and the gladder beams of day; throughout the vast domain of nature we are

unceasingly meeting with such elements, and the pleasing results of their harmonious combination. They appear alike in calm and storm. The snowy foam and the bold curve of the breaking or recoiling wave, the trees bending in the gale, the piled clouds flying across the heavens, the gorgeous masses of thunder cloud, and the wildest fury of nature, present also features which, viewed in the light of the sensations they produce, become beautiful. For although repose is a feature of beauty, it is not necessarily such of beautiful things; it is of the observing spirit, not necessarily of the object observed. Irregularity and ugliness appear indeed in nature, but her law is beauty, from which she departs occasionally only by way of enhancing its value. And many things which are not beautiful from this cause, the Author of Nature has made such to our hearts by association with our moral feelings. Of all artists, but especially the painter and sculptor, these sources of the beautiful in material things demand the most careful study-study which cannot be too extensive or minute. In the sensations produced by the simple sounds and intervals constituting the basis of music, we are as truly conscious of pleasure as in any moral feeling with which they may be associated. Sounds which are distinctly perceived to be at variance with that system, we reject as painful, without the slightest allowance for any association. No association whatever can make an obvious discord beautiful, or, in other words, can make the sensation of discord pleasant.